four years old

Today, our little girl is 4 years old! It's so hard to believe that Ivy is 4 already...where has the time gone????


Ivy's favorite color is PINK!


She loves princesses, reading books, doing crafts/projects, and just playing and imagining with her toys. She loves to play dress up and pretend to be a librarian, grocery clerk/shopper, Sunday School teacher, and Pioneer Club songleader/teacher.


She also "works" at the police station and the train station.


She sleeps with her pink "blanquee", her princess pillow, Betsy the fox that Santa got her for Christmas, Pink Rabbit, and a stuffed yellow lab.


Ivy's favorite "regular" foods are peanut butter sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, pancakes, Joe's meal, and sloppy joes.


She loves to drink chocolate milk.

She does NOT like grapes.


Special food treats for her include "Old McDonald's", DD with sprinkles (Dunkin Donuts), poptarts, cookies & cream ice cream, and Lucky Charms.


She usually eats Cheerios and bananas for breakfast.


Ivy is very caring and compassionate and giving. She is always wondering how people are with great concern. She is always wanting to send stickers with Daddy to give to anyone that he sees at work, and she is always wanting Daddy to be safe and to tell the other Troopers to be safe.

She does get very possessive of her things and toys, especially if Owen even glances her way.


Ivy's friends are Emily, Annie, Eden, Eli, Kirsten, Ella, Lincoln, and Isabella with her "favorite friend" (as she would say) is Emily. She also has an imaginary friend named Somy. Sometimes, there are other imaginary friends...their names are Fauna, Toby, and Toban.

This was the first year that we had a big birthday party for Ivy which was held a week before her actual birthday. On her actual birthday, Daddy surprised her with special donuts (with pink sprinkles, of course) in the morning.

Then, after Daddy finished working, we gave Ivy her birthday presents to open.

Daddy thought it would be fun to give Ivy a gag gift...so she got a banana for her first gift!

Owen enjoyed her gift!

Then, it was time for her real gift...

Now, she had a "radio" like Daddy's to talk on for her work.

Happy Birthday to one great kiddo!

how cute!

Yesterday, Owen was awake and downstairs before Ivy. When Ivy did wake up and come downstairs, Owen saw her and immediately went over to her and gave her a big hug (without any prompting)! :-)

I love seeing their love for one another grow!

visit with Brent

This past Saturday, Nathan's cousin, Brent, who lives in western Pennsylvania, was up in our neck of the woods! He secured a run up to the Walmart in North Conway. This is the second time that Brent has been able to come up to visit us, all through his work. We are always so thrilled to be able to see a familiar face every now and again and especially when they just happen to be in the area or near us! We were just as excited to see Brent again!

As our time with Brent was short this time, we went to one of our favorite places to eat lunch...Banner's (yummy!) and then came back to our house to visit for a bit (and to grab a couple of wire hangers). You see, Brent accidentally locked his keys in his truck and needed the hangers to try to get his door unlocked. Oops!


Unfortunately, the hangers didn't work so Nathan had to call the local police department to use their slim jim. Then, Brent was back on the road (I think a few hours later than what he was anticipating...double oops!).

Thanks for stopping by, Brent! It was so great to see you!

silliness

Earlier today, Ivy and I were working on thank you notes for all of her friends who came to her birthday party. When asked on a particular thank you note what she wanted me to write, Ivy responded, "Ivy loves you, and you're welcome for the cake!" :-)

Later tonight, as I was getting the kids ready for bed, Ivy discovered that she had to wear a "normal" shirt to bed as none of her "bedtime" shirts/pajamas were clean. After she heard my explanation as to why she had to wear a morning shirt to bed, Ivy explained that wearing the shirt was "against the rules." I inquired of her what rules she was talking about, to which she replied, "the pajama rules." I then asked her who made these pajama rules. Without a thought and with all seriousness, she answered, "They're Papa Snack's pajama rules." :-)

What a silly little girl! I love her so much!

birthday party = organized? chaos :-)

On Sunday, we celebrated Ivy's 4th birthday. It was the first birthday party we've had for Ivy where we invited some of her friends to join in the fun. Four of the six families we invited were able to come (sadly, Ivy noticed that her "favorite" friend, Emily, did not come :( ) which meant there were a total of 10 adults, 9 kids, and 2 babies in our house! (We actually thought our house was fairly big UNTIL we had that many people under the roof at one time!) :-)

The theme for the party was HEARTS. These are some of the decorations Ivy, Gramma, and I made which Ivy and I hung all around the house...

The party started with a cookout lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs and all of the yummy food that comes with a barbecue.

After lunch, the kids enjoyed playing the games we had planned while the adults could relax and chat with one another (or watch the kids have fun). First game was pin the arrow in the center of the heart (instead of pin the tail on the donkey)...

