goodbye 20's

Thanks to Ari I now have this memory (and proof!) that I do get to sit and snuggle every once in a while. With four kids there is so much to do all the time that sometimes I have to remind myself to do this.

I love this one of the kids...all piled on daddy before bedtime to read some books.

My birthday happened to fall over Memorial Day weekend so we planned a trip to Patachou and the zoo. This was Lincoln's first Patachou date :)

It's weird to think that I'm not in my 20's anymore. My brother-in-law said that now I'm "age appropriate". Instead of being a mom to 4 in my 20's, I'm now a mom to 4 in my 30's...which apparently seems more normal to him. :)

The 20's were good to me: finished college, married the love of my life, bought our first house, and had four children. Man, life has flown by and I can't imagine what this next decade will hold.

My favorite thing to do is spend time with my husband and kids. So I am living the dream being a stay-at-home mom.

The zoo was so great this day. The flamingos were out and friendly.

But Selah didn't seem to think so! 

This was the first time we have seen the elephants perform. 

It was so neat!

Then we were off to see the birds.

We don't always make it to the gardens but we made time this day.

The kids love walking around the gardens...but mostly when they get to snuggle daddy along the way.

Pictures with all four of them are few and far between, and even more scarce are pictures of me!

We were also able to make it to an Indians game in May. We had been watching the weather all day for thunderstorms in case it was cancelled, but we managed to make it for a few hours before the storms set in.

We were able to get discounted tickets from AJ's work which also included dinner!

Ari was really in to it since he is learning the logistics of baseball. Too bad we didn't get to watch the whole game.

Hello, Indianapolis. 

We managed to wrap up dinner just in time before the storm set in. We packed up quickly but then only made it half way to the van before we were blasted with rain. The kids were troopers, but we were soaked to the bone in just a few minutes. Definitely a memory they won't forget for a long time :)

3 months {Lincoln}

Oh, Lincoln. He is such a doll. We have been enjoying him so much.

At 3 months he loves to smile all the time. He even giggles.

He loves to watch you and wants to be with others. If you get out of sight for too long then he gets upset. But otherwise he is the happiest little guy.

The Bigs still ask to hold him every day. They LOVE him to pieces. All of them, including Selah, like to help out when he gets fussy...whether it's finding his paci, getting him a blanket, burping him, etc. Selah even likes to bring him toys. But I still haven't been able to convince any of them to change his diaper yet :)

As long as he's fed and napped then he generally looks like this. Completely full of joy...you can just see it in his eyes.

He is ticklish around his neck and will sometimes laugh while I'm getting him dressed. He gets a kick out of doing the motions "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands".

He still blows lots of bubbles and will somehow get a cluster of them on his chin. I say he "bubbles" when he is happy :)

He is so attentive to things now. He loves to be facing out or sitting upright when carried so he can watch what's going on. He also loves to be outside.

He is still sleeping great. His schedule hasn't changed much in a while but it's like clockwork now. Eat every 4 hours during the day and sleep about a 7-8 hour stretch at night. I still wake up once to feed him since his long stretch starts before I get to bed, but it hasn't been too bad at all.

This little man is so fun to have around. He just fills my heart with joy!

soccer

We decided to give soccer another chance now that Ari is older. He first played right when he was four...and he didn't like it very well. He pretty much stood there and didn't want anything to do with soccer. But 2.5 years later he is a different kid.

He loved it! This year they learned different positions and more rules of the game. He was aggressive, fast, payed attention, and even thought ahead as far as where he needed to be if the ball was being kicked by someone else.

This year was super special because his cousin was on the same team and AJ was an assistant coach. We had lots of fun getting together each week with our family to watch the kiddos play.

Ari's favorite position was midfield because he was able to run all over the field.

When he first started the season Lincoln was only a few weeks old.

But six weeks later, he seems like such a big guy.

Lynlee and Ari have always been best buds and it was no different on the soccer field.

Ari scored 3 goals this season. He says those were his favorite moments.

