Happy 4th Birthday Lucy!

On Sunday Lucy turned four.  In the days leading up to Lucy's birthday, it seemed to me as though Lucy was already four.  Imagine my surprise then, when I went into Lucy's room to snuggle my three year old for the last time on Saturday night and I started crying when I realized she was already asleep.  It had taken me too long to tuck Emma in and I didn't get to have our special "chit chat" as Lucy calls it on her birthday eve.  Mom guilt kicked in, and I felt the full weight of her quickly disappearing childhood hit me in full force.  I wrapped her presents that night, still wiping away tears and wondering where the last four years had gone.  Lucy overheard me talking to Will about it the next day, and she told me that she promised to stay up for our chit chat on the night before her fifth birthday.  Fortunately, my good cry the night before made way for only happy emotions on her birthday.  Here is my four year old below, ever so proud to be four!

Weekend birthdays are the best.  Since Lucy's was on Sunday, we got to dedicate the entire day to celebrating her birthday.  We locked the child gate at the top of the stairs in the morning and had her wait until we were all ready to go down stairs to see her presents and start her day.  She waited as patiently as she could as we tried to wrangle her younger sister and put her in clothes.  Here Lucy is below coming down the stairs for the first time as a four year old.  Yes, I am sentimental!

As is our tradition, she came down the stairs and saw her birthday presents arranged in the living room. Despite our video camera's memory card being full and our camera's battery being dead, we were still able to capture some memories on my phone.

Lucy got her very first big girl bike, princess Duplos, sunglasses, a pillow case I made to match her bedroom, and, drum roll please.... GUM!  Lucy was super excited to finally be able to chew gum.  When she was about two, she had started asking for gum and I told her she had to be older.  At that time I didn't know how much older until she would know not to swallow it so I picked the age four, as that seemed super old and capable.  Well, she has held that number in her head ever since and I of course have had to stick with it.  Four may be on the old side in retrospect to chew gum, and I think she would have been perfectly fine at three, but I had to show some follow through!  Later on that day Lucy overheard me tell Will, "I can't believe Lucy is four!" to which Lucy piped in, "I can't believe I am chewing gum!"  She has been chewing it like a chain gum chewer ever since, and only spits it out for meals and bedtime.

Lucy requested waffles and bacon for breakfast.

After breakfast we headed to the zoo, at which point Lucy informed us that, "I'll most likely chew gum the entire way to the zoo mom."

We had a great time at the zoo, despite the fact that it rained.  The.  Entire.  Time.  Fortunately Grandma and Grandpa T. had gotten the girls umbrellas for their birthdays and we worked out a way for our earthly family of four to stay dry with only three umbrellas.  Will had to keep a kid holding an umbrella on his shoulders at all times, while the other kid held their umbrella and I held mine.  The animals didn't seem to mind the rain and we were able to see more activity than we had ever seen before.  Will is teasing me on how when we arrived at the zoo I said that I'd take rain and cool temperatures with no crowd over a hot, crowded zoo any day.  I even went so far as to say that I couldn't get over how cute our kids were with their umbrellas and wasn't the sound of the rain drops on our umbrellas beautiful?  And because there were no crowds, they were doing face painting for free!  Lucy scored a beautiful glittery dolphin on the side of her face.  Lord knows Will and I would have never paid for it, despite it being her birthday!  We really did have a nice time at the zoo despite the rain and one of my favorite memories was in the Polar Bear tunnel, watching the rain drops fall above us on the surface of the water.  It was so peaceful and calm.  And then we had to walk back to the car.  And it was wet.  And it was cold.  And it was miserable.  And would you believe there wasn't a single dry place to eat the special birthday picnic lunch we had packed?

We ended up eating our lunch in the car, looking out of the parking garage at the zoo.  And despite the fact that we didn't dare light the birthday candles we had brought to stick in the fig cookies, Lucy seemed content.  Both girls fell asleep on the way home and I think I did too.  Fortunately Will stayed awake and got us safely home where we all dried off and put on warm clothes.  We did a family snuggle under an afghan on Will's and my bed and then headed downstairs to measure Lucy on the growth chart.  She grew about three inches since her last birthday!

We had my homemade vegetable soup from last year's garden per Lucy's request for dinner with tiny little star pasta in it.  We were surprised when she requested this for her birthday dinner as we had assumed she would ask for hot dogs and mac and cheese but it turned out to be the perfect meal after a cold and wet day spent outside.  After dinner we braved the weather which had turned from rain to a fine mist and Lucy rode her bike for the very first time.

