Yard Day 2011

Yesterday was the official, "Yard Day" of the year! It really has become one of my favorite days....the real kickoff of Spring, getting the yard all ready and prepped for the season, and GREEN GRASS with fresh plants and flowers and beautiful dark mulch :) I LOVE IT! (and there seriously is no sarcasm here...I really do love landscaping!). I got all loaded up with some new plants that we needed to replace some ones that we lost over the winter and some new perennials and shrubs to put in the backyard in a new section around our patio...after only THREE trips to Lowes in one day. There were FAR too many choices this year!! Shawn and the kids headed over to Wallace Farms on Saturday morning to get 2 yards of mulch dumped into the back of the truck. We worked all morning and up until 3:00 and got it ALL done! Just in time for a monstrous storm that rolled through and dumped tons of rain on our fresh plantings!! Thanks God for the FREE watering on the first night! The funny, yet kinda depressing, thing was thinking about how Reilly AND Braxton were born the day after "Yard Day 2007" and "Yard Day 2009"!!! I guess being on your hands and knees doing manual labor of digging, planting, spreading mulch at 40 weeks pregnant will put you into labor!!! However, not so much at only 26 weeks pregnant :( Oh well!!

She's got her first set of wheels!!

Reilly's special birthday present had to be postponed a few days while she proved to us that she really could act like a 4yr. old was supposed to act :) But, after a few days of holding a carrot out in front of her, she pulled herself together and we couldn't WAIT to give her this gift. Her first big girl bike! I totally lucked up at the Consignment sale last month and scored an awesome, Strawberry Shortcake, perfect first-bike. We cleaned it up as much as we could, but it really was already in great condition, and in the grand scheme of things, was perfect the way it was for a little girls bike. Needless to say, Reilly has spent some amount of time riding every single day since we gave it to her :) She officially LOVES her bike.

Special Guest Reader!

Reilly had quite the special experience the other week. My mom, DeeDee, was coming into town to go to my Dr. appt. with me b/c I was going to have another ultrasound. It just so happened that she would be in Charlotte on a preschool day and that we would be done with our appointment right around the time that Reilly's preschool class has special readers come in. I mentioned the idea to my mom of her going to be the special reader and I think she almost jumped through the phone she was so excited. Being a Pre-K teacher/Preschool director herself, she loves more than anything getting to share her preschool with Reilly. So for mom to have the chance to enter into Reilly's preschool experience was so exciting!! I tried to explain to mom that it was a quick, 15 minute deal where she would read one, maybe two books. I think that translated to her educator mind as "plan-a 20-minute-lesson" to do with Reilly's class :) I literally had to remind her 16 times to tone it down a notch and remember, she was just going in to read, not teach :) When we walked in the classroom, Reilly was SO excited to see DeeDee in HER room! She even went around and introduced all of her friends to DeeDee, which was so special for mom. Mom chose a Dr. Suess book (since he is her absolute favorite childrens' author) and even brought stickers and a Cat in the Hat plush toy to be her "assistant" while she read. The kids were totally into mom. How could you not be when she reads a book as if she is acting out every single character and part in the story! Luckily, Ms. Jacobson had her camera and snapped a few pictures since I totally didn't even think about bringing mine along!

where did the last 4 years go??!

And yet again another cliche in regards to how old my children are.....WHERE did these 4 years go??!!! We have pretty much been celebrating Reilly's birthday for the past week, so it seems!, and she has enjoyed every minute of it. Starting with the big family cookout/party last weekend and then with several special events on her actual birthday, and then cupcakes to her class at school today AND the biggest, most exciting birthday present tonight! My goodness, I remember the days when birthdays were really something special to get excited about :)

Since Shawn was out of town for 5 days, and wouldn't be home until the evening of Reilly's birthday last night, I knew I had to make sure she felt it was still her birthday even though Daddy wasn't here. She started her morning awakening to a fabulously decorated bedroom, with purple streamers and red balloons, that I had put up Saturday night while she was sleeping. She LOVED this.

