April NO-(scrapbooking) Shopping Challenge

Calling all scrap-addicts! If you are addicted to buying scrapbooking supplies, I am hosting the April NO Shopping Challenge at Scrapbook.com! It's a really great site, and the challenge should be fun, keep you from spending all your money on scrapping stuff, and inspire you to create lots of great scrapbook pages! Sign-ups are going on now through April 3rd. I'd love to have you join us! And, if you're not already a Scrapbook.com member, and you sign up, please use THIS LINK, and I will receive points towards the referral contest. Thanks!

Caed Speak

Caeden is trying to say more words all the time now.

~ He wakes up saying, "Ball!" and says it at least once a minute, all day long.

~ If he's not saying or playing with a ball, it's "a car."

~ This week Caeden is on antibiotics, which are giving him terrible diaper rash. So, every time I try to change his diaper, he clenches his "cheeks" and yells, "Owie! Owie!!! Owie!!!!!!!" Yes, it's great fun.

~Every night each kid gets a sippy cup of ice water to take to bed. Caeden has become so accustomed to this routine, he gets very upset if we try to put him in his crib without his "Ny-ny wawa." He guzzles a lot of it before he starts his rocking and head-banging to get himself to sleep.

~If Caeden wants to leave a room when the door is shut he will say, "Out door!"

~ Caeden has just started playing the game in the car where he will say, "Mama!" and I will say, "Caeden!" and we will go back and forth until one of us tires out. All three of the kids thought up this little game on their own around this age.

Talent, No Talent

This evening our church had its annual "Talent, No Talent" variety show. Jeremy worked really hard on his part as a young guy visiting a shop called The Prayer Closet. He tried on several different kinds of shirts in the skit, and each of the shirts helped him learn a different type of prayer. He also played William Hung in a hilarious American Idol skit. There were several very funny acts, and we really enjoyed the evening.

Sylvia's 3-year portraits

Sylvia's 3-year Portraits

taken Friday, March 17, 2006, at Sears Portrait Studio

How is a mommy supposed to choose which is the best one?!?!

Sylvie did such a good job using her smiles that she got to go to McDonald's for lunch.

Growing in so many ways

Sylvia and Caeden visited the doctor today for their 3-year and 18-month check-ups. Sylvia weighed 24 pounds with her clothes on, and Caeden weighed 23 pounds, 15 ounces with no clothes on! So, I think it would be safe to say that Caeden actually weighs more than Sylvia! I was actually kind of surprised, because Caeden seems like he has thinned out since he started walking. Sylvie is still a couple inches taller than Caeden, at least.

 Annah and her February school stuff

In February, Annah's class learned about Community Workers and practiced Kindness. The kids cut out paper hearts and took them home for parents to fill out when they did something kind. When children brought hearts back to school the teacher read them to the class and put them on the bulletin board. The kids also made Valentines, which they delivered to community workers on their field trip to the library, post office, bank, and gas station/quick mart. The last day of the month was "When I grow up I want to be..." and Annah drew a picture of herself in the future--as a mommy.

Color: pink

Shape: heart

Letters: S,T,U,V

Cinderelly

Sylvia always loves to dress up, but does not always love to have her picture taken.

School Days, School Days

It's fun to see Annah at school.  She really loves it.

 BFF: Annah & Ashley at school

Annah working diligently at school

Oh yes, and when I picked Annah up from school today here is the first conversation we had as she was getting into the car...

Me: How was school today Sweetie?

Annah: Good! My boyfriend won the Hop-A-Thon!!

Me: Your boyfriend?!?!?! Who's your boyfriend?!?

Annah: Brodie!!

Me: Oh really? Does he know he is your boyfriend?

Annah: No.

Me: Ohhh. What does 'boyfriend' mean? What makes him your boyfriend?

Annah: I like him.

Me: Ah. Are other boys your boyfriends too, or do you have just one?

Annah: No, just Brodie.

Me: Ah, well, you will have to tell Daddy about Brodie.

Upon telling Daddy about Brodie, his eyes got rather large at the mention of the word 'boyfriend.' ;) Brodie's mom says he hasn't mentioned Annah...

Sylvia's 3rd Birthday Party

Tonight we had Sylvia's 3rd birthday party! It was a fun, fun time full of princesses, pink and purple, presents, smiles, giggles, squeals of joy, jumping, and lots of sugar!

Sylvia was too excited to take her nap before the party, but did stay in her room and play so we would think she was napping. She came out a couple times to "go to the bathroom," and told Daddy that when she came downstairs she would see the party and all the balloons there.

The party was fun for everyone.  Gram & Krampa were here, and also delivered gifts from Grandpa & Grandma Lopshire. We thank the Lord for the chance to celebrate the 3rd birthday of our precious little Sylvia!

 These 3 little girls all feel like princesses and are ready for Sylvia's birthday party to start!

Sylvia - 3, Annah - 5, Ashley - 5

opening the first gift

a princess piggy bank for the little princess

pretty birthday girl

Sylvia was excited about her fly-in-the-wind rings.

