We Have a 2 Year Old On Our Hands!

Waaaaaaaaaaay back in October (seems like forever ago since today is December 1!), our middle blessing turned 2. It feels like she's been 2 all her life and now that she is actually 2, it seems like she should be 4! Time is flying and our sweet Lydia Mae has grown up tremendously in the past several months.

She potty trained herself sometime between when Sam was born and her birthday (following her big sisters footsteps almost exactly). She talks like she's 6 and has the funniest *spunky* personality, always making us laugh! While being incredibly challenging (and I mean INCREDIBLY) at times, she is also the most loving and snuggly little girl. She absolutely adores her baby brother and loves laying with him, holding him, and giving him lots of smooches.

This picture says it all:

Blowing out her 2 birthday candles

Opening presents the morning of her big day

Riding her new Plasma car with big sister

Our sweet handful of a girl (don't let that cute little grin fool you!)

Blue-eyed beauty (who was VERY tired after a VERY long day on her birthday)

My little 2nd born....don't you ever change! I love your adventurous personality and all your challenges. Although you sometimes bring out the worst in me, I know God put you in my life to help me become a better mother and person! I love you SO much, more than you'll ever know!

Summing Up Our Fall

So we've been a little busy since Samuel came into our family...a good busy of course! Here's a little recap of what we've been up to the last 3 1/2 months (forgive me if some of the pictures are out of order, I barely have enough time to do this as it is!)

Loving on this little cutie A LOT!

Playing outside in the beautiful weather on Halloween

Dressing up like Mermaids and Butterfly Princesses (this was on Halloween, but I assure you they dress this way even when they're not going door to door asking for candy!)

Having fun on a little mini-vacation to Huber's Orchard and Pumpkin Patch in Starlight, IN. We also visited the Louisville Zoo on this trip, but sadly I only took a picture of the elephants :(

Addie had her first flower girl gig in my cousin Kathryn's wedding! She loved every minute of it, being the princess that she is. Although she was the youngest out of the 4 flower girls, she was the tallest and it sure seemed like she had done this many, many times before!

I might add that she was the ONLY flower girl (out of 4) who participated well into the night at the reception! That girl didn't want to leave the dance floor. She asked me when we pulled up to our house LATE that night, "Mama, why did we stay there so late, I'm tired!" to which I replied..."Girl, you were having too much fun and wouldn't leave the dance floor!"

Visiting with some favorite cousins over Thanksgiving was WONDERFUL! Here is cousin Hannah with the princesses, Addie, Lydia, and Grace

Cousin Chase getting some giggles from Sam the man!

Samuel and Simon with their grandmas! These two cuties are only 2 months apart and it's going to be so much fun to see them play together when they're a little older!

Lovebirds....boy, they really do love each other SO much!

Lots of smoochin' going on around here!

Daddy made the girls a tire swing at Papaw Mike's house and they LOVE it! Especially the more adventurous one ;)

Way back in September, we visited TJ's orchard again to pick apples and pick out our pumpkin. Love that place!

Pickin' a Granny Smith :)

So with Christmas approaching quickly, I'm sure we'll stay just as busy preparing our hearts for the birth of our Lord and Savior. I have also tried to quickly catch up our Homeschool Blog if you'd like to see what ELSE keeps us busy!

Merry Christmas a little early from our family to yours!

It's About Time!

Introducing..........

Yes, I'm a little behind on my blogging and I can name three reasons why. I love them all more than life itself if that gives you any clue! If it's not obvious enough, we welcomed our very first little boy into the family WAAAAAAAAAAAYY back in August and it seems like he's been with us longer than that! He is WONDERFUL, to say the least.

Our last picture as a family of 4, right before leaving for the hospital!

