The 3rd

Megan is really starting to want to be in on everything that Maddie and Sam are doing. This is an interesting twist since Maddie and Sam were so close in age they were interested in the same things for the most part. Megan is much younger than them and participates in things they would have never done at her age. Now if they are outside on the trampoline, Megan wants to be outside on the trampoline. She plays play-doh.... Checks out "American Girl" Magazine and even brings it to me to tell me which doll she wants.

And even watches k-4 and 1st grade lessons.

When Maddie and Sam were younger, they were only allowed to watch "Baby Einstein". Megan Watched "Star Wars" the other day. The older kids drank watered down juice and no Soda till they were 4 or 5. The other day I found my self giving Megan a sip of my coke because I forgot her water bottle. I was VERY strict at keeping Maddie and Sam on a consistant nap schedule. I find myself having to wake Megan up at times to make it to ballet or karate. I didn't let Maddie out of the house without a matching outfit, coordinating hair bow and cute shoes. Now I'm always darting out of the house thankful everyone is dressed, not caring if they are wearing rain boots, or flip flops and scavenging the van for a discarded barrette or hair tie once we get to our location. With 2 I was able to still make it appear like I had it together, the 3rd rips off that mask. We are thankful for our little 3rd and the transparency she brings to our life!

All in a Days Work

Sam has always been a worker. It keeps me on my toes just keeping that boy in chores. Lately he has taken on alot of initiative and just works on projects himself. We have a stump in the backyard that he is constantly "chopping" on with a dull axe. He has his own set of garden tools in the shed so he will go out and rake or dig a hole, whatever he feels like that day. Today we had a break in the rain -finally- and he got straight to yard work when his school was done. He raked quite a few piles of leaves and then drove around on the 4 wheeler. Not sure why this was necessary, but we all know how men love power tools. So thankful for this little guy!

Making some progress....

We have been making some progress in the home remodel lately. Finish work is a slow process for sure. Troy has actually sided the front and painted it. He has been working the past few weekends on trimming out the laundry/utility room and fixing the ceramic tile that goes into the new room. We are also pricing some new furniture that we need. He is doing a great job and we are looking forward to being completely finished by the time we have guests for Troy's graduation in May.

We have gotten some things put up on the wall that I thought I would share. We hung the kids pictures up over the couch in the new family room with a wall saying. The saying is "Joy is not in things, It's in us"

Troy also finished an art display wall for the kids in the upstairs hall way. It turned out to be pretty hard to get a good picture of this so feel free to come down for a visit so you can really check it out!

The kids enjoy switching their new masterpieces in and out and I'm enjoying being able to see my refrigerator.

My Valentines

Valentines Day was so much fun this year. The kids were very much into making and distributing valentines to friends and family. They were also into receiving valentines this year! The kids and Troy surprised me with some roses on Saturday since Troy knew he would not be home on Tuesday. They were very beautiful. The kids woke up to some valentines from Daddy and Mommy on the table Tuesday morning. Maddie had fun handing out valentines at ballet. The teacher told me the girls were pretty much paying no attention that day because of all the valentine excitement.Sam worked hard at making valentines for everyone he knows. He even wrapped some of his toys up to give away to others. (sweet boy!)Megan enjoyed the chocolate. We made Maddie's hair into some fun heart pig tails and the kids and I went to Krispy Kreme to get a heart shaped doughnut. YUM! Then we took some Starbucks out to Daddy's work so he would know how much we love him!

Finally Better

Well last week was rough. At our house we had an ear infection (Maddie), a lung infection (Megan) and a sinus/lung infection and dislocated rib (Mommy). We made it through with lots of good help! Daddy took the day off Monday and my good friend Tricia brought us supper. On Tuesday Miss Mary made us supper and the rest of the nights Troy was able to be home. I spent alot of time on the couch having random thoughts (which may or may not have been induced by pain killers).

"Man, I don't think we have taken very much video of Maegan's life."

"What in the world is all over the window? When I can move that is the first thing I'm cleaning."

