All for Sophia

Sophia turned 4 last month and it was a big one for her.  She is my laid back-don't give me a lot of attention girl -but with her best friends and cousins along she had a wonderful day complete with a party at Petland (she is very passionate about animal friends).  

Heres to our Sophia who likes to lick the rain, make goofy faces, cuddle rolly polly's, dreams of owning a dog, and still enjoys a good nap. 

Easter Love

I Love Weddings

Especially my big brother Jason's.  Here he is with 

me at around four years being the good big brother he

 has always been.  I have always felt this kind of protection from him my whole life.  

I know he will do a fine job of protecting this girl too.  

They are in love and it shows.

They made it official on March 28, 2009

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the romantic event 

And so did our girls who were flower girls with my little sisters! 

(riding on a trolley from the hotel to the church was

 one the highlights for these cute gals!)

Don't be fooled by the bored serious look- Sophia was thrilled to be drinking soda in a pretty glass.

My family was all together- two parents, nine kids, three spouses, one aunt, four grandkids...it was indeed a great reason to get together and we enjoyed 

every minute of it.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Ore

Visitors

We love em.   Especially these guys from Austin. 

carousel rides

trip to the zoo

   

kissing a delicious 4 month old

watching a boy make a sword out of scraps from our backyard (that is a rare moment here)

and just simply enjoying each others company

What's not to love about that?

Saturday is a special day, the day we get ready for Sunday...

We start em young :)  

 Maybe I will get lucky and they will always be this happy to clean windows!

Goop.com 

A friend of mine told me about this website of Gwyneth Paltrow's.  If interested go there and click on the butterfly for a great parenting newsletter.  I dig it.

See what I'm talking about...and this is not a little chair :)

A moment for Esme

Esme is 20 months old and it seems awhile since I blogged about her. This girl is so much fun and soooo much work right now. She gets into everything- I never really had to kid proof my home like I do with her. She tries to plug things in the outlets, eats tips off all the markers, puts her hand in the fishbowl and eats the rocks, takes permanent markers to the computer screens (believe me I try to hide some of these things). She keeps us on our toes to say the least. She may however be the most affectionate of all our children at this age. She will put her hands around our neck and squeeze so tight and then top it off with a few kisses. She is starting to have a lot of fun with her sisters and I love hearing her laugh hysterically with them. I love being home with her and Sophia-the two are becoming quite a pair. We miss Ava while she is at school and she loves to come home and lead the pack with games and songs.

Want to know what Dan was busy doing over the holidays?
a little bit of skateboarding,
a lot of reading,
spending plenty of time with me and the girls,
and...
building this ART TABLE in our breakfast nook.

Oh we love him so!!!

Simple, Splendid, Stewart Christmas

We have always had so much fun going away for Christmas- Nebraksa snow, Austin charm, France beauty, but there really is no place like home so this was a special Christmas for us...

Christmas Eve
We had a wonderful 24th with Kris and Crystal and their kids. It was lovely to see the girls and their cousins indulge in the joys of the holiday-gingerbread houses, singing carols, new pajamas, and treats...lots of treats. I can't believe I snapped a pic of the gingerbread house together because the icing was so runny it kept falling apart. We were all laughing and the kids were good sports about it not turning out so great.

Thanks to a dear friend and her idea we decided to start a new tradition this year of giving the kids a Christ centered gift on Christmas Eve. It is nice to be able to teach them the true meaning of the holiday and watch them grow older and begin to understand.

Christmas morning

Santa brought Sophia a bunny rabbit this year. One night she stood in front of the Christmas tree and kissed her hands then threw them up in the air and said "I wish for Santa to bring me a cat." Well, Santa was not ready (nor will he ever be) to give her a cat but he did find her a bunny and as you can see it was a hit. She looked at us and said, "I am glad I got a bunny rabbit because I hate cats."

She doesn't usually talk like that especially about an animal but it just goes to show how overwhelmed and excited she was.

Have you ever seen two kids get so excited over oranges in their stockings? (they were actually grapefruits- silly santa)Esme loves books so she enjoyed her gift and reading with Dad first thing that morning.

Surprise, Surprise, Ava enjoyed a little more HSM- mom is just about done with that... soooo wanting to go back to the Little House on the Praire craze. (Ava is giggling with her hands on her hips as I type this)We wish you all a Happy New Year!

#6 for AVA- High School Musical Style
She wanted to be Gabriella for the second time this year and of course Dad had to be Troy. It's darn cute-they both get really into it. It was complete with cousins, a HSM Karoake, and a few close friends-one of which was Troy -more her size :).

We are loooooving this time of year

And visiting with Nani and Grandpa who traveled so far to see us. We will miss them till we see them again.