Noah Titles This.... "Noah and Livie at School"

Today was Noah's class Christmas party. They were supposed to have it the Friday before they broke for Christmas vacation, but we got a really nasty ice storm the night before and school was cancelled that day. So, in order to get on with the business of learning, they decided to have the party today so they could go ahead and start up with their lessons for the new year. Livie and I went today to celebrate with him. We brought our Christmas BINGO game, which is always a hit with the kids. We have a halloween edition, a christmas edition, and a valentine's day edition, so we are the "game people" for all their class parties. :-) Noah was the very first winner today at BINGO. I felt a little bad, since he is my boy and I didn't want to show favoritism, but no one seemed to mind. Plus, it's not like a rigged it or something. He just was lucky today! Good job, buddy!!

After we finished with BINGO, then they got to eat their snacks and chat for a few minutes. The snack though was covered in coconut, so I believe only 2 kids actually took the snack. So, snacktime was a quick one. They didn't mind though, because then it was time for the gift exchange! Woo-Hoo! They're only allowed to buy a gift that costs $3 and they are pretty strict about that. Next time you're shopping see how easy it is to find an interesting and fun gift for $3. NOT EASY! It's a bit easier for boys, because - thank goodness for Matchbox! - they have quiet a selection of cars. Noah gave his gift of a motorcycle to Spencer and he got a box full of candy from his friend Justin. Livie was thrilled! It had lollipops, bubble gum, and christmas marshmallow things. Isn't that a cute idea?!

After the gift exchange we still had some time left before dismissal, so they gathered around for circle time.

They played "hot santa bear", since potatoes aren't very christmasy. Noah almost won the first game! He was one of the last three. The second game though, he only made it about halfway, but they all loved playing. It was fun to watch them!

This is the first party I got to go to in Noah's classroom. He wanted Pete to go to the Halloween one. But, I volunteer in there every week, so I get to see him a lot and have gotten to know his classmates. It was a fun time and Livie really enjoyed getting to hang out with him too. I can tell he's got lots of friends and really seems like a good listener when he's there. I had lots of "Proud Mommy" moments today. Even though he keeps me on my toes, he's a sweet little boy and I love him so much. :-)

Haircuts

When we got back, we realized that some of us were in need of some grooming! Pete, Noah, and Madie all got their hair cut today. Madie's is probably the most noticable, because we cut off 3". Her curl has bounced right back with the cut too. Just a short entry to share their new "do-s" with you all. :-)

Star Wars and ...... Poop?

My sweet little nephews were looking with me and Noah at his new Star Wars action figures over Christmas. Noah, Madie, and Olivia each got one for Christmas from my parents. When I showed them Count Dooku, Trevor said, "That's not Count DOOKU, that's Count Poo-poo!". This, of course, sent Ty and Noah into fits of laughter. They laughed and laughed and laughed! Noah then ran downstairs and told Madie and Olivia about "Count Poo-poo" and they in turn have been calling him that ever since. They just think it's hilarious. On the way back to my mom and dad's from Em and Jeff's house, Pete said we should think of "poop names" for ALL the Star Wars characters. Thus started a good 20 minutes conversation on the subject. The kids decided we should make a list on the blog of our top 15 (I actually was the one who limited it to 15 - they would've gone with 30!) all-time, favorite Star Wars Poop Names. So, in honor of Trevor and his brillant name-change game, we dedicate the following...

15. Count Poo-poo (Count Dooku)
14. Kit Poo-o (Kit Fisto)
13. Qui Poop Gin (Qui Gon Gin)
12. Han Poo-lo (Han Solo)
11. Poo-bacca or Pooie for short (Chewbacca)
10. Lando Cal-poop-ean (Lando Calrissean)
9. General Poop-ous (General Grievous)
8. C-Poop-E-O (C3PO)
7. Jabba the Poop (Jabba the Hutt)
6. R2D-Poo (R2D2)
5. Darth Poo-der (Darth Vader)
4. Poopa Fett (Boba Fett)
3. Luke Skypooper or Luke Poowalker .. we couldn't decide if it was more fun to poop from the sky or walk on poop (Luke Skywalker)
2. Emperor Poopatine (Emperor Palpatine)

and the #1 favorite Star Wars Pooptacular Name is....

