Cecelia's 5th Birthday

Cece Bird is five! It doesn't even seem weird that she's getting that big, because it really feels like she's always been around! It's hard to remember life before Cece.

All she wanted for her birthday was Barbies... which is not my thing... but hey, it's her birthday, not mine, and she was thrilled to get her dolls.

We were planning Cece's party on a Saturday, so on her actual birthday we went out to eat and got cookies for dessert, and then went swimming at a friend's pool! It was a really fun day.

For her party, her grandparents were unable to make it so we got together with friends instead and Cece had a super fun day. She wanted a butterfly cake, so I Cece'd it up with loads of sprinkles.

What she's up to: 
-Cece is SUPER active and honestly never sits still. She is solid lean muscle and is so strong.
-She's very girly and loves all things sparkly... she likes unicorns, makeup, princesses, pink, and anything else "girl" that you could imagine.
-However, she's also a wild animal. She always has crazy hair because she's constantly rolling around on her head, she climbs on everything, and she's generally just kind of wild. She has definitely toned down a bit in the last year, but she's still a little wild creature.
-She loves to go outside, do crafts or paint, watch TV, do anything involving water, reading, helping.
-GUM. This child is seriously addicted to gum. 
-Eating all the time. She's never not hungry. She's also not picky which is super nice.
-She still likes to act/talk like a baby sometimes.
-Cece continues to be a very heavy sleeper and almost always sleeps all night without a peep.
-She's the tallest of all my kids for her age... I need to take her in for a checkup and am curious to see where she falls on the growth chart. (As of August, she's 44 lbs, 44", and 70th percentile in both!)
-She is a total Mama's girl and always wants to be close to me. She often wants help even with things she can do herself.
-Slowly learning letters and numbers (poor neglected third child). She'll be in kindergarten this fall!

Her interview: 
What's your name? Cece
Whatd dayis your birthday? I don't know
How old are you? 5 
What's your favorite color? Pink and purple  
Favorite number? 3
Favorite letter? I don't know what letters are
Favorite shape? Circles 
Favorite food? Cereal 
Favorite candy? Gum suckers 
Favorite game? Potion Explosion 
Favorite movie? The Last Unicorn 
Favorite TV show? Boss Baby 
Favorite book: The fox book  
What do you want to be when you grow up? A princess 
What is your Daddy's job? To work 
What is Mama's job? To make food 
Favorite place to go? Ra's and Papa's house for Easter  
Favorite restaurant? My favorite restaurant is Noodles and Company 
Favorite animal? Zebras.  I mean giraffes.
Do have any brothers or sisters? Desy and Orion and Hazel. And you, Mommy. You're a Mama sister. 
Any pets? Enzo  
Favorite song? Happy  
Favorite ice cream flavor? Strawberry and vanilla  
Who is your best friend? Nana and Papa  
Favorite cereal? Mini wheats  
Favorite thing to do outside? Play on the trampoline with sprinklers and the pool and the slippery slide  
Favorite drink? Pop  
What toys do you like to take to bed with you? My giant puppy 
What is your favorite holiday? Christmas. I love Christmas because we get to go on sleds.  
What are you good at? Playing princesses  
Who is the coolest person ever? You and Daddy and Papa and Ra and Nana and Papa and Ellie 
Favorite toy? My unicorn 
What makes you happy? Playing princesses with you. And playing with baiol polish to play princesses. 
What makes you sad? When people don't play with me  
What are you scared of? The dark  
What is your super power?  Laser eyes and ballerina

Hazel's 2nd Birthday

My Hazel Nut turned two this St. Patrick's Day! She is the cutest, most rotten little thing I ever did see. She's hilarious, loud, shy, hot-tempered, stubborn, silly, smart, destructive, talkative, cuddly, and oh-so-naughty, and we all love her like crazy.

We had a Peter Rabbit themed party for her (mostly because I had the supplies left over from another project), and it was super cute. All of her grandparents got to be there to celebrate!

Here are the stats:
Height: 2' 8.25" (19th percentile)
Weight: 22 lbs 3 oz (4th percentile)

Yep, another peanut. She is so teeny!

Hazel has long, gorgeous wavy hair (it's 3 or 4 inches longer than any other girl her age I know) and - wait for it- hazel eyes. They're kind of gray and brown... very unique. She has the very best cheeks.

