Happy Valentines Day!

We hope your day has been full of love and spent with the ones you love!

Valentines card idea found on Pinterest via this blog. Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Life Lately

We have been just plugging along in life with a 3.5 year old, 2 year old and .5 year old.  Our days are full and we are constantly laughing around here by what these little people do and say.  Sometimes the days just seem so repetitive, but I don't want to forget because I know we are going to turn around and we'll be plugging along in life with a 12.5 year old, 11 year old and 9.5 year old.

Emma Ann continues to be such a sweet, sweet baby.  I continue to be so thankful for her gentle and easy going disposition.  She's so go-with-the-flow.  And who doesn't love a sleeping baby!  We finally broke her from the swaddle last month and she's definitely a side or stomach sleeper.  Must have paci and lovey!  She loves those loveys and I think it's so sweet how she tucks it in the crook of her arm when she sleeps.   

They are building a house right next door. Several times a week in the late afternoon/evening, Hannah Cate suggests that we go "watch the show". So we set up our theatre seats for the big production.

These two love each other - fiercely!  Sometimes the fierceness comes out in sweet hugs and sometimes it comes out in other not so sweet ways!  But they are quick to make up and go right back to playing.

Maddie has developed quite the sweet tooth and she's not exactly shy about it!

Tea parties have become a popular thing at our house.  Check out Hannah Cate's form!  The last few months with Hannah Cate have been so much fun.  She's just genuinely a sweet little girl.  Her concern for others blows me away.  Sometimes her concern turns to fear - for example, we'll often let Clive and Gabby out in the front yard to stretch their legs and run around in the open lots across the street from our house.  Hannah Cate gets so worried about them when she can't see them or if she thinks they might run off.  I can tell she's going to be a touch on the sensitive side.  She's a bit of a girly girl (likes to have her hair done and nails painted) but she can throw a ball with the best of them.  At the end of each day, Matt asks her what her favorite part of the day was.  Tonight she said her favorite part of the day was going to Chick-fil-A with Daddy.  I acted like my feelings were hurt that her favorite part of the day wasn't spending time with me, to which she promptly responded, "But I love y'all both"!  So sweet is that girl! 

Even Maddie can be prim and proper when it's time for tea!  Most of the time she's just our little ball of energy and she keeps us in stitches with the things she says.  Her vocabulary has absolutely skyrocketed over the last couple of months and she's in that repeat everything stage.  Just tonight as I was putting on her pj's she told me "the tag goes in the back" because she's heard me tell Hannah Cate that so many times (since Hannah Cate can put on her own panties and pants).  I never would have guessed Maddie was actually paying attention!  You can often catch Maddie "riding her horse" around the house - which really just means she gallops around instead of walks.  I hardly even notice anymore because it's just so her!  She can be a bit clumbsy, so we often say "Maddie, are you okay?".  Now I can hear her throughout the house after she's tripped or run into a wall, saying to herself "I'm okaaaaay".

This guy has found a new home at our house.  He's got a strong place in my memories from my childhood.  He came from my grandparent's house - my Dad's parents.  My Grandmother went to be with Jesus several weeks ago.  I've never felt such peace about someone going to heaven.  Her mind is now whole again and her body fully restored.  I have no doubt that when she met her Savior face to face that He said to her, "Well done, my good and faithful servant".  And then I'm sure she proceeded to talk His ear off!  I will always remember her when we pull out this "craft clown". 

Emma Ann has sprouted two teeth.  And she gets to play dress up with the big girls from time to time!  

I'm afaid she's going to be crawling before I know it.  She's perfected the roll and can just about make her way to anything she wants around the room. Sometimes her hair has a definite tint of red, but I think it's more the light than anything.  People tell me a lot that they think she's going to have red hair, but I think she's going to be just like her sisters with brownish, blondish locks. 

She turned 7 months last week.....time is just absolutely flying by.  Can you tell she's a happy girl?

I don't mean to make it seem like it's always smiles and giggles and sweet harmony around here all the time, because it's not.  But you didn't come here to hear about our bad days, did you?