My little sponge!

Christian has recently started to show great interest in academic things. He's soaking up everything around him. He can almost count to 20 (he makes it to 14 with no errors and then things start to get a little mixed up). He's constantly asking about letters and colors and numbers and shapes. He shocked me the other day when he pointed to a triangle and then told me it was a triangle. That was not something we had even worked on, so I can tell he's just paying attention to everything around him. He comes home from Sunday school and can actually tell us what he learned about. The teacher in me is loving this!
I just got out the Fridge Phonics set and he has spent the entire morning playing with the letters A, B and C. He can tell you which letter is his letter, which letter is Abby's letter and which letter is McKenna's letter (B - for baby). We'll see if he can still remember it when Daddy comes home tonight.

Sweet Brother

Christian actually asked me to take this picture. He was so proud of himself that he "put McKenna to sleep" all by himself. He wanted to hold her, so I laid her next to him and she snuggled up against him and went right to sleep. Christian wanted Daddy to see what a good brother he was, so I took a picture. Of course, this moment only lasted for a few minutes. Christian is always willing to hold McKenna for a minute, then he tells me that he's "too hot."

You have got to be kidding!

We decided to update the lighting in our kitchen and foyer, so I came home from Lowes with big plans on how Ryan and I were going to install these lights ourselves. Ha!! Look at all those parts...you have got to be kidding...I can't do this. I have never done anything electrical in my life and this probably isn't the time to start. Ryan and I both come from families with very handy men in them, but apparently Ryan didn't get that gene, so most home improvement projects are left up to me (or we just call my dad or brother). My dear brother, Tim, assured me that he could talk me through it on the phone, but I don't think so!! We're calling in reinforcements for this one.

Small Group Friends

L to R: Devon, Noah, Emma, Jeb, Emily, McKenna, Taryn and Christian's in the front!

This weekend McKenna made her first trip to small group. It was great to have everyone back together again since it had been six weeks since we had gotten together (we weren't the only one with sickness in our family). One of the unique things about our small group is the age span of everyone in it. I love it that we have built in babysitters and that Christian has lots of great kids to look up to as he grows up. Emma has become an honorary member of our small group too. She and Emily have become great friends and it's so good for Emma to spend time such great kids.

For Our Daddies

I never really know what combination of children I'm going to have in a day until that day is upon me. This morning I woke up to Nate curling up in bed next to me. The sweet boy had a bad ear ache, so Amy brought him to my house instead of daycare. This is the first time Nate has ever had an ear ache and he was miserable so we headed to the doctor for the second time this week. The verdict - a bad ear infection in his left ear. On our way home in the car Christian, Nate and I were talking about what we were going to do with our day and we decided to make special pictures for our daddies.

This is Christian with his poster paper and some stickers, stamps and crayons. Christian put Disney Cars stickers and Nascar stickers on his poster. Then he took a crayon and made a road for the cars. Pretty creative!
Nate put lots of random stickers on his poster and then he drew some balls for his daddy. He also included a few Nascar stickers and he told me the cars were racing. He also told me that he drew a road, although it's not that recongnizable. I was really impressed with how much effort Nate put into this. He worked on it for over 30 min. which is quite a long time for a two year old with an ear ache!
I thought I would include a close up picture of Nate's poster so Jake could get a good look. Sorry Jake, but you'll have to wait until you come to visit in April to get this work of art. I only mail stuff that I can fit in a regular envelope with a regular stamp and that I can put in my own mailbox. Otherwise I would have to drag everyone to the post office and I avoid that place like a plague.

Photo Shoot

My friend Lori is starting a photography business, so she came over on Monday to take some baby pictures of McKenna. Unfortunately, McKenna was not in a good mood and she fussed the entire time Lori was at our house (over 2 hours), but somehow Lori actually managed to get some cute pictures of McKenna. She even got a picture of her smiling, which I haven't even managed to do yet.
Click on this link to view McKenna's pictures and to see some other great pictures Lori has taken. If you live in the Greencastle/Waynesboro/Chambersburg area and you need some family picture taken I would highly recommend Lori! It was so nice to have someone come to the house and to have someone who was willing to work with my crying baby.

Lori also brought along a little entertainment for Christian. Her two year old son, Jacob, had a grand time with Christian and Christian talked about his "nice friend" the rest of the day.

www.heartandsoulphotos.net

Just a Few Random Things!

1. Dear little Nate finally got the boot! He got kicked out of the crib. He's been ready for this for awhile, but it was just convenient to leave him in there until McKenna came along. Now McKenna's room consists of a twin bed for Abby, a crib for McKenna and a trundle (really just a crib mattress of the floor) for Nate! Nate was so excited about his "new" bed that he wouldn't stop jumping on it long enough to go down for a nap. So I threatened a little discipline and he went right to sleep.

