Be the Bear

For quite some time the girls favorite game has been for their Daddy to "Be the Bear."  When he comes home it is one of the first things they ask him..."Daddy, will you be the bear?"  Hannah especially loves it. She is usually the first one to ask, but they all three have SO much fun when Daddy is the bear.  I decided to snap a few pictures of them during their nightly "bear" game one day last week.  

The "game" goes a little something like this...Daddy raises his hands in the air, roars, and chases them around the house. When he catches one of them, he tickles her until her sister comes and "saves" her, repeat....

After several rounds of this, the bear hibernates (which just happens to be Bert's favorite part of the game). The girls love it too because they climb on him and poke him and never know when he is going to wake up again.  

I love the game because, as soon as they start playing, laughter and squealing fills the house.  These girls are so blessed to have a Daddy that plays "The Bear."  

Claire - 16 months

Claire turns 16 months today and she's getting so big!  This is a very busy, but very FUN age!

She had her 15 month check up last month and she weighed 22.11 pounds and was in the 47th percentile for her weight.  She was 30 inches tall and was in the 34th percentile for her height (up from the 13th percentile in her height at her 12 month check-up...go Claire!).  With Emily I walked into every well check-up with a list of at least 10 questions, with Hannah I had a list of at least 5 questions and at Claire's well check I couldn't think of one question.  It's definitely not that I have it all figured out, but just that I have calmed down a smidge.:)

Claire's favorites at 16 months:
Food: Turkey and cheese sandwiches, blueberries, bananas, strawberries, broccoli, cheerios, yogurt
Books:  Peek-a-boo books; puppet-finger books just make her cackle
Activities:  Brushing her teeth, taking baths, walking around in the back yard, dancing, watching her big sisters, closing doors
Words she can say:  Mama, Dada, car, Hannah ("anna"), shoes, socks, diaper, bath, coat, no no, hey, bye, night night, La-la, Papa, ball, juice, mouth, nose, door
*She is saying so many more words than these, but I just can't remember everything right now.  She likes to try to copy what we say!

Sleeping Habits at 16 months: 
-Claire takes 1 to 2 naps a day.  If we are at home for her to fit in both naps she usually takes about an hour nap in the morning and an hour and a half nap in the afternoon.  She recently has started not falling asleep for her afternoon nap sometimes when she has had a morning nap, so that means we'll be dropping the morning nap all together in the next month or so.
-It usually takes her about 10-15 minutes for her to fall asleep for nap time and bed time.
-She sleeps 11-12 hours at night and almost never wakes up.
-She sleeps with her La-la (we were calling her Lovie, but she named her La-la and it stuck).

Things I Treasure about my 16 month old:
-She still only has 4 teeth.
-Shes LOVES to be outside - taking a walk, playing in the backyard, swinging, sliding (with help of course)
-She can point to her nose, ears, hair, eyes, mouth, feet
-She points to her chest when we ask her where her bellybutton is
-She loves to dance (bounce) when music comes on.
-She is learning to climb.  The other day Bert walked into the living room and found her sitting on the couch by herself.  He asked Emily and Hannah if they helped her up there and they both said they didn't.  Big girl. Now we just need to teach her how to get down safely!
-Her favorite game is to find a door that is open walk into the room and shut the door behind her.  I try to keep all the bathroom and bedroom doors shut so Claire can't disappear but somehow that never happens.
-Her favorite word is "no". She says it all the time.  If you ask her if she wants to go outside she will say "no" and shake her head while walking to the door.  "No" is just her standard answer right now, and it makes us chuckle to ask her a question and hear her little "no".
-She is talking all the time now even though we can't understand a lot of what she is saying.
-She eats a banana as a part of her lunch most every day.  For the longest time I have been cutting it up for her and letting her pick up the pieces off her tray, but recently she has started getting very mad (and by mad I mean furious) if you cut her banana up.  She wants to hold the whole (or half) banana and take bites.
-If you say the word bath she runs for the tub.  She LOVES bath time.
-Her hair is getting long in the front.  I try to keep it pulled back so you can see her cute face, but she just pulls the rubberband/bow out.
-She has a slight obsession with shoes.  She LOVES to say the word, having them on her feet, hold them in her hands, whatever....just give her shoes.
-She likes to swing for a little while, but lately she would rather just run around the yard, and she's starting to get mad if we pick her up and put her in the swing.
-She's learned how to throw a tantrum and if she is mad about something she will let you know.:)
-She loves for you to read her books.  I love love love it when she backs up towards me and plops down into my lap with a book in hand.  It melts my heart.  Usually just before I get to the end of the book she gets  up and does her adorable waddle over to the bookshelf to get another book for me to read.
-She loves to empty out drawers and she is incredibly fast at it.  Her favorite drawers to empty are Emily and Hannah's underwear and sock drawers.  She can have their stuff strewn all over their room in 2 seconds flat.
-She loves to wear their play necklaces and wears them more than the other two combined.

