Perfectly Purple Party

 

Sydney turned three on Friday! We celebrated with birthday doughnuts, a scooter, and some new outfits. I had to work Friday, so she had a little party at daycare with grape CapriSuns and purple cupcakes!  On Saturday, we had a small birthday party for her...a Perfectly Purple Party! Sydney has talked about having a "purple birthday party" for MONTHS!

 

Everything was purple, from the drinks to the cupcakes, from the tablecloths to the feather boas each girl could wear. I have tried to stock up on purple things since Miss Sydney made her request!

 The girls from her Sunday School class were invited, along with the baby girl cousins. MeMe even wore her purple church dress! Sydney was so thrilled about all of her friends being there.

 

Each girl got to decorate a purple visor with foam stickers, then watercolor paint. We then opened presents and ate purple cupcakes and drank purple KoolAid. It was such a fun party to plan, and Sydney had a wonderful time!!

All About Jack

See? I told you I would write one about Jack.

Jack is usually high on life. Doesn't matter what is going on in life, he always has a celebratory attitude.

I have a lot to learn from him.

Jack's current favorite things:

1. Festive decorations. If I had all the time and money in the world, Jack would have me decorate the house from top to bottom for every holiday on the calendar. Christmas, Presidents Day, Independence Day....the kid loves holiday decor. Even at almost-six-years-old, he will notice a wreath on someone's front door and say "Hey, could we get one of those?" And not in a oh-no-i'm-concerned-my-kid-is-too-into-girly-stuff way....but he just LOVES for things to be decorated for the current season.

2. Schoolwork. I need to soak up this stage!! I know his current enthusiasm for homework and reading will soon wane. The other day he hopped in the van and I asked if he had homework. When he responded that he didn't, I cheered. He was very disappointed that I could possibly think that no homework was something to cheer about. I mean, come on, mom. Homework is awesome.

3. Trampoline. Best. purchase. ever. I can say "Go outside and jump on the trampoline with Teddy" and he will run outside without thinking twice!! Also, it is a super fun toy for when people come over. And now Sydney has decided that the trampoline is not Mommy's new form of torture, and it thrills Jack to no end that his little sister will jump with him and ooh and aah over his tricks. Which she does.

4. Speaking of little sisters....we DO have a placement right now. I cannot, will not blog about her, but you may call her Goose :) She is just over a year old, and is so much fun. At first Jack was not thrilled about ANOTHER girl (seeing as our last placement was a girl, and we have acquired two female pets in the last six months), but now he has figured out that he gets all kinds of time with Clint just because he is the only boy. And he has placed a huge responsibility on himself to watch after his little sisters. Jack adores her, except when she messes with his stuff.....which she does :)



I still cannot figure out why my pictures won't rotate!! Very frustrating.


Here is Jack at the Woodworth Mardi Gras parade. For just a ten-minute parade, we all certainly got a lot of beads!!

 

 

Haircut day! I was surprised that he wanted her to style his hair into a mohawk.

 

Pulling his float at his school's Mardi Gras parade.

All About Syd

My pictures won't rotate.  And I'm too tired to care :)

Our little-almost-three-year-old girl has kept us on our toes since she was born.

I mean, right from day one, she went to the NICU for a few days. I swear that is what triggered the "princess syndrome" we are still dealing with.....and probably will for the next two decades. She had a nurse that she only shared with one other baby and we all just doted on her for weeks and weeks. When she did come home from the hospital, her daddy went and bought a beautiful bassinet so she could be at arm's length at all times. And he bought a wipe warmer, and a dozen other royalty-like items.

Ya think Jack had a wipe warmer??

That's my point.

Daddies and their girls.

Well, Sydney has turned into the most hilarious, intelligent, delightful child.  At home. See?

 

In public, she is well.......less than delightful.

 

This was her very first, real, haircut in an actual place that was not the bathroom floor given by me or Aunt Laura. She freaked, y'all. I mean, sweating, trembling, caused a horrific scene. It was terrible. But it was a memory!!

 

But, then again, how could you really stay mad at someone who smiles at you like this while you're getting the oil changed:

 

 

 

 

A few nights ago, she was taking a bath while I was cleaning the kitchen. (Don't worry about her getting hurt. She wouldn't EVER put her head under water in a million years. And if the water did turn even the slightest degree of warm, the sweet McGuffees who live way behind us would hear her scream before she was even in danger of being  burned.....sigh.)

