Father's Day 2012

I just have to take the time to honor the awesome Daddy that we have in our lives!!  Most of you know that Jacob didn't exactly have the best example of a father in his life and he takes it very seriously when he tries so hard to be the best daddy ever.  Of course we girls think he has definitely succeeded! As soon as the door opens and Daddy comes home from work the girls are screaming to try and get to him first. They know that the will throw them in the air and play with them and then most likely share some of his ice cream with them.  His schedule really allows him to have some fun with us and one of our favorite things to do lately is go to the open play at the gymnastics place.  He runs around and jumps on everything right alongside the girls and they just love it!  He is also such a good teacher when it comes to teaching the girls how to be independent and do things for themselves.  I swear our girls wouldn't know how to do a lot of things if it weren't for him.  He also works so hard at his job and sacrifices on sleep all of the time so he can earn money for us and spend as much time with us as he can.  We just love our Daddy!! (By the way, don't you just love the picture that Emma drew for his card??)

Maddie turns 3!

This past weekend Maddie turned 3 and so we had a little birthday party for her that consisted of just family since our families make the party big enough!  We did an Ariel theme since she LOVES Ariel so much.  I can't tell you how excited she was when she saw the Ariel bounce house and cupcakes.  I am all about easy so we just let the kids jump while the adults talked and then we had dinner, opened presents and then had cupcakes.  I made Maddie her own little cake just for fun and it was very entertaining watching her eat it.  Of course, I have to do 10 things about Maddie right now so we can remember exactly what she is like at this age!
1. Obviously loves Ariel.....if you ask her to, she will sing the "Ariel" song for you.
2. Gets super sad any time you barely yell at her or tell her no.  She will run away and cry.  Lately though, Jacob tells her she has to do a happy face right in the middle of her crying and I can't describe how hilarious her face is.
3. If she has something to say to you, she says, "Mama, let me tell you something".
4. She knows the alphabet, can count to 15 and know her colors and shapes.  (Most of the time....she can definitely be frustrating when she just starts listing off any color that comes to her mind!)
5. She can be the sweetest, funniest 3 year old you have ever seen......or the most stubborn.  Depends on the day I guess.
6. Her favorite things to do are read books, build towers, play with Makenna, play on Mama's phone, play in the pool, and eat candy.
7.  She is pretty fearless when it comes to doing things.  If you tell her to do something like sit on top of the car or jump off of anything to Daddy, she will do it.  I am not sure whether to be proud of this or scared.
8. Her best friends are her sisters, Courtney, and Aunt MaryBeth.
9. She has to sleep with her baby, baby Ariel, her cup and her blanket or she will have a melt down.  She will now allow any other blanket to be on her at bedtime or she will freak out.  I wish I would have made her blanket a little bit bigger!
10. She screams a lot when Emma does things that she doesn't like or when Emma takes things from her.  However, all I have to say is "Use your words" and she will automatically ask nicely for Emma to stop.  Why can't they just start with that instead of the screams?

 

Our Maddie is so independent and stubborn and amazing and we are so blessed to have this hilarious little girl in our lives!

To the Beach!

This is our first trip to the beach this summer.  Our good friends Neal and Meleah have this really cool place to go to by their house.  It is a boat marina and so the water is perfect for the little ones to go to.  My girls had so much fun playing in the dirt and the water.  Maddie and Emmit were hilarious together and played the whole day.  Thank goodness we have such a good Daddy who really takes the time to play with them.

Building Towers

This is what my girls consider "building towers".  I have got to get them some better blocks!

First Camping Trip!

We finally took our girls on their first camping trip and we had so much fun!  However, I can't believe how much work it is to take three kids camping.  We drove up on Monday and took two cars to fit everything in!  We were planning on staying until Wednesday morning but ended up leaving on Tuesday night due to Jacob and Makenna getting sick.  Jacob would have toughed it out if I let him but I didn't want Makenna to go through another night there sick.  Even with the crazy sick stuff, we still had a really good time.  The girls absolutely loved playing in the dirt.  We took up sand toys and they just kept digging and digging.  I have never seen them so dirty....they looked like little raccoons because we could only see their eyes through the dirt!  We also took them on some different little hikes around the campsite and they even got to ride their bikes around.  By the time we got back, Jacob and I were exhausted.  Gone are the days of just being able to enjoy the outdoors.  Now, our kids get to enjoy the outdoors while we work to set up everything and then take it down the next day!  Needless to say, it will take some time to recover but we will taken them again!

Mother's Day 2012

This was the first year that Jacob has been off of work for Mother's Day and I was pretty excited.....until he got sick on Saturday night!  If you know me really well, you could say my birthday curse rubbed off onto Mother's Day.  Jacob brought me breakfast in bed with the girls and then crashed in bed with a fever for the rest of the day.  Luckily, he was able to sleep it off and join my family and I for dinner so it started well and ended well!  Plus, I got some beautiful cards from all of them. (And a few gifts too!)

Girls Weekend!

While Jacob was away at Woodbadge this past weekend, us girls decided to do some fun "girl stuff".  We painted toenails, played games, watched movies, went on walks, went shopping and made pizza! Of course, all I got pictures of were the pizza making.  But we had a lot of fun!