Aunt Alison and Rosemary

Bert's sister, Alison, and her daughter Rosemary came down for a visit a few weeks ago.  They live in Wake Forest, NC.  It was sooo much fun to get to spend time with them!  We did lots of fun things and just enjoyed chatting and spending time together.  Alison and I stayed up talking until midnight both nights they were here (Bert tried to stay up with us, but ended up falling asleep both nights...can't hang. :) )

The first night they were here we headed to downtown Greenville to walk around and then went to Falls Park (also in downtown) to have a Chick-fil-A picnic.  It was a beautiful night...we so loved just walking around and enjoying this beautiful place that we call home!  

As we were eating I looked over and Emily was minding her own business, eating her apples, with her ankles crossed....she just looked so BIG that I had to snap a picture when she wasn't looking.  My baby's growing up!  

Cousin's picture!

The next morning we decided to let Emily skip her swimming lesson class (1 of 8 sessions) so that we could all go to the zoo together! 

Here are the girls (minus Claire) standing in front of the elephant, Joy!  One of the elephants in the Greenville Zoo died just before we came and they were planning to move Joy to Colorado just a couple days after this picture was taken.  The Greenville zoo isn't going to be getting any more elephants because they don't have the room to make their habitat big enough to meet the new standards.  So sad!  We love seeing the elephants.  Oh well, maybe they'll get another exciting animal!  

Joy was playing with a tire...

I just found out that she actually died when she was in transit to Colorado....just days after we saw her!  Thankful we got to see her one last time!  Also thankful for the many smiles she's brought to people's faces over the many years she's been at the Greenville Zoo!  

Group photo...

This trip was Alison and Rosemary's first time to get to meet our Claire Bear!  

Big girls taking a snack break!  Rosemary turned 7 just days before they visited us.  She is so so sweet to Emily, Hannah and Claire!  

Family picture!  The last time we took a family trip to the zoo Claire was in my tummy!!  So glad she's here! 

After naps (they were tired), we ended Tuesday with a Car Wash.  The youth were having a fundraiser to raise money for their mission trip to Kentucky.  I couldn't begin to tell you how excited Emily was about this carwash.  It was actually scheduled for about a week and a half earlier, but it had to be rescheduled to this night due to weather.  She had talked about helping at that carwash for weeks.  Many, many times a day we would talk about it.  She was excited that Rosemary was there to help too!  

Emily worked SO hard.  I really was so proud of her!  

We had a great visit with Alison and Rosemary!  Stephen had to work and we missed him!  They're planning to go back to Uganda hopefully in September to bring home their son, Solomon (he turns 4 in September)!  We're so excited and can't wait to meet our sweet nephew!  Please pray for them and let us know if you'd like to give financially to help them get sweet Solomon home!  

Father's Day 2014

So thankful for Bert and the way that he protects, provides for and loves all four of his girls!  

Claire - 5 Months

Claire turned 5 months a couple weeks ago!  She's such a cuddly little sweetheart!!  

-She can sit up on her own for about two seconds, but that's progress!:)  

-She loves to watch her big sisters play, sing, or dance.

-Claire sucks her thumb a couple times a day, but I usually just pull it out when I see her doing it. 

-She nurses 5 times a day.  No solids yet.  Will start those in another week or so.  

-Her last feeding is about 9:30 at night and then she sleeps from about 10pm to 7am.  

-She rolls over often when we lay her down for tummy time, but still not every single time.  

-She sleeps on her stomach (this started about 2 days ago), in her sleepsack, with her sound machine on.  

-Naps are still a little inconsistent, although I've seen some improvement over the last couple days.  She naps about 3 hours throughout the day, but the length of each nap still varies. Maybe we'll get her on a more consistent nap schedule by 6 months?  Yikes. She's almost 6 months!  

Please notice her arm rolls.  I love them. 

Love you so much, Claire!  Thankful.For.You!!

Sprinkler Fun

The big girls have had lots of fun in the sprinkler recently!  

Claire has had fun chillin' with Mommy and Daddy, watching her sisters play!  

I used to say that spring was my favorite season, but days like this make me want to change my mind.  Sweet summer time!!  

These Days...

I thought I'd share a few cute conversations/fun facts we've had with the girls recently...

Every time Bert leaves for work...

Hannah:  All my heart, Daddy

Bert: I love you too, Hannah

Hannah: Always.

Emily and Hannah are singing songs from Frozen all the time!  It's cute!  

Emily: (On a rainy day...) What day is it?  

Me: Sunday

Emily: Well if it's Sunday that means the sun is supposed to come out! 

Hannah has been scared of bubble baths for some time now.  She just recently over came that fear.  As you can tell in the picture below she's still not a bubble bath's biggest fan, but at least she's sitting down...we've made serious progress!  

Emily is learning how to buckle her own seatbelt (5 point harness).  This is exciting for Mommy and Daddy!:) 

Emily:  Mommy, you look beautiful, even if you don't have any shoes on.  

Me:  Thank you?  

We have several different nicknames for our girls (Emmy, Emmy Lou, Lou, Hannah Banana, Hannah Beth, Claire Bear), but sometimes we just call them "cutie" or "sweet girl" or "sunshine." Most of the time when I call Hannah something other than her name she says with furrowed brows, while shaking her head "I Hannah Elizabeth" (in her two year old way of saying that...) Well, last night at dinner....

Me: "Guys, stop that!" 

