and though she be but little, she is fierce

Well Lily has turned two and Lily at two is full of sass! If there is a conflict between my three children Lily is always the victor. She sets in place her determination and nothing can shake that. At a play date I found her trying to wrestle a baby stroller away from a five year old. I may or may not refer to her as Lilellzabub every once in a while. She also loves to burst into song and I often find her singing to herself, "happy happy haaaapppy!" while spinning in an artful dance. One of my favorite moments with Lily this year took place at her Aunt Julie's wedding. She spent the entire evening on the dance floor shaking her groove thing and even managed to keep up with a floor full of grownups doing the electric slide. Right now Lils does this cute thing where I start saying, "I love.." and then she yells "YOOOOU!" and gives me a big smacking kiss. On her birthday she received a princess dress with a matching Snow White doll and she danced and pranced and sang for hours! Lily is also going through a thorough mommy phase- if Grace or John dare to sit on my lap she lunges across the room to try to push them off while shrieking in her banshee dialect. But she does love her siblings and when the mood hits her she is the cuddliest cutest little monkey. Unfortunately her mommy obsession extends to Neil and if he trys to give me hug she is right on him pushing him away with all the strength in her cubby little arms. But Lily does have one fear. I discovered it today at church. I was walking with her in the hall today and we passed a little baby. She said, "hi Baby" and waved and then the baby started crawling after her. Lily started wailing! She had never seen something as fearful as a chubby little baby crawling after her. The baby was pretty fast and the only thing faster was Lily jumping into my arms!

Graceisms

"Mom we had better start making autographs because when the kids at preschool see these beads in my hair they are going to think I am a fashion star!"

Little Miss Five Year Old

Well yesterday was my five year anniversary of becoming a mom. Oh yeah and Grace's birthday! She had a mermaid pirate party and I was running around like a crazy chicken with its head cut off and didn't take even one picture! That was last week. Then yesterday we took cupcakes to preschool where I again failed to take any pics. Luckily we had a third family cake last night where I got this little gem. So Grace at five is full of funny comments, as documented on my face book page. She loves to play pretend and she loves coloring and getting pedicures and kissing boys! And her favorite snack of late is celery. Weird but healthy. In other news I have been refinishing a china cabinet and have the bottom half done. I kind of picked the color out randomly at the paint store but I have to say I like it. It has been strange. I just felt like I couldn't do any projects for like the past year because I was so overwhelmed with my kids. Then about a week ago I started working on somethings again and I feel so much happier. Lily is finally old enough that I can put on a Dora (parenting at its finest) and she will watch it while I sew, or paint, or read. And Grace and John will color for hours when I get their art supplies out. Lets just say life is sweet again.

Happy Birthday John

OK so this may be a few months late but John turned 3! John at three is suddenly talking up a storm. At the playland the other day he informed me he was a secret sneaky snake. Due to being born with a tongue tie he was a little late to the talking train. But apparently he likes alliteration. He is always explaining things to me by saying "because because because...." Lately John has liked to take on the role of a villan while playing. He loudly proclaims "I am choosing the WRONG Mom" or "I am a bad guy," should I be worried? John can also be very sweet though. On Valentines day I saw him grab two chocolates in one hand and two in the other. I asked him why he needed so many chocolates and he explained that two were for "Illy." John also started Primary this year and he hates it. He wants to go back to nursery. John is super smart with numbers and can count to 30. He could probabely go higher but his mom is too lazy to teach him..... And he likes story problems... whose kid is this? John has been going to preschool this year and loves his "preschool friends." John has lately been asking for spikey dinosaur hair dos- so obviously he is developing some fashion sense. Oh and his favorite book is Ghosts in the House. It is a Halloween book that I keep hiding and he mysteriously keeps finding. He also enjoys drawing spiders which is evidenced by the three large spiders he drew on the couch this week. John is a cute little man and we love him so much! PS apparently blogger has changes and now I can't find the spell check- so sorry for misspellings

Snow

This morning I went out into the yard and there were snow flakes coming down!!! I guess it is time to buy John and Lily some coats. They had to tough it out today in long sleeve Ts, a sweat shirt, and then denim jackets layered stylishly on top. Anyway, after the snow excitment we had a birthday party to go to. Lily was out of control. She waited until all the children had left the kids tables and then promptly began eating all the food leftover on the plates. Is it gross that I let her do it? She was having such a good time and I didn't see any runny noses or hear any coughing. Then she decided to share the love and tried to feed a baby half of the tootsie roll she was eating. I took the tootsie roll away and popped it into her mouth, thinking she would eat it, but the moment I stepped away she fished it out of her mouth and tried to give it to the baby again. Such a persistent little helper. Anyway we are getting ready for our first Colorado winter and I just may have to go pick up some doughnuts and hot chocolate to celebrate the snow tonight. yum

Lily turns 1!

Lily is a really funny girl. She loves to tease John and pull his hair when he is incapacitated- usually while I am changing his diaper. Lily also likes to pretend to reach for her dad then laugh and lean away when he goes to grab her. Peek a bo is one of her favorite games. She also loves to saunter around the house. By far my earliest walker, she started walking at almost 11 months. And while she walks around she likes to chant "go go go!" She also cheers herself on while climbing the stairs. If a tune comes on that Lily likes she begins to shake her groove thing by holding her hands up in the air and doing her own version of the twist while sitting on her bottom. I discovered the other day that she loves the sound of music. I was singing and she began joyously rolling all over the floor and laughing to the music. Lily loves her big sister and brother and is often carried around by them if I am not watching closely enough. Lily is almost always happy and a joy to have in our house.







And finally here is Lily looking a little sinster bwahhaha

Grace turns 4!!

I can't believe Grace is 4! She certainly keeps us on our toes. Wherever she is there is a constant flow of dialogue. I think she may have Anne Shirley syndrome! There is always some sort of pretend going on. Princesses, pirates, or ballet girls are a few of her favorites. Grace is also not afraid of attention. Her favorite thing at church was being able to say a scripture into the microphone one Sunday. She and John are the best of friends and I often hear her telling him what kind of game they are going to play next. She has also nicknamed her siblings John is "John-o" Lily is "Lils." Most of her funnier comments I have written on facebook but last night she had a little fever and while falling asleep was saying the funniest things. One was, "mom you have to lock the doors even if the robots are here." She likes to refer to me as "Mudder," which I love. Grace is definitely an alto and her voice is rather booming. She is a sweet little thing and has a great enthusiasm for life. Wherever she goes she will have a fun time.