Emma

She is growing up so fast. It amazes me that just 2 months ago, we got back from Haiti and she had just started saying a few words while we were gone. Now, she won't stop talking! It's so cute! She wants to do everything the big kids do. Just today, we were in the car and the big kids all were yelling that they wanted a piece of gum. Then Emma piped in, "I do, too!" It was hysterical! Plain as day.

And when she's doing something and I have to get onto her, if she doesn't stop, I give her "the look" and she just grins and says, "sowwee Momma" Makes my heart smile!

We went to Chuck E Cheese's again today and that girl loves to run around with her sisters and play the games. Muh eee! Muh eee! (money/token) And when we're done and picking out prizes, she always wants candee!

She is such a happy little girl! Can't imagine my life without her!

Every bit as big as her sisters!

Swim Meet

Ooops! Almost forgot about the other big thing of the day!

Luke had his second swim meet today. He did awesome! He swam four events: freestyle, butterfly in a relay, breast, and back. He placed first in his heat in breast! I was so incredibly proud! He started the lap off in freestyle on accident. :) He was towards the back of the line of kids. We got his attention and he changed his stroke and he shot ahead of everyone! It was awesome! He's doing really well with swim team!

Getting ready for backstroke

First place ribbon!

Fireflies and Fairies

My mom ran across an advertisement for the coolest thing last week and the botanical gardens in our area. Firefly Fling. They had live music, wood chip necklace making, cork boat making, fairy house making, all kinds of people dressed up like fairies walking around, face painting, and all kinds of other stuff.

It was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast! I told them yesterday that we had a big surprise for them tonight. It was something we'd never done. I hoped they would like it and wouldn't be disappointed. They weren't. :) Mom and Dad went with us and some great friends did, too.

It was a great night and we got to do something different and out of the ordinary!

Luke with his manly fairy house (no flowers!)

Emma with her cork boat (that she tore apart!)

Hope's fairy house complete with corn for the fairies to eat :)

Hope with her fairy house

Sara's fairy house with rose petal bed and flower pillow :)

Sara with her house

The whole family (bad pic, iPhone is all I had!)

Things I Want To Remember

Emma jibber jabbering away to herself and then giving a deep "heheheheh" cracking herself up!

Hope looking at me one day and saying, "I'm so happy, I think I could cry."

The kids running up to us when we got back from Haiti and Sara crying and smiling because she was so happy to see us.

Luke telling his jokes and thinking he's the funniest thing ever!

Sara, like, talking, like, a valley girl, like, all the time. :)

Hope getting in bed with me and snuggling in the mornings.

Sara loving to brush my hair and give me backrubs.

Emma running around trying to keep up with the big girls.

Luke still trying to snuggle up with me on the couch even though he's getting soooo big!

These days are long right now, but are flying by. They are growing up so fast. It's hard, but I know I'm going to miss it someday. :)

Success and a Swim Meet

This is what nap time looks like now at the Faddis house!

Emma took right to her new bed! It was funny the first night. I checked on her about 10:30 and she was sound asleep against the wall. Then Hope got up to pee pee about 1:00 so I checked on Emma again. She was on the floor beside her bed sound asleep! I put her back in her bed. Then about 7:30, Luke came into our room and told Lance and I that he woke up and went to check on Emma and she was asleep on the floor. haha! But it only took that one night to get used to it. She hasn't been on the floor again. :)

And the second morning after she slept in her big girl bed, she woke up before anyone in the house. We heard a loud "Momma?" in the living room. I honestly thought it was Hope. Lance got up and as he was walking into the living room, I heard it again. Then I realized it was Emma. Bless her heart. She's NEVER gotten up before everyone else and bless her heart, I can't imagine what she thought when she walked through the house and didn't see anyone!

On a different note, tonight was Luke's first swim meet. He did soooo good! I was so proud of him! We might have found his sport! :) He only got to do one event because they had to call the meet because of lighting in the area. I got some video, but I'll get a picture at the next meet and post it.

Open Wide

Today had the potential to be VERY stressful, but it was great! This is what it looks like when I take all FOUR kids to the dentist!...

We took up 4 of the 7 tables! Haha!

I have to admit that Luke has been to the dentist once in his life and the girls have never been. That's embarrassing I know. I took my mom with me. There is no way I could have managed all four by myself. Although, I'm PROUD to say that they did AMAZING!!! Hope was the one I was worried about. She doesn't do well in new situations and is nervous about new things. She was cautious and it was so cute, she wanted to know every single thing the assistant was going to do and wanted to see all the instruments and touch them. Then she laid down and loved it. She got to pick strawberry toothpaste. :)

Doesn't she look cute in the glasses?!

