Extras

A few extra pictures that I thought should be posted...

Birthdays are SO exhausting.

She's one now, she thinks she is big enough to climb on everything. Scary.Owen just playing... I had the two pictures of the girls to post, but wanted to include one of him.

Some Birthday Celebrating

We had very low key birthdays this year. We figured it was probably the last birthday where we could get away with not having an actual party, so we thought we would take advantage. Next year Ellie will get a real party with lots of little friends.

This year, we made cakes for both Maggie and Ellie. Maggie's was first and whatever wasn't eaten by the time we made Ellie's got tossed. Ellie decided that Maggie needed a purple cake with white frosting and colorful sprinkles. We just made the basic round cake... like I said, we were low key this year.

Ellie opted for a pink cake with pink icing and purple writing. She also loved wearing a pink 'birthday' dress for the occasion.

On Ellie's birthday we went to Chuck's (ake Chuck E Cheese).

Dad with his birthday girl.Owen chowing down on some pizza even though he really wanted to go play.

Maggie ate her entire share of pizza as well.

To be honest, I wasn't planning on doing any presents this year. From family, they received swim lessons and dressers for the new house. We definitely aren't in need of any toys or anything and since we are trying to save money, I wasn't planning on gifts. BUT- Ellie started saying how excited she was to open her presents.... SO I raced to Walmart and got her a couple things, mostly craft stuff. Here is Mags on the carousel, doesn't she look terrified?
Owen climbing up to the slides.

Even though the girls had low key birthdays, I think they enjoyed themselves and we always have fun when we do stuff together.

School is Out!

Quick blog marathon before bed....

The kids' preschool got out last week and we are all pretty sad about it. They had class parties to say goodbye to the school year and for everyone to say goodbye to one another. Both Elise and Owen have really loved this preschool and we are really sad that we won't be attending their next year. As I tried to get the kids into preschool in Katy, I was told it is easier to get them into college and that parents are at the doors at 4 a.m. on enrollment day! Crazy, but lucky us, we were able to find a place that will work for us and we are very excited to try it out next year.

Owen's party was first, but as every other kid was at the table chowing down on cookies and cupcakes, our Owen was napping away. He is so cute. I am glad that my 2 1/2 year old still needs a nap every day. Ellie was not so kind at that age so I am enjoying the fact that he still needs it.

After being trampled awake by his little sister, Owen took over her stroller and rolled out of his classroom in style-- legs crossed, laying back and chomping down on a chocolate chip cookie.

I am especially sad for Elise to leave the school because she has so many cute friends at school that she always talks about along with teachers that she adores. I am grateful that she had such a good year. Here she is digging into an ice cream sundae.

Here is Ellie showing us something she found.
Maggie was there too. She was having dad feed her cookies the entire time.

After spending a week and a half with the children and without preschool, I am admitedly a bit scared of spending the entire summer without any of us having time away from each other. However, I think we will make the best of it and do lots of swimming, crafts and park days.

Elise turns 4 today!

Can it be? Can it be that we are parents of a four year old? It's true. Elise turns four today. It is strange how her birth can feel like just yesterday and at the same time feel like such long time ago. This year has been a whirlwind. In your 3rd year of life:
-you gained another sibling who you adore
-you continue to be caring and concerned for others feelings

-you started being concerned with whether or not your clothes matched

-you learned how to open the pantry with the child lock on it

-you learned how to write your name, and Owen's name which you must include on all your papers along with your own

-you became a real water bug... just loving the pool and I am sure in your 4th year you will learn how to swim without any floatation devices

-you memorized several books and often trick us as to whether or not you can read...not yet

-you and Owen are best friends

-you learned how to throw a REAL fit

-you are quite sassy

-you scream better and at a higher pitch than any 3/4 year old we know

-you are a wonderful big sister

-when you are talking to Owen and Maggie you always refer to yourself in third person

-you love to bake

-you like to comb other people's hair

-you can take care of your brother and sister really well... at this rate, you will be babysitting by 5 :)

-you love to shop with mom

-you always try negotiating with mom and dad to get what you want

-you love the holidays and always try to take it all in
-you only keep your hair done half the day and then always take it out

-you like it when dad does airplane with you even though you are starting to get pretty heavy!

-you like to hold your baby sister (and brother for that matter)

-you are bossy, very bossy

-you are a creature of routine... you like routine

-you love makeup and like it when mom lets you put hers on

-you also love jewelry and dress up and all things girly

-you are a great helper, always doing most things I ask you to do

-you can name all the Disney princesses and feel like you are one of them

-you crave attention

-you enjoy doing crafts -- all the time

-you are a wonderful colorer and can stay in the lines

-you have a funny and cute laugh

-you LOVE Sea World!

-you love preschool and always want to go

-you like to snack

-you think you are a teenager, well at least you often act that way

-you are always up for an outing and always ask what we are doing every morning
-you love your grandparents

-you always want a little treat and some momma time when Owen takes his nap... it's our time

-you like to wake up Owen from his nap

-you always make sure that everyone is playing together nicely or else you get mad and sad about it

Biddle baby, we love you so much! You are so sweet and kind and our family wouldn't be the same without you. I know right now it is very exciting that your birthday and Maggie's birthday are so close together, but it won't always be that way, but I promise to always make each of your birthdays special because each of you are special to us in your own way.