I took this picture yesterday.  She was playing with the bow and kept trying to put it in her hair, but couldn't get it.  I put it in her hair and took this picture right after.  Cutie.

Happy 16 months Claire Bear!  We love, love, love you!!  

Last Week

Last week was a fun week!  We got to spend lots of time outside and with friends and family!  On Tuesday after Bert got off work we headed over to Paris Mountain State Park (about 10 minutes from our house) to hike the trail for the 5K Nicaragua fundraiser our church was putting on the following Saturday.  We met John and Melissa and their two grandkids (Bella and Waylon) over there too.  

Claire loved her seat on her Daddy's back.  She was as happy as a lark up there.  

The kids had so much fun spending time together!   

These two are the sweetest.  Anytime we are at church they are inseparable.  Both of these big girls walked the entire 3 mile course (except for maybe a 2 minute ride each on Mr. John's shoulders, because their younger siblings were getting rides and they thought it looked like fun) and I don't remember them complaining once.  They did SO great!   

Hannah caught several rides on Mr. John's shoulders!  

At the halfway point we took a 2 minute break to switch Claire to my back and Hannah to Bert's.  Bella is about 6 months older than Emily and Waylon is about 4 months older than Hannah.  Sweet kiddo's.  

This is the face of a happy girl.  

I've actually never worn any of my kiddo's on my back.  I love the ergo for the early months/first year, but I usually wear them on the front.  I don't think we did it exactly right as that top buckle kept coming up on my neck, but Claire was as snug as a bug in a rug and she definitely enjoyed herself after she let us know how irritated she was about getting taken out of her Daddy's backpack.  :)  

The hike was beautiful and it only took the kids about 2.5 seconds to fall asleep that night.:)  

On Friday afternoon we decided to pick some strawberries.  Bert and I haven't picked strawberries in years and years (I'm talking since we were both kids).  I really wanted to last year, but I let the short season slip past us without making it happen. Maybe having a 3 month old had something to do with it, but I decided I was definitely not going to let that happen this year.  

Hannah was my pickin' partner.  We were working on a bucket while Emily and Bert were working on another.  

Hannah is looking mischievous....

but she's as sweet as that strawberry she's holding in her hand.  

I didn't realize my deep, deep love for fresh strawberries until just a few years ago.  They are just amazing!!  We all enjoyed this peaceful fun, outing and it is definitely going to be a new tradition.  

On Friday night Mimi drove over to let Bert and I go out on a date night.  April had been a pretty busy month and it had been about 6 weeks since we had actually gotten to go out on one.  Thanks Mimi!

On Saturday morning while Bert was helping with the Nicaragua 5K all the girls got to go do a little shopping with Mimi. After our shopping trip we headed over to Paris Mountain State Park where we had a fun picnic with 3 other families in our Sunday school class.  All the kids had fun playing on the playground and the adults enjoyed catching up.  It was beautiful weather.

After naps on Saturday it was time to plant the tomato plants Bert bought the day before at the strawberry patch.  

I was sitting down and sweet Hannah just came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me and just stayed there, so I wanted to snap a picture.  I love feeling their sweet arms around me.  Thankful for my babies.  

The girls worked hard helping Daddy plant.  They had fun!

In the picture below Emily was super proud of her new Frozen gloves that she got for her birthday. She let Hannah use them too a few minutes later, but didn't want Hannah to get them dirty.:)

This one loved playing in the dirt.

Hoping for some homegrown, fresh tomatoes soon! 

Thankful for a fun end to April and looking forward to May!