Then we headed to Panera for a special birthday breakfast which consisted of her favorites: cinnamon crunch bagel with butter, blueberry muffin, pumpkin muffin (all of which we shared!), and chocolate milk. After breakfast she opened a couple small presents from mommy and daddy (some new things for her Doll house and a fancy new consignment sale find: a Hello Kitty shirt/skirt outfit). Since we are in a "no-birthday-party" year, we decided to let Reilly pick her favorite restaurant for us to have dinner and chose a friend to come along with us! Of course she chose her bestest friend, Sophie, and her favorite restaurant, On the Boarder!! (I promise, I had absolutely nothing to do with choice of location for dinner!!!!! We have just trained our children right :) Sophie came over to play for a while before we left for dinner, which gave Shawn's flight plenty of time to land in Charlotte and for him to get out of the airport and on his way up to surprise his little princess at the restaurant!! And it worked perfectly :) She was so excited that it was her birthday and we were out to dinner with her best friend! She even practiced for the "birthday song" that the waitresses come around and sing since she knew they were going to ask her to stand up on her seat! There were 3 other birthday guests at On the Boarder last night, and each time they came around to sing to the other guests, Reilly would say, "It's almost time for them to come sing to me!!" Of course, when the time finally did come, she looked like a deer caught in headlights, but then did follow protocol and stood on her seat, twirling her napkin above her head!! (it helped a bit that Sophie agreed to stand up with Reilly!). It was quite a fun dinner.








There are SO many things that I love about my big girl:

• I LOVE your passion
• I love your laughter and sense of humor
• I love that you love to be tickled and you think mommy and daddy should just lay down and surrender to you tickling us!
• I love how compassionate you are
• I love how you are addicted to making "notes" for people!! all. the. time!!
• I love how well you write!
• I love how much you enjoy puzzles and that you are sooooo good at them!! you biggest one so far is a 63 puzzle...with tiny pieces!!
• I love how "motherly" you are....even when it's not necessary :)
• I love how you take care of your brother and help him (some of the times!)
• I love how much you love being with friends...even though it makes me crazy how much you ask to be with friends!
• I love hearing you pray such authentic prayers!
• I love hearing you tell Bible stories that you have learned.
• I love the questions that you ask....you are SUCH an inquisitive little girl and you are a very deep thinker for your ripe age of 4!
• I love that you want to do everything by yourself, for yourself. you. are. so. independent.
• I love how much you LOVE your Daddy!!!
• I LOVE that you can perform your favorite Chris Tomlin and Toby Mac songs in front of an audience, singing every word and even dancing to the music!
• I LOVE hearing you sing soooo many songs about Jesus that you hear on the radio. You LOVE music!
• I love that nobody can make you change your mind, and I pray that one day God uses that for HIS glory!
  
• I love that you have a relationship with 3 sets of grandparents and 3 great-grandparents and that you LOVE talking on the phone to them!
• I love that you remind me so much of myself....well, sometimes I love this and sometimes this makes me want to scream real loud :)
  
• I love that you are such a leader.
• I love hearing you "read" your books and am amazed that you use the exact words, BIG words, from each page!
  
• I love that you are my firstborn and you are our princess and you are the best big sister two little brothers will ever have!!!
  

Braxton is TWO!

I know this is so cliche to say, but seriously, how in the world is my baby boy already 2 years old??!! I still can't believe it. We have had so many birthday celebrations around here to make him feel super special! Since we did the big family birthday party on Saturday, we still wanted to make sure that we recognized his birthday today, so we planned a special lunch out on the porch with just mommy and daddy. Then we gave him birthday presents from us (a basketball goal and a super sweet hot wheels big wheel...thanks to the consignment sale!). He has been totally obsessed with the basketball goal that the big boys next door have so we knew this would be a "slam dunk" present (HAHA! no pun intended :)...ok, yeah it was!).







Since we already had the super special birthday cake on Saturday, we decided to just give Braxton a birthday donut (b/c he LOVES donuts!)with a candle in it after we had a Chick-Fil-A dinner, which of course was in honor of Braxton's favorite place to eat and had nothing at all to do with his mother and father's favorite place :)






There are so many things that I am just in love with about Braxton right now and I don't want to miss any of "who" he is at this ripe age of 2, so I'm going to make a list! Enjoy!

• I love that you would rather snuggle with me and suck your thumb than do most other things!
• I love that you have just learned how to say "yeah" instead of nodding your head "yes" and you say it all the time!
• I love that you LOVE your sister so much and that she can make you laugh harder than anyone else.
• I love that you are totally into balls; all kinds!
• I love that you always clean your plate, but that you're not such a fan of many sweets!
• I love the way you smile; with your eyes half way opened and your teeth shining bright!
• I love that you have such a soft and gentle spirit :)
• I love that after 6 months of speech therapy, you are now using over 40 words! Yeah Buddy!
• I love that you know the color "blue" and you request it most of the time.
• I love that you can go up ladders/steps and down slides all by yourself while I just sit and watch :)
• I love that you are completely obsessed with remotes of ALL kinds (ok, I don't love this one so much, but this is definitely who you are right now!)
• I LOVE how excited you get when Daddy or Reilly or I walk into the room to see you.
• I love how you suck your thumb, either thumb, and put your first 2 fingers by your nose.
• I love how you will lie down ANYwhere (the hardwood, the front door mat, the sofa, the middle of the room) and put your thumb in your mouth and say "night night".
  
