Springtime Fun

We are LOVING the warmer weather and bright sunshine around here! Last week was beautiful and we took advantage of one of the nicer days and had a little Easter Egg hunt and craft time with our best friends. We are so grateful to have such wonderful friends who love to play and have as much fun as we do :)

The girls with their furry bunny ears

Lydia finding her first egg (other than the softball she already snagged!)

Addie checking out her "loot"

Lydia and Jenna going after the same egg (no tears were shed, I promise)

The whole crew after the hunt...this was one of the best of MANY pictures taken trying to get them all to be happy and look our way :) Luke's thinking, "Ugh, women!"

Our family spent some time outside at Papaw Mike's house on Friday and the girls enjoyed being able to run and run and run (and look for a few eggs in the process)! I just love taking pictures of them in their element, the great outdoors!

Addie enjoyed picking teeny tiny little flowers from the yard

Lydia hunting for Easter eggs

After a VERY emotional morning dealing with Attitude Addie (boy, I can't wait til she's a teenager!!), we attempted to dye some eggs. Daddy enjoyed doing this activity with the girls and I enjoyed watching the whole process and attempting to take a few pictures while supervising our little egg thief ;)

Add admiring her eggs and making sure they were drying properly :)

The cutest little egg thief (good thing they were hard boiled!)

We are so happy Spring has arrived and are enjoying the longer days! We have so much to be thankful for this Easter...MOST importantly for the sacrifice of God's only son, our Lord and Savior Jesus! Have a blessed Easter and Happy Spring!

Baby #3 Update

We had the pleasure of "meeting" baby #3 via ultrasound last Thursday, April Fool's Day :) Chris and I decided to take Addie with us because we knew she would be excited to see the little one and could sit still long enough for us to enjoy it (unlike the other wee one in our family, who had some special play time with Grandma at home). Biggest sister did great and loved seeing our baby "on TV" as she said.

Baby cooperated for the most part and looked very healthy...I'll have to get a quick scan at my next appointment to finish up a few areas. The heart rate was 149 bpm today and our little one seemed to be quite squirmy in there, kicking and curling his/her legs up towards the face. Here are a few of our favorite pictures from the day:

"Hi family!"

Profile looking JUST like both sisters already :)

Adorable little foot

All curled up and hiding for the 4D image

I am feeling great for a pregnant lady who is almost 20 weeks, chasing around 2 very active girls every single day! Funny how I wasn't feeling much movement before the ultrasound, but have felt baby tons the last few days which makes me very happy :)

We absolutely can't wait to meet the newest member of our family in August!!!

"Tight"

My blog entries lately seem to revolve around the second born, but she's just at that age where so many changes are occurring and I want to document everything just as I did with Addie dearest.

Little Rascal is talking SO much these days, but one of the words she has picked up on that has me in stitches is "tight"--used when things are difficult for her to do. I am laughing so hard because little does she know, her big sister used to say "oh tight" in the same situations. (See this blog post from July, 2008)

Rascal wants to do everything big sister does so this means trying to dress herself. She will "ask" me to take her clothes off of her just so she can attempt to put them back on ALL BY HERSELF. And I mean it, ALL BY HERSELF. There will be no assisting from Mommy, or a fit will be had. It's pretty hilarious and frustrating all at once. She actually does a decent job, but can't quite maneuver pulling her pants up all the way so she sports the "penguin waddle" look :)

I am in no way trying to potty train my 16 month old daughter, but yet again, she wants to do everything big sister does so she insists on wearing panties. Well....when she tells me she has to go by saying "potty" or "pot-pot" and I take her in the bathroom and she goes.....okay then, you can wear panties for a half hour or so my teeny tiny child! I am amazed by her daily. Especially because I always thought she would be my less independent sort of child seeing as how she was WAY more demanding in her infant days than Addie ever had been. Things are starting to change in that department....and while she still loves to be cuddled and loved on, and lets the hugs and kisses flow freely.....she wants things her way and by goodness, she will do them when and how she wants to do them!

