Our Family of Five

We've had an eventful week, but the majority of the pictures this week are of Ella and Lucy's new bunk beds.  Moving Lucy into Ella's room was one of the first steps in preparing our home for the arrival of our new baby in February.  We bought the bunk beds for Ella's birthday in May, but only set up the bottom twin bed at the time.  Now that Lucy is 3, Jeff built the rest of the bed and both girls moved up!  They absolutely love their beds and love sleeping in the same room together.  They have done a great job at going to sleep with out *too* much talking at night.  The only less than desirable effect has been that they have been getting up way too early in the morning!  Hopefully once they get used to being together, they'll get back to sleeping to more normal times in the morning!

 

We had the girls' professional Christmas pictures taken on Saturday, so I'll be posting those soon!  They turned out great!

We had a full weekend of birthday celebrations!  My dad turned 66 on Friday (we celebrated with him twice!) and we had Lucy's party on Saturday, complete with all the family.  I think the pictures pretty much explain it all!  Lucy was SO happy with all the puppies everywhere.  When she came in and first saw all the decorations, she said, "Awww...thank you, Momny!"  What a sweetheart!  She had a wonderful day and went to sleep with a big smile on her face.  Couldn't ask for more.

After all the Halloween festivities last Saturday night, we came home and began preparing for Lucy's week of birthday celebrations by making confetti cupcakes with "pink icing and sprinkles!"  Since we wanted to wait one more year for a "friends party," we brought cupcakes to Lucy's Sunday School class so she could still get to celebrate with her friends. 

 

Monday was her actual birthday.  I walked into her room that morning singing "Happy Birthday" to her and she smiled from ear to ear.  When I finished, she said, "Am I 3?"  I happily told her yes and she jumped out of bed ready for her day.  As I was getting her breakfast ready (birthday pancakes Daddy had made), she asked quite seriously, "Am I still little or am I big?"  She is such a sweetheart.  She blew out the candles on her pancakes and we had a fairly quiet day around the house.

 

When I had asked her what she would like to do on her birthday, she said she wanted to "eat pizza at CiCi's and ride the black horsey at the mall."  Thankfully, that wish was pretty easy to grant!  After school, we took Ella to her dance class, then came home and met Daddy and took off for our birthday evening.  She had lots of fun showing everyone three fingers and proudly telling them how old she was.  When we got home, we all had birthday cupcakes and she got to blow out candles again, this time with Daddy and Ella home to sing to her as well as Mommy. 

 

Then she FINALLY got her present, which she had waited patiently for all day.  Her little toddler bed had been traded for a big girl bed, complete with Care Bears comforter and pillowcase (thanks to our friends who handed it down!).  We explained (again) to her that as soon as Daddy found some time to build the bunk beds, we would move that big mattress onto the bottom bunk in Ella's room and then it would become "Lucy and Ella's room."  They are both pretty excited about this upcoming change.  Personally, I'm enoying having them in separate rooms as long as I can, but I know they will enjoy being together.  After the move, we'll have about 3 months to very gradually transition Lucy's room into a nursery again.  Hopefully, without making her feel replaced in any way or like we were taking anything away from her.  That is the goal, at least.

 

She had a great first night in her new bed.  As I was saying goodnight to her, she asked me, "Am I still 3?"  Yes, Lucy.  And you are SO big.  

I was disappointed when our church decided to not to have an event on Halloween this year.  I always love getting to see all the kids from church in their cute costumes, and for our kids to get to be seen by their friends and teachers, too.  But since that wasn't happening, we made the most of it by finding lots of other places for them to wear their costumes and get candy, even if nobody really knew them.

 

On Friday night, we went to the bible book store to meet Larry Boy and get a picture, but that didn't turn out so well.  The girls both refused to go anywhere near him.  He was just way too big.  I thought after having been to Walt Disney World and taking tons of pics with all those characters, they would be okay with this, but I guess I was wrong.

 

We left there and went to a fall festival at one of the largest churches in our area.  They had all kinds of games, rides, balloons, candy, etc.  There would have been even more, but it was raining so the outdoor stuff was a bust.  We ate dinner in a giant tent outside.  Ella thought it was cool that we were all standing on a parking lot.

 

On Saturday, we had a nice morning around the house, complete with banana-chocolate chip pancakes made by Daddy.  Then we started our Halloween tour!  We went to a local pumpkin patch and found our way through muddy mazes, went on a hayride, and picked out pumpkins to keep.  After that it was Toys R Us, Walmart, and Border's - all in costume, of course! 

 

Saturday evening, we went back home and did some trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  It was our first time to do this and I think it was Ella's favorite part of the weekend.  Lucy, having not had a nap, was pretty tired and got bored with the whole thing after a couple blocks.  She didn't want to walk anymore.  We went home and sorted all the candy from the day, took out the candy they REALLY liked, and put the rest in a big bucket to start giving away!  Ella and Lucy sat on the front porch and gave candy to lots more trick-or-treaters.  That was fun for them, too. 

 

After a quick dinner, we finished the evening with a quick trip through a trunk-or-treat at another local church and came back home.  We had an enjoyable Halloween, but the next few days were even more exciting!  Check back next week for LOTS of pictures of this week's exciting events!

Yesterday was a busy day!  It began with a third ultrasound of our newest baby girl.  I am 23 weeks now, so the baby is finally looking a little less bony and a little more like a newborn baby.  She's going to continue to get a lot chubbier from here on out!  My mom accompanied me to the ultrasound this time (her first time to see one performed).  It was fun to get to share that with her and for her to understand a bit more of what that experience is like for us.  As always, it was fun to see our sweet, little baby, but more importantly, we were blessed with a shining report of her health and development.  The three areas (all to do with the heart) that they were unable to see last month were easily seen this time and checked out well.  Baby also was very cooperative in showing us her face so we could get some sweet pictures.

 

While we were at the Dr., my dad took Lucy to the library for the Halloween story time so she could go and wear her costume.  I'm sure he was the only grandpa there, but it sounded like it went pretty well.  I was glad Lucy didn't have to miss out and I know she enjoyed flying around the library for everyone in her butterfly costume.

 

My parents, Lucy, and I spent the middle part of the day shopping, but got home in time to get Ella off the bus, change her clothes, and rush off to dance class.  Ella enjoyed showing off her dancing and tumbling skills for Grandma and Grandpa.  When we get home, Jeff and his parents and sister were here waiting for us.  We all enjoyed a Papa Murphy's pizza together and then attended Jeff's Fall Concert at school.  He has three choirs this year, but the first two are small, so they sang together.  The second half of the program was a multi-media event centered around the theme "Freedom is Coming!"  It was probably the biggest production Jeff has attempted to pull of with his choirs since he has been teaching and it went SO WELL!  The students were having fun, the audience was clearly enjoying it, and we hard so many positive comments from everyone afterwards.  Jeff and his choirs should be very proud of a job well done!

 

Ella had three sick days from school last week and I had a cold all weekend, but we are finally on the mend again.  It seems like every family we know has had someone sick recently.  I am thankful our share so far hasn't been as bad as it could have been.

 

I sent Ella off to school this morning all fixed up for her first school picture.  I'm just hoping the kindergartners had pictures early in the morning, that Ella did her best to stay looking nice like I asked, and that the teachers and photographers are kind enough to straighten the kids up a bit before taking their pictures!  Oh, and of course, that she smiles her beautiful smile.   Can't wait to see how they turn out!