Keziah is 4 years + 11 months!

 

Isn't she stinkin' adorable?

 I don't want to write, I just want to show her off!  Maybe I will write more some other time!

Seesters!!

Oh how they adore each other so much! It's such a blessing to watch the three of them grow together!

Can I hold her?

A question we hear A LOT!  I love it though...that must mean they really like her!

A pirate?

This is what Keziah came up with today!  She declared she is a pirate and wore this for most of the day and when it was nap time she put it all in a pile and put it back on after she got up!  I love watching her become imaginative!  The patch on her eye is one of those small envelopes that she taped on.  She has a box on her head for a pirate hat, not sure what the rope represents...and she is using her play violin bow as a sword or maybe a cane?!!  So cute!

A Tradition!

This is something we do every year when we take down the Christmas tree!  It took A LOT of convincing to get Austin to do it.  I am thinking I am going to lose him one of these years!  He continues to be my goofy kid though and appease him momma!

The girls just had to get in on the fun too!  So here goes the first year for Keziah...

and Adah!  They are both just too cute!  I guess you can call this one of our family traditions (as strange as it is)!

So proud!

It's official...Keziah can write her name (aside from the Z looking like a backwards S)!  I first learned that she had this talent when we were sitting in church this last Sunday!  There wasn't great adventure for kids over age 2 because of the new year so she sat in with us.  She colored a picture and then wrote her name on it!  I was completely shocked!  I didn't teach her this.  I mean, sure she knows how to verbally spell her name and she also can identify each letter of the alphabet but to write it is a whole nother thing!  I am so proud!  I wish I could take credit for this but I can't!  Way to go Keziah!

One December Day...

I don't know what the temperature was yesterday, but it was nice enough for us to go outside and play and be comfortable!!  Adah got this new scooter for Christmas from Gma and Pa Smith so she was dying to try it out!  I love warm weather, but being that it's winter, I wish we would get some snow!!  Soon enough, I'm sure!

Our Family Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas!  I can't imagine anything better then having Eden home and not being away from our family for Christmas!  We woke up early Christmas Eve.  Eden needed to have her jaundice checked which meant a trip to the hospital for some blood work.  Brian took her to do that while I stayed and made homemade donuts with my new donut pan from Mat and Steph.  When Brian got back with Eden we opened presents.   The kids all got many things they are going to enjoy for days to come.  One thing we got for the family was a used Wii.  I am super excited to have this around to spend time doing with the kids.  We have some fun games to go with it and I got Austin and Brian the wii game Wipe Out (a game show they like to watch).  This year I had the pleasure of seeing Austin give his sisters gifts that he bought with his own money and picked out at the store for them.  They were so happy and will probably never forget where those gifts came from.  Keziah got a hippo webkin and Adah got a doll that talks.  I know I have said it many times before, but Austin has such a caring heart!  I love that kid!  And the girls adore him too!

I feel like this year has been so much more stressful with our pregnancy and then Eden's birth, that I have somewhat forgotten what Christmas is about.  I feel like I have just been trying to 'get things done' and have sort of gotten lost in the busyness of life.  When Eden was born and I was alone in the NICU I had time to reflect on what a gift she is and what a gift God's son was and still is. The Bible is real. Jesus is real.  It's that simple.  We all know the story...He was brought here as a little baby born to the virgin Mary.  He grew up as a man like all of us and then hung on a cross to die for US so our sins could be forgiven so that we can live.  I can never imagine giving my child to die for anybody like Jesus did for us.  What an amazing story!  God is so good and has such an amazing plan for all of us just like he did his own son.  I am grateful Eden got to be a part of it this year and many years to come!  God bless everyone!  Merry Christmas!

Keziah is 4yrs. + 1 Month!

Just pictures this month...life is just a little too busy right now to do anything more!  I will make sure to say a lot next month...hopefully!!

Lovin' our littles!

