Elise is 3

Last week we celebrated Elise's 3rd birthday.  We had many of the special people in Elise's life over for a Pancake Birthday Party.  We always eat pancakes on Sunday nights at our house and it is Elise's favorite meal.  We have bunch of toppings to use and she always gets to pick her toppings.  Her favorite is honey and cinnamon.  So she heartily agreed to a Pancake Party.  No cake (lazy Mama), but we did have her favorite...chocolate ice cream for dessert.  Here are some photos of Elise from the past year.  They aren't in any particular order except that the first one is from her birthday party last year and the last one is the most recent picture that I've taken of her.

Elise is full of life!  She loves people.  She loves to make people laugh.  She has a good sense of humor.  She made up her first joke* the other day.  She likes talking in weird voices and accents.  she has her own sense of style...which is kind of crazy.  She loves to draw and play.  She loves to look beautiful.  She loves to dress up like a princess.  She loves playing outside.  She loves her little brother and is so sweet with him.  She loves to help in the kitchen.  She loves to taste test.  She loves to swim and be in the water.  She loves books and reading.  She has a huge imagination.  She has 3 notable imaginary friends, Sud, Mud, and Howan.  And so much more.  We love our little Elise!

*What did the baby wolf say when his Mommy was combing out his tangles?   Ow, Ow, OOOOOOOOWWW!

Lillian and Elise

I love these two little cousins.  They are both quite feisty, which can make their time together...lively.

Mud Masks!

Baking a cake for Epiphany!

Ticklish Justus

Christmas Tree 2014

When I got home from Missouri on Saturday Dane was setting up this tree.  We weren't sure if we would get a tree this year, but I always like to have a tree and I like to have a live tree.  We also didn't want to spend money on a tree.  So Dane acquired this lovely little Charlie Brown tree from behind his parents' house.  Dane thinks it's pitiful and I think it's beautiful.  We have a tree for Christmas after all!

Fall Fun

Dane was lamenting the end of October this evening.  It went by fast.  It's been a mild October here and we've enjoyed it!  Happy Birthday to Dane tomorrow!

Elise and Justus at the Music and Molasses Festival

But Mom, the sun is in our eyes!

Elise's first pony ride!  Yee Haw!

Elise and Daddy got to ride in the front seat

Sweet guy!

Daddy teaching Elise to play corn hole

Elise was playing outside after dinner one night and before we knew it
she was eating a second dinner at our neighbors house

Elise concentrating hard on painting her pumpkin

The whole family all dressed up

Elise with three of her neighbor friends

Bike ride at Aunt Mi Mi's house

Cute helmet, huh?

Cute little guy, huh?

Forlines Update

We are in one of those limbo times right now...waiting.  What is Dane's job going to be?  Will we move?  Will we settle in more deeply?  Thankfully God knows all of this.  Most days we're surprisingly ok with just trusting that we'll be taken care of no matter what.  I typically would be more anxious during a time like this.  And we do have our moments, but overall we feel peace.  We've been in this same boat a couple of times before and God came through on His promises even though I doubted.  He put my doubt to shame then and he'll keep his promises now.

Elise and Justus are our happiness and our frustration!  I guess that's how parenting goes.  We love being their Mommy and Daddy and we are really proud of them both.  

Elise is soaking up life and loving it.  She loves music and stories and playing hard.  We here "tell me a tsory!" multiple times a day.  Dane recently resorted to telling her stories "about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed" and stories "all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down.  And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there.  I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air".  She makes up her own songs all the time too.  "The sky is blue! and the ground is white!" is one of her faves lately.  She also has her own style.  I wish I would have taken a picture of her this morning.  We've decided that she can pick out her own clothes if she wants to as long as they are appropriate for the occasion.  Well, Dane is actually better at allowing that than I am.  I often try to convince her into a different outfit than she picks out.

Remember tapes?  Now we use CDs:)

Justus is as sweet as ever.  He has a smile that melts my heart.  He's so observant.  So much so that trying to nurse him with activity going on around him is impossible.  He wants to know what's going on.  He's got the army crawl down pat and is getting really fast at it.  His first tooth broke through this week.  He was going through a cold, Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease, and getting a tooth all in the same week.  Tough little guy.  I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed the day that he had a fever.  He just wanted to snuggle all day!

Little Man

Elise went a bit overboard on hand washing

Big Sister, Little Brother

Elise with Aunt Bek and Cousin Lillian at the farm

Her first "official" hair cut

Gwammy and Gwampy

We heard those two words come out of Elise's mouth a lot on our trip to see my parents (actually Grammy and Grampy).  Big brother James, Stephanie, and their four kiddos were a surprise when we got there.  James said they weren't going to be able to come, but they did!  So Mom and Dad had all seven of their grand-kids with them on Grandparents Day.  My cousin also came for a visit with his family which added three more kids to the mix.  Ten kids and eleven adults all in one house at the same time wasn't as bad as it sounds!

Here is a picture of the all the kids with their parents minus Adam (we missed you!).