Sweet Lizzy

How could I forget to post about our newest 5 year old?!?!?!

September 2nd Lizzy turned the big FIVE years old!  She had asked me a few months ago to make her a birthday outfit (she has confidence in me!)...she was very specific.  She wanted a long skirt, I thought it was too long, but it's what the "birthday girl" wanted!  She wanted a shirt to match with the number "5" on it so everyone would know she was 5, and she wanted her hair up in a "ball" like a princess!  Here she is the day before her birthday in her "birthday outfit"...she doesn't have school on Fridays so we wore it a day early to celebrate at school), she made it clear to everyone that it wasn't her birthday that day that it was "tomorrow, September 2nd"!  We decided not to have a birthday party this year because she was able to have one last year and Anna was not (this year is Anna's turn).  But I was able to bring cupcakes & balloons to her preschool so we could celebrate there and she was beyond excited!!!
 
My parents came in for the weekend, brought gifts from family back in NC, we took her out to dinner, (her choice was Chili's), she had a great day being 5!

This is what Jody & I got for her, her very own 4ft x 4ft cardboard castle!  She's been talking for weeks now about Jody building her a castle & Papa building her a tree house in the backyard (neither is going to happen), so the next best thing is a cardboard castle!  She was able to decorate it with stickers, crayons, markers, etc. and it's perfect size for her.  It's made out of sturdy recycled cardboard and is still going (not destroyed) as of today :)

I can't believe she is already FIVE years old!!!  Looking forward to seeing what the years have for our sweet baby girl!!!

A Prince & Princesses...

all gathered in our "castle" last Sunday for a royal gathering to celebrate Lizzy's 4th Birthday!!!  Here are just a few of the pictures...

Click here to see more pictures!

Lizzy's Birthday :)

We've had a few parties for our newest 4 year old :)  We began hearing all about her "biwfday pawty" since Emma's birthday back in January, who she wanted to invite, where she wanted to have it at, what she wanted to do...in great detail I might add!  Her Sunday school teachers one day decided to write down everything she had been saying just to show us how excited she was...the list was very long and included a tricycle race, water balloons, tea party and ice cream cake (to name a few ;)  On her actual birthday we started out the morning with breakfast of her choice, Dora balloon, presents & a birthday card and  that afternoon we left for North Carolina to visit family and friends for the long holiday weekend!    She said all day "since I'm the birthday girl I get to choose"...this is a phrase that has continued even until this morning :)  Her Uncles & Aunt had given her Build-A-Bear gift certificates for her birthday and she was dying to use them since she had never experienced Build-A-Bear for herself!  We headed out with our kiddos, my brother, sis-in-law, niece and both my parents to the mall the weekend we were in Raleigh...I snapped a ton of pictures, as many as I could of all the girls (Anna also got Build-A-Bear gift certificates for her birthday next month) so I made a slideshow!  I snapped all these with my Droid, sorry some are blurry, but you get the picture :)

This photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Happy 4th Birthday!!!

To our sweet & sassy Lizzy :)  We are so thankful for our beautiful 3rd baby girl!!!

Happy Birthday brand spankin' new...

Happy 1st...

Happy 2nd...

Happy 3rd...

And today Happy 4th Birthday Lizzy Maye!!!  

We love you so much and can't wait to see what life holds for our "sassy pants" :)

  

If you'd like to see more posts about Lizzy click on her name on the left side of the page under "looking for something specific?".

Sisters

Jody snapped these pictures a few days ago of the girls. Emma wanted to go outside and draw and of course the sisters had to come along too :) This bench is in the front yard, in our flower bed, it has become a favorite seat for the girls!!!

Weekend Stay

While we were gone at a Leader's Retreat this weekend our "middles" stayed with Mr. Eric & Mrs. Erin! Friday morning the girls were up and ready, put their packed book bags on their backs and carried them around with them all day! They were super excited to stay with The Millers! Here are some pictures they sent me during their stay!

Thank you so much Eric & Erin for watching the middles for us, they had a blast!!! Even if Anna threw up at McDonald's while Mr. Eric was by himself :)

I Love a TWO for ONE deal

Yes, they are both in one swing, so much easier to push!!!

Schmellow Creamwich

One of my kiddos new favorite things is a marshmellow cream sandwich aka "schmellow creamwich". I don't exactly remember where they got the idea or when we tried it out but they love them, could it be all the sugar?! Jack was fussing the other day about his lunch so much that I eventually gave in and gave him his own schmellow creamwich and to say he enjoyed it was an understatement! Look at that face :)

Sunday School

Our last Sunday at Stony Hill was filled with emotions! Here are all the kiddos with each of their Sunday School classes...

And Jody with a few of our High School & College kids...

*****UPDATE*****

I forgot to add Jack's Sunday School class picture?!?!?

Here are Jack and his Sunday School buddies...

Fun at McDonalds

A benefit since we moved to Georgia is our house is located very close to pretty much everything! We are only 4 miles from the church, about 3 miles from any kind of shopping (Target, Old Navy, Ross, WalMart and a mall) and a ton of restaurants (Chick-Fil-A, Chili's, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Arby's, just to name a few), grocery stores (Kroger, Publix), Starbucks (there are about 4 within a few miles from our house) and bunch of gas stations! Our bank is about a mile from our house and there is a McDonald's across the street from our bank! The kiddos received some giftcards for our trip here and we were able to use them that day to go out to lunch! The kiddos have been eyeing this McDonald's because it had a huge indoor playground that they were dying to check out.

Both girls climbed to the bubble, Anna was scared to stand up, but she easily could have seeing that Lizzy is almost as tall as she is!

Crazy hair Lizzy...

Anna of course had to pose too!

Jack just enjoyed the food, especially the cookies for dessert!

Weird

Do you ever have those days when you think your family and kiddos are kinda weird??? Today was that day for me....crazy kiddos :) Yes those are panties on her head, I came into the room and found her reading a book with panties on her head (clean of course)!!!

Anna was so kind....

To paint her sisters hands and toe nails before she painted her own! Lizzy may have helped a little too :)

Oh the miles I've walked...

I've been through Emma, Anna and now Lizzy :)

Lizzy was so excited when Anna tried on her shoes the other day and they didn't fit anymore "Now they mine" Lizzy happily shouted :)

The girls love getting "hand-me-down" clothes and shoes from their sisters :) Maybe they'll still be in good shape for cousin Ashtyn?!

Singin' in the rain...

My kiddos love to play outside and what fun to play outside in the rain with our favorite rubber boots?!

What in the world?

I almost forgot...

This pile of panties belongs to Lizzy!!! And she actually uses them everyday :) Last Tuesday (a week ago) she woke up and told me she wanted to wear panties ALL day...she did and didn't have a single accident! In fact she's only had a few accidents since then, mainly because she can't hold it for very long :( We tried training her when she turned 2, because she was showing signs, but clearly she wasn't ready :( We did the same thing with Emma and it didn't work either...with all my kids (no matter how frustrating) had to let them do it when they decided themselves. They told us they wanted to wear panties and quit diapers/pull ups cold turkey (wearing panties only, even at night and nap times), we haven't gone back since! The best part is that they tell us when they have to potty instead of us asking/taking them every 30 minutes! We are so proud of our Lizzy Maye :)
3 down 1 to go...we've got some time for Jack though!!!

My youngers

Silly kiddos :)

The "middle kiddos"

While we were at SWO last week with our students, Anna and Lizzy stayed with my parents in Garner. They were so excited and looking forward to the week! We dropped them off Sunday afternoon and picked them up Saturday night. These are some pictures they sent me so we could see what they were doing throughout the week...