exposed!

so i've had this really, really bad habit of "snacking" before bedtime for a while now and i have recently been convicted that i've got to stop. i've been able to have self-control occasionally, but it hasn't stuck. so, as i was brushing my teeth tonight, i decided that every sunday night i'm going to blog a list of all the junk i gave into during that week. i figure that if nothing else, sheer embarrassment will break my incredibly unhealthy habit! and hopefully, it'll only take a few sunday posts before there'll be nothing to post about!

i can't remember everything i've eaten this past week so i won't be able to blog about it tomorrow night, but i will tell you that tonight i only had an orange. so, not so bad, right? we'll see how this goes! oh, and i'm going to try speed-walking because a friend of mine told me that it's a good way to work the tummy (thanks, rachel!). we'll see how that goes as well.
. . .
i captured this tonight...emma and her daddy

playing catch-up

since i've been so bad about posting pictures of the kids, i thought i better just getter' done. enjoy!


1.  emma showing off her "faaahhbulous" minnie mouse sunglasses.
2.  lucas dragging his valentine's bag from preschool...he's got a lot of valentines!
3, 4, 5.  elise trying rice cereal for the first time (3/24/09).  she liked it a lot at first, so i decided to thicken it up a little.  i ended up dumping way too much in (i've done this with every one of the kids) and she didn't like it so much after that.
6.  elise trying avocado for the first time.  eh.
7.  elise wearing emma's birthday crown.  emma kept saying, "i'm scared," so we let elise wear it.  doesn't she look cute with her Daddy?
8, 9.  lucas and emma showing off their wicked chopstick skills.
10.  emma wearing her new sandals while opening a birthday gift.
11.  lucas in his dragon towel from carter.  he loves running around the house with it.  so cute!
12.  elise sitting pretty!  she is now able to sit up without falling over.  if i leave her alone for too long, she'll still topple, but i'm not complaining.  she started sitting up by herself probably about a week ago.  finally!

resurrected!

He has risen! today we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! this year lucas really seemed to understand what easter is about and what it is we are celebrating. it was so fun to see him participate in telling the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. it really showed us how much he's grown!

our easter started out with church in the morning. our pastor gave an AWESOME sermon, which you can download and listen to here. after service, we headed over to our friends' house for some egg-hunting and easter brunch. the food was delicious and the company was even better! thanks for inviting us, erik and brenda! we had a great time with you and the hays!

so, on the note of resurrection, i thought this might be an appropriate time to "resurrect" this blog of ours. if nothing else, it will force me to pick up my camera more often and start taking pictures of the kids again. i used to be so good about it. now, the camera is one of the last things on my list of things to pack when i'm headed out the door with 3 kids! here are some pictures of the kids from today. happy easter!

swimsuit giveaway...woot-woot!

calling all girls! a friend of mine just brought this to my attention, so i thought i'd give it a try (thanks, rachel!). there is this FABULOUS website out there called fabulessly frugal where these moms go waaaaay out of their way to find us sale-lovers amazing coupon deals and freebies. right now, they are doing this fun give-away on a swimsuit top from modbe clothing. you just have to go to this link at http://www.fabulesslyfrugal.com/2009/04/swimsuit-giveaway.html and enter to win. i just did it, and you should, too! gotta hurry, though, because it ends on april 12!

(i'll post about the kids soon...promise!!!)

long time no blog

i've been doing a terrible job keeping up this blog (i know), so here's my attempt at it again.

elise has really gotten big these last couple of months. we took her in for her 4-month well-check and found out that she is:

41% for head circumference (41.2 cm)
88% for height (25.5 in)
57% for weight (14.1 lbs)

i haven't had time to look back and compare her statistics with lucas' and emma's, but i'm pretty sure that she is our biggest baby of the three. i predict that she'll be taller than emma, which will prove my theory about younger sisters being taller than older ones (of course, there are always SOME exceptions but for the most part i have found this to be true). allan thinks that elise is our cuddliest baby. he says that she loves to just lay her head on your shoulder and cuddle with you as you're holding her (i agree), and she makes the sweetest cooing sounds ever! we don't remember lucas and emma cooing as much as elise does. her sleeping is getting better. she usually goes from about 8:30 pm to 2:00 am, eats, goes back down until about 5:30 am, eats, goes back down until about 9 am or later if undisturbed. so, she's still waking up twice at night unless you are a morning person and consider her 5:30 am waking to be her wake-up time. i'm not, and i don't. we moved her into lucas' room about a week ago. lucas is the best big brother a little sister could have, seriously. he doesn't complain about her crying and doesn't ever get frustrated with her. in fact, sometimes if she wakes him he'll come out to tell us that he thinks elise is hungry. such an incredibly caring brother! as for firsts, she rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time at 19 weeks (january 14) ! i was videoing her all along the way, but had to stop to answer a phone call and when i got back she was already on her tummy. i was so bummed. i caught it on video again, but you have to be really, really patient. she doesn't do it right away.

lucas and emma are a hoot together. here is a very familiar conversation between the two of them:

emma: "stop it!"
lucas: "why?"
emma: "cause."
lucas: "because is not a reason."

other famous emma sayings include:
"what?"
"i got it." (this was her first sentence, and she uses it all the time.)
"share-share!"
"tissue!"
"i want gum!"
"solly." (sorry)

okay, here are some videos and pictures of the kids. enjoy!







Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing"In the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This is how you know Him. You will find a baby wrapped in cloth lying in a manger." (Luke 2:11-12)

a lot to be thankful for

we were invited to our friends', the wilkersons, home this year for thanksgiving and we had a great time meeting their family and enjoying a deeeelicious thanksgiving dinner together. the kids (all 8 of them!) had a blast. check them out at their own little table! we have a lot to be thankful for, but this year i am especially thankful to God for our health.

dedication of our girls

we dedicated lucas to the Lord back when he was just under a year old, and it was time for us to do the same with emma and elise. the neat thing each time we've done it is the amount of friends who are also making the same commitment with us. the first pictures are from lucas' dedication back in 2005. it's amazing how much things can change in a couple of years! praise God for all of our little blessings.

november 5, 2005

three years later november 23, 2008

no time for stories!

okay, so the title says it all. i have had no time to update this blog of mine because things in our household have been crazy. i didn't think that things would be so hectic with 3 kids, but they have been. on top of having a newborn in our household, allan re-injured his knee playing volleyball so we've had one man down for the last month or so. he recently had reconstructive surgery done and is still recovering from it. it went successfully, but he's still in a lot of pain. the first 3 or 4 days after surgery were incredibly hard because i had to care for the kids 24/7 and care for allan all at the same time, all by myself. thank goodness some good friends brought us some meals because they saved my sanity on those nights. thank you, thank you! i have to share a quote from one of those friends who brought us a tasty baked spaghetti meal. his words of advice to allan were, "keep the crutches, good things will happen." i had to laugh when i read that. it's true though. we've received a lot of sympathetic "oh let me help you!" gestures from all kinds of people when they see me and my hands full with lucas, emma, and elise and allan hobbling around in crutches. can you imagine us?

the kids are all doing great! lucas is sweet, sweet, sweet. he is incredibly helpful and thoughtful, and he is enjoying pre-school. he still doesn't share a whole lot about his days in school, but i get told from his teachers that he's doing great. he is still super inquisitive and will ask you a question until you give him an answer. and, not any answer will satisfy him. it has to be the "right" answer. he knows the difference. he loves music and singing. anytime i hum a new tune or sing a song he hasn't heard before, he'll ask me what song it is and to teach it to him. he picks up tunes really quickly. he's also started memorizing scripture. it has been so neat to see him learn God's word. so far, he has psalm 23, john 3:16, and philippians 4:13 down. the next verse i'm going to teach him is ephesians 6:1-3!

emma is a kick in the pants. she's got the cutest personality. my favorite is when you ask her for a kiss. she'll come right up to you and give her cheek to you. it's the cutest thing. we're like, "hey, we asked YOU for a kiss!" she loves to copy whatever lucas is doing whether it be putting a puzzle together, drawing, hiding from allan when he gets home, or waving a sword around pretending it's a light saber. it is so heart-warming to see the two of them together. emma is also starting to talk a lot. no one but allan, lucas, and i can understand what she's saying, but we can definitely tell that she's learning her words. she is waaaay more adventurous than lucas ever was, which can cause her to get into more trouble sometimes. but, i still love her to pieces!

and, of course, we have our little elise who is just easy, easy going. she has slept through the night on a few occasions. (for you parents of newborns out there, you know that this is the most important skill to brag about!) but, generally, she is still waking up once at night to nurse. the last few nights have been an anomaly because she has been the fussiest she's ever been, which was horrible for us since these were the nights just after allan's surgery. i think it was my fault, though, because for three days in a row i drank a hazelnut iced coffee from mcdonald's (yum!). i think the caffeine was the culprit. so, i've backed off of the iced coffees and things seem to be getting back to the norm. elise is really alert when she's awake and loves to stare into our eyes and smile and coo at us. (i'll post her stats another time since i can't remember what they were.) we think she looks most like my sister so, between me and allan, elise has got to look more like me because allan and vicky look nothing alike. i always say that her hair makes her look like a cockatiel...a cute one, though! i get sad thinking that she is our last baby and that she is going to grow up way too quickly for us. so, we're just enjoying the moments as they come.

here are some pictures to catch you up on how much the kids have grown...enjoy!

a monkey, a lion, a ladybug...oh my!

(sorry, i couldn't resist the cheesy title!)

we were in our first parade this year! we even had a fire engine escort us just like in a real parade. our halloween night started out with a parade around our friend's neighborhood. it was a lot of fun, but hard work for some of us. (can you spot the incredible hulk pushing the guy in the wheelchair?) it then led to some ringing of doorbells for candy. once emma got down a handful of houses, she was ready to break into a pack of plain m&ms. she was done for the night once that happened. the boys did a good job going all the way from our neighborhood through to brady and shannon's neighborhood. we ended the night enjoying some very yummy desserts and watching our friend erik scare the bejeebers out of his wife with a fake spider. i wish i had caught that on tape because it was hilarious!