Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet,Baby Girls...

Megan and Hannah,


I know that your response to that title would be, "Mom, we're not babies. We're big girls like you." And truly you are. Today while you were eating daddy's blueberry pancakes, I kissed your daddy and told him that he'd better not blink because you might just be teenagers when he opened his eyes. You are growing up SO fast. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating your first birthdays, when you started walking and your first sentences. Now you are three, you can count in Spanish, say the Pledge of Allegiance and run circles around me!



Megan, you have really blossomed this year. You've learned how to exhibit a full range of emotions and yet you've come so far in the self control you show. You still LOVE to read and have developed a passion for singing. You make everything a song, creating or editing your own lyrics in a way that usually teases your sister. Just tonight in the tub you were singing, "My daddy's so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my daddy can't do." While that song is suppose to be about you heavenly Father it is a reflection of your love for your daddy. This year you have amazed us with your interest in God and what He has created. You have a true appreciation for what He has blessed us with. In the last 3 months you have become very interested in cooking and baking. Always looking over my shoulder and asking how to make something, wanting to help prepare and patiently waiting to taste it for me. You are a sweet and affectionate little lady who is always asking questions, offering hugs and puckering up for a kiss. You delight in the color blue, playing on the computer, doing puzzles and playing games. The shy little girl who turned two a year ago is now a funny, smart and a very delightful three year old girl. I love you Mae Mae!

Hannah, oh my silly little Hannay Nanny. You make us laugh all the time, often when we shouldn't be. Not a thing slips by you-and every time you bust us! You love all things girly and would live in dress up clothes if we let you. You create the most colorful and crazy outfits and are often dress up your sisters too. You have appointed yourself as my personal assistant and when I forget to stay on top of things, you take charge for me. You love to help in anyway possible and often times you read my mind with I need help with. You too have grown up a lot this year. School is your passion. You have an amazing capacity to memorize and learn. The other day you took out a book and started "reading" it to Kate. I was amazed at how natural it came to you. Crafts are your passion but you love to be active and moving. I remember as a baby, not matter how tired you were as we fed you a bottle, there was always some part of your body still moving. And if we held it down, something else would start to move. You are a happy, witty and very smart little lady. Hannah, your smile lights up the room but yet your heart is so tender. I pray that your desire to please us matures into a desire to please your heavenly father this year as you learn more about Him.

We pray that your love of school, song, spelling and the Savior continue to grow as you do this year. We are so proud of you both and are amazed at what a priceless gift God gave to us in you. We can't wait to watch you grow and change this year!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Where the heck have we been?

The answer is very simple...here and here, we have hardly left the house because it has been so stinking cold. We are still trying to get back to life as normal after the holidays but it still seems so crazy. Since Christmas the girls have been counting down the days until their birthday. They can hardly contain themselves. I will post more on that after the big day.

We were very happy and surprised to be able to spend some "way too over due" time with some of our college friends. The J family came up from OH to see us and well...the S family couldn't be left out so we let them come down to see us all. Here are some pics from that day.

Whe whole gang from L to R. Hannah, Charlie J, Megan, Annie, Kate and little Addison in front.

Kate and her buddy Addison taking turns with the princess hat.

The girls have enjoyed their time back at the gym childcare because they get to do all of the fun things that I never let them do at home (ie glue, glitter, buttons and cotton), they are also learning to count in Spanish and tell the weather. This week was their first day back at BSF and they couldn't have been more excited. Meg even got to be the leader for day-which meant being first in line, carrying the flag for the pledge and their march around the room, and distributing the hand sanitizer at snack time. Oh boy!!!

This morning we were out bright and early for a 15 month checkup for Kate. The doc said all looked good with development but her left ear was infected. That might explain why she has been such a bear the last few days. But there weren't any other signs.

I caught Kate sleeping like her daddy. Even the camera didn't wake her up.

Her stats:

Height 32 3/4 inches (98th %)

Weight 22 pounds 11 oz (49th %)

Head is in the 25%

A funny Meganism today. The girls often refer to Charlie's office as his home. I don't know why because they know he sleeps at our house but nonetheless. So Megan and I have this conversation on the way to the doctor:

Meg: Mom, when the toy store closes downtown, can we move our house there so it can be by daddy's house?

Me: Sure Meg, that would be fun.

Meg: How will we fit our house in the car?

Me: I don't know how Meg, I don't think it would fit, we'd just have to move all of our stuff.

Meg: Ok.

Grandma came over to help me pass some time the other day. We made my favorite "spritz cookies" since we ran out of time at Christmas. But instead of Christmas trees we made butterflies and hearts.

Hannah decorating her cookies. Our rule is the more the red hots the better!

So there you have it. We're moving into a toy store when it closes. And with this economy, that could be sooner then later. I've always wanted to live downtown.

We're back in full force

As promised...here are our family pics from Christmas. I still haven't gotten any from my sister (any time now Ab).

This is our girls riding their "Daddy Horse." Kate has now joined the ranks of riding with the big girls and couldn't be happier on her first ride. Occasionally this horse gets a little crazy and turns into a wild horse. That is why the riders are holding on so tightly.

