Lacey's 3 Year Birthday Pictures

I had orginally planned to take Lacey's pictures myself, but the weather just would NOT cooperate!

So we opted for the tried and true Portrait Innovations.  I love that place, I always get WAY more pictures that I need and almost always LOVE all of the pictures.

I think they did a great job capturing Lacey's personality!  Fiesty, spunky, and sweet indeed!

The tope 3 pictures are the ones that I ended up selecting.  She did a great job!

Love you Lacey!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful day with family.  The only downside is Greg had to leave on Thanksgiving Day to work early on Friday.  Bummer!

Happy 3rd Birthday To Lacey!

Our loveable, laughable, lively little Lacey turns 3 today!!!

She is such a smart, sweet, yet sassy, spunky, and silly little girl.  We wouldn't want her any other way.

Dear Lacey,

Mommy and Daddy love you so much.  We love the fact that your eyes are always sparkling.  It is you that keeps us on our toes at all times.  Not just because we wonder what you could be getting into but also because we wonder what you are going to think to say next!  You have such a way with your words even at only 3.  Lots of people have a hard time beliving you are just turning 3!

At 3 years old you can spell and recognize your name in print.  You are obsesessed with Dora and the Disney Princesses.  You Love the letter 'L'.  Your favorite colors are pink and purple.  You can count to 16 and know pretty much all of your colors.  Your teachers at daycare tell me you are almost the first one to shout out the letter when they print them on the board.

We are so proud of you Lacey.  Mommy and Daddy cannot wait to see what your future holds, one thing we know is it will be bright!  We will always be there to support you no matter what.

Love you,
Mommy and Daddy

Halloween!

The girls had so much fun for halloween this year.

I was able to visit all three girls' parties at their school.

Kylie's had a parade at hers, the junior high marching band led the way.  I'll post that video tomorrow!

Kylie decided that she want to be a bumble bee this year, which was a surprise because all year she wanted to be an indian girl and at the last minute changed her mind which is SO unlike her.

Lacey and Katie's daycare did a parade too.  Its was cute, as soon as the little ones came around the corner and saw their parents....parade was over!  

Katie was carried in the parade by 'thing 2' 

Evidence of kids breaking away from the parade...namely Lacey!  Although it looks like she was the only one in this picture, you will notice all the other parents standing around too, that's because their kid already came and go them. 

Lacey loved being a princess this year...she told everyone she could how pretty she was.  I thought she looked pretty cute too! 

My little Katiebug Ladybug!  She is the second one of my daughters to be a lady bug, Kylie was first and hated her costume.  So much so that the next year for halloween I didn't even get her a costume.  Katie didn't mind hers at all!

A rare photo of Lacey and Katie together.  I love that they are both looking at me...doesn't happen very often! 

Lacey being...well...Lacey :-) 

Katie loved the party too, she had so much fun playing in Lacey's classroom.  She's looking very mischevious in this picture!

Tough Day

Please say a prayer for my family today. 

Today we said our final goodbyes to 2 of the most wonderful people in the world, Nana and Papa.

We love and miss them terribly.

Kylie

My beautiful oldest daughter...

Kylie loves to have her picture taken.  During our family photo shoot this past weekend all of the girls got to do some individual shots.  They enjoyed their 'special' time.

Silly Little Lacey

Miss Lacey is less than one month away from being 3!

Where does the time go?

She is such a silly little girl. She has us laughing at various times most of the day.  You never really know what is going to come out of her mouth.

The above picture definately shows off her personality to a tee!

My hubby and I

Two of my sister's and one of my nephews came to visit us this weekend.  While they were here I asked my sister Shawna if she would be willing to take our family pictures.  She does a really great job, and it is so much less stressful than going to a studio.  Thankfully she agreed!  This is one of the many pictures she took.  She did a great job!

guess who's 9 months old already?!

It's hard for me to believe this little sweetheart is nine months old already! 

Where does the time go?

She had her 9 month well baby check up and did great!  She met or exceeded all her milestones.

She did, however, do something neither of the other 2 girls have ever done before....want to know what it is?????

Here are Miss Katie's current stats:

20 pounds 11 ounces - 81st percentile

29 inches long - 92nd percentile!

BMI - 52nd percentile

Have you guess what it is she did that the other 2 never did???  Now, I know you are not supposed to compare kids, but its hard not to do.  I couldn't believe my ears when I found out that she was in the 92nd percentile for her height!  Looks like she might be my tall one, never thought I would ever hear myself say that...of course that's what it looks like now.  We all know how things can change over the years.  Kylie and Lacey NEVER broke free of the 50th percentile for their height...ever.

Katie has officially 3 words to her vocabulary:  Mama. Dada, and Uh-oh!  She is a crawling maniac that is obsessed with the steps!  She obviously has no concept of falling down them, when we are upstairs she is constantly crawling as fast as she can towards the steps!