Here's Sam's birth story:
I woke up very early Wednesday, August 18th with contractions and began timing them around 4 am since they seemed to be pretty regular. After timing several and realizing that they were not going to stop, I woke up Chris and told him that today would be the day! He decided he'd better go into work for a little while to get ahead on some things, knowing he would need to take a few days off. So he left for work around 5:30 and I tried to stay calm and stay in bed for a little longer and relax, but I was too excited. I couldn't do much, but I fiddled around on the computer and waited for the girls to wake up.....And when they did, I brought them both into my bed and snuggled and snuggled with them (and cried a little thinking about how this would be our last time snuggling, just the three of us). Chris came home around 8 or 9 after I had called the Dr's office and asked them if they wanted me to come in to be checked or just head straight to the hospital. They said to come straight to the hospital since this was my third baby and who knows how quickly things could go. At this point, my contractions were very regular around 5 min. apart and I was feeling fine.

My mom got here to stay with the girls around 10 or 11 (I honestly can't remember if this is even close to the right time but we'll just go with it!). I still didn't feel READY to go, so I just piddled around doing different little things to stay busy. All this time I was communicating with my best friend, Melissa, who is a labor/delivery nurse and she was trying to talk me into just going ahead and getting to the hospital....

On our way to the hospital, as I sat there in the car feeling JUST FINE, I thought we should run by the mall to pick up a going home outfit for this unknown baby. Chris was a little unsure about this idea, but he granted my wish and took me to Old Navy. As we walked into the mall, I remember saying "this might not last long" as I was feeling lots of pressure. We immediately found a bathroom for me and then quickly glanced in the newborn section at Old Navy until I realized we better get to the hospital. I headed to the bathroom yet again while Chris went on to pull the car up. People were looking at me like I was about to have a baby drop out of me...well, I was!

When we arrived at the hospital, I walked into triage and told the lady at the desk that I was there to have my baby today, with a huge smile on my face! I'm sure I didn't appear to be in labor. After giving her all of my information, she was informed that they did not have any rooms available in triage so she had to turn us away and encouraged me to stay at the hospital to walk. We tried that and I had to go in EVERY single bathroom and could hardly walk around without feeling like this baby was just going to fall out! So we went back to triage to see if they had anything open up and sure enough, they did not. Since I knew I was better off sitting, we hopped in the car and went to get a bite to eat. I took maybe one bite of my sandwich and just didn't feel like eating.

Then we headed back to triage yet again and she said they had an open room for me....And as we were sitting there giving her all my information AGAIN, an ambulance came in and they said that woman would need the room before me. Hmm, at this point I was ready to go outside, call an ambulance myself and have first dibs on the next open room. We waited. And finally they decided to place me in a regular labor/delivery room to have a nurse check me. If in fact I was in labor, I would stay in that room...and if I wasn't, who knows what they would have done with me! Sure enough, I was already 5 cm and IN LABOR, despite my calm (to them) appearance ;)

At last......I could relax a bit more knowing I wasn't going to have a baby in the triage waiting room or one of the many hospital bathrooms. So we waited....and waited....and had a visit from my wonderful Dr. who checked me and ruptured my water around 4:15ish. She lives only minutes from the hospital so she assured me she could run home real quick and be back in time to deliver our baby. It was all pretty quick after she broke my water and Dr. Leinenbach arrived back just in time for me to push our little man out in one contraction (I think it was 3 pushes to be exact). We were ALL so shocked that HE was a BOY!!! We had taken final guesses from everyone in the room right before and we all pretty much agreed HE would be a GIRL.

Just like I cried with JOY when Lydia was born because I was thrilled that Addie would have a sister, I cried for JOY knowing my girls would have a baby brother when Sam was born! I will admit that I felt a teeny tiny bit of fear in the unknown with having a boy, but let me just say.....that has all gone completely away and I am enjoying this little BOY to the fullest!

Our first photo as a family of 5!

So now everyone assumes we're done since we have three and especially because "we got our boy" (which we were never hoping strongly this baby would be, knowing we would have more!). God willing, we will have many more little blessings join our family.............

To My Big, Big Girl

My dearest first born, where do I begin? Let me just start by saying how blessed you make me feel each and every day...you are the reason I answer to "Mama," you have and always will be that little being that started my journey into this wonderful world of motherhood! Watching you grow and change from baby to little girl has been amazing so far and I am so proud of the little lady you've become in the last three and a half years! Wow, time is flying!

