quiet time

My little miss doesn't take naps anymore so this momma has to get creative during quiet times. Feel free to pass good ideas my way! Please:)

Pulling out some youth ministry training tricks as quiet time options!

Potato stamping. The painter did a great job. The carver, not so impressive! By the way, she is wearing my paint shirt from kindergarten. How fun is that?

Grandma Stewart stopped during a quiet time and helped us do our gingerbread house (yes, this was after Christmas). Better late than never!

A gingerbread house MUST have stick people inside!

The gingerbread man that was supposed to sit outside the gingerbread house got his head bitten off!

The finished project was lovely. Except that my children kept eating candy off of it every day until I finally put it in the garbage!

20 questions at 5 years

For Addelyn's fifth birthday, I asked her twenty questions. The goal is to ask these questions again each year:)

1. What is your favorite color? blue and purple and pink

2. What is your favorite toy? a baby doll

3. What is your favorite fruit? strawberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? Doc McStuffins

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? noodles

6. What is your favorite outfit? butterfly outfit- butterfly glitter shirt with words on it

7. What is your favorite game? Candyland

8. What is your favorite snack? Cheez-Its

9. What is your favorite animal? lamb

10. What is your favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

11. What is your favorite book? Little Critter books

12. Who is your best friend? Austin and Avery

13. What is your favorite cereal? Fruit Loops

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play on the swing set

15. What is your favorite drink? Sprite

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? a dog and Tink (her blanket)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? regular oatmeal

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Carlos OKellys 

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a nurse

more birthday fun

On this birthday girl's special day, we went to Carlos O'Kellys for dinner. That was her pick! Our roomie at the time, Lindsey, also joined us! 

Jace, didn't sit of course, and ate only chips. Go figure!

We had a family birthday party on Sunday. This little girl picked her own dress (a summer one of course) for the day. She got some very fun gifts from our families. We are very blessed with lots of special people in our family.

A Doc McStuffins doll. I had to put this picture on- this is her embarassed face. So sweet. 

Our special five year old. With another doll. Can you tell what she wanted this year?

A big thanks to my mom for bringing the awesome Doc McStuffins cake! Being the weekend of her birthday also included three other events (weddings/parties/etc)- I was smart and admitted I couldn't make the cake! Saved my sanity!!!

Singing happy birthday! Gone are the days when she runs and hides!

The "You are Special" plate for our kid's birthdays. Thanks to my friend Jess for getting us this plate and getting us started on a fun tradition. We actually started it this year (I just found the plate, it was lost in our move a few years ago!!)

Some of our special family eating together! What a wonderful time to get together and celebrate our sweet little five year old!

5 year old guest blogger

Today I have a helper working on this blog post. It is a special five year old girl who had a fun birthday party in December that we haven't blogged about yet. So here we go, in Addelyn's words:

"I like those cupcakes. Doc McStuffins is on them!"

"I helped make the cupcakes. I like them a lot."

"We went to the Youth Pavilion. I like going there. I liked my friends coming to my birthday party. I would like them to come to my next birthday party."

"We went on a safari. We should go again at my six year old party."

"We rode in the bus. Austin is the driver." 

(Mom here....oh dear, is this what I should picture for our future???)

"Austin, Mom, Avery, and I went on the bus. Mark (my dad) took the picture. He was right there. I don't know where James was."

"I played the piano and Avery is playing the guitar. We were playing a show."

"Austin and James were golfing. Avery and I played under the bridge."

"We ALL built a house. We made rooms- like bedrooms. We played in the house when it was done."

"We went to sleep in the house too."

"We had birthday cupcakes and ate apples and apple juice. I got to open presents. I got some cool stuff like fruit snacks, a baby, and a church bag."

Mom again....What a fun little birthday afternoon for our special five year old girl. Where does time go, I can't believe she is five already! More about the five year old to come soon....

a sister, a forever friend

So very thankful for this lovely sister that I have. She is an amazing woman and friend. Just a little blog shout out tonight to a special sista!

words

I love the developing language of my five year old.

Last night at the mall (yes, I do go there, only when I have to) she pulled an outfit off of the rack and held it up. "Now, wouldn't this outfit just look fantastic on me?!"  By the way, the outfit was very glittery and had a lime green tutu attached.

We were playing upstairs the other day and her little bunny was our patient at the doctor's office. We are ALWAYS playing pretend, which is another story in itself! I suggested we call our bunny "Buns" and Addelyn replied, "Mom, that is not 'propriate."

She is learning, all the time!

laughter.....

How can you NOT have laughter in your home when your five year old daughter says things like....

During a prayer at dinner, "God, I just pray I have a really great rest of my life."

In the midst of conversation....."Yep, that was a fail." (talking about something from her day)

This girl makes me smile (and giggle). All the time!

decorating

As I catch up with my blogging from the past few months, here is one of my fun Saturday end of November memories! Decorating for Christmas! Love it. We put up our tree, hang all of our homemade, funny, junky ornaments that I LOVE, and listen to Christmas music (Alli Rogers and Amy Grant of course!) In the past this tradition always included a glass of wine for me- however, I think that noon on a Saturday is probably pushing it for that part of the tradition! Ha!

This year, Addelyn and Jace decided to have a picnic in our Christmas tree box during a break in decorating.

Addelyn helped hang the ornaments this year. Any ones that started toward the bottom of our tree were moved to the top half by Christmas because Jace has an obsession with throwing "balls!"

This is my most favorite nativity set. I love watching my kiddos play with it and also have to smile when I find baby Jesus floating around in random places of our home.

This year, Jace also tried to play with Mommy's nativity. One poor sheep lost his ear!

My sweet boy playing with his nativity set and resting too. All of that decorating wore a boy out!

the unicorn

Sometimes there are stories you just can't forget! So here is my attempt to remember one:

The other day Addelyn was introducing her new Dream Lite (yes, we were bombarded with the commercials for the last few months and yes, we succumbed to the pressure from our four turning five year old and bought her one for her birthday) to her old buddy, the unicorn pillow pet.

"This is Jace (her new dog Dream Lite). Jace, meet my friend Horny!" (as she points to her unicorn)

I was in the room and of course, acting like a junior high boy- broke into a fit of laughter. Don't worry, I told her I was laughing about something Mark said at dinner and she never thought anything of it. I believe Horny has already found a new name- it changes daily!

This girl never ceases to make me laugh!