Sweet little Lucy is 2!!

The other day, we celebrated Lucy's 2nd!  Where does time go?  Does anyone have an answer for me!?  :) 

She has been excited for this day and has been singing "Happy Birthday to You" in preparation and learning to say "two weres owld" and trying to hold up two fingers to show just how big she's getting. 

We woke her up in the morning, she was a little sick the day before and pretty sick on her birthday with a cough, runny nose and some congestion.  Poor thing!  It seems like this happens all too often to our kids, they're a little sick on their birthdays.  We talked up her birthday and making it a big deal, she was excited to be center of attention!  We decorated a bit and made funfetti pancakes, which were pretty good but super sweet.  She also got some fun cards from family which she enjoyed looking at and not letting go of!  After we sent sister off to school, Lucy got in the bath, which she loves, and I let her stay in there as long as she wanted, which was a good 45 minutes!  :)  Then we got ready, did a little photo shoot, danced to her favorite songs, ate lunch, read books, and put her down for a nap.

After Em got home from school, we headed out to Chuck E. Cheese.  Lucy was about a year the last time we went so probably doesn't remember it.  Oh, did she love it - flashing lights, lots of buttons, pizza, giant mouse and all!  She loved all of the little rides and played some of the games too.  She figured out how to put the tokens in the machines herself and was pretty proud of that.  She loved watching Chuck E. perform on stage while eating pizza.  She liked watching Cal and Lucy play games.  She enjoyed trying to climb up and slide down the ski ball games.  She had a blast playing on the playground.  She even went up willingly and gave Chuck E. Cheese's leg a hug (that's a first for our kids)!  Daddy got the jackpot a few times on some games and so we got quite a few tickets.  So the kids got some sweet swag!  Lucy keeps smiling now and talking about her adventures at "Chu-ay-CHEESE"! 

When we got home, we got a few phone calls from family!  Awww, thanks for calling!  We played Hi-Ho Cherry O, and played a cherry bucket toss game.  Then we had cake and ice-cream.  Lucy enjoyed trying to stick her fingers in her cake to sample the frosting, watching Daddy light the candles, and having us sing to her...she even sang along a bit!  Then, it was so fun to see her blow out her candles.  Emma & Cal tried to help her out, showing her how to get closer but not too close and blow hard but not too hard.  He he!  After, she dug in and loved the cherry chip cake with cream cheese frosting and the banana split sunday that had cherries in it she picked out at the store.   

 After cake, we opened presents.  Lucy liked that, but enjoyed this bag even more, which she insisted on wearing on her back like a backpack and didn't want to take it off until jammie time.  Then we looked at Lucy's baby book of her first year and headed off to bed.  What a sweetheart!  I am so blessed to be this sweet girls mother! 

 

All about Lucy:

Loves dumping - especially drinks at dinner time!  She will grab someones cup and fill hers up or dump her drink into someone elses. 

Has a very calm temprament and she is very sweet most of the time but has a stubborn streak in her and can be a stinker!

Is a terrible sleeper and still isn't sleeping in her own bed all night.  Loves sleeping with her sheet though and has to have it wrapped around her back. 

Is starting to get to the terrible two stage - trying to dump everything and scatter everything and smear everything.   We've had makeup all over, vasaline, soap, and lots of other choice products all over.  I don't know if I'm ready for this!

Is talking very well and starting to construct small sentances.  Some of our favorites: "It's not workin!"  "I wanna drink of later peese!"  "I wuv you!" 

Loves singing and we go through her favorites several times a day: "Jesus wants me at homeatschoolatpway" (Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam), "Of God" (I am a Child of God), "Twinkle Wittle Stawr" (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star), and "Popcorn popping" of course!

Enjoys Nursery and tells anyone she talks to on the phone "Nursery fun!"

Loves kitties and raccoons and elephants and making animal sounds. 

She is a very good eater and will pretty much eat anything.  Her favorites include: cheese sticks, cucumbers, oranges, fruit snacks, and anything with sugar.  But she is very good at eating whatever she's given...for now. 

Loves playing with all toys, but really loves taking care of baby dolls the best.  It's sweet to watch her and play with her. 

Her brother and sister are her best friends!  She loves "Calhan" and "Emma" and goes to them for fun and to snuggle and when she needs help sometimes. 

XOXO - Hugs & Kisses

I like to try to make every day special (but fail most days) so on holidays, I really make it a point to make it a special day for our family.  We decided a few years ago to do a family date for V-Day, since it's kinda hard to find babysitters and the kids feel gipped and everything.  Then we'd do our own thing another day.   

