Countdown to Baby Girl!

Four weeks from now this little one should be making her entrance into our lives and our world.

 

This is an ultrasound from when she was just 20 weeks old.  See her perfectly rounded head and her nose?  Her little lips were opening and closing as she kept bringing her knee to her mouth and sucking on it!  She is an extremely active little one, already!  I feel her twisting and turning and kicking me constantly.  Tone', the kids and I will sometimes just sit and watch her try to stick her limbs out through my belly button.  It is the weirdest thing to watch, and the weirdest thing to feel.  I don't think, no matter how many children someone had, that having a living person inside doesn't still feel like the most amazing and strangest thing ever. 

 

And here is me at 31 weeks. 

Nikolas took this picture! 

 

  Now that I finally came back to this forgotten blog of mine, I hope to keep posting more as we have had some fun times recently and we'll be having some cuteness to show off.  So stay tuned!

Estella's First Birthday

Our sweet little Estella turned one year old!

It has been so much fun having this little girl join our family.  I don't think we could 

be any more smitten than we already are.  She is the sweetest little girl, quite content 

to simply sit in our laps, but also independent enough to follow her brothers up their

bunk bed ladder or up the play structure.  She keeps us all on our toes making sure 

she doesn't end up in any dangerous predicaments that only a one year old can 

find.  We're all looking forward to summer days and all the things she is going to 

experience on her own this year.  

Mmmm, cake pops:)

Both birthday girls!

  Alexandra and Estella share their birthdays, so Alex sacrificed and came down to share her 20th birthday with her one year old cousin.  How sweet!

The dessert table; notice a theme?

   I found all the inspiration for my brood of owl desserts from Pinterest. (oh how I love Pinterest)
I was pretty excited with how they all turned out, but the 5am bedtime was a bit much even for this night owl.  (Haha, that pun was totally unintended...but it does fit so well in this post!)

Kellie brought Italian Sodas!  YUM!

Time for presents!

Lukey's Little Print

Every year to their fifth birthday's I make prints of my children's hands. My sister started me on it when Nikolas was born and she gave me this cool tower with five tins starting from one year to five year. Lukas just did his fourth handprint. I love being able to see how tiny their hands were when they were just one year old and then watch the progression every year. I'm totally sentimental like that and can never get enough of making hand and foot prints. I figure; I can never make too many, but I can definitely make too few and never be able to go back.

Just to show how much Lukey is growing up; here are some conversations we've had with him lately:

Luke was roaring, (a common occurrence) so Tone' asked him if he was a lion. Lukas said, "I'm not a lion, I'm a Lukas....and I'm a MAN!" He said it with such conviction, Tone' could only agree.

Then, we were all sitting at the dinner table when Lukas started telling us what he would do if a bad guy came in our house:
Lukas: "If a bad guy came in, I would poke his eyeball out, and then.... I would kick him in the MAILBOX!"
Oh my, I nearly spit my mouthful of food everywhere. I couldn't stop laughing for quite some time, hoo, makes me laugh now. Where do they come up with this stuff?!?!!

and if all this isn't enough cuteness, just check out this video of Lukas reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Our Tiny Little Walker

Our little tiny girl is a full fledged walker now! She started taking her first steps at the end of January, just a few days before turning one. It doesn't seem possible that she could walk since she is so tiny, just 18 pounds and 26 inches tall (or short, rather). She was determined to keep up with those big brothers of hers, though, so now they have to watch out! So do I, actually, as she is quick to escape out any open door.

I am so bummed as our computer, yet again, took a nose dive and so all my pictures of Estella's first birthday party are trapped on there. You'd think I would have learned by now to save them to an external hard drive, but I had just downloaded (uploaded?) them. Ugh. When I get it back up and running be sure I will post pictures as the party was adorable:)

Lukas Is Four!

Lukas had a birthday recently and is now officially a four year old! We had a horsey party with our family and in spite of his desire at the last minute to have a Batman party; he had a great time.

