Schooltime Fever!

For many of my friends and most of my family, today was a very big day. Teachers began their school year, and so many of Kendyll's sweet friends had their first big day of kindergarten! We still have over a week until ours officially begins and our whole household is looking forward to it. We have schooltime fever, but we're trying our best to enjoy some extra free time before it hits.

Even though we didn't start school today, I still found myself to be emotional anyway. I saw a couple of my friends this morning, and got to see pictures of their daughter's first days of school and I teared up!! They weren't even my kids! But, in many ways, I feel like they are. :) This is a big year for so many of us, as our firstborns begin their "real world" school days. For those of you reading, we prayed for each one of you last night and today!

Okay, on to the updates. Because we still have some summertime left to enjoy, we have really tried to fit in some fun with the family. Weeks ago (yes, I am late on my blogs), the four sisters went on a "girls only" trip to San Antonio before we all hit our busy years as students, teachers, and mommies. It was such a fun getaway and we enjoyed eating (alot), talking (alot), and shopping (way too much)! Those are three things we are very good at and definitely enjoy doing together. Thanks, Cortni, Cassie, and Cailee, for a great time away before things got hectic. You're the best friends a girl could ask for. :)

We also spent every day last week with different friends and family before everyone returned to school. We had more time with baby Tyler, Chuck E Cheese for Carlie's b-day with the Brantley's, ice cream with Pops and Grandma, a visit from Uncle Chris who lives in Boston, playdates with friends, a puppet show at the mall, a trip to the library, and a very fun day at a waterpark, playground, and picnic lunch with Grandad, Aunt Cortni, Aunt Cailee, and Braden.
Carlie really enjoys the freedom of summer and demonstrated just how free she felt by peeing in the middle of the playground last week. She said "Mommy, I need to go potty". I said "Okay, we might have to go in the grass since there's not a potty here." I turn around to sit my stuff down, and turn back around to find her legs spread, her swimsuit "moved over", and the stream of pee already hitting the ground. We all started laughing and my Dad caught it on camera. Later, when I was telling Mark about this he said "Oops. That might be my fault. I let her pee all the time at the pool in our neighborhood." WHAT?! There is a bathroom ATTACHED to our neighborhood pool, and there is not grass in the pool area---only bushes. Now I know that our daughter learned the stand-up-and-pee-wherever-you-are trick from her daddy. Nice.

Another big event last week was Abby Kate's mastery of the sitting position. She now prefers it to laying down. However, it has led to more spit-up and more sudden falls. She gets tired and eventually falls over. And, then, she looks like this:

But, it's fun to watch her be so proud of her big-girl accomplishments. Look at that grin.Here's one more thing she's learned to do really well: toe-eating.
This next week is full of more fun, as we celebrate our last week of summer for the girls. We have decided to have one fun thing every day---not because we're overly fun parents---but because Kendyll has been a bit sad that all of her friends "get to go" to school now and she doesn't. I told her that Providence just wanted her to have one extra week of fun with her family. Well, my mistake. Because she has taken that literally and decided to name this week "Kindergartabration". (Really! She thought of that name on her own...give her any reason to celebrate anything and she jumps right in!) We kicked it off with a surprise ice cream trip after church last night, and have a few things planned this week to celebrate the end of summer. Even though we didn't plan on having "kindergartabration", we are glad to have some family time together before both girls hit the school scene next week.

And, for those of you who have already started, God bless your school year!

Prayers Please!

I was just made aware of a precious family that is needing our prayers desperately for their sweet baby boy, Bennett. Kelly & Travis Speck went to college with me (and with many who may read this blog) and just gave birth to their first baby on Monday. There have been many serious complications in his little body, and we are begging everyone to pray for them CONSTANTLY, as Bennett fights hard for his health.