It was so fun to watch all of the kids go in so many different directions to pin their arrow on the heart. AND, as you may notice, many of the kids didn't find the heart at all! :-) Our winner was, of course, the oldest kid of the group - Caleb!

Our next game was a classic. For all those who lived in the 80's and maybe the early 90's(?), remember Bozo the Clown and the show that he had most likely on the public television station? We incorporated the throw the ball in the bucket game to get prizes for all of the kids. Of course, the buckets had hearts on them! Each kid took turns tossing the balls into the buckets, and every time they got a ball in the bucket, they got a prize! (Sorry, I forgot to take pictures!)

And then, we played a balloon tag game where all of the kiddos had balloons tied around their ankles and each child had to pop the other child's balloon. The one having the last balloon that hasn't been popped wins! Only one problem with this game...it was quite hard for the kids to pop the balloons in their bare feet and on carpet! Oops! Let's just say Ivy's Daddy did a lot of the popping! (AND, we didn't even think to take the game outside!)

Next game...PINATA!!!! (We made our own pinata - note for the future 4 or 5 layers is definitely enough! AND, do not use a hairdryer to dry the pinata if using a balloon for the mold...let it dry on its own!)

And, because it was such a gorgeous day outside and we had all been shut in our houses all winter, the kids enjoyed getting to play outside for a while.

Then, we were back inside for cake and ice cream... Ivy wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for her birthday cake and cookies & cream ice cream.

Then, Ivy opened all of her birthday cards and presents. Since we have been OVERLY blessed with lots of toys in our house, we asked that the kids just come to play and have fun and not bring any presents. They did, however, bring very special homemade cards/gifts or specially decorated cards - each unique in their own little way! Ivy enjoyed each and every one of them!

Finally, Ivy got to pass out the goody bags she had prepared for her friends and then they all played some more...

I felt like the day was filled with nothing but chaos...I hope it was organized chaos though! It seemed like all of the kids (and adults) had tons of fun...I know Ivy enjoyed her day with all of her friends! Thanks to all for the many memories!

Happy Birthday, Ivy!

valentine's day

While Nathan and I went away for the weekend, Nathan's parents came up to watch the kids. We can only imagine how much unsupervised spoiling went on while we were away, but it made our weekend to ourselves that much more enjoyable knowing that our kids were being well taken care of and not being a burden on anyone as we are sure Grampa and Gramma didn't mind the time with Ivy and Owen. We are so grateful that Nathan's parents were able and willing to come spend the time with the kids while we were away.


We arrived home from our Weekend to Remember on Valentine's Day to find that Gramma and Ivy had planned and prepared a Valentine's Day party/birthday party for Ivy. What a great time!

(Before watching this video, remember to press the pause button to stop the music on the side!)

Even after our weekend away, Grampa and Gramma didn't run out the door the minute we came in (which they may have well been ready to do so!). We even got to enjoy a couple of days with them as well to visit and had the chance to grab a few snapshots of memories.

It's always a great time when family comes to visit, but it never seems long enough!

weekend to remember

This past weekend, Nathan and I enjoyed a weekend away with NO KIDS! (This was our first time away from both kids and only our second time away from Ivy over the past four years!) For our weekend away (some may call it our "babymoon"), we planned to go to a marriage enrichment conference put on by Family Life called Weekend to Remember in Nashua, New Hampshire. If anybody has ever been like us and has never attended an event to enrich their marriage, I would highly recommend attending a conference like this. Whether you are engaged, newly married, married with little kids, married with teenage kids, married with no kids, or married for 50 years with your kids being grown and married themselves, I guarantee that wherever your marriage is in your stage of life, you will gain some encouragement and/or challenge for improvement from a conference like this. In the almost 8 years we have been married, we have never attended a conference like this. As the days were approaching our weekend away, we found that we were needing and craving this time for ourselves.

I won't forget our daughter Ivy's prayer a few days before we were to leave..."Dear Lord, ......... and help my Mommy and Daddy share their love. Amen." When I asked her what she meant by her prayer, she basically told me that she didn't know that her Mommy and Daddy loved each other. Wow! Break my heart, but what a challenge to us from our sweet little girl! Clearly, Nathan and I need to do some work!

The Weekend to Remember conference was a great but challenging time - it provided us with areas that we knew we needed to work on but had no clue where to even begin and get started talking and working on them. This weekend got us PRAYING together and TALKING again and SHARING our thoughts and feelings again. It got us to the point of BEING VULNERABLE with one another again. Among many things, one of the greatest lessons that touched my heart and really spoke to me through this weekend was that God didn't just happen to join a man and a woman together in marriage...He always has a plan and always works things together for His glory. This is so powerful - God brings two very different people together with very different strengths and weaknesses to show our need for one another and our need for Him to keep us humble and submissive to one another. Our Lord has given Nathan certain strengths to make up for my weaknesses showing my need for Nathan in my life, AND our Lord has given me certain strengths to make up for Nathan's weaknesses to show Nathan his need for me!