2. This is a cute story I just had to share. Emma had to read two chapters of a reading group book last night for homework. She asked me if she could read it to Christian and I told her I didn't think he would really listen since it didn't really have pictures and since she was reading chapters in the middle of the book. Plus, I wanted her to actually understand what she was reading and I was afraid Christian would just distract her. So I told her "no," but she proceeded to ask Christian if he wanted to hear a story. He was thrilled by the idea, so I told her to give it a try. The next thing I know the two of them (pictured above) are snuggled up in his room in front of the window. Emma read both chapters to Christian and he didn't interrupt her once. They probably sat there for 20 min. I know that Christian couldn't have had a clue what she was reading, but he just loved the special attention. And I think Emma loved having Christian's undivided attention too!3. I just had to include a picture of my little cutie. Unfortunately, she has become a binkie addict at a very young age. Boo Hoo! I'd rather have a thumb sucker!

4. I finally took down my outdoor Christmas lights! I figured that since Christmas was over three months ago I might as well take them down :)

5. Today by 9:30am I had Abby, Christian, Nathan and McKenna dress with shoes and coats on and buckled into the car. I also had three sippy cups and one bottle packed in the diaper bag and I had three ride-on toys in the car too. We headed to church for playgroup and even though we were about 30 min. late I still felt pretty good about myself. The kids played great and really enjoyed burning off some energy in the gym. I loved being able to show McKenna off a little bit and it was nice to be able to talk to some friends. You may find this hard to believe, but it's 2:30pm and no one (other than McKenna of course) has cried yet today!! When I put Christian to bed last night we prayed that we would have a great day today and we specifically prayed that everyone would get along and do a good job of obeying!! Thank you Lord for hearing our prayer!!!!

6. Both Christian and Nate went to the doctor for various things last week, but here's the shocking part: Christian weighs 35lbs and Nate weighs 33.5lbs. Apparently their stomach viruses didn't seem to have much of an effect on them. My word, they are big boys. I think Abby weighs less than both of them!! Ryan would tell you that they both have football in their futures, but I politely disagree. I'd rather stick with baseball and soccer.

Wrapping Up My Birthday!

Emma and Abby are little girls who are full of life. They have to celebrate everything and that included my birthday. Since they were gone this past weekend, they planned a little party for me on Monday night. Both girls wore dresses and brought balloons and we had ice cream cake. Everyone wanted to help me blow out the candles, but I wouldn't let them. I was too afraid of them spiting their germs on the cake. So everybody got their own candle to blow out! Unfortunately, Nate missed all the fun because he was running a little fever. Not to worry, I took him to the doctor and nothing major is wrong. He just needs to start doing some nebulizer (did I spell that right??)treatments. We've just become very paranoid around here about germs.

McKenna slept through the whole thing!

Happy Easter

McKenna's first Easter!

McKenna with her favorite babysitter Taryn.
Beautiful eyes!
Ryan called McKenna the karate kid when she had on this outfit.
Cutest shoes ever!

Sorry, no Easter pictures of Christian. He was having a rough two year old kind-of day!

Happy Birthday!

I've had a great 30th birthday and I've spent the entire day with my three favorite people. Christian has been singing to me all day and I haven't cooked one thing. I did vacuum but only because I got a new vacuum cleaner (you can see it in the background of the video). That's what I really wanted for my birthday. I figured every 30 yr. old mom with two kids needs a great vacuum cleaner and I had always had a cheap one, but now I'm set. This vacuum does carpet and hard wood! I know they all say they do bare floors, but this one really does! Yippee! (By the way, Christian doesn't have pants on in this video because we have half heartedly started to potty train. He was wearing a big boy pull up. I just wanted you to know that he doesn't usually walk around without pants)!

This is a picture of Christian giving me a present that from him and McKenna. I'll have to take a picture of it, but it's a beautiful gold necklace with their birth stones (pearl and amethyst) in it. Very sweet and an heirloom that I'll treasure forever. The girls from my small group also surprised me with a bunch of balloons. McKenna has been loving those. She just lays on the floor and stares at them.

For Grampy and Grammy Chat

I finally figured out how to post a video. I had tried this before, but I think the videos I was trying to post were too long. Anyway, this video is for everyone's enjoyment, but it's especially for Grampy and Grammy Chatterton who haven't gotten to meet McKenna yet. Now that I figured out how to do this, hopefully I'll be posting lots of sweet pictures of McKenna to share with you. ENJOY!

