the MK princess...

nothing says:
my mom is a sales director with mary kay and i am growing up in a pink bubble!!!
more then a four year old with a face full of makeup!

no worries. i know she is perfectly perfect just the way she is...
just a fun girly night with aunt chelsea and mama! :)
and she soaked in every second of the grown up girl fun!

my girly joy turns 4...

alivia,
my pretty shinning ray of nothing but girl!

the mini mom of our bunch.
quick to applaud your siblings good behaviors,
and equally as quick to let them know they are doing something bad. :)

the quite one, who can spend hours alone in your room, playing
with barbies, Littlest pet shop, and fury friends.

your eyes light up when they see a cute pair of shoes, or shiny new lip gloss.
and you already have a keen sense of style, that's all your own.

one minute, your spunky and brazen...
putting on quite the show when you don't get your way.
and the next your gentle and loving...
batting those long lashes and giving out the full lipped smooches.

stunningly beautiful, both inside and out!

you are such a blessing to my life,
and overflow me with joy.
so thankful God chose me to be your mama!

Lord,
such a treasure you have given my with my girly alivia.
my prayer for her life, is your will.
that she seeks you in all she does, and that you guide her every step.
that she has a heart on fire for you, Lord.

I pray she overcomes obstacles through you, and that she gives you the glory for all she does.
when she hits a wall, that she will remain stong. I pray she picks herself up off the ground and always keeps moving forward,
no matter how hard her given situation may seem. I pray she clings to truthfulness always, and that you bless her with strong life long friends that have a heart for you.

i pray for you wisdom for brian and i as we grow this amazing little girl that you have entrusted us with, that we lead her down the path that draws her closer to you, and your will for her life.
thank you for my girly treasure, that brings me a heart full of joy.

our summer birthday babies...

when i got home last night and flipped through the amazing works of krystle sommers, i got to this picture...
stopped and stared.

i looked over at my mr. emrich, and said...
"this is exactly us!"

i have always found "my" picture within every shoot we do with krystle where she captures one of our children.
the one i study over and over...
and, for the first time. our whole family was captured in one shot.

brian... our leader, focused and always smiling.
nataley... being sweet and silly, going with the flow.
levi... clowning around, trying to bring humor to our bunch.
alivia... not paying attention to what is going on.
and me... taking in every minute of their childhood, going against what's comfortable to me, and joining in on the fun.

i think it's my most favorite picture of our family of all time!
it captured my heart!
thanks krystle!

some day the princes kiss will wake her....

i often go in my children's rooms just to get to see them in their sweet slumber.
it honestly is one of my most favorite things....

last night when i snuck quietly into their room this is what i found.
(she has been sleeping on her little princess couch at night lately (sneaking in there after i tuck her in her bed)).

friends and memories...

this post has two quick purposes...
yesterday was "bring a friend to ballet day" during alivia's class.

and naturally she brought her friend lexi,
honestly, i don't know who else she would ever pick for anything.

anyway, it was cute. and it amused me to see just how much alivia follows lexi (who is 2 years older) around.
not that she is much of her own person otherwise (she tends to be a follower). but with lexi in her class yesterday i just noticed alivia watched her every move so that she could do exactly as she did.

which got me thinking just how important it is to know who my children are taking interest in. already at the age of 3 i see the tendency to "fit in"....
yea, that was my thought on that. is it sad that this was the lesson i took home for the day?

don't get me wrong....
it was adorably adorable as usual.
and lexi said she liked ballet better then gymnastics....
which wasn't my plan alyson, cross my heart!


now, onto tonight...
alivia is my all time helper while i am preparing dinner.
seriously, this girl lives to cook in the kitchen these days. which shouldn't be a surprise to me i suppose. she has restaurant blood running through her veins after all.

i recently found this AWESOME web site, kim showed it to me. when you first go to it you decided how you cook...
example: i cook for a family.
then you put where you tend to do the bulk of your weekly shopping...
example: i tend to shop at publix.

then (brace yourself, cause this is where this site rocks) it gives you 7 meals for the week, it gives you directions on how to prepare them...
and it bases the menu off of what is on SALE that week at your store!

yep, the greatest thing since strawberry pie!
i have actually been getting compliments on my dinners from both my kids, my husband, and my friends!

i've been learning alot about cooking that i didn't already know as well (i know, i know... shame on me for not knowing).


