FOUR

Our baby girl is 4 today! It just doesn't even feel right to say it out loud! When she came into this world four years ago, we were all just so excited to welcome this sweet baby girl. Although she was a little 7 pound peanut, she showed her strong personality even then. She has always been the one to observe first, then act. She knows just exactly what she wants and has no problem doing whatever it takes to get it. We are just so proud of our little Sammylou! She is a week away from becoming a big sister, and we know she will do a perfect job. Currently, her preferred career for when she grows up is, and I quote, "A princess. A real one." She plans to get mani/pedi's on a weekly basis, and just let people wait on her. She also informed us that she does not plan on kissing any princes. She'll just be a princess on her own!

Here are a few pics from our little princess's birthday party.

A Few of My Favoite Things

I made the official decision that spring is definitely my favorite season. It is just so wonderful to have an end to the bitter cold, dark, and brown winter. We are loving seeing all of the new green outside every day. My very favorite flower is the lilac, and we have 3 bushes in our yard. I cut some about every other day so I can bring the smell inside. HAPPY SPRING!

Easter and such

I feel like there's a lot of catching up to do, so a lot of this is just a picture update! It's everything from Sam's super-cute support of the awesome Cats to Easter weekend. We've enjoyed a 2 week visit with cousin Viv, and we are dreading Friday when she has to go. We had a fun Easter weekend, and even got a swing set to make it extra special! We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of Baby P #3 in 3 weeks. Viv and Sam are putting their money on meeting Olivia, and won't even think about what the alternative could be! Will is pretty certain he'll be holding Thomas Ryan in just a few weeks. Ryan's not sure he'll be able to handle the drama of another girl, while I pray that God will grant me an extra dose of patience if it's another active, busy boy! We just can't wait to see our happy, healthy baby soon!!

Ready to cheer on the Cats!

Sammy and Maggie at dance class The clothes are washed and ready. What'll it be?
At a baby shower for Erin (in red). Shannon (far right) had her baby the next day, and the other girls are all due this month!
EGGS!
At the church Easter egg hunt
Easter morning
All dressed up!
Will shed the dress up clothes quick so he could help build the swing set!
Ryan and Dad building the swing set

Baby P Number 3 update

Just a quick update on Baby P #3...... (due to my extreme lack of maintaining a pregnancy calendar/journal, thought I could at least have updates on here!) I'm now down to the every 2 week appointments. They're super short, sweet and simple. Just a quick measure of my ginormous tummy and a listen to the heartbeat. Really the only thing I've heard for the last two weeks is, "You make big babies." and "I think this is going to be another big one like your first." Aside from a couple little fainting spells, things are going great. The kids are beyond excited, and so ready for the baby to be here! A few of my 10 or so friends who are pregnant have had their babies recently, so we all have "baby" on the brain now. Unless the baby changes his/her mind and tries to arrive before then, we have a c-section scheduled for April 28th. Everything is on track, and just growing, growing, growing!

One of my less finer moments...

We've come out of hibernation this week, and it has been so nice! Just being able to open the blinds and let the sunshine in has been great! Now when they see sunlight, the kids (Will especially) think we need to be outside. We took a picnic lunch to the park today after we picked Will up from school. It was so nice to take a walk, let the kids swing, and watch them just run free! We did have a bit of an incident at the park today though. Will was running around on the park equipment and I heard him start crying. He came over holding his ear and I saw that it was really red and had a cut that was bleeding. He said that another boy hit him. I don't quite know what came over me, but I marched over to that little boy (who looked pretty scared) and asked him if he hit Will. He just nodded yes. The other boy's mom was next to him pretty quick and said that they had collided. I was just so afraid that the boy had hit Will with a stick or something. I'm not sure if the boy "hit" him just from running into him or if he deliberately did it. We quickly got our stuff together because I didn't know if we were going to need to go get some stiches or not. Of course, Sammy was upset because I was frazzled, which did not help matters! (I know that some of you are not surprised about my reaction because I occasionally have a mild overreaction in emergency situations. I was definitely not gifted with calm, patient reaction to medical emergencies like Stacy and Mom!) Once Will realized he was bleeding on top of it just hurting terribly, there was a whole new round of tears. (Not at all like his mother!)

Anyway, after my "crazy mom yelling at another kid who's not mine" moment, and frantically rushing the kids to the car, we got home, surveyed the bleeding, swollen ear, and decided against stiches. I dosed him up with Tylenol and put ice on it. He even let me clean it up with alcohol!

It was a pretty sad end to our fun park play day. Hopefully next time will be better!!

Baby Talkin'

In my desperate attempt to avoid any and all housework today I decided to procrastinate further and add a blog post. I really didn't want to forget this story either, so I needed to do it NOW! :)
Two nights ago the kids and I were doing our nightly reading before bed. They each had their book pick for the night and were pj'd, brushed, washed, and ready for readin'! The baby was doing some major flip-fops in my tummy and you could just watch the alien life form in action! Will had his hand on my tummy and was just mesmerized by all of the movement. It was so awesome to watch his face each time he felt it! His eyes would light up and his smile was huge, and he would just nod and look at me. Then it got even better! He decided he would talk to the baby. I'll do my best to recap his conversation:
"Um, baby, this is your big brother Will. Sammy is going to be your big sister, and your daddy's name is Ryan and your mommy's name is Patsy. Your dog's name is Abby and your cat's name is Birdie." He then proceeded to read the baby his shark book so that it will be highly knowledgeable about sharks straight out of the womb. He did taught it some "kindergarten" stuff too, like, "What is 4 and 4? 44. What is 6 and 6? 66"
Then it was Sammy's turn. She read/sang her book, "Miss Mary Mack" to the baby. Pretty much every page was "Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack" until she reached the last page! Too cute! I just wish we would have had a video camera on her! Her other funny moment was when she asked what the baby would be wearing when it "pops out" (as both kids predict it will exit my tummy!). Sam is super concerned with attire, and she wants to make sure our baby is well dressed. When she was informed that our baby would be naked, she could hardly believe it. She said, "Not even underwear?!?!?!?!"
I'm thinking this baby thing is going to be a bit more of an adjustment for our little Princess Samantha. I know they are both going to be an excellent big brother/sister. Now we all just have to do our best to endure these last 9 weeks until Baby P Number 3 POPS OUT!

Snow, snow, go away!

Well, it's been a really wonderful white winter, but we are so done! Every time we hear snow in the forecast these days none of us is excited! No more hopes for snow days, no more wonder in watching the flakes fall, we're just over it! Just to prove that we've been there, done that, and ready for spring, here are some of our favorite winter pictures. Along with a couple to show how cooped up and crazy we're going!