2nd and 3rd Birthday Party

My sweet babies are growing up!  Ethan and Madison had their second and third Birthday party last night. I did a monkey themed party for them since I always call them my two little monkeys :)  I did much of the party preparation late at night, and made sure to hide it all from the kids!  Jon took the kids out to get some Chic-fil-a chicken fingers right before the party, and that is when I ran around putting all my decorations up and putting the cupcakes and food out.  It was so fun to reveal the monkey wall decal since my son had been asking for days what was behind all the construction paper on the wall.  I had taped the paper all over the wall to hide it!  We had some friends/church family over, and it was truly a special memory for the kids and Jon and I.  The kids tore into presents, and then played with their special friends Elizabeth and Natalie until LATE that night.  I think they were high on sugar!  I had so much fun planning and making this yellow, green, and brown monkey themed party!  It was all done very inexpensively.  I was excited about finding the wall decal for 10 dollars, and plastic monkey cups with straws for a dollar! 

I had fun making jello jiggler bananas with a heart and round shaped cookie cutter. The jam jars and votive candle holders had ice cream toppings for bannana splits!  I did the pinterest idea and scooped the ice cream ahead of time into cupcake liners and pan.

I was a little sad that I misplaced my matching paper cupcake holders, and had to use red and white one's.  Oh Well!

Cut and framed the kids b-day invitation

A few years ago my Mom bought me a cricut.  It has really come in handy for signs and bulletin boards!!!

The bananas were not brown the day of the party :)

I know I say this a lot, but I am so thankful to the Lord for blessing me and giving me the gift of motherhood. Sometimes I have to gulp back my emotions cause my heart is so full of the joy of having little munchkins to tuck in to bed at night, dress up, read to, love, and laugh with. God is good! Diapers and bottles, messiness and toys around the house, smudges and fingerprints all over the furniture/glass, and disciplining for bad behavior are nothing compared to the AMAZING treasures God has bestowed on me in the hearts and lives of my 3 little children.  I pray that God will use them for HIS glory.

Now that I am done with 2 leg surgeries, church projects, and planning a b-day party I am going to start packing the family up to go be with my parents and my bro. and families for Christmas in AZ! I guess a busy life ='s NO blogging!!!  Hopefully I can start the new year afresh, and keep track/blog about what the kiddos and I are doing.  BTW-Merry Christmas from Jon, Amber, Ethan, Madison, and Emily!!! I hope you will have a wonderful Christmas celebrating Christ's birth!

Fall 2011

Ethan liked the brighter colors of his sisters glasses, and Madison liked the boyish glasses :(  Oh well!

The kids love swinging and swinging and swinging!

Sunglasses are so much cooler when they are upside down :)

We got 3 rolling bikes/toys for a bargain price of $6.  Thankful for craigslist!

Every child ought to have the experience of playing in the ditch at least once in their life!

Playing in the playhouse with me.  I was so thankful for the warmth of the playhouse on that cold day!

I haven't had the time to keep up with blogging since my 3rd little blessing arrived 6 months ago!  Funny how with the first child there was so much time for extra things and making sure Ethan was completely fussed over :)  With the second it took a little more effort, but having a girl to dress up just made it so easy and fun!  With two little one's I still found myself able to make time to be involved in extra things, and do some hobbies that I love.  Now with having a 3rd child I'm doing great just to get all 3 of my kids out of pajamas and into clothes every morning-ha!!!  Busy seems like an understatement!  Many mornings when I look back at what has been accomplished it is just changing 3 diapers, feeding 3 children, putting clothes on, and cleaning up the mess.  Sometimes I'll look at the clock after that has all been accomplished and it's already 10:00 a.m.  By that time the kids are ready for another snack, round of diapers, etc.  Having 3 under three has been fun, challenging, and a little chaotic!  However I am so blessed to be doing my childhood dream: being a wife and mother.  I wouldn't change a thing.  I believe it is truly the highest calling a woman can have.  As a child I was addicted to "playing house" and being a mommy to all my little dolls.  I would line the dolls up in their crib feed them, dress them, read to them, and teach them by giving them my homework papers :)  Now that I am a mom (for real this time!) I realize there is much more to motherhood: prayer, responsibility to train/teach my children, discipline, sacrifice, and effort.   Yet,  I am thankful for those things. When I am obedient to God's calling in my life I am blessed with the joy of seeing and reaping the rewards, blessings, and answers to prayer in the small everyday achievements of my children.   There is just nothing more rewarding than that!  I am also thankful that I get to do what I've always desired doing.  My full-time career is being a mom, and I love it!  When I stop to think about my life (and I don't think of my sheer exhaustion!) I feel extremely blessed.  Being a mom of 3 is just right for me :)  After having my first child I wondered if I would be able to have that same deep love for every child.  I remember my mom telling me how that love just grows and spreads for each child you have.  It is so true!  Each one of my children are so special to me, and I love each one of them for their own uniqueness.  I am reminded of the song "Count Your Many Blessings".  When I name my blessings the names Jon, Ethan, Madison, and Emily are always in them!

