Sara's Birthday Party

For Sara's first birthday, we decided to have a small family party. Just to make sure she got to enjoy it, we started out with cake and ice cream. I made Sara her very own strawberry cake (small, but WAY more than she could eat). She didn't even know what goodness awaited her, but she was ready!


And boy did she enjoy it! No playing around for her. She got right in and ate up that yummy goodness.



And then we opened some presents. Daddy (and Nathan) helped her get into each one. She received some great toys and some beautiful clothes.


After the festivities, we had lunch and everyone enjoyed just hanging out. Since we had a small crowd, I decided to put up pictures of Sara with everybody. Enjoy!

a Caroline update

What to write about Caroline? She's my girl. Very much girl. But not over the top. She loves purple. Really. Loves. Purple. Have you seen her clothes drawer? Purple. And if it's not purple, it's unloved. If it's not purple, it only gets worn if she can't find purple. And since she dresses herself completely, I can't complain. But I do have to remind her sometimes that there is, in fact, something she can wear in her drawer...it's just not purple. :)

Caroline loves her big brother and her little sister. Nathan entertains her and shows her how to play and she follows right along. Sara watches her and loves to laugh with her (and pull her hair). Caroline rarely plays by herself. She's usually in the room with somebody. Honestly, if she's by herself for very long I start wondering what she's up to. But often when she does play alone, I'll find her going through her play jewelry. She picks out the ones she likes best (the ones with elastic and beads) and will put most of them on...all at one time. I don't think I have a picture, but I'll try to get one soon.

She also likes to color. She still scribbles, but she scribbles mostly inside the lines of a picture. She does a little drawing, but it's not really her thing. She'd usually rather color a picture.

She loves to fill bags with things...jewelry, a collection of toys, a few things to go in the van...most anything. It's not unusual for her to come into the room and declare that she has things for some sort of event or pretend play...like a birthday party. I think birthday parties are her favorite.

Caroline is a talker. Of course, she can't get a word in edgewise when Nathan is around, but when she can... She uses her words very well. She has always picked up words and phrases quickly. She talks as well as most any adult. It's funny to me to be around kids her age who don't really talk all that much or have nearly the vocabulary that she does. She's been so different from Nathan in this area that it's been fun to watch it develop.

That's all that's coming to me at the moment. If I think of things later today or tomorrow, I'll add them here.

a Nathan update

I'm really going to try and get some updates out there to get caught up and then try and give some interesting info along the way. I hear you laughing. I said "try". But I know you would rather have little snippets than books to read. :)

When I think about what I should tell you about Nathan, one of the first things that comes to mind is his creativity. Maybe that's because I see this every time I sit down at the computer:


These are some flowers that Nathan made me. There are three in the cup. They're getting a bit floppy because they've been there for months. What you can't see is that they have stems and that there is paper colored black inside the cup to be dirt. Also notice that he made me a watering can to use to water them. And a couple times a week Nathan comes and tells me that my flowers need water and then he waters them for me. :) It makes me smile.

But there are also many other examples of his creativity. Here is a computer that he made me one day at downtime. It actually has all the letters but one. Apparently it got lost along the way and he didn't realize it.

And here is one of my birthday presents. As you can read, it's a Plane Making Set. Inside are a few sheets of paper and some markers and a pencil to decorate the planes. The thing that stands out to me, though, is that he tore the bottoms off of two crayon boxes and then attached the two boxes so that it would be big enough for the markers and pencil to fit. If he wants to make something, he finds a way.


If you haven't been to our house, you may wonder where Nathan gets materials. Well, he has a "recycling box" where he keeps all sorts of things...plastic bottles, toilet paper rolls, cereal boxes, etc. And I think he could make most anything out of those things and a little tape or glue. Every once in a while, I'll clean out the box and only leave a few things. It doesn't take long for it to fill back up, though. He even has a helper in Caroline. She'll regularly ask me if she can keep something to put in Nathan's Recycling Box. She reaps some benefits as well. Nathan has recently made her a computer (completely different than mine) and a cash register complete with scanner and money. You just never know what he's gonna come up with.

Nathan has been enjoying school. Mostly he enjoys getting to play and have snack. Really. If I didn't push for more, that would be the school report daily...what happened when they played (either on the playground or at P.E.) and what they had for snack. I think he's going to miss his friends when we homeschool next year, but I think he's going to enjoy the learning part more.