Emily - 5 years

Emily had her 5 year old check up on Tuesday and got a great report.  She was 41.8 inches tall and in the 35th percentile for her height, and she weighed 38.1 pounds and was in the 38th percentile for her weight.  She answered all kinds of "5 year old questions" for Dr. Shultz.  They also checked her vision and hearing and she scored perfectly on those tests.  We're very thankful for a good check-up!

Having a five year old is so fun!  She is maturing and becoming a "big girl" right before our very eyes.  It is especially evident when we get to hang out with my sister and her kids, Jacob and Ressie. They came over for a visit on Monday and Jacob (3 1/2) and Hannah (3) played together every second of the day.  They were wild and crazy and loud and happy about it.  Emily used to be right in there with them, but recently we will sometimes catch her sitting on the couch and reading a book or just pulling back a little from their wild activities. Sometimes she'd just rather go play with Ressie. Now she still does plenty of playing with them, it's just interesting to see the change.

A few things I treasure about my 5 year old:
-She loves to ride her bike, swing, look at books, have books read to her, take walks, and play with her doll house.
-Emily is SO helpful!  It makes her so happy to be helpful.  She especially loves it when we praise her because she has done something without us having to ask her.  She puts away her and her sisters' clean clothes, often unlocks the door when we get home as I am getting things and people out of the car, unbuckles and buckles her carseat (5 pt harness), she also almost always unbuckles Hannah's carseat, she keeps a very close eye on Claire and if I am in the other room I can ask her what Claire is doing and right away she will say "she is playing with _______ and she doesn't have anything in her mouth."
-Her favorite meal right now is an egg strata breakfast casserole, interesting, I know.:)
-She asks for a peanut butter and banana sandwich every day for lunch.
-Emily's favorite show is Doc McStuffins.  She hadn't been dressing up in the dress up clothes as much in the last few months, but she got a Doc McStuffins outfit from her Grandmama for her birthday and she puts that on most every day.
-Her favorite books are Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, Cinderella, and any Berenstain Bear book.
-She is a rule-follower.  I'm certainly not saying she never disobeys because that's not the case at all, but she wants to please and if I tell her something like "stay inside the fence" I would never ever have to worry about her going outside the fence.  On the other hand she needs constant reminders to not run inside the house.:)
-Her favorite toys are her doll house, art supplies, puzzles, and her play computer.
-She loves life and loves people.  She has such a kind, compassionate heart.  She often will go ask someone if their arm is better (if it had recently been hurt), or if their husband is feeling better (if he was sick).  She also loves to make cards to mail to people.
-She has very good handwriting and loves to write.  She asks us all the time how to spell something so that she can write it on a card or piece of paper.
-She gets told about once a week that she looks just like her Mama. :)
-She's confident.
-She loves, loves, loves to sing.  She sings during her rest time (which she has every afternoon while her sisters are napping, but she only falls asleep about once every three weeks or so), in the car, around the house, anywhere.
-Today as I was taking Emily to school and she was getting in her Britax brand carseat she said "Mommy, my carseat says "brit-tax."  She's been reading some sight words, but she sounded that word out and I was super proud of our little reader.
-She's a talker.  She could talk to you all day long and never run out of something to say.

Interview with Our 5 Year Old.  
What is your name?  Emily
How old are you?  5.  I just turned 5.
Where do you live?  Greenville, South Carolina
What is your favorite color?  Purple, pink and yellow
What is your favorite toy?  Bunny
What is your favorite food? Macaroni and Cheese
What is your favorite drink?  Apple juice and Capri Suns
What is your favorite thing to do?  Play with my sisters and my friends at school.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor. 
Who is your teacher?  Mrs. Tammy Roach.  We call her by her last name, but her real name is Tammy.
Who is your best friend?  Triumphant (her friend at school)
What is your favorite song?  "Skinny Ma-Rinky Dinky Dink" (which is really the song "Skidamarink a-dink, a-dink, Skidamarink a-doo, I love you"...)
What is your favorite book?  Beauty and the Beast
What is your favorite movie?  Cinderella
Who is the funniest person you know?  Connell (friend from school).  She also told me a short story about why he was funny.:)
Where is your favorite place to go? School and church
What does your Mommy always say to you?  I love you.
What does your Daddy always say to you?  I love you.  

