Happy Birthday Amie! (a week late)

Can you believe our sweet baby girl is now THREE years old?! I seriously have no idea how that happened? We did a lot of celebrating for her special day. We had a family party and dinner at Chili's. I took cookies in to school (and forgot the camera!). We had some of her little classmates over for a party/play date (which she LOVED!), and we had a "party" at Grandma and Papa's house (where I also forgot the camera!). It was a week long celebration of Amie!

Sharing birthday ice cream at Chili's with Leah,

Birthday cone cakes at home.

Birthday party play date

I just love this sweet, silly girl. She makes me smile a million times a day. Here are three of the 10 million things I love about my sweet girl:

She has the BEST imagination! She will play with her toys and make different voices for all of them. Usually there's a mama and a baby and the baby always needs to be rescued. For example, a shark will say in a big, low voice, "I'm going to eat you!" Then the baby fish will cry in a little baby voice, "Mama! Help me! Help me!" Then the mama says, "I'm coming! I'll save you!" It's really so funny to watch!

I love how caring and sweet she is. She really is my sweetheart! She will scream "Mom!" on the top of her lungs and then follow it with a sweet "I love you!" that just melts my heart. I love that when she's done something wrong or gets in trouble, she will ALWAYS come say, "I'm beary sorry" to whoever she's offended.

As much as it makes me crazy, I love how sneaky she is. She will often disappear into the dog room or the bathroom and get really quiet. When we go looking for her, we find her with a cookie or some candy or some other treat she isn't supposed to have. Then all she'll say is "Hi!" It makes me crazy but it's hilarious!

This is my new favorite picture of the girls. It captures their personalities SO WELL (as well as the fashion sense!) I just love these babies!

My sweet Kate

 I really didn't want to use this blog for anything other than happy and fun things that happen in our family, but I can't NOT blog about my sweet dog. I got Kate when I was a freshman in college and she was 8 weeks old. She was my first baby and spoiled rotten. There are a million cute stories I could tell you about her, but right now they just make me too sad to think about. We had to put Kate down on Thursday night. She started going down hill a few weeks ago and we didn't want her to suffer. She would have been 12 in January. I thought I was prepared, but I am so overwhelmingly sad. I can't believe we had to it so fast. She will be so missed forever!

Here's the one funny story I can manage right now. Kate LOVED to open presents! She was just about as excited as any kid you'd ever see on Christmas morning. She'd stick her nose right into the present and start digging and shaking like crazy. It was really something to see! It didn't matter what was in the present, she just liked to open it. It's going to be a hard Christmas without her this year.

Summer Review

Ok, I am really not very good at this whole blogging thing! I've barely updated all summer and now the girls are getting ready to go back to school! We've had a pretty good summer. We've spent a lot of time at the pool, been to the beach, and made a trip up to NY to visit my relatives for the first time in 4 years! The girls did GREAT on the trip! They handled the 11 hour car ride like troopers. Now the summer is winding up. I took Catie to her open house today and she starts school on Thursday. The girls go to their open house next Thursday (Amie, too!) and start the following Tuesday after Labor day. Leah started her cheerleading practice last night and cheers for her first game on Saturday (at 8:30 in the morning)! We're still debating on starting them in dance. There's an open house this weekend and then we'll decide. I promise to update more in the future!

Catie working on her sandcastle

Amie posing

Leah with her seaweed.

Leah's first cheer practice

Amie's first dentist visit (she did great, I promise!)

And here's a little glimps into our every day routine around here:

 A little cartoon watching with breakfast to start our day.

Maybe a little laundry

Give Mommy a little attitude!

Leah's puts on her first outfit of the day.

Decorate the walls (in outfit #2)

Model outfit #3 complete with dress shoes and SOCKS!

Try our best to drive Mommy absolutely crazy!

Refuse to take a nap (aka "drive Mommy crazy") then fall asleep naked on the couch at dinner time.

Help Mommy cook/bake/taste/ make a mess in the kitchen.

Be all sweet when we're ready for bed!

I promise Leah actually changes her clothes half a dozen times in a day. And, for whatever reason, they have decided to start sleeping in their underwear. I think it's a conspiracy to make me lose my mind! At least it's never a dull moment around here!

