TWO

Here is sweet Haven on her last night as a one year old

And the next morning as a two year old, waking up to balloons.

She requested the same birthday breakfast as her sister (a common occurence), a donut with pink icing and sprinkles.

Then she opened up a couple of gifts.

The girl LOVES swimming, so she got goggles and a swim cap because she kept wanting to use her sister's.

 We went with friends to Pump It Up in the morning and then went to Gigi's pool later in the day.

She gets so excited when I tell her that we are going swimming and everytime she rattles off all the things she will need.  She says "I get my goggles, bathing suit, ear plugs and go swimming Gigi's pool".

 

 

 She truly loves it so much that she threw the worst tantrum of her life when we had to leave.

I guess it was only fitting on since it was her second birthday and all.

 

We finished the day by watching her slide show from her first year (major tears were shed by her hormonal mommy) and telling her the story of her birth. 

Haven, you are such a fun-loving little thing and just what our family needed!

You are pretty happy and easy going most of the time.

I pray you live a life where you are "content in all circumstances".

You are talking so much these days and some of these little sayings crack me up:

One of the most common things you say is "Anna crying.  She wants mama.".  Your sister is...lets just say...a little more emotional than you and you have started to notice.

For awhile you went through a phase when you said "no I won't".  We taught you to say "yes I will" so you started to combine the phrases and repeat them over and over.

You have started this little "I like/because" phrase.  Some examples are:

"I like Haven because I like Haven."

"I like spaghetti because I like spaghetti."

Today you changed it up saying "I scared of thunder because Anna scared of thunder."

Maybe one of the sweetest things you say is "I want to hold you" before bed and though it is rare these days, you sometimes even fall asleep on me. 

Sometimes you surprise me when you do things like get all your colors right, count to twenty, or say a bible verse because I haven't worked with you as much as I did with Anna, but I'm realizing the benefits of an older sibling.  Another area this applies to is using the potty.  You have gotten to the point where you have used the potty and then carried it to me in the next room to show me.  I think I need to bite the bullet and put you in panties soon!

I'm interested to see how you will do with your little brother.  You have really come around since we first told you the news.  When we asked if you wanted mommy to have a baby you said "NO, NO, NO, NO!".  Then when we told you it was a brother you said "I want baby sister".  Now you are talking about baby brother and sometimes already hitting him.:)

Stats:

32.5 lbs (90th %)

34.75 in (75th %)

Just a little video to hear her sweet voice.

FOUR

Our sweet, oldest daughter turned four on May 6th.

She got just what she requested for breakfast - a donut with pink icing and sprinkles.

Then she opened a couple of presents.

Every time she goes to her friend Luke's house, she plays with his safari animals and especially likes when there are daddy, mommy and baby animals to make families with.

I was excited to find a lot of 30 animals on ebay.  

She is obsessed with these little plastic figures and they keep her (and Haven) occupied for long periods of time.

Her other present was a bike (that I scored at a garage sale for $10!).

It was a little hard for her at first, and when things don't come very easily, she has a tendency to want to quit.

Here I am giving her a little pep talk.

 Then she was back at it, got the hang of it and really started to enjoy it.

Little sis really wanted to try the bike, but will have to stay on the tricycle for now.

Anna said she needed to rest from all the hard work.

Our precious Anna, it is so fun to go through all the new stages of parenting with you.

I think this last year, we both grew in patience and self-control.:)

I tell you all the time how much fun you are to be with and that there is no other way I would want to spend my days (although I don't FEEL this way every second, I KNOW this in my heart).

Currently, your very favorite thing to play is pretend games with your stuffed or plastic animals.  The latest game was about a lonely pony who lost its mommy and then a got adopted by another family with little girl pony to be her sister.  Occasionally you like to have a tea party or play doctor, but these character games are by far your favorite.

You always have and continue to love for me to read to you and still insist on sitting right in my lap.  By far, your favorite book is James Herriot's Treasury for Children (thanks for the suggestion, Marci!) that is a compilation of several different animal stories told by a veterinarian.  

Another thing you absolutely love these days is a show on PBS called Wild Kratts about, you guessed it, animals!  Each day you will tell me the new things you learned on Wild Kratts and they are often new to me as well because the show features some of the more exotic animals.  A funny story...the other day in Sunday school some of the children were trying to guess the animal that a little boy was thinking about.  Most of the children were saying animals like lion, giraffe, bear, etc.  Your guesses were Harpy Eagle, Great Horned Owl and Basilisk Lizard (all learned from Wild Kratts).

