Could you imagine!!

How perfect bike rides would be with this!?! So stinking cute! I have seen them on a couple peoples blogs and SO want one! Riding bikes to school would be a breeze! :)

We did it!!

We dropped Sadie off at school this morning and she is there as we speak! Our first baby, already in school!!! Here she is all ready for her first day of Kindergarten! She did so great! She fit the part and was such a big girl! She has been known to get emotional lately so I was a little worried. But I talked to her before and told her how she is a big kid going to school with all the other big kids...(so no tears)! She was great! She didn't even ask me to be the first to pick her up! She loved saying goodbye to each of us individually: Mommy, Daddy, Lucy and Daphne. She was proud of herself for being the big girl and staying! And we are SO proud of her too! Last night she was nervous and had a hard time going to sleep. She first wanted Daddy to cuddle with her for a little bit (which isn't unusual) but then wanted me to read her some books a little later. Then she wanted to sleep with Lucy (who was already asleep) so she went in and cuddled with Lucy. Then she was crying because she heard a noise - a book was making a little rattle sound on the book shelf from the AC being on. Finally she fell asleep. This morning came too quickly!

We are excited that she gets to go to a new school that is right in our neighborhood. Normally we will ride bikes but today we drove since we ALL went.

She was so cute and posed by this display. I remember when we first went to register her she got so excited about this display! :)

Her Teacher Ms. Bridgeman! But only for a few more weeks and then she will be Mrs. Little since she is getting married! Sadie is excited about that and thinks "Little" is funny. "Like Stuart Little at Grandma's house!" I have heard nothing but great things about her teacher so I am really excited!
Look at that big girl! She got to pick a cubby for her back pack. (She picked out this back pack which is a messenger bag. I was a little concerned about it with riding to school and everything, but she insisted! Stubborn like her Mommy! :) But even just walking from the car to school she was already a little frustrated with it! So we might be getting a different back pack!)She found her name tag - which she will decorate later her teacher said - and put it on. She picked a picture to color and found a seat next to a cute little red headed girl! But one seat away because of nerves. :) We said our happy good byes and we were off!
They had donuts in the cafeteria for Moms and Dads. We had a quick donut and a lesson for Lucy about kids with disabilities (she got scared by a little boy in a wheel chair and was crying!) but once she understood that he was the same on the inside and had a Mommy and Daddy too, she was good to go. So we made it to this long awaited day! I didn't even cry! I choked back a few tears as we were walking up to the school but that is it! I was a big girl too! We will keep you posted on how she liked her first day at school! We love you Sadie and we already miss you!

Triplets?

Today I was taking some pictures of Daphne since I haven't done much of that lately. Boy is it hard when you have two "big helpers!" I finally had to send them out to play! :) After that, Daphne didn't last much longer. Come to think of it, maybe they were helping! After I cuddled Daphne down, I was looking through the pictures on my camera and thought they looked exactly like pictures I had taken of Lucy. Basically I did the same thing, just a different blanket for the background. So I wanted to look at them side by side. My goodness! They look so much a like!

So then I wanted to see Sadie at that age. (take into consideration that I have improved on my photo skills) Boy do they look alike too!

So here they are all together. Do you see why I have a hard time when people ask who Daphne looks more like!?! Crazy!!

Party Like a Rock Star!!

So WAY back on June 27th we had an eventful day! First of all Sadie turned 5!

I can't believe how big she is getting! She is my big helper and is always willing to help out! She is a great big sister and always keeps tabs on her younger siblings! She is so thoughtful and so good with them.

Sadie's Favorites at Five:

Color - Red

Food - Fruit, Chips & Cheese (Queso)

Toys - Barbies, iPod

Things to do - Ride Bikes, Read Books, Dance

Movie - Princess Protection Program, Barbie and the Diamond Castle, Another Cinderella Story

Book - Bob Books, Pinkalicious

She LOVES accessories. Just the other day we were reading Fancy Nancy where she brings out fancy accessories for her family to wear and Sadie asked what accessories were. I started describing things like hats, jewelry, scarves, purses etc. and realized that was everything that she loves! She loves to accesorize! She always has at least a few bracelets, necklaces, and rings. She loves hats and scarfs and fills every purse in the house with necessities! She is so funny because she is kind of sporty/tom-boyish in the way she dresses (and is very particular about what she wears) but then she is so girlie with her accessories. It is funny and oh so cute!

Sadie's birthday was a busy day. We woke up early and had birthday pancakes - tradition. Then had to hurry and get hair and make-up done on Sadie and Lucy for their recital! It was a process as usual but we got everyone ready and we made it to the recital! Only forgetting our tickets to get in! Luckily we know everyone at the studio so we got more tickets. :)

Lucy was up first. She and her friend Averee are in the same class and have so much fun together. This year their routine was to Bippity Boppity Boo. It was so cute and Lucy loved yelling the "boo" part. They started off on the floor and spun around.

"Put'em together and what have you got?"

"Bippity Boppity Boo!"

A little blurry but she flashed a cute little smile!She did so well. It was so cute to see her up there being so little and all! Good job Lucy!

Next up was Sadie! She finally got to do a tap routine! They do a combined tap and ballet class and every year has done a ballet routine for the recital. So she was excited to do tap. She was so funny up there. At first she had this giddy smile going, like she is getting old enough now to realize what this is all about and that a lot of people are out in that darkness watching her. It was cute. Here is her little embarrassed smile! :)

I love the tongue sticking out as she is concentrating!

Here's the tongue again. This was a tricky move. Jump up and click your feet together. Great job girls!They had so much fun and did a great job. They always love doing their recital and talk about it for so long after wanting to do it again!