We are thoroughly enjoying being home and being parents of four kids!  Everyone is adjusting well.  I am sure if you asked each kid individually how they were doing they would each tell you they were feeling a little neglected (maybe that's just how I feel), but we are figuring things out more and more every day!  The girls adore Eden and ask constantly if they can hold her.  Adah is always giving her kisses on the head and hugs on the belly!  If she cries Adah always wants to make it better and says, 'it's ok baby, it's ok.'  Baby Eden gets a lot of mom's attention as I am trying to eat all this babyness up as much as possible since she is our last...yep, you heard that right (I'd take another, but...I'm only half of the equation!).  Eden is growing so fast, I don't want to miss a minute of it!  I got a book series from a friend and have learned a lot from it.  One of the things in there is a schedule of how to divide your time and teach your kids how to play alone, together and with a parent.  This has allowed each of the older girls (and Austin when he wants it) undivided attention at some point during the day.  It has been a tremendous tool in making me feel better about cuddling Eden in the chair sometimes from one feeding to the next!!

Here is Eden having her first bath here at home (12/22/11).  She loves it!

The Girls' Birthday Party!!

I can't believe we are celebrating our girls' fourth and second birthdays!  Where does the time go?  We had so much fun at their party with family and a couple friends.  We went with a butterfly theme this year.  I didn't do a whole lot of decorations like last year, but did print off some butterflies and had them hanging around the house.  I also ordered a flower arrangement that had some butterflies in it.  It was beautiful!  And it's never a party without balloons!  The girls never stopped smiling.  We had thirteen kids under the age of five and Austin.  It was pretty crazy and I was really thankful for our newly reorganized toy room in the basement!  We had a wonderful meal of baked ziti, bread sticks, seven layer salad and fruit!  I let each of the girls pick out the kind of cake they wanted and made each of their cakes and cupcakes in their kind.  Kezzie picked strawberry and Adah picked confetti.  Perfect for their personalities!!  This year we actually sang to each of them individually.  I think they both felt special!  They are both so special!  I am so thankful for each of them and how they have changed our family!  Happy Birthday Keziah and Adah!  Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

Keziah is FOUR YEARS OLD!!!

Keziah is already four!  I can't believe how fast time goes by!  Look at how beautiful she is.  The top one was pictures I took 2 days before her birthday.  She got her hair cut and styled so I just had to take pictures!  The next group is of her on her birthday!  That morning we woke up and she got to open one gift-a dress up magnetic doll set.  She got to eat a special egg/toast breakfast, and later in the morning Grandma Uglum came and painted her nails a glittery silver and even used a nail dryer.  She felt pretty special to get her nails done!!  For lunch we went to McDonald's (her choice of course) and ate and played.  That night Grandma and Grandpa Uglum came over for some homemade pizzas (per Kezzie's request), sugar cookies, and of course a couple more presents!  Some clothes from g-ma and pa and her owl towel for her new owl bathroom!  She wore it everywhere the whole night!  She had a great birthday but I think she will be even more excited when she has more family and friends for her big birthday party!

Keziah has such a sweet personality but is really very sneaky in a lot of ways.  She is persuasive and kniving too!  I often have to remind her that Jesus doesn't like it when we lie!  She is such a love bug and still likes to cuddle me.  I hope that never ends!  She thrives on one on one attention and usually will request to read a book or do a craft during our alone time.  She loves her daddy a lot but I would say she still prefers her mom!  Keziah recently counted past 100 (with a little prompting on the next tens digit after 39-40, 50, 60, etc).  She knows how to spell her name and Adah's name and thinks she is spelling a lot of other things too.  Everything usually starts with a 'T' and ends in a 'Y'.  I just pretend like I don't know how to spell everything she knows how to spell and ask her what she is spelling.  I do correct her sometimes too so she can learn how things are really spelled.  She really has no interest in learning how to write things but does point out letters she has written while she is drawing.  She still has a very loud voice and has started talking a lot about cheer leading someday!  I guess she would be perfect for it!  She even spent some of her early birthday money on a megaphone and pom poms!!  I was never a cheerleader but we have had fun coming up with some fake cheers for the Chickasaws and Hawks!  She's really good at saying, "Go Red!"