What she's up to:

-Talking up a storm. She speaks in full short sentences, though it can be hard to understand her. She is very polite with pleases and thank yous ;) The thing that impresses me the most is her understanding of "mine" and "yours." Maybe it's just because she's small, but she seems so young to have that kind of grasp on language.
-She loves to harass the cat, who is, blessedly, quite patient with her most of the time.
-Tearing up the house... we have to keep the bathrooms doors shut and litter box blocked off, and if she's not in the room I'll always send one of the other kids to "make sure Hazel's not getting into trouble." She's exhausting!
-She's pretty attached to Mama. She's still shy about strangers and new experiences and situations. She can really cling to me when she wants to.
-Her "lovey" is her bed pillow. She carries it around the house with her even though it's bigger than she is! She grabs onto the fabric of the pillow case and sucks her thumb (a habit we'll soon have to tackle breaking).
-Sleeping in a big-girl bed! She was doing some dangerous acrobatics in her crib, so we did some bed shuffling and moved her to a twin bed. She did great making the transition, thank goodness! Hazel is an excellent sleeper and rarely wakes up in the night. There have been a few nights when she seemed to be having nightmares and I would lay down with her until she fell asleep, but that's not the norm. She also naps once daily for 1-3 hours ish.

What she's into:

-Hazel's favorite things to watch on TV are Boss Baby and The Incredibles 2 ("Jack Jack!"). She wasn't interested in TV until she got to watch through the series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, with Nathan and the other kids. She loved it and snuggled nicely with Daddy every evening they watched it.
-She's not terribly picky, though she's not a big eater (miss 4th percentile). She likes to graze and often helps herself to snacks from the pantry, much to my chagrin. Her favorite food is probably blueberries.
-She loves to play outside.
-Hazel loves babies. Real, on tv, baby dolls, whatever. She also likes animals.
-Milk. This girl should have some strong bones.
-Mostly destroying the house and raging when she doesn't get her way. Let's be honest. :P

My almost-birthday-buddy! Happy birthday to the cutest girl I know!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had a great Christmas this year! We got our tree a couple days after Thanksgiving. We found a gorgeous one!

We ❤ Christmas trees!!

I had so much fun decorating our new house for Christmas! I splurged for some new tree decorations and got to hang up the stockings I made last year. Everything looked so pretty!

Some of the decorations in our family room.

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated with my family in Napoleon! We had a great (too short) visit. These kids are so lucky to celebrate Christmas so many times!

My dad, Cece, and I made molasses sugar cookies from my Grandma's recipe. The. Best.

My brother Andy and his fiancee were home from Texas! I wish we could have visited with them longer, but we had a good time.

The following week was Nathan's busiest week of the year at work, so he had to spend most of his time there. The kids and I were able to spend more time with his family and make cookies with friends.

Nathan's parents wanted to wait until Jonathan's family was in town to get their tree, so we ended up going two days before Christmas... but the tree farm Larry had scoped out was closed for the season! After a couple phone calls to the owner, we ended up slipping money under the door and getting our tree. Whew!

Our family Sunday Morning (Christmas Eve).

We decorated cookies on Christmas Eve, as well as opening one gift each in the evening.  Nathan and I usually open our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve after the kids are in bed so we can have a special time together. I planned a year of dates for Nathan, and he got me an Amazon Echo and a robot vacuum!

My beautiful children on Christmas morning :)  We had the kids open their gifts at home before we headed over to celebrate with Nathan's family.

One of the things we got the kids for Christmas was a hamster. Cece especially had been talking about wanting a pet a lot, and this one is SO cute. She's really sweet and the kids are doing well with her. We named her Dandelion (Dandy for short).

Allie brought a special Christmas book to read to all the kids.

We spent the next couple days spending time with Nathan's family and had a wonderful time. It really was such a nice Christmas.

In the evening of Christmas day when we got home, I noticed that the fireplace grate was askew and open. I mentioned it to the kids and they found a shiny wrapped present in the fireplace! Nathan had sneekily bought them a Nintendo Switch (through some crazy combination of gift cards and monetary gifts he only spent like $30 out of pocket!?!). It was SO exciting and special for them.

To finish out our holiday craziness, we stopped off at my parents' house for a couple days before heading up to Michigan to celebrate New Year's with our college friends. We are so blessed to have these beautiful people as our lifelong friends.

What a great blessing we have in our family, friends, and special celebrations!

Cece's 3rd Birthday

May 25 has come and gone again! In some ways it's hard to believe that Cecelia is already three, and in others it's hard to believe that she's only three (because I can't remember life without her!). 