The Girls

2 Little Girls

are 2 Much Fun!

Madison adores her baby sis.  She gets the bottle for her, and loves on her throughout the day.

Happy, happy girls!

Madison at 21 months and Emily at 5 months

 

 

 

Ethan Entertaining Baby

This was taken this morning.  Ethan has always loved music.  He likes acting out the drama of the classical music on Emily's saucer.  He usually closes his eyes, and many times his whole body is in rhythm with the music.   

Ethan's 34 Month Progress Report

There are so MANY things I could say about this boy!  He is starting to come up with his own kind of pretend play now.  He constantly goes around saying VERY loudly, "March, march, march, march, march!"  He says it with a strong voice, and he marches with a thump, thump, thump! He marches all over inside the house and outside!  I have NO idea where he got this from, but it might have come from "I May Never March in the Infantry" since he really likes that song.  Madison has now started chiming in, and marching with him.  I really need to get it on video!

A couple months ago Ethan found a Mr. Patato head piece that belongs to one of his toys.  Apparently it is an eye patch that goes around the head of Mr. Patato head.  He has worn it on his wrist every day since he found it.  He calls it his "bray", short for bracelet.  I admit I was not thrilled with that "bray" on his wrist, but since he is 2 I didn't see a lot of harm in it.  He can get fixated/stuck on certain things, and that "bray" is one of them.  He wears it ALL the time, and he even sleeps with it on.  He has gone through this with other things as well.  His baseball hat fetish lasted a month or more, and he slept with it on, and wore it constantly.   The hat came off for bath time, but it was back on immediately after bath time.  I tried NOT to think about how he had been playing and sweating in it outside.  The sun glass faze lasted for a long time until he accidentally broke his sunglasses.  Anyway, these "attachments" are sometimes difficult to get him over.

He LOVES this pillow slip that Grandma made him!

I wanted to try a positive way to help Ethan get rid of that "bray" of his, and give him something fun to replace it with.  While the family was at Target one day we bought him a fun kids watch, and then (of course) we ended up buying one for Maddie too.--I'm just a big softy sometimes!  And "no" we do not buy 2 of everything although there are many days I really wish we did!  Back to my story: I'm not sure I can even explain how it happened, but Ethan now has a watch on one wrist and that "bray" on the other.  We do not allow him to wear his "bray" to church or when we go out to the store, and he is totally okay with that since he knows right where he put it on the book case.  He makes a point of putting it up on the shelf that Madison can not reach!  If I put it on a lower shelf he will make SURE to put it up where it will be safe from his sneaky sister :)   Although Madison really liked her watch at first she doesn't LOVE it like Ethan.  Many times through these past few weeks I have seen Ethan find her watch somewhere and bring it to her.  She doesn't always appreciate his thoughtfulness, and doesn't care about wearing her watch 24/7 like he does.  But as Ethan's mom I know what a sweet gesture it is for him.  He just wants to make sure she has what he "cherishes" and thinks is special.  Those thoughtful gestures are something that Ethan does all the time.  I am truly amazed at how thoughtful, caring, and kind he can be.  He has a selfish side just like any 2 year old, but the majority of the time he is looking out for his sisters, and he wants to make sure that they are taken care of.  I pray that God will use that strength of his for the Lord.

Potty training:  What can I say?!  He just hasn't figured it out yet!  We are working on it, but I know there is no magical age for a child to be potty trained.  Every child is different so I am not stressing out about it.  I will keep working with him on it, but I'm not going to force it.  Some things are just like a light switch, and I've seen that in my 1 year old Madison who is already starting to potty on the chair.