He still loves to read. He reports all kinds of things to me regularly. "Mommy, did you know that Vitamin So-and-So is good for Such-and-Such?" "Mommy, Such-and-Such animal does This." Or he'll just come out with a piece of information and I'll wonder where it came from. It's usually something he read and it often comes from his "My First Encyclopedia" book that Nana gave him or his "501 Science Experiments" book that Zac gave him or the "Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia" that was mine as a kid.

He also asks lots of questions. Unfortunately, his thirst for knowledge is starting to outpace my ability to answer. I'm having to resort to "ask Daddy" or "we can look it up online" more and more often these days. And I think I'm going to teach HIM next year? :) I'll just be facilitating his learning. He could probably teach me quite a few things.

Nathan is a great big brother. He still loves to take care of his sisters...especially Caroline (since Sara's not old enough for some of these things yet). He regularly makes crafts for Caroline at church or brings her candy or part of his snack. They don't always get along, but they are big play buddies! At times, though, we're having to remind him that he's not her parent and that he can't tell her what to do all the time.

I guess that's the major stuff about Nathan. I'll try to pick up some of the smaller details along the way.

I thought of one more while writing the Caroline update. Nathan loves hymns. And he never picks the "normal" ones that a kid might pick up. His favorite song for a long time was "A Shelter in the Time of Storm" and most recently it's "The Lily of the Valley". He also really likes "Victory in Jesus".

a Sara update

(Just to give myself a little credit...I started this post back on the 11th...just before everyone started getting sick.)

I knew it had been a while since I last WROTE an update. I looked back and it has really been forever. What a slack Mommy! So, I'm going to attempt to get some written updates done today. I'm starting with Sara since she's the one with the most changes - you know, the whole baby thing.

The thing that stands out to me the most about Sara is how expressive she is. She is a communicator. She has always verbalized more than the other two did, but she is now really good at actual communication. She has no problem letting you know when she's happy about something or upset about something. She's a good fit pitcher (yeah, so, I made that up...but you know what I mean). :) There are two words that she says often enough that I would say that she actually knows them - Mama and no. There are others that I think she might be saying, but I'm always hesitant to add anything until it's used obviously and consistently. She also makes it very clear when she wants to nurse. She'll make a specific sound and beat on my chest. So funny. One day, she even beat on her own chest to tell me because Matt was holding her at the time. She is definitely a jabberer. I think Sara will end up being an early talker. Oh...I almost forgot. Sara points. That is one major way that she communicates. If she wants something, she points at it. The pointing is often accompanied by some sort of sound indicating that she wants "that".

Sara is still eating homemade baby food (well, now that it took me 2 weeks to finish this post, we're basically out), but we are adding more and more table food. Lately, she has been very hungry. A couple weeks back, we semi-unintentionally dropped two nursing times so that we were down to three. However, she was still wanting to nurse. At first, I thought it was just the routine that she was missing, but eventually we decided that she was legitimately hungry. I guess she just wasn't getting enough of the solid food to make up for it. So, we're back to five feedings at the moment. I still hope to quit nursing before too long (so I can really get on losing some weight). Sara is a good eater. She'll eat most any of the baby food. She has developed more of an opinion about that, though. And she has a definite opinion on what table foods she prefers. Her favorite is probably bread.

Sara is always on the move. She loves to play around Nathan and Caroline. She especially likes it when Nathan actually plays with her. Peek-a-boo is still one of her favorite games. She also loves to Pat-a-Cake. She hasn't started walking on her own yet, but she does love to walk holding hands (or just one). She's pretty good at it but isn't ready to step out on her own much. She has taken a couple steps on her own (the first was on February 20th) and most often does it for Daddy. She is standing on her own more these days. I'm not sure that she realizes it, though, most of the time. This has also changed since I originally wrote this. She stands on her own a good bit now. She still doesn't take off walking on her own, but we can get her to walk to us if she's only about 4 or 5 steps away.

In the last couple weeks, Sara has taken a liking to the baby dolls around here. She holds them and cuddles them and pokes their eyes out. She also likes the dogs and the monkey. This week, she is also a fan of Caroline's blankets. And Caroline has been so sweet to share her special purple polka dotted blanket with Sara. She's also a fan of buttons. She loves the buttons on my clothes. I haven't noticed her playing with tags like the other two did, but she definitely likes buttons.

