Random Shots

A few days ago Logan was in a particularly picture taking mood.  She asked me to grab the camera and had me snap some shots.

4 has been such a sweet age for us.  She's so helpful and says the sweetest things.  Today she saw me cleaning and said, "hey mommy, if you don't feel up to finishing, I can do it for you."  Melt. my. heart.

 Then she wanted Brody to take pictures with us.  That didn't go quite as planned.... but they make for funny memories.

Date Night0

Several weeks ago, our local Chick-Fil-A had a daddy/daughter date night.  When I heard they'd be putting it on, I quickly got them some reservations and Logan began to plan her outfit (yes, two weeks in advance).  She was so thrilled when daddy came home from work that night and picked her up!

Since I wasn't there, I can only go by second hand account, but they had a nice full meal (with sit down restaurant service), dessert and got to go on a limo ride.  Logan is still talking about it and asking when they'll have another date night at chick-fil-a.

We're so thankful that our local chick-fil-a is so concerned about building powerful and meaningful relationships with our children.  They'll have a mother/son date night sometime in the next few months and I can't to take Brody out!

Four.

Four.  It's seems like such a small and insignificant number until you have babies, and then it becomes a big number.  All of the sudden, your baby turns four and becomes a kid.  A full blown kid.  No more baby face, no more toddler years...nope.  Kid.

At four, my baby girl doesn't look like a baby, she looks like a little girl.  And I'm ok with that.  Though, it's taken some time to get there.  How can I not be ok with it, though, when she asks to go have her four year pictures taken and photographs like this:



This year, she finally learned to genuinely smile for the camera!

She also learned:

Her numbers (by recognition) from 1-30, to count to 100, to do simple addition and simple subtraction and how to measure.

How to read.  We've been working through "Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and it has been fabulous for us.  She's excited every day about our reading lessons.  We're more than halfway through and she's reading short stories, now!  She's anxious to get to the end because when she finishes the book, she gets to go to the bookstore and pick her very first book to read by herself.   

At four, Logan loves to pick out all of her own clothing.  If she had it her way, she'd wear leggings, a tunic top and a tutu every. waking. moment.  Come to think of it, she even wears them when she sleeps! She says that a ballerina always needs to be prepared to "pirouette" with a twirly skirt.

She and her brother have such a special relationship.  They truly are best friends.  They play together, laugh together, fight together, cry together (whine together, complain together.... ;) ), and love each other to pieces.  It's such a blessing to watch this relationship blossom.

I don't know that I'd say Logan is shy.  It takes a few minutes to get her shell to crack, but then she'll talk your ear off and show you every dance she's ever learned.

She's spunky as can be and is slowly learning to use the spunk to her advantage instead of using it in ways that earn her consequences.

She's quick and reasons very well.  Several weeks ago she came to me and said, "Mommy, Lucy (her doll) just woke up from her nap.  She's not going to be tired when it's time for my nap.  I am going to do the unselfish and loving thing by staying awake during my nap so she doesn't have to nap again."

......it's tough when they use your logic against you.

Logan enjoys playing outside, but also loves to sit on her bed and read stories for hours on end.  She's content to be with several friends or sit in her room and play on her own.  She's pretty easy to please.

Her very favorite thing to do is be Lucy's mommy.  We don't go too many places without her and when we do, I hear about it the whole trip.  It's "not safe to leave Lucy at home alone where she could choke, drown, sit in a dirty diaper (though, she is potty training now thanks to the potty seat that Mimi and Granddaddy gave her for her birthday), etc, etc...."  Lucy is her little baby and I think she'd do just about anything for that little doll.

Logan is blossoming into a beautiful little dancer.  She's in year 2 of ballet and counts down the days to class as soon as the previous week's class lets out.  She practices everything she's learned throughout the week, talks about what she wants to share during share time (the only time during class when the girls are allowed to talk about anything other than dance) and loves to show anyone who will watch what she's been up to.

We feel so blessed to have been given such a gift in Logan.  She keeps us on our toes and keeps us smiling.  Her eyes light up a room, her smile is infectious and her laughter is enough to get even the grupmiest people out of their moods.  

We pray every day that the Lord would soften her heart and do a work in her so that one day we can see her do work for the Kingdom.  

 

What a joy it is to be her parent and to be able to call her our own!

Logan's Birthday

Logan turned 4 on January 28th!  I can't believe that our little baby is FOUR.  When I look at her, it's hard to imagine she was ever a 6lb 7oz baby.  But she's turning into such a sweet thing, it's so much fun to walk alongside her as she grows.

We had big plans for Logan's birthday.  Sunday night we met up with Aunt Diane and Uncle Thom for dinner and cake!  Logan requested Moe's because she loves the "Cheesey-dias."