You didn't always, but now you love to give hugs and kisses and will randomly come up and tell daddy and I how much you love us.  

You and Haven aren't the most affectionate with each other, but you do have sweet moments of hugs and kisses.

I've noticed that you can be very protective of her in new environments, but not everywhere. Recently at the playground, you were huging her and telling a boy to be careful of your baby sister.  The very next day when you were with your cousins, you made her be the monster and later, the target of your pretend guns. :(

You have even started to become protective of your little brother and get onto Haven if she gets into any of his things we are starting to collect.

Stats:

37 lbs 40.5 in (both 65th%)

20/20 vision

I hesitated to post this pic of us taken on your last night to be a 3 year old because it is not the most flattering, BUT I want you to look back and remember moments like this.

I want you to know how I layed with you and snuggled you every night before I left your room.

Here is your 4 year old interview:

*I forgot to ask your favorite song - it is Walk on Water by Britt Nicole.

Flip, Turn, Tumble and Play Birthday

 

 I love that the girls both have May birthdays and we can celebrate them with one big party.

This was the first year we didn't host something at our house and instead, had a gymnastics party at our YMCA.

All of the kids had a blast on all the appartuses and I think Haven had a smile on her face almost the entire time - success!

I love preparing for and celebrating their birthdays with lots of family and friends, but the parties are always such a blur.

I'm so thankful to Aunt Courtney for taking my camera and snapping lots of pics to capture the memories.  

 

 

Funny, this was one of the only pictures of her that wasn't blurry because she was on the move the whole time.

Almost all of the DFW area cousins were able to make it.

Love how Grandy is always willing to get down on the ground and play with her grandbabies.

And several special friends came to. 

 After the play time was over, they all got medals for their awesome skills.

 

So after I already booked the gymnastics party, Anna started begging me to have her party at Chuck E. Cheese.

The last time she had been there was  one and a half years ago for cousin Lucas' 4th birthday.

For half a second, I considered letting her have her birthday there and quickly snapped back into reality.

I talked with her more about it, and what she really wanted was to get to wear a crown like Lucas did.

I was like "a crown...you can definitely wear a crown...anything for you birthday girl!" (except for a Chuck E. Cheese birthday, of course).
I found these crowns at Hobby Lobby and they even got to decorate them on their own. 

The cake was from Central Market and so good!  

Just one small detail was missing from the decoration - a second girl.  

I gave them the invitation to copy and I guess they decided they didn't have room for two girls.  

I joked that obviously the lady decorating the cake was not a mom.  

Anna quickly declared the girl was her and thankfully was still to young to care.

Another JOY!

 I found out just after Christmas that I was expecting again and luckily, still had all our decorations up.  I decided to wrap up the pregnancy test as one last Christmas gift for Brad.  I had the perfect wrapping paper - it had the word JOY written all over it.

 When we had a moment alone, I told him that he still had one more gift in his stocking.

 Realizing the just how special this gift really is...

 And so excited about it!

  We had the sonogram done in late April and Brad and I found out at the appointment what we were having.

 The first picture is a shot of the baby looking forward. 
When the sonographer said "they are looking right at you", I immediately teared up. 
Just such an intimate moment of Brad, me, and our little one "seeing" each other for the first time.

At the very end our sonographer asked if we wanted to know the sex and it took a few minutes for the baby to get into a position where it was clear. 
When we found out, we immediately looked at each other with HUGE smiles and honestly, were practically speechless for a few minutes.

Since the girls birthday party would be just a couple weeks after our appt., we decided we would keep the gender a secret and reveal it at the party.

I have to say, it was more fun keeping that information from people than I expected it to be.  

(Side note - I was dying to tell someone, so I told a stranger who asked in the play area at Chick-fil-a the day after we found out.)

All the kids at the party gathered around the box because it was such a big present.

  

I love everything about this picture...how the girls are both looking at the balloons and how our friends and family are reacting.

 More friends and family excited by our news.

Here I am at 21 weeks, already more than half-way to meeting this little guy.

 

I was thinking about how each of my pregnancies has been special in their own way.

Since Anna was my first and everything was new for us, there were so many unknowns and so much anticipation and excitement for her arrival.

With Haven, I was so thankful and happy that her and Anna would have a sister and I immediately felt a special bond with her because she was the second child and girl just like me.

With this pregnancy, I feel similar to when I was pregnant with Anna because this time
it is a boy.  I am so curious about what he will look like and what his temperament will be.  I ordered a couple of books on raising boys because I am intrigued about how God has wired boys differently from the two little girls I have been raising.