OK, so, sometimes it has fish meals. i had never cooked fish before in my life, let alone have to buy it at a grocery store. but, i am making myself try these new things, and i love any kind of sea food. like seriously love it! so, now i can prepare it myself and not have to go out to eat to get it! :)

now, back to last night.
the meal was shrimp hogies. and yes, they were really good!
as i was pealing my little shrimpies, alivia, was right there beside me making a mess of her one, with a sour look on her face that said "this was what i will be forced to eat for dinner tonight?". she has never eaten shrimp before. i dared her to try one. she did...
and she loved it. which reminded me of when i was a little girl watching my dad eat shrimp. i was rather grossed out at the thought of eating bate that we used to catch fish (OK... it wasn't the actual bate but it was the same idea).
and my dad dared me to try one. which, was the start of my love for all things sea food.

i don't know...
it was a good memory that just kinda made me chuckle.

adorably mischievous...

7:45 is bed time around here,
no games, no exceptions... or so i thought!

i heard giggles of laughter coming out of the girls room tonight at 8:30pm...
i cracked the door open, peeked in and found this...




there is just something so sweet about sisters... i can hardly stand it!
(yes, even when they are up to no good with each other).

a special day for my special girl...

today was a big day for alivia...
not just because it was her birthday but because this was her first day without her big brother.

i wasn't sure how she would be taking it, i feared she would think she would be going to school too.

so...
i made the day extra special for her.
she got her very first hair cut
(which made mommy a little sad).



followed by her very first manicure/pedicure combo!





and let me just say...
simply adorable!
i took in every girly second, and i can tell by her look of utter amazement...
she did too.

splendidly fun, girly mama daughter time!


later we picked up daddy and sissy and headed down to the cookie mall for lunch and build a bear...
just daddy and all his girls. :)
as you can tell by alivia's creation, she has a bit of an imagination....





a day i will never forget filled with girlish giggles and smiles.

the day we added pink...

i'm not sure why but...
for some reason i always assumed i would have a house full of boys. seriously, even before levi was born brian and imagined a life full of sons. smelly clothes full of sweat and food vanishing quicker then i could replace it kinda life. i knew my heart wanted girls, but i honestly thought god desire for us was to have boys....

the whole first three months of my second pregnancy i kept telling brian to "think pink". hoping somehow god would hear my heart and bring me my girl.
and sure enough, he heard our prayers and granted them by giving us the most girly girl we know!

alivia,
you've never ripped out hair bows, you love to paint your nails, you prefer dresses to shorts and pants. your first word was "shoes" for crying out loud. you refer to things as "so cute" and "purdy". your tender and sweet with attitude and sass only a true girl can possess. the world melts at the sight of your smiley dimples. you scream at the sight of bugs and lizards, you freak out when your hands get dirty. you love dress up, tea parties, and baby dolls. your smart and fearless, you beg to twirl and dance with daddy. you are the girl we prayed and desired for.

our life was blessed beyond what we ever thought was possible 3 years ago when god gave us a touch of pink bundled up in a whole lotta girl!

alivia ballerina....

today was a sit in day at alivia's ballet class...
and well, it was just so darn cute i have to share...









i can't wait for the fall classes to start!
now, onto levi karate!

all about alivia (well, mostly)...

i seriously can't even believe that i am taking time to sit here and blog right now, i have so much else i need to be doing...
i'm such a procrastinator, sigh...

but, i have so much that i need to quickly catch up on. mostly about sweet alivia.

you see, yesterday was a big day for her in many ways.
the morning started out about as cute as you can possibly imagine.

her first day at ballet. and can i just say that watching seven tiny, pretty little girls twirl around in pink leotards is just about the cutest thing you could ever see...
and when one of those sweet girly girls is your very own, well...
that can just about bring tears to your eyes.

i debated for a while to do ballet or gymnastics with her (i know she is young and has plenty of time to try out both). i really wanted for her to do gymnastics. after all that was always my childhood dream, and a quick look at alivia she just looks built for gymnastics. however, twirling around in pretty dress ups is her most favorite thing. and seeing as how i am no mother to twist my child's arm into my direction... ballet won.

and i am so very glad it did. alivia beamed with delight as she danced around following every instruction the teacher gave her, best to her ability.


later that night alyson and i took the kids and headed to my parents condo. brian and i plan on staying there for the next week and a half for a mini get away.

typical of my life i wait till the last minute to do everything...
i wanted to start getting things ready there so that we could sleep there and my house would stay clean for nataleys birthday party.

right after dinner, alyson and i were putting things away. there is a glass coffee table in the family room. we usually put if off to the side when we stay there but i hadn't done it yet. alivia went to climb up on it, alyson told her to get down. and christopher was trying to help her off of it when it crashed and shattered down with her in the middle of it!