Finally, we headed out to our local frozen yogurt bar for Lucy's birthday dessert and it was a sweet ending to a great day.

That night, Lucy made a point to stay awake until after I tucked Emma in and we got to enjoy birthday snuggles and chit chatted about the highlights from the day.  She wanted me to tell her about the day she was born and I did my best to put into words the amount of happiness she has given to us and how much we love her.  Who knew that a tiny baby we were told in a dream would be a healthy baby girl named Lucy could fill such a big part of our lives.  We love you Lucy Anne!  Happy Birthday!

What Emma Loves at Two

I had so many pictures from Emma's birthday that I decided to divide up the post instead of deleting photos.  So, here is Emma at two...

Emma loves to be naked.  I found her taking a break on the rocking chair the other day and had to take a picture of my cutie.

 She also has a great sense of humor, and loves to make us laugh.  She likes to tell us we have to say "Abre!" (open in Spanish, used frequently in Dora) to get through a door she is blocking.  She also enjoys hiding things behind her back and asking us, "Which hand?"  But her favorite thing to do is tell us our, "Butt crack" is showing whenever anyone bends over - whether it is showing or not.

Emma is almost as talkative as her older sister and we sometimes still have trouble deciphering what she is saying.  In social settings, Emma prefers to observe the situation first before joining in.  After she warms up however, she is literally unstoppable and puts every fiber of her being into whatever it is that she has decided to do.  Here she is below playing with the parachute at story time - she has not completely warmed up to the idea yet.

Emma loves balls and is really good at kicking and throwing them too.  It goes without saying that she loves to climb and physically interact with her world.  I find it ironic that she is always humming the song "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed."

Emma loves singing and can sing the words to most of the top 25 pop songs right now and when a song comes on the radio, within the first three seconds she knows which family member likes the song and points it out to us.  Her all time favorite song is still "The Wheels on the Bus."

Emma loves any sort of processed meat - hot dogs and sausage being at the top of her list.  Will and I were still making dinner when I caught her swiping a hot dog off of the table.

Emma loves most foods actually, and is always the first at the table when we say that a meal is ready.  Here she is below at her friend Grace's Tinkerbell Birthday party, wearing her own princess outfit while enjoying a slice of cake.

Emma also loves getting her hands on my phone.  It is amazing how fast she can get to the camera on there.  Here she is below taking a self-portrait.

Emma loves snuggling.  She is very affectionate and is always telling each of us in random moments throughout the day that she loves us.  She even compliments us on our attire when it seems like we are having a rough time.  The other day she had an accident and as I was cleaning up after her she said, "Mama, I like your outfit!"  Well played Emma!  I have a maternity sweater that I still wear around the house on chilly days and she loves it when I wrap her up in it.  Here we are below wrapped up in my sweater.

Emma loves our chickens.  This is a relief, because she is deathly afraid of most other animals including dogs and cats.  But she seems to have no fear of the chickens, and loves it when we let a few out in the yard so she can play with them, feed them, and boss them around.

And Emma is finally old enough for her very own apple tree!  Will made one for her over his spring break and she is so proud of it!

So far, the only thing that seems to motivate Emma is who gets to tuck her in for naps and bedtime.  Threatening the loss of a story before bed, or not getting to go somewhere falls on deaf ears.  But if I say, "Uh oh Emma, if you don't get in her right now Daddy's going to tuck you in tonight!" she comes running.  She only wants me to tuck her in which is both flattering and tiring at the same time.

She also exhibits the easy-going side of her nature by always replying to requests with "O-tay" and "Sure!"  Then she proceeds to not do what we asked.  She's lucky she is so darn cute and I am lucky that she still has those droopy, chubby cheeks for me to smother in kisses!

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma!

We celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday yesterday as a family.  Will took the day off from work and we did what we could to make the day special for Emma with all of her favorite foods and past times.  And since she is two, we spent the day watching her run gleefully around the house naked, playing outside (with clothes on) and eating things like pancakes, sausage, hot dogs, fruit, mac and cheese and of course pink cupcakes.

It took some convincing to get Emma downstairs in the morning to open presents.  Like I mentioned already, she was perfectly happy to celebrate the first hour of her birthday running around the upstairs of our house naked.  We finally pinned her down and got enough clothing on her to be decent while we took pictures of her opening presents.  

