Hilton Head Island 2011

We had another fantastic time at Hilton Head in July. As usual, our routine was breakfast, bike, beach, pool, lunch, rest, beach, pool, bike to dinner, crash.... rinse and repeat 3 or 4 times with only a little variation. This was the first summer that we've had 4 full fledged swimmers on our hands, so that made everything "way more fun". For the first time ever, we spent one morning playing putt-putt. Whew, that was exhausting! Another first was the girls actively trying to make friends with other kids we met on the beach and at the pool ... also great fun! They found lots of little girls and even several little boys that didn't mind being friends with a whole gaggle of sisters. Scott helped each of the girls take turns learning to ride on the boogie board. Ella became quite good at it, and after making a new friend one day tried to ride off into the sunset with her new friend on the board. That was a completely new nerve wracking experience for this mama who is used to having her girls hover very nearby at all times!

On this trip the girls became very eager to ride their own bikes... guess those carriers are getting a little bit cramped! So we told them that when they learned to ride without training wheels they could bring their bikes and not ride in the carriers anymore. Guess what? The minute we got home we removed them and within a week all four of our kiddos were riding their bikes sans training wheels!! Perhaps those should be the next pictures I post?!?

Wordless Wednesday: A Few More Favorites

I thought today would be a perfect day to post a few more of my favorites from our Farrah Nicole Photography session back in December. Happy almost wordless Wednesday!!

Updates on Our Busy Crew

The past month has been lots of things, but I suppose the words I would use to describe it for us would be busy, busy, unpredictable, crazy, full of learning, and did I mention BUSY!?!


I'm throwing out my perfectionism and just putting this post out there... it's been sitting unfinished in my computer for weeks! I need to do better. I'm really, really going to try and post more often.


Maggie, Kate, and Sarah are all 3.5 years old and weigh in at just under 30 pounds, and they're 38 inches tall. They are constantly on the move and almost never stop talking... all at the same time.


Sarah is a little ball of fire. She is smart as a whip and yet sweet Sarah has to be one of the most generous 3 year olds I've ever met. She is always looking for ways to make others feel happy. She loves everyone, but she especially LOVES her sisters. She is often willing to give up something of her own to make a sister happy. Almost a month ago I overheard her tell my aunt Donna, "you're so beautiful... the most beautifulest....I love you forever, I love you to the moon and back, even when you die you'll stay in my heart." Sarah knows all her basics... colors, numbers, shapes, and most all upper and lower case letters. She constantly comes to me and says... "What does puh-puh-pancake (and virtually every other thing that crosses her mind) start with?" She almost always knows the answer before I tell her. Sarah has a full grasp of the power of being the baby of the family... even if she only claims that title by a about a minute, and she has a double wide stubborn streak!

Maggie is purely and simply the picture of mischief.... she always has been! She has the most precious voice and is quick to tell everyone we meet that she is "the shy one". Being second in the birth order ranks, she is very competitive with Ella. She can often be found lurking in Ella's closet trying on clothes. She likes to be able to do the things Ella does. She too knows all the basics preschool wise, and seems to have an extra special knack for math skills. She easily adds items, counts items, etc. She is also a great kitchen helper... follows instructions well and really enjoys getting her hands dirty. Maggie is usually the tomboy of the crew. She gravitates toward cars, machines, and figuring out how things work. She has a couple of girlie favorites... baby dolls and high heel shoes. She can't get enough of either of those!

One night after I had tucked the girls into bed I checked in on them and overheard the following. Kate had declared she was marrying her friend Luke C. and living in "New Werk City", Sarah planned to marry Luke G. and move to Chicago, but Maggie said, "I want to marry Daddy and live right here." Maggie used to be our most adventurous eater, but she is quickly losing that title to Kate and becoming quite picky. She has the very best imagination of the group and often blames her mischief on her pet dog lovey. Maggie gives the very best hugs ever!!

