My 4 Year Old Girl

Yesterday we celebrated Joleigh's 4th birthday. I'm still in disbelief that it is possible that she is in fact 4 years old. It is scaring me how fast time is flying by. We had a great day! She has been counting down the days. I started the day early by going to the grocery store to get her birthday breakfast request, blueberry bagels and pink strawberry milk. I also picked up few last minute gifts for her. I forgot that her only birthday present request was pencils, so I got her a pack of pencils, a sharpener and some notebooks. We also got her some play-dough, a tee ball set and ordered her an easel. When I got home I decorated her door with pink streamers. She was so cute waking up, she knew right away it was her special day and was in the BEST mood.



We have been telling Joleigh that she had to wait until she was 4 until she could chew gum. So I can't tell you how excited she was when Joe surprised her with a piece of gum. She was one happy girl!


We enjoyed our morning at home, and then got ready for her family birthday party. Joe and I decided to have her party at the church, outside under the covered area by the grass. It was perfect! Everyone ordered cheeseburgers from the grill and we brought cake. Funny story about the cake, Joleigh was very specific wanting a strawberry and blueberry cake. I wasn't quite sure how to make that but had some ideas. But I got super excited when I was at Costco earlier in the week and walked by a cream pie loaded with strawberries and blueberries. Joleigh approved and I was thrilled I did have to make one. Overall, I didn't have to do anything for this party but buy some plates, forks and candles. How great is that!?!
Joleigh had such a fun time celebrating with all most all of her family. She was so spoiled with art supplies, dress-up clothes, lots of fun toys and a TON of beautiful dresses.

I had a fantastic day celebrating my precious little Joleigh!!! I love her so much and thank God everyday for the privilege of having her in my life!

Sleeping soundly

I hope I'm not jinxing it by writing about it, but little miss Jaelyn started sleeping through the night this week!!! For the past six nights she has slept 8-9 hours and then goes back to sleep for another 2 hours. Praise the Lord!!! I still can't believe it! I am starting to play some sort of catch up, but my body still isn't used to not waking up every 3 hours, so hopefully that will change soon. Jaelyn turned 2 months on the 20th. I can't believe how fast the time is going. We are just enjoying everyday, just now with a little more sleep!

The Girls

I just love to take pictures of the girls whenever they are doing something cute. Here are some pictures that I took of them this week.

Getting ready for bedBig sistersBig smiles
Hanging out
Always hugging
Looking cute
Little diva
Joleigh at her field trip to Cold Stone

Joe's Birthday

This month has been crazy busy for our family, actually just Joe's schedule. So I was looking forward to Joe's birthday and celebrating with him as a family. He took the day off, which was definitely needed. The girls and I started the day by serenading him in bed and giving him his birthday cards.
Then I took the girls to the grocery store to get bagels and juice for breakfast while Joe got to sleep in some more. I gave Joe free reign to plan the rest of the day, but all he wanted to do was stay home, relax and spend time with his girls. So that is exactly what we did. My mom was so sweet to offer to watch all three girls so we could go out just the two of us. We were both very excited, we haven't done that since the baby was born. When we dropped the girls off, my mom had birthday cupcakes to surprise Joe with. We sang to him again and he blew out his candles, with a little help.




Joe and I went to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Sakana, and had sushi. It was delicious!!! After dinner, the owner's wife, who knows Joe because he goes there so often, came out singing to him and brought him ice cream. He was pretty surprised.

Happy Birthday Joe!!! I hope you enjoyed your day!

Breathe...

Breathe...that is exactly what I got a chance to do this past weekend. I was able to get away and go on the CCV Women's Retreat up in Williams, AZ. I went with my good friend, Melanie and I also brought Jaelyn with me. It was so nice to leave the day to day routine and stresses and just focus on myself. It's amazing how only having one child to take care of makes such a big difference. Jaelyn was absolutely amazing, she is such a good baby. The weather was beautiful, the scenery gorgeous, the speaker inspiring, the fellowship was so much fun and my time with God definitely challenged me and the areas in my life I need to hand over to HIm. We talked throughout the weekend about the voices that we tend to listen to (i.e. perfection, comparison, greed, regret, shame, etc.) and how these voices keep us from the peace God so desperately wants to give us. I felt renewed and refreshed when I left, but really felt overwhelmed when I came home. But this weekend helped me recognize all of the areas in my life that I hadn't even realized were struggles and now I am able to face them head on. I had a great time away and look forward to next year already.

