Happy 4th Birthday to our sweet Avery!

It's still hard to believe my little sweet Avery turned 4! I blinked again and her third year just flew by. She is growing up quickly and learning so many new things. She is still definitely a shy girl in public but at home she keeps us laughing constantly. The two big girls are always telling me the funny things Avery says to them when they are off playing.

I love spending time with this girl. She loves telling stories and they usually end with me and her at the park.  She loves to color like her sisters and just recently started coloring really well. We had a coloring date the other day just her and I. While we were coloring we were just chatting and she said "Remember when you told me the other day we were going to have Mommy Avery time, and then we didn't." Ouch right! She gives the best hugs and there is something about the way she says "I love you mommy", that just melts my heart. This girls also has a bit of a strong will and a bit free spirited at the same time. She doesn't really like to be told what to do, which in the life of the four year old can be a bit tricky! But she is learning and sometimes. like most children, just needs some extra attention and some special one on one time. She loves going on Daddy daughter dates! Avery Brenna is such a smart girl too. It's been funny with this third girl of mine, there are just things she has learned so quickly just by being around her big sisters. She can almost count to 100 already, which that took me quite a while to teach my big girls, and honestly I never really taught that to Avery. One day (this was probably a year ago) I looked outside on the swing set and she was swinging all by herself! I was shocked. It took me forever to teach the big girls how to do that. Funny! The other night  at dinner she started counting by tens all the way to 100. Jeff and I looked at each other and he said "You know how to count by 10's??". Hopefully she continues this pattern!

On her birthday we had a great time celebrating her. She really didn't have too many requests for her day but she really wanted to be with her family. She did request sausage egg casserole for breakfast and was very excited when she saw the Frozen balloon that Daddy bought for her that morning.

Since we didn't throw a birthday party for her we did invite one of her favorite friends over for lunch a play date. Her little friend Tessa is such a sweet heart and they had a blast playing together.

Once Daddy came home we opened presents....

Then headed to Chuck E Cheese per the birthday girls request.

 Love this one of Daddy and his birthday girl!

Avery Brenna, you are such a beautiful sweet little girl! You bring such joy to our family. Your smile and laughter is contagious and your big beautiful brown eyes can melt anyones heart. You are growing up too fast and I am trying to hold on to any bit of my baby girl that is left. I love you so very much my sweet girl, and I pray constantly that God captures your heart and that you one day grow into a young lady who desires to follow wholeheartedly after Him. We are so proud of you!

Lynlee's 4th Month

Our sweet girl had a very productive 4th month. She has grown so much already.  She loves to babble and still gets very loud. The girls love when she "talks" to them. She is such a smiley girl and it doesn't take much to get big smiles from her. She has become quite the mommy's girl this month. She doesn't take a bottle very well from anyone, and really doesn't like it when I go anywhere. I'm hoping she gets over this seperation problem soon. Her sleep has been a bit wish washy this month for some reason. She is not quite as solid of a sleeper as the other 4 were, but I know we will get there. She still typically sleeps 9 hours, but sometimes just randomly wakes up throughout the night but then goes back to sleep. I'm still pretty exhausted and ready to get solid sleep once again!  She loves her bouncer, she loves to sit in her high chair and look around at everyone, and she loves just laying on the floor trying with all her might to roll over. She successfully rolls from her tummy to her back but hasn't quite figured out how to get from her back to tummy. But her favorite is definitely to be held. Little stinker!  She loves grabbing her feet,  which is always one of those baby things that I love! The girls have been reading a lot to her this month which is so great watching. One of those moments that makes me smile! Lynlee Noelle is just a precious, happy, sweet baby. She is such a blessing and I'm just so thankful for all of these sweet baby moments. I know time will continue to fly and I really am just trying to soak it all in.

The House family came for a visit!

 She found her feet!

 Cute pictures with Daddy after church one Sunday.

Trampoline Fun!

As mentioned in the previous post we got the kids a trampoline for Christmas and it has definitely been the new favorite thing around here. We had a blast taking pictures that first day we were jumping!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas has come and gone quick as a wink once again. We really had a great Christmas this year, just enjoying our family and being home. Jeff had a lot of vacation stored up also so we really just had such great family time. I love that time of year, especially for all the family time and all the great conversations we are starting to have about Jesus, the importance of His birth and what it means to receive his salvation. Through our advent every night, we are continually reminded why Christmas is so important and it always helps us all keep our hearts in the right place.  Here are a few highlights of our day!

Christmas Eve night! Already for the kiddos.

 Let the excitement begin..

 We took some pictures for Daddy. He loved them!

 Exchanging sibling gifts. They love this part.

 Daddy with his five kiddos. Hard to believe sometimes.

 This was from my sisters family and it was a perfect gift for this girl who loves to sing.

 Our sweet Lynlee Noelle on her first Christmas.

 Landon was very excited about this car race tower.

 Twister! Quite entertaining watching them play.

 At the end of the day we told the kids, "Wait... we have one more present." They couldn't believe it!

 We got them a new trampoline and they were shocked! Daddy set it up the next day and it has been awesome ever since!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Here is it February and I'm just now posting Christmas. I know I know... Sometimes I lay in bed thinking about the blog and how behind I am and maybe I should just give up  on documenting everything. But then I realize how much I enjoy going back and looking at past posts over the years, things I completely forgot about, and I don't want to forget about all of these sweet moments that go on now either. Even though there is no time left in my days anymore for hobbies, I just can't bring myself to stop blogging. It's really precious to me.

 So... back to Christmas. These pictures are just some fun things we did the week before Christmas!

The 3 big girls all had their Christmas choir performances. Avery refused to go on stage for her's which I admit was completely aggravating. But the other two did an awesome job during their show, singing their sweet Christmas songs. We were two proud parents watching our big girls. I just can't believe how big they are sometimes.

 This is the girls sweet friend Claire.

 Just missing little Lynlee here!

 Our friends, The Brooms. Love this family!

My parents came down a few days before Christmas and we had lots of fun while they were here. A few highlights were making Christmas cookies (Landon's first time to join the fun), going to our church's Christmas service and going to see Santa.

We went to Old Town Spring this year to enjoy their Christmas festivities. That was an eventful day! Just another day it was once again confirmed, nothing is easy with an infant!

 These two of Landon and Avery still crack me up. By the end of this Landon was giving Santa high fives.

At our Christmas service at church they had the kids come up at sing a Christmas song. My parents were in town so it was great that they got to watch the girls sing on stage. After service they even served hot chocolate and candy canes. Yum!

 Ugh, our only family picture during Christmas time. Not the best... Jeff loves this one.

 And just because these two are sweet!