2 ALREADY

Happy Birthday to Eliza! We can't believe that you are two years old already. You started talking so long ago so for you to only be turning two...I thought for sure it had already happened months ago. I love my Eliza. You are so full of wit and you make me smile more than you make me scream, which is a good thing!

Here's her butterfly cake that she helped me decorate:We sure had a lot of fun with all of our friends over here to help us eat the cake!

YUMMY!

And I didn't do anything tricky with wrapping this present and I don't know why it took her so long to find what was in there.

Happy 2nd Birthday Eliza...we hope you have a very good year ahead.

Valentine's Dinner

I have a good husband that made me this for Valentine's Day Dinner.

We shared it with our children, of course, but I didn't mind because we love them, too...and Neil did the dishes after it was over!

We hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day.

We love you!

Remembering Sherry Alley

We got some sad news yesterday from our neighbors in Indiana. Our good friend Shery died of cancer this past Tuesday February 10th. We will miss her a lot and always remember what a good friend she was to our family and especially Eliza. It seemed like Eliza always was her best friend when we went over to Rick and Jerri's. She didn't have any granddaughters so she adopted Eliza as her own. Please know that we love you, Shery and are keeping your family in our prayers at this time of sorrow. You will be forever missed. Thanks for all of the walks and talks and our cute Christmas pajamas. One night her husband Donny and her babysat the kids so we could go out on a date. That night she gave them some Christmas pajamas and Sesame Street and Bob the Builder pajamas, too. The kids are still wearing the Bob the Builder and Sesame Street ones and wore the Christmas ones for 2 years in a row! What a kind person...I want to be like her because she always made me feel like a good person when I was around her.

Doing Laundry

Lately, when I bring home the laundry from the laundry room, Brendan likes to help me fold it. I told him that he needed to fold all of the towels in a heaping basket of towels...my friend was over at the time and I don't think she thought he would do it...I can't say that I really thought he would stick with it, but he did! He is such a big helper.He folded all of the dish towels, washcloths, and placemats and even put them in this neat pile. He is also in charge of folding all of his underwear and pajamas and putting them away in his drawer. I really appreciate all of the help that he is around the house. His dad sets a good example for him to followAnd I am glad to know that I'm not the only one that gets tuckered out after a day filled with laundry.
There was another day not too long ago that I started to pick things up in the living room. Without even asking him to help me, he started picking things up with me and even rallied around Eliza to get her to help. It was so helpful! I hope he continues to pick up on those tiny clues as he grows up!

Getting to 9:00 Church On Time?

We haven't quite gotten a routine down at getting to church on time with the earlier block. 9 o'clock is hard for our family especially when at 8:11am all of your kids still look like this:

And just for kicks...Eliza again. I just think that this is so funny or should I say ironic because every other day of the week she is up at 6:45 asking for a bowl of cereal and we are wishing she were still asleep.

We really had been trying to wake them up for 15 minutes already. All the lights were on in the rooms and they had grunted at us quite a bit, too. But they wouldn't wake up. And then I sit there in Primary watching Brendan yawn through singing time and Sharing time and just have to laugh. He really is liking Primary though. He comes home and tells me which songs they sang and he usually gets them all right. I like being able to peak over the piano to see if he is singing which makes me mess up most of the time, but oh well...I've been accused of being a proud parent before. :)
I just like 11:00 church better...but watch--just when we get the hang of the 9:00 schedule we will be ready to move back to 11:00 and have to juggle dipping into nap time again.
It's a good thing that we know the church is true! :)

Fun at our House

Here is a cute video of our little guy. He is growing up SO FAST! I can't believe he is 3 months old already and laughing, too. Amazing how they grow like weeds!


We are having a lot of fun at our house.


This is just something silly that our kids do. I remember doing it as a kid so that I would have long hair with my shirt. Every night when we take off their shirts to get them into their pajamas they leave their shirts on thier heads and think that it is a party hat. The other day when we were taking Brendan's shirt off, it was really tight around his BIG head and it squished his face together. I just started laughing. He was laughing too, although I don't think that he could see what he looked like because he couldn't open his eyes. I had to get a picture of his cute squished face. I love that he makes me smile so much. Eliza is such a good friend to Lincoln. She makes sure that he always has all of the toys that he could possibly need while he is sitting in the swing. Lincoln gets a real kick out of her, too. I like to watch her interacting with him and wonder what kind of mom she will be when she grows up. I know that she will be a good one for sure because she loves her little baby.
Brendan loves Lincoln, too. They are always wanting their picture taken with him.
I set Lincoln down in the big chair quite often so that I can just get something done. I know that he will be entertained by the circus going on in the living room at all times. It just sort of amazes me at how often I turn the corner and ALL three of the kids are in the chair. They just like to be close to each other...or love to be around Lincoln. We love our little brother!
First time with all three kids in the bathtub was kind of fun. Putting Lincoln in and washing him really fast and then taking him out was the key to this bathtime success. The kids loved it that Lincoln got to be in the tub with them. They still love their bathtime, too. They can't wait for the swimming pool to open back up in the summer.