 

I digress.

 

She was singing at the top of her lungs "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a witch like meeeee!!!"

 

She was singing this lovely rendition of a wonderful song after a very long day of being.....Sydney. Maybe a little witch-like that day. Just sayin'.

 

But as we are raising our precious daughter, she is coming closer to the age of understanding that she is, in fact, a witch wretch. A sinner, in need of grace. And one day, we pray she will come to the full understanding that Jesus saved her, in all of her wretchedness.

 

In the meantime, as we parent this wonderful blessing of Sydney Kaye Iles,

 

This momma needs plenty of grace :)

 

 

 

 

2013

I have a real incentive now to keep up with the blog...Clint's parents are in Africa for the next two years! My goal is to update every Monday with pictures/stories of the week. Over Christmas, I looked through my blog books from 2007-2011, and I was so upset that I did such a horrible job of keeping up with the ol' blog in 2012!!

And, in true beginning-of-the-year form, I shall document my 2013 goals and dreams(probably just to laugh at my ambitions when the year rolls in 2014):

Goals:

• Be more disciplined with daily Bible Study and prayer journaling.
• Make several distinct, lifelong memories with my family. Write about those memories, and take pictures of us making those memories.
• Have a more consistent exercise regimine, and turn to exercise instead of TV in times of stress :)

I have been terrible at taking pictures, but I will be better in 2013! Here are some favorite pictures from the holidays!

 

Here's to blogging again!

Updates

Random updates (in a bullet list, of course!):

• Jack started kindergarten!! He loves it, and he loves his teacher. I guess real-life has started because he has homework every. single. night. But he is making new friends, and learning lots!
• I started a new job! Thank you, Lord!! I have a part-time position as the preschool and children's director at Calvary Woodworth. The first couple of weeks were stressful because school wasn't in session yet, and I was furiously trying to complete back-to-school monogramming orders. But now that I'm in the groove of it, I am LOVING my new schedule!
• Sydney started daycare two days a week so that I could get some productive hours in at work :) It has been so good for her! She had a really hard time the first two weeks, but now she looks forward to her days "at school."
• We had a hurricane scare! I was a little nervous thinking about all the LARGE trees surrounding our house (see picture below), but everything turned out okay here in CenLa!
• Jack has been wanting to do a building project, so he and Clint built this little putt-putt castle. Jack was so proud!!
• We bought a minivan! We have totally hit the frumpy jackpot :) We didn't expect to have a new vehicle for another year or so (and hopefully another kid or so...haha!), but we found a great deal and the Explorer sold quickly, so we jumped on it!

Here's some pictures!

Beach 2012

My dad booked an awesome beach house for a week this summer, so my sisters and our families went to beautiful Destin, Florida for a few days!!

Sydney and I had LOTS of quality time while Clint and Jack fought the waves. Sydney much preferred shoe shopping to the water!

Cool Jack ready to race

Laura and Bob were able to come all the way from Colorado. She misses me so much, can't you tell?

The LaFitte grandchildren!

LaFitte Family!

Sydney liked playing by the side of the pool 

Iles Family!

We entertained ourselves on the car ride there!

4th of July and Yard Stuff

 I have been a terrible blogger this summer, so I want to update (really for my own blog-book purposes) with one major summer event at a time!


Every year we choose one house project to tackle...our first year we painted, the second year we added landscaping (twice...darn ants), the third year we did more landscaping, and this year we decided to tackle the backyard. When we moved in, there was NO landscaping around the house...it was quite terrible. The backyard had no grass, and there was no outdoor space to hang out. Now we have flower beds around three sides of the house (the fourth side isn't seen by anyone), so this year we wanted to tackle the backyard. Our budget was pretty limited, so we went with simple concrete squares, landscape timbers, and lots of pinestraw...and we got what we wanted! We lay sod across the entire backyard. We have watered and watered and watered. The sod has not done wonderfully, but I'm hoping with some fertilizer and grass seed to fill in the bad spots, it will be okay.

Jack and Syd the first day we were able to eat outside!

The day after we lay the sod....it isn't quite this green anymore :(

This awesome dog was ours for two weeks....then he ran away. It was quite sad!1

My super fun kids on the 4th of July!

This summer we have eaten lunch outside as much as we could. We listen for wildlife and make up crazy stories about the creatures in the forest.