Here is a picture of me at 4 years old...resemblance?  I don't think she looks like me too much, but I do see this look on her face sometimes!

Happy Birthday to my 'baby' girl!!!

UPDATE:  Keziah had her four year old well child visit today (12/8/11).  She weighed in at 36.7 lbs. and 41.5" tall.   She didn't have to have any shots today...whew!!!

Moments in time...

This morning I want to remember a couple things...Kezzie and Austin woke up with excitement to find there was snow on the ground.  Kezzie was pounding the bathroom door to get daddy's attention so she could tell  him about it.  Austin was at first frustrated to see that every school around here had a two hour delay except his.  Come to find out his did too but it just wasn't being posted online or on tv (we got a text on our phone instead).  So once he realized he had an extra two hours to kill he quickly fed himself and Kezzie (he was motivated) some cereal and they were headed outside.  I was left to eat breakfast with my little Adah and I began to reflect on how blessed I was to have time with Adah (even though she was protesting the fact that she didn't get to go out!) and on how fast time has gone by for the other two.  I found myself really enjoying the time alone with Adah, and realizing how quickly Kezzie and Austin have grown and become buddies.  What an exciting day to wake up to a ground full of wet snow (perfect for snow balls) and then to have the two of them go out and play together and to get to enjoy breakfast with only my youngest before the baby comes...I feel so blessed.  God has blessed me so much!  So, even though it's only 33 degrees outside, I am definitely thankful for this day!
A funny story...
I took Austin to school this morning since it was so slushy and wet out and I didn't want him walking in his shoes.  I had to run to the post office so I decided to do that at the same time.  I didn't bother dressing the girls since they didn't need to get out of the car.  I dropped Austin off and headed to the post office.  I was running in really quick and the girls are in full view the whole time so they just stayed in the car.  As I paid to have my package sent off I noticed Kezzie get out of her car seat.  No big deal, she does this and it's usually to help Adah get a book or something.  BUT, when I got back out to the car and came around the corner, I got quite the sight!  Kezzie was standing with her jammie pants pulled down, she was butt naked with the side door wide open declaring she had to pee (we travel with a little potty in our car so apparently she was going to pee in it but I have no idea why the door had to be open to do it).  Adah was looking at a book, so I was right about that part, but I was completely shocked to see Kezzie just standing there naked with the door open.  I quickly closed the door and told her never to open it when I am not there and explained to her how dangerous this was (I guess I know now that the doors open from the inside if the car is off, even when all the doors are locked) and then we also had to have a talk about how much older she is getting and how she needs to have a little modesty when we are out in public.  I really wonder how many people got to see that!

Keziah is 47 MONTHS!!