Drama girl Kate is always looking for something to elicit sympathy. This girl can really milk a boo-boo! She too loves high heels and all things girly. She's got preschool basics down pat. She has amazing rhyming skills, and her favorite game is the one where we say, "What is an animal that rhymes with __________ (fill in the blank with any word that we can come up with that rhymes with an animal). She beats the other three almost every time.... drama and quick wit! As I already mentioned, Kate has taken over Maggie's adventurous eater title. She is willing to try almost anything I put in front of her. As a result, she likes more foods than the rest. Kate is also the most eager and very best kitchen helper I've got. She loves to get her hands into flour, she works a microwave like a champ, and I thoroughly enjoy having my beautiful little half pint helper by my side! Kate also loves to do tricks with daddy. He can spin her around, toss her in the air, and hang her upside down, and she always comes back asking for more.

I can hardly believe how much Ella has changed this past year. She is now 5 years old and headed to kindergarten in the fall. I still can not believe it is time already!! She is such a great helper, an even better boss, and according to her preschool teacher only has kind things to say about everyone. She loves her sisters, but she definitely enjoys her time apart as the Big Sis. Ella has a keen sense of style. She is making rapid progress toward learning to read. We just finished reading Charlotte's Web together at bedtime, and according to Ella her new favorite books are "chapter books". We can't get away with spelling things we don't want her to understand anymore. She is working on blending consonant and short vowel sounds. Another recent skill of note, Ella is now able to "pump" and swing herself. She is super, duper tall, but still only weighs around 40 pounds.

Scott has been working lots... work stuff, ARMY stuff, and wood working. Yeah, you read that right... woodworking. He made a bar height island for the kitchen. When we removed the quad feeding table way back when I had no idea we'd leave a Little Tykes picnic table in our kitchen in it's place for so long. But we finally found a picture of a replacement we liked, and then with my uncle Greg's help, Scott made it for us. It matches the kitchen table really well, and we've already gotten tons of use out of it.... evidence above where all four girls are making homemade play dough together. We're still on the lookout for perfect barstools so if anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears?!?

Even I've had lots of new things going on this past month. My friend Dena and I kept one another motivated, trained together, and then ran our first 5k early in March finishing with a time of 34 minutes and something. Two weeks later I ran another one in the rain. Apparently I don't like running in the rain because I finished with a much improved time of 29:44. Woohoo!

I have also kept very busy in the kitchen trying to have a little Food Revolution of our own here. I've finally ditched the pancake and waffle mixes and found homemade versions that the girls like to go along with our homemade pancake syrup. I'm trying to be more conscious about getting fruits and vegetables in with every meal, and I've been doing lots of homemade breads... so far French bread is a favorite. Next I'm going to tackle whole wheat sandwich bread. It's not huge by any means, but we're making our revolution one baby step at a time.

Hopefully there will be more to come tomorrow... we've had lots going on that is not being documented while I'm not blogging. I've got to get back into the swing of things!

Snow Day

Kate preferred riding her tricycle to sledding.

Uncle Joe stopped by to see what was going on. Scott was in charge of getting the winter things out of the attic and came out with that huge wig. The girls thought it was hilarious!
Ella was happiest when she could keep the snow out of her face with her umbrella.

Sarah just before she found the perfect spot for a snow angel.

Maggie was sad that the sled wasn't quite fast enough.

I feel a little bit silly showing how giddy we all were to receive our 2 to 3 inches of snow the other day when our friends in DC are experiencing record snowfalls.

Our measly couple of inches was just the right amount for us. It wouldn't have mattered to the girls if we had another foot of snow. Suiting up took longer than they stayed out to play in it, and I doubt that would have changed.

**Oh, and I found the reason Sarah felt I was crushing her hopes last week.... Cinderella's stepsisters "crush her hopes" when they destroy the dress that her sweet friends made for her in one of the 15 versions of the Cinderella story that we have here in our house. I should have known it was one of the fairy tales.... Sarah lives in a fairy tale kind of world!!

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Alternate Title: Almost Wordless, Barely Still Wednesday

Whoa... it's almost Christmas and I still haven't posted our favorite Pumpkin Patch pictures!! Enjoy the slide show for what's left of Wordless Wednesday... this little trip was so long ago I don't remember much to write about it anyway.

Fall Favorites 2009

We had to have our pictures made for our church directory last week, so we took advantage of the fact that we were all dressed and made a few pictures outside before we went. These were some of my favorites. Some of the girls were being more agreeable than others. Enjoy!

Disney or Bust!

