Macy: 2 years

The results are in.. Macy continues to add delight and joy to our party of 5! Amelia planned a rainbow & unicorn theme for Macy's second birthday party. The unicorns were harder to come by, but the rainbows were a hit! Macy loves colors, and she's pointed out each individual color on the decorations all week :) Rainbows (to me) are also a sign of God's promise. I see His promise live out in these kiddos. He has a plan for their lives. For good and not for harm. For restoration and reconciliation of our society. Tomorrow's hope is present in this beautiful smile. What a joy it is to raise Macy (and her older siblings!). 

 All of a sudden she's SO big! Historically (for a Wade) she has been shorter and stockier. 

Well those tides have changed. She's now tall & skinny! 

25lbs (28th%)

33.5inches (50%)

 She loved the ice cream and icing... didn't go for the cake part this year!

 Macy also loves babies (much like her big sis). 

She would have been right on top of Gwen if we would let her. 

We will let her get closer when Gwen gets bigger!

 Macy was not shy at all about having a party of people sing happy birthday. 

She enjoyed it, quite a bit, actually! After our meal time prayers, she has asked us to sing 

"Happy Bert-day" every night this week. 

Her favorite birthday gifts were her books. I hope this sticks with her!

 The week pre-birthday, she had an awful GI bug that left her lethargic and feverish for 4-5 days.

 It was the most sick I have ever seen her.. but she bounced back!

 Here she is feeling a little bit better on Mother's Day. She hadn't recovered quite enough to eat the cookie I treated her to, so I ate it instead. I wasn't super sad about that because Kaldi's has the BEST cookies. 

 These baby blues.. I grabbed this photo in between songs. She loves to serenade!

 This picture makes it seem that Macy enjoyed strawberry picking. And she did enjoy eating the strawberries, but most of the time she was so terrified of the big trucks and bus around the strawberry fields that she was in a panic crawling up our shoulders. She does have quite a bit of anxiety for a two year old.. I wonder if it's just because she doesn't yet know how to process through things that frighten her or if that's just her baseline. (Some of that would be genetic ;) ). She does have some OCD about wiping the right side of her nose, so we will see how these idiosyncrasies tease out! 

 Macy loves to pretend night time. 

She crawls on to our bed, requests a blankie on and then pats her bottom to sleep :) 

 She also PRETENDS to be asleep in her car seat. And she has quite the poker face. She can tease us for a LONG time without cracking even the slightest grin! It's amazing! 

She loves to giggle and make people laugh too. 

 Playing on the 'fwing' and the 'fwide' are also big hits :)

 ...so is climbing. On everything! I found her on top of the table... 

 ....and on top of the chair.. 

I used to think she looked like 'Lady Owen', but as she gets older, her look is more and more her own!

 Macy and Honora. They are 3 months apart and two pig-tailed peas in a pod!

 Here they are enjoying the 'para-a-dote' at Macy's party. 

We love the dynamic that Macy adds to the party. She's has her (occasional) 2 year old melt downs, but mostly she's flexible and excitable! We are abundantly grateful to God for the gift of this little bundle of 2 year old joy! Thanks for loving her along side us! 

Owen: 6 Years

Well now that Owen is 6.25, I thought it was time to document how this kind, fair, & hard working kid rocks my world. The intricate details of Owen are changing as he grows and matures through his kindergarten year, and I'm loving watching him unfold. His report cards show him to be working hard, meeting academic expectations, honing some leadership skills, and befriending most everyone. His favorite friend, however, is Matthew. When their teacher needs to know how a situation really went down, she turns to Owen & Matthew. This makes my heart swell! (Maybe Matthew can help me intervene btwn Millie & Owen?!?!?).

Owen is getting more serious. He still likes to giggle, of course,
but he is sensitive & internalizes most things..... that apple didn't fall far!
 He also loves to follow rules, and it turns out that is a nice quality to have in a kid ;)  

His favorites are still his favorites. Ralphie is the stand by lovey.
Hot wheels cars are the go to toy. He loves to run & race.

His head isn't often in the clouds, unless there's an airplane or he's watching TV. 

(ps... he doesn't like movies. Any story line where there is an antagonist is too much drama!)

On the way to cousin Kelley's wedding where he was the featured ring bearer. 

Who does he look like these days? 

Fairy tale day @ school. He dressed as a wolf. I hope he didn't blow any one's house down!

I'm still trying to create Tiger fans out of these kids.. 

 Serious and still. Very meticulous about the way he is holding this chick!
This photo really captures his personality!

He wrote this card to my mom who is in the middle of tax season. 

It was so sweet.. I might have cried a little bit. 