all i can say is thank god alyson was there. cause i freaked out! we got her all cleaned off, and i am still shocked that all she had was a few cuts on her one leg and one on her hand. we sat debating if she should go in and get it looked at. and me being me felt it was better to be safe then sorry....
but, i headed to the restaurant to get brians opinion first. he took one look and said... yep! so to the er we went.

she did end up with three stitches and there was still one piece of glass in the cut, so i am glad i took her in. she did pretty well during the stitching, a little whiney but no screaming.

i always knew alivia would be the one to need an er trip first! i knew the "no fear" attitude would get her into trouble at some point of her life.

anyway...
we... i survived our first "trama" er trip!

sigh, now...
onto sewing the finishing touches to the girls dresses for nats party!



oh yea!
i said all about alivia mostly...

levi and alivia had their check ups this morning...

and as dr. southerland was checking out levis personal parts...
levi decided to tell his dr. about the game he likes to play on the wii which happens to be set up in my bedroom, which he happens to refer to as "mommys game"...

so this is what came out of his mouth as the dr. was pulling down his undies...
"i like to play mommys game in her bed"....

my face got a little red with that one. my son and his perfect timing!

typical car ride...

most every where we go we always end up on lockwood ridge rd.

and from that point on this is what goes on in the van....


levi: mommy, look it's an L... just like levi!

mommy: it sure is. good eyes!

levi: alivia, my name starts with L...

alivia: me too!...

levi: (with slight anger) NOO livia... your name starts with A.

alivia: (very over dramatic) NOOOO me too, me too!!!!!!!

levi: (very angry) NOOOOOOOOOOO (tears) mommy, livias name doesn't start with L, it starts with A. only levi starts with L.

mommy: alivia, levi is right... your name starts with A.

alivia: oh, ok!

and just like that there is peace in the car again!

EVERY TIME... like clock work!

check up...

a semi frozen me was up and out of the house bright and early this morning. i always schedule dr appointments right after the kids have to be at school. i mean well by doing it. i have the hopes that i will be swift, and my agenda will be well planned out so that i can run to the appointment and not have too much time to kill before having to pick the older guys up from school. unfortunately, it never seems to go as planned right from the moment i wake up. i feel rushed, and when i feel rushed i get a little on the mean side of the spectrum. today was just the same but we did make it on time to the nataleys first appointment with dr. sourtherland.
i love her! the appointment went so incredibly well. she spent nearly 25 minuets "catching up" with nataley. very kind, very knowledgeable.

nataley faye:

6 months
weight: 16 lbs
height: 26"
head circumference: 161/2"

*she is now sitting up all on her own.
*grabs everything within her reach (her favorite is my hair!)
*she can pass objects from one hand to the other.
*she has started to grab her feet, although she doesn't appear as though she is very flexible!
*she has started babbling with single syllables.
*she is still all smiles, and a joy to be around!
*she has started to cut two bottom teeth (which i didn't think was possible, neither levi or livi cut their first tooth till nearly a year... but they are coming, i see em)


i may as well take the time to "catch up" levi and alivia too.....

levi:

*has more then caught up on his speech issues.
*loves monster trucks, and is anxiously awaiting going to see "monster jam" with brian next month. his favorite truck is "blue thunder"
*he knows the days of the week and months of the year in order.
*he can free handedly write his first and last name, and recognizes every letter of the alphabet by sight.
*he is a closet singer.... he loves to sing, but the second you look at him he stops!



alivia:
*her favorite thing in the world is mermaids, she likes to be called princess ariel.
*she is starting to talk in more complete sentences, her favorites being "no mommy, not yet" and "i can do it myself mommy!"
*she still has no fear. she will do anything levi tells her to do, without the concept that she may get hurt.
*she is pretty much fully potty trained. i still put pull ups on her at night, and they stay dry 6 out of the 7 nights of the week. but she is fully trained during the day.
*she loves nail polish, and body spray.... she makes me help her with them daily!
*she fully dresses herself, and will make you wait while she puts on her shoes... she will never allow me to help her with clothes anymore, even if it will speed up the dressing process!

sleep depravation....

i fear my blogging has become nothing more then a means for my whining. all i do is complain anymore. and i apologize for that, and i will try to get better... in the mean time, here i go once more.

