Emma ~ 4 Years Old

Dear Emma,

A few days ago you turned 4! Where as the time gone? I know it's certainly seemed to have passed by in the blink of an eye. You were asking every day when you woke up if it was your birthday for a couple weeks before your special day. You are so very excited to be getting bigger. I, on the other hand, would like for it to slow down...way down.  Four years old means only one more year home with Mommy before you're a really big girl and head off to kindergarten and surely in another blink of an eye, you'll be off to college. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but it's what it seems like.

You are definitely a little mommy. You could run this house just like me if the need be and some days you certainly try. :-) You sometimes take the words right out of my mouth and it's kind of scary just how alike we think and act.  Daddy often says he feels like there's two of me in the house.  Hahaha! Poor Daddy! ;-) Some of the things you say, I have no idea where they come from, but they sure do put a smile on our faces and make us giggle often.  Gigi really gets a kick out of it! Sometimes the things that come out of your mouth are quotes from movies, but the timing of when you use them, is just perfect. And hilarious.  One day you and I were out to dinner and we were just chatting and you said to me, "So...Do you work out?"  Hahaha, just like a total pick up line.  Turns out that one was from Despicable Me 2.  Another time I showed you an old picture of Daddy from high school and you said something about it making your eyes well up with tears. That one's from Monsters University.  I'm thinking you might be an actress. Or you watch too much tv.  Probably a little of both!

You are quite sassy, but also very smart and so very sweet.  You are constantly giving us hugs and kisses and randomly telling us that you love us.  And boy do we love you, sweet girl.  You love Aiden and Aubrey SO much too. Aubrey wants to be with you all the time.  She loves to come over and give you hugs or sit on your head. You're so good with her.  Even when she's driving you nuts, you don't lose it with her, well, not too much. And Aiden? You say is your best friend. <3 You two love playing Minecraft together.  I still don't know how you understand what to do on that game because I still don't get it, but you love playing it by yourself and with Aiden. If Aiden is home from school, you are or want to be right there by his side!

You love to do many things! Some of your favorites are arts and crafts, reading, drawing pictures, playing with your tablet and leappad, playing outside, watching tv and movies and playing with Aiden and Aubrey. You just finished your first swimming class last night (5/6/14).  You LOVED it and weren't afraid of the water at all.  Ms. Michele (your teacher) said you were an excellent back floater and were really good at kicking your legs.  You liked playing with the noodles and floating balls the best.  You love to help Mommy cook in the kitchen when you can. You are one of the best cookie and cake dough stirrers that I know! Some of your favorite foods right now are hot dogs, cheesestrings, popsicles, chocolate, french fries, and "chicken balls" (popcorn chicken) from walmart.  Your favorite restaurant is Grotto's (according to you) and that's where we went to dinner on your birthday to eat.  Your favorite things to watch right now are Princess Sofia, Doc McStuffins, and princess movies, like Aladdin and Tangled.

We went to doctor on your birthday because you weren't feeling well and unfortunately you had strep throat...on your birthday! What a rotten present! But we found out that you are almost 40 lbs! I told you, you are growing so fast!

One of your favorite people to hang out with is Gigi!  Boy, do you love Gigi! And she loves you right back.  She always says there's just something about you.  And there really is, you are simply one of the best.  I feel so extremely lucky that I was chosen to be your mommy!!  I love you soooo much, Emma Cheryl! I can't wait to see what you discover and grow into as the year passes...just not to quickly, okay?

I love you!!

Love,
Mommy

Questions with a 4 yr old Emma

Wow! I haven't touch my blog since Aubrey's first birthday! She's gonna be 2 in just 3 months! Yikes! SO much has happened, but having 3 little ones takes lots of time and something has to take a back seat. The reason why I blogged in the first place was to have all our memories stored in one place that we can go back to look at whenever we want. For that reason, I've gotta try and find some time...I have no clue when it'll be so I'm not holding me to it! Hahaha

Our oldest daughter and middle child, Emma, just turned 4 on May 5.  4. I can't believe it! Although most days it seems like she's a 16 yr old so I'll take that she's really only 4.  I'll try some day soon (Hopefully?) to write about her birthday party {Princess Sofia}.

For now I have the questions that I ask the kids every year.  It was fun to see how some answers changed from last year and how some stayed the same.

