Alice's 4th Birthday

                     

Not much has changed in Alice's little world. She is still bossy, mouthy, persistent, independent, snuggly, motherly, tender hearted, and very, very social!! This girl is pretty much everything all rolled into one adorable green eyed 4 year old. She loves to snuggle before bed and cries when her feelings are hurt but she can debate like nobodies business!! This year Alice and I have become inseparable and we both enjoy each others company. She runs to me all day and says "mom, I just love you!". Of course I feel the same and I know that doing preschool with her this year has really built a strong bond. She is my most tender and sweet child and always needs me to give her hugs, kisses, snuggles, and little "bum pinches". This girls NEEDS affection constantly and understanding this has helped me better meet her needs. We are understanding each other more and more each day and with that comes so much more love. Every morning she comes into our room and snuggles with me or Nick and I think "I love you more today than yesterday". She has my whole heart!!

One of our favorite actives to do lately is cook muffins today. We (mainly me) like muffins because they are super easy to make, yummy to eat, and I can sneak in healthy stuff like pumpkin, greek yogurt and even veggies. Alice gobbles them up every time. I love chatting with her while we wait for them to bake and it has become something special we do together.

Alice has been snuggly since the moment she was born!! This girl loves to be close to me and asks every nap/bed time if I can lay with her. Most of the time I try to lay next to her and chat. She puts my arm around her and loves it when I give her "butterfly kisses". Its a constant reminder that she needs this type of affection and is much better behaved with I snuggle with her. OF course I never mind giving her kisses! 

My favorite part about Alice right now is her sweet imagination. I catch her everyday playing and talking to her self and creating a little world. She loves to play with her bean boo stuffed animals and have them do her bidding. One Sunday she snuck in her favorite bean boo Maddie Puppy. I told Alice that she could keep him if she stayed quiet. I would periodically hear the Alice bark and then say "Maddie Puppy you need to be quiet and not bark at church". She did that over and over. It made everyone around us just laugh. This girl has such a childlike innocence that I love to witness. 

Her favorite toy right now are her beanie boo stuffed animals. They are just small animals with big sparkly eyes but she LOVES them. We are getting quite the collection and she is always holding on or two in her hands.Unfortunately, Jack also loves them but she is never willing to share...haha

Alice is a perfect mix of tom boy and girly girl. She loves her nails painted but them LOVES to watch Kratts Creatures on the iPad (a total boy show). I am always scrubbing out grass stains and sewing up holes. This girl plays hard outside and loves to climb to the very top of the jungle gym. But then she adores everything princess and is always dressing up with heels and makeup with Scarlett. I love that she has a little of me in her...tom boy and girly!

Favorites:

color- purple, pink, blue, yellow

book- Fancy Nancy, little Critter books

tv show- strawberry shortcake, animal shows

food- chicken nuggets, yogurt smoothies, granola bars, gold fish (she loves snack foods!)

toy- beanie boo stuffed animals, princess toys, dress up, doll house, babies

princess- Belle, Rapunzel, and Cinderella

activity- park with friends and making muffins with mom

For her birthday this girl got the royal treatment. We made her a fun breakfast, opened presents, did her nails, she helped make cupcakes and picked out a new beanie boo, and best of all she got her ears pierced!! She started off super brave and then of course freaked out with initial shot of pain began. But its been a couple of days and she shows them off to everyone and loves to feel big. Alice I love you and raising you is nothing short of joyous! I would say "stop growing up" but somehow you just get better and better!

Last night as a 3 year old

Jackson 15 Months

                       
This boy is a ray of sunshine!! He is loved and kissed and hugged and snuggled and kissed and smothered constantly by his family...we love him A LOT!!  He is still not talking but is understanding almost everything we say. I love seeing the curiosity in him grow as he discovers the world around him. The more he discovers, the more he wants to discover. If a door to the outside is open Jackson is out like a flash. Nothing is more excited and adventurous than being outside. He gets in the dirt and bushes and has no boundaries. If I let him he would just go and go and never come home. But with his adventure comes more than enough snuggles. I rock him to sleep for both naps and bed. He snuggles right up next to me, drinks his bottle, and closes his eyes. Those quiet moments together are a highlight to every day.

I have so many favorites about this boy but I will try to list them: how he toddles around and tries to keep up with all the kids, how he runs to me and gives me a hug and spontaneously kisses me on the lips, how he knows my voice and gets excited to see me when he hears my voice, how he says "dada" when nick walks in the door, how he gets so excited to read books before naps, how he chases after any ball he sees, how he is so, so happy all day!! I love this sweet age of 15 months as they learn and grow and their curiosity increases. Jackson is the most quintessential little boy and a complete joy!

and then he smashed scarlet castle with the hammer

Kinder and Mom School

                       
Scarlett just finished her 100th day of kindergarten and she loves school, especially all her new friends. She plays with a little boy named Caden and a girl named Cashlyn every day. We hear stories of their recess adventures after school while eating lunch. It took Scarlett and I some time to adjust to the new kinder schedule. Her school starts early and it was a big adjustment for our family to start going to bed earlier and waking up earlier. But come November we got the hang of it all and have loved it every since. I love that she comes home early in the afternoon and has time to play/eat/run around before Alice takes a nap. While the babies take naps Scarlett and I read, do homework, practice sight words, and do her computer games for school. I love our quiet afternoons together! My favorite part of kindergarten is dropping her off in the morning and picking her up in the afternoon. She always gives me a kiss and leaves with the biggest smile and then does the same when I pick her up. She hops/skips to our car and jumps in just bursting to tell me all the fun stuff she did that day. Its usually followed with "so are we going to grandmas to play?'. Scarlett is a joy to raise and I am so thankful she is part of our family!

Alice and I do "mom school" every Monday and Wednesday morning while Jack naps. It is our special time to be together and we both look forward to it. We don't ever have a set planned lesson but we do make sure that 9-11 is our time together. We play games, read books, do work pages, color, and art projects. But the thing we do the most is cook! We love to make muffins together and Alice is getting to the point where she can almost make them by herself. She loves putting on her apron (that matches mine) and sitting up on the counter. While we cook she tells me funny stories or asks me a million questions. Making muffins with Alice has become the joy of my week!! On Wednesdays we go to the library for story time and to play games on the computer and do puzzles.  Alice can't write her name or count to 100 but she is very confident and social. I know all the official learning will fall into place just perfectly for her! I am so, so glad I listened to that voice in my heart and kept her home with me!