4 Years Old

Little D (who's not so little anymore) is officially a 4 year old. He's been waiting for this day for a long time. For most of August we heard about his birthday coming up in September...almost every day. Needless to say, when the day finally came, he was pretty excited.

 

 

First thing after he got up in the morning, we had him open a present which was this Angry Bird's mug. He's been loving having cocoa in the mornings but I've felt kind of funny with him drinking out of a Hello Kitty mug. Now he has his own big boy mug and it's one of his favorite characters. Upon opening it, he was so excited to find a packet of hot cocoa in it with marshmallows.

 

He's growing up too fast for my liking. So hard to believe that we waited 6 years for him to come along and now he's already 4 years old. Amazing how quickly time flies by when you're busy enjoying your kids and life.

 

We had a small family party for him this year. For gifts he mainly got clothing items as he keeps growing out of things. Lots of Spiderman and Angry Birds themes going on. Funny how he's never watched Spiderman before but yet that's all of a sudden another one of his favorite characters. I guess there could be worse things.

 

Gotta have a Mario shirt.

 

He received an Angry Birds backpack which he loved. What we didn't realize until he was looking all through the bag was that it had this rain hat tucked inside a small zipper at the top. He loves it and will walk around with it on inside. Maybe one of these days when it's raining, he can test it out.

 

Mama's little (big) boy. Love him so much!

 

I've been trying to write down some of the funny things he says. I had a good list going a few months ago but must have accidently thrown it away. I'm so frustrated as there was some good ones on there that he doesn't say anymore and I can't remember them. Over time maybe they will come to mind. Until then, here's a couple of them that make us chuckle.

 

• Yo dirk - yogurt
• Coke coke - cocoa
• Mac or a cheese - Mac n Cheese
• Peek the poo - Peek a Boo
• Clip clops - flip flops

1 year, 2 years, 3 years and now 4 years old.

Love his new sunglasses. Unfortunately, they didn't even last a week. Not sure, but we think Samara got ahold of them. Guess she doesn't know her own strength.

 

Excited to see what this next year will bring. We're already seeing more of his personality coming out, a little bit on the bossy side. It's a fun time of learning for all of us and enjoying these special times together. Love you little Mister!

18 Months

Amazing how quickly time can fly by. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that my baby girl is a year and a half now. It really seems like just yesterday that she was born.
This little gal has been such a fun blessing. She's a handful for sure but definitely fun. She has so many expressions and a sassiness that I wasn't expecting when she was younger. It's going to make life interesting as she gets older, that's for sure.

The measurements are what I was able to do here at home. The official ones will happen next week at her doctors appointment. Even if I am off a little on her height especially, I think she's going to be my shorty. Maybe I'll have a child who is my height?

 

These are some of her typical expressions that we see on a daily basis. Life around here is never boring.

Tried doing a photoshoot on this day to get her 18 month pictures done. This is pretty much how they turned out. She just wasn't in the mood and there was no changing her mind, even with fruit snacks.

We got to spend some time up at our pastor's cabin a few weeks ago. It was a blast as always. Playing in the water, running around in the yard and relaxing, we all had a great time. This little one was so tired afterwards that we weren't even out of the driveway before she was fast asleep in her car seat.

 

I'm happy to announce that she is finally (almost consistently at least) sleeping through the night. It didn't happen until I was able to get her to wean. For the longest time I didn't think she would ever give up nursing. We had tried in the past only to be met with severe fits and crying and then her going into a panic. Decided it wasn't worth having her go through that. Her doctor had said that 18 months seems to be the time when they're ready to move on. I was in complete shock when right around the 18 month mark, it happened. We'd been praying about it and it's been such a smooth process. The other shock is that she now goes to bed at the same time as Dayson. We get our hug and kiss and then she waves goodbye to us and lays down. Simple as that! What in the world?! Before it was almost an all out fight to get her to bed and now she just goes in like it's no problem. Not sure what changed but I'm feeling very thankful. Getting some extra sleep has been weird but nice. 

