E is 10

+ E is one smart kid. She loves everything about school. She loves to learn and is a little sponge. If she isn't able to go to class because she's sick or of the weather she will cry. Bless her heart.

+E loves to read. not only does she read, she reads massive books. 700+ page books without even batting an eye. She has an amazing memory recalling the smallest details. I will often come upstairs after working out in the evening to find her still awake a book in her lap reading away. 

+E is creative. She is always looking up crafts online and trying to make up new little projects. I love to see the things thats he comes up with. Her art is getting better too!!

+E is one of the most thoughtful people I know. She knows how to read a person, room or situation. She specifiaclly goes out of her way to help people, leave notes, tidy a room, play with a baby, start a meal. She is always the first one to help and the last one to stop working. 

+She is the best mini Mama. She knows how to distract Roo in the most amazing ways. I watch her and think, man, she's better than I am. She just GETS it. If he's crying she pulls out a toy or if he wants something he shouldn't she hands him somethng else so effortlessly. I am just in awe of her. 

+She is a fantastic and at time, complicated blend of both Jakob and I. She has my heart, love of being with people, and energy, combined with Jakob's demeanor for knowledge, calm demenor, and stubbornness and eye for money. Its so strage to see how we have each played a roll in who she is becoming and I love watching her grow up into this incredible person. 

+E loves her friends and is quite social but more often that not will choose to be at home with us if given the choice. Her best friend is Lucy and I love seeing them together. 

+E's love language is words of affirmation and gifts.

+She love to save her money. She's so possessive of it and I love seeing her figure out ways to earn money. I was at the dinner table with her shorty after her birthday and I told her that I only had her for another 8 years and then she would be going off to school. She looked at me straight in the eye and said "Mom, do you have any idea how much rent is? Never mind, food, gas, insurance and a car. There is no way I want to be paying for all of that while I'm in school. No, I think I'll stay home fro awhile." My jaw hit the floor. What 10 year old thinks like that?! We'll see how she feels in a few years but gosh darn it I was proud of her!

+And to to reiterate and becuase I feel like I worded this well on Instagram, here is the caption about E from there: T E N. I have been a pile of emotions all day (but we'll save most of those for mother's day.) This girl. She's my best friend, her Daddy's kiddo, our Mini Mama, our world. She is compassionate, patient, loving, empathetic, strong, confident and unique. She understands things without being told, she is always the first to help without being asked, and tries her hardest to serve everyone. She loves all things Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and Stitch. She is creative and loves to make anything she can. She loves to read and will read 3-4 books at the same time. She is funny and I love our conversations that usually end up with us laughing until we cry. She's the best Mini Mama and can take care of the boys better than I can. When I grow up I want to be just like this girl. She is all the good things in this world. Happy Birthday Peanut. You are SO LOVED!

 

Oh and a couple of out takes because it was cold and snowing and I asked her to jump and they make me laugh!!

 

9 Years Old

 Age: 9

Height: 

Weight:

Nicknames: Peanut, Kiddo (Daddy), Mufficita (Pa).

+ E is the BEST big sister. She is always there ready to help with Roo. She plays, sets up shows, gets him snacks. We call her Little Mini Mama. Roo loves his big sister so it is really nice when she jumps in to help! 

+ She is a really wonderful student. She enjoys school and her favorite subject is art and math. She works hard and is always willing to go the extra step to make her work stand out.

+ E has a great group of friends. She is a light and is really good at navigating drama around friendships. She has some great friends that come over to play and it's so fun to see her in a social setting and see how she thrives. 

+ E is still ALLLLLL about the crafts and making things. She loves to work on projects together and I wish that we had more time to do that. Doesn't matter what we're making, E is all in.

+ E loves to play games and is really quite competitive. She likes to play Catan with Mama, Daddy & Duke and will play Yahtzee with Oma. 

+This girl is a wonderful reader. She has read all of the Percy Jackson books, the first three Harry Potter books and has started the Hero's of Olympus series. I am so dang proud of her and I love that she loves to read!!

+ E is becoming quite the little chef. She is starting to experiment in the kitchen and has learned how to make Mac n Cheese. We'll see how this develops! 

+E is a BIG Harry Potter fan and oh. my. lanata. it is so dang fun to enjoy something together. Her room has turned into a Hufflepuff Dormitory and we have some plans to make it even more exciting. We have been reading the books together and I love getting to spend some time and watching her fall in love with characters.

