Happy 4th Birthday, K :)

oh, what a ride it has been....

so wonderful and amazing... :)

and i remember her arrival just like it was yesterday...

thankfully, my mind has erased (?) the pain...

but i remember the long 23 1/2 hours of labor with her...

and being so surprised that she was a girl (i was convinced i was having a boy)

and i remember crying after i got to my hospital room...

because she was just incredible...

and i was being trusted with this sweet, sweet angel...

she is our angel...  in so many ways....

she changed my focus in life...

and we made changes here at home so i could be

with you every single day....

watching you grow and learn and giggle....

and we just fell more and more in love with you every

single day....

your smile is pure joy :)

your curiosity is relentless...

your intelligence is incredible...

you have provided so much wonderment to each and every day...

and like people always said, "you'll never know what you did in life without her..."

and that's the truth... 

you bring lots of giggles...and your stories are so creative and fun...

you love music...and singing and playing instruments...

you love playing outside...and sitting for long periods of time coloring

quietly at the kitchen table...

you love princesses...Cinderella, Ariel, and Rapunzel are your favorites...

and you can act out and speak, verbatim, the lines from your princess movies...

you are still a picky eater...but you will do almost anything for a special treat...

 

you are a wonderful big sister...you care passionately for Hannah, who thinks the world

revolves around you.  you are almost always patient and kind to her...and i love your

growing love and close relationship with her...

the last 4 years have been such a tremendous blessing...

and i've learned so much about myself...yes, even things that i'm

not so proud of... 

but, one thing is for sure...

becoming your mom has been one of the greatest

and most incredible blessings and gifts i've been given in life...

and we celebrate you, lil one...

happy birthday, sweet Katherine... :)

 



random joe...

ya ever have one of those days where things just float around in your head constantly?  i do...all the time... :)  one thought leads to another thought...and another... :)  it's days like this where i have a lot of trouble praying at night for my kids...cause as i'm praying, i start to think of something else....and then 3 minutes later, i remember that i'm supposed to be praying............. :)
so...here's some random joe for you on this thursday :) and maybe a few pictures :) 

• today, i put the down comforter on our bed... i love the white of a down comforter, but with 2 kids and 2 adults, it's not logical :)  so we have a beautiful green duvet cover...  K didn't know i put it on, but after her bath (we usually get PJs on on mommy's and daddy's bed), K exclaimed, "Mommy, the bed is like a HOTEL...." and she sunk into the down comforter with a huge smile on her face :) 

 Hannah swimming this summer at the hotel (our our way to IL)

•  i hung some halloween-ish lights in K's room for her while she was out playing with Daddy and Hannah this afternoon...orange on one window and purple on the other :)  she would run back every so often to just look all evening...  however, it was not enough to convince her to sleep in her room after the "hotel" bed was discovered :)  (yes, we're the parents who let our kids get into bed with us at night sometimes....) 

Katherine at Bradley Beach in NJ :) instant love :)

• we went to Target today to pick up a few things...  K and H rode in one of those carts with a "bench" before the cart (thus making the cart 10 feet long! oy!)...  K was petting Hannah's head for some of the ride...i found myself saying, "please do not touch your sister...." a lot :) 
• i went to Target today without any make up :-\ i realized that i didn't have any on about 4 minutes into our trip...and the sheer thought of trying to go home, explain WHY we were going home quickly, unloading the kids from the car seat, etc. was too much for me...  i figured a self-conscious trip to Target was worth it... :) 

Hannah in the "bubble" at the playground in Fairmout :)

• i had a dream the other night about pulling a very large carrot out of my garden...strange since i didn't plant carrots...  and by large, i mean like a yard long...  strange............
• Hannah doesn't say a whole lot, but she does have an emphatic head shake...she is not shy about telling you "no." :)  and her "yes," for those of you who wonder is merely a mid-tone "mmmmmph."
• Katherine took a dance class the other day... :)  our good friends have a daughter who takes dance and it was "bring a friend" night.  K had a ball...and she walked in there, with total confidence, and practiced tap dance and ballet :)  she was in heaven....a huge smile on her face. :)  when asked if she wanted to start taking dance, she told me "no" but couldn't tell why she didn't want to take it...  when we got home, Ry talked to her about her class and she gave the same information...it was a lot of fun, blah, blah, blah, but when he asked if she wanted to take dance, she said no....  he probed by asking her, if she had fun, why wouldn't she want to take dance...  her reply was a clenched jaw/teeth face, saying, "okkkkkkk, i will take it, i guessssss." 