Sara is good at helping us dress her. Specifically, she puts her arms in without too much prompting. She also helps some with her pants. For a while, she would wiggle her legs all around when I went to put pants on. She thought it was a fun game to make Mommy have to catch her legs to get them in the pants. She also knows that after we take her arms out the next step is to take the shirt over her head. Sometimes she'll go to help. She loves playing with socks...not wearing them...but playing with them. If she can get her shoes and socks off her feet, she probably will.

Unlike her brother and sister, Sara is not a good sick baby. As soon as her nose starts to run she gets fussier and clingy. Needless to say, the last couple weeks have taken a little extra patience.

When it comes to toys, Sara's favorites are things that have buttons that play music. She loves to dance! She also likes to carry around (and chew on) things that are long and skinny. Most often, that is one (or two or three) of the pegs from the toy where you hammer them through the holes. It's so funny what kids pick as "favorites". As I mentioned earlier, she also loves the dolls and animals and excitedly hugs them when we hand them to her.

If she can get her hands on laundry (which is generally laying around somewhere), Sara likes to go through them one by one and throw them on the floor. The only thing that usually stops this practice is finding a few socks. She also wreaks havoc by getting into the DVD cabinet area. She knows she's not allowed to play in there, though, because she'll jump if I come around the corner.

Ok. I think that gets us pretty updated on Sara. If I missed something that you thought about, let me know and I'll update the post.

snow...snow...lots of snow...

On February 12th, it snowed. It really snowed. It is rare for us to get snow at all. It is VERY rare for us to get a bunch of snow. I took tons of pictures while the kids played. So...here are a few (bunch) of the tons. :)

The kids couldn't wait to get outside, so after it had snowed a bit, I let them head out to the back yard.


They built this pile (which ended up a good bit larger than it is shown) and it was the last thing to melt.


After supper we headed out front to enjoy lots more snow. But first, Mommy had to get a picture.


Grandma and Granddad came over to play in the snow at Nathan's request. They couldn't stay too long, though, because the roads were starting to be covered.


Sara got her first experience with snow. I'm not sure she knew what to think of it.


And here are all three kids in the nice clean snow. Notice the road behind them. Ack!


Caroline built a snowlady with a little help. Nathan also built one (a snowMAN), but I didn't get a picture for some reason.


Later, we went next door to see our neighbors, The Crenshaws.


And Caroline ate snow.


Nathan thought it would be a good idea to throw snow into the bird bath so the birds would have some water.


And Caroline ate snow.


Nathan ate some as well.


Mrs. Crenshaw gave me suckers for the kids to put in their snowpeople, but I forgot. After they were in bed, I went out and gave the snowpeople their suckers.


Oh look. Here's Nathan's snowman. As you can see, he wasn't too worried about perfection.


The next morning, we headed out to play some more before the sun melted the snow.


The snowpeople had eaten up their suckers overnight. Don't worry, though, Caroline found them and promptly set about eating them. When she was finished, she started digging around in her snowlady to see if she could find another one.


And then she ate snow.


Nathan and Caroline played birds. Here they are taking a nap.


And along the way, several snow angels were made by both Nathan and Caroline.


This one was the best of the lot.


Oh yeah...and Mommy and Daddy were there, too.

quick February in pictures

So...here's a quick rundown in pictures of our February.

Granddad retired.


Caroline built cubes all on her own. I think it's pretty impressive.


Sara smiled for the camera.


Caroline rode around on Nathan like he was a horse.


Nathan had a Cinderella Ball at school.


It snowed...a bunch. (Another post on this to come.)


Nathan smiled for the camera.


Sara got pink eye (and so did Caroline later).


We started brushing Sara's teeth.


Nathan and Caroline picked lettuce leaves from the garden (left overs from last year), had Mommy wash them off, and then they ate them. Whose children are these eating leaves???


And one video...It's not the greatest, but I did manage to catch Sara doing the "Roll" part of Pat-a-cake one day. Yes, I know that we don't do it "right", but this is the way I did it growing up.

Happy Birthday Sara!!

Happy Birthday to our sweet baby, Sara!