The aftermath

After playing outside the clothes need to be hosed down and the kiddos cleaned...but its all worth it...most of the time.

love these two

Personalities abound

Samuel and Lucy have their own unique personalities and relationships with God's creation. We all love to be outside and I love to see their little personalities come out as they explore their world. After jumping in the puddles for about an hour they gravitated toward their loves - Lucy watering, tending, loving on the ladybugs AND Samuel sneaking/hiding/pretending, exploring, recording in his journal.
He found a bone and was trying to determine what animal it was. He thought there were teeth on it and tried to put it in his mouth (I'm always up for messy exploration but I discouraged actually putting it in his mouth!). His final hypothesis - it was a squirrel jaw bone. He thinks there used to be a big tree on the hill and when the tree fell it killed the squirrel and he found the bone today.
Tending and caring
Exploring God's world
Hands on exploration

Enjoying Lady bugs

Look Mama! I found a ladybug!

Puddle Jumping

Yesterday afternoon we spent time outside puddle jumping and enjoying the fresh air after all the rain this past week.

Dance, dance, dance, dance...dancing machine

Lady bugs

Sweet Lucy loves ladybugs - yesterday in our outdoor adventures in the mud puddles she found a little friend.

The fairy birthday cake

Lucy's favorite part of birthdays is the cake. This year she wanted a fairy cake...and we made it. She said "It's wonderful, Mama!" I'm glad she liked it. Butterfly Kitty seemed to approve too!

Tea with Friends

The girls enjoyed some tea, berries, twigs (pretzels), and cake in their fairy/princess best. Samuel was able to be a sparrowman and help with serving the girls and enjoyed the dancing too! The girls were all so sweet. Lucy is truly blessed with sweet friends - thanks for joining us and helping celebrate this special day!
Lucy, Lexi and Ms. Rachel!

Sweet Ada and Grant
Look at Irene and Abbie's proper way to grab their tea cups! And Hannah's angelic look.

Sparrowman Samuel serving the girls tea!

Lucy's 4th Birthday!

I can't believe she's four. What an amazing blessing Lucy Hope has been to our family and how quickly she has grown into a sweet little girl! This past week we celebrated her birthday with a fairy tea party at the house. Lucy had a great time with her friends dressing up and enjoying tea, fairy freeze dance and cake! Lucy is dearly loved by her family and she loves them. Thanks Mama and Daddy for being there to celebrate. I'm also glad we had the party when Samuel could be there - he really loves his little sister. We missed out on a pic with Daddy but he had the camera rolling most of the day. We love you sweet girl and are so glad we get to be a part of your life and watch you grow into and amazing woman!

Samuel and his little sister
The fairy Grandmother with the birthday girl
Papa and his little fairy
The fairy queen mother, Butterfly Kitty and the birthday girl

The fairy grandmother, fairy mother, fairy sister (aka Butterfly Kitty) and the birthday girl

4th Birthday Weekend

This week we celebrated Lucy's birthday. No matter how hard Jeremy has tried to keep her three - she turned four. When she got up on Monday I told her 'Happy Birthday' and she looked down at her legs, examined them and said "You mean, I'm 4 right now!" She was looking at her legs to see if they had grown overnight! She was convinced she could run faster on her 4 year old legs and demonstrated her new running legs down the hall.

Her birthday celebration started on Sunday - my dear aunts went with Grandma and took Lucy, Samuel and cousin Thomas to Chuck-E-Cheese on Sunday. Lucy talked about seeing cousin Thomas for two whole days because she hadn't seen him since he turned 13 the end of January. She couldn't wait to see him as a teenager!!! THANKS SO MUCH for taking them (and letting me nap - heehee!) The children loved it and Lucy definitely felt special. Thanks again so much!

Soccer - sneak peek

Here is the little bit of video I got at Samuel's game this weekend. I didn't catch his mean running skills or his verbal commentary during the game or his two goals but here's his joyful smile!

Grandma and Papa!

Grandma and Papa have been here this weekend - cooking for me (THANKS, MAMA!!!!) and helping me clean things out and get ready for Butterfly Kitty and helping with the kiddos and enjoying being grandparents. Besides prepping for Lucy to turn 4, they've also gotten to see Samuel in action playing soccer and performing at a local church percussion concert. He started practicing with a group from a local church the beginning of Feb after attending a percussion concert. The group has 2-15 year olds and it amazes me to watch them every Tuesday night. Right now he is the youngest one and he is enjoying the bass drum! I have some video of the drum concert - they aren't that clear when taken with my camera but see if you can spot him in this video - he is on the back row to the right of the bass drum.

Thanks Grandma and Papa for being here this weekend!!! What a great weekend to be here! We are so proud of Samuel and love to watch him smiling and enjoying life and the talents the Lord has given him - rhythm and love for music and a love of running and being outside!