My sweet Keziah!!!  What else could you expect but a lot of silly faces?!  She is a character!  She will often make Adah laugh at the dinner table with all her silliness!
Keziah has become increasingly interested in letters.  She tries to put letters together and then ask me what it spells.  After supper Austin will sometimes ask if he can have a t-r-e-a-t.  She knows what he is asking so she tries to do the same.  She has caught on to the first three letters but everything after that doesn't make sense.  I love that she is trying though.  She is so smart!  We have a workbook that we do when I think about it and she loves to identify words that start with different letters but hates to try to write her letters.  I have successfully gotten her to write A!  That is seriously as far as we've gotten. A lot of times though she will be coloring/drawing and she will bring me her paper with excitement of a letter she has written.  She's funny!
We got her a new hat and belts this month.  She is pretty happy about both!  She wears her hat everywhere but the convenience of not wearing a belt (and letting her pants fall) takes priority over the style of it.  She wore one that coordinated with every outfit for about 2 weeks and then decided it wasn't worth it!  I agreed since she is so good about taking herself potty and a belt requires help!  Keziah has gotten really good about putting her hair behind her ears by herself.  This might seem silly to take note of, but as a girl who refuses to most of the time let me put anything in her hair to keep it out of her face, this is a big deal!
At night Keziah continues to suck her paci (oh the shame) and still needs a pull up.  She will wake dry some mornings but we wouldn't want to chance going without it.  We used to wake her at night and take her potty and she would have more dry pull-ups that way but it just wasn't worth waking her and it didn't seem like it was really training her to do it herself.  She will get there on her own someday!  She also requires quite the array of animals/blankies in her bed.  She has a row of small stuffed animals that sleep head to toe in a row down the side of her bed (opposite of the wall) and then they get covered up by a blanket so they don't fall out...then she has two little square taggie blankets.  One goes under her head (it is pink/green) and the other she rubs (red/blue).  She also has a chick and a horse (both small stuffed animals) that she holds onto while she sleeps.  She has the whole corner of her bed that is against the wall covered in other animals.  I have to clean it out every so often because she sneaks other ones in there.  When we go stay other places like in a hotel or at my parents or friends, she doesn't require all of that though (thank goodness).  She is happy to have the basics: her red blankie, pink blankie, horse and chick!  Another thing Keziah requires at night is pants.  She has several nightgowns that she loves but she refuses to wear them without pants.
I love my big girl so much and can't wait to see what this next month and year are going to bring for her.  Soon she will be a big FOUR years old!!!

Fall is Here!!

October 6, 2011  A great opportunity to get some fun fall shots.  The weather was beautiful so it was a nice day to spend outside.  Who can resist these sweeties?!  Can you find them in all those leaves?

October 16, 2011  Another great day!  It was a bit more chilly but we had to get outside while we can because it's going to get a lot colder then this!  The girls were thrilled to have their big brother outside with them!  He always comes up with fun ideas!  Like this first picture...he built a nest for them all to sit in like little birds!  He also put a huge pile at the end of our slide, which the girls thought was really fun!  Austin went and got his sled out too and used it to scoop up leaves and throw them into the air.  It looked pretty cool when they were coming down around us!  What great pictures of three of my favorite people!  We are incredibly blessed!!

And fall isn't complete without a very delicious squash pie!

Keziah's drawings!

I was slightly impressed with this first photo.  Keziah brought it to me and declared that she had drawn a sea horse.  I haven't seen her draw much more than a circle child so this was pretty good!  Then she said, 'on the other side, I drew a pizza!'  I didn't get a picture of it, but she also recently drew a picture of a shark on her doodle pad.  It looked a lot like a shark!  I think she might be entering the artistic phase of her childhood!!  I love it!

 

Keziah is 46 months!!

Here is my Kezzie...so sweet and silly!
Keziah's current favorite color is back to blue and her favorite tv show is Wild Kratts.  Kezzie loves making silly faces (can you tell?)!  She loves to make her sister laugh.  She has a teaching personality so anytime she can tell Adah is learning something from her, it makes her do it more (sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good!).  I am sure I have said this before but Keziah really likes to organize/categorize things.  Recently we bought some beads that you can snap together to make jewelry.  There are several of each type of bead.  The container holds 500 beads and she sorted them all out by color and shape, etc.  We also recently got out a memory game we have.  She has had fun categorizing the different pictures into animals, food, etc.  She does this with her kitchen food also!  She puts them into fruits and veggies and sweets (she's not always right with this!).
Keziah is still doing a great job with her chores.  I have seen some great improvement with remembering to do them herself without being asked.  One of the chores she has trouble remembering is to make her bed.  It's hard when she is sleepy when she wakes up and is focused on coming downstairs to find me.  She gets two chances a day though since she still takes naps.  If she doesn't get it done in the morning then she can still do it after her nap is over.  I don't know if this is a good, bad or doesn't really matter idea!  It's working for now and I think that little bit of leniency is helping her work into that responsibility!  She gets it done on most days!  And those are the days she gets stickers!
As for the calendar I told you to hold me to...I haven't gotten that done.  I guess she heard me talking about it because she doesn't do it as bad anymore.  Either that or I am getting better at giving her a heads up of what is coming.  I think it helps that we are in a pretty good routine now with Austin in school too.
One personality problem we are having with Keziah is she secretly thinks she is the boss (pretty typical, I'm sure). Although if you ask her she will correctly respond saying, "mommy and daddy are the bosses", she thinks she can tell us 'no' when she doesn't want to do something we tell her to do. This gets her in so much trouble lately.  Usually she gets sent to time out to which she typically responds yelling 'NO' and then she has to go directly to her room.  I don't know how to better handle a child who is flat out choosing to disrespect/disobey by saying no.  Any pointers would be strongly considered!!
I went through a bunch of clothes, that used to be Austin's, for my nephew and found a few that were too small for him but actually would fit Keziah.  I didn't think she would care too much for all the boy clothes I found but when I showed them to her, she was ecstatic.  They are all pretty boyish.  Mostly just jammies.  But she loves them all.  She of course had to try everything on!  There is one pair in particular that has a bunch of different sports balls all over it.  She came running to me saying, 'look mom, this one has a pocket even.'  She was so excited.  When she got over to me she had her hand in the little boy hole in the FRONT of the pants!  Pretty funny stuff!!  I didn't know what else to tell her except the truth!