These two get along pretty well, but Amelia can get really jealous of Owen. She wants to make sure everything is 100% fair. Naturally, that starts a few fights. 

Owen is playing baseball this spring. He hasn't played any other sport this kindergarten year, because frankly, he's been SO tired! 5 days a week of school & 3 days a week of before & after care (adeventure club) can really wear a kiddo out!

He loves math & is reading anything he can. Advertisements, road signs, encyclopedias, etc :) When he grows up he wants to be a scientist & we frequently have science experiements going on at our house. 

He's a work hard, play hard kind of boy. I've loved watching him this year. Thanks for sharing in our joy and loving him along side us!

Macy: 20 & 21 months. Tiny Dancer!

Our little Macy girl is 21 months. Our girlfriend loves to dance! She dances to grocery store music (like her mama), Millie's ballet songs, carousel music, the radio (we have the Trolls soundtrack on repeat), etc. It's a sweet little bounce on repeat!

She's mostly down to one nap a day; occasionally she'll catch up with two. Sleep transitions are one of my least favorite parts of parenting, so I'm happy to have her almost through this one! I still have her sleep in a sack that zips over her, so she hasn't attempted to climb out of the crib. Owen was 22 months (I had just delivered Millie) when he climbed out... I'm not ready for her to do it yet!

Aside from her 2 year molars, she's complete with a full set of teeth. 

She's my best eater & she loves MEAT! 

 Sweet baby blues!

 We've been working on getting used to the water again. We're taking the kids to Great Wolf Lodge in March, so I'm 'training' Macy ;) It took 45 minutes to get her to stop crying the first week. And the second week this was her expression! She walked right in. 

ps.. the kids don't know yet about this surprise. 

 Bedhead!

 She calls shampoo, 'Poo'. 

At first we thought she was trying to warn us that something was coming.... 

'More poo! More poo!'

 She loves to color on paper (and anything else in the path of the crayon or marker!)

 'I wanna dance!'

 She has started to throw some tantrums. I believe these tears were caused by me reading the wrong page of a book. This quick temperament change can be quite difficult out in public ;) 

 'Color'

 Angel babe!

 These girls love their babies! Here they are showering baby Gwen with kisses!

 The library is one of her favorite spots, too. 

 She refuses to sit in the buckled part of the grocery cart, but we have come to compromise with her sitting here. 

 She wants to help mix like a big kid. 

 Stir, stir. 

She has definite opinions about her coat and shoes. Basically she won't wear the adorable poncho or boots I bought specifically for her. She prefers Millie's hand me downs ;) 

She's starting to sing Twinkle, Twinkle & ABCs (I love this). 

She knows some colors (pink & lellow). She has a million words. I'm not even exaggerating. She says 2-4 word sentences and her recent favorite word is 'MINE' ;)

And we love her spunk & smile!

19 months: 'Matey'

Our sweet baby girl continues to grow like a weed!

Today she is weighing in at 23lb. I know that because this morning she is at the pediatrician for the 3rd time this month! Day care sure does cause a lot of colds with subsequent ear infections. Better now than kindergarten, right?!

 Pigtails! Her hair is getting long...and she's got soft big curls in the back. I gush!

 A swinging tutu. Girl on the go. 

 She still loves to empty my tupperware cabinet. This day, she found Owen's hat while he was sleeping, and she requested to wear it. How could I say no?!

 Dressing the girls alike doesn't happen often, but I sure do love to capture it when I can!

 A tired Christmas elf. 

 Last night we turned her around to face forward in her car seat. She was getting to the point where she would cry every time I tried to put her in the car, so we flipped her. (You're supposed to wait until they are two... but they can't move their legs!). So last night we flipped her and went looking at Christmas lights. She kept saying, "Hi Hi" and "Wow!". :) 

 Sometimes she poops like this ;) 

 Perfect Santa reaction!

 Sickness cuddles this month. 

 First ponytail! Look how it curls!

 I don't feel good, I don't want to eat anything, and I will tell you about it!

....but if you give me a cookie, I'll consider being happy & patient :) 

She can ask for cookies now.. which means she gets more than I would otherwise prefer to allow!

Macy TALKS!

She calls herself 'Matey'.
She says a perfect 'Owen' and calls him bubby too. She sticks to 'Sis Sis' or 'Sissy' for Millie. 

She knows every kid in her class & calls them by name. Her teacher too.. but Faith sure is hard to say when you are only 19 months!

Other cute words: E-O-E-O for cheerio. 

She knows the entire cast of Finding Dory from a library book: Dory, Nemo, Hank, etc!

She loves to say the word CUP (Hard emphasis on the P!)

WE love the way she says Boat.. imagine a Minnesotan accent. 

We love her so. Merry Christmas!