Adam's Note

The other night, I was snuggling Gwen on the couch, when Eric came downstairs laughing. I asked him what was so funny and he asked me if I had seen this note from Adam to Tessa. Eric found it under Tessa's pillow. I read the note and was in hysterics!

"Dear Tessa,

Here's your walkie-talkie back. What's the point of having 2 walkie-talkies?

Adam"

Adam got a set of walkie-talkies for Christmas from Ma and Pa. He and Tessa have a blast playing with them, but the other day when I was helping Tessa clean her room, I told her to go put the walkie-talkie she had been playing with, back in Adam's room. Hence the note. It wasn't written to be rude or mean, but purely innocent and a sweet gesture from a big brother. That's why we laughed literally for hours every time we looked at it. "What's the point of having 2 walkie-talkies". Well, he does have a point!

Saturday Was Our Special Day

We packed a lot into our Saturday. Eric and I finally made it to the temple and were there for over 4 hours! We had planned to make the 11:00am session, but the temple was so busy, that we waited for over an hour and a half and finally got in the 12:20 session. It was nice to be at the temple though and to just be still for so long. Sometimes I need to be forced to do that. 

We got home, packed the kids up and headed out to Midway to see the Ice Castles. Tessa was so excited to see her 2 favorite Princesses were there!! Right now, Jasmine and Elsa are her favorite. Gwen wasn't quite as excited. She does not like to be cold.

 Sadly, the line to get into the ice castles were over an hour long and we knew Gwen would never last that long. We walked around the outside for a bit and promised the kids we would be going back on a week day when it's not as crowded. It was still fun to get out and do something fun as a family!

Blog Books and A Dream Come True

Our favorite day of the month came earlier this week when our 2013 blog books arrived in the mail. We always look forward to getting these and the kids love looking through them and remembering all the fun we had the previous year. 

 Tessa woke up this morning and told me she had a dream that she got some Lucky Charms. I figured that was a dream I could make come true. When she got home from school, she was thrilled to see a box of Lucky Charms waiting for her on the kitchen counter. 

Life With Gwen

Life with Gwen is not dull. She has been a handful lately! Bedtime is a joke, she refuses to let me do her hair and she hates wearing clothes. Getting her dressed every morning is a battle, and if I do get clothes on her, she usually rips them off before lunch. We won't even talk about how much fun diaper changes are.

Her new fascination are spoons. She eats everything with a spoon. The other night she ate a whole bowl of popcorn with a spoon. She keeps me very, very busy and exhausted, but she sure is cute!

Our Newest Addition

The beginning of December, we found out that we are expecting another baby. I cannot tell you the joy and relief I felt as I stood in my bathroom with a positive on my pregnancy test at 5:30 in the morning. I tried to muffle my sobs so I wouldn't wake anyone else up, but Jodi got a text that early to hear my news. It's nice to have a best friend who gets up at 4:30am!

The last 14 months have been emotional and frustrating. When Gwen was only 9 months old, I started receiving strong impressions that it was time to have another baby. At first I was like, "Are you kidding me?", but the more they came, the more I knew it was time. When I told Eric about how I was feeling, he would hand me Gwen and say, "Let me introduce you to your Baby!". He wasn't quite as convinced as I was that it was time already. But, after some praying, fasting, and discussion, we both knew it was the right thing to do. With it taking us so long to get pregnant with Gwen, we didn't know if that would be our same fate this time around or if it would be easy to get pregnant. I wasn't really mentally or emotionally prepared for another almost 2 years of trying, and I was sure the Lord knew that, so I figured this time around would be different.

Well, my time table and the Lord's time table seem to be very different. It ended up taking us 14 months to get pregnant this time. Not as long as with Gwen, but still a long time. Every month that I wasn't pregnant was a huge let down that took me a few days to recover from. I would have my day or two of being so disappointed, plead with Heavenly Father for some answers, get up and brush myself off, and somehow find the energy emotionally to try again. It sounds kind of childish when I put it into words, but it is hard to go through. Especially when you know it is what you are supposed to be doing and then the results seem to never come. 

In December I got what I felt was my Christmas miracle. Eric was shocked and ecstatic when I told him. We are so thankful that we are finally able to welcome this new little spirit into our family. The kids are extremely excited too! Gwen doesn't have a clue what's going on, so I'm sure a baby will be a shock to her. Tessa is excited and really wants another sister-but only so she can get a bunk bed. Adam is the cutest of them all. When we broke the news to them, he cried and cried! Every time we let him make the announcement, he would cry and cry. Every time he touches my belly, he gets all teary eyed. He is praying for a little brother, but he will be thrilled with whatever we get. 

 I am 9 1/2 weeks along and growing! I can't believe how fast my belly has popped out with this pregnancy already. I am feeling pretty awful and don't get much sleep thanks to Gwen, but I will survive. I saw my doctor last week. The baby looked good and the heartbeat looked good. I am measuring right where I should be. We feel so blessed and are so thankful to be parents to these 4 amazing kids!

Parent/Teacher Conference

On Wednesday and Thursday we had Parent/Teacher Conference for Adam and Tessa. If you don't want to hear me brag about my kids, I'd advise you to stop reading now.

