Olivia's Sofia the 1st Birthday

Olivia loves.. I mean LOVES the Disney Jr show Sofia the 1st. She will ask daily to watch Sofia.. it is a cute show and the songs are very catchy but I'm about Sofia'ed out. Of course she had to have a Sofia birthday and since I went low key on Eli's birthday this year (that was great!), I went a-bit overboard on this one. I ordered her a Disney Sofia dress for her birthday and let her open it that morning before her party. She loves to dress up so I thought she would love to dress up for her party and have the other girls come in their princess dresses as well! She had a blast and was ready for a long nap after everyone left. The party wouldn't be complete without an after party tantrum which I happened to video. She was upset because my sister, Audra, left and pitched a 'royal fit'!

Olivia's Sofia table

Princess Oliva the 1st 

She kept wanting to sample the icing on the last layer of cupcakes

Looking at her cake! 

I ordered tent cards from ETSY and printed them and cut them out for the food labels.

We went all out with purple princess punch, lollipops and gum balls (which Eli probably ate 15 before the party!) 

I handmade these marshmallows..
I dipped them in white chocolate and then coated them with purple sprinkles

I ordered princess cookie cutters and cut out the sandwiches in crowns, castles and slippers.

Clover's vegetable garden and Minimus's mixed fruit

We had SNOW WHITE visit courtesy of our beautiful niece Allie!

I brought out the bouncy house out of the garage and decked it out with Sofia logo

Aunt Audra and Olivia

Our niece Allie painted these boards for the kids to play with....
Prince James and Princess Sofia. She did a wonderful job.

Olivia was a fan of the bubbles

She loved opening presents and wanted to play with each one

Kellie and her little niece, Sadie Rose

She said "blow" instead of blowing the candles but it worked!

Outside table

Party favors.. Tiaras and swords (I think Eli played with every sword in there)

I loved her cupcake cake!

                                              

Thanks Daddy for making the balloon arch! I asked him to make
me one so he watched a You Tube video and viola!

Snow White and Eli

Snow White and Olivia

Carter looking less than thrilled

The Ellis girls

Gabe and Allie

The TANTRUM!

Crushed

Sunday, I was washing dishes, and  Olivia Jane decides to pull her 'ears' out and feed them to our dog Sampson. Sampson, being the 1 year old Golden Retriever chewing sensation that he is, promptly chewed them right up! I screamed.. then cried, then screamed, then cried. I contemplated not even going to church. That's about 4K just for the hearing aids, $150 for the molds (which were brand new), and then another 2K for the FM receivers on the bottom. I was completely devastated that so much money had been destroyed and that Olivia was no longer going to be able to hear me clearly. She is doing sooo well and it's because of these wonderful devices she wears. I couldn't even get mad at anyone because no one was to blame... she's a baby and Sampson's a dog. He is used to the kids feeding him treats, dog food and other things so he thought nothing of chewing it.

I called our audiologist on Monday and thankfully they are still under the manufacturer warrenty (it expires in October) and is good for 1 replacement per device. We are going to have to pay a bit out of pocket for the fee and for new molds but no where near what we would have to pay to replace everything. Praise God!

Olivia says "Ears broke," and when I ask her if she fed them to the dog she says, "I don't know!" I am definitely going to stress the importance of NEVER ever feeding the dog her ears again!

33! Yikes!

This year my birthday fell right on Easter! I can't remember that ever happening but I guess it probably has. We celebrated with a wonderful church service, lunch at my in-laws, naps, and then my sister had a birthday dinner for me at her house that evening. I'm thankful for another year to love on my babies, be a wife, daughter, sister, and friend.

Easter baskets for the kiddies.. the Easter Bunny mixed up Eli's and Isaac's basket and Eli was upset his was in the wrong color. Ooops. Then I was like.. "Well if you can't be thankful then maybe you won't get another Easter basket." Nice. 

Checking out the basket. Olivia's mouth was covered in blue sucker (she was up first that morning).

Pictures in our Easter attire

My handsome boys (Doesn't Isaac look so big!)

Princess Olivia snoozed through our picture taking

Isaac, Josh, Eli and of course Sampson

I couldn't get anyone to come take a picture with me... except Sampson!

I finally persuaded this one on my lap!

Love these boys

Easter egg hunt at Aunt Day's (my sister's)

Helping find eggs

Cousin play time

Randomness

What have we been up to lately?

Isaac was off for spring break last week so it was nice having the eldest home. Life slowed down a bit with no school, no practice, and no track meets. Josh and I took him to see the movie, Divergent, and left the littles with the grandparents. Both Isaac and I read the book, so Josh got to listen to us discuss what was different about the movie. He loves that ;) Isaac is growing up so fast; it makes me sad and happy at the same time. On Thursday he worked on our church's park with his youth group  and then had a few of his friends over to spend the night and have an air soft war. Our woods make the perfect spot for 'wars'. Thankfully no one shot out an eye. 

