Mwwwaaahhhh

Haley has adopted many of Lacy's mannerisms and during the rare times when Lacy is disagreeable, she does this too. Haley however does it everytime I tell her no, this time she did it when I told her we weren't buying the shoes she had selected.

Serving..as a Mom

I've been wanting to find a way to serve at church or in our community and since the girls are getting a little bit older thought surely I could find a way to fit it in. Tithing, donating stuff,etc. are great ways to give but I really feel led to be hands on, to get involved and hopefully give more time as the girls get older. So, I tried the financial ministry at church, maybe helping with budget counseling, well, that's every Tuesday night. Committing to every week is too hard with Jason's schedule and evenings are pretty chaotic. Cross that off. Tried our food pantry at Church who has a need for someone to coordinate services for clients, the only day I could do is Saturday. Weekends are our sacred family time and I don't think giving up most of those is the right thing or what God has in mind for me now...or does He? I can still serve with the kids on the weekends and maybe that's what I'll end up doing and I know we'll keep looking for opportunities to serve as a family as the girls get older but maybe right now my only place is serving my husband and my girls. Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it"

Picture Round up

Took Haley on a date to Walmart while the 3 older girls went fishing with Daddy
Little girls and their best friends and neighbors, they had a sewage back up (gross) so we had them hang out at our house during the clean up

Lily because she told me to take her picture

Haley with the tableskirt I just finished

Haley with Mommy getting a breathing treatment, who knew a little cough could turn into pneumonia in a few days. Such a trooper...

Chilling with some Oreos waiting for Grandma's flight

Big girls modeling their flower girl dresses

Lily with her curly pig tails

Haley with 1/2 a tube of chapstick on her face

Haley doing her pirate face while thinking she knows what to do on the potty...she does not.

Where's your middle eye?

Driving down the road the other day, Harper yelled, "My middle eye is just so sore", I said, "Where's your middle eye Harper?" She pointed to right between her other two eyes which is exactly where I think a middle eye would be...if she had one.

Lily's grown up party

I love to eavesdrop on the girls in the car, here's the latest conversation I overheard:

Lily, "When I'm a grown up and I have my own house, I'm going to have a big party and invite you all" talking to her sisters
Lacy, "What are we going to do?"
Lily, "Well, we're going to eat oatmeal cookies ON THE COUCH & not one cookie, I'm going to let you have 3!"
Harper, "What else?"
Lily, "We're going to watch Spongebob, a movie with a gun and, and..maybe Batman too"
(Can you tell I don't let them watch anything FUN?)
They did invite me to the party too...

Oh Harper...

Most of Harper's sentences start with "Well Mommy...." or "But Mommy", here's an example. The girls were out in back playing, they KNOW to stay in the back and we have a gate but it is a little warped and not closing correctly so it was like an invitation to a 3 year old to head to the front. Lily, our town crier comes in to notify me that Harper is on her way to the front. I caught her on her way to the back and...
Me, "Harper,did you go in the front"
Harper, arms crossed, "Well Mommy..."
Me, "Harper, did you go in the front"
Harper, "No"
Me, "Is that a lie?"
Harper, "No"
Me, getting down on her level, making her look me in the eye, "Harper, did you go in front?"
Harper, "Yes"
Me, "You need to stay in the back with your sisters"
Harper, "Well, Mommy, I just needed some alone time"

Lacy's first tooth!

Lacy had a loose tooth for like a month & it finally fell out...at school...on the playground...in the mulch. You can imagine that finding one tiny tooth on a giant school playground might be a little difficult. Praise to the Lacy's teacher Ms. Foster who took the whole class with magnifying glasses on a tooth hunt. They were unsuccessful but who cares, the tooth fairy still came. Here's the note with the $11.00 in "gold" one dollar coins. It looked like "leprechaun" money the girls said. Lacy took the note to school the next day, Jason was afraid of the whole class going home telling their parents that Lacy Newton gets 11.00 from the tooth fairy for her teeth and they better pony up next time.

Harper's funny

Getting Harper dressed this morning, I had to help her with her panties, they were a little snug. Harper says, "We need to get me some new panties. My panties keep getting smaller and smaller everyday"

Who will be the wheat?

We've been so blessed to be germ free most of the winter, of course Lacy gets sick the day of the school play, she was supposed to be the wheat! Lily who's the duck in the play, yells at breakfast, "But who will be the WHEAT?"

Another note is that Lily who is definitely my child who I have to correct the most, is also my most loving and nurturing child, the one who likes to take care of others and help when I need it. She's the one who brought Lacy downstairs in the middle of the night when she had a fever, got Lacy some ice water, asked her if she wanted a cup of cereal while she laid on the couch, pulled the side table next to the couch for her tissues and throw up bowl. I LOOOOOVE seeing this side of Lily, I think God knows when I need to see all of her awesome personality to remind me that she's a perfect little person no matter that sometimes she wears me out!

Today is also a reminder that I miss having family around. I've gotten used to being self sufficient or in a pinch, asking friends/sitters for help when we need it but can't do that tonight. If we had family, it's not a big deal to ask for help so I'll be hanging out @ home with Lacy while the other girls head to the play with Jason. In the grand scheme of things, not a huge deal but it does bother me to miss ANYTHING the girls do.

Love Notes

Now that Lily & Lacy are reading, writing, it's so funny to see the things they come up with. Here are a few good ones....Lily really likes to help me in the kitchen so decided to write her own cookbook, here's her recipe for pancakes with syrup.

And a great recipe for sandwiches

Lily telling me she's going to love me forever!

Lacy telling me she loves me, backwards letters and all!

This is the funniest thing ever, Lily computer lab assignment around MLK day was to write about a dream they had. Lily took this very literally, I guess about a dream she had that Jason yells at her. It says, "I have a dream that my Dad doesn't yell at me. And my Dad won't yell at me if I be nice" Jason now thinks the teacher must think he's a tyrant! What's even funnier is that Jason has never ever yelled at the girls....

Lacy does word searches each week and each week she has very creative ways of finding her word. Check it out...

Impressive! Flowers come from bees and they create honey!

Hmmm...

Great sunny day here so I sent the girls outside as soon as they got home from school, the backyard is a muddy mess since 7 inches of snow all melted in a day. Harper comes in hysterically crying because she's all muddy. Says, I don't know why I got all muddy. Changed her clothes, sent her back out, told her, stay out of the mud. Comes back in again hysterically crying with mud soaking her pants, socks, panties, says again, "I don't know why I keep getting so muddy" So I say, "What were you doing?" She responds, "Well I just laid down in the mud just two times, only two times"

Funnies

Our sump pump broke last week, I told the girls "Don't go down in the basement, there's water everywhere, it's not safe right now.", their immediate reaction was to go put on their swimsuits.

We included my grandma in our prayers last nigh at dinner and Lacy asked , "What do old people eat?" You know, like old people are a whole other species.

Harper did her usual, "Come wipe me!!!!" when she was done going potty, I went in there and she says, "My panties are soaking wet"
Me, "Why are your panties soaking wet?"
Harper, "Well, I think they got wet when I was washing my hands with Lily and Lacy a long time ago"
Me, " Ummm...did you pee in your panties Harper?"
Harper, "Yeah, I think it was that"

I tried to sneak off the bathroom by myself and of course as soon as I close the door, Harper who is the loudest child we have, starts yelling, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!!!" No joke, this child will yell my name 50 times instead of just coming to find me. After no response from me, she hunts me down in the bathroom. I said, "What did you need Harper, yelling like that?" Harper, "But Mommy I just didn't want you to be alone and scared in the bathroom all by yourself"