12 Years!

Today is our 12 Year Wedding Anniversary!  

Happy Anniversary to the best husband and father.  When I was young and tried to imagine what marriage would be like, I never even dreamed love could be like this.  You are everything I ever wanted and so much more.  You are all that I need and more than I deserve.  

I can hardly believe it has been so long!  In some ways it feels like we have always been together and in some ways it feels like we only just met.  

In honor of our 12 years together I want to share 12 reasons why I love you more and more each day ♥

1.  You always let me be right, even when I am completely wrong

2.  You know I have a better sense of direction and ask for directions from me

 

3.  You love spending time with the kids and read to each of them every night.

 

4.  You put up with all of my crazy whims and go along with my plans whole heartedly.  

 5. You love me for me and don't expect me to be anyone I am not.

 

6.  You support me in all that I take on.  Even if you think I am doing more than I need to or you think there is a better way to do it, you still help me and let me do it my way.  Thank you.

7.  You actually listen to me and care about what I have to say.  

8.  You work so hard and then come home and still help out and work some more.  

9.  You always put the toilet seat down!  :)

10.  You think I am beautiful and you never let me believe that I am not.

11.  You devote so much of your time and energy to helping others.

12.  You are so patient with my many shortcomings.  I know life with me has not been easy and I am grateful that you not only stand by me and love me, but that you never make me feel like I am a burden. I have never once felt unloved, unimportant, unintelligent, or unneeded. You give me strength, confidence, and hope.

Thank you for choosing me and loving me.  I still cannot understand how I got so lucky to be married to someone as wonderful as you!  I am so very thankful that we get to spend eternity together.

I cannot imagine a happy life without you in it.
I look forward to many, many more years of love and joy with you! ♥

 

Lunches Lately

Here are some of the lunches the kids have taken to school lately.  Again I have to apologize for the poor picture quality.  I am still having issues with my camera.  Guess what I am asking for for Christmas!  

Penguin sandwiches with strawberries and yogurt. 

This was super simple.  I have a penguin sandwich cutter. I added a fall leaf pick to the strawberries.

Nested Heart Sandwich with Strawberries and Grapes

Dinosaur Sandwich

Today Ady wanted a dinosaur sandwich.  This cookie cutter was a bit of a pain.  It was hard to get the tail out without breaking it.  I had to cut out each piece of the sandwich separately instead of the whole sandwich at once.  I added a Bat food pick with some cheese circles and mini pepperoni.  I thought the bat could pass for a Pterodactyl.  She also took Carrots with ranch to dip them in and a cheese stick.

Butterfly sandwich with Peaches and Homemade Cinnamon Roll
I really liked how the Butterfly turned out.  I used a Butterfly cookie cutter and then cut out some cheese circles and flowers to decorate it.  I also cut out some rectangles then added Edible Eyes and used a food marker for the smile. 

Tuesday I attempted some Halloween Lunches

Sand -Witch with Pretzel Nuggets and Peaches

This one was for Ady.  I tried coloring the Witch with food markers but it didn't cover real well on such a large surface.  I cut out a Jack O' Lantern of Cheese to dress up the Pretzels and added a Halloween food pick to the peaches.  I really need to start making these the night before so I have enough time to get them done.  The mornings tend to get a bit rushed!

Jack O' Lantern Sandwich with Pretzel Nuggets and Chopped Apples 

This was Tayden's. I didn't end up with a good clear shot of this one, but I think it turned out cute.  I used a Pumpkin cookie cutter and then free handed the Jack O' Lantern face.  I used a food marker on the cut outs to make them stand out more.  I added a smaller Jack O' Lantern of cheese to the Pretzels and a Jack O' Lantern food pick for the apples.

Here is a close up of them.

What do you do to dress up your kids' lunches?  One thing that I love to do is include a little note.  If you haven't already, feel free to print out my Halloween Lunchbox Jokes to use for your little one's lunches!  

Have a Happy Lunch!

Some of my favorite lunch making products:

Happy Birthday Ady!

Today is Adelyn's 7th Birthday!

Ady is such a sweet girl!  She is always willing to help me with whatever I need.  She will hear me say that I need something done or that I wish I could get something and she will quietly go and do it as a surprise.  She is a huge help with Evy and a big support to me.

We sometimes call her Adelyn, and last year she wanted to go by her full name at school, but she is mostly always Ady.  I also call her Add, Adel and Biddle or occasionally Bid.  I think Biddle started as little biddle, but over the years it has just become Biddle. 

Ady is very sensitive and caring and loves to do nice things for people.  

She can be a bit shy and quiet, but when she opens up she is so much fun.  She loves to tell a little jokes or relay funny stories to me of things that happened at school.

She is very smart and loves school.  If she doesn't have enough homework she will get out a workbook at home and work on math on her own.  She loves to read and is reading chapter books.  She has been reading Roald Dahl books lately, but she usually has several books going at once.  She loves to read books to Evy.  It is so cute to see them sharing some sister time.