The day before Emma's birthday she started telling us how she wanted a pink baby doll for her birthday.  After the fourth time she mentioned it, we decided it would be worth a late night trip out to make sure she got what she was hoping for.  Besides the baby doll, she received a "like-new" tricycle, princess Duplos, a flower necklace, and a big girl bed complete with matching hand made pillow cases I was inspired by on Pinterest.

Here she is below eating her birthday breakfast.

After breakfast we set up Emma's big girl bed while we waited for the temperature to warm up enough to play outside.  This was more emotional for me than anyone else in the family.  Will has been pushing for this for a long time as he wants a more comfortable place to go when Emma kicks him out of our bed.  I on the other hand, was quite emotional as I put Emma in the crib one last time, and then ceremoniously took her out of the crib one last time.  Thank goodness she humored me.

In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best idea to start something new like sleeping in a big girl bed on her birthday.  Nap time was definitely a challenge and she finally fell asleep at the time she would have normally woken up.  Bedtime was only a little bit better but she didn't fall asleep until 10:30.  I woke up last night at around 4, opened my eyes and saw Emma staring at me.  I have no idea how long she was standing there, but told her next time to say something so I know she is there!

After setting up her bed, we headed outside to try out Emma's new bike.  The weather was perfect with sunny blue skies and only a slight breeze.  And although the previous two years had lots of daffodils blooming on Emma's birthday, we did find one or two cold hardy daffodils this year so I can still tell Emma that her birthday comes when the daffodils bloom.   Will surprised Emma with a message on the driveway when she came outside.

 I have no pictures of Emma riding her bike outside, as it was a full time job keeping Lucy from pushing Emma over, and to keep Emma pedaling on her own.  Lucy had some issues with all of the gifts Emma received and at one point after a "time out" was over, she told me that on her birthday she wanted all the same things as Emma.  It would have been easier if the older sibling's birthday came first but yesterday was a good learning opportunity for all of us - for Will and I to not forget other family members needs while we are trying to make one member feel special, and Lucy to realize that everything isn't about her and life doesn't always seem fair.  I may or may not have told Lucy that we were getting her a bike for her birthday, and after she learned that her attitude seemed to improve.  Only eleven more days and Lucy can have her special day too.

Around lunch time Will and I were beginning to think we either needed to separate Lucy and Emma permanently, put them down for an early nap or feed them lunch.  We decided to put them in the stroller which had a set of five-point harnesses and headed for a walk downtown.  We had a great lunch and it was the perfect change of scenery for all of us.

For dinner we had a picnic outside for the first time this year.

And for dessert, we took Emma to a local bakery and let her pick out her very own cupcake.  The rest of us also picked out our own cupcakes too and the best part was there were no leftovers to tempt us today.

 The day was not without it's surprises for all of us that is for sure!  We are so happy to have Emma as a part of our lives though, and wouldn't trade the challenges of a family of four on earth for any other life!  Happy Birthday to our sweet, cuddly, funny and loving little lady!

Family Matters in March

March was a very good and busy month at our house.  To start the month out right, we learned that my dad is now cancer free and is feeling better each and every day.  To add to our happiness and relief at my dad being better, my brother, sister-in-law and niece moved back to town after a year of being out of state.  They are currently in the process of buying a house only an hour away from us and we have definitely enjoyed having them close by again.  I love watching our girls play together and am so glad that they have each other to grow up with - and get into trouble with too.  In the below picture we heard a loud crash in the kitchen and when we went to investigate we found the cousins cleaning up the evidence.

Later that same evening we heard a lot of noise coming from the bathroom and discovered all three girls giggling over what Lucy had deposited into the toilet.

We also fostered six baby chicks this past month for a friend of a friend who was on vacation.  It was the perfect set up really, as we got the chicks in their infancy when they were cute, tiny and fluffy.  Two weeks later we gave them back when they had conveniently reached the smelly, awkward, teenager stage.  There were some tears when we said goodbye to them, but overall it was a great experience.

We also gave away our rooster this month after he began terrorizing our head hen who refused to give in to his advances.  At first we thought the two of them were in a flirting match and our black hen was just playing hard to get but when we realized that the rooster wasn't allowing her to eat or leave the coop because she wouldn't let him have his way with her, we decided the rooster must go.  The final straw was when he attacked her head so badly that she lost a part of her comb and was covered in blood.  Fortunately for the rooster, Will had a coworker with a couple of acres and some hens who were in need of a rooster.  He went packing the very next day.

