Friday, April 3, 2009

Today...

My Baby Turns 1


At one years old:
  • loves her binky
  • understands what we are saying to her
  • says "ball", "mo"=more, "wuz dat"=what's that, "wuz dis"=what's this, "mom", "yah"
  • makes a "ruff, ruff" sound for any animal
  • loves to eat
  • doesn't love cow's milk
  • not the best napper and it is killing me (my other two kids took the best naps)
  • she stands by herself & will take a couple of steps
  • uses a stool or anything else she can push to walk around the house
  • loves to "talk" on the phone and will say her version of "hello"
  • loves to play with a ball
  • loves to pull everything out of drawers or buckets
  • finally sleeps through the night
  • only has two teeth, the second one still isn't all the way through
  • likes to wear necklaces and sunglasses

  • she puts her hands up in the air when she is looking for something (see video below, it is towards the end of the video)



She is such a joy to our family!
We love our Ashley!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

I Found This Treasure at Target...


For Just 5 Dollars!!!!

This is one of my favorite movies and about the only movie I can watch over and over again. So imagine my excitement to see it on DVD for so cheap. Now I own it on VHS and DVD!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Why is this so hard for me?

I love reading other peoples' blogs, but have such a hard time posting on my own blog. I wait too long to post and then I am overwhelmed by all the things I haven't posted. Then I feel guilty because I should be documenting things better because this is like a journal for me and my family. I can't say that I will be better, but I can say that this is a random post of all the latest happenings of my kids.

Luke's Random Happenings
He loves preschool and enjoys showing us all the things he makes.

His preschool teacher sends home "responsibility papers" for homework and you work at your own pace. Luke loves the "homework" and has done really well. He is now reading very simple sentences and his first little book his teacher sent home. He was so excited that he read it to me right when he got home from preschool and then wanted to read it to Katelyn. She was so good to sit and listen.


I thought this was cute. Katelyn wasn't feeling well one day so Luke decided to make her a picture. The "klin" is his way of sounding out Katelyn.

This is Luke at 6 months old when he got his first tooth. I don't have any pictures where you can see the beginning of a tooth so I just put a picture of what he looked like at the age he got the tooth. :)
This is Luke a week ago at 5 years old when he lost his first tooth. My baby has officially grown up. I noticed it was loose about 2 weeks ago and then just last week he was eating dinner and bit down right on it. It made him cry(the picture shows his teary eyes and red forehead from crying) because it hurt, but he kept on eating and it just fell out. He was so excited for the tooth fairy to come and woke up the next day with a dollar under his pillow. Our tooth fairy is cheap, but Luke didn't care.


Katelyn's Random Happenings
She loves helping mommy, especially with the laundry. She likes to discipline Luke and often copies whatever I say to Luke. She loves to play in her toy kitchen and sometimes says things exactly how I would say them. I better be careful what I say.


Her hair is getting long.


She LOVES to play outside. We have had beautiful weather lately and she asks to go out everyday. I am so grateful for a backyard to send her out in and play. She especially loves it when Luke is out there and they play together. She is learning to ride Luke's scooter and likes wearing Luke's hat.

She is a great big sister and loves playing with Ashley. She thinks it's funny when Ashley tries to pull her hair.

Other things: She loves pink and used to only wear something if it had pink on it. She has surprised me in the last week when she has not put up a fight if the outfit I pick out does not have any pink.
We are in the beginning stages of potty training. I am not pushing it hard core right now, but just introducing it. She is not super excited, but we have to start sometime. She is 2 1/2 but looks like she is 4.


Ashley's Random Happenings

Ashley at 10 months old.

Ashley at 11 months old. She has been cruising all over the place for several months and will now stand by herself for short periods of time. She walks behind her push toy, but has not taken any steps on her own.

She loves to be outside. She likes the swing, but her favorite thing is the slide. She has no fear and would go over and over and over again. She lets us know that she isn't done even when we are done.

This stance kind of shows how she crawls. She uses one knee and pushes with her other foot. We have yet to have a normal crawler in our family. Luke and Katelyn both scooted on their bums instead of crawling. So I guess Ashley's version is closer to the norm.


Her new favorite past time is to throw all her blankets and binkies out of her crib and then play around until she wants them back and starts crying. We go through this routine several times before she actually settles down and takes a nap. She thinks she is pretty funny.


Other things: she says "ruff, ruff" for any animal, she points to what she wants, she makes sounds that sound like she is saying "what's this?" in her cute baby voice, she only has one tooth and I can see another one ready to pop through, she loves to eat and would eat food all day long, she is petite compared to how Luke and Katelyn were as babies, she is a momma's girl through and through.

Okay, now I feel a little better having those things documented.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Fun Giveaway!

This skirt is so adorable! Check out this cute giveaway. I would love to see Katelyn or Ashley wearing it.
Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Feeling Blessed

Life has not been easy over the past month, but despite the challenges we have been so blessed.

These are just a couple of our most recent experiences...

