Lemonade Stand!

Our girls and Sarah and Caleb had been wanting to have a lemonade stand for awhile now. Mary told her kids we should decide on a cause to have the lemonade stand for, and Sarah and Caleb thought about the toy drive the school is having. There is an organization called BIG Love that supplies toys to cancer patients at Texas Childrens and a childrens hospital in Austin. Brannen students are collecting new toys to donate to them. So the kids decided to join together to raise money or take toy donations to be able to give to BIG Love. They made a video advertising their upcoming lemonade stand, and decorated the puppet theater to look like a for real stand.

The day of the sale, it was rainy, but we decided to set up anyway and see how it went. We had lots of sweet customers stop by! The kids had so much fun and loved collecting the donations and pouring the lemonade. The rain held off for about an hour...

(Randy decided to do a little advertising for our upcoming bond election)

...but then it started sprinkling and then raining a little harder. We moved our stand into the garage and we still had customers!! It was pretty fun.

And, the kids loved getting to play in the rain.

 

At the end of the day, they had raised over $100! They were pretty impressed with themselves and excited to go buy the toys!

This week, Mary and I took them shopping at Target with their money. The organization requests smaller, dollar-spot type toys, so we went to Target and they each got to pick out 50 things! Pretty fun! 

Checking out....it took awhile. :)

That was a fun project for them and allowed us the opportunity to have lots of good conversations.

A Shower for Stephen!

Last Saturday I got to help Mom, Lisa, and Maegan throw a shower for Alden, Scott, and baby Stephen! We are so excited for Alden and Scott and can't wait to meet Stephen in November and we had such a fun morning celebrating them. Stephen will be the first grandbaby on the Johnson side, and he is the first boy grandbaby on the Wood side. It was fun to plan the shower and shop for him - boys are fun to shop for, too!!

Alden is planning the nursery in navy and orange with accents of lime green, so that's what we planned for the shower decorations. I sewed some circle garland and made a banner. I think her color combinations are so cute!

This shower was all of Dad's family, Lisa's family, Mom's family, David's family, friends that she taught with at Birdville, friends from NRHBC, and some of Mom's friends that she teaches with. So many sweet friends and family came to celebrate them and it was fun to get to visit with everyone!

 

 

I loved getting to spend some time catching up with my sweet long-time friend Christie Nordell. She and her husband Ron are so special to Randy and me and we loved getting to see each other!

Kendall got to hold Mom's friend April's new baby girl and she was in heaven. These girls love babies so much and love it when they get to hold them. I think Kendall looks so beautiful here!  

Aunt Auggie, we are so excited for you to have the new name of "Mommy!" We already love Stephen so much and can't wait for him to be here. I know three little girls (and their Mom and Dad) who will be fighting over who gets to hold him first!

Calli's McDonald's Party (and a little bit Cooper's, too)

With the little girls sharing a birthday, we have realized that we will just take it one year at a time with how we celebrate their birthdays. Most of this year, Cooper has been telling us that she wanted to have her birthday party by herself. So, we had a party for her in Lake Jackson with her friends from school and church. We were already planning a trip to Ft. Worth the next weekend for Alden's baby shower, so we said we would have Calli's party there with family, and we would also celebrate Cooper with them too, since they didn't come down the weekend before. Because we knew we would be just coming into town that afternoon, we decided to plan something easy and landed on our very first McDonald's party! Calli was excited about it and it was great to be able to celebrate the girls' birthdays with all our family.

 

Kiki and Pops, Granny and Papas, and Gigi and Peeps were there, along with Gracie, Evy, and Oliver, Alden and Scott, Great Granny and Great Grandma and Grandpa. We are so very thankful for our precious family that loves our girls and us so well.  

This Granny and Aunt are loving this baby bump! Stephen is growing bigger and bigger and we are so ready to meet him!  

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles! I love these pictures of all three of the girls together.

Then I helped Cooper open presents and Randy helped Calli! These girls love opening presents and they were so sweet to stop in between each one, give a hug to whoever gave it to them and tell them thank you.

It was a fun and easy party and the girls loved it! Happy birthday Calli (and Cooper)! We love you both!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Calli Faith!

