Each member of our family is so different, like individual components of a symphony. But, like a symphony, each part is important to the overall structure and sound of the piece. We all work together to make a beautiful sound...our family. Just as the Lord knit us together in the womb, He is now knitting us together as a family, for His glory, outside the womb.
Cadence loves playing with her dolls. One day, she took all their clothes off, so I asked her why she did that. Her response was, "They can't wear their clothes when they go swimming." Duh! Of course! How could I be so stupid? She seems to end up with a new Barbie every time we return from Granny's house. How does that happen?
Here they all are watching t.v. She loves to line them up neatly, as well as, pair them up. It is so interesting to watch her personality emerge through the way she plays. Fascinating!
Cadence performed in her dance recital last week. She was a great little performer! They danced to a Veggie Tales song and looked so cute. Finn and Aria were great Cadence supporters and were well behaved throughout the performance. The real treat was that Granny and Papa came up for the event! Finn enjoyed sitting on Papa's lap during the recital and those around us could probably tell because he kept laughing and talking. Afterwards, Bill and Karen were able to stay for a cup of coffee before heading back to Denver. It was such a nice evening and I wish the visit could have been longer.
Our Thanksgiving celebrations actually started last week. We had the joy of hosting the college bible study at our house and serving them a Thanksgiving feast! There were about 10 of us.
It was my first time making a big Thanksgiving feast. It is amazing, you start cooking around noon and just keep cooking until you eat. That doesn't include the dishes you were able to cook ahead of time, either. I can now see how helpful a double oven would be. Just getting the timing of when to cook all the dishes coordinated was a feat in itself. All that to say, it was a lot of fun and such a blessing to serve all those guys and share good company for an evening.
Finn sat next to Greggor, who kept asking Finn if he'd like different foods to eat. Finn's answer was always, "Uh, Yesth". He was a good little eater. His favorite food was the cranberry sauce. Cadence was a little more shy around the group, but she leaned over to me while we were eating and said, "It is so nice to have so many friends here." She was a bit pickier with her food, but she did eat turkey and a roll. We had an 18 lb. turkey and there was nothing left at the end of the night. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie and chocolate and pumpkin walnut brownies. Yum!
Today, the actual Thanksgiving day, we enjoyed time together as a family. Thankfully, we had enough sides left over from last week, so all we had to make was the turkey. We got a smaller turkey for the 5 of us and have plenty of leftovers. Yeah! I love turkey leftovers for sandwiches. Yum! Aria even ate turkey...pureed turkey, that is.
After dinner, Brad got out the Christmas decorations and we put up the tree! Finn and Cadence helped put the ornaments on the tree and Aria played with the jingle bells.
Pugsley even joined in on the fun and got into the Christmas spirit.
The other day I found matching pajamas for the kids at Old Navy. I was sooooo excited to find boy and girl matching clothes. Very cute! Cadence and Finn wanted to put their p.j.'s on as soon as we got home for the store, at 11:30am. So, they had a pajama day.
Here are three piglets in a bathtub!
Cadence had picture day at her preschool last week. I asked her what she wanted to wear and she picked this Korean Hanbok that our friends gave her when she turned 1. We let her put it on at home, but not for the school picture. It was a little small and a bit over the top for a school picture.:) She looks good, though.
Yesterday, our little girl turned 4! As Brad pointed out, baby-hood (for us) tends to go slow, but now time is just flying by.
We had a family birthday celebration on Monday since that's Brad's day off. First, we went to the Longmont Rec Center to swim. It was a fun pool! They had a lazy river, which Brad and I really liked, and a kid area with a slide and various water fountains. We all had so much fun swimming! There were two big slides, also, but they weren't open...bummer. It was also great because there was only one other kid there and one old man who kept walking in circles around the lazy river, so it wasn't crowded at all.
Next, Cadence wanted chicken nuggets for lunch from McDonald's. After rest time, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Cadence, ate cake, and she opened her presents! Finn also got a couple of presents/party favors. They both got "pillow pets" and "zhu-zhu pets". Finn decided to give his zhu- zhu pet a bath while we weren't looking, so he was pretty upset when it stopped working. Luckily, we got it dried out and he worked again!
Cadence loved her unicorn pillow pet. For dinner, the birthday girl requested pizza. It was a very healthy day.:)
Cadence said that her favorite princess is Ariel, so I made a "Princess Ariel" cake. It was so much fun to make! I used "funfetti" for the cake part, which was kind of dry, but the strawberry frosting was delicious! That's the only part Cadence really ate, the frosting.
Pugsley didn't know what to think of the zhu-zhu pet. "Is he trying to eat my food?" "Is he going to replace me?"
She also got some presents from friends and family, which was so generous of everyone. Kelli, Bryan, Sophie and Clara gave her Bear Bucks to Build-a-Bear. It will be so much fun for Cadence to make her very own stuffed animal! Granny and Papa gave Cadence a ton of very cute clothes (see the picture above in the tutu), a book, shoes, a fairy and an Angelina Ballerina doll. This coming weekend Cadence and Finn are going to go swimming, again, with Grandma and Grandpa to celebrate her birthday with them. I'm sure that will be fun (and a little break for Brad and I)!
Yesterday, on her actual birthday, Cadence went to preschool. When I picked her up I gave her some flowers, she loves getting flowers.
Here is a better picture of Aria in her Halloween costume (she's just so cute, I wanted you to see).
Good friends, good scenery, good times. We went on a mini-vacation with our friends, Kevin and Mimi, to Glenwood Springs! It was so much fun! I LOVE swimming in the hotsprings, and, thankfully, so did the kids. We got there early, when it was still cold outside so that the steam was rising off the pool. This was Aria's first time swimming. She seemed to like it! We all swam together in the big pool for awhile and then the boys took a turn in the hot pool and then we switched and Mimi and I went into the hot pool. That pool was too hot for the kids, so they stayed in the big pool. A generous man and his little girl even put money in the jacuzzi seats for Mimi and I, what a treat! Finn was pretty adventurous in the water. He let Brad throw him up and all over the water. Cadence was more methodical about what she was doing and wanted to do things by herself. She had her tube and kicked herself all over the pool. If it were just Brad and I, I would have stayed in that pool all day. Did I mention that I LOVE swimming and playing in the water?!:)
It was a pretty relaxing time. Other than swimming, we walked up and down the main strip, went out for ice cream and dinner, and just hung out and talked. We had a little kitchenette in our room, so Mimi and Kevin brought stuff for breakfast and we brought stuff for lunch.
The kids did a great job sleeping, as well (well, Aria wasn't so great the first night, but by night 2 she had it down!). Finn and Cadence slept together the first night and then they were in and out of beds with each other and Brad the second night. At one point during the first night, Finn started crying a little. Cadence comforted him by saying, "It's okay, buddy.", and he went back to sleep. What a sweet sister.
Kevin and Mimi are such wonderful and Godly friends. They were so generous and willing to put up with us and the kids. We love the Burches!
The kids did a great job on the car-rides and it was a surprisingly relaxing and refreshing time!