I will never forget the first time you became a big sister when Lydia was born. I was emotional then about how you might react to welcoming another little person into our family, but you took to it right away and have been the most amazing big sister! I still remember when you saw Lydia for the first time and you said (without ANY prompting!), "I love you, Lydia" and gave her the sweetest kiss on the cheek. You were 22 months old! That moment will forever be imprinted on my mind...and still today you show her love in the most special ways. Just today when you two were playing together in my bedroom (destroying my bed, but having a wonderful time) you said, "I love you so much, Lydia" and I just grinned my biggest grin from the living room :) Then of course moments later I hear, "Lydias, Lydias for sale, fifty cents a Lydia!" a reference from the book Caps for Sale!

You have a huge heart and are quick to help anyone in need, especially your sister. I love how you call her "sweetie pie," "babe," or "binkers" and pretend you are her mama...you are and always have been so mothering, loving on baby dolls and stuffed animals, even diapering them long before Lydia was even born. I know I can always count on you to run and get something for me if I need you to and you especially love to help with chores, something I know you might grow out of, but I hope not!

You are my cautious child, who never hesitates to ask permission to do something, even if you see your sister already doing it...whatever that may be. You don't like to be barefoot in the grass and you don't quite have the "carefree" personality your baby sister has. You can't stand having messy hands, your food can't touch and you always ask for separate eating utensils so you don't cross-contaminate during dinner ;) Although these things are funny to us, I love that about you! You've always had funny little quirks and it just keeps getting more and more interesting as you grow!

What a reader you are! You could sit and look at books or be read to practically ALL.DAY.LONG. if it were up to you. You love all kinds of books, but especially enjoy our Bible readings every night with Daddy. Even when it's really late, you will not allow us to skip a story! I KNOW without a doubt your love for reading is where you get your very strong vocabulary. One of our favorite things about you is your ability to use big words correctly...but the best is when you get them mixed up or use them in a different way. You're always asking if we can "attract" Lydia while you're trying to do something (meaning "distract"). Or when you add "able" to the end of words just to make them sound longer and more important. You're so serious about your pretend play too...like the other morning you came to me first thing and said in a troubled sounding voice, "Mama, my mushy dark cake calls for condensed milk and I don't wanna use condensed milk!" I reassured you it would be fine to just use regular milk if you had it...and then proceeded to die laughing on the inside :) If I could only record our whole day together...you say and do too many funny things for me to remember sometimes and that saddens me.

While you are a total Daddy's girl, I know that deep in your heart you have that special place for me. I remember way back right before Lydia was born, we would have our daily snuggle time right after you'd wake up from your nap...and how you still enjoy that now (when you nap anyway). I know everyone thinks Daddy is the "funny one" but I also know you get to experience seeing how funny and goofy I am throughout the day when no one else is around and that's our little secret ;) I love when you tell me you love me out of the blue and wrap your arms tightly around my neck. Never having been much of a snuggly baby or toddler, those moments are especially wonderful to me.

You're growing up too fast, my princess, but I suppose that is life and I'm happy to be able to witness it all--day in and day out. As you anxiously await the birth of your new baby brother or sister, may you feel the special love we have for you, our first born baby girl. This time around is going to be a totally different feeling for me as I watch you embrace our new baby for the first time, knowing your excitement and understanding of what being the big sister means.

My girl, WAY too grown up!

Who IS just as sweet as she looks....

The BEST big sister anyone could ask for....

Even if she is FULL of quirks and loves hats....

One precious little human being....

Mama loves you right up to the moon and back!

Baby #3 Maternity Pictures

Our good friend who has a photography business, Candid Xpressions by Leisa, took our very first maternity pictures last Sunday. I had actually never really considered doing this with either of my other pregnancies, but thought it would be fun to do with the girls included this time around. We had a great time taking these photos, although it was a struggle to get Lydia (who usually hugs and kisses my belly without prompting) to even TOUCH my belly. Leisa really captured the story of our family in these shots and we LOVE how they turned out!