Calli girl, we are so very in love with you! God has knit you into our family in such an amazing way, and it's hard for us to believe that it hasn't even been a year and a half that you have been ours. We are getting very close to the time when you will have been with us longer than we were without you. And now you are 3 years old! You have learned and grown so much over this past year and we're so proud of who you are. We thought we knew strong-willed with Kendall, realized we didn't even know strong-willed before we had Cooper, and now you have shown us a whole new side of strong-willed and persistent! We have definitely entered "three" with you and are watching that feisty, spicy, stubborn side of you come out more and more every day. You love being the little sister, but also love letting those big sisters know that you are not "little" at all. You're still taking a nap every day, and sleeping from about 8pm-6:30 or 7 in the morning. Your favorite books are the Elephant and Piggie books and we read one before every nap and every bedtime. I love that I still get to rock you before nap and bed, and you are very attached to the same routine for going to sleep. You started school halfway through this past year and just rocked it! It was so good for you and so good for your mama. :) We started intense private speech therapy twice a week back in May, finished with that at the end of August, and now you get to have one-on-one speech therapy twice a week at Kendall's school because you are 3! You've learned to say the /n/ and /k/ sound, which was a big deal because now you can say your name and your sisters' names! We're still working specifically on /d/, /t/, and /s/. You're just so very smart and we are amazed at what you remember and can do. I love telling you the story about when Mommy and Daddy flew on an airplane to get you in China, and you are even telling parts of your story back to us lately. I think often of the miracle it is that you are our daughter, and how very blessed we are that we get to be the ones to watch you grow, to love you, and to provide for your needs. I wish I could put words to how we don't see you as any different to us than Cooper and Kendall, but also at the same time how often I think of your first parents and wonder about those first few days and months after you were born. There are things all the time that I wish I could show them and that I wish I could share with them, but I rest in the ability I have to pray for them and know that our Heavenly Father knows them intimately. Calli Faith, we are so in love with you and love that you are our big three year old! We are excited for what this year holds for you, sweet girl!

This last picture was at your 3 year old check up with Dr. B. You were just under the 50th percentile in height and weight, at 37 inches and 30 pounds.

Happy 4th Birthday, Cooper!

Cooper Elyse, we are just so in love with the precious little girl you are! You are "fo-uh" now, as you tell everyone, and I find myself hoping you never learn to pronounce your "r's." At 4, you are just one of the most adorable people we've ever known. You make us smile so much, and we love learning and watching your own distinct personality come out. You are our snuggler, our cuddler, and our affectionate daughter. You say your favorite thing to do is "cuddle Mommy and Daddy" and we just can't get enough. We can tell, even when you can't, that you just need some snuggle time or physical closeness - it's the way you're wired and when you don't have enough, you get grumpy. :) Daddy calls you his "sous chef" because you have GOT to be in the kitchen, on the counter with him cooking any time he is. We tell you all the time how special it is that you are the only one in our family who gets to be both a big sister AND a little sister and the relationships you have with both Kendall and Calli are so special. Even though Daddy and I feel like we go out of our way to give you special attention, extra love and lots of cuddle time, the "middle child" still comes out of you sometimes that says, "No one wants to sit by me" or "No one wants to play with me." Sometimes we call you "Eyeore," because you can get so upset so easily. You can be very serious, and very shy, but you are such a loving sister, daughter, and friend. This year you loved going to school for the first time, and also getting to go to the Clubhouse at church for the first time. You are always learning, watching, and taking in everything Kendall does, and we can tell you have a "math mind" that picks up anything with numbers, shapes, and building easily. Legos are some of your favorite toys, you want to be a librarian when you grow up, spaghetti and tacos are some of your favorite foods, and you love the song "This Little Light of Mine." Also, you are over the moon about babies. Oliver, Savannah, Kate, and any baby you see just make you stop in your tracks and you have to get down in their face and just love on them as much as you can. You tell people "I just love babies and I'm really good with them." Your heart is so tender and Daddy and I want so much to love you, teach you, and train you in such a way that you never loose that tenderness and gentleness. Happy 4th birthday, sweet girl. We're crazy about you!

We had your 4 year old check up just 3 days after your birthday. You are still around the 50th percentile in height and weight, at 40 inches and 37 pounds.

Cooper and Calli's First Day of Preschool

Cooper and Calli started back to school the day after Labor Day this year! The preschool starts a week after Kendall's school started, so they were so ready to finally get to go to school themselves after watching Kendall have her first few days. They kept asking me when they were going to get to meet their teacher, when they would get to go to school, and were just too excited. I let them pick out their first day of school outfits, and they chose very fancy dresses. :)

Sweet buddies. I love how Cooper feels like she is so big and how she takes care of Calli. They asked me the day before school started when they would make cookies to take to their teachers because that is what Kendall did. I had to make a quick trip to the store, but we made cookies together on Monday and they were excited to deliver them on Tuesday.