I laughed when I first saw Ethan doing this!  Love the creativeness.

Coloring, finger painting, and chalk:  This boy has learned to get his hands dirty!!!  I was so happy to see him going "all out" in finger painting when we made a Welcome sign for the grandparents.  It is so fun watching all those bright colors turn gray as they get mixed together!  He is learning to use chalk on the side walk too.  The dry erase crayons are now a favorite of both of my kids.  Got to love those dry erase books!  I feel as though I've erased those pages a hundred times :)

Ethan likes to put all of his toys in order.  He has done this since he was a baby!

Counting, shapes, and colors:  I have to admit I need to work more with him on these.  He has a pretty good grasp on colors.  He knows some shapes like heart, star, and so on, but I haven't worked on the rectangle and some of the others that I know he'll understand better once he is a little older.  Right now I can only get him to count to 2, but he has counted much farther.  It is hard for him to say 3 so he just keeps repeating 1,2,1,2.  And he absolutely loves to say his 1,2.  He counts the salt and pepper shakers, the sippy cups, and anything and everything gets counted in his drawn out counting voice! He knows his primary colors and blue seems to be his favorite right now. Orange is the runner up.

Lots of energy and enthusiasm

Bible songs and stories:  This probably should have come first in my list since it is the most important.  He loves the Bible action songs, and requests certain ones by giving me a hand sign for it.  He does the sign for praying for "Read your Bible pray every day", he uses his 2 fingers to sign the "wee" little man for the song Zacheus, etc.  If he tries to tell us a song that we don't understand than we ask for the action to help us figure out what song he is asking for.  He is getting better with talking (at least I am understanding more of what he says), but really struggles with certain letters and sounds.  Ethan has learned to sit still through Bible story books now.  I can tell he is growing up!  Unfortunately, sitting still and being quiet through an hour long church service is still a huge struggle.  We have been trying since he turned two (10 months now), and it is still a learning process for him.

Ethan, I love you!

Chalk on the sidewalk

Imitation is the best form of Flattery :)  

I love being a SAHM!  I thank the Lord for the time I have with my kids while they are young.  Just wish they weren't growing up so fast!      

The Playhouse

God is ALWAYS good!

Jon and I feel extremely blessed by the Lord to have a new playhouse for the kids.  Jon's dad is so talented.  He looked at a picture of a playhouse we liked, and was able to figure out everything down to bolts, screws, measurements, and lumber to create its likeness.  Building a playhouse for our kids was his idea, and we absolutely love our kids doing lots of playing outside. Jon's dad did a real "labor of love" for our kids, and we are so thankful for it.  We are also thankful for our Pastor who came over and helped put the roof on, made the fabulous stairs, and lent us some of his tools.  

Ethan playing with leftover blocks from the playhouse.

Taken in middle of blessing our food.  I see someone's eyes are open!

Eating in the playhouse.

Taken from the porch looking in.

Weird pic. I know, but I LOVE these rails!

My Sweetheart!

These two are like twins in SO many ways!

The slide will be on the opposite end of where the stairs are.

Jon's dad spent his week of vacation making this "masterpiece" while Jon's Mom watched our kids, and Jon and I went on our first cruise.  (Jon won the free cruise from work.)  BTW, it was not so easy for me to leave my children, especially my 5 month old!  I just felt weird and not quite whole to be without my children.  But Jon and I had a wonderful time together.  It was nice to just sit down and talk without any interruptions!  However both Jon and I were SO glad to see our little munchkins when we got home!

Wow!  I had no idea what a project this would be :)

Grandpa and the kiddos.

Grandma helped too!

Ethan LOVES the door!!!

Getting back to the subject: the kids have had fun in the play house, and have even eaten lunch up there.  One of these pictures I took while I was praying for our lunch.  It makes me chuckle because Madison's eyes are wide open while Ethan is sweetly bowing his head.  Guess we need to work a little more with Maddie on that!

The playhouse still needs to be primed and painted, some trim put around the windows, needs the slide, another swing, and the sand box put up underneath the house.  But, it is mostly finished, and we will add things to it as we can.  I am looking forward to adding laminated pics., little curtains, etc. to the interior as time goes by.  I was fortunate to have a tree house when I was growing up, and I remember all the hours of fun I had in it!  Being outside is so good for kids!