 

This year, the kids helped me make giant Hershey Kiss rice krispy treats for some neighbors and friends!  We wrote individualized messages on each of the strips of paper coming out of the Kisses.

I made one V-Day craft this year, a little wreath made out of felt circles and pins on a styrafoam heart.  I got all of the supplies LAST Valentine's Day but never got around to it.  So I made the time to get 'er done nd I enjoyed doing it during nap time while watching Anne of Green Gables.  Emma even helped me on this one a little!

We have had fun writing love notes and cards and letters to each other and putting them in our little V-Day mailbox throughout the month.  And we got some fun letters and Valentines in the real mail!  First, a package from Grandma Di!  Homemade chocolates, a sweet book that made me cry (and no it has nothing to do with pregnancy hormones), some other fun activities for the kids.  Thanks!  The kids were thrilled!  I didn't take any pics of the kids opening the package because I think my phone was dead from kids playing games on it and my camera is becoming almost obsolete now.  But I remembered to take a pic of the last cherry cordial chocolate, mmm!  Also, we got a fun card from "the kittys at Grandma Sue & Grandpa Dan's house".  The kids got a kick out of it.  That came with some money to go get dinner somewhere.  Well, we went to the Onion on President's Day.  So thank you, kitties (and racoons)!  :)  We also got some from cousins as well, which were so adorable!

  
Along with dropping the bomb and announcing our baby news, we sent "long distance hugs" to family members.  We traced the kids' hands and attached them to the length of ribbon of their arms and then put this poem in the middle and decorated them with a few paper hearts.  I hope everyone knows we love them so much and wish we could hug them all of the time!

For Valentine's Day this year, we used the theme Hugs & Kisses this year!  Coming up with a theme helps me to come up with ideas.  We had so much fun, like always!

In the morning, our little sweeties woke up happy, Emma even woke up on her own before I went in to drag her out of bed.  We made heart biscuits with cinnamon butter and then got ready for school.  I did Emma's hair in heart shapes this year, which turned out pretty cute and was super easy to do.  Then Emma went off to school for her little party (and a little school work) and the kids and I played and read and cuddled and cooked and cleaned.  Cal also had a little preschool party, which he loved!  He and Emma loved comparing Valentine's and treats and going through them.  They were both good about sharing with Lucy as well.  Sweet!

 

That night, we ate dinner first.  We had homemade Olive Garden at home - Pasta e fagoli, never ending breadsticks, OG salad, and the spinach artichoke dip & toasted bread.  It seems like most years I end up doing some kind of Italian food for this holiday.  It's just so savory and romantic or something.  The kids kept busy by doing their activity placemats.

We got visited by the Young Women from our ward.  They gave us a "heart attack" on our front door, so that was cute.  A couple of our cute neighbors dropped off treats too - some cuties from the Bennetts, cookies from the Gomez's and some cupcakes from Bob & Marie. 

Then it was time for the festivities...first, we did a Kissing Photo Booth.  I gave everyone a chalk board and let them write whatever they wanted on it, and we had a few lip and moustache props as well.  David's caption was "Kiss me, I'm a Cougar!", mine said "Nothing's better than a kiss from mom!"  Emma's said "Free Kisses" (she came up with hers herself, so cute!) and Lucy's wrote Kisses (and we colored a pair of lips under that) for Kisses (colored a chocolate Hershey kiss under that).  I thought I'd be all on the ball and have the table set in the afternoon and everything ready to go.  I scattered chocolate kisses on the table, and I had to run upstairs for a second.  When I came down, Lucy was devouring the chocolate!  She loves that stuff!  So I had to take everything down and wait.  :) 

We then played a few games.  We had the Hug Awards.  Everyone gave each family member a hug.  I made up certificates for everyone.  Then on the certificates, everyone had to write why that hug from each person was the best.  We had everything from the best cuddle hug to the best caring hug and the best runaway hug (Lucy kept trying to run away from me thinking it was so funny so I had to track her down) and the best shakey hug.  So everyone had four reasons their hugs are the best on there.  Then we did a Whose Lips are Whose game.   I let everyone choose a lipstick and we planted a smooch on a piece of paper with a number.  We had to guess whose lips were whose and didn't have much of a problem guessing everyone elses!  After that, we played Pin the Lips on Ms. Valentine.  Emma helped make Ms. Valentine, who Emma colored to look like her.   We also had a Valentine's Day movie we checked out from the library we never got to and a bunch of Valentine's books, so we read those the next day or two, since it got too late.  So we tucked the kids in and gave them extra hugs and kisses and sent them off to dream land.   