 

Calli is in the orange giraffe 3 year old class this year, just like Cooper was last year. We're thinking we may keep her in the 4 year old class for two years, since her birthday is so late, just to give her speech more time to develop, but we'll see. For now she moved up to the 3s, so she's the youngest in her class, but she's doing great! She's such a smart girl.

 

She walked right in, hung up her bag, washed her hands, and started playing with the play-dough on the table. There were no tears at all when I left - she just was ready for another day at school! No big deal!  

And Cooper is a yellow cheetah this year, in the 4 year old class! She likes to tell people that she is in the oldest class in the school. It doesn't seem real to me that she will "graduate" preschool at the end of this year and move on to Kindergarten next year!

Ms. Nikie had her check her name off, then hang up her backpack and wash her hands. Such a big girl!

She got to play with play-dough, too, and she sat next to her buddy Luke. Lots of her friends from last year are in her class again.  

When I picked them up, they loved telling me about their day. I enjoyed some time by myself that morning, but I was ready to see them and hear about how their day was. Calli took her usual nap, and Cooper had some alone time with me before Kendall got home from school. She hasn't napped for 2 years now. When Kendall got home and Calli woke up, I was fixing a snack for them and looked over and Cooper had fallen asleep at the table! I don't think that has ever happened with any of our girls. So funny. She was just worn out from her first day of school. I took advantage of some snuggle time with her and picked her up and held her for awhile. Later that night, she was still up at 11pm because of that nap, but the time I got to cuddle with her was worth it!

We're so thankful the girls get to go to preschool and are excited about all the adventures they will have this year!

 

 

 

 

Cooper's Librarian Party!

We had so much fun celebrating our new 4 year old! Cooper has been so excited about her party and we had a lot of fun planning it and getting ready for it together.

She has been saying for awhile now that when she grows up, she wants to be a librarian. And that because she wants to be a librarian, she wanted to have a librarian birthday party. This girl and her birthday ideas. Last year it was a school bus party and now a librarian party. I love it! And what I really love is how much she loves planning them with me. She wants to talk through all the details, help me shop, do crafts with me, and help get everything ready. I love that so much!

 

Randy created a pretty cute "due date" library card invitation for us to mail to her friends.

We were planning to play on our water slide and have the party outside, but there were rain chances, so we decided to have the party inside and then move out to play on the water slide if the rain held off. It ended up not raining, so we got to go out and splash around at the end! 

When the kids got here, we started by having them make their own "stained glass" bookmark. They glued colored tissue paper onto white card stock and we let it dry while we partied, punched holes in the top, added a ribbon, and sent them home. Cooper helped me set out books everywhere to look like a library. We made her banner out of book pages, as well as the chain links we hung from the ceiling.

Randy made her cake again and it turned out so cute! I had the idea for it to be a stack of books and he wasn't sure it would turn out ok, but Cooper loved it.

Her birthday book for this year. Eric Carle is her author. Pops and Kiki also got books for favors for all of Cooper's friends! We got Curious George Visits the Library, of course.

Book-themed snacks...

I love this picture so much. She is just getting so big!

 

 

 

 

Calli was still eating cake and ice cream after everyone else had already finished and left. She didn't mind one bit - she was focused on that food!

One of the big things Cooper kept talking about that she wanted to do was have me read a book to her friends. I wasn't sure how well having all the kids sit and quietly listen would go at a birthday party, but they really did sit and enjoy the book. I read them the Curious George book and then told them they could each take one home and they were all so excited. I just love having the girls' birthday parties with all their sweet friends. They love anything you do and it's so easy to make them happy. Cooper told me later that night that her favorite part of her party was when Mommy read to her friends. Sweetie girl.

Then we got to play outside! They loved the water slide and we were thankful once again that we have it. It has been so wonderful to have all summer and it was great for the party!  

Love this picture of Coop and Michelle!  

We had such a fun, easy morning! Cooper loved her very own party and we know it was special for her to have her own celebration. Last year the girls' party was together, this year Cooper wanted her own. Who knows how their birthdays will look in the future, but we'll just take it a year at a time and always make sure all three of them know that they are special to us and we are thankful for the gifts they are to us!!