Questions with a 4 yr old Emma

1.             What are you going to be when you grow up?  A doctor {Thank you Doc McStuffins!}

2.             What is Aiden going to be when he grows up?  A robber  {Geez, I hope not!} Aubrey? I don’t know. Well she should be a princess if she was big.

3.             How old is Mommy? Uhhhh, 16!

4.             How old is Daddy?  Uh, 61? 

5.             What is your favorite place to go?  Yogi Bear’s! {A campground}

6.             What's your favorite thing to do with Mommy?  Watch movies with you

7.             What's your favorite thing to do with Daddy?  Play games with him

8.             What is Mommy's job?  Uhhh, buying stuff?? {My husband thought this was really funny and perfect!}

9.             And Daddy's?  I don’t know. Dada what job do you have?

10.          What is your favorite toy?  The princess one. The princess castle.

11.          What is something Mommy always says to you?  I love you!

12.          What makes Mommy happy?  When I don’t step on your toe

13.          Who is your best friend?  Aiden <3

14.          How do you know Mommy and Daddy love you?  Because you love me.

15.          What does Mommy do if you're not around?  Watch tv

16.          What is Mommy really good at?  Putting stuff together

17.          What is Mommy really bad at?  Fixing lights you’re bad at

18.          What is Daddy really good at?  Putting stuff together too

19.          What is Daddy really bad at?  Breaking glass

20.          What is your favorite food? Hot dogs!!! {And that's because the poor girl only gets them when we're camping or at birthday parties}

21.          What's your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my trike!

22.          What is your favorite thing to do with Aiden? Play Minecraft Aubrey? Play with her

23.          What are you scared of?  Spiders

24.          Who is the funniest person you know?  Gigi when she tickles me

25.          Who's the best dancer that you know? Mommy because you’re a great friend

                26.      What is your favorite color?  Pink and purple

                27.      What is your favorite tv show? Princess Sofia

                28.      What's your favorite thing to eat for lunch? A cheese sandwich

                29.      What's your favorite game?  Minecraft

                30.      What is your favorite snack? Cheese string

                31.       What is your favorite animal? A baby chick

                32.       What is your favorite song? This is the Best Day of my Life by American Authors

                33.       What is your favorite book?  I am Not Going to School {This is not her favorite, it's just one we just checked out at the library and it was on her mind. We've only read it once!}

                34.       What is your favorite holiday? Halloween!

                35.       What is your favorite drink? Pink Lemonade

Happy 1st Birthday Aubrey

Dear Aubrey Grace,

1 year.  It went by in a flash.  I know it always seems that way, but with your brother and sister also keeping us busy, your first year went by in what seems like a blink of an eye.  I would swear we were just at the hospital yesterday to meet you and already it's been 365 days. Wow! 

I love watching the little girl you are becoming.  You are a pretty happy girl who loves to giggle, make tons of messes {in record speed, might I add}, and gets into all kinds of things! You also can be sassy at times, especially with the looks you give! 

You are always on the go! I don't know if you are trying to keep up with Aiden and Emma or if you're trying to get away from them, but you started moving pretty early in life and even took your first steps at 9 months.  Now, at 12 months, you're pretty much a pro and even get to running a lot.  I love watching your chubby little legs go when you're on the move.  It's not always graceful and you often end up crashing down, but that doesn't stop you, you get right back up and head off again! You have had quite a few boo-boos from some tumbles, but after a little snuggling and some kisses you are off on your way again!

You are a pretty determined little girl and you know what you want.  If we have something you want, you'll come stare at us and thrust out your belly, while throwing your arms down at your sides and grunt at us. You'll keep that up until we either give you what you want or until we distract you.  I've tried and tried you get you on video doing it, and every time, you decide whatever we have is not worth it and stop and walk away.  Stinker!

You love your brother and sister so much.  You want to be right with them all the time and follow them all around.  Of course there are times when they drive you crazy with too many hugs and kisses, but they can't help themselves.  You get so excited when Aiden chases you all around.  No one can quite make you squeal with happiness like they can!

You don't have too many words in your vocabulary yet, but you babble all the time.  Some words that you are saying are: Mama, Oh Wow!, thank you, sit down, Aiden, Dada, and ut oh. {There might be a couple more that I'm forgetting on the spot.} One of my favorite things is when someone or something makes a noise and you'll stop what you're doing and gasp and look around for the noise and then look at us to make sure that we heard it as well.  :-) I wish I had a video of that, but then you'd be distracted and wouldn't notice the noises around us.