Last weekend as a three year old!

Lucy turns 4 tomorrow and we have been celebrating this last weekend of being three by spending time with Grandma and Papa from FL and Grandpa Noonan and Joanna. Samuel has had a full weekend of a soccer game and a percussion concert at church (I'll post more on that later) that kept our event calendar busy for the grandparents.

After Samuel's game on Saturday all the grandparents were at the house for a while and Grandpa Noonan gave Lucy the birthday present he made for her - isn't this amazing! He is so handy with woodworking and made this dress up/closet for Lucy and Butterfly Kitty. Last night and this morning she spent quite a bit of time sorting through her dress up clothes and hanging them up, putting them on, asking if she could go to the store in them. As you know my kiddos love to dress up and this dress up center will be used daily in our house - what a great birthday gift! Thanks Grandpa Noonan!

Spring-time Artists

Today we spent the morning playing outside and painting beautiful spring flowers. The girls braved the breeze and enjoyed the sunshine while I got a surprise visit from my dear friend, Michelle! Thanks for stopping by.

Flying away

Samuel has been wanting to build a jet pack but, as I mentioned before, I'm not a rocket scientist so cardboard will have to do for now. We watched a show called Design Squad that shows kids making models of things and then building the real thing. The latest show was about a winged glider - so Samuel wanted to make one. Here is his prototype (no wings - just flintstone feet)- he even made it around the cul-de-sac a couple of times before he crashed. Lucy had her own version.
The buttons, bombs, steering wheel, etc.
Lucy's version
The last leg of the trip around the cul-de-sac
The happy creator/inventor

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!

This past Saturday some of the girls from church threw a shower for Butterfly Kitty and me. The women of SouthPoint PCA have been a huge blessing over the past three years we have lived here and this was just another example of their love and friendship!

I was overwhelmed at their generosity and care for me. I am so grateful for some time to think about baby #3 and begin to get excited that she will actually be here soon. It's been hard to think and get prepared for her arrival. I was reminded by one of my friends that God knows every hair on this little one's head and all ready knows all of the days of her life and has chosen to put her in our family...a good thought to be reminded of.

When I got home, Lucy helped me unpack everything and put it on our shelf - she carefully laid everything out and talked about what we would do with the baby wash, the wipes, etc. She saw a little hair bow and said "She is going to be so cute in this Mama!" It was neat to see how excited she was to see all of the blessings other gave to us. We prayed and thanked God for all of HIS provision through others.

THANK you to all of you who gave so much for us! We greatly appreciate being "showered" with your kindness! Thank you! Thank you!

Friday

Samuel had 'Donuts with Dad' at school this morning. He recited Psalm 23 and gave Jeremy some things he made for him - he drew a picture of Jeremy with a bushy beard. I love that Samuel is memorizing God's word.

Lucy and I went to a 1/2 price day at a consignment sale - I got one maternity shirt for a $1 and I let Lucy pick out one outfit for Butterfly Kitty - I want her to be able to give things to her little sister and she is super excited.

I went to the OB today for my 34 week check up and everything looks good. I'm measuring just right and the heartbeat was strong. So grateful! I was highly encouraged/chided to get registered at the hospital, get my birth plan to them and get that infant car seat but I know it'll be a while so I'll get on it soon. I was hoping the midwife would say Butterfly Kitty is about 22 pounds by this point (it would explain the weight gain) but seems she is between 4-5 pounds - I'm getting excited but in all reality it could be as much as 8 more weeks or as little as 4 weeks - wow.

Tonight Jeremy decided we would use our Cracker Barrel gift cards from Christmas to eat out so that I didn't have to cook - again I was grateful - a much needed break from cooking and cleaning and yummy dinner for us all.

Samuel earned his "stay up late night" from our manners jar. He wanted to know more about World War I so Jeremy showed him a couple of youtube videos on WWI and now they are playing the Wii. Fun times in the Noonan house.

Thursday: St. Patrick's Day

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

My little leprechaun!

We started the day off with a little green for breakfast - green smoothies, zuchinni muffins and sprinkles on the plate with green eggs (minus the ham - Sam I am!). Have a wonderful day celebrating with green, rainbows and the reminder of St. Patrick's love of the LORD!


We had a little tea party at the house with the girls and few other friends - and lots of playing while the mom's got to talk. We had a great St. Patty's day. At dinner we talked about the Trinity and it was so sweet to hear Lucy and Samuel talk about God - especially the "Ho-we Pirit" as Lucy calls Him. (from the stories we read, St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach about how God is one God but three persons - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit) Lucy and I took a pic before we headed to soccer practice for brother. Here is a picture of me with my girls. Lucy and Butterfly Kitty (she's the size of a pineapple this week so I thought we could put a pineapple in the picture for comparison).