Slow down

I find myself getting silly emotional lately over Lily.  She's growing up so fast, I can't believe it!  I just want to slow down time!  I can tell she is on the brink of a growth spurt.  Her body is changing and tonight we just bought her, her first bra!

This song by Nichole Nordeman is exactly how I feel!

Here’s to you
You were pink or blue
And everything I wanted
Here’s to you
Never sleeping through
From midnight till the morning
Had to crawl before you walked
Before you ran
Before I knew it
You were trying to free your fingers from my hand
‘Cause you could it on your own now somehow

Slow down
Won’t you stay here a minute more
I know you want to walk through the door
But it’s all too fast
Let’s make it last a little while
I pointed to the sky and now you wanna fly
I am your biggest fan
I hope you know I am
But do you think you can somehow
Slow down

Here’s to you
Every missing tooth
Every bedtime story
Here’s to Barbie cars, lightsaber wars
Sleeping in on Sunday
Had to crawl
Before you walked
Before you ran
Before I knew it
You were teaching me
The only thing love can
Hold hands through it
When it’s scary, you’ve got me

Slow down
Won’t you stay here a minute more
I know you want to walk through the door
But it’s all too fast
Let’s make it last a little while
I pointed to the sky and now you wanna fly
I am your biggest fan
I hope you know I am
But do you think you can somehow
Slow down

Please don’t roll your eyes at me
I know I’m embarrassing
But someday you’ll understand
You’ll hold a little hand
Ask them if they can

I am your biggest fan
I hope you know I am
But do you think you can
Somehow
Slow down
Slow down

Norway

So apparently Olav's mom had been diagnosed with Alzheimers.  As time goes on she is increasingly becoming more disoriented.  When Olav called her recently he felt like he heard a sense of urgency in her voice, like he needed to go and visit and perhaps say "goodbye" now.  So after much weighing all the options, we decided that he and Lily would go for a visit.

So last week Olav and Lily went to visit.  While Olav was apprehensive about the visit, it appears as if their visit was like a little vitamin pick-up for everyone!

Lily had a fabulous time and was spoiled rotten, oblivious to the intended purpose of the trip.  But honestly, maybe that is the best.  If her grandma should die shortly, she will have only great memories of her time there!  But perhaps her grandma will surprise us all and persevere on!

My niece Eline captured this photograph of Lily and Bestmor.  A picture truly says a 1000 words!  Love and Joy!

Double Digits!

I can't believe Lily is double digits!  How did that happen!!!!  What an awesome young lady she is becoming.  We kicked off her birthday celebration with a spa party and her first-ever sleepover!  Both Olav and I couldn't have been more pleased with her party!  She invited four really sweet girls, Brooke, Maddie, Anna, and cousin Aly.  Everyone had a blast at her party!  Olav and I were both saying, "it was the best party ever'.  Even Ashton enjoyed the fun!  They built forts, had Nerf gun wars, sang karaoke, piñata, sparklers, played games, watched a movie, ate way too much junk food and candy, and of course stayed up way too late!  When I checked on them at 1 am they were still going strong!  I think they fell asleep sometime between 2 and 3 am!  Lily kept joking with me before her party that she was not having a sleepover, but a "wake over"!

Soaking their feet!

Bye bye puffy eyes:)
 

Double Digits!!!!

The gift she had been pining for!

Group shot!

Unfortunately before Lily's party, she had started coming down with a mild cough/cold....well all the partying takes a toll and after the girls left this morning she spiked a fever of 103.  Poor thing!  I guess there is such a thing as too much birthday!

March has been a fun month!  We enjoyed celebrating Easter at Gaver Tree Farm and with my sister's family!

I also wanted to expose the kids to some of my fond childhood memories, so I took them to a Purim carnival in Columbia.  It was fun and they enjoyed it, but it was much different than I remembered!

I also notice that Lily's body is beginning to change.  I think she might be getting little breast buds and I noticed the other day that she had hair growing on her legs!  Ready or not, a young woman she is becoming!

Love this beautiful girl!

 

She is growing up so fast!

I've really felt like the secular world has really entered into Lily's world this year.  Lily has recently really gotten into pop music on the radio.  She loves to listen to Pandora and her iPod which has some songs on it!  I just wish some of the music was much more uplifting and encouraging!  She also continues to love reading!  She loves reading about horses and dogs.  Also lately she has stopped wearing her long skirts daily...makes a mama sad, but I know she's gotta grown up!

She continues to do well in school and her teacher talks about what a pleasure she is to have in class and even though she is a slow methodical worker, she works very hard.

She has decided to give swimming a rest for a while.  It makes Mama sad, but I also get it!  Hopefully, she finds something else she really likes!

Lily has made some new good friends at school and that seems to have made her quite happy!

The upper elementary just had a school dance this weekend and she decided she did not want to go!  I was surprised but also happy.  She is growing up way too fast already, no sense pushing it even more!

She continues to be a little mama.  It's sweet most of the time except when she is trying to mother her brother!  She was so sweet this week and made both herself and him dinner all by herself.  She is growing up so fast!

Snowzilla

We are recovering from a record-breaking snowstorm, over 36 inches of snow!  The kids enjoyed it, but they are still out of school and we are going a little stir crazy!  Thankfully our neighbor snowplowed our street to where the plow stopped so we could get out today!

Also, the kids just tried roller skating for the first time last week for Liliana Henry's birthday!  So fun!

A new year begins!

Well, I had a parenting fail!  I usually blog every month for the kids, but between the internet and my computer not functioning properly Lily never got a December blog.  So we have a lot to catch up!

First, Lily continues to be an awesome young lady!  She's doing very well in school both academically and socially.  She seems to have a nice group of girls she is friends with.  She got invited to a birthday party by her new friend Anna to do laser tag.  I think she really enjoyed it!  On the same day, she also went to her best friend Brooke's birthday party to go rock climbing.  Needless to say, she had a super fun and physical day!  Plus it was cool that she got to experience two new things!

Christmas was super fun!  Lily has really gotten into art!  She asked for oil pastels for Christmas and got several sets.  She's been busy drawing really cool things!  She also continues to love to sew!  She got some cool fabric from our friend Hope and from Bubby in Guatemala.  For Christmas Ashton got to go riding on an ATV, so of course Lily got to go as well!  The smile on her face and Ashton's were priceless!!!!

We spent New Year's with our dear friends Hope and Andy, Patsy and Mark, and Katie and Dan.  Lily and Samara finally got to wear their matching leopard print outfits.  Very cute!

November News

Lily is doing well in school at her conference, which was led by Lily herself, she shared her strengths, areas for growth, and her goals for the next quarter.  We are so proud of her!  She is a super shiny star!  She is loving her Spanish lessons at school!  I am so excited for her!  She also adores art class!

She's begun to get a little stubborn regarding swimming.  She had a meet in early November that she was committed to and she downright refused to go.  I guess we could of given her consequences to make her go, but was it worth it.  Needless to say Olav and I were pretty sad about it.  I contacted Coach Cheryl and she met with Lily.  Hopefully, she will be more agreeable about her next meet in January.  I suspect she will give up swimming at the end of the season, but I really want her to find some type of physical activity she loves.