 "It's a green Doodle Bear!"

happy girl got her birthday wish

 Caeden slept through the gift opening, but sure had fun with the balloons afterwards!

 Thank you, Lord, for princesses and pizza!

All the kids had fun burying Caeden in balloons in his playpen! He thought it was a blast!!!

 When asked for a big, cheesy grin, Sylvia supplied a great one!

 Now she's a real princess; she has a tiara and wand!

 playing princess hopscotch-- a great gift from Grandma & Grandpa Lopshire

Gram reads

Gram reads a book to Sylvie & Caeden...Grandparents always take the time...

Annah at Preschool

Annah being a little silly while waiting for school to start...

(Would you call it a "frontpack" when worn this way?)

hanging her bookbag on her hook

Annah found her name tag and birthday tag in no time and hung them on the attendance board.

 Annah and I spent a little time outside enjoying the nice weather while Sylvie & Caeden napped.

Fancy Lady

 "Mommy, I am a fancy lady!"

a birthday gift

Sylvia trying on the new outfit she received from our friend "Miss" Jeanny who rides to church with us...

Doesn't she look like such a big 3-year-old girl?!

Baptism, Birthday, Beautiful Life

I was baptized today!! Even though I have been a Christian for almost 20 years now, I knew I needed to be obedient to the Lord and be baptized with water as scripture commands. Travis & Erin made a treacherous trip down from Ottawa this morning to be here, and our friends the Stambaughs came too! It was an incredibly special day!!

Today is also Sylvia's 3rd birthday! As I type this, she is in the kitchen with Daddy and siblings telling them, "I'm the birthday girl; I should go first." about helping with making pancakes. She is such the little princess! We just thank the Lord every day for her joyful personality and funny little antics! She is a real treasure! We are really looking forward to her party next weekend!

Caeden is big enough to ride the peapod rocker now, and he enjoys it!

Sylvia received a Sing-A-Long Barbie microphone set from Uncle Travis & Aunt Erin for her birthday today! Even though she was straight-faced when she opened it at the restaurant, she couldn't wait to take it out of the box at home! She said, "I love it! I love it a lot!"

Sylvie practicing and learning all the new songs...

Sylvia and Annah can even play with the microphones at the same time since there are two. They like to sing together--most of the time.

Sylvia helped Daddy with some work this afternoon.

Here comes the judge.

I had the honor and opportunity to judge HS Solo & Ensemble Contest today. It was a great experience, and challenging too. I hope I didn't emotionally scar any high school girls with the scores/comments I gave! It's difficult to write comments and score consistently when you are so rushed, but I felt I was fair. I heard a few really talented singers, which was a nice treat. I hope I am called back again next year.

Stuff of life

We visited Daddy at work today! Annah was a little less shy than usual, Sylvia totally clammed up. and Caeden was pretty much totally uninhibited. We even got to eat lunch with Daddy in the big cafeteria. It's funny to visit a big workplace like that, because everyone notices children there and ogles over them like they've never seen kids before. Daddy had a very busy day, so we didn't stay too long.

After we left work, we went to the music store! Annah has been saying she wants to learn to play the violin, so when we got there, she said, "Do they have violins? I need a violin!" We saw one there for sale for over $1700. Ha! We did buy 3 primer level piano books for Mommy to try starting Annah on piano lessons at home. And, we also looked at saxophones, flutes, clarinets, trumpets, trombones, f horns, guitars, banjos, drum sets and hand drums! The kids were fascinated! It was really fun.

I have been kind of bad about taking pictures and updating the site lately. I am still working on assigning usernames and passwords as people request them. That is a little time-consuming, although I don't mind doing it at all. I also managed to do quite a bit of scrapbooking in February. I participated in online forum no (scrapbooking) shopping challenge at scrapbook.com, and it really motivated me to get a lot of scrapping done! I even won the challenge too, which was a fun surprise. Now, I have a few craftedwithcare.com orders to get completed this month.

Did you decide to give something up for Lent? Jeremy has decided to give up pop, which is really big for him. I'm impressed.

Here's some kid updates:

Caeden is walking all the time now. He still stumbles sometimes, but rarely ever crawls anymore. He is trying new words more boldly every day. His current favorite is "Uh-oh." His newest feat is CLIMBING. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. I must take him down from the table, chairs, bench, computer, whatever he can find to climb up on about 50 times a day or more! The good thing is, he is also pretty good at getting down off things most of the time.

Sylvia seems to grow up more and more every day. She is a passionate one, who is always surprising us with things she knows that we didn't know she knew! We register her for preschool next week. *sniff* *sniff*

Annah really enjoys her time at school, and is sharing more freely about it these days. On Monday, she came home and told me that she got Smarties from her teacher because she knew the answer when the teacher asked the class what they were finishing up studying about--community workers. Now, I wasn't surprised that Annah knew the answer, but I am amazed that she was bold enough to tell the teacher she knew. Maybe she is coming out of her shell a little!?