+ E is the most sincere and genuine person I know. She knows your feeling without having to say anything. She is empathetic, and kind. She is always thinking of others and she thrives on positive reinforcement. She is bold and brave but in the most humble way. She wants everyone to be happy and will often put her happiness on the back burner to serve someone else. She is all the good things in this world. 

+E is starting to find a love for Lego. After the summer spent at Gramma's building all of Daddy's Lego, it sparked a love for building. Her favorite sets are Harry Potter themed. 

Oh sweet girl, you will move mountains as you grow. Please don't ever change. You are so loved!!

First Birthday Shoot

 And here are this boys first birthday photos. This outfit has been worn by all three boys for their first birthday pictures and it is dear to my heart. Here is too many pictures f Reddy- Roo.

 

 

Oh Roo Roo, you are so loved my boy!

Halloween

Happy Halloween from our neck of the woods. This year I decided to go as easy as possible. I wasn't sure what the world would look like with COVID and Halloween and there was no way I was spending a couple hundred dollars on costumes for us not to wear them at all. So we raided closets and pulled together a pretty awesome set if I do say so myself. 

For E's costume I bought the bunny ears because the one's we had were pink. The night before Halloween she came downstairs to tell me that the jacket she had for her dress was too small. So I raced down to my fabric stash and found some left over fur. THANK HEAVENS! I whipped up a really fast shrug and It cam out so dang cute! 

 Perfect little bunny! 

 

 I let everyone pick their forest animal and when I asked Duke what he wanted to be He told me a walrus. I explained that it wasn't a forest creature and gave him a list. He then said "Still a Walrus." I was a bit torn barbecue gosh darn it it would have been hilarious, but the next day he decided he wanted to be a moose. Then we locked in a hedgehog.

 

 For Duke's costume i had to buy the felt and the nude hoodie. His actually took a bit of work but it was really straight forward. 

 

 I should have done a few more rows with some small spikes, but gosh darn it, he is dang cute as he is! 

 

 

 I sure love you Duke!

 

 Sprout's was my easiest and cheapest. Sweats and a sweater from the closet and a mask from the dollar store! I had every intention of either making my own mask or painting his face but then I saw this mask just by chance at the dollar store and I snatched it right up! 

 So perfect. So easy. Also, if Sprout asks you what he is.... the correct answer is a sloth. He asked to be a racoon but Halloween day, he was very insisted that he was a sloth. Sold, you do you buddy!

 

 And Roo was a fox! The cutest fox you ever did see that I ordered online without hesitation. 

 

Please enjoy a few pictures of my baby's first Halloween (and his last first holiday. I'm a puddle!) 

 

 

 

 

 I took a ton of pictures of my snail costume in the forest and none of them actually took, so my pictures are at the end. I was really proud of the snail costume though. 

 

 Jakob made an excellent lumberjack! 

 

 Attack of the animals!

 After our pictures we scurried over to the ward trunk or treat. It was so nice to have something "normal" again for the holiday. 

 

 

 

 

Callie was a squirrel and she fit in perfectly with our family theme!

 

 Poor boy was so tired. What a trooper!

 

Papa tried to get a few pictures of my costume for me. I'm not going to lie, I felt like the pretties snail around. My dress was from Savers, left over from a gala that we never attended. My shell was packing paper rolled up and hot glued. And then I added twinkle lights to my shell which really set it over the top IMO. To get a slightly longer train, I ordered a really cheap curtain off of Amazon that matched almost perfectly.

 

 It was a fun one for sure! 

Originally we decided that we had no intention of going  trick or treating this year. The kids had gotten plenty of candy from trunk or treat. We were just going to stage a picture with Sean handing Roo a candy for his "first Halloween" picture. But then Paula said that she wanted to pop over to the neighbors house really quick so we raided her clostest for costumes for the kids really quick. 

 

E was the cutest crayon. 

 

 

 GRYFINDOR! For Bear!

 All Roo wanted to do was jump into the fire pit then had set up on the driveway. The kids went to three houses and they came home with two full sized candy bars and a big handful of mini bars.

I love the Dyches family and I am so glad that the kids get along. We have a lot of fun together. 

 WE came back to food, more treats, movies and games and it was awesome! Happy Halloween everyone!