You love to wave goodbye and blow kisses to us when we leave the house and you'll wave to pretty much any car that drives by. When we were camping, you were the welcoming committee to all the campers that showed up, as every car passed by, there you were waving to them!

And blowing your kisses because it's too cute not to share...

You are quite the dare devil and I'm sure that you're going to be the one that has us in the emergency room first! You've discovered how to climb up on chairs.  At first it was the little table chairs, which immediately lead to you climbing on top of the table and then you figured out you could climb on the chairs out on the back deck.  I'm sure it's only a matter of time before you learn how to escape from your crib.  We'll just hope that we still have plenty of time before that happens!

Yup. I told you, you are nonstop with the naughtiness!

Speaking of your crib, you are still an awesome sleeper! You still take 2 naps a day {if we're home} and are ready for bed by 7:30 pm. We'll head up to your room with a bottle of milk and I'll rock you while you finish your bottle.  I know now that you're 1, I need to start weening the bottle away, but it's our time and I love it.  I know, with you being our third baby, that those sweet night time snuggles don't last long enough so I'll take full advantage and soak up every minute that I can! After we rock, you'll go down {usually without a fuss} and sleep until 6:45-7:45 the next morning. When you wake up, you'll babble to yourself for awhile and throw everything that's in your crib {a blanket, a little taggie blanket, your seahorse, and a stuffed duck} out onto the floor, except your duck, you usually throw him in your hamper.  Could you be a future basketball star?? :-)

You are still a great eater! You might even be the best eater of the 3 of you.  You'll try pretty much anything we offer, even if you'll only take a couple bites of it.  You LOVE snacks! You get that from your mommy, for sure!! You still only have your two bottom teeth so we're limited on what we can give you, but some of your favorites are:  peas, green beans, grilled cheese, pancakes, cereal bars, yogurt, sandwich cheese, crackers, and cake.  Oh yes, sweet girl, you definitely have a sweet tooth! 

You are such a silly girl.  Lately when we see you doing something you shouldn't be, you'll stop and run over to us and hug our legs. :-) Smart girl...trying to distract us with your sweet, cuteness.  And I love it how you constantly shake your head no to whatever question we might ask you.  You often shake your head no, right on cue to the question.

You love to "tackle" us if we're on the floor and smother us with your big, slobbery kisses. Sometimes instead of the kisses, its the hair pulling. I much prefer the kisses!

You love to dance! Whenever you hear music in the kitchen, you'll stop and start dancing.  I think you're favorite song is "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke.  You seem to get the most excited when that one comes on.

You love to look at yourself on the phone and stick your tongue in and out. {It's hard to describe so just watch below.}

You make the cutest little squishy, smiley face all the time.  I love that squishy face.

You are such a joy and bring so many laughs, smiles, and sweet memories to our life. I can't wait to see what this next year brings! I love you, Aubrey Grace! <3

Love You,
Mommy

And your 12 month stats:

Weight:  22 lbs 9 oz (75th percentile)
Height:  30.91 in   (95th percentile)

11 Month Comparisons

Yup, slacker over here.  I just have no time any more for blogging.  Aubrey is into everything and I rarely get a chance to sit still long enough to turn the computer on. Then if it's quiet and it's nap time, the other 2 wanna hang out.  I really want to get some things posted, so that I don't forget the memories for the kids, which is why I started this blog anyway.

With all that said, I guess I'll get posting the 11 month comparisons of the kids, you know, since Aubrey will be 12 months old in 2 days.  Yes, that's right, 2 days.  Get the tissues!!

Aiden @ 11 months:

 Emma @ 11 months: Aww look at this poor, no haired little girl! :)

Aubrey @ 11 months:

Flashback Friday

Okay, so if I'm being honest I take a ton of pictures of the kids and there is no way that I could pick just one to be my favorite.  Here's a flashback to one of my favorites that I got of Aiden and Emma sometime last summer.

Look at those sweet faces! My gosh they grow up too fast!!

First Beach Trip of the Summer

The day after Aiden's birthday party we took our first trip to the beach.