It didn't occur to us that Evangeline might want to play, since Ari didn't enjoy it very much at 4. But she was disappointed that he had practice and a game each week that she wasn't able to participate in.

But she was a trooper and cheered him on.

I'm so proud at how hard Ari worked this season.

He is already looking forward to another season.

four {Evangeline}

Oh where do I even begin. We've always said that Evangeline was 3 going on 15. Now she's four and truly one year closer.  She was so excited for her birthday this year. The whole week after she would tell everyone "I'm 4 now!" which would then lead to each person asking her "Wow! When did you turn 4?" and her response every single time..."On my birthday!" (in an 'of course' tone of voice) :)

She couldn't wait to try out her very own fishing pole.

We didn't have big plans for her actual birthday since we wouldn't get together with family for another week. But going to Rural King was a big hit.

They have baby chicks, ya know.

And then for dinner we let her pick where we would eat. She could choose absolutely anywhere and you know the one place she was dead-set on? McDonalds!! Blah! We tried everything to persuade her to choose some other place, ANY other place, but no. She knew exactly what she wanted. So we took it and picnicked at the park. I love that about her though...that she knows exactly what she wants. That trait overflows to every aspect of her-what she wears, how she wants her hair, what she is going to eat--she gives very specific instructions.

So all week long she anticipated her party and having everyone come over.

And when I was out taking pictures of everyone, she decides to pose.

This girl loves to have an audience. She loves to dance, and twirl, and tumble. Most recently we had Selah and Lincoln dedicated at church and AJ had to say a few things. When he passed the mic on to the next family Evangeline asked "When is it my turn to speak in to that thing?" :) She's always looking for a chance to shine.

She loves everything frilly and sparkly.

Everyone knew exactly what to get her. Dresses. Dresses. And more dresses. Because everyone who knows us knows that she pretty much wears dresses and sparkly shoes.

She couldn't wait to try one on. Then decided she loved this particular one so much that she wore it for the next three days until I declared it dirty.

The only thing she has been talking about since Ari's birthday back in October is what she wanted on her cake this year. All she wanted was a little princess to go on top of her cake. So we went to get one from the store that we had passed so many times in the check out aisle but when we got there they didn't have it any more. Bummer! So down the toy aisle we went in search for a reasonably priced princess. Apparently those didn't exist anymore so after swallowing double the amount I planned to spend I decided that it was ok because it was the ONLY thing she asked for. I waited last minute to put it on her cake because it wouldn't fit with the cover over it. So when it came time to put it on the cake (with everyone standing around waiting for some cake!), the princess was MIA. Gah! So all that to say, two little unicorns took the place of that princess...and she was ok with it. Apparently we should have looked in the couch.

And back to the posing. She really can't help herself. These were totally unprompted.

My baby is getting so big. Besides her love for fashion she is also very motherly. She tends to her babies all day long, the most obvious one being Lincoln. But she carries her babies around, even ties them to her with a scarf, and packs bags full of food.

She most recently learned how to swing herself on the swings. It was a big deal since she seems to have a low self-esteem when it comes to things that she is actually capable of doing. Often times she will just tell us "I can't" but doesn't even try. So we have been working hard at encouraging her to try and it has seemed to work well so far. Her little successes (like opening  up a granola bar) really boost her confidence. Once she has seen that she can actually do things, I have noticed her being more independent. Not that I'm wanting her to be too independent...because my goodness, look at her. I'm envisioning her in 10 years and my guess is that it's going to look similar to this.

We've most recently been inspired by her desire to memorize Scripture. Ari had a part he memorized for the Easter program at church, and little did we know that she had learned it too and was fairly disappointed when she didn't get a turn on stage to say it. Although she seems drawn towards the chance to perform for an audience, she has had many genuine moments at home where she is enthusiastic about learning them on her own.

We are so proud of her and just love the sweetness about her. She truly is a bundle of joy...and one that can hardly be contained. She is our bubbly one. She gets so excited about the littlest things and can't wait to share it with everyone in sight. Her joyful heart is contagious.