Sydney Getting her Ears Pierced.

I don't know how to edit this thing and Dan doesn't know how to take video with his phone. But the gist of this post is Sydney getting her ears peirced. Just turn your head and watch the last minute - that's the best part. She is a brave girl, not one single tear. After watching the whole thing, Caroline decided she definitely did NOT want to get her ears peirced - ever. Maybe it's not fair timing since one week earlier she had to have an IV in the hospital. Maybe she will change her mind. Stay tuned for the story of Caroline being hit by a car.

Sophia!

See, I really am serious about posting more pictures.


So here's to Sophia. She is 14 months old today and just starting to be funny. Today I went to get her from her nap and she had taken off her sundress! Tricky. The other trick she has is one day, she started to throw a fake temper tantrum about something and we started laughing. Then we said, "Do it again." And this is what she did.

Now she will do that every time you say "Do it again" and laugh hysterically. It's very fun.


Backing up. Don't feel sorry for 4th children. On Sophia's 1st birthday we didn't have a theme cake or fancy party but what she got was so much more than Kassie ever got. We were in Phoenix visiting and so we had the help of the cousins. They designed games (pin the binky on the baby and a letter search that spelled out happy 1st birthday Sophia), the kids made her a birthday crown, and helped her open her presents. Here are some of the highlights:

Note the princess crown

Cake was delicious

Put the binky in the baby's mouth

Sophia is an explorer. You can give her a bunch of toys and she will crawl away and play with the dog's water. But above all she loves books. She will read with you, without you, whatever. Her sisters try so hard to play with her and most of the time that's good but she sure lets you know when it's not. I have never heard a baby squeal so loudly or so high-pitched!

Life is certainly different with a baby around but we wouldn't have it any other way. We love her and feel so grateful for her.

First Day of School

So I haven't put anything on this blog since May! Meanwhile we have sold our house and moved to Phoenix! I have some catching up to do what with never having posted about Sophia and her first birthday (which I tried to do once but ran into technical issues I didn't have time to deal with). So here are the girls on their first day of school, which was, overall, a success. It was amazing to see how they were excited and just went right in and didn't cry or hang on us. There is both a positive side and a negative side to having such confident children. We will have to work on the negative side:) The school, though very big (950 kids) is really amazing. I have never seen so much word art in one place! The inside seriously looks like it came out of like a Home Goods store or something. The kindergarten playground has 4 wicker rocking chairs under a gazebo for the teachers to sit in while on duty. The cafeteria has a rock wall. The 5/6 graders can take orchestra and ballroom dancing (taught by the principal). Other than having to commute 20 minutes there and back every morning and afternoon until the house closes, we're happy.

Sydney - 2nd grade
Caroline - Kindergarten

Kassie - 5th grade

Emily Kathryn

That's technically her name but we call her Kassie (yes, I am finally getting around to her special post). If she could have any super powers, she would choose invisibility, elasticity, and mind reading. One practical skill she would like to learn is lock picking - she thinks that could save her in a dangerous situation.

Her teachers are always telling me what a great sense of humor she has and how they are amazed at the jokes she understands. In the same conversation are comments about how she needs to learn to respect others, which translated means she is very bossy and walks all over people, young and old alike. We are working on that. She has definitely improved this year.

Other things she has been doing this year include choir and fitness club. Choir she loves and teaches Sydney and Caroline all the songs she learns. In fact for the talent show this year she has been trying to decide between a very elaborate version of "It's a Hard Knock Life" or "Do Re Mi" from Sound of Music that includes everyone and their sisters. I think in the end she is going with a solo of "Edelweiss".

At home she has turned into a fantastic babysitter - for Sophia. I'm not sure what the reason is exactly but I would venture to guess that it's the way I phrase it: "Kassie, would you rather load the dishwasher or watch Sophia?" She always chooses Sophia. Only thing is, she doesn't do poopy diapers.

Next week she turns 10 and this is an interesting age for us. She really doesn't fit into the tween category since she isn't interested in the things that are marketed to tweens. One night we were working on some project and she should have been in bed but she kept begging to help. We kept telling her to go to bed. Finally, in tears, she says she is just trying to be an adult. Poor kid. We told her to enjoy being a kid while she could and so she went to bed with a hug and a kiss. Mind you it was the special goodnight-secret-handshake-kiss that she invented when she was five and has been doing ever since. I will cry the first night she doesn't do this, that will mean she is grown up.