Now that the weather is warming up and the sun has been shining more often than not, we are getting about ten eggs a day.  It is hard to keep up with washing all of them!

The snow is still lingering in small, icy piles in shaded corners of our yard as I type this but I do believe we have seen the last of it.

It has been quite a winter and I have to say that Mother Nature has helped Will win an argument we were having about the necessity of a snow blower.  I don't like how loud or smelly they are, and Will seems to think we can't live without the most high end one on the market.  As a result we came to a stand still and ended up shoveling our super long driveway by hand all winter long.  The kids helped a little bit, but I felt like I had to prove something and by the end of March my back was killing me and I had to admit to Will that a snow blower was perhaps a good idea after all.  Pluses of our snow blower-free winter included great exercise, cool snow forts, and even one snow fall where ingenuity struck me and instead of shoveling the driveway, we rolled giant snowballs down it instead, clearing the cement in fun, zig-zagging patterns.

Lucy and Emma continue to evolve in their relationship with each other while keeping two things consistent - they are the best of friends and the worst of friends.  This photo collage features them at their best.  Going clockwise around the picture, they share Daddy's arms, a puddle, Daddy's back, a chair, a tattoo (not sure if you can see it from the picture but we had one tattoo that they both wanted, so Lucy came up with the idea of cutting it in half so each could have one) and even socks.

They also will at times, share a cuddle with me.

Their newest thing is playing a duet on the piano to Luke.  They make up songs with his name in it, and put his picture between them while they play.  This has to be the best music I have ever heard.

Lucy has been a sponge for learning this past month.  That is, when she isn't busy drinking sour cream from a straw.

She is always busy doing a craft of her creation and seems to be at her happiest when elbow deep in paint, glitter, markers and scissor scraps.  The other day I put Emma down for her afternoon nap and tucked Lucy in her room for her daily quiet time.  I then went to my room and made a phone call while putting my feet up.  Will came home from work about an hour later, and brought Lucy downstairs.  A little bit later when I went downstairs with Emma I noticed the table was covered with a painting project.  I asked Will if he and Lucy had painted in that short time I was still upstairs and he said no.  After further investigation, I realized that Lucy had snuck downstairs during quiet time, gotten out the paint supplies, painted a couple of master pieces and then quietly got back upstairs with me none the wiser.  I guess I should be glad that when my daughter sneaks, she does artwork.

Besides crafts, Lucy enjoys helping me in the kitchen.  She gets a monthly subscription to High Five Magazine, which is the preschool version of Highlights Magazine.  In every issue there is a recipe for kids to do with their parents.  This past month's recipe was an asparagus egg salad.  Lucy had a lot of fun reading the directions herself and cooking it with only minor assistance from me.  She even tried the asparagus!  

One of the biggest milestones Lucy achieved this past month was spelling her first words.  She has been practicing her letters all month with little involvement from me and has been able to write her name for a couple of weeks now too.  Aunt Jenna was over the other day watching Lucy's new found skills with letter writing and got the idea of putting the letters together.  It became a game for us to figure out words Lucy could write with the twelve or so letters she knows.  We call it our Preschool Version of Words with Friends.  Here are the first two words that Lucy put together using the letters she knows how to write.  She was so proud!

The biggest thing Lucy is proud of this past month however, was making her first purchase with her own money at the store.  Every time she fills up her apple tree (think reusable sticker chart) she now gets three dollars.  The first couple of times she earned the money, she spent it on little things like stickers and would pay us back when we got home.  Will and I decided that it was time for her to learn the fine art of saving her money, and working towards a bigger goal.  Lucy decided she wanted to save up for something for her baby dolls and when a baby doll carrier at Target went on sale a couple of weeks ago, Lucy counted up her money and realized that she had enough.  She was so proud carrying her purse with her hard earned money in it, picking out the long awaited doll carrier at the store and holding her hand out while the cashier gave her the change back.

We are so proud of her too, and live for moments like this with our kids.  April is on track to be even busier, with both our girls birthdays coming up and a new and exciting garden project coming to fruition.  Stay tuned!

