partying with the princess'

For Mia's fourth birthday party, she decided that she wanted a princess party! Decorations were bought, a fabulous cake was made (thanks Lisa!) and costumes were put on. The girls had a ball and looking back at the pictures, everyone one of them looked ADORABLE! they laughed, played and waved their magic wands. It was a wonderful day with some wonderful girls!

decorations!

the fantastic cake!

magic wands

nothing better than little girls dressed up playing ring around the rosie!

all the beautiful princesses!

a new bike!

two arms full of love

i love this picture. my mom, enjoying her grandson and her great-granddaughter. I am so lucky to have her, and love every minute she gets to spend with my kids. I wasn't lucky enough to have grandparents growing up. My kids have 2 sets. I hope they know how lucky they are!!

Amelia Rose

Four of my favorite pictures from her 1st four years.

Amelia turns four!!

With each birthday celebrated, I always find it hard to believe that another year has passed. Three was such a fun age - learning how to ride a bike, going to pre-school for the first time, learning her abc's, counting, so many, many things!! With all the fun things that three has shown us, we can;t wait to see what the next year holds for us!

happy fourth birthday amelia rose, happy birthday beautiful girl.

no birthday spankings here, just a happy birthday toe-biting for the birthday girl!

Four and excited!!

The morning of Amelia's birthday, we invited our friends angela and madison to go for a spa day! We got our nails painted and then went out to eat! After lunch, Amelia enjoyed her 2nd ice cream cone. Yes, that's right her 2nd cone. No, not just that day. ever. allow me to pause so you can regain your composure. ok? so yes, it was her 2nd ice cream cone ever. Can you tell how much she is enjoying it? I don't really know what this is her second cone, why she hasn't had more. it just was!

4th of july

We went to spend the 4th with Darrin's parents this year. The kids had a great time playing int he water. Lance grilled pork loins and shish kabobs. I think the best part was when someone thought it would be great fun to give Amelia the hose. yes, that would be Amelia the 3 yr old! when is that ever a good idea?? At first we had a no squirting adults rule. And that worked for a while - until someone decided that it would be fun to squirt Nana. That quickly evolved into all the adults and Lucas being held hos.tage in the garage by the 3 yr old with a hose! It was pretty funny watching Amelia gilggle and laugh that no one could leave. Especially her Nana who kept saying "i have to get out, i have to use the bathroom". It was a great day! We ended it with a trip to Sauget to watch the fireworks at the Arch. We loved the fireworks! Poor Lucas missed out, he was asleep in the back seat.

heat-wave

The heat here is St. Louis hit early this summer and has yet to leave. We took the kids to get sno-cones tonight. Amelia insists on calling them Ice-cones! She decided she wanted a Barbi and Lucas settled for a Shrek! Afterwards we took a stroll over to the park for some slide and swing fun. Great, great night!

july 4th

We spent the 4th with Darrin's parents. We had a lot of fun. the kids swam, ate bbq, ran around and played, swam some more, and played with the hose. At some point, Amelia learned how to operate the hose. The garage has 3 exits - she managed to hold us captive by trying to squirt us any time we attempted to leave! Especially nana who was trying to get into the house to use the facilities! Ok - i may have been hiding out there telling her which way to squirt the hose to hit nana! it was a great time!!

finger painting

I found this product for Lucas awhile ago. While Mia was staying with her Nana one weekend, I got them out and let Lucas have at it. he loved it! he was confused at first as to what it was, but he picked it up fast and made some wonderful keepsakes. I think one may be a masterpiece! It is one of my go-to gifts now!

Future All-Star

When out and about with Lucas, we are almost guaranteed to get a comment on how big he is. And he is! he is about 4-5 lbs lighter than Amelia and only about 4-5 inches shorter. They are exactly 25 months apart. Usually following the comments of how big he is comes "he's going to be football" player one day. umm......not if I have anything to do with it...lol! it would make his Pop oh so happy, but I would prefer he play baseball! I think he would make a great first basemen!

Batter up!

A switch hitter!

Father's Day

just my mia

Serious

silly

breathtaking

beautiful

wizard

Amelia is a puzzle wizard! I help her sort the outer pieces from the inner pieces and she is ready! This is one of her bigger puzzles she has done at 100 pieces!!

Children's garden

We love the botanical garden's. love them! It was were Darrin and I went on many, many dates back in the day! We had however, never been to the children's garden. We took the kids recently and they loved it. It was a fun filled day of exploring and running. We saw a few things we had never seen before like frogs, a bunny and a snake!

long overdue

It's update time. I know they are long, long overdue but it is summer time and these kiddo's of ours keep us going day and night!! So my last update was when Lucas has a seizure. Well, eight seizures. Many, many appoligies that I didn't take time out from our summer fun to let you all know he is fine. He is actually doing quite well. We have been seizure free since our stay at St. Louis Children's Hospital. He is on medicine twice a day, which he takes like a champ. (It must taste pretty good!) We had a follow-up trip to the neurologist's where they said he looked great! We increased his medicine to allow for his growth and after a quick look-see, we were able to leave. We did ask more questions that didn't occur to us before. Lucas will stay on his medicine for 2 years and then we will try to wean him. If he weans without seizures, he can stay off of the meds. If he has any seizure activity, he will be put back on them and possibly undergo more testing. We are hoping for option A! We follow-up with the doctor's every 6 months as long as we have no problems. And as you can see from the picture, he is perfect! Look for more updates soon! And thanks for all your thought and comments when Lucas was hospitalized. We appreciate them all!