Easter Egg Hunt

Today was Christian's first official Easter Egg Hunt (if you don't count all the ones Emma had for Christian this week after school. That sweet girl would hide eggs all over the family room and then have Christian find them over and over again). It was actually snowing this morning, but most of it melted by the time we headed over to church. In this picture Christian was waiting for the hunt to begin. He was so excited.
Christian's friend Jacob with his daddy.
The hunt is on!
Filling up his basket.
Showing off his eggs. Once Christian really understood the concept of an egg hunt, he was running around scooping up as many eggs as possible. He was one of the older two year olds in his group, so once his basket was full I told him he had to stop and let the little kids get some. Then he was ready to fill their baskets. He didn't even realize there was candy in the eggs until we were ready to go home. He was just having fun picking up the eggs. It was such a fun experience for both of us.

Thanks Ms. Chris and Ms. Heather for planning this activity for the kids!!

We had a blast!

Daddy's Home

Well, this isn't the best picture of everyone, but I'll post it anyway. There was great excitment yesterday when daddy got home and pretty soon he was snuggling both kids on the couch. I'm so glad our seven days without daddy is over. Yipee!!

Sweet Visitors

Ellie and McKenna

On Thursday our friends Ellie and Kate came over to spend some time with Christian and McKenna. Ellie and Kate are going to have a new baby join their family next Friday, so they came over to practice their baby holding skills and to check McKenna out. I think it was a great warm up for them. Both girls are going to be awesome big sisters. Their mommy and daddy are lucky to have such great helpers in the house.

Kate and McKenna

Kate is three and she is definitely ready to be a big sister. She was so interested in McKenna and was carefully examining her little hands, feet and ears. She was so gentle, kissing McKenna's head and she was thrilled when it was her turn to hold McKenna. She did a great job.

We can't wait to meet the newest Furnish girl! We'll be praying for a quick and safe delivery!

Infants and Toddlers - A Dangerous Mix

I definitely can't leave McKenna and Christian in the same room by themselves for very long at all because this (meaning the picture) is what happens. The poor girl is going to be pretty tough when it's all said and done.
Christian checking out the baby toys. What he doesn't remember is that he's already played with this for hours on end, but that was about 2 years ago.
I love this picture of McKenna. Just look at those beautiful eyes and sweet little hands. God is a marvelous creator!

Turning 30

Yup, that's right...I've only got two days left to be a twenty-something. I'm actually not having a hard time with this because my life is really very fulfilling. I've got a great marriage, two precious kids, I've had a career and now I'm lovin' just being a mommy and an aunt. Oh sure, I'm pretty stressed out most of the time by sick kids, disobedience, a sleepless baby and daunting tasks like laundry and potty training and a kitchen floor that just won't stay clean. But when I look back over this past year of highs and lows and the 28 years before that I can see a subtle thread that's been weaving it's way through my life. And that thread is my growing relationship with my savior, Jesus Christ. That relationship is what has gotten me through the disappointments and stresses of life and that relationship is what gives me great hope for the future. So as I've been mentally preparing for this big birthday I'm finding myself becoming more and more grateful for my savior and the sacrifice he made for me!

My 8th birthday.

My 11th birthday.

Click here to see what my very dear and witty friend Jamie had to say about turning 30. It's very entertaining and so, so true.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

This post is dedicated to my dear blogging friends Jamie and Katy. Katy, Jamie and I all went to Liberty University together. I found these pictures today while I was looking for something else and I just couldn't resist posting them. So many great memories came to mind as I looked at them. This is Katy and I at a football game. Go flames!
Jamie, Megan, Judy and Katy at a concert.
Katy and I with some random Papa John's guy. We were poor college students so we went to Papa John's at closing time and offered to wash tables in exchange for free pizza. It worked...we walked away with a few pizzas.

I miss you girls and hope that one day the three of us will get to spend some time together again!

THE SHOT :)

The monsterous, very painful, thick like glue, antibiotic shot that Christian got yesterday has worked. His fever was gone by 11pm last night and he woke up this morning at 5:25am ready to play. I'm still a little ticked that the doctor didn't explain to me just how bad the shot was going to hurt, especially considering they gave me a choice about this and I chose for him to get the shot. I know that Christian was really hurting last night. It's probably the most pain he's ever been in, but it's over now and he's much much happier.
We've had a nice day. Abby and I made blueberry muffins. The boys played nicely together and McKenna has spent a great deal of time sleeping. Now I just need her to decide to sleep for longer than 2 hours at night.
I just wanted everyone to know that things are looking up and I don't feel like screaming anymore!!

Should I laugh, cry or scream?????