My Cuties!

I've got to say, I think I have some pretty cute kids!

And they have a great sense of style too, don't you think?!

Potty Training!!!

Ok, so I have to brag a little bit about our sweet girl. Amie is FINALLY potty training! I was beginning to think it was never going to happen for her. Leah was so easy. I put the big girl panties on her, she pee'd them once and that was it. (And she was just over 2 years old.) Amie has been a completely different story. She's had the desire to train, but just couldn't make it happen. She'd sit on the potty and strain for all she was worth, but nothing ever happened. I think she was trying too hard. I tried putting big girl panties on her and she'd wet them all day long!

So last week I was complaining about how I thought she was never going to train and then, she did! We were at my parents and she was running around in her swimsuit without a diaper. I got nervous and asked her to go sit on the potty. Something inside her clicked and she relaxed and made magic happen! Ever since then, she's been doing great! She's been completely accident free (well pee pee accident free) for 3 whole days and nights! She's even going to public places in big girl panties. We were at the water park yesterday and she got out of the pool to use the potty. We're so proud of our girl! (And I'm really hoping I'm not jinxing myself by putting this out there!)

RIP Blankie

Today was a big day for our little girl- she gave up her blankie! Sort of... To fully appreciate this story, you need to know the background of blankie. My grandma's sister made this beautiful (though rather large) knitted blanket for my baby shower when I was pregnant with Leah. For whatever reason, of ALL the blankets that baby girl had, that was the one she attached to. She dragged this huge blanket with her everywhere. We used to call her "Linus" from the Peanuts. When she was really sleepy, she would suck her thumb and pick at the strings of the blanket. Over time there came to be a lot of "strings" dangling from the blanket. Eventually, she managed to make a large, tangled, dirty, smelly string. This was the most important part of blankie. It was referred to simply as "string", but it was the string above all other strings. She had to have string in her hand and her thumb in her mouth in order to go to sleep.

Well, a few weeks ago Leah took blankie into Grandma's house. When we got back home, I tucked her into bed for her nap. A few minutes later she yells "Mommy! There's a hole in my blankie!" Now this is not too uncommon for there to be little stretched out places, but for some reason my heart just sank when I heard her yell this. I went into the bedroom and saw a large, gaping hole where String should be. I hit the panic button. I was on the phone with my dad pleading with him to look around for String. Long story short, apparently Aunt Juley tried to "fix" blankie by cutting off ALL the strings! It left large holes all over blankie. Luckily, my dad found the strings in the garbage can. My mom got in the car and came over to surgically reunite blankie and String. We thought the crisis was averted, but blankie was never the same after this. It was constantly getting holes in it and would start to unravel. I've been a nervous wreck that one day blankie was going to completely bite the dust. I started discussing the possibility of getting a new blankie and transplanting String onto it. Leah overheard me and thought it was a good idea.

So today, the transplant took place. Grandma came over, removed String from blankie, and attached him to a new, softer, cleaner blankie (though still very large). So far, so good. Leah is really excited about it! She bravely put old blankie away and immediately cuddled up with new blankie. Mommy has been a little more emotional over the change though. I can't even think of my daughter without picturing her with blankie and string, so I'm a little sad. But also very relieved  to make the transition before disaster struck old blankie. RIP old blankie!

Leah supervising the transplant of String and little strings.

This picture doesn't come close to doing old blankie justice.

Leah with new blankie and String

Amie with her blankie

Thanks Grandma!

School's out for Summer!

I can't believe it, but Leah's first year of preschool is now over! That little girl LOVED preschool. All she ever talks about is her teacher and her friends at school. When she's at home, she asks me to play school with her all the time. She likes to pretend to be Ms. Lisa and send me to centers and tell me to put my things in my bag. She also likes to warn me to make good choices or I'll go to the thinking chair! :^)
They ended the year with a program for the parents. It was adorable! Leah sang "5 Little Monkeys", "He's got the whole world in his hands" and one other song that completely escapes me at the moment. They did such a good job and we were so proud!

Leah with her teacher, Ms Lisa

The "5 Little Monkeys" song

This picture is dark, but I love it. She spotted us in the crowd.

