#8 for Lillee

#8

Girls turn 6!

Lillee turns 7!

Lillee and I went on a girls trip the weekend before her birthday. Our sweet friends made her a Rice Krispie cake and had balloons waiting. She was absolutely elated! She was overwhelmed to be with such amazing girls that love her so very much. The highlight of her winter break was kayaking! These young ladies are a true blessing to my Lills.

These two birthday girls have been friends since they were 2. As a matter of fact, most all of these girls have gone to church preschool together, Pre-K and several have been fortunate to be in the same class in K-2 together. It's a special bond they share. They really do care about each other. It is incredible to watch them grow and mature and fight and figure out this big world as we all navigate through it. Lillee invited our new neighbors across the street to come. It made my heart swell that she wanted to include new friends into their group. The little one ended up not staying all night but Katelin definitely welcomed the oldest with open arms. These are the times and memories that will be with them forever. I'm so proud that I get to guide Lillee on this journey and I know beyond a doubt that I'll make mistakes and she'll make mistakes but at the end of the day I know that we're both being led by an almighty God that loves us and hears our prayers.

It is so different raising Lillee than it is the two boys. She's the oldest, the leader, the independent girl. I'm really trying to give more space and more grace and more chances to make her own decisions while still guiding her and not hovering. It's tough not to hover. I want to hover. I want my helicopter blades to be shiny and clean! However, I want to instill in her that I trust her, love her and will be here for her absolutely no matter what.

ephesians 3.14-19

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Grayton Beach

The Griswalds packed up and visited Grayton Beach over the winter break. It was by far one of our best vacations ever! Very quiet and peaceful. It actually wasn't planned until the last minute as we were having the floors sanded and restained and we HAD to go out of town!!! At least that's my story! We stayed at the cabins at Grayton Beach State Park. They were a little small and there wasn't a TV OR A BATHTUB!!!!! but overall it proved to make our large family very happy. We were thankful to get Ben home to the bathtub for sure! The beach was absolutely deserted. There were people down the beach towards Seaside but at Grayton we were all alone. So nice.

We cooked several times at night.

Ben continued his diet of chocolate milk and goldfish. We're so happy he's added a new food group. If you look closely, there's a box of raisins in his goldfish bowl. Nice.
At night there were no electronics, only markers and crayons! It was kind of nice not having a TV. Sure, the kids still watched the iPad and laptop and our phones (HA!) but we did have to make an effort to turn those on instead of Mickey's Clubhouse blaring all day long.

For entertainment we had a talented musician playing harmonica for us. When he wasn't performing music, he used the water hose as a snake charmer.
This is not a tantrum. This is sheer joy and happiness from a 2 year old! Oh, and a couple of extra pounds of beautiful white sand in a Pampers diaper.
It rained one day and we headed into San Destin to the Barnes and Noble. Always a fun place on a dreary day. We couldn't find the local library! We probably couldn't find it because there wasn't a Starbuck's attached!

Mode of transportation at Grayton Beach!

Lillee did an awesome job riding her bike. The only incident on the entire trip was a HUGE bike wreck. Bax and I ran right on top of Lills. We all tumbled over and her. Her knee was a bloody mess for the last 5 miles of the ride. She was a trooper.

We ran into a Griffin celebrity and her fashionista friends at Seaside. We rode down to April's house just in time for Ben to watch the palm trees get cut. Fun activities at every turn. Ms. April even brought Lillee's birthday present to the beach. So sweet. She gave us some yummy restaurants to eat at and some terrific places to shop. We love Lillypads!
The amphitheater at Seaside was a daily favorite. That and the SoBe yogurt.
Brunos Pizza was the best pizza in Seaside. The kids got a cup of fish food after lunch to feed the huge Koi fish.
As promised, a picture of the completed kitchen. We're really happy with it. The floors looked great. I'm hanging up my hardhat.