last night was the worse night of sleep since bringing home our third child! i say since bringing home nataley because it wasn't the worst night of our life, that record is still held by that (and i still remember, thats how bad it was) thursday night about a year and a half ago. both levi and livia were sick, and between brian and i we managed to get about 20 minuets of sleep and both had places we needed to be bright and early. we had spent the night driving around the streets of sarasota. it's funny how time changes things.... that horrible night so long ago remains a memorable night brian and i shared together. hehe, although, i do believe i would have traded it to one of the many nights brian and i spent simply talking in the yoder's parking lot till all hours of the night before we got married.
it all started out the same as any other night. all three kids asleep by 9pm, quiet, and angel like. i was finishing up a silly game i was playing online and had just decided to call it a night. i took a shower, popped in the first season of greys (i am attempting to watch it over again so that i can kick eveyones butt with the game). all was still till just after midnight, i had dosed off about a half an hour earlier. and then out of nowhere i heard one of those horrible screams come from the girls room.... the kind you know means something is really, really wrong. brian and i both jumped up and ran over to alivias bedside. the screaming did not end till nearly 6 in the morning. since that beastly night nearly two years ago brian and i have worked out a "better" (for him anyway) system. i no longer work, and he has to put in long days so he gets to sleep while i deal with whatever it is i need to deal with. so that the record stands correct, i know how emotions are sometimes misunderstood in writing... our system works for us, i am not complaining about it. if i thought i needed brians help on nights like these he would be right there for me in a heartbeat. i prefer it this way.
so, here is how my night went....
alivia started screaming, after we saw that it was more then likely a bad dream, brian went back to bed while i tried to calm her down. i stayed in her room for about an hour while she cried to the point that she made herself puke in her bed. i changed the sheets and threw the old ones in the wash. gave her a bath, which finally started to calm her down. read her a story, and put her back to bed. all was quiet while i walked back over to my nice comfy bed. before i could even lay my head on the pillow i heard nataley stairing (which is very not like nataley) i think all the early commotion never let her get into a sound sleep. i laid down in hopes that maybe she would find that thumb she loves so much. after about 15 minuets of her fussing, i decided she was going to need some action, i didn't want her to keep alivia up while she was still trying to fall back to sleep herself, so i brought her out into the family room with me. after nearly two hours, and several attempts to lay her back down levi walked out of his room with a tired look on his face and said "mom mom, what are you doing?" i told him it was the middle of the night and that he needed to go back to sleep, to which he immediately started to cry himself. his crying then woke alivia (who is the light sleeper) up again. so there we were, the four of us.... just like every other day, only at 5 in the morning! at that point i was seriously ready to cry. i gave in.... fed nataley, put her back to bed. and turned on a movie for levi and alivia while i slept what little sleep i got on the couch. brian came out at 7 to tell me that the alarm was going off to get the kids ready for school. i did a bad mom thing and decided that i just couldn't do it, i was still rather emotional from the night . although looking back on it now this afternoon, when i am really ready to rip my hear right out. i should have just taken them.... they wake me up, i should wake them up..... right?

panties for alivia....

that's right! this girl is well on her way to no more diapersville. she has actually been ready for awhile now. but, mommy has been a bit lazy, busy, and tired! we started a few months back and after the first accident i decided that i was the one who was not ready, and pushed it off until now. the kids are on school break till january 8th, so what better way to start off the new year but to have two down and one more to go!
yesterday was the first official day. just like with levi, when she woke up i took her diaper off walked her over to the kids bathroom. i sat her down on the potty and explained that she is now a big girl, and big girls go potty on the potty. i placed those cute little 2t panties on her and told her she had to try and keep them dry. the next part will show just how ready and how lazy i have been. my little girl did not have one accident all day! not only that, but when she would have to go while we were at home she would run over to her potty.... pull down those tiny panties, go, empty her little potty into the big potty, and flush! towards the end of the night things got a little more risky when i decided to take the kids over to yoder's to have dinner. half way through the meal when daddy was walking past she got up, i thought she was following him. he turned left, and she turned right. i ran over to go grab her hand and she said "no mommy, i need to potty". i called brian over and he sat with levi and nataley while i took my big girl over to the restroom. dinner went so well, that i decided to stop at SAMS to pick up my pictures on the way home. she made it dry the whole time, and when we opened the house door she ran to the bathroom and went all by herself.
i'm not saying she is in fact official yet, but i do believe we will be there within a week or two!
when i potty trained levi, it was just as smooth. which actually makes me wonder....... how will nataley be?

