Happy Birthday Jeff!

Okay... time to get the blog up and running again.
  One week before our beautiful girl was born, we celebrated Jeff's birthday. It was a really great day, and it was our last full family day before we grew to 7. We ended up spending the day at our friend Lance's house, swimming in his pool. Lance was at work, but he's such a nice guy he just allowed us to hang out at his pool all day. We took the pack and play with us, so Landon even managed to squeeze in a nap. I absolutely love laid back days with just my family!

It started raining pretty soon after we got in the pool, so we took a break and opened presents. Landon missed this part because he was napping.

Then lots and lots of swimming. And because there was a lot of swimming this was pretty much the only picture I got.

After swimming we got cleaned up and went out to eat to Longhorn Steakhouse. Yum!

 Landon was there too!

Happy Birthday Daddy.

We love you Jeff, and I truly truly am thankful that I get to celebrate all of your birthdays with you. Happy Birthday!

A Quick Catch Up!

So, in less that 48 hours we will be welcoming the 7th member of our family! Wow! I can't believe it's time. But before that happens I need to catch up on what has been going on here in our home for the last few weeks. We have been rapidly preparing for our little girls arrival. We even had some construction done in our house to make room for her. We closed off our small play room upstairs to make it into a room for her a couple of weeks ago. 

 Here's her new room!

 One evening a few weeks ago, I had my book study night with a friend of mine, and when I got home I found these two in the nursery with the crib all set up! It's almost ready to go, and then I will post some more pictures of the final product.

Also, our sweet second oldest lost her very first tooth, actually the night of our American Girl trip!

 And her surprise under her pillow was $2 plus a coupon for a family night out for frozen yogurt! She was pretty excited to join her big sister in all of this loosing teeth business.

 He just wants his own bowl and spoon now. Getting too big!

 Not the best picture of the big pregnant chic but the only one of Avery and I.

School has been moving right along. My goal was to get in 4 weeks before baby and on Thursday we finished up. Now we are onto another 4 week break before we pick it back up again. It's been going pretty good so far though. As long as I can keep Landon happy and occupied we get our work done. It's not always in one sitting, we often have to come back and finish during his nap but we are figuring it out a day at a time. Of course once our newest girl is here we are going to have to figure it out all over again!

We have done a few crafts, not many this year, but I'm trying to squeeze some in per my girlies request.

This one only Adalyn got to do as she has been learning about the seasons. Aubrey really wanted to do one too, but 2nd grade is proving to have a lot more work. Poor girl just never had time to do one also.

 This was a really fun craft that was actually part of Aubrey's curriculum, but all three girls had so much fun doing one. We just shaved some old crayons onto wax paper with the name Jesus. We then put another piece of wax paper on top, quickly ran the iron over it to melt the crayon, and they turned into beautiful window art. Aubrey has been learning a lot about the name Jesus and that He is the light of the world. It went along with her verse of the week, John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life".

 

 We also made wigwams one day which did not work, but was fun to try. Aubrey has been learning about different Indian tribes, and she is in the middle of reading her very first chapter book on her own, about Squanto.

Landon wanted to try making one too. Ha! I gave him some paper with a little bit of glue, and that kept him entertained for quite awhile. Whatever it takes!

And just because I want to show a glimpse of what our school room looks like occasionally after a busy school morning. Wow! Kind of takes your breath away.

Adalyn was actually helping pick up. Landon just enjoys dumping everything out that has a billion pieces. He's learning very quickly how to pick up a mess. So how am going to juggle all of this plus a newborn in the next few weeks? I have no idea! Yikes!

A Fun Mommy Daughter Day

My big girls, for nearly a year, have been saving all of their money and working extra hard around the house to earn money, so that they could buy their very own American Girl doll. For a long while they had no idea about American Girl, and I was perfectly happy about that. Then 2 Christmas's ago we got a catalog in the mail. They had fun looking at it but never really asked much about it. Then Christmas this year, another one arrived in the mail, and the curiosity sparked even more. Plus they began noticing some friends and cousins having them. Jeff, being the Mr. Frugal that he is (which I am very thankful for), told them the only way they would ever get an American Girl doll is if they saved their own money to buy one. Adalyn didn't hesitate. She decided in that moment that she was going to do exactly that, and not once did she ever want to give up and spend her money on anything else. Aubrey wasn't quite as sure, but she stuck it out with her sister. After both of their birthdays were over they had both saved just enough to buy a doll, and you wouldn't believe the excitement of these two. I was pretty much just as excited! So we planned a Saturday to have a girl day, go to lunch and pick out their new dolls. It was such a fun afternoon and just a fun season to get to do these fun things with just the big girls.

We first went out to lunch, just to Panera Bread but they sure thought it was something special. Ha!

 

Then we headed into The American Girl store. Their eyes were big and they were giddy with excitement. They just kept looking at me and smiling. It was too cute. 

We walked around for awhile, letting them take it all in and make their decision. It took them a little while to make their final decision, but once they decided they were set. We made our purchase and headed home. 

Once we got home, it didn't take long til the tears started from Aubrey. She chose Caroline, and Caroline has very long, very curly hair. It didn't take long til her hair was a big mess and Aubrey realized she couldn't just brush it, like Adalyn could do to her doll's hair. She was so upset and saying she wished she picked out one with straight hair. Ugh!! Really??!? After all that. I was super frustrated but trying to be sensitive to her. I wanted her to be happy with her doll after all her hard work, but the last thing I wanted to do was drive back to the store (which was an hour away) to exchange her for another doll. This is when Jeff swopped in to save the day. Now I know he would rather me not post this but it was so sweet and I always want Aubrey to remember how blessed she is to have a Daddy who really cares about her, even when it comes to her feelings towards a doll. He began googling "how to take care of Caroline's hair" and found a few you tube videos. So he and Aubrey sat their together watching these you tube videos together, of the best ways to care for her hair, and immediately her smile started returning. And I no longer had to decide whether or whether not to drive all the way back to the store! I was happy, Aubrey was happy, see Daddy saved the day! He even took the time to show her how to do it after watching the tutorials. That's a pretty sweet Daddy right?