Watching the older kids play. Most of the time like this, she has a pretty solemn look on her face.

This picture cracks me up. She was so excited to have the net after the big kids had been playing with it. She had no idea what to do with it but she was still happy about it.

My little bathing beauty.

Look! It's an airplane. Funny how Dayson never noticed planes or anything else in the sky for a long time. Maybe it's having an older brother who now points all those things out that has made her interested in them.

This is a very typical face we see. If you haven't heard of it yet, this is what we call her stink face. Sometimes she even gives it to us when we ask her to do something. Why do I have a feeling that this cute face is not going to be so cute anymore when she gets a little more defiant?

 

A very half-hearted smile.

Ok mom, I will pose for one more picture. ☺

  

As usual I'm excited to see what the next days, weeks and months will bring with this little one. So thankful for the blessing of being able to raise her.

And We're Back!

Didn't mean to take such a long break in between posts, but that happens when you buy a house and move! This move was so much more stressful than any move I've ever done before. So thankful it's over and we're getting settled in. Still have a few boxes around that I haven't had the time to get to yet, but for the most part, we are finally feeling at home here. This being the first time buying a house, it was quite the experience. It all went really well, though I must say I don't care for the negotiating phase. Can't believe we finally have a yard for the kids to play in and an extra bedroom so that we're not sharing a bedroom with one of the little ones. Iyana is happy to finally have her own room again and Dayson and Samara are tickled to share a room. When it's nap time, you can hear them in there laughing at each other instead of going to sleep, but that brings a joy to my heart in itself. Love hearing them get along so well.

Our new home.

Last pictures at the apartment.

Getting ready to leave. We had a good 4 years here.

And now at the new house as Dayson still calls it. He's such a goof.

She was trying to get his tongue.

One of her favorite things to do is sit in the door heading out to the backyard.

They love having a yard.

Trying out the new barstools.

 

Enjoying some quiet playtime.

Over the past couple of months, we've kept very busy in-between all the packing and moving. Our AWANA year finished up. Dayson did a great job in his first year of Cubbies. He loved going each week and saying his verses. Iyana finished up her last year of Truth and Training. Can't believe we have a child who is old enough for youth group! She has grown so much in the last few years, not to mention physically growing in the last couple of months. She is now almost officially my height and very proud of that. Samara is growing every day, especially in her personality. She sure can be a sassy one. She loves to climb on everything, stay up late and sleep in as long as she can.

Receiving her Timothy award.

Singing their Cubbies song.

 

My parents were able to come visit over Memorial weekend. It was definitely a work weekend instead of one for relaxing. One of the first things that happened was taking down the tree out back. It would have been nice to keep it as that was one of the only areas of shade, but it had been infested with beetles and was showing some weak spots. Once it was down, it was definitely a good decision as we found a rotted out hole in the trunk itself that couldn't be seen from the outside. Besides working, we had a good time visiting and the kids loved having Diesel here. He gave us an idea as to what it might be like having our own dog some day down the road.

Getting right to work early in the morning.

 

Enjoying some doggy snuggles.

 

This little guy loves power tools of any kind. He was papa's helper.

 

 

Working into the late hours of the evening.

 

She just had to try on Papa's boots.

 

These two became good buddies.

Checking out the progress.

Daddy can I use the saw too?!

 

Once the tree was down, this is what our backyard looked like.

In no time at all though, they quickly got everything chipped and cleaned up. It took 25 yard waste bags to get all the chips picked up.

 

He was such a good helper.

 

Always on the watch making sure everyone was doing ok.

 

Another bonding moment between these two.

 

Keeping a close eye on everything papa was doing.

 

  

Getting in as many Grammy snuggles as she could before they left.

 

Loved having them here.

Well, this isn't a full update but at least it's a start. I will try to do better about blogging now that we're settled in. Of course, life has a tendency to get a bit busy so who knows when the next time I will be able to have a few minutes to do this. In any case, until then, have a wonderful day!