Magdalyn turns 1!

Happy Birthday baby girl! I cannot believe you are one year old today. Probably because I am used to being pregnant when my babies turn 1 and this time I am not. But also because the time went by too fast. Having you in our family feels so good and so right and we absolutely adore you. You do so many fun things and make us laugh all of the time. And I don't know if you know this, but you have your daddy wrapped around your little finger.... it's true. There are some important things to mention about you at one year old: -you pester your brother all the time... not your sister, only Owen
-you love chocolate (surprise, surprise)
-you love strawberries and eat them by the fist fulls
-you hate to have your diaper changed and wrestle with us the entire time
-you just started sleeping through the night after mom and dad let you cry it out (it was so hard!)-you make strange sound effects
-you used to grab us by the ears and insert us into your mouth to give kisses, but you have cleaned up your act as of late and now only tolerate us kissing you
-you like to play with the computer and it drives mom and dad crazy
-having a soiled diaper offends you and you let us know quickly that you want it changed
-you are still sucking on a pacifier and your Grammy can't stand it... but that's ok, you get it for one more month

-you pinch mom's (and dad's) skin to feel comfort
-you love to play with books.. mostly to chew on them, but you are starting to look at pictures

-at 9 mos you learned to drink from a straw... it was about time

-you crawl much more than did either of your siblings and you are fast at it
-you have long feet and are already a size 4 (almost into a 5!)
-you hate to have bows in your hair and to my great sadness, always rip them out
-you are completely goofy... Dad and I always say you are 50% cute and 50% goofy
-your favorite foods are rice, couscous, chicken, strawberries, blueberries, french fries,
-you like to climb stairs and it is scary
-you love going on walks and think you are pretty cool in the choo choo wagon

-you like to bury your face in mom's neck for comfort
-you can dance by bouncing up and down
-you sing to music in the car or when someone else is singing a song
-you think your big
-you have curls in the back of your head and mom and dad always tell you that you are "business in the front and party in the back"
-you have a goofy smile that we love and think is adorable (you can also make some pretty silly faces)
-you get jealous when mom holds your brother or sister
-you don't want to talk either, but that's probably because your sister is almost 4 and talks for you

-you are adorable

-you like to swim

-you were finally weaned a week before your birthday
-you like to play in the water and demand control of the hose or sprinkler
-you like to press the buttons on the phone and have called many a people and talked to them even though I don't know what numbers you dialed
-you love your sister so much and try to be like her already
-when your brother and sister have friends over, you just have to be a part of the action
-you prefer your naps to be in daddy's arms

-you like to eat... a lot, but you are amazingly long and slender
-you have no desire to walk, but still I think you will soon
-while you love to play babies with your sister, you are also quick to grab a car to play with Owen

We love you Magdalyn and have enjoyed every day of your one year of life. We couldn't ask for a sweeter little girl. Happy Birthday!

It's OURS!

After some negotiation, we finally got this house!!! We are so excited about it! It is in Richmond, TX in a subdivision called Grand Mission. The location is perfect as it will only be a couple minutes from where Daniel will eventually be working (his job is in the process of moving locations). It is right on the Westpark and essentially right between Katy and Richmond.

The house is on a culdesac and you can see the community waterpark from our house... it's in walking distance. It also has this porch that we will be able to watch the kids from-- perfect!

Ok, these house pictures aren't the greatest because I was taking pictures more of things that need work rather than for the blog, but you can get an idea. By the way, this is a foreclosure so there are a couple of issues, but they are pretty minor. Basically, every room needs paint, floors need cleaning and there are a couple of patches that need to be done.. but really we got a deal.

The house is just under 3900 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms and it has a huge game room. We will seriously never need anything bigger. The thing that kind of sold us, well me anyway, was that the master is downstairs but so is a second bedroom which will be so great as a baby's room so I won't have to hike the stairs all night long.

Excuse the people in the picture and the junk in the hallway, but this is a picture of me standing in the back of the house shooting a picture towards the front door. Gives an idea of how big it is.

The fireplace area... we can just see the flat screen right above the fireplace and for some reason I am REALLY excited about having a mantle.

The kitchen has TONS of cabinet space. I am still drooling over the storage. It also has an island with a sink and dishwasher in it that is not pictured.
Up the stairs...thankfully after these pictures were taken they did clean the carpets. That'll save us from having to do it ourselves.
This is the game room. It is huge. We will basically be putting all of our family room furniture and all the playroom toys in this room and there will be plenty of space to spare!
From this standpoint, to the right (not pictured) is a bathroom and a bedroom (which I will use as a craft room until needed for something else) and in this picture we are looking at Ellie's room to the left and Owen's to the right. Right between the bedrooms is a Jack and Jill bathroom.

We are really excited about our first home. We can't stop thinking about what we want to do to it and the improvements we can make to it. It'll be a slow process to get things the way we want them exactly, but we are just so happy that we got this house!