{Don't worry, this was before we knew that Aiden had strep.  We totally wouldn't have gone if we knew that was the case...well probably! :)}

We were lucky because the weather was beautiful! Not too hot, but not freezing cold either.  However, I thought the water was freezing.  Lucky for me, I don't go swimming in that stuff! I just dip the toes!

Aiden and Hunter jumped right in. Aiden only realized he was freezing when he came out of the ocean.

 

Emma stuck mostly to the sand at first.  She liked collecting rocks and shells and playing with Uncle Ron's boat.  Eventually she made her way into the water and had a ball splashing around!

 

 

I wasn't sure what Aubrey would think. It was her first trip to the beach {outside of my belly anyway}.  She didn't seem bothered by it, so that was good.  She touched the sand and would occasionally make a run for it toward her daddy who was at the water.  She let Patrick put her feet in for a little bit, but once I picked her up, she was not letting us put her feet back in.  I can't blame her! Like I said, that water was a bit cold that day!

 

 

 

It was a great first trip to the beach of the season! I can't wait for many more {though I could do without the mess afterwards!}!

Aiden's 6th Birthday Party

Last weekend we celebrated Aiden's sixth birthday.  Originally he told us that he wanted a Phineas and Ferb party, but then we saw Wreck-It Ralph and he became slightly obsessed.  So Phineas and Ferb were pushed back to maybe next year and we went with Ralph.  It was meant to be in my eyes.  We went to Party City one day looking for things for Emma's party and there was all the Wreck-It Ralph supplies...on clearance...for $1 each.  Thank you very much! We scooped up everything we could!

Other than buying the tableclothes, plates, and napkins, there wasn't much out there in the decorations world.  Aiden's favorite is Fix it Felix, but everything had Ralph on it so we needed to find an invitation/decorations that would work for us. We finally found an invitation on Etsy.

(Again, I'm not a computer expert so the ugly nonsense at the bottom is the only way I know how to blur out our address and phone number)  Looking back, I wish I had him where a different colored shirt in his picture, but I needed to get them done, like yesterday, at that point so it was whatever he had on! In the end, he loved them so we were happy!

Next it was lots and lots of looking online to find ideas for decorations.  And? There weren't many. Good thing he's a 6 yr old boy and doesn't care. :-) Lucky for us we had the Wreck-It Ralph tableclothes which counted as a big part of our decorations.  I decided to go with the Sugar Rush theme for centerpieces and came up with these:

 I loved them. And Aiden and Emma already have big plans to eat the giant lollipops!

I made Emma a banner for her birthday and what you do for one, you have to do for the other so Aiden needed one too.  Since Fix It Felix is his favorite I decided to go with those colors and added little pictures of Felix and Ralph.

 And a slightly closer look...

 I found this idea for favors on Pinterest.  Surprisingly, they were super easy to make and probably cheaper than finder another idea for favors!

 Our favorite cake lady did an awesome cake for us! We've been going to her for years and she never disappoints! I wish I was that talented!!

 

 Finally, after all those preparations, it was about time for everyone to arrive! Aiden was excited and had been counting down since at least the day before!

 As soon as the kids arrived, I didn't see my little man again until it was present time! He's still stone faced when he opens gifts.  That one is not gonna let you see him smile!

 

 

 And my favorite?? Him sitting with his daddy. <3

 After presents, it was back to running around until cake!

 Making a wish! And no, he would not tell me what it was for because then it might not come true. :)

Our little man was shown so much love that day and it was an awesome party until the evening when he started acting a little strange.  He's not one to ever tell you what's wrong (yeah, I love that) so I was pretty frustrated.  He actually ended up going to bed around 7 with his friends and family still partying without him.  Turns out (we found out on Monday) that he had strep throat.  What a rotten birthday gift!!  Thank goodness he's feeling much better now!!

Thanks to everyone that helped make it a great day!

Aiden's 6th Birthday

June 7th was Aiden's 6th birthday. I was so happy to find out that his last day of school was June 6th so he'd be home with me on his actual birthday! Yay!!

After spending the afternoon at Aunt Kelly's for a playdate, we were going to go to dinner where ever Aiden chose.  He wanted to go to Nino's.  Ahhh, yes. Patrick and I's favorite place to go when we lived up north.  We've taught him well. :)

Aiden had been begging to open his presents all day, but with Patrick working, going to playdate, and me having a dentist appointment in there, I had been putting it off until the evening.  Big meanie. I know.  I make myself think it spreads the birthday out longer.  To a poor kid? It's torture.  It was also an extremely yucky, rainy day.  Honestly, I didn't want to drag everyone out into that mess to eat.

