Guess who passed her swim test?

August 12, 2012

Guess who passed her swim test?  Involved swimming length of pool nonstop and then treading water for 30 seconds.  Afterward, she is now allowed in deep end and use of diving board. 

She's Got Moves

Ellie at almost one year of age boogying at Lynnie's to.... the weather channel!! This girl has personality.

XOXO
Jess

sukkot= a walled structure with plant materials

Dear Samantha,

Taking a moment to be grateful for

how happy you are with preschool at Kneseth Israel. 

You took all of the photos except the ones with you in it :-) 

You are so excited about leaning.

I love you,

Mama

 

Thank you

Dear Elisabeth,

So, we're sitting at Addie's soccer practice and you're playing with Beatrice (Meagan and Mike's baby #3) and she hands you your binky and you say, "Thank You"! So far you say mama, dada, dat (for that) and ah, oh but you decided to take it up a notch and say thank you :-)  It was one of those precious precious moments. 

I don't know who's more brilliant--you,or me for wanting to have baby #3 :-) 

Xoxo

Mama

Ellie on the Move

Elisabeth loves crawling and is quite efficient :-) She's also experimenting with cruising and standing. She is a delight and loves life.

The porch is lit

Just drove up to our home after Addie's second grade Back to School night. The porch is lit, the girls are all tucked into their beds/crib and I see hubby working on molding through the basement window and I simply couldn't ask for anything more.

I love my family,

Mama

Ellie Crawling at Cape

Video of Ellie learning to crawl

https://youtu.be/jlFjk6Eyv1o

Summer at Lynnies

Surprise ice cream party at bus stop to celebrate summer

Rising second grader!!

Addie has completed her first grade year at Arnold Elementary. Ms. Berry is a top notch teacher with wonderfully high expectations to which Addie rose. 

Addie's closest friends at school were Cecilia and Chloe, and she absolutely fell in love with reading this year. She was at home in her Mouse and Mole reading group :-) Her mental math skills amaze me, and she still loves making books. We will continue to work on handwriting because Addie's ideas come out way faster than she can write :-) 

Addie, your ingenuity continues to make me smile and I'm so happy for you the your "gold" friendships with Ella and Zoe have continued and also that you are nicely settled into your new school and friends.

I am so proud of you, and so excited for summer with you!!!

Mama

Ellie and Jackson

New member of Ellie's Lynnie class started today--Jackson. 

Sisters and baths

Dear Ellie,

You had your first bath in the tub with your sisters today. The sweetest part was how excited Samantha was to share this with you. Once she heard me say I was getting you ready, she went running down the hall to tell Addie :-) she was bursting with the exciting news :-)

You loved kicking in the water.

Within the last week, you've figured out how to flip over. Tonight while we were playing memory and you were on activity mat, you we're flipping over so quickly.

We had a lovely Easter weekend with auntie christina, Laura, Synnove, Gammie and Gocky.

I adore you,

Mama

Cool cousins climbing Stone Mountain at 3, 4 and 6 years old

Ellie at 3 months grinning with Shannon

Ellie's first day with lynnie

Lynnie couldn't be more giddy :-) and Samantha is quite excited.

Loving our new neighborhood

I am loving our new neighborhood. I can't believe this gorgeous spot is just down our road. Feeling so grateful things worked out with our new home (thanks to lots of family help!) It was a little slice of heaven stopping on the way home from school with Addie (Ellie asleep in car) and playing around chopping up ice with our feet, seeing how far we could throw and then watching the magic of it glide cross the frozen water.

Ellie and her buddy Corrine, not that easy to tell apart

Beginnings and endings

Sitting here on a cold windy night, JC is out watching a football game with a friend after attending his first jujitsu WITH gi in four years-- since Samantha's birth. The last two minutes of the final episode of Brothers & Sisters is on pause, partially because our tv turned green (which it does occasionally :-) and partially because I want to savor the moment--the time that my watching of this show has spanned. Little Elisabeth is swaddled snug in her crib in our room, Addie is koncked out like she typically does a few minutes after reading in her cozy top bunk and sweet Samantha is still awake.

Wonder what she thinks about for the hour plus time she is in bed after Addie falls asleep. It reminded me of some precious Sam isms that I don't want to forget.

"I love you to the moon and back, and... I love you"-- Sam 2 years old from her toddler bed.

"What are we going to do after nap?" There are two things that are delicious about this question posed at least daily by Samantha. First, despite iniitial attempts at correction months ago, Sam still likes to call sleep at night a nap :-) Secondly, she just loves to ask and have repeated what is in store for the week, tonight's answer was "Lynnie's, then home, Lynnie's then home, home, then dance class". She loves hearing the answer. And I must note, she's the most adorbale, natural dancer and performer.

Miss Addison... Such a precious age. Like her father, she loves and masters her hobbies. She is such a total sweetheart with the baby. Our family feels complete. We drove by our "old" house today and Addie and I reminisced--Addie fondly remembered making salad from our garden with Ella and Zoe , the sunlight coming through the vines on the side of the house and barbeques in our backyard. She said memories were starting to "fade"-- her own word. Perhaps, this is part of my spark to blog :-) Addie enjoyed her first sleep over with a friend (Chloe) from her new school last weekend. One of the pics is her packed bag.

And miss Elisabeth, I think a laugh is coming any day. She is smiling up a storm and cooing and totally adorbale. Her wide faced grin reminds me so much of Addie as a baby and her snuggles remind me of Sam. And her peaceful, car-seat-loving, low- maintenance-bottle eating ways remind me of just Ellie :-)

We have three very different, totally awesome girls. I can't wait to keep watching them unfold and doing our best to be the right amount of sunlight and water they each need.