All about Lily // age six

Our sweet Lily turned 6 on New Year's Day! I'm not really sure how the baby who made me a mama can be six already! She is a precious, head-strong, loving, stubborn, encouraging girl. She loves writing notes and drawing pictures for anyone and everyone! When she gets to choose one thing from Target $ Spot, she chooses notecards over everything else. :)

She asked for pumpkin muffins, eggs and bacon for her birthday breakfast. 

We went to my family's for New Year's dinner. Mom helped Lily work on a little sewing project. 

Lily lost her second tooth on her birthday!

I find selfies like this on my phone all the time! haha. 

A few of Lily's favorites:

My best friend: Selena (neighbor friend)

My favorite food: mac & cheese and hot dogs

My favorite color: black and white

My favorite book: Heidi

My favorite place to go: the beach

My favorite animal: cats

My favorite sport: riding my bike

My favorite school subject: math

I would like to work on: being a better sister

I would like to learn more about: God

Hobbies: playing with Ava, drawing

What will you be when you grow up? artist and piano teacher

Are you going to get married? maybe, still thinking about it.

What do you love to do with Mama? go to Starbucks and Target.

What do you love to do with Daddy? go out to Starbucks

What do you love most about yourself? that I have a home and a family.

xoxo,

Cold weekend fun.

Last weekend was soooo cold, but we got out and did a lot of activities! Jacob an to a consignment store on Thursday to get the 3 big kids heavy coats because all they had were hoodies. 

Thursday evening the chamber group of the youth orchestra Jacob conducts was playing at our city's downtown open house and Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It was fun just super cold!

On Friday night, we went to a Christmas tree lighting at an outdoor mall in a nearby town. We missed the actual lighting because the traffic was INSANE and we had to park on the top floor of the parking garage. Oh well. The kids didn't know the difference. Jacob's mom went with us, and it was so nice to have her help us keep up with children in the huge crowds. :)

Levi and a giant christmas ball.

Lily standing by a giant reindeer's leg. It was SO cold and windy!

We didn't last long outside, but we went to Barnes and Noble and the kids had the best time! 

Grammie got the kids (and Jacob) rides on the carousel. 

There was a santa the kids could see after they rode the carousel. Lily told him she wants a doll and Levi said he wants an umbrella. HA! 

On Saturday morning, there was a 5K race that Jacob and some other family members ran in. Lily and my nephew, Ridley, ran the 1 mile fun run. They did so well!

Here they are just starting out.

Right before crossing the finish line. :) We were so proud of her!

Happy Day.

We had such a fun day on Tuesday. I decided to take the kids to pick out little pumpkins at a "pumpkin patch" a local church had. When I drove by on Monday, they still had tons of pumpkins, but when we got there Tuesday morning, they had packed up and all that was left were little gourds. I felt so, so bad because I'd gotten the kids so excited about this special treat.

We tried the farmer's market next and hit the jackpot for pumpkins and apples! I was so thankful that the kids were able to get pumpkins. Then I decided to take them on a nature walk around a local park to find pretty leaves. We wandered around for over an hour, munching on apples, picking up leaves and acorns. The children were so well behaved and we really just had the best time. It was a balm to this tired mama's soul.

Three cuties.

burning off energy.

Later the same day, our babysitter came for a few hours so I could take Lily out on a special date with mama before Baby Girl is born.

I let her choose where she wanted to go. Our first stop was the Dollar Tree for some new dress up stuff. She loves all things girly/dress up! After that, we ran by a local consignment store to see if they had any shoes in Lily's size, but they didn't, so we headed to a new frozen yogurt shop.

It was super windy and sunny, but Lily wanted to sit outside anyway. She kept having to hold her hair out of her face so she could eat. 

Our final stop was Target. We found some shoes (on sale! yay!) and she picked out a new book. In the picture, she's riding in Levi's carseat. Whenever her brothers aren't with us, she loves to ride in their carseats. Silly girl!

After I put the boys to bed that night, I came in her room and found this little setup. I think Jacob's going to need to build her a dressing table! :)

I am so thankful for the fun days with my babies.

Lily turns 3!

So finally more than a month later I'm posting about Lily's birthday. Oh well :)

Our girl is getting so big! She lights up our home with her personality...and her attitude. Ha! She is so funny and makes us laugh every day. 

She wants to do everything just like Mama. 

She has a huge imagination. She loves acting out stories. She loves playing mama and teacher and nurse. 

She loves her brothers. 

She is bossy. 

She loves to read and be read to. 

She loves to sing. 

She is a helper. 

She is shy at times. 

She loves coloring, cutting, pasting, basically anything crafty.

She loves playing games. 

She can be happy as can be one minute and a puddle of tears the next. 

She is stubborn. 

She enjoys playing outside and can't wait for summertime.

She loves taking pictures.

She talks all. the. time.

She weighs 30lbs and wears size 3T clothes and size 9 shoes.

For her birthday breakfast she wanted chocolate chip pancakes.

We had a small party for her at Five Guys. Well, it wasn't that small when you consider the size of both our families! :)

Silly girl!

My big helper. I am so thankful for her!

Two Little Cooks

Thank you all for your sweet and encouraging comments on my last post. I'm so thankful to know that I'm not alone in this stage of motherhood. Pouring ourselves into our babies is so much more important right now than having a clean house! The days are sometimes long, but the years are much too short!

Lily and Levi love to wear my aprons and cook up some tasty concoctions in their play kitchen. They were playing so sweetly together until Levi tried to stir Lily's "soup."

She is shaking her finger at him saying, "no, no, no!" 

Totally cracks me up!

Y'all have a great weekend!

Resurrection Sunday

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating our Savior's resurrection! I am so thankful for His work on the cross.

This the power of the cross

Christ became sin for us

Took the blame, bore the wrath

We stand forgiven at the cross.

I was looking back through some old pictures and thought it was funny to see our family grow over the past four Resurrection Sundays.

2009

 2010

 2011

2012

Sunday was my first time taking all three kids to church by myself. Jacob was playing at another church's Easter program, so I was on my own. Thankfully everything went well with getting us ready and loaded in the van. I was pretty happy that the kids and I made it to church with 10 minutes to spare! It was no small feat, let me tell you! :-)

My handsome boys

I love my precious babes!

After church we had dinner with my family at Memaw's. Of course we had to get our traditional family pictures too. Yes, I like to have the whole family matching/coordinating! So fun!

Lily 2 years old

Levi 1 year old

Asher 4 weeks old

I hope you all had a blessed weekend!

Life

Lily and Levi are currently gone to the home improvement store with Jacob, so I thought I would grab the chance to post a couple pictures.

Life these days is busy, busy. We are doing well, although I will be the first to admit that having 3 babes age two and under is not a cakewalk...at all. We have good days and we have rough days (sometimes it seems like the rough outweigh the good), but God's grace is all-sufficient!

Just an example of the things Lily and Levi do when mama is feeding Asher or taking two minutes to clear the table after a meal. Seriously. I'm not sure where their clothes went, why Lily's shorts are pulled up so high, or what possessed them to pull all my ribbons off! I walked in the room from clearing supper off the table and just had to laugh. 

Asher obviously thought it was quite humorous too.

Happy Friday!

too precious for words.

Coming Home.

We got home from the birth clinic around lunch time on Monday. I really wanted to get home earlier because I missed my babies, but the daylight savings time change added to having a baby on the same day really did us in!

Lily was especially excited to meet her new little brother, but Levi wasn't too sure about him.

Our little family of five.

My precious babes.

So sweet!