I'm thinking that maybe I feel like screaming!!! Here we go again....Believe or not Christian has strep throat and a very high fever(thanks to his cousins who have passed it on). He is one sick little boy and the pediatrician gave him an antibiotic shot today instead of giving him oral medicine. He got the shot four hours ago and he is still whimpering and crying about it. The nurse told me it would hurt for a couple of days, but I had no idea it was going to hurt this bad. He can't even walk without crying. To top it off, Ryan is gone until Friday. I'm sure I was quite a pitiful sight to behold as I was carrying both Christian and McKenna out of the doctor's office, in the rain today. Needless to say this is totally stressing me out, especially since I've been up since 4am. McKenna has been having lots of belly pains lately, so she had a rough night last night. Thankfully McKenna has been awake a lot today so I am planning on having a good night with her. The other good news in all of this is that children under the age of two rarely (according to the doctor) get strep throat, so I'm not that worried about McKenna catching it. So please pray for my little guy. He's had more than his fair share of sickness lately.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is not one of those holidays that I usually celebrate. I'm not Irish, so I really don't care, but once you have a school aged child in your life all of sudden these little holidays become rather important. Emma was so excited about St. Patrick's Day because she had to design a Leprechaun trap. She worked on it with Grandmom this weekend and I really wish I had a picture of it because it was quite a contraption. Unfortunately, it didn't really work when a Leprechaun showed up in her classroom while she was away at lunch. Abby also had a tricky Leprechaun visit her preschool class today while she was taking a nap. I guess we've got lots of Leprechauns here in GREENcastle, Pa.
I just had to show you all McKenna's adorable outfit. Her friend Noah (he's in Kindergarten) picked this out for her and brought it to her when she was just a week old. Isn't it the cutest?!?
The outfit says "My First St. Patrick's Day." Too cute!!

Emma's Report Card

Today was report card day. This doesn't seem like a very big deal to Emma, she always mentions her report card as an after thought. She was much more excited about St. Patrick's Day today and the leprechaun trap that she made. Apparently a leprechaun actually came to her classroom while she was at lunch and he left the class a note. He got caught in trap or two but managed to escape; tricky little guy!
Well, Emma's report card was very positive. She got an OUTSTANDING (the highest score possible)in Reading, Writing and Math. She got an ABOVE AVERAGE in handwriting. She still needs to work on neatness and the spacing of her words. I think the main issue there is that she rushes.
This is the comment her teacher wrote:
Emma continues to do well in all subject areas. Socially, she always makes good choices and she is a caring friend to all of her classmates. Learning new things always excites her and she give 100% to everything she does. She is definitely a leader in our classroom, and we all enjoy her positive personality.

Emma we are so proud of you and how hard you always work. You never complain about doing your homework and you always come home from school very excited about your day. I must admit, I love it that I'm the first one you get to talk to when you get off the bus. I always get the best details about your day and I know that makes your mom jealous (sorry Amy) but I love it!!

Missing Daddy!

Christian has really been missing his daddy this morning. Ryan left on Friday to go to his cousins wedding in Florida ( I know..I know...a real hardship to go to Florida for a wedding. Oh how I wish I could have gone) then Ryan went directly from Florida to Alabama for business meetings all week. He won't be home until Friday, which is very, very sad. Christian has been telling me all morning that he's sad and misses Dada. So we sat on the couch together and I asked him what he missed about daddy and here's the list he came up with:
1. He plays "choo choos" with me.
2. He gives me baths (It's true. Ever since I got a huge pregnant belly Daddy was the main bath giver and it has continued even though I don't have the pregnancy excuse anymore).
3. He plays "neighs" with me (What he means is that they play horses together. Ryan will be the horse and Christian rides on his back and tells him what to do. He tells him where to go to get a drink, where to find a snack, when it's time to sleep, etc. It's very cute to watch).
3. He plays basketball.
4. He tackles me.
5. He gives me snacks (the kind that mommy always says "no" to).
6. He reads books.
7. He watches TV with me.
I thought that was a pretty good list for a 2 year old to come up with. It makes me realize how thankful I am that I have a husband who knows how to be a great dad. Mommy's and Daddy's are so different. If Christian came up with a list of things he does with me it would be totally different and it would include things like coloring, doing puzzles, helping with laundry, etc. I definitely believe God created families to have a mommy and daddy because they both fulfill very different and vital roles in a child's life.
We really miss you daddy!! Come home soon!!

Palm Sunday!

Today is Palm Sunday and we FINALLY made it to church. Emma and Abby wore their Easter dresses (they'll be in Mass. next weekend so they wore them to our church this weekend) and McKenna got dressed up too. As soon as Christian saw Abby he said, "Abby your a princess." Both girls certainly looked like princesses.


Grandmom and McKenna McKenna and I. I love pictures when she doesn't have her binkie in her mouth. I'm afraid those moments might just become rare. She loves her binkie.