Four is Fun!

 So there's just a little bit of denial in this house that Cora is not a baby anymore.

With the first child when he turned four I might as well handed him the car keys.  I thought he was huge and old enough to take care of himself (that was partially true since I was taking care of two other babies at the time).  With Cora though…. I'm trying so hard to keep her little, but it's just not happening.

She is about as cute and mean as a girl can be.  Her voice is so soft (most of the time) and even while she is beating me or a sibling up she does it with a smile and a sparkle in her eye. 

Love her.

She had all her birthday decorations picked out a month before.

We had to cancel her actual family party due to mysterious viral rashes plaguing our house. 

 I can only assume she's singing "Let it go" in this photo.

I am loving all the time Cora and I have just the two of us.  She is so easy going and such a goof ball to eat lunch with, take shopping, and snuggle down with for an afternoon nap.

She and her baby have been wearing these outfits at least twice a week since her birthday.

Frozen dress and makeup!

I don't get great pictures of these two handsome men very often.

Happy 4th Birthday Cora! 

We love you so much! Every single day your daddy and I enjoy the beautiful and charming little girl that you are.  You will forever be our baby.

6 years and loving it

6 years ago if you told me I would have a girl so big that I could no longer carry her in from naps in the car, I probably wouldn't have believed you. (I'm stronger than that!)

3 years ago if you would have told me that I would have a girl that has a huge heart, loves to be a helper, and has a love of all things creative, I might not have believed you. (We all know year 3 was hard!)

And if you told me today that my girl is now 6 years old, well,  I have a hard time believing it.

Lillian is so easy to celebrate.  She is such a fun, sweet, and interesting girl.

I love that I can watch her color and draw for hours.

I love that she can tell the best stories, real or not.

I love that she thrives off of helping people.

She is such a perfect combination of all things good, quirky, and rotten.

She is still loving her animal prints.  

She picked out the Eiffel tower lamp while shopping with Aunt Christine.

Happy 6th Birthday Lillian Louise!

You are so loved!

Preschool for the little one

Can you see how excited she was? 

Oh yeah. This girl had been waiting for the day.

It was hard for me to let her go. Especially last year when I had to decide to hold a spot in the class.  With a not so gentle nudging Grant told me, "It's not about you.  You have to do what's best for her." Well as a mom you know what's best for your children is to always be with you ;) Once I decided, I felt really comfortable with the decision. She was more than ready to spread her wings and fly. 

She hopped in the school like it was her business and has never looked back one day since.

Of course, I have to say one more time how much I love Ms. Dawn! Having a teacher that is so amazing and caring makes everything so much easier.

Cora loves kissing her daddy!

I'd say he gets at least 10 kisses from her everyday.

She's sad in the morning if she doesn't see him before work and insist that he tucks her in with kisses every night.  Can we say Daddy's Girl?

1st Day of school 2014. gulp.

Getting ready for school this year was a whirlwind. 

 I had all three kids starting school 1 1/2 days after returning from Haiti.  whew.  

However, all 3 2 of them were ready for the new school year.

 That made it much easier and way more exciting!

Lillian ready with her leopard print backpack, outfit, and barbie lunch bag.

She was so excited and confident it made it very easy to drop her off with a smile and not shed one tear. 

She has become quite the confident young lady.

Sitting at her desk with all smiles.

Josiah went in much easier this year since he had to be the Big Brother taking his sister to school for the first time.  However, being a 2nd grader he knows what coming now.  School. Homework. "No fun." 

As you you can see the excitement is just pouring out of him. ;)

Now Josiah may not love school, but he LOVES having his sister there.  We haven't had any tears getting out of the car this year (unlike almost everyday last year) and he feels an overwhelming responsibility to take care of her.  Every morning he has been running her off the sidewalk trying to hold her hand before she can even get her backpack on.  Then each day of pick up he has been holding her hand coming down the sidewalk.  

One day they had a conversation like this:

Lil: Do NOT walk me to my class today

Jo:  Why not? 

Lil: Because. I know how to get there and can do it by myself.

Jo:  Can I do it just one more day?

Lil: Ok. But no more kisses.

Jo: What if I give you only one kiss? 

Lil: Ok. Just one kiss and that's it.

I love Josiah's big heart for his sisters and Lillian's spunky confidence.

