Swim Season!

Bring on Summer!

Celebrations

The school year is wrapping up, which means all sorts of events!

Lydia's Preschool Graduation

I can't believe my baby girl is going to be in Kindergarten next fall. So proud of her and how far she's come this year!

Celebrations of Learning

Ethan has had such a great year and I'm so proud of him! He's doing so well in so many things and has really enjoyed his teacher and new friends! Garrett's first year with TAKS testing, which he pretty much blew out of the water. He's such a grown up kid. So proud of him!

Our teacher gifts this year: We had some pretty incredible teachers that helped all three of our kids have really great experiences this year.

Spring events

Pre K Muffins with Mom

Ethan's 1st Grade Reading Cafe

Garrett's Spring Soccer Season

He was named the team "sweeper". This kid LOVES soccer. He may be small, but he is fast and is right in there with the really big kids! He could go wherever the coach needed him and deliver...way to go Garrett!

Lydia's 5th Birthday

Happy Birthday, Baby girl!

Lydia's preschool play

Lydia was such a cute little angel in her preschool Christmas play.

back to school

backpacks. lunch boxes. new clothes. teacher gifts. back to school party.

And with that...

They're off.

(and next year I'll take pictures BEFORE we brush teeth,

as to avoid the water drips down the front of our shirts)

It's just me and you, kid.

Preschool

It was Back to School for Lydia this year as well. She has been so excited, and absolutely LOVES it.

I have to admit, it was a little weird that first day to be ALL alone for five hours on the middle of a weekday, but I'm quickly getting over that taking advantage of my two days a week all to myself for the next few weeks before the baby is born!

look who's a big 3 year old now

We're all so in love with this girl.

sleepless nights

I'm going to file this little picture away and bring it out in 20 or so years when my little Lydia is a mom and calls me in tears after staying up all night trying to get her newborn baby to sleep.

And we'll laugh.

We'll laugh over the hard night she had as an almost 3 year old trying to get her baby to sleep.

For our own amusement, Matt and I kept peeking in at her. It was quiet. Each time we assumed she'd finally fallen asleep, but she was busy-- reading books to baby, wispering soothing words, rocking.

Finally at 10:30, I caught her laying down with Baby on her chest, fighting to keep her eyes open, and softly patting Baby's back while they both drifted off to sleep. It was so true to life that I couldn't help but laugh...then grab the camera.

This baby thing is a full time job for her. It's adorable, and a little obnoxious sometimes too. They go everywhere with us, and she gets really worried if she has to leave them in the car, because they will be scared without her. I've been known to call Monkey on the phone and ask if he'd babysit because we accidentally left the babies at home. My favorite is when she bounces them to get them to stop crying. I still haven't gotten it on video.

I hope she always loves being a mom this much.

because just one just wouldn't do

Thanks, Mom.

Can't.

Get.

Enough.

projecting

I can't blog right now.

Mom's here, and we're projecting.

Not pro-JECT-ing, PROJECT-ing.

I've had lots of projects to finish since we moved in that are just a lot more fun to do with someone else (especially when that someone else is an accomplished seamstress). Right now we're finishing curtains. I ran out of steam on the curtains about 3 months ago.

So, until I have more time to blog about all the fun and joy that comes with December and with Grandma being here, I'll just show off my irresistible Liddy, in her new Christmas dress (courtesy of Grandma, of course).

seriously, what WAS I thinking?

After 2 weeks of Matt being out of town and 4 days< with 3 kids vomiting, I think the sleep deprivation might be clouding my judgement just a little.

On our way up to bed tonight, I had the kids help me carry various items up the stairs to be put away.

I handed my 2 year-old a tube of lipstick and 2 tubes of lipgloss and asked her to go put them in my bathroom drawer.

Fabulous idea.

Matt's home, our collective health is restored, and the house is almost sanitized. I think after I throw in the gazillionth load of laundry and start some cinnamon rolls for tomorrow morning ('cuz something's got to get us up for 8 am church), I'll go to bed.

*For those of you using your google reader- HOLY SMOKES, is the text for this post as ginormous in your reader as it is in mine? I edited the HTML, but it's still larger than life. It's not really that big on my actual blog. Surely this post doesn't warrent such exciting text, but oh well. Maybe it will go away.

**Lest you feel sorry for me- Matt was home on the weekend between the 2 weeks, a maximum of only 2 kids were throwing up on any 1 of the 4 given days, and I really do like 8 am chuch...except for the getting up part.

almost all packed up

girls on the patio

diaperless

I'm all for enjoying them while they're young, not wishing away the years, etc, but for just a moment, we are celebrating the fact that for the first time in 6 years I'm not changing any diapers.

Whoever said it was easier to potty train girls was absolutely right.

Dear Grandma,

Dear Grandma,

I am very mad at you for leaving this week. Every day I wake up and walk into your room and you're not there. Don't you remember that I'm supposed to be your favorite?

I cried for you for 3 hours at naptime yesterday. It's just not the same when Mom reads me Little Quack. And she doesn't lay by me as long as you would.

I want you to come back. Mom doesn't laugh at me as much as you did when I swing my hips and strut my stuff around town. She called me her girl yesterday, but I corrected her and told her I'm Grandma's girl.

I hope Carter is having fun with you. Can you please stop playing with him and call me? I pick up Mom's phone to talk to you, but you don't talk back.

I miss you.

-Lydia

the origin of a name

Last Saturday, Matt and Ethan went for a little walk down the street to pick up some rolls for dinner. He came back with these:

I love them.

I love them for several reasons.

1. They're from Matt.

2. I love flowers.

3. I'm diggin' the bright colors (of everything) here in Brazil.

4. We realized the Portuguese translation of lily is lirio and when Brazilians say it, it sounds like

"Lid-io".

Sounds a bit like Lydia, doesn't it?

Perfect. We decided we're going to tell Lydia that she is named after the Portuguese word for Lily.

Do you know what makes that just so fitting?

2+ years ago during our baby naming contemplations, the name Lydia beat out the name Lily by just a very small margin. Now it's sort of like we got our Lydia and our Lily along with a little connection to our life here in Brazil.

It's perfect- almost as if we planned it that way from the beginning.

She's taking Brazil by storm, by the way. She stops traffic wherever she goes. The Brazilians all blow her kisses and call out "linda" which means, beautiful. There's a tennis coach here that stops his lessons to call to her everytime we walk past the court and gives her kisses and tennis balls. It took her a little while to warm up to all the attention, but now she eats it up and blows kisses right back.

So here you have her:

Our little Lirio lindo