We gave Aiden two choices.  1.  We could still go to Nino's and open gifts when we got home. Or 2. Open the presents and then get something quick to eat so he could play with them and we'd go to dinner on a different day.  (We knew he's want to play with them.)

What would you pick if you were a kid? Yeah, me too.  He chose 2.  So present time it was!

 

 Opening his present from Emma and Aubrey...

 Yeah Luigi's Mansion! Thanks girls!

 And his big gift that I know he wasn't expecting because I constantly told him not to hold his breath because it was way too expensive, but Patrick decided he really, really wanted to get it for him...

 The Wii U!

 Yup, that face right above is probably the most excited face he'll give away.  I don't know why he tries to hide it, but I'm guessing that on the inside, he was super pumped!!

 And the whole reason he wanted the Wii U...the Mario game

 

 (And can I just say that that stupid shadow in the pictures is driving me nuts!!!)

Happy Birthday you be 6 year old you!

And I couldn't let him get away from me without a picture on his birthday! So hard to believe it's been 6 years!!<3 

Gosh, he's handsome! What a perfect day!

Aiden's a Kindergarten Graduate

This year FLEW by.  I'm not kidding. I was so sad and lost when Aiden started school and now in what seems like a couple of blinks, kindergarten is over and I now have a 1st grader!

1st day of kindergarten vs last day of kindergarten

Aiden loved kindergarten.  Sure, you'll never hear him admit to it, but I know he did.  He learned so much, had a couple of great teachers that helped to ease him into being away from home, and made lots of friends.  It makes me smile to hear him tell us that he only had a few friends at school. Ethan, Joshua, Seth, Cole, Madison are the ones we heard the most about.  However, whenever I went into the classroom all the kids always greeted him and seemed excited when he got there. And Aiden would play it off, like he was too cool to care with that little trying to hold his smile in grin. :) You had lot of friends this year big guy!

We are so proud of all that he accomplished this year. He was one of the highest in his class, not that we were surprised to hear that, we knew he would do wonderfully.  And we know that he will continue to do great things.

On June 6th, Aiden graduated kindergarten! Woohoo!!

Here are a couple of pictures I got that day.  You will notice that he looks miserable in most of them.  He is definitely not someone who likes to be in the spotlight.  Even though there were tons of other kids around him, he was stressed that everyone would be watching him. At least we know he gets it honestly! :)

 

 

 

 

 Can you see the hate for this in that picture? Yeah. They made them walk in from the back all the way up to the stage by themselves.  Cute for a picture opportunity? Sure! Terrifying for some of them? Absolutely! Aiden practically ran down the aisle! I'm shocked I caught him in the frame!!

 

 

 

 

 I had my super zoom lens on the camera and was using the landscape option to brighten the picture.  As you can tell, any slight movement on my part or the kids made it blurry.  Yeah, sitting next to Emma with a stage full of kindergarten grads meant most of these pictures were gonna be blurry.

 

 Think he was actually singing? Yeah, me neither! :-)

 Waving flags while singing Aiden's favorite song...You're a Grand Old Flag. Do I see a slight smile??

 I can't remember what that song was right now as I'm typing, but in the middle of it the lights went out and the kids all had glow sticks to wave around. It was pretty cool.

 There's our guy waiting in line to go get his memory book and picture with his teacher.

 Everyone got a chuckle here.  Aiden is trained for pictures. Lol! He got up there and completely ignored Ms. Stone and just smiled for his picture.  She tried to get him to scoot back and you can see that he was not moving until I got his picture! Good job, buddy! :)

 He finally let her hand him his memory book for one more picture.

 And he's officially graduated! Time for summer vacation!! Whoohoo!!

Patrick was able to get a few videos of the songs the kids sang at the graduation ceremony.  They were on his phone (because we forgot the real video camera on the counter, of course!).  He wasn't able to get them all at once because he was holding Aubrey and if she sees a phone, she's gonna try and get it! That's also why it's not the complete songs too.  Hey, at least we have some of it. :-)

They really did a great job!

Happy Kindergarten Graduation Class of 2025!!!