Obi-2-Kapoopie!!!
(Obi Wan Kanobie)

**Again, it just shows us all that poop can be incorporated into almost any and all forms of life and conversation. :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Olivia Rose

Olivia nearly didn't happen. We had wondered if we should stop at 2, because Madie and Noah got along so well and were such good friends that we weren't sure if adding a 3rd to the mix was a good idea. We talked about wanting a third sometime that spring and I told Pete we should pray about it and see where God led us. Within a matter of a couple days, I knew we were meant to have a 3rd child. Pete didn't get that message for another couple of weeks, but he too came around and before we could even start trying, I found out we were pregnant on Mother's Day 2006. I was thrilled to pieces!!! I didn't want to say it out loud, but I wanted a girl so badly. I am so close with my own sister, that I wanted Madie to have a sister. I would've been happy either way, but I was hoping for a girl. When we first saw that ultrasound and found out that there was a pretty good chance she was a girl, I was over the moon! This pregnancy, first of all, was much more similiar to my pregnancy with Madie. I actually had no morning sickness at all with Olivia and just a bit with Madie. With Noah I had been miserable the entire first trimester with nausea and tiredness and all that. So, I had thought it might be a girl, but hearing the tech say she was 90% sure was exciting. :-) This pregnancy I was sailing through until the fall. It was the day after Halloween that I found out I had gestational diabetes. I didn't know if that was going to be harmful to my baby, so I was very diligent about eating those 2-3 hours, no sweets, nothing that wasn't on my pre-approved list. I still wasn't getting good enough numbers, so I went on insulin each night. That wasn't fun, but I managed. We moms do anything for our kids, because we went them to be healthy and strong. Well, on December 28th I found out that I HAD done a good job, because she was born 8:22am, a very healthy 6lbs. 12oz, 19 1/2" long. And, she was BEAUTIFUL! Looked so much like Madie and Noah both did when they were born, but kind of right in the middle of them, ya know? This picture was taken later that day. I had gotten that hat when I had Madie, but she didn't really wear it, so I had brought it to the hospital for my new little girl to wear. :-)

Madie, Noah, Pete, and Em all came to the hospital that day, but I wasn't feeling good, so they didn't stay long. Morphine and I don't mix, plus after having 3 c-sections and getting my tubes tied, I was very sore. My recovery was a long one, but I was so blessed to have her. She was a sweet, wonderful little girl. :-) When we came home from the hospital, she definitely didn't like it when you put her down. She loved being held and with 2 other ones to look after, that wasn't easy, but after a couple weeks of realizing she had to wait her turn, she was a lot better. And, you could tell immediantly that she loved her brother and sister. Madie was very excited to have a baby sister, as was Noah. Madie wasn't even 2 when I had Noah, so she didn't really understand what was going on back then. This time she was 4 and she was excited from the moment we told her we were pregnant.

She grew and grew and developed quite a personality. Always full of smiles and a funny sense of humor. And, she LOVED her daddy! She's still a daddy's girl. She loves nothing more than snuggling with her daddy and playing with her brother and sister. She wants to do everything they do. Then, the curls started coming. Curly, curly hair. Curlier than Madie's had been. We had to deal with quite a fro there for a while, so hats became her friend as her hair was growing out. :-)

So, I look back on the past 3 years and still can't believe where the time has gone. My youngest, my baby, is 3. I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday and am SOOOO thankful that Pete and I decided to go for one more child. She has brought endless joy to us and has finished our family perfectly. She's the blend of both Madie and Noah and has made our family complete. We love her more than life and we want to wish her a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Olivia's Birthday Party #2 (Drex Fest)

The day after Livie's birthday, we headed back up to Goshen, where we had a mini-celebration of sorts. We went to Das Essenhaus (I hope I spelled that right), which is an amish restaurant in Middlebury. It's sooo yummy!!! Mom took us and dad out for dinner and they gave Livie a card with money in it for her birthday. They had given each of the kids money at Christmas too, so after we were done eating, the kids went to the big gift shop they have and bought themselves something. Livie picked out a blue stuffed dinosaur and a bag of bugs for her b-day gift. Can you see a trend here? ;-) The next day, after spending most of it at Em and Jeff's, we headed back to mom and dad's, because my Aunt Phyl and Uncle David had arrived. They were last in town 2 1/2 yrs ago when they were on furlough. Livie was only like 4m old, so it was fun letting them see how much the kids have grown ..... and how much LOUDER they are now! We stopped at Dairy Queen on the way back to mom and dad's and picked up yet another ice cream cake. Their christmas cakes were half off, so we got one with the Ho-Ho Man on it for her. Between Andy's ice cream cake on his birthday and the two Livie had, I think we have eaten more ice cream cake in a week than we have in the past 5 years. Craziness!!! Anyway, after dinnner with the whole fam, we got out the cake and sang Happy Birthday to her again and she blew out her candles.



As you can see, the kids weren't even a LITTLE tired of eating ice cream every day. Heck, who would be?!!

