Ella Hope. You are 4!  You have grown leaps and bounds this year, literally and figuratively.  You are mere inches shorter than Jack, and I think you might weigh more, because you are solid and all muscle!  You are beautiful and have the best smile around! You keep a tan better than any other member of our family.  You love your brothers, but you are partial to Jack. He’s your best friend, and y’all talk about getting married often haha!  Olli thinks you hung the moon and tries to get your attention every chance he gets. I pray the three of you will always be sweet friends. You are adventurous and daring but still anxious about new things until you figure them out. And then when you do? Look out world!  You are smart, but you like to pretend you’re perplexed often.  You love to pretend, and you love to sing. Watching you create crazy buildings with legos and seeing you take care of your babies and hearing you sing worship s...

Yesterday, Ella turned 3 1/2.  My cough has been pretty terrible, and attempting asking a bunch of questions to a toddler sounded less than fun.  So, I didn't. But I didn't want it to get too far away and me forget, so I decided to do it right after breakfast today.  This is last year's interview .  What a HUGE difference! I miss her tiny voice, but I love how verbal she is now.  For the most part, she speaks clearly, and she expresses herself well.  We love listening to her sing and pretend with her baby and other dolls.

I've seen a few FB posts recently regarding grandparents and their lack of engaging in playtime with their grandkids. Here are my thoughts on the subject as it pertains to my children:  I won't ever expect you to "play" with my kids. Even if you are their grandparent, their uncle, their aunt, their neighbor. If you found freedom in what you just read, good! Please don't ever feel obligated to plop down on the floor and build cities out of legos with them or make a pretend cake in their kitchen. Don't feel like you must go on a bear hunt in the backyard or that you need to imagine that their jungle gym is a zoo and they are the monkeys and you are the zookeeper. Some adults love to pretend with kids. Most don't. And, that's okay! Feel free to say, "no thank you. But I sure do enjoy watching you!" I don't like to pretend.  The Husband doesn't like to.  We do imagine with them occasionally, but it's usually to get...

I told a sweet friend recently that I'd like to eventually write about our daily routine for me to look back on.  That day appears to be today since I had nothing else of value to write about. I'm sure it won't be super exciting for anyone to read, but here goes! (This is our routine every day; although Sunday is just a little different in the mornings due to church).       We do basically the same thing every day.  I once read that kids thrive on consistency and routine (which I witnessed in my 8 years of teaching many different grade levels), so I knew I wanted to give my own kids as much consistency and structure as I could.  My kids know what our days entail, and they can tell you "what comes next," haha. There's security in knowing what to expect, and our days don't hold a lot of surprises.  But when a surprise happens, it's an exciting day, for sure! ~~~~ Oliver typically wakes around 7:00, so I get him up and nurse him.  He and I spe...

Happy birthday, Ella Hope! We celebrated with mugcake and fruit for breakfast at your request.  We had lunch with two of your favorite people and had a laid-back afternoon of watching The Lorax (which you throughly enjoyed) and playing outside (which you also enjoyed).   You and I stayed up later than the boys reading book after book. "One more book, Mommy" is your mantra each night, and I usually give in because this time of the day is the only time that you and I have one-on-one togetherness. And I like to soak it all up.  You are a jewel with a few rough edges that God is smoothing out each new year of your life. You are dramatic and gentle.  You are imaginative and loving.  You are a fighter and a dreamer. You love those around you fiercely and you declare your love boldly.  You make me smile one moment and want to scream in the next.  You are crazy and wonderful and girly and tom-boyish all in one little package wr...

Two weeks ago, I had an ARD meeting about Jack's progress with speech. He's been going twice a week for thirty minutes since September. He loves his sweet teacher, and he has made so much progress that he no longer qualifies for assistance. Here he is with his teacher last September.    And, here they are today. He hasn't been back in a couple of weeks, but we wanted to take her a small gift to thank her for all of her help and to say "goodbye!"     Jack asked her to eat his favorite bar 😂. He was only slightly disappointed she didn't rip right into that sucker and chow down like he does hahaha! Anyway, we are very thankful for her and wish her all the best!  I'm thankful for Jack's improved speech, too.  ~~~~~ While I was out running errands this morning, I picked up a three-pack of spray bottles. The kids have had the best time playing with theirs this afternoon.  I'm thankful for inexpensive fun.      ~~~~~ ...