Cece is my wild animal and my princess. She is sweet and naughty. She is sensitive and defiant. She is cuddly and rough and tumble. She's beautiful and smart and we love her like crazy.

Things she's into:

-dressing up (in costumes or changing her clothes)

-reading books

-putting things in a backpack or box, carrying it to another part of the house, and emptying it on the floor

-talking to and touching her baby sister

-dragging blankets around the house

-going to Sunday School with "Mawy Oos" (Miss Mary Lou)

-TV (if I had to pick a favorite for her I'd say Team Umi Zoomie)

-coloring on things that shouldn't be colored (herself, walls, furniture, etc.)
-dancing
-Mama
-eating all the time
-breaking things
-baths
-climbing
-helping with things like laundry or cooking. I wish she loved to help with things like cleaning up her room...

What she's up to:

-She's completely potty trained! We finished our last package of pull-ups for night time a couple weeks ago and she has done great! She's had a few accidents here and there, but overall she has been doing really well and I'm quite pleased.
-She is not a picky eater and likes most foods. She'll say she doesn't like things sometimes, but it's usually just a matter of not wanting to eat that thing at that time. I'm happy she's a good eater. She devours baby carrots like her mama. She wants to eat all day long, also like her mama.
-Cece is extremely expressive with her face and voice. I think she has a great vocabulary and has some pretty complex things to say! I love her excited reactions. ...not so much the end of the world when she doesn't get her way.
-This is definitely not a super obedient child, and she has no qualms with deliberately disobeying. She has a very strong will and is very stubborn. But she's so cute and charming about it that she probably gets away with more than she should. Uh oh.
-Cece is a very heavy sleeper and is on a great schedule. Very occasionally she wakes up during the night, but usually she falls asleep within minutes and doesn't move til morning. She should probably still take a nap, but I don't make her unless she's having serious meltdowns. She often falls asleep in the car and sometimes I can move her to her bed.
-She knows her colors pretty well and knows some shapes. She can count to ten and sing her alphabet, but I haven't really started working with her on letters and numbers yet.

Here are the stats:
Height: (will add when I locate a tape measure)
Weight: 31 lbs

Cece wanted a princess birthday party, of course. She wore her princess dress and received so many nice gifts from her grandparents. I made lasagna and bought a gorgeous cake from Dorothy Lane Market (it was so. good.) because it was too perfect to resist. It was a really nice party, and our first at our new house.

Yesterday was her actual birthday and I wanted to do something fun, so we went strawberry and cherry picking at Tuken's, our favorite local farm (we have been there for apple picking the last couple years). Picking the cherries was much more fun and easy than the strawberries! I hope Cece has good memories of things like this. We picked up McDonald's on the way home and had a "movie picnic" at home watching Moana. Then she got to watch TV on the tablet while I worked on school with the boys. Cece fell asleep on the way to Tae Kwon Do, so she was too cranky to participate until the end, but the teacher LOVES her and it was nice to be there on her birthday. We got "worms" (lo mein) for dinner on the way home, followed it up with ice cream, and then she got to take a bath before bed. I think it was a pretty good day for the birthday girl. :)

Per tradition, I asked Cecelia a series of questions on her birthday and her answers were pretty entertaining!! It's tempting to correct her, but I just wrote down her actual responses. She's hilarious.

What's your name? Cece
What day is your birthday? 3
How old are you? 2
What's your favorite color? Pink
Favorite number? 5
Favorite letter? 6
Favorite shape? A triangle
Favorite food? Snakes (lo mein noodles)
Favorite candy? cereal
Favorite game? Hoot Owl Hoot
Favorite movie? Bubble Guppies
Favorite TV show? Bubble Guppies
Favorite book: Dragon
What do you want to be when you grow up? Play
What is your Daddy's job? To work
What is Mama's job? To measure
Favorite place to go? To McDonald's
Favorite restaurant? Bubble Guppies
Favorite animal? A zebra
Do have brothers or sisters? Brothers
Any pets? No
Favorite song? *starts singing a gibberish song of her own invention*
Favorite ice cream flavor? Chocolate
Who is your best friend? Allie
Favorite cereal? Cheerios
Favorite thing to do outside? Play on the trampoline
Favorite drink? Chocolate milk
What toys do you like to take to bed with you? A bunny
What's your favorite holiday? A birthday party
What are you good at? Jumping on the trampoline
Who is the coolest person ever? Papa
Favorite toy? a bunny
What makes you happy? Papa
What makes you sad? A monster
What are you scared of? A monster!
What's your super power? *hisses like a snake*

Orion turned 7... a while ago.