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It's hard to believe we only have 5 more weeks (or less!) until we get to meet the newest member of our family. We are ALL very excited, especially Biggest Sister Addie :) She laid in bed with me this morning feeling the baby moving around as it awoke for almost a half hour. What a special time for both of us :) She asks me almost daily when the new baby will be coming out...and changes her mind on the gender just about every day also. She thinks it's a girl because she saw me do the wedding ring dangling over my belly test, which said girl...but then some days she says she wants a boy. If it's a boy, we'll name it Daddy--according to her ;)

To My Baby Girl

As the birth of your baby sister or brother approaches quickly, I am getting a little emotional about you, my current baby, becoming "the middle child." Precious Lydia, you have ALWAYS been a Mama's girl, even inside the womb it seemed....and I am expecting your little world to be rocked once this new little baby arrives. I want you to know how loved you are and always will be...and it'll be our little secret if you ALWAYS wanna be a Mama's girl :)

Although you have been a bit more "challenging" than your big sister ever was, I am trying to take in every last minute of you being our baby. Your personality is very strong and shines through in everything you do and say. You are funny...not just funny, but hilarious! Your daddy and I crack up laughing at you every single day. Not only are you funny, but you know you're funny. When we laugh at something you do or say, you say, "Mommy, funny?" and laugh at yourself too.

I love how you talk like a big girl and can put lots and lots of words together to make sentences and phrases. Just last night when we were getting ready for bed, you rushed back into the bathroom, got the brush down out of the cabinet and came back with it brushing your hair saying, "My hair messy!" even though we had just brushed it. One of your newer "Lydi-isms" is saying "minute" behind words. If you want me to hold you, you say "Mommy minute" or when we're getting dressed you say, "outside a minute?" as if you know we're dressing so we can go play outside. And if you want something someone else has, you might say "Lydi minute!" The fact that you call yourself "Lydi" because you can't manage to put that extra "a" on the end is the cutest thing ever! You DO sound just like your big sister when she was your age...even have the little attitude where you tilt your head and make a funny face when you're telling us something serious :) You are a HOOT!

You LOVE to sing and enjoy familiar songs like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "The ABC song," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Jesus Loves Me," and "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep." And boy do you like to sing those songs ALL BY YOURSELF. If anyone else tries to join you, you shake your whole arm and scold, "No sing, Mommy!" You FINALLY love books...it took a while for you to have the patience to sit down and actually read books, but now that you have discovered them you're in love. One of your favorites is "Old Hat, New Hat," a Berenstain Bears board book and you read it (with help) like a pro! You love the Bible too and your favorite story is "Baby Moses." I love how every single night you MUST find Moses before you can go to sleep.

You haven't ever been much of a "self soother" and love snuggle time with Mommy...and while this made the first nine months of your life a little hard, I have grown to love knowing you'll always be my cuddly child :) You LOVE having your back rubbed and request it when you're having trouble falling asleep at naptime...you'll say, "back rub please, Mommy!" and how can I say no to that!

You're rough and tough on the outside, always falling off chairs, scraping knees, and getting lots of boo boos. You insist on kissing those boo boos yourself, which is just too cute, especially if it's in a hard to reach spot :) And while you may be a tough girl, you're also very sensitive. You get your feelings hurt easily when you're sleepy and act VERY shy around people you don't know. People always mistaken you for our "quiet child" and we just laugh.

I know once the idea of a new baby settles in with you, you are going to be a WONDERFUL big sister! You are caring, sweet, and especially snuggly and this little one is going to be looking up to you as "it" grows and changes into a little person too...just as you look up to and adore Addie. We are all in for some big changes soon, but I want you to always know how much I love you and have enjoyed having you as my baby for the last 21 months of your life!

Sweet, sweet girl!!!

A little silly....

Sometimes moody....

VERY inventive....

Always keeping us on our toes....

Your ears must be burning cause you're waking up from your nap now...I better go get you so we can have our daily after nap snuggle :) Mama loves you!!!