• Your favorite things to eat are breakfast bars, Cinnamon crunch cereal, bananas, chips and dip, chicken fingers, french fries and yogurt!
• I LOVE that you will eat the spiciest Mexican food and it doesn't even phase you!
  
• I love that you have big brown eyes just like your momma!
• I love that you love to wrestle with your daddy while he tickles you, but that you aren't rough at all!
• I love that you recognize and get excited about your favorite contemporary Christian songs by Toby Mac or Chris Tomlin!
  
• I love love love how hard you squeeze for hugs :)
• I love how much you love your "puppy" (lovey to sleep with).
  

The BIG reveal...and the kids joint birthday party!!!

Wow, yesterday was quite a day!!!! Not only did we have a joint birthday party for Reilly and Braxton, we also found out the gender of baby #3! It was such a fun and exciting day!! We had DeeDee and Poppi, Grandpa, Mama Ree, Nana, Aunt Kelly and cousin Shaun, and the Drescher family over for the celebration. It was a great time for the kids to play out in the backyard and enjoy the playset while the adults talked somewhat peacefully! We ate a yummy dinner and then had a time of ridiculous present opening....almost identical to Christmas morning! Good grief these kids have a lot of grandparents!! :)







After the present opening craze was over, we got right to the "main event"....the CAKE!!!! Since I haven't blogged about this yet...let me take some time to explain...

Back on Valentines Day, we had our ultrasound to see all the tiny details of the new baby. It never ceases to amaze me how God creates life and all of it's perfect design!! We decided to have the ultrasound technician put a picture revealing the baby's gender in an envelope that we would keep sealed until later.




So I have had this very special envelope in my desk drawer for 5 weeks! To be honest, I didn't hardly think about it b/c I'm just not used to finding out the sex of our baby before the actual birth! We had plans to have a super big "reveal" where Karin would take the picture and bake a birthday cake for the kids that would announce the gender of the baby, based the color of the cake. That has been our plan since we first found out we were pregnant!! Until we actually had the envelope! I have been going back and forth about whether or not I really wanted to find out or just keep it a secret until the end like we were used to. I soooo don't like change, and this is a HUGE change from how we've done it the last two times! When it finally came time, I decided (THIS WEEK!) to go ahead with the cake plan. So, I called Karin up and told her the envelope was ready for her to pick up so she could begin making the cake. She came right over and as soon as I handed her the envelope, she tore into it as quick as she could, right in front me! And then she continued to send me messages throughout the day about how she knew what I was having and I didn't. So cruel! :) She worked so hard to make the perfect birthday cake for the kids, while also have it be such a significant cake as well. In the end, after many trials, she decided to go with a white 4 layer cake and then color the icing in between the layers either pink or blue depending on the gender. The cake was absolutely perfect. She even put a giant green question mark on the top of it and then wrote Happy Birthday Braxton and Reilly on the sides. so great!! So, after we got done with the presents, I was READY to cut the cake! Shawn and I had decided we were going to do it just like we were getting married; both of our hands on the knife, cutting together. I must admit, when I started cutting, I wasn't even thinking about the baby until I heard someone say, "it's Blue!" when we pulled the knife out after the first cut. And then, when we pulled the first piece out, sure enough, the icing inside was BLUE!!!!! I showed it to Reilly and asked her what that meant and right away she said, "it's a boy"!!!!!! It was perfect :) What a cool day! And now....to try to prepare for another sweet baby boy!!!

Fire Engine #2!

In honor and in memory of Braxton's great-grandfather, we took a very special trip to a fire station yesterday! Mymike was the Charlotte-Mecklenburg File Commissioner in the 60s-70s and he spent most of his life giving his time to fighting fires, whether volunteering, helping to plan and build the Ocean Isle Beach Fire Dept. or always being ready to direct traffic as the firefighters worked. I decided to start a tradition with Braxton this year, as he turns 2, after hearing this idea from my friend. I called around the area to the different fire stations in search of an "Engine 2". I wanted to take a picture of Braxton with the big #2 that is labeled on the back of the truck, and I plan to find a 3 for next year, and so on! We lucked up when the closest Engine 2 was at the brand new "Station 3" in the back of our neighborhood!! Reilly and Braxton LOVED climbing all over the gigantic fire engine and the firefighters that were on duty were so super sweet to let them do whatever they wanted! It was super special and something that I hope we can do each year as Braxton grows! I hope these pictures will be a treasure for him as he hears stories about the amazing man that his great-grandfather was!!