Easter

We had a really nice Easter day. Joe had to be at the church at 6:45 am, so we waited to give the girls their Easter baskets until later. I decided to hide their eggs around the living room so they could have some fun when they woke up. After that we had breakfast and then got ready for church. For those of you that know me, know I really like to dress the girls in matching outfits. I know this is going to be a difficult task with three now, but I found matching dresses for Joleigh and Noelle and found a coordinating color dress for Jaelyn. They looked adorable! The church service was incredible!!! Everyone involved in planning did such a great job and it paid off tremendously. The church was packed for the entire weekend. Overall, more than 23,000 people were in attendance. Isn't that amazing!?! God was truly glorified in the service, start to finish.
After church we went to Joe's dad's house for lunch. The girls enjoyed their Easter baskets filled with toys and candy and we were able to rest and relax, which was especially good for Joe who had been working so much in the past week to prepare for the Easter service.
We then went over to Joe's brothers' house to have dinner with their mom. She had more Easter gifts for the girls, which they loved! We played outside in the beautiful weather and had an official egg hunt. It was a really nice day with all of Joe's family.
Then on Monday night we celebrated with my family at my parent's house. We had dinner, hunted eggs and just caught up with everyone. It was a wonderful time!
Overall, it was a terrific holiday! We were able to enjoy all of God's amazing blessings, but most importantly remember our Lord and Savior, the sacrifice He made and HIs resurrection. What a Happy Easter!!!

Pre-Easter Festivities

Wednesday night the girls and I went over to my mom and dad's for dinner and a little egg decorating. My mom had everything all ready: the eggs boiled, table cloth down, dye ready and stickers on hand. Joleigh and Noelle were beyond excited and couldn't wait to get started. This is the first year that we really have done this. I guess I just thought they were too young in years past, or maybe I was just too lazy. Anyway, we made eggs for everyone in our family, including Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Jamie. We will be celebrating Easter with all of them, as well as my Granny, Papa and my brother's family on Monday night. It should be fun hiding our decorated eggs for the girls to find and just spending time together.





On Thursday, Joleigh had her preschool Easter party. I left Noelle and Jaelyn with my mom and got to go myself to Joleigh's school to watch her participate in her egg hunt. When I arrived the students were all lined up at the door ready to start the hunt. First they had to find the Easter Bunny hiding somewhere on the playground. After they found him, Joleigh gave him a high-5, but that was the extent of her contact with the bunny. I tried to get her to take a picture with him, but she would have nothing to do with it. Joleigh was so anxious to find her eggs. It was adorable to watch her find the eggs and immediately open them to see what was inside. Then she would hand them to me and find the next one. It was so nice just to have one-on-one time with her and just give her my undivided attention. We haven't had much since the baby was born. I'm looking forward to the upcoming weekend and making new memories with our family, as we celebrate Jesus and the sacrifice He made for each and every one of us.

First laugh

We were so excited when Jaelyn showed us her first smile a couple weeks ago. I have been trying so hard to get it on camera, without any success. Then this morning after feeding her, I just started singing silly songs to her and clapping her hands and not only did she smile, but started laughing. It was absolutely adorable!!! Joe and the girls were still asleep. I couldn't wait to show them. So this is the picture Joe took of our little baby laughing at 6 weeks. It's already going too fast!!!

Girls Night Out

My good friend Colleen called a couple weeks ago to let me know that she was coming for a visit. She recently moved to Buffalo, but her parents live here, so I get excited anytime I get to see her. I thought it would be fun to get some of her good friends together to surprise her for a night out and celebrate her 30th birthday, coming up on the 24th of April, a little early. Amy, Jill and I were all bridesmaids in her weeding and it has probably been that long since we were all together, so it was a night we were all looking forward to. After showing up at her parents' house to surprise her, we headed to Westgate, where we had appetizers and drinks at The Yardhouse. Afterwards we went to The Shout House, a piano bar. It was a lot of fun, not exactly what we were expecting though. It was pretty crude, vulgar and distasteful at times, but when they actually played the songs requested it was so fun singing along. We had a great time catching up and just being silly. I was the designated driver, so after I got everyone home safely, I finally arrived home around 2 am. I can't remember the last time I was out that late. The funny thing is that was the first night that Jaelyn slept from 9:00 pm to 4:00 am. If only I could have enjoyed it, but it was totally worth it!!! Thanks girls for an awesome night out!!!