Hannah, Meg and Kate in front of our tree in their Christmas dresses from Grandma Linda. Aren't they just precious?

I know that we are long overdue for a blog update and I am not really even sure where to start. The month of December flew by. It started with a minor foot surgery for me thru which I wouldn't have survived without my mom and my Mr. Helpful, seriously. However, that set us behind in the Christmas shopping dept so I did most of my shopping in one fell swoop. The girls really enjoyed the Christmas season this year-from baking cookies, to decorating the house, finger painting a Christmas tree on the glass sliding door, putting up the tree and reading all of their Christmas books. The highlight of this time has to be opening gifts and really by the end of all of our Christmases, they were quite good at repeating the phrase, "I am waiting patiently, mom. I am waiting patiently mom." While waiting for their turn to open the next gift.

Here are Han and Meg hand/painting their Christmas tree on the slider.

Santa stopped by our neighborhood mid December. Hannah sat on his lap and so did Kate but she was not very happy about it. Meg wanted nothing to do with him!

We started off celebrating our small family Christmas with my mom on the Friday night before Christmas. It got bumped up a day to avoid traveling in the major snow storm that had begun a couple days before. The girls enjoyed their games, books, pj's and toys for a few minutes before we put them to bed. The next few hours were a mad dash to prepare a family of five + a dog for a week long vacation to two different locations. Saturday afternoon we had amazingly clear weather for our drive to Chicago to stay at Grandma Linda and Grandpa Bob's house.

Kate trying out her new ceramic cup from Aunt Kristen and Uncle David.

A big "thank you" to the daddyman for their pj's and books. A Christmas eve tradition from daddy in our home.

Sunday we had the opportunity to celebrate Christmas at Great Grandpa and Great Grandma L's house with Grandpa Charlie, Grandma Peggy, Uncle Wes, Miss Meggie, Great Uncle Bill and our Aunt Sonia. We were spoiled with a lot of camping gear for our future camping trips. The girls got very nice sleeping bags, marshmallow roasters, utensils and then some very fun rain gear (coats, umbrellas and rain boots). It was a whirlwind time-literally because the windchill was negative 30 degrees.

Meg opening her first gift from Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Peggy.

Hannah and Kate enjoying a story from Great Grandpa.

Hannah enjoying what you saw Meg opening up. A brand new sleeping bag for our camping trips. I think it will keep them warm down into the negatives.

Meg modeling her new rain coat and rain boots from U. Wes and Miss Meggie.

Monday dawned and began our 11 hour trek down to Kansas City to see my sister and her family. Again we were extremely fortunate to make it down there with clear roads and the kids did great in the car. We camped out in Ab and Brandon's basement in our new sleeping bags and had wonderfully homemade biscuits in the morning. After that we headed off to Great Wolf in KS city through some freezing rain. But no fear, after making it there safely we didn't need to leave at all except to drive just down the road to 30 nice restaurants for dinner. The kids had an absolute blast in the water park and just being together. By the end of our stay Meg had mastered the kiddie water slides and would have been happy moving in. Christmas morning we woke up at GW and headed back to Abby's for a nice homemade breakfast and to open up stockings before we headed up to Chicago. We must have had a tailwind because we made it Linda's in about 8 hours. Or maybe it was because not a place was open except Subway and we were really glad we packed some food for the trip because we really would have been up a creek had it not been for some foresight!

We nestled back into our home away from home and just took it easy for a few more days. We hit some sales, celebrated Christmas with Linda, Bob, Wes and Meggie again, played a lot of games, took some naps then celebrated more Christmases with the large W side of the family. We are so amazing blessed by our families, their unconditional love, support, care and fun. I am so happy that we got to see everyone this year. Except a piece of us was missing in CA but that hole was quickly filled knowing that we will be there in a couple of months to see the newest addition-We very much felt your absence and can't wait to see you-Carrie, Alex and Alicia!

Hannah opening High Ho Cherrio and an activity book.

Hannah and Meg opening their new dollhouse from Grandma Linda and Grandpa Bob.

Kate discovering her first baby doll from G & G.

The morning before we left I was extremely lucky to share a baby shower with my super great friends from HS. Karen's just one month away and those of us in town were able to share some time with her. I love these ladies and so wish we all saw each other more often. They are just so easy to be around, to laugh with and I miss them a ton. Hopefully Karen will have the first boy to join our 9 girls.

Then once again we were super excited to have clear roads and even some sunshine to drive home in. The girls slept most of the way, as did Rudy. The unpacking only took a couple of days but now everything has a place again. Little Mo got started running a fever on the way home but it never turned into anything and (knock on wood) the rest of us have remained healthy.

It was an amazing Christmas and I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for all of the lovely cards, Christmas presents, work at hosting my troop and love that you lavished on us. Charlie and I just keep saying how blessed we are-so undeserving of it but amazed at how the Lord reveals Himself to us through His body of believers.


Have a wonderful, safe and blessed New Year!!!