She thinks it's REAL funny to turn over and crawl as fast as she can away from me so that she is out of my reach before turning back to look at me when I change her diaper.  She giggles as soon as she flips over...of course I think its kind of funny too, unless I'm in a hurry!

She is so much fun to be around.  She loves trying to play with Kylie and Lacey.  She tries really hard to do what they are doing.  One of her other favorite past times is to stand at the basement steps and play with the cat.  The door going downstairs is shut (of course) but it has glass in it.. she thinks it is so funny when Lexi (the cat) jumps up.  She is my little shadow...Greg affectionatly calls her my little hip growth.  She LOVES to be with me ALL the time!  If I am in the room her little radar is in search mode until she locks on to me, then there is NO getting away!

My Father-in-Law

My beloved father in law passed away today.  This was totally unexpected and we are in complete shock.  He was an awesome man that wanted nothing more than to see his family happy.  He was willing to do whatever he could to help.  He was taken away from us much too soon.  He will be dearly missed, heaven again an angel today...

This poem I think is s perfect description of him and how (I believe) he felt after the loss of my mother-in-law.  He missed her terribly (as we all do) and think maybe much more than any of us realized.  They were no more generous people around than they were.

I'm Free




Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free

I'm following the path God has laid you see.

I took His hand when I heard him call

I turned my back and left it all.



I could not stay another day

To laugh, to love, to work, to play.

Tasks left undone must stay that way

I found that peace at the close of day.



If my parting has left a void

Then fill it with remembered joy.

A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss

Oh yes, these things I too will miss.



Be not burdened with times of sorrow

I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life's been full, I savored much

Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.



Perhaps my time seemed all too brief

Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.

Lift up your hearts and peace to thee

God wanted me now; He set me free

Fun at the park

The girls LOVE to go to the park

Are there any kids that don't? 

I'm fairly certain that my girls could go the park everyday and not get sick of it 

Doesn't seem to matter what park we go to either, they love them all! 

Lacey's favorite is the slide 

Kylie's favorite thing to do is the monkey bars...she never tires of seeing if she can make it all the way across 

her new thing is to see if she can go backwards across them...her hands are full of caluses...totally undeterred 

Even little Miss Katie has a good time, she like to swing and eat leaves.  Yes you read that correctly...eat leaves.  She keeps me on my toes for sure, she can crawl really fast especially if she has her eye on something she wants!

We went to the pumpkin patch!

The girls and I went to a local pumpkin patch

Kylie liked the straw bale maze 

Lacey like the hay ride 

Katie thought playing in the corn box was pretty cool! 

Lacey tried every tactic she knew to get the pony to come close enough to her so she could pet it...sadly none of them worked. 

Lacey did have some success in finding just the right pumpkin gourd 

Tried to get a picture of all 3 of them in the pumpkin patch...2/3 of the clan are looking at me...that counts for something, right?! 

This one worked out better :) 

The straw bale maze was just perfect for Lacey.  She went through at least 3 -4 times!

All in all it was a fun trip to the pumpkin patch...now come the not-so-fun part of carving them.  I do.not.enjoy carving pumpkins.  Ahhh the things we do for our children.

8 Months!

 This little beauty and her sisters had a great time playing at the park this weekend!  It's hard to believe that Katie is 8 months old already!  She's a crawling maniac!

 Miss Katie loved crawling around on the rocks

 She loved watching the other kids play on the swings and slide on the slide

 It was also a great opportunity to get some pictures of Katie for her photo album.  I'm feeling a little bit of a bad mom, the other two girls had their pictures professionally taken EVERY month until they were a year old.  The last time Katie had her pictures professionally taken was when she was 5 months old.  Although I've been happy with the pictures I've taken of her I feel like maybe I should be taking her in every month like the other girls.  Hopefully she doesn't hold it against me when she's older!

 This is my favorite for this set!  I love that she is standing and looking over her shoulder at Mommy.



Lacey

Lacey,

what can I say about her?

She is a thoughtful almost three year old,

she love to look at the sky to see if she can see Daddy 'frying'

loves to play outside, but really hates bugs!

loves to be a little, ok A LOT silly,

and she keeps us on our toes! 

She comes up with some of the funniest phrases, we never know what's going to come out of her mouth next.  She has a VERY large vocabulary, well beyond her years! 

She loves cuddle, kisses and hugs!

And you know what?  We love to give her those too!

Arrrrghhh!

Have you ever seen a cuter Pirate? 

me either 

keeping the hair out of you eyes is important when your a pirate

otherwise you get frusterated and yelll ARRRRGGGHHH! 

And then you find your target you've been looking for!

She loves to play pirate with Kylie.  They both have such an amazing imagination, its so fun to listen to.