millie jean is 3!

To my beautiful, sweet Emilia

I can't believe you're 3 today!

My precious little baby has grown up too fast!

Those gorgeous blue eyes that took my breath away when you were just a baby...

...still do so today!

And although your Nana Lois has brown eyes, 

you bare a striking resemblance to her:

How quickly you've gone from destroying puzzles

to mastering them!

I dub you the Puzzle Queen!

You are such a good sister to Addie and Tate.

You love to giggle with your big sister.

The two of you have way too much fun together.  I never knew siblings could get along so well.

Probably your favorite thing to do together is read.

You love to copy Addie's reading by making up your own stories.  And you come up with some very creative stories!

You love to make your baby brother laugh.

You get a kick out of chasing each other around the house, crawling as fast as you can.

You say the funniest things.

You recently came up with the word "shoe-foot."  When you saw that we had our shoes on you said, "I'm barefoot, but you guys are shoefoot."  And it has stuck.  Just this morning you asked me why I was shoefoot.

You like to say, "Mommy, I have two questions for you..." and then you proceed to ask me two questions - sometimes silly, but sometimes pretty big questions.

You are a little girl on the go.

You can't just sit and watch cartoons.  You'd rather be doing something.  You sure keep mama busy!  :)

We are so thankful that God gave you to us.  You have given us so much joy! 

We love you so much, Silly Millie!

Happy Birthday!

little man Tate

To my sweet baby Tate

A year ago today I woke up and knew I would get to meet you very soon.  I was so excited!  I couldn't wait to finally meet this overly active little baby who liked to perform flips in my belly (much to the dismay of the doctors) and forced my belly to stick out so far that people stared at me like I was a circus sideshow, causing several to ask, "Are you sure you're not having twins?"

It was a beautiful birth.  My best one yet.  I'll never forget the moment I first laid eyes on you.  You were so beautiful.  I mean so beautiful that I couldn't take my eyes off of you.  It was love at first sight for this elated mama.

And I could see in your daddy's eyes that he felt the same way.

And of course, your sisters were proud as peacocks.

Throughout this year you have developed so much personality.

When you're tired, you bury your face in anything soft you can find.  I love it when it happens to be my face or my neck.  Unfortunately, it only lasts for a few seconds.

When I give you your nighttime bottle, you reach for my hair to run your fingers through it.  And when you're really tired, you pull it to your face and close your eyes.  Love that.

When I lay you down in your crib, the first thing you do is pull your soft blankie to your nose.

And when you wake up in the morning, you're full of smiles and giggles.  You are the happiest baby I know.

And you are definitely ALL BOY.

You love to throw stuff, and you have a good arm.  It's really cute when it's your nerf football or something soft.  And I love it when you throw something far and then raise up both arms, squeal, and land on your hands to crawl after it as fast as you can.  But sometimes, when it happens to be a hard toy or your food, it's not so cute.  But it sure makes you laugh.

You love to tackle.  Your sisters can take it now, but I'm afraid that in a few more years they might not think it's so much fun.  Good thing you have Odie.

You love your dog.  And he loves you.  You love to tackle him and you giggle like crazy when he sniffs your neck.  I think you two are going to be best buds.

You love to climb.  Everything.  You recently even climbed to the very top of your sisters' bunk bed ladder.  Which is why the ladder is now under the bed.  I'm afraid that trips to the ER are looming in your future.

You love to laugh.  Like I said, you are the happiest baby I've met, and it's so easy to make you laugh.  I wish I could bottle up your laugh and hear it whenever I want.  But I guess that's what video cameras are for.

You have given us such a wonderful, happy year.  We love you so much, Tate.

Happy First Birthday!

weekend? what weekend?

What did you do this weekend?

Well, we...

Friday night

*Had a wedding rehearsal and dinner.  (Okay, so just Chad went.  I stayed home with my overly tired, and therefore cranky, brood).

Saturday

*9:30 - Drove the kids 25 minutes away to drop Adeline off at her first "friend" birthday party!

*10:30 - Got back home and wrapped the wedding gift.  Welcomed my parents to our house who came to watch the kids during the wedding.

*11:30 - Drove back to pick Addie up - who was full of giddiness from the awesome time she had.

12:30 - Got back home and had lunch and got ready for the wedding as quickly as possible.

*1:15 - Left for the 35 minute drive to the wedding.

*2:00 - Watched my gorgeous husband work his stuff as groomsman.  Made googly eyes at him. Witnessed a truly adorable couple begin their wedded life together.

*5:30 - Got home from the wedding and posed for this picture.

*6:00 - Breathed.  Then spent some quality time with my parents.

Sunday

*7:45 - Convinced Chad that Tate should wear his sailor outfit to church.  It's not girly.  How can a sailor outfit be girly?  Sailors are tough.

*8:15 - Left for church early so we could work in the nursery.

*9:30 - Tried desperately to get Sailor Tate and his Sailor Maiden Harper (this lady's daughter) to pose for a picture.

Nope.  Not quite.

That's it, Tate.  Go get her.

Well, that's not gonna work now, is it.

