My Sarah-The Flower Girl

For as long as Sarah could talk she has been fascinated with weddings. She tells us stories of when she gets married some day and what her wedding will be like. Mostly she just wants to marry her daddy, but she wants to get married at Disney World.

We found her a white dress a couple of years ago on clearance and figured that she could have her photos taken in it and then use it as her play "wedding" dress. We never did get her pictures taken in it, but she got a lot of use out of it as her bridal attire. She would put it on and walk ever so slowly down the stairs so that the back of the dress would catch the stair behind her and act like a train. She's put on a lot of miles up and down that staircase. We found a veil at claires boutique on clearance and that just added to the excitement. Now we would have to fix up her hair just right and clip in the veil, then drape one section over her face so that she could be hidden from her true love until their first kiss. She would walk down the staircase and have her daddy meet her at the bottom, then he would kneel down and lift the veil off her face and over her head and kiss her. All the while her eyes would be squished closed because you kiss with your eyes closed...ya know.

I love the thought of my baby never marrying and staying here with me and her dad all her life....but somehow that doesn't seem to be very realistic. I have a hard time believing Sarah is already 5 and a half. Where does the time go?

For Andrew's Birthday, Sarah bought him the Cinderella Book and CD by Steven Curtis Chapman. Now when she hears the song she has to dance with him....or if he is sitting down and she happens to think about it, she will sit on his lap and ask him to read it to her.

It is so interesting how for generations, little girls have wanted to be Cinderella or a Bride or Daddy's little Girl. Doesn't seem to fade like most fads do. I am loving watching Sarah in this season of her life. I love the innocence and the unconditional love. I love that she wants to stay with her mommy and daddy forever. I know this won't last and soon another season will come, but I hope not too soon.

Sarah was asked by my brother and soon to be sister in law to be a flower girl in their wedding in July. You can imagine how excited Sarah was when they asked her. She gets to be in a "real" wedding...as a flower girl. We took her to David's Bridal to shop for her dress and she was in heaven. She kept watching all the "big" girls trying on wedding dresses. Imagine seeing it all through the eyes of a five year old who longs to someday be a princess in her own wedding. We tried on several dresses and eventually found one that would work just right. We even allowed her to make the choice and she did a very good job at choosing. She does have a knack for fashion!

I love being a mom and I love all the memories that come with the title. I just wish time wouldn't seem to go by so fast. I want to soak up every moment with Sarah that I can.

Sarah 2009

Winter Wonderland

We had planned on having a nasty weather week here but it seemed to fizzle out until.....TODAY! Finally the weather forecaster's got it right and we officially had a Winter Storm Warning and a lot of snow.

Since we had an idea it was coming we started talking last night about what we wanted to do. Winter snow storms always seem to get Andrew and I into the cooking mood and it was very timely as we are just days away from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We decided to make soup and planned on grocery shopping while Sarah and Noah were at gymnastics. Let me tell ya, one batch of one kind of soup became double batches of two different types of soups and then we added in sugar cookies for the kids to decorate and a gingerbread house for the family to assemble and the girls to decorate. We were going to take advantage of this snow day BIG time!

We made Wild Rice soup complete with turkey, ham, and bacon and Potato Bacon Chowder with ham. Let me just say this, they are both wonderful and perfect meals for cold, snowy days. While Andrew and I cut, sliced, and fried, the boys shoveled. Sarah was my little kitchen helper and thought that she and I should have our own "Mother/Daughter" cooking show. I'm all for that, I think it would be fun! Emma slept but woke just in time for decorating sugar cookies. It was Emma's first time doing so and she did a great job!

After the food festivities, Andrew took the girls to deliver cookies to the neighbors and then let the girls play in the snow while he shoveled. Sarah would live in the snow if she could. She just loves everything about winter. Emma is still trying to decide if the snow is really for her or not. She is a little unsettled in her boots and falls a lot. She doesn't like getting the snow on her skin either. She'll do anything BIG sister (jie jie) does though and do it with a huge smile on her face.

Sarah is doing great with her gymnastics and continues to learn with excitement. She cannot wait to go every week and asks many times when it will be the day to go to gymnastics. She has been practicing her cartwheels and hand stands in our library.