Well, not much else to write. It won't be too long and I will be planning a duel birthday party! My girls are getting so big!

'Painting' and playing!

The girls have a really good time doing this! I am not a huge fan of actual paint but these paint cups are also really good for water! Adah will pretty much do anything Keziah does so Kezzie is the brains behind this idea! They will often make it their goal to get the whole aquadoodle board wet before it starts to dry!  If they work as a team they are usually successful!

The girls love it when I clean my sheets...I don't know what it is about this white mattress cover but it must scream 'come play on me and roll around!'  They love it!  They like to sit on the foot board with the blankets draped over it and then push off for a nice somersault!  So sweet!

A"maze"d by Grace Corn Maze!

We had a really good time today with some great friends.  I recently heard about a corn maze in Charles City that is in the shape of Noah's Ark.  Click here for their website if you are interested.  They had a petting zoo too!  It was pretty pricey for our family to get it ($8 each for Austin, Brian and myself) but would have been more worth that money if we had more time to stay.  There were three different mazes you could choose from and they gave you a map to help you find your way.  One maze took 1/2 hour, another 1.5 hours, and the other took 2 hours.  One of the longer ones actually had a 'farm scene investigation' that looked really cool.  We only did the half hour one since we had other plans later that evening.  The petting zoo wasn't to die for, but the girls liked it well enough!  There were a couple llamas, a horse, a mean turkey, a couple bunnies, and some mature baby chicks-none of which you could really even pet.  On our maze we let the kids lead mostly!  We were there with our friends the Epperlys and McQuillens.  Kezzie has friends from both families so she was in heaven!  Along the path of the maze the three kids (Beau, Abby and Kez) pretended they were on a lion hunt searching for a lion.  They actually thought they were going to find a lion because the maze we were in was in the shape of a lion!  They kept stopping along the path and pointing out lion prints.  It was really sweet!  Abby carried around a map as if she knew where to go!  The kids all had a blast with the exception of Austin as his allergies were going very crazy.  I think we spent the time we wanted to there and headed home after a long 2 hours!!! It was a good thing we were in the company of friends or else I think we all would have been miserable!

Keziah is 45 MONTHS!