Hannah: "I not guy?  I Hannah Li-sa-beth" 

Emily:  Do you think Mrs. Heather can color my hair sometime?

Me:  What color do you want your hair to be?

Em:  Pink.  No...purple!!!  Dark purple!  I don't like blonde.

I just liked the picture below.  She's a cutie!  

Emily was watching a movie one afternoon and C was crying pretty hard in the same room.  

E:  Ugh!  Turn it down! 

Me:  Turn what down?

E:  Claire!  Turn it down!  I can't hear the movie! 

When I go to pick up Claire from the crib she smiles SOOOOO big!  It makes you feel like you were just the person she was wanting to see.  So sweet!  

Me:  Emily, do you want ketchup with your chicken nuggets? 

Emily:  No thanks...too many points!  

Emily: People say Claire looks like Daddy.

Me:  Yeah, lots of people have said that.

Emily: Has a confused look on her face as she looks at Claire's face and then looks at her Daddy's face and says, "But Claire's not prickly?" 

(She tells her Daddy he's "prickly" all the time when he hasn't shaved in a day or so.)

Hannah spoons out and drinks every single drop of the milk left from her cereal, but if you give her milk in her sippy cup it's like pulling teeth to get her to drink it.  

Emily was showing Hannah how to drink out of a big girl cup...

Emily:  Hannah, this is how you drink out of a big girl cup. (Hannah had spilt her milk a few minutes before.) Big girls NEVER spill.

Me:  Sometimes big girls spill their drinks.

Emily:  Well, I never ever ever spill my drink.

When you ask Hannah to do something for you (throw a diaper away, go get a bib) she often says...

"Yeah!!  I be happy to!"  

I was driving in the car one day and couldn't see Claire's face...

Me:  Are Claire's eye's closed?  

Hannah:  Yep

Emily:  Yes.  Oh...she just opened them again.  I think she was just praying.  

When we go somewhere that Hannah is excited about or someone comes to our house that she is excited about Hannah says "I so happy be here!!!!"  You honestly can't help but smile when she says it.  

I have lots of driving help these days....

-Many times when I pass a car (I'm talking about a car going the other direction) Hannah shouts "Mommy, be careful!!"

-Emily has an amazing sense of direction and honestly knows how to get to a lot of places in Greenville (dentist, hair dresser, church, Walmart, Ingles, Target, etc.) If she thinks we're going one place and I turn the "wrong" way to go somewhere else she immediately will say "Where are we going?!" or "Why are we going this way?!"

-When I stop for redlights or stop signs Hannah shouts from the back "Go Mommy Go!"  If she's ever riding with you make sure disregard her backseat driving.:)  

Claire has recently started grabbing her feet and it is too cute!  

Claire also really likes to talk to that cute baby in the mirror when she's taking a bath!:)  

One night when Bert was putting Emily to bed...

E:  Daddy, why do you have a ball in your throat!?!

These girls can make us smile and laugh and test our patience all in the same minute.  We're thankful for them!  

Operation: No Thumb

We decided several weeks ago that it was time to try to get Hannah to stop sucking her thumb.  I had noticed that she only sucked her thumb when she was holding her bunny, but don't think that means that she didn't suck it often.  I would venture to say that if she was in the house, she was probably sucking her thumb 70% of the time.  I really don't think that is an exaggeration, but you get the idea.  It felt like she was sucking her thumb ALL.THE.TIME!  

Since the sucking her thumb seemed to be attached to bunny, we decided we should try to take bunny away just during the day (we still give it to her at naptime and bedtime).  This girl LOVES her bunny, so this plan was easier said than done.  

I decided that the plan would be to get Hannah and Emily to both go and put their bunnies in the baby doll cradle as soon as they wake up in the morning or as soon as they wake up from naps.  Emily loves her bunny too, but I definitely couldn't let Emily keep her bunny out and make Hannah put her bunny in the cradle, so Emily had to go along with the plan too!  The cradle stays in the office and I usually keep that door shut anyway, so it's not a big temptation for them to see it all the time.

The first day or two was rough.  Hannah was NOT pleased with the plan, but since then she really has been totally fine.  I'm talking no crying, no fussing, no complaining!  Crazy!  First thing in the morning I just say "go lay your bunnies down so that they can go back to sleep." They run to lay their bunnies down, run out of the office and I shut the door. I have not seen Hannah suck her thumb one time during the day since we started putting bunny in the cradle.  It has been amazingly smooth!!  I'm sure nighttime will be a different story, but I'm not even going to think about that for a long while!  I'm just thankful that getting her to stop during the day was such a piece of cake.  I NEVER would have guessed that it would be.  Thankful for our absolutely-adorable-2-year-old!  Sweet, sweet age!

AWANA 2014

Our church does AWANA on Wednesday nights and Emily has been in the Cubbies class this year!  She has had SUCH a great year!  I'm so thankful to Ms. Dottie, Mrs. Paula, and Mrs. Megan for investing in our girl!  

The picture's a little blurry, but this was Ms. Dottie passing out the certificates to their Cubbies class during the awards ceremony on Wednesday night!  

The next morning Emily was walking around the house with her vest on, so I told her to hold her certificate so that I could take a picture of her.  In the picture below she was in the middle of telling me that she needed to hold the certificate in front of her face so that the camera could see it.  I kept telling her to put the certificate lower so that I could see her face.  Ha!  

She got the green ribbon (on her vest) for finishing her entire Cubbies book and memorizing all her verses!  

So proud of our little Cubbie!:)