"He's got the whole world in His hands"

Papa Gary, Grandma Kathy, and Aunt Melissa got to come!

In other school news. Catie has 9 days left of her school year before she starts her final year of middle school! A big congratulations to Catie for passing all of her EOG's!! We are so proud!

Now we are looking at a long summer! We will probably be spending a lot of time at the pool and Leah is going to VBS in a few weeks. Catie is going to summer camp with the church. Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in a beach trip, too!

Hope everyone has a good summer! Let us know if you're looking for something to do- we will be too!

I love being a mom!

As a mom, I sometimes get so caught up in the day to day "stuff" that I forget to enjoy the ride of motherhood. If you're a parent, I'm sure you can relate. Once I do take a step back, I wonder how in the world we got to where we are? Where did the time go and how are my children so grown up? This evening I had such a moment that reminded me to treasure every second.

We have been going and going non-stop around here lately. Jamie has been really busy with work, Leah is very quickly finishing up her first year of preschool, Catie's getting ready for EOG's, Amie's talking up a storm and growing all kinds of new teeth, and we've had extra children in the house for very long days the last few weeks. We've all been a little tired! Today we watched one of Leah's little friends from preschool. The girls played hard and Leah did not get a nap. She was tired! Before dinner she laid down on the couch with me, put her head on my chest and fell asleep. As I lay there feeling her breathe and her body twitch as she drifted into deeper sleep, my body literally ached with sadness. I could not remember the last time one of my children laid their heads on my chest and slept. I could not remember the last time I held one of my children and they were still. When I was the mother of a baby, that was one of my favorite things- a sleeping baby on my chest. I was so sad tonight when it really sank in that I don't have a "baby" anymore. My girls are getting to be so grown up and I have no idea how that happened. So I stayed on the couch with my sleeping girl and held her for as long as I could, just enjoying a moment of peace.

I woke her up when I got up to fix dinner. This is her best attempt at watching Kai Lan!

My sweet little Amie is growing up so fast, too! She is really trying hard to talk up a storm. Some of you know that we're a little worried that she's not talking more or clearly. She is really giving it a good effort to keep up with her sister lately though. Lately, her favorite thing to do is help me make dinner. She'll bring her chair or stool and push it up to the counter and talk me through the cooking. She'll say "Mommy, very hot!" and "Mommy, you stir it?" Then she'll yell to everyone else "dinner's ready!" It's so cute! I love making dinner with my sweet girl! Here's a picture from tonight. (For whatever reason, she wore her swimsuit most of the day?) Every time I took the camera out, she'd get off the chair so I couldn't catch one of her on the chair, but you get the idea.

She looks so innocent!

I love these girls!

Happy Easter (a little late)!

It appears I am not a good blogger. I don't seem to be doing very good with updating the blog on a regular basis. Anyway, we hope everyone had a Happy Easter! Ours was nice. It was pretty quiet, but it was nice. We spent a long weekend before Easter at the beach house. We got to see Granna, Aunt Alisa AND our nephew, Sam! We spent some time on the pier, on the beach, did a little shopping and played Putt-Putt golf. Leah now refers to herself as "the putt putt princess". The girls all LOVED it! If I can figure out how to get pictures from my phone to the computer, I'll post some pictures.

Us on the beach. Please excuse how dirty the kids are!

Easter was nice. Amie was really excited about Easter this year. She was so excited when she found her basket. She carried it around for two days, even took it to church with us. We dyed Easter eggs and did an Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house. They had so much fun! Amie yelled "I found you, egg!" every time she picked up an egg.

Leah helping Aunt Melanie mix the dye

They LOVED dying Easter eggs!

Amie kept saying, "Ohhh! pretty!"

concentrating hard!

Amie sampling an egg!

And they're off!

Leah's looking hard!

"I found you egg!"

Didn't my girls look so pretty for church?

We spent the rest of the day playing outside and doing some yard work. Daddy took the girls for a ride on the lawnmower. They thought it was pretty neat!

Amie riding on her big wheel

Leah's getting to be a very good bike rider!

Leah taking a ride with Daddy

Amie's turn!

Isn't this the cutest picture??

Happy Easter from the Compton's!