Summertime!!!

Both girls are napping this afternoon, which is a rare occurrence lately so I thought I'd take a minute or two to update the blog :) Summer is officially here and we are enjoying lots of fun times! I can vividly remember last summer, watching Addie run around in the sprinkler by herself and thinking "next summer Lydia will be chasing after her!" and here they are....the best of friends, playing together and enjoying being sisters. I could not be happier, just knowing they have each other and love each other SO much :)

They truly ARE the best of friends :) They play this little "game" ALL.THE.TIME. where Addie calls herself "Mama" and she calls Lydia "Sweetie Pie." Mama holds Sweetie Pie's hand wherever they go and is just so mothering, patient, and sweet to her. I don't have pictures to document this part, but Mama even takes Sweetie Pie to the potty, taking off her diaper and pretty much doing everything I would do (all under my supervision of course). And the greatest part is that Sweetie Pie doesn't put up a fight with "Mama" like she does with me on occasion ;)

Lydia and her sweet friend, Jenna riding the Jeep :)

Since we didn't take advantage of Spring camping weather this year, we decided to have a little camp out in our living room a few weeks ago. We had planned to do some real camping over at Papaw Mike's house, but it was just TOO stinkin' hot....so we opted for the A/C and comforts of home.

Daddy pitched a little tent in the living room, we ate "camping" type food out on the deck, swam ALL day in our little blow up pool, and slept horribly (because that's usually how it goes when you're really camping, right?). Although the girls loved the idea of playing in the tent before bedtime, neither one actually slept IN the tent. Chris and I had mattresses on the floor for ourselves and Addie ended up sleeping between us....and the little Rascal a.k.a. Sweetie Pie, couldn't get settled down so she was banished to her crib. Needless to say, we only attempted the tent one night and everyone was back to their own beds the next night :)

We did go on one little outing while pretend camping....to the camp store (a.k.a. Target). Addie has been asking for a bicycle for a while now and we thought it would be a good almost half-birthday present to get her one. Since we don't have a very flat area for her to practice pedaling, we decided to get her a princess scooter instead which she was thrilled about! She has gotten better over the last couple weeks with lots of practice....we'll see about getting a bicycle for Christmas :)

This is how Lydia feels about Addie getting a scooter...just kidding!

Even though it's been HOT HOT HOT outside, we have been trying to get outside to play every single day....the earlier the better. The girls have discovered their love of sidewalk chalk and our driveway is ALWAYS decorated :) Addie taught herself how to write her name about a month ago so she is loving to sign her name by her art and trying to write other letters too. If I would let them, they would spend all day and night in their swimsuits playing in the pool on the deck. Lydia is so funny, every day looking out the window saying, "wet, pool, swim, outside" over and over. The other morning, they spent over an hour collecting bouquets of clover and berries, humming along just as happy as could be...getting sweaty little heads and rosy little cheeks :)

One of my favorite parts about being the mom of these two cuties, is that they don't NEED actual toys to have fun. They are so imaginative and creative in the way they play together. We have a good amount of their toys in storage right now while we're trying to sell our house and it just amazes me that we don't miss them one bit. The newest addition to their list of favorites is the box that our new dishwasher came in. Sometimes it's a house and other times it's a dress store or other places. When it's too hot to go outside, they are playing in and with that box! They use kitchen items and my decorations as their "props" and just go to town playing together.

Nothing really new to report about baby #3. I am currently 31 weeks, which means I have NO MORE THAN 9 weeks to go :D This has been a wonderful pregnancy, other than trying to stay cool in this heat, and we can't wait to meet our newest little sweet pea sometime in August! Sorry baby #3 for not taking any belly pictures of you yet....that's okay, we're having our wonderful friend take some maternity pictures in a few weeks (which we've never had done before so that makes you special!).

Happy first week of Summer!