Sarah also had her preschool Christmas program on Monday December 15th. She was so good and might I add, she looked so beautiful! I went by myself because I couldn't get the boys to join me (it was -10 degrees outside) and Andrew had a meeting. I video taped some so all could enjoy.

Sarah turned 5 on the 1st. Where has the time gone? I cannot believe we are about to celebrate having her in our family for 4 years in January. I wish we could keep them young but I just have to remember to enjoy every day with them.

I've been campaigning to move somewhere warmer. It doesn't have to be tropical, but not sub zero in the winter. I thought Tennessee or somewhere like that. Sarah has been helping me, but instead of Tennessee, she is telling Andrew that we need to move to Hawaii. Don't know where she got that from, but she thinks we need to be where the palm trees are. That's my girl!

Christmas is in a few days and we are gearing up for some quiet family time at home and playing games and watching movies with the kids. No doubt we'll have a white Christmas now!

God Bless.

Catch up time!

Where do I start? It has been so long since I've updated Sarah's journal. Since early September, she has started Pre-School on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. She just loves it and it is so up her alley. She loves the socialization and creativity it allows her to express. It gives me three hours in the afternoon to get some things done. She also joined gymnastics again and is loving it. She just finished the fall session and has moved up to Beginner 1 for the winter session. We are going to do the Saturday session because Noah can do his class at the same time, which saves on driving for me, and she can be in a class with Hannah and Ella. She is doing great with her gymnastics and wants to someday be an Olympic Champion.

She and Noah stayed with our good friend and Neighbor in September while the rest of us traveled to China to get her sister Emma. She had such a great time and Sara was able to keep her busy enough that we really didn't have to deal with issues of sadness because of missing us. We set up a skype account at Sara's and in China so we were able to talk to Sarah and Noah every evening while we were in China.

Sarah was Wonder Woman for Halloween. She had wanted to be WW last year but at the last minute decided to be something else. Then proceeded to talk about how she wish she had been WW for the rest of the year. So needless to say, we bought the WW costume early this year and she wore it several times before Halloween. She will actually sit and watch the old Wonder Woman shows from when I was little. It is fun to see her pretend to be Wonder Woman like I did when I was young. Some things never die!

We went to Breezy Point with Andrew's mom and dad in the middle of October and the girls had so much fun. It was Emma's first time swimming and she is now a fish along with her sister Sarah. Sarah was able to swim with her arm floaters only half filled and one time she actually swam with out them on at all. I am sure by the time we go to Breezy in July she'll be ready to swim full time on her own. She is growing up so fast!

Sarah is into the Barbie movies right now. Her favorite is Barbie Diamond Castle which the Sutherland's bought for her while we were in China. She loves to sing with the DVD and she is actually a pretty good singer. Emma even is learning the songs. Emma wants to do everything Sarah does and wants to be any where Sarah is. It is too cute. Sarah loves being a big sister and is embracing Emma totally. She doesn't even mind when it gets a little over whelming, she is a great sport.

Winter is almost upon us and it is one of Sarah's favorite times of the year. She loves the snow and would play outside all day if I let her. Let's hope for snow soon...Wait, did I really say that? Well, I didn't mean it. As far as I am concerned we don't need snow until January and we don't need temperatures less than 30 degrees at all!

Sarah starts School

I signed Sarah up for Pre-School yesterday. I have hesitated to do this because of homeschooling the other kids, but I think with bringing Emma home soon this will be a great outlet for Sarah a couple of times a week. It will also give Emma and I a chance to bond and spend some quality time together.


Sarah is growing up so fast, I can't stand it. Seems like yesterday she was just a little baby. I am enjoying the milestones though...it's just why do they have to come so quick? Sarah's latest is that she is learning to read. She can recite all the Dr. Seuss books by heart but now she is actually learning to phonetically sound out each word. This has been a lot of fun for me and Andrew to help her as the boys learned to read when they started school and we really didn't help with that process too much. Sarah is only 4 and I cannot express how smart she is. I hope we can challenge her enough cause this girl is gonna take on the world. She is studying constillations right now and has taken Andrew's Astronomy book for her own. It is so neat to see her take such a liking to something like that. She has asked us for a telescope for Christmas. How many 4 year olds do that? Also, she has asked us to take piano lessons and constantly bangs on the piano at our house.

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