Happy 2nd Birthday Little Man

Little Man we are so blessed to have such a great little boy. I just love Carter's smile and his incredible level of tolerance. He is such a sweet boy that just loves his cuddle time!

This morning he woke up and went down stairs, "Momma, Momma. Boons boons." Then he held his breath and let out a yell, "BALL, yeah". Carter really loves his new basketball hoop.

I just want to note that it is his birthday so I let him take his pacifier out of bed. It is his special day.

Dad took Hannah to school and Carter got ready to go out for his special birthday breakfast.

While waiting for breakfast he opened his present from Grandma. Thanks for the camera!

the sprinkle donut

Nance and Sarah Jane were so excited to share this special day with Carter.

We have now reached the TERRIBLE twos

Carter taking pictures of himself. He loves to watch the flash go off and then turn around and look at the LCD screen for his picture.

We picked Hannah up from school and she made a beautiful snowflake crown that says "Hannah is wonderfully made". The celebration of Carter's birthday will continue on Saturday with his train party.

Click Here for more photos

Carter's 2nd Birthday

Laundry Day

God is so Good!!! Last night I prayed that God would give me the motivation and strength to get up this morning at 6am so I could clean the house, strip all the beds, and wash the sheets before taking the kids to Music and Motions. This doesn't seem so bad except I was up until midnight last night doing all the other laundry in the house.
Last night as I was laying in bed and continuing to pray I just realized how much the Lord has given me and I am just so grateful! I have three perfect (most of the time) kids and a great husband who works so hard to provide for us. He even brought home my favorite dinner last night, chicken marsala, which was a really nice surprise. Thanks Honey.
Anyway I just want to give a shout out to all the moms out there. I know our job is so trying at times and all you want to do is give in BUT you are doing a great job! It is days like this one when I say Glory Glory Glory!

Little Book of Love

This afternoon the kids and I went to Carter's 2 year old well baby visit. He did a great job! For the first time ever he walked on the scale and got his height with no tears. He didn't even cry when he got his shot. Way to go little man!

When I arrived home I got the mail and found that I had received the recent issue of Red Envelope. Suddenly, I just started laughing and couldn't stop. The kids kept saying "Momma, Momma are you ok? why are you laughing?". Now look at the cover photo above. Are you laughing? I have played airplane with the kids many times and so has Brian, but I have NEVER thought that Brian and I should play airplane together. I am still just laughing at the idea. Not to mention that if attempted I might fall and crush him after his legs buckle from all the weight.

I also want to note that that not only are they able to successfully play airplane, but there are rose pedals showering them from above. Although I am really glad they decided to close the blinds.

So lets be honest. Have any of the moms out there attempted playing airplane with their spouse? If so, I would love to know if you looked just as graceful as the couple above?

I am thinking that Brian and I should now attempt this and post our picture so you can rate our form or lack of.

Sweet Smile

Sarah Jane just loving life. Her favorite place is on the changing table. She just smiles and giggles and loves to chat. Sweet baby girl you are growing up so fast.

Adventures with Daniel

So I am sure you are wondering who Daniel is.... well he is the voice of my Garmin GPS navigation system. My Mother-In-Law is in town and we wanted to go shopping for my birthday. So Daniel took us out to the King of Prussia mall. This was my first time without a guide. So I was constantly reading my map. I just had the most wonderful day. Shopping and shopping and shopping.

Our first stop was Crate and Barrel. The store was inspiring, but unfortunately I broke a French press while demonstrating how it works. "Oh %$#&, how much does that thing cost?" Mom yells. Whoops, I guess I shouldn't have done the demonstration. I felt so bad, but the sales gal didn't even seem to care. She was more worried about me getting cut on the glass instead of the $40 French press.

Although the highlight of our trip was getting kicked out of Victoria's Secret. Mom has lost 30+ pounds in the last few months and Victoria's Secret was having a huge sale. So we decided we needed to check it out. We were so amazed by the visual displays that we decided to take a photo of Mom with the display. Next, thing we know we are getting attacked by the sales team. "Excuse me you are NOT allowed to take any photographs in our store. This is our company policy." the very excited sales woman exclaimed. Whoops! So needless to say we took a photo outside the store. She is one sexy Mom!

