Visiting Friends

My friend Valerie's husband happened to be away while Mike was gone this go around again.  So, we took a trip out to see them on the coast!  It's fun to hang out as adults, remember being young together and encourage each other in our walks as wives and mothers.  I am so thankful for her friendship and for her sweet children who get along so well with my own. 

The boys had so much fun playing with the sparkle dough Val made.

They also wrestled, played super heroes, built block towers and had fun being boys together.

The girls giggled, played house, and recited the entire frozen dialogue over and over.  In the 24 hours we were together, I don't think we saw much of these two!!

We've come a long way in our 20+ year friendship! 

We look a little different now, don't we?  :)

While Daddy Has Been Gone

While daddy has been gone, Logan has taken up reading to her brothers most days.  They are absolutely enthralled by her ability to read stories to them, now!!

We purchased the digital copy of Frozen and have watched it what feels like a million times!!

The kids and I took a trip to the North Carolina Symphony to see "Music, Noise and Silence."  It was  a part of a kids' series that the symphony does to introduce children to performing arts.  They loved it!!  Logan is ready to start violin lessons as soon as we can get our hands on one that's small enough.

Sweet Lincoln has been lighting up our days with smiles and giggles!

And the kiddos have shown each other extra love in daddy's place.

Lots of snuggling has happened.  Many joint naps.

We've spent a very small amount of time outside when the temperatures aren't freezing!

And we also celebrated a third birthday!!

Of course, Logan has turned into a teenager while daddy has been away.  :)   But in all seriousness, she has grown up and has been such a huge help without Mike's extra hands.  She gets diapers, wipes, puts clothes away, holds her brother, helps when I can't do things on my own.  She's been invaluable and I'm so thankful for her!

Three

Three.  I ask this each time each of my children gets older, but, how is this even possible?  I can vividly remember the day I went to the hospital to have Brody and now he's THREE.  Per his request, we did a superhero photo shoot.  It was so much fun and absolutely captures his little personality at this age!!

Brody is:

Weight: 26lbs (10 percentile)

Height: I don't remember, but he's in the 15% for that.

Sizes he's wearing: 18-24 month pants/shorts, 18-24 month and some 2T shirts.

Favorite activities: Playing dress up (superheroes, fireman, construction worker, etc), playing catch, playing "golf," running, and playing his guitar/singing along.

Favorite TV show: Jake and The Neverland Pirates

Favorite Movie: The Incredibles

Favorite superhero: Depends on the day!  Batman, Spiderman, Superman and now Captain America all make their rounds in our home.  Oddly enough, he's never seen any of them other than on clothing/toys at Target.  

Favorite Book(s): Puff Puff Chugga Chugga, Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site.

What he's learned: Letter recognition (most of the letters), shape recognition, color recognition, number recognition (to 10).  Counting to 30.

What he's learning: Letter sounds.

Brody wants to be a superhero or a fireman when he grows up.

Favorite food(s): Oatmeal, burritos, hummus.

Favorite color: blue

Favorite drink: water that's spicy (sparkling water w/ fruit in it) or ginger ale which he's gotten a few times when he's got a stomach bug.

Brody loves to cuddle, read books, watch movies and sing songs.

He loves to spend time with his big sister and when asked will tell you (depending on the day they're having ;)) that she's his "bestest friend ever."  Not to be confused with his best buddy, who is his daddy.

We are so thankful for the addition of Brody to our family.  He's changed our lives and the way we look at things forever.  He is a blessing.  God teaches us things through Brody that we didn't already know.  Our prayer for him is that the Lord would grab hold of his heart, that he would follow after Jesus and help others know about him, too!

Happy 3rd Birthday, sweet one!!

Daddy/Daughter Dance

We drove home quickly from Disney so that Logan and Mike could attend the Daddy/Daughter dance our church was hosting.  Logan chose her dress and accessories.  We did nails, hair and makeup, daddy came to "pick her up," and then we did some prom style pictures.  She was in heaven!!

It was a very special time for them.  They signed a "date contract" while they were there committing to two dates a month.  They'll start that when he gets home.  

It's so important to us that we build up this father/daughter relationship so that Logan can get a feel for how much bigger God's love for her is and so that she realizes how the Lord wants her to be treated in the future when she starts thinking about a spouse.  We're thankful for a church body that wants to come alongside us in doing this!

Disney 2014

I'm going to mostly let the pictures speak for me on this trip because there was so much amazing packed into a week with our kiddos and family at Disney, it's hard to put it all into words!!

Started off with a Princess dinner to celebrate Logan and Papa's birthday.  They even brought out cupcakes with candles just for them!

The highlight of our trip was making our way to Norway to meet Elsa and Anna!!  We waited an hour and a half to see them, and it was so worth it to see Logan's sweet face light up as they talked to her.  Brody is actually not annoyed or upset in the picture, he is in character, he kept saying "this is how spider man stands."  He also refused to take the mask off.  One day we'll show it at his wedding slideshow.

We met Mickey at EPCOT!

Brody was thrilled to see and hug goofy!

After we had gone through Mickey, Goofy and Donald (I believe?), the cast member helping Mickey came and got our family because he said Mickey had specifically asked for us to come back so we could ALL get a picture with him!  The kids were thrilled.

Then we went on and met Minnie!

We caught the light show from the front of the park.  We knew we'd want to make a quick exit to get back to the hotel before the mad rush.  We left about 5 minutes before the fireworks ended and watched the rest of them from the Monorail.   

Magic Kingdom was a blast!  The kids, once again, LOVED the splash ground.

We were really blessed with the hotel room (small apartment) we were able to stay in.  It allowed us to all sleep well.  The kids loved to sit on the couch in the living room in the afternoons and take pictures and watch the golfers walk by.

Brody and Lincoln had matching shirts the entire trip.  It was probably the most fun part of planning, for me!

Day three we ate breakfast with all of our favorite Disney Junior characters.

Jake:

Sofia:

And Doc McStuffins!!

Then we went and hung out with Mickey a little more.

And took a tour of Minnie's dressing room:

Brody fell asleep right as our fast passes for the motor show started so I hung back with him and Lincoln.  I walked the park and when he woke up we went and met McQueen and Mater.  It was a hit. He was in awe and did not want to leave them!

It was nice to get some special time with B.

Then we got in line to meet Buzz.  Always fun to go through all of the photo ops on the way to Andy's Bed.

The last day we spent at Magic Kingdom, again.  Logan got to meet up with several more princesses.

And then we went to meet the fairies.  They had our family go into the room on our own and we got a private meet and greet with Vidia and Tink!  They spent TEN minutes with us!!  They were quite taken with Lincoln.  They wanted to hold him, and talk to him and didn't want to give him up when our time was up.

They took their time signing the kids books and asking them about their trip so far.  It was really outstanding.

We rounded the characters off by going to see Mickey one more time.  The kids were thrilled when Mickey started TALKING to them!!  He had the whole room singing happy birthday to both kiddos.  It was such a special treat.

Sadly, though we were there with family, we didn't get too many photos together.  But, here's one of B and Aunt Lindsey riding the train.  

Trying to get a picture of all of the cousins in their matching shirts proved to be kind of a challenge.  :)

This was about the best we could do!

We had such a fantastic time.  Though exhausting with a newborn and several young children, we made memories we'll have forever.  It was a great way to celebrate Logan's 5th birthday!