Shut Down

We took the girls in for their 18 month check-ups yesterday. It was a little bit late....they are actually 19 months old now, but I didn't want to take them in last month with all the flu that was going around here. They are all doing great developmentally. The doctor even said that they are all a good bit ahead as far as language and vocabulary goes. Our only concern yesterday was that Kate and Sarah seem to have tapered off their growth curves. Sarah is now less than 5%, and Kate was right at the 5th percentile. We'll be buttering up their bread more and looking for ways to sneak in some good fats and carbs, I guess. It wasn't a huge concern, as the doc didn't ask us to come in before their 2 year check up for weight checks or anything... just something to work on.

I delayed a few of their 15 month shots ; I didn't think it was a good idea to overload their little bodies. Then one of the vaccines that they should have had yesterday was bad and the office was using 2 separate shots in place of the one bad combo vac, so they were supposed to have 4 shots yesterday to make up for those we'd missed at 15 months. We opted for only 2 of those and now the girls will have to have 2 shots at their 2 year visits, and then I think we'll be all caught up. The doctor we have has been very, very patient with me and my requests regarding vaccines. I want the girls to have all their shots, but like I said, I just don't see any reason (much less benefit) to giving them 5 shots at once. So, overall, the check-ups went very well and then we were off to have lunch.

That was yesterday. Today everyone woke up with fevers, grouchy, needy, clingy, just plain ill. Sarah has told anyone who will listen all day long that her leg hurts because she got a shot. It is just pitiful. Around lunch time I looked around our house and realized that if we were running a day care center here instead of a family's home, we would undoubtedly be shut down! Thank goodness my mom, Mimi, came over after the girls' ultra short nap and took them home with her for an hour. Scott and I worked like mad to straighten and clean, and now I feel sure that no one would be compelled to take our kiddos away based on the cleanliness of our house.... and I even had time to post this to the blog before they arrived home, but here they come.

Looking forward to having my sweet, happy, girls back soon!

Heaven Is a Wonderful Place

Our Kay-Kay who comes over every morning to help me start the day with the girls (breakfast, dressing, etc), used to be the children's choir director at our church when I was a wee little thing. She taught us all kinds of fabulous songs... tons of which are still in my repertoire. I sing to the girls a lot. Ella definitely has her favorites. This morning she requested one that has not been on her favorites list ever...until today. I sang it through once, and since that time I suppose I've heard it sung 1,000 times. Fortunately, that made it easy for me to capture on video so Ella's "best-est friend" Campbell will be able to watch it that many times or more tomorrow! My apologies to Campbell's mom Heather in advance~

Without further ado, here is Ella singing Heaven Is a Wonderful Place. Enjoy!



Sorry the clip is so short. Even though the singing went on all day long, it was tough to get it on video without the babies yelling in the background or something. The words to the song go like this: "Heaven is a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace. I want to see my Savior's face, 'cause Heaven is a wonderful place." It has a very catchy tune that you may not be able to pick up on from this particular rendition. You may notice that she says "filled with Gloria and grace" instead of glory and grace... I presume this is because of her favorite book, Officer Buckle and Gloria. At the tender age of three she is already acquainted with Gloria, and is as yet unaware of what glory may be. I love her sweet little voice... but, who knew it sounded so very Southern?!?

One of the prayers I have for the girls is that they will all learn to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord", in their own unique way. Ella is blessing us daily with her efforts, and what an example she is setting for Maggie, Kate, and Sarah. After I finished videoing her this afternoon, each of the little ones took a turn "singing" their favorites. I got a short bit of Jesus Loves Me, some of the Bible, and I'm still not sure what the third one was, but it was all wonderful music to this Mommy's heart.

Wordless Wednesday- Little Explorers

Have a Blessed and Happy Easter!

We have a very full day ahead, and just in case I don't get back to this tonight we wanted to wish everyone a Blessed and Happy Easter Sunday from the Four Silly Sisters!

Springtime

We've been taking full advantage of all the sunshiny spring-ness that we've been having lately. Today we played outside at Donna and Mike's house on the trampoline, rode on the lawn mower and the tractor, and blew bubbles out on the front porch swing. Let me just say that by the time our four silly girls dived into the tub at Doo-Dah and Mike's (because they were too dirty to get in my car), they looked exactly like they had been outside in the dirt all day! Hooray for springtime!! But sadly, I didn't remember to bring my camera...


Yesterday afternoon we took the mule (Kawasaki, not farm animal) over to the dairy barn to see the baby calves. There was a bit of a stand off, wherein the girls lined up at the fence begging the cows to "come here, come here",

and the cows all lined up across from them as if to say, "You girls are crazy if you think we're coming over there!"


Bedtime has been coming early here between 6:30 and 7pm because of all the hard play and sunshine we've been experiencing during the day. I'd really like to start moving bedtime closer to 8pm so that they won't be going to bed with hours of sunlight left during the summer months.... and so that I can sleep past 7am on occasion. In my experience thus far, when they go to bed late (or too tired), they are always up earlier than their normal wake up time of 7am. Anyone have any suggestions for gently moving things back without causing them to wake up earlier than usual? I probably should have jumped on it when Daylight Savings Sprung us forward... lesson learned.

Yummy!

This morning I took all the girls to a MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) meeting at a local church. Ms. Faye met us there because she usually comes here on Wednesdays and the meetings are hosted by her church. The girls stayed in the nursery, even Ella, because with her sisters and Ms. Faye there, she didn't much care what the other 2-3 year olds were doing. When I dropped them off, they were all crying hysterically, except for Ella... even with Ms. Faye there. I'm told that the crying was for show because it ended quickly. Thank goodness... now if we can just get Ms. Faye to go everywhere with us, specifically like to the gym? I'm sure they'll come out of this "where is my mommy" phase before too long, right?