While we are on the topic of Mom... I want to share that we had a great trip into Tiffany's. After realizing that we could afford NOTHING in the store. Mom wanted some type of souvenir. So over to the perfumes she goes. As soon as we got home she had Brian smell her wrist. Oh the fun things you can do when you don't have money to spend.

Thanks for such a fun day!

First Snow of 2008

As soon as the snow started to cover the grass Brian decided he needed to build a fire. He even cooked our dinner on the fire.

As soon as Hannah Grace woke up from her nap out into the snow she ran. It is so great to have a sledding hill right in the back yard.

Warming up by the fire. Getting ready to sled down the hill again.

Hannah was so excited when her friend Allison came over with her Mommy and Daddy.

Notice there are no photos of the Moms outside in the snow. That is because we were nice and warm inside. The Dads had fun playing in the snow with the girls. We are stilling hunting for Allison's WHITE glove. We learned that as cute as the white gloves are they don't show up in the snow very well.

Hardwork

Poppo, Thanks for all your help and hard work. We had a great visit with you. We miss you!

Kids Kutters

We went out to Lancaster to get Carter's hair cut on Thursday. Last time he cried and screamed and it was awful. This time I took a pacifier. Since he only gets it at bedtime he was glad to take it.

He didn't cry this time. Yeah! Most of the time he just watch Clifford the Red Dog. The only time he fussed was when she was cutting his bangs and he couldn't see the TV.

Sarah Jane had a ball watching Carter. She just full of coos and giggles.

Afterwards Carter got a lollipop. Of course he fell asleep with it in his hand on the way home.

Like my new hair?

Poppo at the Spa

This is Poppo after spending the Day working with Brian and then coming home and spending a few hours with his 3 grandkids.
Actually, poor Poppo got a sinus headache, but I thought the above caption sounded better. We are so glad you are here Poppo we are having such a great time.

Princess Day

So Kacy arrived and the girls were so excited that they were wearing matching sparkle belts.

The girls were so excited to play. They ran around squealing for the first 30 minutes and then moved down stairs to place Mommy and Baby Princesses. It was so funny they were down in the play room and I kept hearing them say, Mom. Mom. So I kept responding, yes? Finally after lots of giggles I realized they weren't talking to me. They were playing Mom Princess and the baby kept calling her mom.

Next the girls made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Hannah set the table with flowers. FYI Carter was not invited to dine with them.

After lunch Carter and Sarah Jane went down for naps so we decided to watch Cinderella and paint names. The girls were too cute.

Although the grand finale was the best...

The girls wanted to go to the bathroom together. So we let them. I guess they were playing Cinderella and scrubbing the toilet. As soon as Jen and I heard the water we ran in and caught them "cleaning" the potty with the two objects above. They basically were just getting toilet water all over the floor. It was a good laugh.

We had such a fun time Kacy. We can't wait to play again soon.

3 Months

I can't believe our baby is already 3 months old. This morning I was getting ready. Hannah and Carter were watching TV in my room and Sarah Jane was swinging away. As I peaked out of the bathroom to check on them I saw this little smiling baby wearing a crown. Sweet girl.

Hannah Grace is now waiting for Kacy to arrive. It was so sweet. This morning Hannah said, "Momma, Kacy has to come and play with me. Will you please call the Robins?" After I got off the phone with Jen and told Hannah that Kacy was indeed coming to play she yells, "Momma, I got to go! I need to get out of my jammies. What if someone saw me in my jammies?" Hannah I love the way your little mind works.

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad! Wish we were there to celebrate with you! I hope that you have a special and relaxing day. May your birthday be filled with sparklers in a Grey Goose bottle, the "it's your birthday" song, and a disco ball. Love you LOTS!

Thank You

Thank you so much to everyone that made my birthday so special. I didn't really tell anyone, but I was overwhelmed with the cards, emails, flowers, gifts, and phone calls.

As you can see Hannah found the birthday crown and decided I needed to wear it. She wanted me to wear it all day, but I did only wear it to open my gifts from the kiddos.

I enjoyed a quiet dinner with Brian and our friends Jeff and Rebecca. It was such a perfect birthday.