Hannah at Bradley Beach in NJ :) she loved the sand :)

• i'm disgusted with the whole election this year...  i am tired of the commercials...i'm tired of political parties calling my house....i'm tired of people coming up to me asking me who i'm going to vote for after asking me if i'm registered to vote...  but most of all, i'm sick of people putting stuff on facebook...  opinions are opinions...but people go too far beyond that and literally trash anything that another person might believe...  it's shallow...  i can remember, as a kid, always asking my mom who she was voting for, and she would always tell me that it was a private thing and she would never say...  i respect that... 

k lookin' sweet on the swing :)

it was our first fall day out in sweats and a jacket, too :)

• i love fall...  the trees are starting to turn shades of color that are just breathtaking :) 
• i can't wait for pumpkin pie :)  yummmm :)

not a "great" picture, but i wanna remember

how she kneels on the chair and her little feet

and sweet toes

*melts my heart*

• Hannah and Katherine love to color...  Katherine will color for awhile, and she's quite good...  Hannah will climb up on the chair five hundred times, each time giving her page a color scribble.  I've nick-named her "Zorro." :)

looking for the perfect page :)

K coloring intently :)

• I love when my girls enjoy each other's company :)  having two girls, and watching them love each other as sisters, is truly a gift from above :) 

randomness finished... :) 

enjoy your weekend! :) 
hope you do something fun! :)

dancing after the rain

because...........

wearing dresses means she's a princess....





















but wearing boots after a rain makes her adventurous...

......playing outside after the rain, with plenty of dandelions, sure does make life grand.

perspective

"You have nothing in this world

more precious than your children. 

When you grow old,

when your hair grows white and your body grows weary,

when you are prone to sit in a rocker and meditate on the things of your life, nothing will be so important as the question of how your children have turned out.

It will not be the money you have made.

It will not be the cars you have owned.  It will not be the large house in which you live.  The searing question that will cross your mind,

again and again, will be,

How well have my children done?

If the answer is that they have done very well,

then your business will be complete. 

If they have done less than well,

then no other satisfaction can compensate for your loss." 

~Gordon B. Hinckley~

you better not pout, you better not cry...

Christmas was rough for our Hannah...  while we've had several Christmas times with our families, friends, and ourselves, we always seemed to open presents when she was at her most tired state... 

so she spent a lot of time crying and fussing...poor baby...

and she's not really a crying or fussy baby...

it's hard to be tired when you are supposed to be enjoying your first Christmas...

we took a lot of pictures from our holiday celebrations...so many cute ones of Katherine and her big smiles after her gifts...  i love those shots of her... 

but, equally wonderful, are our shots of Hannah... 

hahaha...

now ALL of the pictures of Hannah were not like these...but these, perhaps, really capture a sweet, tired, little girl's very first Christmas :) 

:)  momma and daddy will plan a little better next year... :) 

sweet in december

for December, the weather has been absolutely beautiful... while the mornings are cold, we've had great days of warming temps and sunny sunshine. :) and, well, my sweet K loves her outside time... and, quite honestly, in the "3 year old world," it helps soothe her soul and keep this momma a little bit more sane... fresh air is the answer to keeping tantrums at bay and smiles on faces... :)

so, until some of that pretty white stuff graces our day, i will squeeze in as much time with my sweet kids and prowling pooch in the green grass :)


sweet Beezer, who is an elderly guy now, hanging out with us... he always comes out with us, does his business, sniffs around for several minutes, and then finds a nice spot to sun himself... here, he's also "kitty" hunting... he's watching for one of the five wild kitties to come running by so he can re-enter his younger years of chasing :)

my girls, swinging together, for the first time :) gosh i love them... and yes, Katherine wouldn't look at the camera.... :) but i love how Hannah is watchin' her big sis on her swing :)

my beautiful, spirited, stubborn, and sweet Katherine :) she's on top of her slide, waiting to go down... :)

my sweet baby girl, swingin' on the kiddie swing for her first time :) she spent 45 minutes loving the slow motion of a swaying swing while watching everything going on around her... :)