After the recital we had to hurry home, have some quick lunch and finish the preperations for Sadie's party. We did most of it the day before...which was a disaster because everything was right in their face for so long, it was torture to have to wait! :)

Since life has been crazy with having a baby and then the dance photo shoot, I gave in and let Sadie have a Hannah Montana party. I always thought with that I could just do a rock star party and through in a little Hannah, but for the ease of it all, I did a full blown, tacky Hannah Montana party. Even down to the cheesy invitations!!! I swore I would NEVER do that! I guess there are worse things! :)

They started off dancing around on the "stage" while everyone was arriving. The stage was our formal dining. Then the formal living is right across from it that we set up a bunch of chairs and stuff for the to watch and be the audience.

Then we decorated some leather "rock star" cuffs and each girl got a stripe or two of pink or blue coloring in the hair. They LOVED that! Then we played pass the microphone and when the music stopped, whoever had the inflatable mic got to dance and put on a performance. Being the birthday girl, Sadie had to be first and boy did she love the audience.

Here is her audience: Lucy, Evka, Lexi, Cassandra, Kenzie, Reese, Brooklynn, Janae.

Sadie was being SO supportive of her friends. Shouting out praises and ideas of moves they could do. It was so cute!Lucy was LOVING the attention and had no reservations. I think having this party after their recital was perfect! I love this sassy look!

A friend of mine has the kids get the presents they brought and hold it until it is their turn to bring it up. It helps with crowd control up by the birthday girl. This way you can actually see the birthday girl as she opens presents, instead of the back of kids heads! As Sadie opened her presents, she would call on each person to come and bring up their present. She would stop and tell them to raise their hands! Too funny.
She lucked out and got a LOT of cool stuff!She has been begging for a Hannah Montana wig for SO long, so we finally got her one! But she was so embarrassed about it! She didn't even put it on long enough for me to take a picture.
For a rock star party I had to get the candles the spark! She got a little scared by the first spark! But then she liked it! It was cool!
They breezed through the pinata and then wanted to go through their goody bags. They were so cute looking through them. It was fun for me to see the kids enjoying the stuff. Usually we hand them out on their way out the door so I don't get to see their excitement.
Notice the pretty makeup! What pretty rock stars!
Evka, Sadie, & Lexi
Cassandra, Janae, & Brooklynn
They were so funny! They got little cell phones with lip gloss in them and they were all talking on their cell phones to each other! So cute!
This was their beginning pose for a dance! So funny!
This party was SO low key on my part...but the kids had a blast and really enjoyed it. I let them run the show for the most part and they LOVED it! Especially Sadie, and that is what matters most! Sadie, we love you and are so proud of you!!! These past 5 years have been the best in our lives!

Daphne's Blessing

Originally we were going to bless Daphne here in Texas like we have done with our other girls. When it came down to planning, we realized we would like to make a trip back home this summer so why make everyone fly out here when we want to come out there too. So we bought some plan tickets to head West.
Then we discovered we picked the "worst possible week" to ask for time off for Chris. We needed him to DO the blessing so he at least needed to be there for that weekend. Unfortunately he had to fly right back home Monday morning.
Looking back on it, I would not change it. Looking through pictures and seeing the faces that we got to share this special moment with is priceless. These people are so special to us and if they aren't family, they are close enough! Daphne got to have some GREAT men stand around her for her blessing! And here they all are: (from left to right) Uncle Jon, Ryan Newman, Uncle Damon, Grandpa "Stewie," Daddy, Grandpa Bob, David Kunz, Uncle Jim, Uncle Colin.Grandma Jean doesn't like her picture taken. I feel lucky whenever she lets me take some. She wasn't stopping me, so I snapped away! I always LOVE pictures of her! I don't know if it is because I feel accomplished to have gotten it or what, but I always love them.
Daphne's blessing dress has a story. I had some old lace that was from my Grandma Beebe. It was old, had some holes in places and was very delicate. Chris' Mom took the lace and used it as the focus of her dress. It is around the bodice, the bonnet and around the bottom. With cutting away the part with holes, she said she did not have 1 centimeter of the lace left! It was the PERFECT amount! It was meant to be!
We had picked everything out at the fabric store when she was here after Daphne's birth. She took it home to sew it. She would call me here and there to ask questions/opinions, but I had not seen it until we got there. Let me just tell you, I am completely in LOVE with it! It is way more than I ever imagined! Completely perfect! Christy, you are AMAZING!!!
Seriously, PERFECT!
It kind of freaks me out to see this picture of our family. Crazy how we are growing. The big girls look so grown up next to little Daphne. And having 3 kids! It still seems like we should be in baby mode, and that's it. But we are lucky enough to be in Barbie mode too! :)

Sweet Chris with his little girl! When he went back to work and we went to California for a month we all missed this sweet face! He brings so much to our family. Being home now, I just feel relief. It made me realize how much I rely on him and love his strength! We definitely are not complete with out him!

It was so nice to see friends and family that we hadn't seen for so long! The kids all had SO much fun together and played so well with each other. There were many tears when it was time to go! We had a nice yummy lunch and even a pinata for the kids (for Sadie's belated birthday). It was so nice to just be together. I wasn't too on the ball with my camera, so I didn't get many pictures of the kids. I did manage to get this one of adorable Clarie!! I just want to give her kisses!! She is too precious!

We feel so blessed to have Daphne in our lives. Just today Sadie and I were talking about when she didn't have a baby sister and how lucky that now she does! Daphne brings SO much joy to our family as a whole and to each of us individually! She is such a sweet baby! She is a cuddler and I LOVE it! Sometimes when I am cuddling her I look down at her and know that I was made to cuddle with her! She just sinks into my arms and I LOVE it!