Happy Anniversary Colemans

Yesterday was Jeff and Rebecca's Wedding Anniversary. So little Miss Anna Grace came to play. We had so much fun! I wish I started taking pictures before they were getting ready for bed, but hopefully you can create your own picture from the words. We had dinner and as usual Anna was so polite, but she ate more then I've ever seen her eat. Maybe it was the peer pressure of Carter our little tank. He LOVES food. They ate chicken, apples, oranges, yogurt, and some cereal. Although Anna was convinced that the orange was a lemon. After every bite Anna would say "Yuck" and smile as she grabbed another piece. After dinner they had tons of fun playing in the playroom. They made a band. Hannah was the singer, Anna on the harmonica and Master Carter on the drums. Lots of smiles and laughs.

Soon it was time for bed and Hannah decided that Anna should wear jamies like her and Carter. So they all got ready and snug into bed and Anna prayed for everyone. As seen above.

They were so cute. So I said good night and turned out the lights.

After lots of giggles and talking we decided a movie was a better choice.

So we made a floor bed and watched our movie.
After Anna left Hannah said, "Momma I really love Anna and I want her to come play with me tomorrow.

First Cake

As most of you know. I love to cook! At least I love to try. Moreover, Rebecca got me a beautiful cake stand for Christmas. So as soon as we got home from Christmas at my Dad's house my search for the perfect cake started. I didn't want my first cake to be just any ordinary cake. So finally I decided on a spice cake with coffee toffee crunch . Mmm.

Not only did I learn how to make a cake from scratch, but I learned how to make the frosting and the toffee. It was just a wonderful experience. Again Thank You Rebecca for stopping by and helping me flour the pans. I didn't even know how to do this. Anyway I had a great time making the cake even though I started at 11:00am and didn't finish until 5:30pm. I learned half way through that I needed something called a candy thermometer. I thought I might try my meat thermometer, but decided I should do it the right way... it was my first time. So thank you Brian for making a mid-day run to the store! I love you.

Here we go!

The toffee has espresso in it... which may be the reason I feel like I want to clean the house, do the laundry, run 4 miles, organize the toys, and .... So as I was saying there was coffee toffee in every layer of the cake. Did I mention it was six layers?

Not looking so much like the picture.

THE CAKE

Cutting the cake. I let Brian cut the cake... I held my breath that it would work. I am not so sure what I was worried about... I guess the cutting of the cake was the climax of the whole experience.

Enjoying the cake with Jena and Ryan. We had a fun night. Thanks for being so patient with me!!

Miss Toddler USA

Hannah is one strong willed little girly and has been very difficult lately... BUT she is so darn cute. I just love when she becomes, "pretend Momma". Her favorite place in the house is in our closet sitting amongst the various pairs of high heels or "fancy shoes". On occation I ask Hannah to get Momma a pair of shoes... Every time she brings me a pair of pre-momma Stilettos. Girls?!

I love you Hannah Grace!

3 Turks in the Tub

I put all the kids in the tub together and they had a blast. Hannah washed Sarah Jane over and over. Carter was just so happy to be left alone to play. Usually Hannah is trying to wash his hair and it never ends well. Anyway it is a great time saver for me too.

Clean Up

This morning we went to church after a LONG night. Hannah was up 3 times. It is really frustrating to me when she cries and won't use any words to tell you what is wrong or what she wants. She was up on Friday night also. Either she is growing or maybe she has an ear infection or something. Anyway it makes my days a lot longer and really tries my patience as she is very grumpy, strong willed and whiny. I can only imagine teenage years with Hannah Grace. It is only by the Grace of God that I will survive as a sane person. I do feel like I love her so much more after every struggle we conquer.

Anyway this afternoon Hannah and Brian took down the last of our Christmas decorations. Hannah really loves her one-on-one time with her Daddy. She is down stairs watching football with him now. It just touches my heart to see such a strong relationship growing.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 24th Birthday to my little brother!! Hannah called him this morning and said, " Happy Birthday Baby Jesus rrr. I mean Uncle TAP." He is off on a road trip with his girlfriend, Emma. Be safe and we miss you!

Today, Baby Allison turned 1!! We had a ton of fun at the Wonder Pets party. Hannah was trying to sneak an extra cupcake from everyone. I think that Hannah may have opened many of the presents too. Don't worry Allison you can help Hannah open her presents at her next party. Can't wait to come over and play. I must say it was so cute how excited Allison was about the tags and the hangers. She is so cute!