Shortly after my last two blog posts explaining some of her "adventures," we had a little mishap one afternoon. Earlier that morning, she was sitting in the chair "reading" with Addie and realized she could reach the light switch if she wiggled her way up the back of the chair. It was "kinda cute" (famous last words) so I took a picture. Later, after we finished eating lunch and were snuggled in for some reading time, she attempted the same thing and fell off the back of the chair....landing with a thud on the floor. I did not see how she landed, but the only visible wound I could find after a thorough check was a tiny whole in her tongue where she'd bitten it. Ouch! Now for those of you who know me WELL, you know I am not a worrier and I don't get worked up about much of anything. Hmmmm....this child had me in a panic that day, thinking she just might die when I put her down for her nap. I checked on her frequently while she slept and she ended up taking a record breaking nap that day and I just couldn't WAIT for her to wake up (this is just not like her either...she's usually up exactly 2 hours to the minute after I lay her down). I'm sure her little body was sore from the fall, but she seemed to bounce back pretty quickly after a good rest. I think she will be the child I feel the need to pray the most for her protection!

Oh how I love my funny little adventurous baby girl!

Tap Dancin' and More

One of Lydia's *talents* mentioned in the previous post:

I told ya she has an obsession...if the vacuum is out of the closet, I know where to find her :)


Just *one* of her hiding spots...behind my clothes in the closet

SHE IS ONE FUNNY GIRL!

Little Rascal Update

I think Lydia's new name should be our "Little Rascal." Somehow that name seems a bit "boyish" to me, but that's exactly what she reminds me of these days :) I have come to the conclusion that God gave us an easy child first so that when #2 came along and rocked our world, we would be thankful for the somewhat simple first go-around we had with Addie.

I took the Little Rascal for her 15 month well check visit with her doctor last week and he laughed when I told him all about her "adventurous" side and said, "I think Addie was just exceptional and Lydia is just normal." Haha! She's definitely "normal" alright. Normally rambunctious, normally climbing, normally kicking and throwing fits, normally squealing and laughing, normally falling off of kitchen chairs, and normally getting right back up and doing it all over again! What a fun little child she is, and I DO mean that! She tests me daily and I have figured out that if I change my attitude to "I'm thankful she's growing and learning" by getting into all this stuff and doing all of these crazy things, we are all better off.

Here are just a *few* of her current antics that I just love:

*The cheesy faces she makes just to be funny (I wish I had pictures!)
*The way she "tap dances" in the kitchen
*Her ability to climb....nope, I don't really love this one, but it's part of her and I love her
*Her love for cooking...she gets out all the measuring cups and spoons and pretends to measure and pour :)
*Her "splashy-ness" in the bathtub...if I didn't close the shower curtain, the entire bathroom would be drenched and I'm not kidding!
*The way she takes my hand and leads me to the bathroom when she has to go "pot-pot" (potty)
*Her long, drawn out smoochie cheek kisses she gives freely when asked
*Her snuggles and tight squeezes
*The way she rides the vacuum cleaner (she has an obsession I think)
*Her deep, sort-of-scratchy little voice
*The way she hides...and when she hides, she's SO quiet that it takes us FOREVER to find her (scary thought sometimes!)
*How she wants to do EVERY. SINGLE. THING. her big sister does
*The way she whispers (something we're working on daily and she gets the biggest kick out of it!)
*The way she says "Amen" when we finish reading a book
*The way she prays at bedtime, repeating words after me :)
*Her extreme LOVE for her big sister.....