But back to the point, she is at the beginning of that age where she is trying to find her identity. This is a hard thing to watch and you know opinions about important subjects are being formed: the church, her parents, education, her goals for the future. In fact one day we were discussing how hard it might be to be a mom and travel the world as a marine biologist. She said everyone was always telling you to decide what you want to be when you grow up but no one ever said do you want to be a mom. and if you do, how do you work that in with what you want to be when you grow up. So we do our best to answer these and other deep questions from a 9 year old. Good thing there is prayer and that God loves her just as unconditionally as we do.

Ain't No Hollaback Girl

When we go camping, she will spend the entire time by the water.

Daddy's Girl

Peace

More water

Reading to Sophia

Being the waitress at Caorline's tea party

She is all about fun - Love you Kassie Girl

Finished! Fini! Finito! Finir!

Well we did it, we finally put our house on the market! It took way longer than we intended - regular life just kept getting in the way. But now we can relish regular life here in Texas for as long as possible.

I personally think the decision to leave is going to get harder to live with now that I don't have something to concentrate all my thoughts on. The things we are going to miss...It's not like we didn't sit down and make a pros and cons list, we did. The pros won out and we started the process. Now that we are talking about the things we are going to miss instead of how to stage the house, it's very sad. Almost overwhelming. Especially since we don't HAVE to go.

Here are some of the things that were on my reasons for NOT leaving list:

• spending almost every evening at the community pool where the lifeguards know my kids and you will always have a friend to talk to
• the amazing school that my kids go to, I can't imagine that there is another one this good
• the wildflowers in the spring
• Christian people everywhere
• the pediatrician, the dentist, the mechanic - seriously, these are going to be nearly impossible to replace

The list is much longer but I am too tired to write all the wonderful things that have made me so happy here, most importantly my friends. Here most of us don't have family nearby so we have been that to each other. You are the reason we have stayed so long and the reason it's so hard to leave. And just so you know, when we put you guys on the list, you were weighted almost equally with blood family. I'm going to bed now, maybe I'll like you guys less in the morning and I won't feel so bad.

But seriously, if anyone knows someone looking for a house in our area, post a comment and I will email you the link.

Sydney Jane

by Becky Eastman

This is the second of four posts, each one dedicated to one of my darling little girls. This time it's Sydney and let me just say it was hard to pick and choose the pictures for this post. At first I was just going to do recent photos but then I remembered some of my favorites from when she was little. So I went looking for them...and spent a long time remembering how much trouble little Sydney was as a toddler. I found pictures of her sitting in drawers, naked in her crib, climbing the changing table, in the bathtub with her clothes on, and the list goes on! But she sure was cute doing it, especially the dimples, and that is why she hardly ever got in trouble. Sydney is very compassionate, too. She always wants others to be happy and will often give her sisters whatever it is that they want, just to make them feel better. And to the chagrin of her older sister, Sydney is actually very smart. She loves to read and is helping Caroline learn to read. It is hard to overlook Sydney because she likes to be right there with you, snuggling you or helping you make dinner or whatever you're doing, she just wants to be there. And the saying, "Don't like the weather in Texas? Stick around for a few minutes" applies to Sydney. Don't like her mood, just wait a minute and she'll do an about face and you'll become the best mom in the universe where seconds before you were the worst mom ever. We are very blessed to have Sydney Jane in our family, things would be rather dull without her around. Enjoy the pictures!

Broke her leg by pulling an end table over on herself. Thank goodness for waterproof casts!

She actually has her shoes on in this picture - couldn't wait for me to get her undressed.

First day of preschool

At the Botanical Gardens

Halloween 2008

Still a stinker, trying to feed Sophia a Valentine's sucker. (Sophia loved it.)

Sydney at the 1st grade Fairy Tale Ball

Wonder whose idea the bubbles were?

She got a camera for Christmas, the pictures are original.

Still fearless and crazy. It's January 2 and she has no shoes and a dress on (it was 75 degrees).

She loves PJs at the park, just like Caroline.

We love you!

Not really a pink person

Pink was never really my color. It always seemed a little too delicate for me. But with so many little girls in our house, it seems I can't get away from it. And now, with Sophia here, it suits her perfectly. Though she is already 8 months old (last Friday), I FINALLY finished her nursery! And it's PINK! Truly I never thought I would paint a room pink, but the inspiration came from some fabric that has tiny little rosebuds on it and they were just the thing for Sophia.