Valentine's Day

A yummy, yummy, sinful recipe for the Red Velvet Cheese Ball can be found here!
Ben at Wal-Mart sitting on the laundry detergent, leaned against the dog food and buying a Valentine balloon for his sweetheart. This is a special friendship! I love their looks below!

It's hard to believe this pretty girl will be 8 in six days!

We've been having a fun time around here! I could have never imagined how exciting it would be to have not one, not two but three little angels running around, needing milk at the same time, all wanting a different story read, watching three different shows, two different homeworks, a different extracurricular every night, and needing three different Valentines! Well, I don't think they needed three different Valentines but for some strange reason I couldn't do all three Valentines the same. Oh no! They were all different.

Lillee definitely is super patient with all of the boy stuff that goes on around here and I admit that raising boys is very different than parenting her. She is so great with Ben and an awesome helper. Baxter is outside most of the time. He's gathering sticks or up a tree. Lillee gets so frustrated with him because when we share our best part of our day at dinner Baxter always says his favorite part is that everyone is home safely! He really means that though and his heart is so big. Ben, Ben, Ben! I'm not sure what to say about Ben except that he would be the child to have an imaginary playmate. He's a rascal. Always talking, rarely making sense, cracking himself up, cracking up others, just unusual! But so unique. He's pretty easy going unless it's something he's really fixated on. He's enjoying his trains and cars right now and thinks his "CEE CEE" (sissy) hung the moon.

A few favorites of the things above:

Favorite Books at night

Lillee --- Ivy and Bean and she likes to make sure we've done the Jesus Calling devotional

Baxter --- Star Wars-he got a new book a couple of weekends ago and I'm embarrassed to say I could tell you who all of the clone troopers and wookies are!

Ben ---- when he's not busy eating books, he likes to hear about boats and Goodnight Moon. There's a copy of Brown Bear that is almost in shreds. He usually destroys a dinosaur puzzle while we're doing the family devotional!

Favorite Foods

Lillee - She's been trying lots of new things. Does not like brussel sprouts but does like Spaghettios! Tries to get me to buy those ALL THE TIME. Loves pasta and red sauce.

Baxter --- will eat anything and if he doesn't like it, i.e. brussel sprouts or potatoes he puts hot sauce on that stuff. Loves asparagus and rice and meat.

Ben --- Chocolate milk. with goldfish. That's it

Homework

Lillee ---- really working on reading and mastering all multiplication problems. I'd like to see us working on more math word problems but that wouldn't be fun for her.

Baxter ---- sight words, sight words. Almost there and so proud of myself, I mean him! He's doing great. Also trying to write to 100 in 3 mins. Woooooooo

Ben ---- trying to recognize his name is Ben. Sometimes when the librarian rolls him the ball at story time he is supposed to say "Ben." Instead, when he gets the ball he yells, "BALL!"

TV Shows

Lillee --- Good Luck Charlie and Soul Surfer. I think we saw Soul Surfer 5 times this past weekend.

Baxter --- Good Luck Charlie and Soul Surfer. Did I mention he's easy and worships the above child most of the time.

Ben ---- Good Luck Charlie and Soul Surfer. Can you tell he's the 3rd child and she's the dominator! Ben loves him some Jake and the Neverland Pirates and I can always bargain with him and let him watch some Barney!

Extracurricular

Lillee --- Jazz and Ballet on Mondays and Tap on Tuesdays, Church on Wednesdays!

Baxter ---- Kindermusik on Tuesdays

Ben ---Kindermusick on Tuesdays and Mother Goose story time on Wednesdays!

Ben's "ROAR - I'm Wild About You" Valentines were probably the most difficult and time consuming. However, one two-hour episode of The Bachelor helped pass the time easily.

Lillee's "You BLOW me away" Valentines!

Baxter's "You O"FISH"ally have my heart! Valentines!

I found this fun bag for Lillee. She's been wanting a new dance bag for quite some time.