 

 

And where was Cal during all of this, you may ask?  Cal fell asleep at 6 p.m. that night!  We tried several times to wake him up, but no luck.  He slept and slept and didn't wake up until the next morning at 7:30!  He must have been pooped, poor guy!  When he came downstairs in the morning, he said "It looks like there was a party down here!"  We told him how he fell asleep and missed it, but we let him do the activities and games in the morning, which he enjoyed. 

 

We also exchanged presents.  The kids got a card from Dave & I along with little boxes of chocolates.  I made a pillow case for Dave that had a quote by Dr. Suess on it that I think sums it all up for me:

 

"You know you're in love when you don't want to fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams."

 

He picked out some tulips (with the help of Emma) and made a sweet note for me talking about my "two lips" and other adorable things.  His words always melt my heart!  Still.  I love when he writes a cute note for me and leaves it on our dry erase board or scribbles cute notes in my planner.  He's so sweet!

                                     

The love didn't stop there, either.  On Saturday night, we had the Bennetts over for Saturday Sweethearts Night.  We busted out the chocolate fountain and dipped all kinds of deliciousness in it (oreos, pretzels, marshmallows, brownies, cinnamon bears, and strawberries).  Then we watched our wedding videos together (the Bennett's was so adorable and so fit their personalities!).  We finished things off by playing the Newlywed Game while the kids played with playdough and heart shaped cookie cutters. 

 

Happy Valentine's Day and hugs and kisses to all of my loves!  <3 adorable="" amp="" and="" aunts="" both="" can="" dave="" feel="" friends="" from="" grandparents="" hope="" i="" kids="" love="" much="" my="" nbsp="" neices="" neighbors="" nephews="" of="" p="" parents="" return="" sets="" siblings="" so="" somehow="" that="" to="" too="" uncles="" you="">

A Valentine...

Roses are red, violets are blue,

wouldn't you know?

Another baby is due!

 

August 14, 2013

 

Yep!  That's right, folks - get ready to welcome another Ryerse sweetheart to the world! That's number 4!  Tomorrow I will be 14 weeks and we are just now announcing the news of our baby to the world.  Not that anyone is surprised!  :)  We are pretty excited though! 

 

I kind of put the idea of another baby off for a while.  I felt overwhelmed.  I felt as if I couldn't handle the three kids I had very well.  I could never keep up on everything.  I never had me time.  But Dave really felt like it was time to start trying for another last fall.  He's always on the ball on this one.  But I kept shrugging it off and telling him it wasn't time.  When he asked me if I prayed about it, my answer was no, because I kind of knew what my answer would be and was almost afraid to pray.  Which is totally silly and wrong.  So I humbled myself and finally prayed about it.  I felt a peaceful feeling that it was right, and the answer came that "I will give you the capabilities to equal your task".  And truly Heavenly Father has!  Lately, I haven't been feeling overwhelmed at all, I feel like I keep up pretty well on everything I have to do and more, and am able to have quality time with each of the kids and some time for me too.  I know He has blessed me and know He keeps his promises that He will give us the capabilities to equal our tasks!  Now, I know it won't be easy, and there will be days I will feel overwhelmed and have tons to do and feel like a terrible mom, but He will be there to help ease my burdens.  I'm thankful for that and to have that knowledge as a mother.

 

As for if it's a boy or girl, either way we will be happy.  Emma thinks it is a girl, Cal wants a "brudder", and Lucy is pretty clueless.  We have a funny video I'll have to post about the kids arguing back and forth "Boy!" "No, GIRL!", "It's a boy!!!"  Of course, we have to remind them that Heavenly Father sends the one who is supposed to be in our family, so we don't get to choose.  So we find out in about a month of so the gender, and we're looking forward to that!

 

As for how I'm feeling, it's been going pretty well.  The nausea hasn't been that bad at all, no throwing up.  I've just been really tired (which is getting better now) and want to fall asleep with the kids at 8:00 p.m.  And I've gotten lots of headaches this time around, which I have never had with any of the others.  But that's getting better, too. 

 

But we're looking forward to this baby, it will be exciting for Dave to finish school and move on with the next chapter in our lives!  August is a good month for our family - our anniversary, Emma's birthday, and this little one will join us in August as well it's looking like!  :)