My dad had open heart surgery almost a week ago to replace a valve. This is the first major surgery our family has experienced and it was an emotional week for me. The fasting and prayers by so many family members and friends were felt. The surgery went well and now he is dealing with the long, painful recovery. I know the recovery will not be easy for him or my mom but we truly feel so blessed that there were not any complications during the surgery. He will be coming home this afternoon. It is so amazing that he had major surgery less than a week ago and he is coming home today. We are so blessed to have the technology and medicines we have now.

This past Thursday our house was broken into about 11:45am. I left my house at 11:00am, ran an errand, picked up Luke from preschool, dropped him off at a friend's house to play and then came home. When I got home there was a strange car in front of my house, but I didn't think too much about it. I drove down to the mailbox got my mail and drove by the car again. This time I saw what looked like a male teenager sitting in the driver's seat, he smiled at me, and I pulled my van into my driveway. I pulled into the garage and started unloading my girls. Katelyn was getting ready to go out to the driveway to get the newspaper and then I heard that car honk. I immediately felt sick to my stomach and grabbed Katelyn and put her back in the van and put Ashley back in her seat. Then I ran out to the driveway to see the back of what looked like a girl getting into the car and the car driving off. I went around my garage and saw that my front door was open. I was scared now and ran to my van and drove out of my driveway. I called Kevin and of course he said to call the police. The police arrived about 10 minutes later and searched my house with their guns out.
A rock had been thrown through my kitchen window and glass was shattered everywhere. They dented my refrigerator, stole my camera, and most of my jewelry. They tore apart my bedroom. Kevin had some guns up high in his closet and they had taken two of them but dropped them downstairs before running out. They stole a few other little things. CSI came and got some fingerprints and after about an hour and a half we were able to go back in our house and clean up all the mess.
It was scary and left me feeling so violated and really nervous that first night to fall asleep. However, we were really blessed. I am so grateful Luke was at a friend's house because it would have really scared him. They didn't take anything too valuable. (They were probably really disappointed with what they found.) The biggest blessing of all was that no one was hurt and the damages to the house were minimal.

Life can be crazy sometimes!

Monday, January 19, 2009

I Have a 5 Year Old Now

Turned 5 on January 16th
Really? How can he already be five? Five just sounds so grown up to me and I am having a hard time with it. :)
5 Things about Luke
1. He is such a good big brother.
2. He helps me out so much and usually does it without complaining.
3. He loves to ask hard questions and many times I don't have the answers.
4. He is very creative when it comes to playing.
5. He is so picky when it comes to eating.


We have decided to just have a birthday party for our kids on their even birthdays so this was Luke's year to just have a family party, but I don't think he was disappointed. He was so excited about his presents and got to go to Chuck E Cheese to eat and play. He wanted a Bolt (the disney movie) cake so I just made a chocolate cake and put a lighting bolt on it with icing. Nothing fancy, but he thought it was pretty cool.

(Opening a birthday present)


(Playing a game at Chuck E. Cheese)


Through The Years
This is for me and the grandparents. :) I love seeing how much he has changed.


I love my Luke!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning

Once again I am very late in posting about the holidays, but I wanted to get this documented anyway. I actually started this about a week ago and I am just now finishing it up.

Christmas Eve
We had a great time with Kevin's family on Christmas Eve! We did miss Sue and Wendy's families.

The kids decorated gingerbread men. Some were very careful about placing the candy while others couldn't get enough icing and candy on their cookie.




(If you look closely you can see the gobs of candy on Katelyn's cookie and the pile of icing on her cousin's cookie. )


We ate yummy food!
(The kids table)


(Enjoying some yummy food.)

We had a fun gift exchange with the cousins and the adults. I took some pictures but my camera was on a weird setting and they all came out blurry.

We acted out the Nativity. Most of those pictures were blurry also.

(A shepherd and a wise man)


(the other 2 wise men)

Before going to bed the kids opened new pjs from Grandma and Grandpa and wore them to bed.


Christmas Morning
This was such a fun year because both Luke and Katelyn were so excited. When Luke ran downstairs and saw the presents from Santa he said, "He really did come!! Mom, Dad, Santa really came." Later he had opened all his presents except one. I could tell he was looking around for another present. At the beginning of December he sat on Santa's lap at the primary activity and had asked him for a set of Bakugans. After opening most of his presents he still didn't have those Bakugans and he was concerned. Well, the last present he opened was the set of Bakugans from Santa and he was thrilled. I'm glad Santa remembered to get those. :)


Ashley was so happy with the balls she got from Luke and Katelyn. We could have just stopped with those, but she did get a couple other little toys.


It was a dress up Christmas for Katelyn. She got a Cinderella dress, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, a ring, shoes, and a tiara (sp?).


(Is that a smile?)

Luke got the Bakugans, a Transformer, and a Leapster.

(This is how he spent most of Christmas Day.)

I loved the rainy, cold weather on Christmas day,staying in my PJs all day, and the kids happily playing with their new toys. The kids were also spoiled with fun gifts from their grandparents. It was a wonderful Christmas with fun memories.