Sara giggled the entire cleaning! It was hysterical. It tickled! :)

Luke was in heaven because they had a TV on the ceiling playing "Tom & Jerry" :)

And here's the one I was most proud of! There wasn't enough dental assistants at first to get all the kids at once, so Emma had to wait a few minutes til someone else got there. Which was great because Mom held her and she got to watch the 3 big kids. When they were ready for her, she crawled up on the table, put on her own glasses and laid perfectly still! It was the cutest thing! The dentist said in 15 years of being a dentist, he's never had a child as young Emma just lay there and open her mouth. She was perfect!

Then we went to McDonald's for ice cream as a treat for being so good! HAHA!

And here's the other big thing happening in our house tonight...

Emma moved into a Big Girl bed tonight!

My mom went to a resale/closeout furniture store today and they had 2 of these cute little wooden, sleigh toddler beds. They wanted $39, but I told them I didn't need the mattress so they took $25! Score!

And I'm proud to say, she went right to sleep! I wondered how she'd do, but she loved her bed. :)

Heaven IS a Good Place

My sweet little Hope. Today, I was working on a vinyl order in the dining room and Hope came in talking about Gigi. Now, we have GiGi and and Gigi. GiGi is Lance's mom and Gigi was my grandmother. She passed away 5 years ago. Hope never met her. But she talks about her a lot.

She came into the dining room talking about Gigi and how she wished she didn't die and how much she missed her. I told her that one day, we'll see Gigi in Heaven. That was evidently the wrong thing to say! Hope lost is crying. She didn't want to die. I was in damage control mode!

I reassured her that she wasn't going to die anytime soon. (I know it's not a promise I have any control over, but I needed to console my baby.) She was very, very upset. She was holding me and crying so hard. Luke got in on the conversation and told her that when we live in Heaven we'll be able to fly! That didn't impress her. Ha!

A good friend of mine told me an analogy once about dieing to tell to your kids. I got a glove and put it on her hand. I told her that her hand was Hope, and the glove was her body. I then explained that when we die, we go to Heaven, and our body stays here. Then I took the glove off and laid it down and she looked at her hand. Pretty great illustration, but she didn't want a new body!

Then she asked me if we were going to be angels. (Now keep in mind, she's bawling hysterically.) I told her no, we weren't going to be angels, that we would be above the angels. We would be the angels' bosses.

Are you ready for this???? With no tears: "I want to be somebody's boss." HAHAHAHAHA! Bless her little 3rd child heart! The key to being ok with dieing and going to Heaven is that she gets to be someone's boss!

Love her!!!

Happy 4th of July!

Lance is on call this weekend so he wasn't able to go with the kids and I to our family reunion. It's hard to be away from Lance for the day, but my family reunion has been going on for over 40 years, and it's hard to miss that! I seriously think that in my almost 37 years, I've only missed less than 7 times. It is such a neat thing.

The kids were really disappointed that we weren't able to camp this year. They had so much fun last year being at the river the whole weekend. All the way down today, they kept asking about things we did last year and if we were going to get to do them again this year. Next year, the camping is back on!

Jack took all the kids on the 4 wheeler

Luke has wanted to play volleyball with the big kids and adults for 2 years now. He was able to play a few games this year and was sooooo happy!

My girls

And we topped the day off back home with Daddy and a cookout at a church in here town that does a great fireworks display. Happy Independence Day!!!

The Funny Things They Say

OK, so this post needs to be prefaced with the knowledge of the fact that Hope doesn't care for chocolate. She's my daughter. I didn't like chocolate until after Luke was born. Which was really unfortunate considering my best friend's dad was a chocolate salesman while we were growing up and I had access to all the chocolate I wanted!

It's pretty funny with Hope. She will just not have dessert if it's chocolate and not care. Even if all the other kids are eating it.

I bought some smores ice cream sandwiches this week. One side is chocolate cookie, the other is vanilla. Then in the middle of the ice cream layer is a layer of chocolate syrup. Not too much chocolate, but definitely there. She ate one yesterday and liked it. Then I let them have one today after we went swimming.

While she was eating it, she announces, "I like chocolate." You do? Since when? "Saturday."

Hysterical!

I was trying out a new photo app for my phone and she didn't want her picture taken! Goofy girl!