Easter Hope

I'm sure by now everyone has heard of the Catholic Church's new pope.  So far I have been pleasantly surprised by what Pope Francis has done in his short time as Father of the entire Catholic Church.  It doesn't hurt that he is a Jesuit, one of my favorite types of priests and the kind of university Will and I attended as well.  But the fact that he took one of my favorite saint's names - Francis, the patron saint of humility, simplicity and all creatures great and small - is also a plus in my book.  After hearing a quote by Pope Francis however, said during Holy Thursday mass at a juvenile detention center in Rome, I became one of his biggest fans.  He told the young adults gathered before him, "Don't lose hope, understand?  With hope you can always go on."  

To me, Easter is the holiday of hope.  After a long Michigan winter, Easter comes at a time of year when the first signs of spring fill me with hope and excitement.   I read somewhere (probably Facebook) that Christmas was God's promise to the world and Easter is the fulfillment.  Because Jesus died so that we may live forever with Him, I know that I will see Luke again.  Without death we could not have new life.  I honestly do not know how I would move on with living if I didn't have this amazing gift of hope to hold on to. When life gets difficult, it is human nature to despair.  But as Marilla from my favorite Anne of Green Gables books once told Anne, "To despair is to turn your back on God."  Easter is the reason I do not despair, and hope is the reason I can overcome difficulties and always move on.  

With that being said, here is our family's celebration of the Easter holiday.  We started out the festivities dying Easter eggs.  We used eggs from our very own chickens this year which made it even more special to us.  We were worried that the varying egg shell colors of browns and blues wouldn't dye well, but I think they actually resulted in even more vibrant colors than using the traditional white eggs. 

My brother, sister-in-law and niece Ellen took the girls to an Easter party at our church where the girls did crafts, an Easter egg hunt and a meet and greet with the Easter bunny.

As I wasn't there, I can only imagine through the pictures they photo streamed to us about how cute and exhausting it was to wrangle three girls all under the age of four through a maze of chocolate candy, plastic eggs and a giant bunny.  And knowing Emma, I can only guess that she is asking Aunt Jenna in the below picture for, "just one more" piece of candy with her cheeks still full from the last piece of candy she ate.

Easter morning dawned bright and early.  I woke up before the rest of the family to start breakfast.  The girls woke up just as I finished and we had a lovely morning finding Easter baskets and eating chocolate bunnies, cream cheese french toast casserole, sausage and fruit salad.

After breakfast we headed to church and enjoyed a beautiful Easter mass.  We sat by the choir as usual, since the girls can always be distracted from less than desirable behavior by pointing out the various instruments stationed nearby.  Here are the girls below posing for a picture in front of the grand piano before mass started.  We had to get there early to ensure a seat, and while we were waiting I whispered the story God Gave Us Easter to the girls, which the Easter bunny had put in Lucy's Easter basket.  This is my favorite children's Easter story as it does a great job explaining Easter even to an adult.  My favorite part of the book is when the Papa Bear in the story tells his little girl, "...sometimes we have to let go of one thing so we can move on to another."  During the sermon a little bit later, the priest quoted Pope Francis saying, "Keep hope.  Move forward always."  It was a very meaningful service and several times I had to fight back the tears.

When we came home we went on an Easter egg hunt around the yard.  The girls were having a hard time waiting all morning to do this, since the Easter bunny had left a clue on the bird feeder that they looked at while we ate breakfast.

It had just stopped raining, so it was a bit chilly and wet on the hunt, but the girls didn't seem to mind.

 

We then enjoyed a light lunch of hard boiled eggs and went down for naps.  After naps we packed up the car and headed to Will's Aunt Karen's house for Easter dinner.  On the way, we stopped by the cemetery to give Luke an Easter egg and wish our little guy a happy Easter in heaven.  Here are the girls below, each with a foot on Luke's footprints that are engraved in his headstone.

We had a wonderful time at the Timmerman's for Easter and the girls enjoyed another Easter egg hunt.  Will and I were super happy to see that the plastic eggs were filled with coins and not candy.  Thank you Aunt Karen!

The girls were also happy to celebrate their birthdays and received many wonderful presents from their Timmerman Aunts.  They loved their gifts so much, they slept with them next to their beds that night.

This was our fourth Easter with Lucy and our third Easter with Emma.  Celebrating with my children has helped me to take pause and delve deeper into the true meaning of the day in order to best represent it to Lucy and Emma.  It is both challenging and amazing to me as I figure out how to explain every detail of each tradition in as basic a way as possible.  This has made the day more meaningful for me as I now experience it through the eyes of my children, my greatest hopes on earth!

I wish you a Hope-Filled Easter!