Haddie is 4-and-a-half!

Wow! My Haddie girl is so grown up!

Haddie is our super strong-willed, tender-hearted, artistic, intelligent, and beautiful 4-and-a-half year old! She is my most difficult child these days, and she pushes me to the edge of my patience (and sometimes, sanity) more than anyone or anything in my life this far. But wow, I am thankful for her! Her little life has taught me so much about grace and dependence on the Lord and my own depravity. She also has the sweetest, tender heart. She's gonna be a world-changer when she meets Jesus! I'm confident her strong will is gonna make her a leader instead of a follower, and I'm praying her tender heart will make her a servant to everyone she meets.
Haddie really enjoys coloring, drawing, stenciling, doing crafts and schoolwork, giving gifts and getting gifts, playing in tubs of rice/sand with ponies and other treasures, wearing dresses, painting her nails/putting on makeup, pretending: being a ballerina/fairy, puppet shows, dollhouses, etc., being in control, holding and loving on her baby sister, telling Bethel what to do, playing with Bethel, making Elisha laugh, Sunday School, and playing outside. Some of her favorite shows are Muppet Babies, Team Umizoomi, Blaze and the Monster Machines, Bluey, Frozen, and Hotel Transylvania.
Haddie has been extra into pretending lately ... wanting me to put on puppet shows and plays with her. She hates it when anyone leaves the house and insists (over and over again) that we wave at her in the kitchen window as we leave and often cries, and gets fairly frantic about the details of our departure. She is already talking about going to kindergarten next year ... she wants to ride the school bus, make new friends, and write in a notebook. Too cute! 😁
Our girlie sure does wear us out, but wow, we love her! She is the coolest!

Bethel is 3 years old!

Our gorgeous, silly, stubborn, sweet, moody, wonderful Bethel girl is finally three!

This girlie is the most articulate, melancholy 3-year-old I've ever known. She is amazing! She is incredibly weepy at times but also super silly. You can often catch her singing gibberish to the toon of worship songs while she puts a puzzle together or colors a picture. She enjoys reading books with anyone in the house who will read to her. She likes puzzles, coloring with markers, wooden stamps, play-doh, kinetic sand, ponies, and playing outside. Her favorite shows are Muppet Babies, Little Einsteins, Team Umizoomi, Blaze and the Monster Machines, and Peppa Pig. Bethel is good at sharing, has a great imagination, loves being silly and playing just about anything with Haddie, enjoys crawling around and playing chase with Elisha, and is particular about hugs and kisses ... she gives them out only on her own terms. Some of her favorite foods are meat-cheese-and-crackers lunchables, cheeseburger happy meals from McDonald's, smoked sausage, applesauce (all kinds of flavors), spaghetti, and cheese pizza.
She is beautiful and hilarious, and I am so thankful she is my daughter. ❤

Miriam's 1 and 2-month posts

 

Isn't she gorgeous???
I am so in love with our beautiful Miriam Joy 😍
She is absolutely the sweetest baby. 🥰
I am, of course, behind with her posts because, like I said in Elisha's 1-year post - wow! - life with four kids under 5 is cray cray!! But wow, it's an adventure! And I truly love it.
So ... what is Miriam up to these days?
She smiles a lot ... which is so precious!
She is getting better at occupying herself, which is incredibly helpful. So I just rotate her around the house throughout the day, and she's happy.
She's still up once or twice a night, but she's given us a few full-night sleeps.
She is the stinkiest kid we've had so far ... faking us out with farts everyday, and she cries every time she poops.
She eats every 2 hours when she's awake for it.
She has made all of us, especially Haddie, fall in love with her.
She is growing like a weed - 12 pounds 9 ounces at 7 weeks old and already wearing size 3-month clothes.
And she is so strong, lifts her head and can almost hold her head up completely by herself.

Elisha is one year old!

Wow, this post is beyond late, but life with four kids under 4-and-a-half is crazy, okay. 😉 Better late than never! I'm determined to post all the monthly posts in EACH of my babies' first year of life, but I never made it my goal to post them in a timely manner. 😉 #realisticmomgoals 😁👍🤗

So our little buddy turned a year old almost two months ago. Around that time, he had just started coasting along furniture, and to be honest, the rest of what I share is probably after he turned a year because I've already forgotten what he was doing right at a year. I blame that on having his Irish town four days before his first birthday. 😉
*Elisha became a big brother. 🥰
*He has literally explored the entire downstairs (everywhere he can get to, that is), so I think he's bored a lot of days. I try to help keep him occupied, but I'll admit that he's on his own to roam quite a bit because of my 4-under-4.
*He's still not walking, but he's getting close. He can stand on his own, and is close to being brave enough to let go of both of our hands to take a step.
*He still only has four teeth ... surely, the next ones will come in soon.
*He loves playing peekaboo in his high chair, giving me and his sisters hugs, pulling his sisters' hair, pushing the stools out of the way so that he can play with the vcr/dvd players, eating our food and will pretty much never take baby food anymore, being held, crawling all over me when I sit on the floor with him ...
*Elisha is the sweetest boy, and I'm curious to see how much of his stubbornness will stick with him as he gets older.
I'm so thankful to have a boy ❤