Aunt Christine told me that the K-teachers call her "Punky Brewester."

That made me feel good because they can see that she is her own fun and quirky person.

Now… My baby girl started preschool the following week.  Eeek!

I actually I would've been more freaked out if she wasn't going to Ms. Dawn's, she wasn't doing it for two years, and if she wasn't my 3rd child.  Just being honest here.

I didn't want to send her this year, but after talking with Grant and Ms. Dawn they reminded me it's not about me, but what's best for her.  And what's best for her is being there with Ms. Dawn.

Just incase I didn't brag enough last year about how amazing Ms. Dawn is here it is.

AMAZING!

Just in the short few weeks Cora has been there I've already seen a change in her.

Her confidence is growing, she is trying to be more brave in her speech, and her knowledge is really starting to show! I love this little girl with my whole heart and as much as I wanted to keep her all to myself, I know that she is in the best environment that she can be in to get prepared for school!

Butterfly garden

One day we decided to head over to White River Gardens with Aunt Christine.

It is butterfly time and the girls were excited to see them.

We did get lucky enough to hold a beautiful blue one.

Lillian just has that special touch with nature.

They tried to make their mom happy here.  click.

The girls have really started to enjoy being friends and sisters now.  Their relationship is great during the day and I really don't have to mediate too much.  Once Josiah comes home from school the dynamics definitely change.

She's at that stage where she loves to jump.  

She jumps over cracks, parking lines, steps, and whatever else she can find.

Love my girls.

Cats

I have very few words, yet too many to describe how perfect of an evening I experienced with Lillian.

My Lillian has always been a special little girl.  

Her emotions, loves, and dislikes are usually to the extremes.

On this night I saw my girl's heart sing out and almost completely burst with pure joy, excitement, wonder, and the most happiness that a 5 year old can exude.

As soon as I told her that we were going to go to a "cat dance"  that was all she could think of.  What was a cat dance? Well I showed her a couple Youtube videos and she was hooked.

We went up to Beef n Boards for the CATS production.  

It was pure entertainment and magic.

Everything from the warm attentive welcome we received,  the touch-the-stage seating, vocals, dancing, and interactive entertainment was absolutely perfect.

During the show Lillian had multiple experiences with the Cats.

They laid in her lap, purred on her, stared at her eyes from just inches, rubbed their noses to hers, slept at her feet,  played with balloons and then topped it off by giving her a autographed "dawg" sign during the show.

Afterwards, some of the girls were kind enough to come out and meet Lillian.

She was so excited to tell them about her real cats and they were so sweet to listen and seemed to really enjoy talking with her.  

We coordinated our leopard outfits and even had matching boots.

Yes, I did cry about half of the time we were there just watching her face.

I'm sure the girls at the end thought I was some weirdo mom.

At the end of the night she just kept saying, how she "loved it" and a sincere  "Thank You Mommy. You are the best mommy ever!"

This is one memory that will absolutely be forever stored in my heart.

He has my heart

This little guy came to me 7 years ago and I couldn't ever have wished or prayed for a son that I would love as much as him.  Josiah is such a cool kid.  He's fun to talk to, is developing a good sense of humor, and is so compassionate and caring.  When he was a 1 year old wild child I thought I would be chasing him for the rest of my life.  Now he can be on the slightly lazy side and not the total "all boy" that I thought he would be.

 We started the morning out right with his donut cake.

 Then in the evening we had a little bit of family over for some brownies.

He was very adament  that he did not want any icing at all.  So we decided to to a brownie and ice cream sundae bar with all the toppings.  It was a big hit.

The evening was a little cool and with 31 people in our house it was a very cozy and festive time.

Trying on his new gear.

Then we surprised him with his basketball goal!

He loves basketball.  

He has the knack for remembering stats, teams, players,  height, weight, about anything would want to know.  He just absorbs all of it, from where, I don't know.  We don't have a tv so he just picks it up from school, reading, and talking to people.  It's so impressive.

My cousin who I hadn't seen in 3 years came up with his kids.

It was so great to see them and the girls had a "fashion show" for us.

Josiah's best buddy from church.

They both have had their first overnight stays at each other's houses.  

It's been so cute to see Josiah developing a friendship.

I love you with all of my heart Josiah!

Happy 7th Birthday