While they were happily playing in the nursery, I was learning a little bit about bread making. The class was incredibly interesting. We started by grinding our own wheat. We used all natural, organic ingredients and made sweet bread dough.

When we got home Ella and I had to go down to Nanny and Pop C.'s house to finish and bake our cinnamon rolls because my oven is on the fritz. Not too happy about the oven, but Ella and I both had a wonderful time visiting with Nanny and Pop while our goodies were baking.

When naps were over for the little gals, they each had a delicious, home made cinnamon roll for afternoon snack. They were oooh-ing, ahh-ing, and saying yum the whole time they ate them..... now if I could just get them to do that while they are eating their veggies! And I suppose if we are going to continue to eat sweet breads and the like I am going to have to find a way to get to the gym!!

Hard Play... Good Rest

Yesterday Ella and Scott ran in the American Cancer Society's 5K at our church. I think they both had a wonderful time. Gamma helped me load all the little gals up and take them to watch the big finish. Scott was first in his age group (even though he was pushing a stroller), but if you ask him it was "no big deal". Perhaps next year I'll run too... of course, he'll have to push the triple stroller and let me do the single. I bet that one would count for more than "no big deal". In truth, the big deal will be if I actually run!!

Ella was so funny. She really soaked in the whole event. She stretched with Daddy before and after the race. She drank her cup of water at the half-way point and ate her cookie and banana at the finish. Scott says that she was yelling, "Faster daddy, faster," almost the whole race. I'm sure the other runners got a big kick out of that!

After the race we headed back home for an hour or so before returning to church for the Easter Egg Hunt. It was pretty laid back, and the girls performed exactly the same way they did on Thursday when we took them to NGC for an egg hunt.

Kate was way more interested in eating the candy (right through the wrapper, mind you), than she was in hunting eggs.

Sweet Maggie spent lots of time investigating the contents of the eggs as well. I don't think she actually tried to eat through the paper, though.

Sarah was like an egg hunting machine. She picked one up and headed off to find the next... immediately. She wasted no time checking them out. She had, by far, the most eggs of our little foursome.

Poor Ella... I'm afraid she might have a touch of OCD. She could not pick up the eggs and move on. She insisted on opening each one as she got to it. She then checked out the candy and put it carefully back in her basket. Finally, she couldn't move on until someone put the eggs back together for her. No matter how hard I tried to explain that she could check out her goodies after the eggs were all found; she would have none of it!

I tried very, very hard to get a group shot of the girls in these cute little dresses because my blogging friend Tanya of The Farmhouse Kids and The Dairy Wife sent them to us about a month ago. They were cute... especially earlier in the day with their little pink boots, but the group shot, it has become impossible for me lately. Sorry Tanya. I tried, really, I did!

As a result of our busy, fun-filled day, we had our first 'sleep through the night' night in a long while. We've been plagued by teething issues lately, and I was so, so happy to sleep.... finally!

Rain or Shine

With total disrespect for the unpredictable weather this evening, we celebrated little Paris Hilton's Ella's birthday with a small bash.

We gathered at Mimi and Pop's amidst torrential rain and dark clouds. However, the conditions once inside were very nice! The little ones played, the dad/pop/other men-folk cooked, and all the rest of us ooohed and ahhhed over all the cute babies.



After supper we enjoyed some of Ella's TWO favorite cakes... homemade chocolate with butter cream frosting, and a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Here is a picture of Ella posing with her shrends Connor and Chase before blowing out her candles... at least one of them looks like she's having the time of her life!?!

Amazingly, after all the indoor commotion, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The fresh air was great after the gloomy, overcast day we'd had!

We hope that EVERYONE had a wonderful time, but from the looks that kept crossing Ella's face, at least we know that SHE thoroughly enjoyed herself!! Thanks to everyone who helped make this such a special day for her.

The Easter Bunny

HoneyBun

Ms. Kit came over this afternoon to introduce the girls to her 10 year old, retired, class room bunny named HoneyBun. Kelli was here, and our cousins Anna and little RyleeAnn also stopped by to see her. The weather was absolutely perfect. We ended up spending the entire day outside... I am really loving these nice temperate spring days!

Trying to take a "group" shot was almost laughable

Be glad I didn't post all 37 of the attempts!

Ella insisted on using her own camera to get a few pictures of HoneyBun when she first arrived. I think she'll be quite the little photographer one of these days.

Sorry Ms. Kit, somehow I cut your head out of this cute one with RyleeAnn.... oops!

Kate feeding HoneyBun some goldfish... yum!

Maggie petting her

Ella and Maggie feeding her

Maggie and Sarah with HoneyBun

Pop Dickie's Girls

Kay-Kay recently returned home from a trip to Maryland... bearing gifts for all the girls. One of her finds X4 was a set of super cute little Dickies brand t-shirts. This is significant because my dad's name is Dickie; I really should look for some iron-ons that say "Pop" and "Girls" because dad really loved seeing all of his little sweetie pies in these shirts, but I imagine he'd only like them even better if they said "Pop Dickies Girls"!

We took tons and tons of pictures on Tuesday when they wore them for the first time. Here are some of my favorites....

Kate sitting with Pop in his office

Three out of four enjoying one of Pop's home made biscuits

Now, one without the biscuits in their mouths

Maggie... looking a little tired

Ella- it's too bad you can't see all of the outfit... crazy skirt, pink polka dot leggings, and black patten leather shoes!!!

Sarah REALLY enjoys Pop's biscuits

Sarah smelling the pretty flowers

Happy Birthday Ella!

From: Mom, Dad, Maggie, Kate, and Sarah
To: Our first baby, the best big sister ever, and a girl who has always had her very own sense of style...

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY!!