Then we headed home and had some cake.  We went to Target earlier in the week and Logan looked through their big book of cakes and picked the one she wanted.  No input from mom this year, which was strange but exciting (and bittersweet).  We tasked Mike with picking up candles, but he forgot so this was his improvisation for her:

Brody enjoyed the cake very, very much.

The Boles' got Logan a tent that is more like two little houses that connect and the kids love it!  They play with it all of the time.

We had planned to take Logan and several of her girlfriends to our local tea house for a tea party.  Unfortunately, Logan woke up the night before her birthday with a bad, bad stomach bug and we ended up having to cancel the party.  It was a hard decision to make, but we did our best to make the day a special one at home.

We always tell Logan that God has blessed her with a best friend that gets to live with her and that she should be so thankful to always have a playmate.  And I think it hit her on her birthday how true it was.  Even though we couldn't go out and celebrate, she had someone at home who was glad to celebrate and play with her, sick and all!

Logan got several bitty baby/big girl outfits that matched.  She and Lucy will be stylin' together come spring!

Mike and I really weren't sure what to get Logan until about 2 weeks before her birthday.  That's when the Sofia the First costume was released on the disney store online.  After confirming that's what we wanted to get her with Mike, I went to order it (a mere 12 hours after it's release) and it was SOLD OUT.  I contacted their customer service and they said they had no idea when it'd be back in stock (it still isn't, by the way).  I called our disney store in town who didn't have it and told me that it hadn't been released to physical stores yet and then called my sister in law to brainstorm.  She called her store who actually did confirm that the physical stores have them, but that they had just sold out.  They did tell her when their next shipment would come in, though.  

So as we waited for that shipment to come in (hoping they'd have her size) I started calling other disney stores--in Miami, in Orlando, Tallahassee, basically anywhere I had friends or family who could pick it up and ship it to me.  After talking to another lady, who I "met" through the disney store facebook page, I realized that if I asked, any store would ship merchandise for me.  They don't advertise this because they don't want their stores to turn into warehouse distribution centers.  So I started calling every store I could get numbers for and finally found one in Queens, NY who had one in stock in L's size.  It was a thrilling victory for me...Mike just shook his head and laughed.  Thankfully, Lindsey was able to pick up the amulet (Sofia's special necklace) from her Disney Store as it was the other coveted item I was unable to locate.

All of the effort was worth it when this little one opened it up!

She had no idea that they had released the costume and was shocked to see it in her birthday bag.

 

By the end of the day she was feeling much better.  We're going to try and get out sometime this week and take some 4 year pictures and then I'll do a post with all of her 4 year stats.  

Happy Birthday, sweet Logan!

Ft. Jackson

Mike had some training to do last month at Ft. Jackson for a weekend.  We decided that since he'd have a hotel room and we'd only be 20 minutes from our dear friends, the Tolberts, that the kids and I would head down there with him.  We were able to have a good dinner and catch up with them (well....as much as you can catch up with 4 kids under 4) on Friday night and then Patty and I headed to the zoo with the kids on Saturday!  I am so thankful for our friendship.  From Thursday morning 6am breakfast groups in high school, seeing each other every so often in college, and blessed to have a year together in seminary.  I love having friends that I can spend 2 minutes with and feel like I haven't missed a day!

I wish I had more pictures, but with all four kids and only two mommies with wagons (on a Saturday, no less), our hands were pretty full!  We finally were able to pull the cameras out when we headed over to the botanical section of the zoo where they had a small playground, a playhouse and it was a little more relaxed.

Now, by the time we were able to get all four kids in a picture together, not even our two picture pros were very into the idea (it was minutes before finding food and heading home).  I cropped out the babies in the first two (and you'll see why in the last one):

Anna Kate and Logan!  They took to each other so quickly, it was like they had been friends for years, too.  Logan keeps asking when we're going to go back and visit her friend, again.  We may have to head down there a few times while Mike is there again this summer.

And here it is.  Brody wanted NO PART of sitting there with all of those girls and Caroline looks like she's thinking, "oh my, why in the world did they sit me down here with this screaming kid.  what is his problem?!"  haha  Maybe we'll get a good one of them all next time...

Snapshots

Just a few pictures from life here.  We've had a crazy month with illness and such so I've been neglecting the blog but still have taken a ton of pictures to make up for it!

I've not met children who like to snuggle as much as mine do.  Snuggle mommy, snuggle daddy, snuggle each other, they are just both very, very affectionate.

This was the week before Logan's birthday.  She was up with us talking about how she couldn't wait to turn four.

Logan loves having her picture taken now that she has a good "camera smile" so she constantly is coming up along side her brother and saying things like, "you HAVE to get a picture of this" or "wouldn't this make a good picture?"  or "aren't we so cute?  don't you want a picture of this?"  :)