His condition and specific prayer requests for this family can be found at: www.prayingforbennett.blogspot.com Check out the prayer pager number and page Travis and Kelly to let them know you are praying for them. Even if you don't know them, please pray for them! As parents, we can all put ourselves in their place, and know what a blessing it is to have the support of others during such a scary time. God is listening!!

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective". James 5:16

Fiesta Time!

Okay, now that I've recovered from Carlie's party, I can finally blog about it. The party of choice this year was a Dora Fiesta party. Carlie has always loved Dora, and requested this quite a long time ago. However, since that first decision was made, her theme choice has ranged from Strawberry Shortcake to Princess Aurora, to Mary Poppins. I encouraged her to stick with Dora, since I had already purchased a "fiesta dress" for her to wear.

First, let me just say, that parties is yet another part of life where my children are night and day. Kendyll is constantly in party planning mode. She is always thinking of a new excuse to have as many kids over as possible with a theme, decorations, cute food, and a schedule of entertaining games. Carlie would rather play alone with no attention drawn to her on her birthday or any other time. (In fact, on her actual birthday, we kept randomly telling her happy birthday or singing to her, and it drove her crazy!) She doesn't like big "to-do's" over her accomplishments and had quite a few opinions on this party. Because of her dislike for big crowds and loud noise, I decided to let her make the invitation list. It consisted of one person: Caroline, her good friend from church who is so much like her (see below). Couldn't they be twins?Anyway, I encouraged her to think about a few other kids from church who we are close with.....but no success. She said "No, that's TOO MUCH kids!" The girls knows what she wants. So, then I asked her about inviting Noah, my good friend Sara's little boy, who we've arranged a friendship with whether they like it or not. :) And, she was insistent that "NO BOYS CAN COME TO MY PARTY!". This stuck for weeks and weeks, as I kept trying to sneak a couple of boys on the invitation list. But, no. She would have nothing to do with any boys, except Daddy and her grandfathers. Mark even asked me one day "Why are you asking our three year old who to invite? Why don't you just invite who you want to?" To which I replied "If we invite people who Carlie doesn't want, she's going to YELL at them when they walk in the door!" Needless to say, Noah did end up coming, and she was glad to see him. She seemed happy with the two friends who came, even though five were on the list---it ended up being the perfect amount for little miss Carlie. Here's the gang eating their cake....which is a whole other story.

I took Carlie to three different bakeries looking at Dora cakes for her big day. She liked them all okay, but never was too excited about it. So, do you know what she wanted more than anything else? The nasty, pre-made, spray-painted icing kind of cake from the fridge at the grocery store. She loved the sprinkles and the way the spraypaint icing changed from one color to the next on the side of the cake. She's so funny! So, that's what we got. At least it was cheap!

I think the party was a success in most aspect. The food was a fun fiesta, the decorations were quite "festive" (thanks, sisters, for your help on that!), and the entertainment was like no other (I'll get to that in a minute). And, even though, she's not the best at showing it during the party, Carlie has told me on many occasions SINCE the party that she loved her party, that she is thankful for her party, and that she wishes her friends could come back for a Dora party. So, I'm glad she had a fun time. Even Abby Kate enjoyed the celebration!As for the entertainment, Kendyll planned most of this party completely by herself! We decided to have a Dora Adventure, just like on the real show---where they have 3 stops, a map to guide them, and challenges to overcome. She literally planned each stop, drew a map, wore the Dora costume, and directed the other kids on the adventure. It was absolutely precious to watch. As we were planning it one night, and she had thought of every single detail down to the way we would build each center and what Dora would say at each stop, I just started laughing out of pure amazement! She got a little bit upset and said "Why are you laughing at me?" I told her I was only laughing because I was completely amazed at her talent and was so happy to see how incredibly creative she was! She did a great job and is such my little hostess.

She woke Carlie with a real Dora visit at the front door. Here is Carlie in her bed before the surprise guest arrived. She was in bed with her birthday princess crown on, holding her Dora twin babies (bday presents from Gammy!), sleeping on Dora sheets, in her Dora nightgown, ready for her Dora day!After the door was answered and Dora said happy birthday, they stood outside, waiting for Carlie's friends....until we told them that it was still three hours until party time.