Audra, Amber and I took all the kids (6 under 6) to the Nature Center in Asheville while we were on spring break and they had a blast. We saw the animals and they played on the play areas. Afterwards we had lunch at a local BBQ restaurant in Black Mountain. 

Carter, Eli, Maddie and Rachel at the BBQ restaurant

Amber gave me a starter for sour dough bread and I've made 3 runs of bread so far. Speaking of which, I just finished kneading my bread and it's rising as I type. I'm going to have to give some away because I definitely don't need to eat any more! I'm getting a bread bulge. I've been a slacker about going to the gym.. I went on Saturday for the first time in 3 weeks. 

I did find 3 cute bathing suits at Target for my not finished swimming pool. Hey, I have high hopes! While we are on the topic of swimming pools.. I've been on the ball. I met with an electrician, met with the gas company, called a pool company about plumbing, and met with a guy about decking. I'm meeting with the pool people about plumbing tomorrow so I sure hope they will take the job and not charge an outrageous price. 

Olivia wants to wear her princess dress and boots all the time. She alternates between the cowboy boots and the pink rain boots. I let her nap and go to Eli's soccer game in her princess dress the other day because she was so determined. Geeez... I guess there are worse battle to pick.

Audra and I had to make a trip out of town on Friday to sign our taxes so while we were gone we ate at Chik Filet (always a good choice) and then took the kids to the mall. Eli begs to jump on those mall trampolines whenever we go. The cousins always have fun together with just a wee bit of fighting mixed in. 

Cousinly love- Eli, Carter, Olivia and Camden

Sampson went missing for a day and I freaked out! I was crying and so worried about that dog. I didn't realize how much I loved him until I thought something happened. We went driving around the surrounding neighborhood the next morning and saw him coming out of a neighbor's garage. The neightbor didn't know who he belonged to and had put him up so he wouldn't get run over. I was so thankful that he was okay, that I even gave him a shower in my bathroom. It took me 2 hours to get it clean enough where I couldn't smell dog. I made him an appointment to get neutered the next day. He's such a good pup and the kids just wrestle him and love on him. He even warned us of a bear near the house the other day.

Sunday, it was a beautiful 79 degree day and after church we took the boys fishing. Isaac and his cousins all jumped in the creek. I did catch a little tiny fish on Eli's Lightening McQueen rod. He was more interested in getting his feet wet than fishing.

My garden is ready! Last year we tried to grow a garden but it never grew (my theory is that it didn't have enough sunlight). So this year I decided to make a raised bed. I had Audra bring me 4 railroad ties, I used a mattock to loosen the dirt and then added garden soil from Lowes to the bed. I planted: cucumbers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, hot pepper, bell pepper, onions, lettuce, Brussels sprouts and asparagus.  I've been told asparagus take a few years before it actually produces asparagus so I'm going to give those to mom and put some okra in that spot. I've been watering it religiously. I'm hoping it will survive the uncanny cold weather that came in today.

Olivia's artic video

The last time Olivia had speech langauge testing, Hannah and I discussed that Olivia probably could do an articulation test since she has such a large vocabulary. She was right at 22 months old when I filmed this and she's wearing both hearing aids. I think she's doing great to have a moderate bilateral hearing loss and to not even be two years old! She will leave off some final consonants and doesn't make a /f/ correctly yet in any position, but you can understand most of what she says.





Here is a cute car clip of Olivia counting. She usually counts correctly but her lovely brother Eli was wanting to count as well and got her off target.

Eli is getting glasses

When Eli went for his four year check a few weeks ago he blew every thing out of the water.... except for the vision screening. At first the nurse said they would just re-screen him the next time he came in. I felt uneasy about that decision but I didn't say anything. However, the next day his doctor called and said they would like to go ahead and refer him the eye doctor.  I definitely think that some pediatricians can be too lax about things... I've had many kids that don't get early intervention for speech because their doctor says they will outgrow it. So I was very thankful that our pediatrician didn't 'wait' to see but went ahead and made a referral. I think our Mommy gut feelings have a lot of weight.

Eli was able to get an appointment right away at the eye doctor because of a cancellation. He did great during the eye exam and read the letters like a champ (well the one's he could see). He didn't even make much of a fuss getting the eye dilation drops in his eyes. He has a pretty bad astigmatism and he's near sighted as well. The doctor said he needs to wear his glasses full time. I was hoping he wouldn't get my eye sight because my vision is horrible. I got my glasses in 8th grade and I can definitely remember looking at the trees and saying, "Wow you can see the leaves." After we picked up Eli's new glasses, he looked up at the sky and said he could see airplane tracks!