Since we had given her our gift and mom and dad had given her their gift, it was just Em and Jeff who gave her theirs. They got her a Mrs. PotatoHead (Tato to Livie) and another Tato package with 3 mini-tatos - a mini-tato, a mini-carrot, and a mini-corn cob. The kids played with it the whole rest of the night. They loved it! Livie used the Mr. PotatoHead with her speech therapy. When she first started playing with it, she could only say a few of the parts and now she says them all and just loved putting all the pieces on him. :-) It was a great gift!

When it got close to bedtime, Pete and Jeff drove the kids back to Jeff's house, so Em and I could do a little shopping. Hooray! It was so fun! When we got back to their house, the kids were asleep and we just got to hang out. Em and I watched a bit of Monty Python (... the lambs and sloths and carps and anchovies and orangatans and breakfast cereals...) until I fell asleep. Man, I love that movie! The next morning, we gathered our things and headed back to mom and dad's for a short visit before saying goodbye. Here is Aunt Phyl and Uncle David with the kids. David went downstairs and let the kids put a show on for him for a good hour. Bless his sweet heart. They just LOVED that someone was excited to see them perform. Thanks Uncle David!!

And, here are the kids with Nana and Papa Drexler as we got ready to go. We really had a great time with everyone. The visits with both sides of the family were just great and despite my tiredness and crankiness after having been gone for 10 days, we really did have a wonderful time and we thank everyone for making it so fun for our kids and for us. :-)

Olivia's Birthday Party #1 (Troll Fest)

My sweet little Olivia turned 3 while on our trip to IN. :-) We celebrated when we were at the Trolingers on her actual birthday (the 28th). I kind of started a tradition in our house (based off a tradition I heard about with a family from our church) where I decorate the dining room after they go to sleep the night before their birthday, so they wake up and see it looking all festive for the celebration. And, the weeks before their birthday, we sit and look together through the birthday ideas and I let them pick what theme they want. This year Livie had decided she wanted a dinosaur theme - The Land Before Time dinosaurs to be exact. She's become QUITE the dinosaur gal. That's all she wanted for both her birthday and christmas. Rrrarrrs (as she calls them). More specifically blue rrrarr poop. But, since that's so hard to find, she went with The Land Before Time guys instead. This picture is just moments after I woke up that morning. She came and greeted me on the stairs as I was coming down and immediantly wanted to show me the decorations. :-)



We didn't have her party until later that afternoon. She picked the hat out when we were at Target one day back in Nov.

She wanted an ice cream cake, so Pete and I went the day before and ordered her an all vanilla ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, with a blue dinosaur on the top. We got a green dinosaur and a vanilla cake with so much fudge and chocolate crumbles it could've been considered half van/half choc. I was only being generous in getting the vanilla, since that's what Pete likes, so I was MORE than happy to have all that extra choc!! :-) I mean, I TRIED to get the vanilla, right? She sat their with a little shy smile on her face while we sang Happy Birthday to her. It was so cute!

Then she tried with all her might to blow those 3 big candles out!

The first thing she opened was a little bag of goodies that her cousins Trevor and Ty gave her of little plastic bugs and dinosaurs and stuff. She liked it so much, she didn't even want to open anything else. If it's small and rubber or plastic, she's in heaven!!

Then she got a dinosaur set from Uncle Scott and Aunt Nancy. Scott was able to peek in a couple times, but he was on duty (he's a police officer), so he wasn't able to stay long. But, at least he got to come and see how much she loved the dinosaurs. :-)

We got her a bag of art stuff - watercolors, markers, paints, stampers, paper, stickers, etc.... She absolutely LOVES to color and draw, so she's been enjoying those things a ton. She's filled nearly both pads of paper already!

She also got a big blue neopet Dinosaur from her Uncle Andy and Aunt Francy as well. It's a flying dinosaur, so it's even cooler! She's slept with that and her other dinosaur stuffed animals pretty much every night since she got them. :-) The last present was from Nana and Papa. She got a little dancing studio with 5 little girls about the size of Polly Pocket girls. I can't for the life of me remember what the official name of them are, but they are so cute and Livie loved them! She and Madie were playing with them again last night as soon as I had unpacked them. She loves little play things.

The ice cream cake took a while to thaw enough for us to cut it, so we opened the presents, then had the cake. Livie ate it up! See all that fudge?! Yum!!!

Since Livie didn't get any blue dino poop, Scott and Nancy got her a thing of blue playdough, so she could make her own. Pete decided to make it for her....

So, that was her first 3rd birthday party. She had a great time and when it was over, Sue helped get a big taco bar going for all the guests. It was delicious and too much fun!