moments like this

my heart has been rejoicing all day. levi and alivia had their christmas program at school today, and it was just so stinking cute!
watching little alivia, who naturally is the shortest one in her class (which actually would make her the shortest child in the school) do all the little hand motions of "away in a manger" and smiling so big when she first saw a glimps of brian and i in the crowed. and then jingling her little bells away during jingle bells. it seriously was just about the sweetest thing i ever did see.... i know, i am partial. but really, i'm sure you would have agreed! ;)
levi was nothing short of typical levi. as they were arranging the kids up on stage he glanced over and saw me first. he quickly looked around for his teacher and then pointed while shouting on the top of his lungs for everyone to hear "it's my mommy, she over there....SEE!!!". and then towards the end of the program, apparently he got bored and just sat down right in the middle of the group never to be seen again till the end. but the songs he did make it through "happy birthday jesus" and "joy to the world" he did amazingly.
It feel like it was just yesterday that i was having my own christmas programs, and here i am going to my childrens. life sure does move along fast. i honestly can't believe that levi is three. wasn't i just rocking him to sleep in the blue rocker yesterday? and now he is holding full out conversations with me! it's crazy!
i can whole heartedly say that i live for moments like this!

changes/ well baby visit

BIG changes in our home today, big changes!
the beginning of the day was a bit of a challenge, nataley had a well check up at 8:45am and the kids had to be at school at 8:30. i was silently planning on brian to help me in one of the two areas, but anyone who knows our family well enough would know that this was a silly thing for me to do the week before thanksgiving. he had to be up and out the door early and couldn't do anything about it. so, there i was at 11:30 last night gathering all the things up i would need in the morning to get 3 children up, fed and out the door by 7:45am. thankfully, everything went rather smoothly, and there was enough time for levi to be his lagging little self as we walked into school.






i don't know what it is about my little nataley that makes me so happy to take her out. people always point out babies, cause come on, they are ALL so darn cute! but with nat ( i am trying out different nick names for this child to see what feels right, currently she is nat) everyone always stops me to tell me how bubbly and happy she is. it was no different at dr. fethermans office today. all the nurses and receptionists were in awe of just how easy it is to crack this little girl up, i really love it and the attention that goes along with it (maybe kinda weird of me but true none the less). anyway, she passed with flying colors, and is now ready to start some foods! so yea! we get to start that road again :)

Nataley Faye:
4 months old
weight: 13lbs 11oz
height: 24 1/4"
head circumference: 15 3/4"

looking back on levi and alivias charts nataley is still the largest at this point, so maybe she will actually be a taller one?
the only thing that left me thinking as i drove home was a remark from a nurse who was a little surprised that we don't have her in a crib in her own room yet. i have always been late to do that with the kids. call it laziness on my part, cause that is probably what it is. it just is easier in the middle of the night, cause lets face it, i don't handle little sleep well.
but i did get to thinking that maybe this lady was actually right and decided that after i got the kids from school i would head on down to baby world and get alivia a toddler bed and let the girls have their first official night in "the girls room"!





now its 9:06... and all is quiet and still, and went just like every other night in our house (except different beds)....
let just hope and pray it remains that way throughout the night tonight! ;)

i hate tv!

today was a little bit different then the usual monday at our house.  brian had to work and he typically has mondays off.  so right off the bat the day was thrown off track. i kept thinking it was tuesday all day long, and it drove me crazy.  we did get out in the afternoon to a playground, but the rest of the day was spent at home doing the typical tuesday things.... i cleaned while the kids made a mess behind me :)

towards the end of the evening, i wanted to mop the floors quickly before bath.  i turned the tv on in hopes to occupy them so that i wouldn't have dirty little foot prints on my nice clean floor (honestly, nothing bothers me more then that).

unfortunitly , turning that tv on was the worse possible thing i could have done.  you would think that my children could have been entertained for the mesley 20 minuets it would have taken me to mop!  looking back on it now, i think that maybe i attempted this too close to bed time and they were a little over tired, but who knows.  as soon as the first commercial (some kid klean bubble bath thing) came on they both starting pointing saying i want that, its mine (alivia just said "no, mine!").  about two seconds later there was an all out fight going down on my family room floor!  levi seriously pushed alivia down and starting hitting her!  alivia fought right back and bit his arm... all over a stinking commercial!!!! IT WASN"T ANYONES!!!!!!  why? why? why do they have to make commercials so irresistible to children?  this is seriously something we go through on a daily basis here.... they see something on tv and point it out saying its theirs and how badly  they want it, and wont stop shouting till i stop what i'm doing to come see what it is....   needless to say... levi sat in time out and alivia got hot sauce in the mouth, and my floors are STILL not mopped!