I started a tradition when Nikolas turned three by making birthday plates at Ceramicafe, and while I'm a year late on making one for Lukas, I think it was worth the wait:) I really like how it turned out and Lukas really did too.

My attempt to make a cool horse shape out of cupcakes didn't turn out so well, so I improvised and just made it a field of horses running. I'm really glad he is only four and doesn't remember some of the fancy train cakes I made for Nikolas.

The proud birthday boy.

Lukas received his very own treasure chest from Aunt Kellie!

She made this in honor of his love of horseys and I absolutley LOVE it! So does Lukas:) He keeps all his horse figures in there. I love how she put his name at the bottom and then made his "U" into a horseshoe. She is creative, that sister of mine.

Lukas has now decided that since he is four he will only wear size 4T pants. That would be fine, except Luke is still the size of a small three year old, so now he walks around pulling his pants up and can't figure out why they don't fit him. He is, after all, four.

Lukas has been participating in preschool at home while I homeschool Nikolas in Kindergarten, so he has been learning his letters and numbers and so on. His most recent accomplishment is that he now knows the whole Pledge of Allegience! I am going to try to video it because listening to a little boy saying the Pledge of Allegience with Luke's tiny little voice is adorable, and it is even more so when you see the passion in him as he pumps his little fists in the air while saying, "with liberty! and justice! for all!"

Lukas may not be my super brave, athletic boy like his older brother, but he has the heart of a lion. I am confident that if anyone were to come between him and his baby sister or his mama, they would have a four year old to contend with, and one that would not back down. He gets a look on his face that is utter determination and a growl that would send a pack of hyenas scurrying. Tone' always says there is one thing for sure he knows about Lukas; that boy loves his mama. And Mama loves that boy.

Luke has also been participating in our church's Team Kids program. It's similar to the Cubbies program in Awana. He loves memorizing his verses, but he actually likes memorizing Nik's verses more. I really appreciate the Awana and Team Kids programs as it keeps me accountable to incorporate scripture memorization into our everyday lives. The best part is, I'm memorizing scripture right along with them, for the second time, seeing as I went through the whole Awana program as a child also!

We just love our little Lukey and his little tiny voice. We love his sweet and sensitive heart and how he wraps his little arms around our necks and tells us he loves us "so much". We love how he makes motor sounds anytime he is playing with cars or planes, and we love how he gets so determined to catch someone in tag and never gives up even though it will be a while before he's fast enough. There are so many things we love about Lukey, yet he is only four years old. I'm looking forward to another year of finding even more things we love about this special little boy.

Estella's 11th Month

Our little girl is growing up! She is getting the funniest little personality and showing us that she has a mind and ideas of her own. She doesn't sit still for long now. Anytime the doors are left open to let the sun in I find her out the door and making her escape down the driveway! So now I either have to keep the doors shut or assign a big brother to keep tabs on her.

Her big brothers still absolutely adore her, even now that she is getting into everything of theirs.

Legos, chocolate, markers, coins and more all go in her little mouth. Luckily, both boys are very observant and watchful of their little sister and start screaming bloody murder when she starts shoving things into her mouth, so we haven't had any choking episodes.

Do you see the mischief in those eyes?

She loves her walker as it has given her newfound freedom to cruise all over the place....

and straight into the fireplace.

The face: I can't handle it.

New discoveries: puzzles and animals

I made her a sensory bag of colored water, glitter and plastic bugs to keep her busy while I work in the kitchen. It bought me 15 minutes of time, I'll take it!

With her Grandpa Gibson

Estella's New Kicks

I know I say this every post, but

I can't handle how cute this little girl is.

Then my sister has to go and get her the cutest little shoes

on top of all that cuteness.

Here they are!

Kellie found them at a craft fair in the Seattle area, (or something like that, I can't remember exactly now) and they are made of felted wool. They are uber soft and I wish I had some!