We celebrated Orion's birthday while we were in Louisiana for Thanksgiving, along with all the other fall and winter birthdays! We ate ice cream cake and had a great time with family!

I totally forgot to do Orion's birthday interview, so here it is... only a couple months late!

What's your name? Orion
What day is your birthday? November 19th
How old are you? 7
What's your favorite color? Blue
Favorite number?1000
Favorite letter? D
Favorite shape? Square
Favorite food? Hotdogs
Favorite candy? Jelly beans
Favorite game? Battle Block Theater
Favorite movie? Star Wars
Favorite TV show? Doctor Who
Favorite book: The Encyclopedia of the Human Body
What do you want to be when you grow up? A worker for McDonald's
What is your Daddy's job? Working at the Salvation Army office
What is Mama's job? To watch us. Take care of us.
Favorite place to go? Sam's Club
Favorite restaurant? Sam's Club
Favorite animal? Tiger
Do have brothers or sisters? Desy, Cece, and Hazel
Any pets? A cat and a fish
Favorite song? Meant to Live
Favorite ice cream flavor? Twist
Who is your best friend? God
Favorite cereal? Raisin Bran
Favorite thing to do outside? Play soccer
Favorite drink? Gateraid 
What toys do you like to take to bed with you? The seahorse and that unicorn
What's your favorite holiday? My birthday
What are you good at? Soccer
Who is the coolest person ever? God
Favorite toy? Snap Circuits
What makes you happy? Playing video games for half an hour
What makes you sad? When anyone dies
What are you scared of? Weeping Angels
What's your super power? Being a good goalie in soccer

Desy's 5th birthday!

My Desy Doodle Bug turned FIVE! He's getting so grown up even though he's a tiny little dude. He's so handsome.

Here are the stats:

Weight: 37 lbs 3.2 oz (24%)

Height: 3'5" (15%)

BMI: 15.56 (55%)

If I could pick two words to describe Desy they would be silly and sensitive. He loves to be goofy and make people laugh. He's very emotional and sensitive in every way, whether it's to how he's feeling himself or how someone else is feeling. I think he's going to be someone who likes to make people feel good :) He loves pretend play (playing house, playacting with toys, etc.) and likes to be "the dad" or "the baby." Desy is SUCH a Mama's boy and hates it when I leave. Many nights he throws a fit when I try to leave the room because he doesn't want me to go. His life would be complete if only I would move my bed into his room...

Desy's Ra (Grandma Robin) wanted to take him to the pool on his birthday, so we had fun swimming at the Farmersville pool. I'm hoping to get the boys into swimming lessons this summer, so I hope that works out. They all love the water!

We also let Desy pick where to go out for lunch (Wendy's). Desy is a great eater and isn't very picky. There are some things he doesn't like, but he's usually willing to try things and has a great variety of foods he likes. When I order him a cheeseburger he just eats whatever comes on it! Wow!

Des is very into Minions... he's such a silly boy himself that he just loves the crazy, funny minions. We had a picnic with the "young at heart" group from church in our yard on Desy's birthday, so we had everyone sing to him. It was fun for everyone and Desy thought the whole party was to celebrate his birthday ;)

What's your name? Desy
What day is your birthday? June 30th
How old are you? 5
What's your favorite color? Green
Favorite number?D
Favorite letter? R
Favorite shape? Heart
Favorite food? Macaroni and cheese
Favorite candy? Cookies
Favorite game? Cartoona
Favorite movie? Zootopia
Favorite TV show? Creative Galaxy
Favorite book: the bunny book
What do you want to be when you grow up? A police officer
What is your Daddy's job? To build stuff
What is Mama's job? To teach us school
Favorite place to go? Kroger
Favorite restaurant? Chick Fil A
Favorite animal? Koala
Do have brothers or sisters? Yes. Orion and Cece.
Any pets? A cat and Tilda and mice
Favorite song? The birthday song 
Favorite ice cream flavor? Chocolate
Who is your best friend? Gwen
Favorite cereal? Chex
Favorite thing to do outside? Play
Favorite drink? Lemonade
What toys do you like to take to bed with you? Violet, my bear, and my seahorse
What's your favorite holiday? Fall
What are you good at? Disney Infinity
Who is the coolest person ever? Joran
Favorite toy? My minion
What makes you happy? My minion
What makes you sad? When Orion hits me and hurts me and I cry
What are you scared of? The dark
What's your super power? I don't have a super power!