Tessa and I met with Mrs. Hales on Wednesday afternoon. They had a walking report card and we went to different stations where Tessa got to show me how well she was doing in reading, phonics, writing, and math. She is doing so well with all of her work! We do need to work a bit on her writing her letters correctly when she is forming a word, but other than that, she is doing great in each area. Mrs. Hales said she was surprised at how well her reading is and will be moving her up another reading level next week. Mrs. Hales said Tessa is a wonderful student. She said Tessa does so well on all of her work, she listens well to directions (always glad to hear that cause she's mastered blocking me out) and that she is a great help and friend to the other students in the class. On our way out, Mrs. Hales said, "I have to tell you-my daughter comes to the preschool here at the school a couple of days a week and every time she sees Tessa, she goes on and on about how cute she thinks Tessa is." Tessa loves school and loves drawing pictures and writing notes to her friends. We are proud of her for doing so well. 

 Then we have Adam. He has left some big shoes for his siblings to fill! We sat down with his teacher on Thursday and her first question to me was, "What have you done at home to make him so smart?" Adam excels at everything! She said she is blown away by how smart he is and is still hoping she can find something to challenge him. She has him on the hardest spelling test she can give him and he is still getting 100% on his tests. She says his reading is out of control. She told him that she think he needs to be someone who records books on tape when he grows up. She says the expression and smoothness he has when he reads just sucks everyone in. She said when she has him reads for the class, half the time she gets so drawn into how he is reading, she forgets it's only Adam reading! He has read every book in their take home library up to a lower third grade level (except for the girl books), so she is moving up to a level Q, which is a high third/low fourth level. She said most teachers would be really cautious of doing that, but she is confident Adam will be able to handle it without a problem! 

 This was a report card Adam and Mrs. Woodhouse filled out. Mrs. Woodhouse marked him down for excellent on every category. Adam gave himself an A+ on every category except behavior. Mrs. Woodhouse said she didn't agree with that grade and asked Adam why he marked himself so low. He said sometimes he sighs really loud when something or someone is frustrating him. That made us laugh!

 These are Adam's actual grades. He is doing amazing!

 His goals for 2014 are to read 1,000 books and finish the Harry Potter Series. He finished the 2nd book last week and is already half way through the 3rd. I wouldn't be surprised if he passes his goal!

Gwen's Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

On Sunday evening, we had the whole family over to celebrate Gwen's 2nd birthday. Gwen loves Mickey Mouse, so we went with that theme for her party and I had fun getting everything ready for it!

 All ready to party! 

We had to distract her from her presents for a few minutes before people arrived. 

 We had soup and rolls for dinner and then Gwen got to work on opening what seemed to be a never ending pile of presents. She got so many fun things!

 She was so happy to get her own Sophia dress up clothes from Ma and Pa. Tessa was happy too. She kept yelling, "Now I don't have to share mine!!"

 She got several new books, which is good because this girl loves to read!

 A darling dress from Mamma and Bampa!

 Aunt Dee made her another cute dress. 

 She loves her remote control dog, but I think she gets frustrated when it doesn't run or chase her. 

 Last year her cake was a total bust, so everyone was wondering how this year would go. Thankfully, she loved it and blew out her candle all by herself! Even with an audience. 

 She wasted no time trying out all of her new fun things! We think she makes a pretty cute Super Girl!

Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us! It was a wonderful party!

She's Officially 2!!

I have no idea how this happened, but our Gwennie Pooh turned 2 today! These past 2 years have been the fastest of my life. I can't believe my baby is already 2.  She is a joy to our family and makes us smile and laugh several times a day. She also knows how to drive us crazy and panic when we find her on top of the counter or in the middle of some other dangerous adventure. We love her happy personality and her independent spirit! She gets so quiet and shy around other people. I wish everyone could spend a day with this cute girl and get to know her like we know her!

Some fun Gwen facts: 

Her favorite words are "No" and "Mine". She loves to read. Her favorite book is currently, "No No, Yes Yes". She also loves to watch TV. He favorite movie is currently, "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas". We watch it at least twice a day. She loves to play outside, but hates the snow. She loves animals, especially dogs and cats. She is the bully of Nursery. She is a great eater! She has warmed up to most of her uncles. She loves to watch basketball games and football games with Adam and she loves to torment Tessa. She has been binky free for over a month and moved into a big girl bed about 3 weeks ago. She hates getting her hair done. She loves shoes. She loves bubbles. She loves babies. She loves to climb on anything and everything. She loves music! Right now her favorite song is "In Summer" from Frozen. She knows all the words. I could go on and on, but those are some fun things about our girl. 

Her birthday started out with her insisting that she dress herself.

 That didn't work out so well.

After our dressing battle, I had enough time to make her favorite breakfast of bacon and eggs before we took the older kids to school. Gwennie loves bacon!

 Gwen and Mommy spent the day together running lots of errands. If you know Gwen, you know shopping with her is less than fun. She refuses to sit in a cart and she likes to "help" by pulling things off of the shelves. But, I love looking back and seeing that cute face once I have her strapped down in the car.

We took a lunch break from shopping and came home to make her favorite lunch of chicken nuggets and pirate booty with lots of ketchup. 

 We picked the kids up from school and headed out for more errands. The birthday girl got a quick nap in the car. We went to the grocery store and got a birthday ice cream cone. She wore more than she ate. Note all the wardrobe changes throughout the day....

We had a pizza party for our dinner/birthday party. They kids ate their pizza and watched a movie. Gwen loves pizza and this is one of our favorite Friday night activities-especially when Daddy is gone at school for the weekend. 

 She refused to wear clothes all evening. I have learned there is no reasoning with a two year old, so naked she stayed. 

 We bought a square of a birthday cake at the store for a birthday treat tonight. She was so happy to have us sing to her and blow out her candles. We have come a long way since last year! She even did the traditional Nielson "cha cha cha" during the birthday song. 

 We love you beautiful birthday girl! Thank you for filling our hearts and home with love and happiness!