And we do love you, Emily Jean Watts.  Five years has flown by, but we are loving every second of it, and we pray that God would give us wisdom in how to parent and point you to Him.  You are a blessing to your family!

Wordless Wednesday: Emily and Ressie

Watts Easter Celebration

We headed down to Jackson, GA to visit Bert's family a couple weekends after Easter for the Watts Family Easter Celebration.  We got to spend time with Alison (Bert's sister) and her family and meet our nephew Solomon for the first time.  It was a FUN weekend.  

Emily and Hannah helped Grandmama make cupcakes and had so much fun.  Hannah kept sneaking and eating some of the "grass" (dyed-green coconut). :)  

When we go to Grandmama and Pawpaw's house the big girls get to share a bed and they love it.  It might take them a little longer to go to sleep, but fun memories are made for sure!  

I had to take a picture of all of Hannah's sweet curls.  It was rainy that day so her hair was a little curlier than normal.  So sweet.  

Rosemary asked if she could hold Claire.  I told her yes, but Claire had other plans.  She was trying to shimmy right out of her arms.    

All the cousins having fun blowing bubbles.  

Grandmama and Pawpaw with most of their grandkids plus an extra.  All these kids had fun together!  

Me and my hubby with our cute niece Millie photo-bombing!:)  

Claire loves her Pawpaw.  

Alison was helping the girls dye eggs.  Look at sweet Solomon just waiting his turn.  

We were thankful that the rain stopped long enough for the kids to have an Easter egg hunt in the front  yard.  It was slippery, wet and fun.  

Claire was concentrating on not falling.  

This little cutie is Bert's niece's little boy, Bentley.  He and Claire are less than 24 hours apart.  Claire's birthday is January 8th and his is January 9th. 

Sweet cousin time...

Millie, Hannah and Billie.  Millie and Billie are Michael's (Bert's brother) girls and are about 6 months younger than Hannah.  They had fun playing together!  

On Saturday night Alison, Stephen and Linda were working on some adoption paper work and Bert and I got to have some fun time with Rosemary and Solomon since our kids were already in bed.  They are every bit as sweet as they look in this picture.  Love these sweet kiddos.  

Shortly after I took this picture I went back to check on Hannah, who was still awake of course (night owl), and when I came back Bert was asleep holding the book just like this.  He had fallen asleep in the middle of reading this book to Solomon.  Ha! Sweet Solomon didn't care though.  He just stayed right beside Uncle Bert and kept looking at books.  

I must say the highlight of our trip was getting to meet Solomon.  He is a gift from God to our family.  We're thankful for him, and for all of our family and the time we got to spend together!

Preschool Choir

Our preschool choir at church had their Easter performance the Sunday after Easter.  We have such a sweet group this year.  They are fun to work with.  We had four three-year-olds and three five-year-olds at the performance (a few of them couldn't make it).  

This was Hannah's first performance with the Play and Praise Choir (she just joined in January) and she did SO great!!  She stayed on stage the whole time, sang AND did the motions.  GO Hannah Beth!! 

She requested pigtails that morning and I couldn't turn her down.  Cutie! 

We had the three five-year-olds each sing a solo.  Emily sang the first verse of "Jesus Paid It All" and then all the kids joined in on the chorus.  Bella (far right in the picture below) did the same thing with "Because He Lives" and then Breleigh (to the right of Emily in the picture below) sang "Jesus Loves Me" and all the kids came in at the chorus.  We were so proud of all three of our "big" kids!  They did A-mazing!!  

Mimi and Papa got to spend the night with us (Emily's party was the day before their Play and Praise performance) so that they could hear the girls sing in church the next day.  Emily and Hannah loved having them there to cheer them on!  

After lunch it was time to get outside and let Emily try out her new roller skates.  She was about to bust to try them.  She did great and asks to skate often, but I really have to wait on Bert before we pull out the skates.  Em still needs lots of help and Claire has to be watched every second that we are out in the driveway, so we have to wait to skate until Daddy can help Emily, and I can watch H and C.  Hopefully soon she'll be able to fly around on them by herself.  

Mimi trying to get some snuggles from the wiggle worm...

Hannah wanted to give them a try after Emily was finished.  She did great too!  

Claire walked over to the door and just plopped down right on the stoop.  Perfect seat for her cute self.  

Thankful for busy, fun, beautiful weekends like this one!