I know it's going to be a challenge keeping the glasses from being broken, lost, etc.. because Eli's the wildest of my three children. So far, he's doing well and doesn't seem to mind wearing them. I think he looks adorable!

Eli's 4th party and Disney Live

Eli wanted a Lightening McQueen party this year so of course Mommy delivered! I did scale back :) After last year's Mickey mouse theme where I went Pinterest crazy I decided to go for simple. You know, like the old fashioned birthdays we used to have at Burger King back in the day. I opted for Grace Park, a few balloons and plates, pizza, and cake. After it was over we took the trash to the nearby dump and clean up was sooo easy! When we started to cut the cake and I realized I had forgot the forks and spoons!  Oh well.. our fingers worked. The kids loved having the park equipment to play on, the day was sunny and warm and I think Eli had a great time! We were thrilled our family and friends could come out and celebrate Eli turning four.

After Eli's party we had a special surprise and had tickets to see Disney Junior Live Pirates and Princesses. Eli and Olivia both love Jake and Sophia and loved watching the show. We did get robbed on the 25 dollar Jake sword and 15 dollar Sophia cup icee. Afterwards we walked through downtown Asheville and ate at Doc Chey's with some friends. Needless to say, Eli was tired by the time we got home. Happy 4th birthday SWEET BOY!

Enthralled with Jake

So happy to see Sophia. She kept yelling for her.

They especially liked watching the characters fly.

Mommy and Daddy were suckers

Walking to dinner. Olivia wouldn't let go of her new Sophia cup.

Eli is FOUR

Eli turned 4 on March 20th. We celebrated on his actual birthday with the many various life activities that were already on the schedule. Isaac had a track meet, Eli had a soccer game and afterwards we went to eat at Eli's choice restaurant, Nopoles, with both sets of grandparents.

Last year I started asking him a list of questions so this year I continued the tradition.

Eli's interview:

1. What is your favorite color?red

2. What is your favorite toy?l Lightening McQueen car

3. What is your favorite fruit? Blueberries and strawberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? Paw Patrol

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Spegettios

6. What is your favorite outfit? Lightening McQueen shirt

7. What is your favorite game? Deer hunter on Ipad

8. What is your favorite snack? Bananas and peanut butter and a sandwich

9. What is your favorite animal? Lion and alligator

10. What is your favorite song? Let it Go from Frozen

11. What is your favorite book? Llama llama

12. Who is your best friend? Carter

13. What is your favorite cereal? Apple Jacks

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bike and my four wheeler

15. What is your favorite drink? Milk and juice

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My blue blanket

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Oatmeal

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Nopoles the Mexican restaurant

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A BIG Giant MAN!  I want the same work as Dad and work on the computer.

4 Year old Stats:
42 lbs and 42 inches (90% for both)

Eli is so very funny and sweet. He says things like, "You are the best Mom" all the time and likes to give compliments. He loves to wrestle with Isaac and play with Olivia. He is a good brother and will hold Olivia's hand as she walks down and up the steps (even though she doesn't need him to), bring her things, and most of the time is a really good sharer. He makes an absolute mess very easily but likes to help me as well. He likes to cook and especially make muffins. Eli's favorite things to do are to play outside in the sand pile (which is mason sand left over from our pool project), ride his bike and ride his red four wheeler. He enjoys playing our iphones and the iPad as well. I had to take the app store off my phone because he keeps downloading apps.

Eli is playing soccer and made a goal the last game.. even though he touched it with his hands before he kicked it in! Last year he would barely get out on the field so anything is an improvement. He says he wants to be five already and I said NO WAY! You just enjoy being four. Soon enough you will be five and have to to go school every single day. They change so much when they start school.. babyhood is gone and they seem to turn into big kids overnight. I pulled him out of pre-school in December because his schedule just didn't work with my work schedule and I've not regretted it one bit. He will go back next year to the 4 year old class.

We don't do much sit down educational work at home because frankly I forget and we get busy with other things, however it doesn't seem to be hindering Eli. He isn't big on writing and coloring but he does like to do his 'school work' and cut paper into tiny pieces or get out the paint and make a huge mess. He can write his name but it is not neat or orderly. He is interested in reading and letters and likes to try to sound out words. He can rhyme and blend CVC words pretty well. He likes to type on the computer and can write words as I tell him the letters to type. He knows how to tell o'clock time (aka.. 6 o'clock) on a regular clock from reading a book about it once. He really is super smart and grabs ahold of things very quickly.

Last nap as a 3 year old :(

Morning birthday breakfast. He requested: oatmeal, fried egg, apples and peanut butter, and a bologna sandwich!

Ready for soccer

  

Nana and the grands

Mawmaw got Eli the boat he has been wanting!

Birthday dinner at Nopoles