If we had stuck with our original vacation plans, Scott and I would be on a big boat in the middle of the Caribbean right now celebrating 10 years of marriage. Instead, we just arrived home from a fabulous date night Willie Nelson concert and are looking forward to 5 days in Disney World celebrating four beautiful little people with whom God has so richly blessed us! Look out Mickey here we come...

Rah, Rah, Rah!

Just a few things to cheer about tonight...

A few weeks ago the girls were treated to a middle school football game with Kay, Doug, and Brian while Scott and I had a date night. One of Kate, Sarah, Maggie, and Ella's favorite people is a sweet girl named Emily who happens to be on the middle school cheering squad, so they were thrilled to go to the first game of the season and see Emily.

We have a hard time getting the girls out of their cheer leading uniforms these days as a result. At any given time I have between one and four little girls running around here referring to themselves as Emily (insert her last name here).

I heard Ella the other day saying, "Come on Emily, follow this Emily... we've got to go help our friends. Campbell is stuck out in the water and Luke has gotten covered up by ants. Emily to the rescue!" To which Sarah replied, "Yeah, Emily to the rescue!" Then they hopped off their swing set and raced to the other side of the yard. So not only is Emily a middle school cheerleader, she's also a super hero... at least at our house!

We are constantly being treated to cheer leading shows and tumbling displays.... constantly, and I've even heard several of them say that they intend to change their names to Emily when they are older. I am so thankful that the girls have a role model like Miss Emily!

***

Last weekend we took the girls to help my aunt Janice celebrate a big birthday at a surprise party in her honor. Mimi brought along Janice's old high school cheer leading uniform because the girls found it in a closet at Nanny C's and have since talked about it a ton.

You can just imagine their excitement and our delight that even at her big 5-0 b-day party she slipped that uniform on and cheesed cheered right along with them! It fit perfectly!?!

Happy belated birthday Aunt Janice!!

Summer Goodness: Trip to the Zoo

Pop Gary and Ms. Penny took our crew to see the animals at the zoo as part of our summer time fun this past month. The girls were almost 3 before they saw their first caged, not pastured, animal. I am most to blame for their tardiness. I don't generally like zoos. I haven't been to this particular zoo since I was in 5th grade, and things had definitely changed for the better!

I think the girls' favorite spots were the reptile house, ewww gross, I know, and the panda bears... as evidenced by the majority of these pictures. Ella was fascinated by watching one of the big snakes eat his furry rabbit for lunch, but this momma didn't have the stomach to watch, much less take pictures.

Once again, I've managed to get these photos uploaded in a wonky order, and I'm finding it to be too much trouble to change them around on my laptop. So, this will have to do for now.

Another favorite zoo destination was the playground. I was too busy playing to take pictures, but I think I've got a few cute videos to upload from that portion of our day. Perhaps once school starts back I'll be keeping up and can manage to get photos and video uploaded and into the appropriate posts... until then keep enjoying what's left of the summer!

Summer.... You've Been Good to Us

We've been way better than we deserve this summer. After a trip to the beach, a fabulous 4th of July on the lake, going to the airport to pick up Scott following his year long deployment, and then another trip to the beach, one might think that was enough to have made me compose a post with this title already. I really should have!

Instead of just resting while Scott was off from work this past month, we've really packed a lot in.... and I've not done a good job of keeping the blog up to date. So, humor me while I briefly and pictorially play catch up just a bit over the next several posts. Then we'll be gearing up for preschool to start, and boy am I looking forward to having a bit more routine and schedule to our lives.

On to the summer fun catch up:

We had a tree in our back yard that died sometime last year while Scott was gone. We made lemonade out of those lemons by cutting it down and having a family camp out including a campfire and s'mores.

No one made it all night in the tent. In fact, before it ever got dark we had moved the tent onto the back porch so that we could wait to disassemble it the following day without having to let it dry out. The next morning while the girls were playing in it I heard some blood curdling screams from inside the tent. I thought someone was hurt, but it turns out the tent had about 4 slugs crawling around inside and the four little girly girls we have were terrified! Now they rigorously inspect the back porch before letting loose out there.

It's been so long since I've tried to post any pictures on here that these uploaded in the exact opposite order of what I was hoping for, and I'm too lazy to change them. More fun summer pictures soon!