Yeeaaahh, no.  So, that's not really what I had in mind...

Okay, so this might actually work.

We should try for another one though, right?  Just to be sure?

Okay, guess not.  No, it's fine.  Really, guys.  We'll just go with the last one.

*9:15 - 12:00 - Heard from several moms how adorable Tate looked.  Heard their husbands ask Chad how he let Tate out of the house like that.

*12:10 - Left church.

*12:30  - Attended my niece Clara's, and my brother Trent's birthday party.

Okay, so I think Trent is making this face on purpose.  Not that there's anything wrong with it... He just looks a little drugged, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't.

This party starts birthday season in our family.  I know I've posted this before, but just as a recap, here's the line-up for the next 2 weeks:

Aug. 21 - Clara turned 5 (niece)

Aug. 22 - Mark turned 33 (Chad's brother)

Aug. 23 - Trent turned 34 (my brother)

Aug. 24 - Tate turns 1 (our son)

Aug. 26 - Emilia turns 3 (our daughter)

Aug. 26 - Kaiden turns 5 (nephew)

Aug. 29 - Taryn turns 2 (niece)

Sept. 3 - Adeline turns 5 (our daughter)

Ruby's the only lucky cousin who gets her "special" birthday a month later in October, when she'll turn 3.

So as you can imagine, our next few weekends are filled with... BIRTHDAY PARTIES!  And all in my family.  Wow.

So, what did you do this weekend?

shout out

Rarely do I call customer service and have a pleasant experience.

Yesterday I did.

You see, we have this stroller.

It was a gift from Chad's parents when Millie was born.  And we LOOOOVE it!  It maneuvers so well, and it can actually be converted to a normal double stroller too, with 2 regular seats like this:

Cool, huh?

But I've been tearing up the house trying to find the front tray.  We took it off when Tate was born to put in the piece to hold the infant carseat.  And I haven't seen that tray since.  Now that Tate likes to snack, that tray is vital for even attempting uneventful shopping experiences or long walks.

I was desperate.  Willing to pay almost anything to get a replacement.

So I called One Step Ahead and asked them how much it would cost to replace it.  And guess how much they were going to charge me?  $15, you think... maybe $25?  Well, that's what I thought.  But it's actually costing me NOTHING!  They're sending me a new one for absolutely FREE even though it was my own fault!  

Now I'd say that's pretty incredible.

Have you ever had a good customer service experience?  If so, I think those companies deserve a shout-out, don't you?

the results are in...

I'll let Adeline show you how her first day of school went:

That's her "It was awesome!  I love school!" pose.

We were so excited to pick her up and hear all about her day.  I even let her ride in the stoller (normally I make her walk) so she could relax and tell us all about everything.

The first thing she told me was that she got to play the drums in music class.  We don't get to do that at home...

When we asked her about the other kids in her class, she did know a few names of some new friends.  She said that at recess everyone kinda did their own thing because no one really knew each other yet.  But she wanted to play tetherball, so she invited a boy to play with her.  That made me smile.  I'm so glad she's not shy like I was.

After a fun day yesterday, she was ready to get up at 6:30 today and go again!

Now mommy has to get used to a new routine.  Getting up super early so I can be ready before getting the kids up at 6:30... ugh.  Guess I'll be going to bed earlier now.  Good thing Wednesdays are a "late start" at 8:45.  Isn't that more of a "normal start?"  I think 7:45 for kids that young is just plain cruel and unusual.  I guess I've just been spoiled to a stay-at-home mom's schedule.

We wanted Addie to know how much we missed her today and give her a little surprise, so we prettied up the driveway with our art.

Can't wait to pick her up soon!

the big day

This post will be mostly pictures since I'm having trouble with words today...

If you need a clue as to what this is about, and a hint at my emotions, read my last post.

Assuring little sis that everything would be okay and she would still have time to play with her when she got home.

I had the girl next door (our awesome sitter Emma!) come and watch Millie and Tate so I could walk her by myself this morning.

We are very fortunate to have a beautiful walking trail for most of the way on our 20 minute walk to school.

And we get to hear the beautiful sound of the stream.

But most of all, I liked hearing Adeline's made up song about going to school.  Wish I would've captured that on video.  It was precious enough to bring tears to my eyes, although that wasn't hard to do today...

We were supposed to say good-bye at the door and leave.

You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?

Plus, Addie was excited to show me something she had seen at Back To School Night.  So I had to stick around for a minute or two...

It helps having the first name in the alphabetical lineup.  Her cubby and locker are both the very first ones!

Sneakily trying to capture one more shot from out in the hall (sorry for the blurriness, it's way cropped in) before sulking back home by myself.

Her teacher is very sweet.  I'm sure she's going to love her.

Good thing I had brought my sunglasses so I could try and conceal my wet eyes.  And I definitely was not the only one with sunglasses on...

Back at home, Millie's trying to take on some of the big girl roles, like helping feed Tate, with a little help from a neighbor friend who starts school next week.

Counting down the hours to pick her up!  I'm praying she loves every minute of today and can't wait to go back!!