Her teachers at school and at church frequently tell me how sweet, kind, smart, caring and bright she is.  In the first few weeks of school I got an email from Mrs. F.  telling me that Ady is such a "doll" and that she is very caring and was helping a newer girl feel welcome.

She is super sweet, but lately we are starting to see a little sass! She has always been good at playing by herself at home, but has been a little reserved and shy about doing things outside her comfort zone.  Lately I have seen her be so brave and try to do hard things.  It is hard to sit back and let her do it without me.  I just want to hug her and tell her I will help her, but I know she needs to gain confidence and be more independent.  She is getting so grown up!  I can't believe she is in first grade already.  

 

Ady is very imaginative and will play in her room for hours.  She loves horses, Puzzles, Polly Pockets, Barbies, Zoobles, Littlest Pet Shop,  Princesses and dogs.  She also loves to listen to music.  She is taking piano lessons and she loves to practice.  She picked up on it very quickly and is doing so well.  She can already read music more efficiently than I can.  It seems to come pretty naturally to her.   

Ady is a wonderful sister.  She loves to play with the boys and she and Tayden are especially close.  We sometimes joke around and call the two of them Taydelyn because they are such good buddies.  I love seeing them have such a great relationship.

She is also a wonderful big sister to Evy.  She longed for a sister for so many years and she is so thrilled to finally have a sister to share her life with.  I know that in the coming years that relationship will continue to grow.  I am excited to see that. 

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl, my best friend.  I love you Ady! ♥

9 months old!

I can hardly believe that Everly is already nine months old!

Evy is now crawling everywhere!  She moves from room to room a lot quicker than you expect.  Time to get a gate at the top of the stairs!  I love putting her in skirts and dresses, but they tend to get in her way, so we tuck them in in the back to help her get around.  

 

 She still prefers to stand rather than crawl.  She pulls up on furniture, toys, my legs, anything she can get a good grip on!  She only uses crawling as a means to get to the next piece of furniture to cruise around.  A few times she has decided to just stand up all by herself without pulling up.  Then she will stand there in a wide stance trying to balance.  She stands on her own for a few seconds at a time.  I am thinking she will probably be walking in the next month.  The older kids all walked fairly early too, so it will not be a surprise.

 

Besides eating flowers ;)  she is eating lots of foods.  She loves most fruits and veggies and all kinds finger foods.  She still doesn't really like a bottle, but will drink from a sippy cup .  She would rather drink from a straw though, so we have a toddler cup with a built in straw that she mostly uses.  She doesn't really love juice, which is fine with me, so she mostly drinks water, or occasionally soy milk.  She is most definitely allergic to dairy, just like the rest of the kids.

Evy is our most talkative baby at this age.  She babbles and squeals all day long and she looks like she really thinks she is having a conversation with me.  I love it.  She really seems to listen to what I am saying to her, so I talk to her all day long.  Its nice because I can pretty much talk to myself all the time and no one thinks I'm crazy ;)  She loves to give me great big smiles and laughs at me a lot.  She will sit there and clap at everything I do.  It is like having my own personal fan club following me around all day.  She claps for herself as well, when she figures something out.  It is so cute!  She is so much fun, but also very intense.  She is definitely my most difficult baby.  She is very moody and hard to distract.  She is determined to get exactly what she wants!  

She is still pretty shy with other adults, but she has finally warmed up to Dave.  That has been a huge relief!  She finally has realized that daddy is a lot of fun and wants him to carry her around and play with her.  She cries when he leaves the room now.  

She loves other babies and little kids.  When she sees them she starts clapping and squealing and tries to get their attention.  At church there are lots of babies and sometimes she tries to yell across the chapel to her friends.  One friend in particular is also very chatty and will start squealing back.  It is fun to see their little friendship blossoming!

I don't know her most recent stats, but we have an appointment on Friday so I will add that in then.

We mostly call her Evy, but she has many nicknames.  I occasionally do call her by her full name, Everly, but often I call her Ev, Ever or Evers.  We also call her baby, cutey baby,  or tooty baby.  My grandmother goes by her nickname, Tudie, and now I can see where that must have come from.  For some reason Tooty baby is a natural term of endearment for me to use on Evy. 

Sometimes I do get confused and start to call her Ady, but I correct it right away and end up saying Avy.  I try hard not to mix up their names, but it just happens sometimes.

She knows her name and looks at me when I call to her.  She definitely know who mommy and daddy are and will look at the right person when you say it.  She mostly knows who the older kids are by name as well. 

 We sure love this little girl!  Every day I look at her and I am in awe.  I feel so lucky to have her in our family and to be her mother.  Even though things can be hard and she is very challenging, I would not want it any other way.  I feel so blessed to have her to love and to be loved by her. ♥