A Mini-Vacation

Realizing we are quite short on time and money before our third little one arrives, we decided to plan a last minute getaway to St. Louis this past weekend. We got away on Sunday morning and arrived at the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House right after lunch. This place was amazing! As soon as we walked into the conservatory, butterflies were flying all around us. Of course my camera lens fogged up right away since it was so much warmer in there, but after being patient and finally wiping it off carefully I was able to get some great pictures of the beautiful creatures!

When we were finished exploring the inside of the Butterfly House, we headed out to walk around the garden. Although it must have been too cold for butterflies to enjoy the garden, we had fun walking around and looking at all the pretty flowers and plants....and the girls were able to burn off some much needed energy built up from the drive. There was also a wonderful, HUGE playground just near the Butterfly House that we took advantage of for quite a while. Both girls played and played until they crashed in the van on the way back to our hotel.

We made it to our hotel around 4 and you would have thought Addie had never experienced a hotel before! She was SUPER excited about our room and couldn't believe we were going to get to sleep there! I wish I could have caught it all on video, walking around showing us and telling us about every little detail of the room :)

We headed to the zoo in the morning and it was VERY cold (well for the middle of May anyway!). Good thing I packed pants and jackets for the girls....but Chris and I were out of luck when it came to jackets :( We survived! We had a great time wandering around looking at all the animals. The penguins were my favorite and we even got to see them eating their breakfast and listen to the keeper answer lots of questions. Lydia's favorite part was the elephants because she's really into saying "elphanenenenent" right now and it just cracks us up every time! Addie says her favorite part was the goat petting yard, probably because it was the last thing we saw/did and she actually got to pet and brush them :) So despite our wish for sweatshirts, we had a fun day at the zoo!

We decided to go to one of my family's favorite Italian restaurants on The Hill, Cunetto House of Pasta. We had taken Addie there with my parents when she was about 15 months old, so we figured we'd give it a try with TWO girls this time. I'm pretty sure none of the restaurants in that area are super kid-friendly, but we were quite sick of McDonald's and went out on a limb here. Of course when we got there, Addie had fallen asleep so Chris had to carry her in and sit with her limp body on his lap for the first half of dinner. The food was great, at least from what I remember. The experience.....well, let's just say eating out at a nice restaurant has changed quite a bit for us since having children. When one child says she has to potty....the second one continuously yells POTTY or sometimes even POOPY at the top of her lungs until she gets her turn to check out yet another non-child friendly public restroom. And I must say I have mastered the art of taking an 18 month old potty and putting her diaper back on her standing up in a very tight stall WITHOUT letting her touch anything....something only a Mommy could do (sorry Dads). Chris and I were dying laughing the whole car ride back to the hotel....I'm SO glad we can have a sense of humor about it, rather than getting upset and thinking that our children "ruined" dinner :)

We all slept very well that night.......and headed back home the next day. Short and sweet, but a great time away having fun, laughing, NOT whining or melting down, and enjoying each other!

Enjoy the slideshow:

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Strawberry Pickin'

Life has been keeping us busy, especially with our house on the market and trying to keep two little ones happy. We are all doing wonderful (even baby #3) and enjoying springtime around here!

Last Friday, we ventured out to the strawberry pickin' patch with some friends and had a blast! This was a first for us and the girls and I really enjoyed it. I was a little worried about tackling the picking with both my rascals WITHOUT Daddy there to help, but they both did GREAT and I don't think any strawberry plants were ripped from the ground by the littlest rascal ;)

The rascal, working hard

You CANNOT go pickin' without a little taste here and there ;)

She truly was a good little picker

Big Sis finding the perfect berry

All the girls at the patch

When we got home, I had a VERY busy afternoon preparing all 8 lbs. 11 oz. of our strawberries :) We had strawberry shortcake for dessert that evening and I made plenty of strawberry freezer jam, which we had on our waffles the next morning. Mmmmmm, can't get enough of that stuff! I froze some of the berries, but I don't think they'll stay in the freezer for long because the girls and I are huge fans of smoothies for breakfast and I'm sure they'll get used quickly! This was a super fun experience and I'm sure it will be a yearly thing for us from now on. I never knew how much fun it would be to pick our very own strawberries :)