I'm This Many!

For a few weeks after her birthday, Juliet wouldn't say her age but just hold up 4 fingers and say, "I'm this many!"  Hard to believe that on February 17 our sweet baby Juliet turned 4 years old!   I think four is a special age because kids start coming into their own with opinions, interactions with friends, activities, and in our case, dropping the daily nap (for the most part that is!).

Here's a look into how Juliet spent her birthday. Not a normal day, and not the birthday I exactly wished for her but overall, I think she enjoyed herself.

7:00 am Making muffins with little brother Rylan

8:00 am Checking out the snow!! (It was actually a few inches of accumulated icy snow, not the powdery stuff!)

And they wanted Sully in the picture too!

10:00 am All suited up to play in the ice snow!

11:00 am Just a little bit of school.  Learning the letter H and placing heart stickers on her H.

4:00 pm Skip ahead a few hours after she had laid down for a short nap (i.e. the pull-up) to find Juliet playing with a Dora toy

5:00 pm After I got Rylan up from his nap, Juliet decided she would crawl into the pack-n-play 

7:00 pm Special birthday treat: watching Disney's Brave for the first time.  This movie is only for big girls as there are a few scary bear scenes.

8:00 pm Beautiful cake made by Matthew

We all love cake time!

Juliet has very specific tastes: white cake with pink, purple and blue icing and Frozen on top

Daddy nailed it!

We love our birthday girl

So excited to open her presents: Elsa and Anna dolls

Her birthday celebration continued a few weeks later.  Her good friend Greta invited Juliet to join her and her husband Mark at his company's family "Frozen" night.  Juliet had a blast dressed as Elsa thanks to Greta.  Can you believe Greta had never seen "Frozen" before that night?  I think Juliet sang every song and probably recited most of the movie while watching it.  

We love you, Juliet, and are so excited to watch you grow in your love for your family, Jesus, everything pink and purple, "Frozen", and whatever else your sweet, silly heart finds to be wonderful in the days ahead!

Little Miss is now 2 Years Old!

While Philip was growing from birth to 1 and then to 2 years old, I really didn't know what was coming next so everything was new.  When it was Braewyn's turn, I was juggling a toddler and a newborn so the days ran together most of the time.  Now over the last two years of watching Juliet grow, I've tried my best to remember milestones and appreciate each stage.  I remember more of her life but still it has flown by incredibly fast!  She has become such a joyful, little child.  Juliet loves to help whether by finding scraps of paper to take to the trashcan or bringing dirty cups to the sink (she can push them up into the sink but just can't see them land in the sink!).  She gets SO excited to see animals on TV or in person and is happy to give Chloe a dog bone when it's time to lock her in the crate.  She is also quite expressive when things are NOT the way she wants them.  Juliet has mastered a scowl face and the make-you-bite-your-lip-to-keep-from-laughing, long drawn-out Southern drawl "Noooooo!"  She says this when Chloe is chewing on the kids' toys or if her brother or sister is bothering her.  Unfortunately, Juliet has bitten Philip and Braewyn each just once or twice in a moment of toddler rage when the words were not there to express herself, but just the next day you might find her wandering up to each of them, arms outstretched and uttering, "Huuuug?"  She's a great tight-arms-around-your-neck hugger!

Anyway, I cannot imagine our life without our little Ju-Ju-B!  Here's a glimpse of her birthday happenings and birthday party the following night.

Happy Birthday, Sleepy Head!  7:30am

My how big she looks!  8:30am

Just another morning shot of the cutie!

All dressed for church in her birthday dress.  9:00am

Hanging out in Sunday School.  11:00am

So excited to see Grandma after church. 12:30pm

Lunch with the family at Panda Chinese restaurant. 1:30pm

Ahhhh!  Naptime. 3:00pm

Heading back to church for Awana with some neighbor kids along for the ride. 5:00pm

Dinnertime with Daddy.  7:30pm

Washing dishes with Mommy!  8:30pm

The following night we celebrated Juliet's birthday with a spaghetti dinner, cupcakes and presents. We invited her grandparents, my Aunt Liz who was visiting my parents, and our special friends and neighbors Greta and Mark.  Juliet was surrounded by all the people who love her most!

Matthew or I would tell Juliet who gave each present. She would then carry it to them and open it with their help.  Such a thoughtful little girl without any prompting from us!  Yay, a new purse from Grandma and there was even MONEY inside!

Philip shows her the books we gave her.

Unwrapping her hew princess piggy bank from Aunt Greta and Uncle Mark.

The end of a long birthday weekend.  Love my three munchkins so much!

 

I praise Jesus for allowing Matthew and I to be Juliet's parents.  For her Baby Dedication at church when she was 5 months old, we chose these verses to be her life verses.  Juliet Hope, you are a blessing and so loved!!

 

"Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint."

Isaiah 40:30-31

Country Kiddos

We traveled to the country and back in time this past Saturday for a reunion with Matthew's side of the family.  The reunion has been at this location a few times and it's always fun to leave technology behind (wait, I took this photo with my phone!) and enjoy life at a slower pace for a few hours.

A to Z and now we're done!

When Philip was in K-4, I helped him put together an alphabet book of pictures from magazines.  With Braewyn being in K-4 this year, I decided to make her a photo book of places we've been and things she's made which start with each letter of the alphabet.  Our visit to a nearby zoo provided the pictures I needed to wrap up the book!  Z is for Zoo!

Not only did this outting provide the Z pictures, it was also a milestone in our homeschool journey.   Our new children's pastor, George, who's awesome btw, organized Fantastic Friday outtings throughout the summer and the zoo was the first!  This means Philip rode an actual school bus for the first time with about 50 kids and adults from our church to the zoo while I followed in our car with the girls.  It was fun for him and a little anxiety-filled for me.  It's the feeling I guess I would have had had I sent him off to public kindergarten two years ago. 

Upon arriving at the zoo, we all ate our box lunches (well, my family ate grapes and graham crackers as I was banking on buying hot dogs but didn't realized large groups eat BEFORE entering the zoo!).  Then George split the groups up into smaller groups each with an assigned chaperone.  He said that I could just tag-along a group since I had Braewyn and Juliet.  I told him I could be a group stalker.  I did stay with the main group (including Philip who was in George's group; was it that obvious that I was holding the apron strings tight why George took Philip under his care?) for a while until Braewyn and I did stop for hot dogs.  For the next two hours, I didn't see Philip.  It was gratifying that I could let go and let him gain some independence.  Later that afternoon when I picked up Philip from our church gym (the bus full of kids headed back home while I let Braewyn play on a super cool playground near the zoo), George said Philip had been great.  Makes a momma proud and thankful!

Here's the recap in photos. Click on the first photo and you will be able to see all photos enlarged.

 Juliet was squealing with delight at seeing the giraffes and orangutans and lasted the four hot hours at the zoo better than I had expected.  And Braewyn no longer runs from my camera but has in fact turned into a little starlet always ready to give a smile and say cheese!