Sarah Kate--Two years old!

Happy birthday, Sarah Kate!  She is such a big girl now!  We are planning a birthday party for June when I am home, but we had cake and opened a few gifts with Aunt Amanda, Asher and Uncle Jamie when they were in town the weekend before her birthday.  She got a dollhouse from Grandma and Grandpa and it totally overshadowed the high chair we got for her dolls!  :)

Sarah Kate has definitely become quite the talker, and we can actually understand most of what she says now.  She also loves to sing!  She usually sings "Holy, Holy, Holy," the ABCs, and the Imperial March from Star Wars.  (Yep, she's got two older brothers!)  She can't sing the words to the hymn or the letters correctly, but you can definitely recognize the tune.  She has also learned two catechism questions:  "Who made you?" (God) and "Where is God?" (everywhere).  She loves to sing the second question with Mommy, and it is so sweet to hear her little voice sing her two-year-old interpretation of the word "everywhere."

We haven't seen a lot of tantrums yet, but we have definitely seen some attitude!  When you tell her "no," she will pout and turn her head away, refusing to look at you.  Noel and I have to turn away and try not to laugh while we are disciplining her!  It's hard to discipline someone so cute, but we know she needs it, even if her rebellion sometimes cracks us up.

Here's some photos of our big two-year-old!

Easter 2011

We had a great Easter this year!  We spent time before Easter using the Resurrection Eggs to talk about Christ's arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial and resurrection.  All the kids loved singing "Christ Arose!" after each time we used the Resurrection Eggs.  Even Sarah Kate would sing along as best she could!

The weekend before Easter, we had our friends over for our annual Easter egg hunt.  The kids hunted for eggs and feasted on pizza and cupcakes.

When my last round of chemo was cancelled, I was able to unexpectedly be home for Easter weekend.  Aunt Amanda, Asher and Uncle Jamie were in town, too!  It was a wonderful time of family and celebrating Christ's resurrection.  He is risen!

Sarah Kate--23 months

Sarah Kate is almost two!  Her language continues to flourish, and she has a lot to say.  It's so fun now that we can actually understand most of it!  Whenever she gets hurt, she quickly says, "I'm okay!"  She's also said, "I'm a mess!"  She notices when her brothers are a mess, too, and tries to clean them up.  The other day, Will was meowing at her during lunch, and she turned into such a little mother.  She tried shushing him, and when that didn't work she said emphatically, "Eat!  Eat!"  We've also noticed that she calls herself something that sounds like "Kate Kate."  Too cute!

With the spring weather, Sarah Kate has enjoyed playing outside.  She loves to run around and draw on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.  I can't believe she is big enough to ride this little scooter that we got for Will a few years ago!

Famous Will Quotes

Will has a way of making us laugh non-stop.  But sometimes, one of his lines really cracks me up.  Here are some from the past few months . . .

"Christopher always loves me.  It's like Jesus loves me, except it's Christopher loves me."

In answer to the question, "What scares you?":  "Predators.  But not predators that are mammals.  If it were a predator that looked like a mouse, I would just step on it."

Reporting on his first tee-ball practice:  "I got to bat twice.  And I did short stop.  That's where you just stand there."

To his nanny, Penny:  "Will you marry me?" . . . she said yes! . . . "As long as you don't snap my underwear!"

From his PCCA entrance exam, answering the question, "Tell us three interesting things about you":  1. "My top jaw is way back there."  2.  "Your brain is a tiny bit smaller than your fists."  3.  "When I have coughs, they are really big."

Christopher's 7th Birthday!

Christopher turned 7 on February 18.  His Nana took brownies to school the day before, and on his birthday he went to lunch with Will and Nana and Granddad.  That afternoon, he had cupcakes with several friends at a friend's house.  Then for dinner, he went with Daddy, his siblings and Grandma to Catfish Hole.  He loves it that they play a happy birthday song and bring you a whole plate of tootsie roll pops!  Afterwards he had cake and opened presents at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  It was a full day of celebrating!

A week later, on the 26th, we had his official birthday party at Mad Pizza.  They have a party loft upstairs and make a huge party pizza!  Many of Christopher's friends joined us for pizza, cake and some games in the arcade room.  It was a blast!  Here's some photos:

 

Sarah Kate--22 months

This has been a big month for Sarah Kate!  She got her first haircut and did a great job being still.  I shouldn't have been surprised.  One thing that amazes me about her is that she loves for me to clip her fingernails.  When the boys were this age, it was such a chore.  But I pull out the clippers and she'll hold out her fingers for me, one by one.  Why shouldn't a princess enjoy a little pampering from time to time?

Sarah Kate also loves to clean and pick things up.  After meals, she will pick up food off the floor and put it in the trash.  In fact, sometimes she gets a little too eager and we find "trash" in the trash can that's not really trash!  Last week, she found a stray crayon on the floor and went and got the crayon box from the coloring table and brought them both to me so I could put it away.

Sarah Kate's language has really taken off this month.  She is saying lots of animal names (my favorite is fuff-fuff-fly), foods (gookie!), and what every girl with two older brothers needs in her vocabulary:  "Hey!  Stop it!"

We discovered a couple of weeks ago that Sarah Kate can identify several numbers.  After reading a numbers book, she pointed to a three on the cover and said "three!"  So I asked her the other numbers from 1-10, and she knew most of them.  Such a smart girl!  She also loves to sit at the coloring table and scribble.  I think she feels like a big girl sitting there like her brothers do.

Here are some photos Noel captured at dinner (looks like dessert!) a couple of weeks ago:

Sarah Kate's first haircut

I never thought, as bald as Sarah Kate was on her first birthday, that she'd need a haircut this soon!  Her hair had grown long enough to be in her eyes, and she was starting to sport the baby mullet, so we went for a haircut today.  I had no idea how she would do.  This morning, I told her she needed to sit still for her haircut, and she said, "okay!"  And she did!  She had a frown on her face the whole time and seemed pretty apprehensive.  But she held still and never fussed.  I was so proud of her!