From the moment "Dora" walked in that morning, Kendyll was no longer. I realized this when I heard "Mrs. Jacobs?" I turn around and see Kendyll calling me that. I say "Yes....Dora?" "Ummm, yes, where is your bathroom? I've never been to this house before." From then on, she never broke character once. She referred to Mark and me as "Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs" and continued to use her best manners. I told her Dora could stay around as long as she wanted!

Here is our "Dora" greeting the kids at the door, and talking about what a pinata is. As she was talking, "Swiper" (aka Daddy), came and swiped the pinata right out of her hands. She then asked the kids to help her get the pinata back for Carlie's party by following the map!

Here she is showing everyone the map she made of Duck Pond, Rainbow Bridge, and Balloon Bounce House, the three stops along their adventure:

On their way through the Duck Pond. The only part we couldn't do was the cardboard box boats that Kendyll wanted to build....some of her dreams get too big to pull off.

Across Rainbow Bridge (only after passing the Grumpy Old Troll and solving his riddle!):

And, finally, to Balloon Bounce House, where they got the pinata back from Swiper!

It's a good thing we got the pinata back. What would we have done without all of this candy to eat?

It was a fun day and definitely memorable in many ways. As much as I love party planning for my girls, I'm secretly glad to have a long break in birthday party planning until next February. And don't worry...Kendyll's already got her #6 planned. :)

New Baby Boys!

Mark and I are giddy these days. Since we don't have our own boys, we get excited when nephews come along! Mark's sister, Jodi, had sweet baby Tyler on Monday, August 13th and we think he couldn't be more perfect! We were so glad that all went well for Jodi and that Tyler was such a healthy baby boy at a whopping 9 pound, 3 ounces! Big sister, Sophie, is pictured below, along with the rest of the girl cousins. What's this boy going to do with all these GIRLS?

Here's the gang, waiting with Pops and Grandma....
Our first peeks at Tyler Bradley---what an angel!
Proud biggest cousin, Kendyll, showing off her baby skills!

The whole family was fighting over our turn to hug him!
I'm sure there will be many more pictures to come, as we keep up our daily visits! :) Congratulations, Brad, Jodi, and Sophie!!

In other boy news, my sister found out over a week ago that her sweet baby in-utero is a BOY too!!! Woo hoo for nephews! Mark already has big plans as the "cool uncle" to all these boys. We are thrilled for Cassie and Austin, and even though I don't have a picture yet of sweet Caleb Ryne, I can tell you right now he's going to be SO stinkin' cute when he finally comes to see us in December! Now we just have to wait and see what my sister Cortni's baby is going to be! This aunt thing is just the best ever! And, our family is expanding by the day, it seems. What a blessing that is.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Carlie Reese!

Today is Carlie's 3rd birthday and we have had a great time celebrating with her. Due to lack of time and energy tonight, I am waiting until tomorrow to share the details of the party and celebration this weekend. But, I wanted to wish my big girl a Happy Birthday before the day was gone!


We love our Carlie Reese. Call it spunk, call it spirit, call it stubborness mixed with sweetness. Whatever you name it, we're glad God made you the full-of-life girl that you are. There is so much personality in your little body. And, although there are some crazy days with you, when I wish for a little less eye-rolling and resistance to rules, I also praise God for giving you to us and for knowing that we needed a Car-Car in our family to make it fun. :) You truly make our home and our family so much richer in memories, in laughter, in love. You have a powerful presence anywhere we are, and I know you are going to be so much fun to watch grow up. "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power"....He definitely gave you that spirit! And, we pray you always use it for His glory.


I'll be back with more tomorrow. For now, here's Carlie's personality summed up in pictures. Nothing tells her story better than the expressions she makes with those big blue eyes and wide-mouthed smiles....