We are so thankful that we were able to get away and be challenged to better our marriage and ultimately our family's life, BUT we were also encouraged that we aren't doing everything wrong in our marriage either! We hope to take more time like this to ourselves as a couple as we have found the need and the new perspective we gained by taking time for us!

cover them up?

As I was tucking Ivy in bed tonight, I started to cover her fox, pink rabbit, and dog up as she usually wants done with her animals. Tonight, she informed me that they didn't need covered up because they have fur to keep them warm! :-)

gluten free

Our family went out for brunch at one of our favorite restaurants - Yesterday's in Jackson, NH. Nathan and I shared quite a laugh when, in all seriousness, Nathan asked me if the "gluten free" (only he pronounced it as "glutton free") meal listed on the menu was an all-you-can-eat deal...you know, for gluttons! :-) I'm so glad we can still laugh at and with each other after all these years! :-)

at Jesus' feet

The words to this song written and sung by Casting Crowns have spoken VOLUMES to me lately.

(Be sure to stop the background music before playing the video.)



Just read the words again...

Here at Your feet, I lay my past down
My wanderings, all my mistakes down
And I am free

Here at Your feet, I lay this day down
Not in my strength, but in Yours I've found
All I need, You're all I need

Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet
Oh, to dwell and never leave
Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet
There is nowhere else for me
There is nowhere else for me

Here at Your feet, I lay my future down
All of my dreams, I give to You now
And I find peace, I find peace

Here at Your feet, I lay my life down
For You my King, You're all I want now
And my soul sings...

'Cause I am free...here at Your feet
All I need...is at Your feet
I find peace
We're at Your feet

My challenge: Am I at Jesus' feet daily??? Am I laying everything (my past, my present, my future, my life) down and leaving it there???

readers

I LOVE watching kids read (even if they don't really know how to read yet)!

My kids (and some of their friends) LOVE to read and just sit and look through books and make up their own stories. I LOVE IT!!!!

Watch Owen here...he's reading a counting book about dogs...notice how he's barking for the dogs! :-) (It's not the best video as he was really barking for the dogs earlier, but of course, when you grab the camera, you've pretty much missed the "Kodak moment"!)

Be sure to stop the music playing in the background before you play these videos so you can hear the kids!

Ivy is telling her own rendition to an Arthur valentine book...

good dog

Our dog, Paisan, is a great dog! He sure is patient and understanding with his Daddy and Mommy, who used to spend soooo much time and give him sooooo much attention BEFORE we had kids, AND he sure takes and puts up with A LOT from his younger sister and brother...



Good dog, Paisan! We love you!

has this ever happened to you?

When Ivy was younger, she NEVER fell asleep in her highchair while she was eating. SO, when Owen fell asleep eating his lunch one day, I was shocked. In fact, my Mom and I just talked a few weeks prior about how kids could ever fall asleep while they were eating. Sure enough, Owen had to prove it to me!

P.S. Notice where Paisan is...that has been his spot when Ivy and now Owen eats in the highchair!

mommy's little helper

I'm helping my Mommy unload the dishwasher...

My kids are the best! Ivy has ALWAYS been a great helper to me, and now Owen is learning from her and becoming a great helper as well!

memory lane

As we were cleaning out the closet in the kids' toy room and starting our toy room organization project for the year, I ran across this...

When I worked at the law firm before becoming a stay-at-home mom, the company would always hold a Christmas party for all of the employees where everyone would exchange names and purchase a gift (usually some sort of a gag gift) for whosever name you drew. At my first Christmas party, a lady named Janet made this "board game" of my life as it currently was which fit me to a "T" (she must have really been paying attention)! She worked hard and did a great job with making this gift. The car pieces were even painted to look like the cars we had at the time - our blue jimmy and Nate's police cruiser.

Although probably difficult to see in the pictures, some of the spaces read as follows:

• Go see a movie (G-rated of course).
• Husband working nights...Invite real friends over to play Scrabble! (that's another story in itself!)
• Go to Storyland, and act like a kid again. Oops, you still are one!
• New house arrives in pieces. Spend day watching it being put together.
• Take guests up Mt. Washington.
• Skip a turn to travel to PA for the Grape Jam festival! (which was really suppose to refer to the Peanut Butter festival)
• Call in sick to work and go cross country skiing - Oops! I forgot who was playing! :-)
• Run metric marathon. Stop to throw up on the way home. Lose a turn.
• Go to Mt. Cranmore to watch Ken hurl himself down the mountain. (Sometimes you just need a good laugh.)
• Husband stops boss's wife (again)! Go back 3 spaces.