Keziah is so much fun to be around.  I have to be careful to not treat her too much like my friend because I feel so lucky to get to hang out with her every day.  She makes me laugh with her silliness, she amazes me with her opinionated-ness, she makes me look at her in awe with how awesomely blessed I am.  I am so thankful every day that God blessed me with her. 
Some of the things she says/does that make me laugh:
Adah made a frustrated grunting noise/sigh and Keziah goes, "I feel the same way Adah!"
She always requires 2 hugs, a regular kiss, an eskimo kiss and a butterfly kiss before nap and bed.
While at the river she had a few funny comments:
Keziah really wanted to go on the dock by herself (with a life jacket on) and I told her she couldn't be down there alone because nobody would know it if she fell in even with a life jacket on.  In a very irritated and 'duh mom' kind of voice she replied, "I won't be by myself, mom, because Jesus is always with me."  I honestly didn't know what else to say after that, except that the answer was still no!  She continued on to say something about him being in her heart and going wherever she goes.  So sweet and totally caught me off guard.
One of the days at the river I took Keziah on the dock to catch some fish.  We baited her hook and she cast it in.  She caught a keeper within just a few minutes and was very excited.  Later in the day she was down on the dock fishing with my cousin and she caught a little fish (not a keeper) and brought it to me to take off the hook.  When I got it off I didn't even give it any thought before throwing it back in the river without an explanation.  She immediately responded saying, "Hey, I was going to eat that."  I told her something about how it wasn't big enough to eat and that she should try for a bigger one.  She said, "yeah, you are right.  Someday it will grow into a mom or a dad so he needs to grow some more."

I can't even remember all the things she says that crack me up.  Most of the time she isn't even trying to be silly it's just the way her brain thinks!

Unlike many kids her age, Kezzie isn't starting pre-school this year.  Personally, I think it's a waste of money and frankly I'm not ready for her to be that involved in the school system yet!  She's got many years of school ahead of her and she isn't old enough to go to Kindergarten next year so why not wait at least one more year!  I wanted to have some sort of structure though for her age and so I went on my quest to see what a stay-at-home mom should do with a pre-schooler.  I learned that ever since she was born she has basically been in pre-school.  There isn't anything we don't do on a daily basis that doesn't teach her something.  Keziah is incredibly smart and could actually do very well in kindergarten right now according to the things she needs to know to be ready!  Keziah can easily count to 39 without any help and beyond that as long as I say 40, 50, etc. to get her started.  Kezzie knows her ABCs and can easily recognize each letter and the sound they make.  Keziah can say her first, middle and last name and can spell her first without even thinking about it!
Since I learned there isn't much 'structural' pre-school type teaching I need to do, I decided to work on just daily skills.  So this month we went a bit further with her listening chart and made it a reward chart also.  She has five chores that need to be done throughout the day.  I took a picture of each chore and printed it, laminated it and put it in an envelope labeled 'to do'.  There is another envelope labeled 'done'.  At the end of the day if she has all five pictures in the 'done' envelope then she gets a sticker on her chart.  She still earns stickers for listening, helping when asked, being kind to Adah in tough situations, etc.  And when she earns 10 stickers then she gets to pick a new book (I bought several books from the bargain store on B&N).  She can also still lose stickers though too.  I have a marker that I put an X over one of her stickers and she has to place another sticker on top of it before continuing on toward her 10 stickers.  So far, this has immensely improved her actions.  I still need to work on remembering to reward her and making sure to pay attention when she deserves to be rewarded.  I also need to be more diligent to catch her when she is whining and give her an X right away if needed (she gets one warning before the X goes on)!
Another thing we are starting to work on is Bible verse memorization.  I found a list of good verses on the internet for pre-school age children and Kezzie is doing great.  She is such a whip at memorizing things, she is going to continue to do well at this!  The bible says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11.   Another bible verse I like about verse memorization is, "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 2:14-17.  I feel this really strongly on my heart for Keziah and am excited to see how God uses this in her life.  Another reason why I am so blessed to be home with my kids!
One thing I am hoping to get going sometime this next month is a calendar for Keziah.  One of the biggest challenges/annoyances I face with Kezzie is her always wanting to know what is coming next.  The next hour, the next morning, the next whatever.  I get frustrated because she asks it so frequently throughout the day.  I think if I had a daily/weekly calendar for her to look at she could see what is coming and maybe be more settled.  I think it's normal for her age but I also think it is a big part of her personality to need to always know what to expect...so this is a goal of mine and you can hold me to it in her next month post!
Until next time...