"I wonder if it hurt this bad when God took Adam's rib?"

I'm just very thankful that my rib went back into place much sooner than the doctors thought (they had said 4-6 weeks. yikes!) and I'm almost back to my old self again. I'm also thankful that my baby girls are feeling better.

While Mommy was down the kids picked up lots of extra chores and did it with happy hearts! Sam took over dish washing. Maddie changed out and put away tons of laundry.
She also vacuumed the rugs and both kids cleaned their toys everyday. Maddie gave Megan two baths as well and pretty much took over her care when Daddy wasn't here.

And Megan provided entertainment. I'm really glad that week is over and I really hope I never dislocate anything else in my life!

Dancing with Daddy

Megan is in love with her Daddy. When he comes home she insists on Dancing the night away! First she positions her feet just right on top of his.Then she begins to sing a little song she has in her head. (check out her pursed lips!) Then when she's all done, she jumps off with a huge smile and says "Please" "Please!" Until Daddy dances again!

Science Experiment

Maddie has been studying science for last few weeks and has had the opportunity to do a few hands on projects. We did one this week that really impressed the kids. She had learned how God uses stems to take water from the roots of plants to the leaves. We used celery and food coloring to illustrate this.The kids each took a glass and put some water in it. Then they chose a color of food coloring and dyed the water. Maddie chose pink and Sam chose blue of course! Then we cut off a stalk of celery with leaves and put it in the water. They checked on it several times through out the day and noticed small color changes, but when they woke up this morning they were very excited to have pink and blue celery!We took the celery out of the water and cut the stalk again so we could see the way the color went up to the leaves. (sorry for the blurry picture) They were very excited that their project had worked.

This reminded me of dying Queen Anne's Lace with my sisters in the summer! Such good memories for me and now for them too!

18 Months

Sweet Megan Joy is 18 months old today! She is growing so fast and is a bundle of energy. If a turn my head for a second (which of course happens all the time) she is into something. Her favorites are the kids game closet, my Tupperware drawer and the kids school supplies.
She also entertains herself well with toys. She loves the train table and the kitchen center. She brings me her tasty treats to try after she cooks up some plastic wonder. She enjoys drawing on the kids easel as well. She thinks she is just as big as Maddie and Sam now and will try and do anything they are doing. This has really brought the "you must be a good example" training into play with the older two! She also pretty much sees Maddie and Sam as the enemy who want to take her things. She is not afraid to stand up to them when she feels like they might be getting a little too close either! We are working with her on gentleness and sharing!

She continues to be a chatterbox and says tons of words, and tons of gibberish too! Anytime she is babbling Maddie and Sam try and figure out what she is saying. A few times I've heard Megan just said "It's a miracle!" or Megan said "Australia!" We had a check up last week and she weighed in at 25 # 4 oz and was 31 " long. She continues to be blond haired and blue eyed making her stand out in our family photos. This past week Maddie asked me where we got Megan. I told her God gave her to us and she said "Well, she doesn't have our kind of hair!" I'm sure as the third child they will soon start telling her we found her under a rock which will bring about new and exciting parenting challenges!

She is a sweet little thing and we are very blessed to have her!

Sneak Peek

Maddie got her first recital costume on Monday.... She is very excited that it is pink!

Canning Oranges

When Troy and I bought out house there was a tiny orange tree planted in the yard. It never put on oranges until last year and we just had a few and they weren't very sweet. This year it has grown huge and we had a huge crop! It was fun letting the kids pick the oranges. We gave alot of them away and we have eaten alot of them, but I needed to do something with what was left so this past weekend we canned them. When I read up on how to do it they said you could can them by just peeling and sectioning them, but I decided to cut the rind off and section them that way since my kids won't eat the white peel anyway. Then you just pack them into sterilized jars and cover them with a light syrup/ orange juice mixture that is warm on the stove. Then they just go into a boiling water bath for 10 minutes and you remove them to cool. I was very excited that all the jars I did sealed! We put up 6 pints and 8 half pints. Now we are looking forward to having a yummy snack when oranges are out of season