(some floor hugging)

I absolutely cannot get over how much she is saying these days. We really thought Addie started talking pretty early, but this one is a different story. I am truly amazed! I will *try* to remember as many of her current words as I can and of course some are in "her language" that probably only we can understand: Mama, Dada, Addie, Addie (for Lydia, but she points to herself), Joe, Papaw, Maw-Maw (for grandma), Amen, hi, bye-bye, bird, snack, bowl, bird, chick chick (for chickadee), kitty, doggy, ball, up, down, hold me, shoe, sock, eye, nose, teeth, ear, hair, cheek, wa-wa (what she calls her drink whether it's water or milk), baby, beep (she likes to beep Addie's belly button), morning (for good morning), pigtail, pen-pen (penguin), mon-mon (monkey), duck, night-night, snow (comes out "no")...oh and of course she knows NO. And our favorite, she says "oh my" when someone makes a mess or something funny or bad happens. She picked that up from one of her favorite books, Mr. Wishy-Washy. She makes several animal sounds like meow and woof woof, but the best one yet is "who who" for an owl!

Here they are "wearing" their babies (won't they make wonderful Mamas someday!) and Rascal with her first piggies :)

I am extremely thankful that Addie has learned to be very patient when Lydia does things that could easily annoy her. She no longer gets mad when Lydia knocks over her block castles, she just says "oh well, I'll build it again." She doesn't get upset when Lydia climbs up into the chair and practically shoves her way into the booster seat with her. We have our rough days, that's for sure...but I am so blessed to get to spend every single day at home with my princesses (well, one princess and one dragon as of right now). Looking at their differences makes me SO anxious to see what qualities this new little one will bring to our family! OH boy! or girl...which is what I'm thinking she is :)

An Itty Bitty Teeny Tiny Announcement

We are thrilled to announce:

Yes, that's right, baby Knight #3 is on the way! My due date is August 26th and I am 11 weeks along today :) This first trimester has FLOWN by, probably because we have kept our little secret quiet and life in general has kept us busy enough to lose track of time a bit.

We found out shortly before Christmas and I decided to make sharing this news with Chris a little more "surprising" than with the other two. I took a picture (see below) the day I found out and wrapped it up in a gift bag (fitting since Christmas was so close). I waited until the girls went to bed....which was SO incredibly difficult!.....and told him that Addie had found some of the wrapped Christmas presents and she decided to make him a present that day. He was a bit confused as he was opening the bag and unwrapping the little picture, but the expression on his face was priceless and we were both just gleaming!

We gave this same picture to our families as gifts on Christmas as well and everyone is so excited! Lydia was actually the first one in our family to know because I knew she could keep the secret...and we discussed it in detail with Addie a few weeks later. She is super excited...even talks about having a baby in her belly, which I remember her doing toward the end of my pregnancy with Lydia. They will both be wonderful big sisters...I'm sure our life will become a bit more challenging with 3 little ones, but a fun challenge it will be! We are SO blessed and thank God daily for putting these little lives in our hands :)

Let it Snow!

We had our first real snow last Thursday and as soon as Addie saw it coming down early that morning, she immediately put on her new snow boots, mittens, and fleece hooded jacket and claimed that she was ready to go "snowing".....well before 8:00 a.m.

Rather than waiting until Chris got home from work that evening to venture out into the fluffy white stuff, we bundled up right after lunch and headed out to play. I'm not sure if the 20 minutes of getting ready was worth the 10 minutes we played, but it was fun (cold, but fun) and both girls napped very well that afternoon :)

All bundled up!

Making a snow angel: this was the first thing she did when she stepped foot in the snow ;)

Taste-testing the snowflakes

The snow stuck around (and is still here today) over the weekend so we decided to take the girls on an impromptu sledding adventure over at Chris's dad's house on Saturday. Bundling up was a little quicker this time since Daddy was here to help and we loaded into the van and headed over to check out the big hill! We all took turns on the purple sled and Chris and Addie occasionally went down on the toboggan together, racing Lydia and I. Although it was VERY cold (like 18 degrees cold), both the girls LOVED their time sledding.

Lydia's sledding debut video...and I know you can't tell by her facial expression here, but she had a blast and wanted to go again and again when we got back to the top of the hill!