Good gracious me! I can not believe it has already been eight weeks since I got a new boyfriend. He's getting good and fluffy and starting to smile and coo. I really like this stage. Plus as an added bonus he only wakes up once in the middle of the night. Always around 4am. I can handle that. 
Currently, Noelle is sporting an almost equal gap on the top and bottom.
Next up on our exciting life, First Day of Kindergarten. Stay tuned.
Yes, its true little miss Sis, you're two. Noelle has been anticipating this day because she just knew that you'd instantly turn terrible, at least that's what she told me. She was partly right. On your second birthday, while having dinner with some friends at their house you did bite their daughter. I'm sure you felt justified, like when you bite Noelle.
Despite the biting and other things that two year olds do, you're quite delightful. During your two year old exam at the doctor's office the doctor said if she ever needed to do a demonstration of how to examine a two year old that she would call you because you were so good and funny at the same time. She was amazed at your speech and you weren't even saying some of the crazy stuff you come up with. Some of my favorites are when you tell people goodbye and to "Have a good day"or when you ask for a movie, which has been a favorite past time lately, and you insist that it be a Barbie movie or the one with "Kayla the elephant." Your talking is constant and sometimes I don't know what you're saying and you look at me like I'm an idiot. I probably am.
For your birthday we gave you Barbies and a set of markers that won't draw on anything but their special paper. Noelle was very jealous of the Barbies and has cried on more than one occasion because she seems to think your birthday celebration has lasted way too long. As for the markers, you bit off the tops of all but one the first time we played with them. Lame. You are beyond markers that have a delayed markability and go straight for the pencils and pens to be just like Noelle when she draws.
You also got some clothes for your birthday. You did your best to try them all on as you unwrapped them. You even put on a skirt that Grammy gave you and then proceeded to go swimming with it on. We ended up stripping you down to nakedness and let you swim in your birthday suit.
Speaking of swimming you took your first swimming lessons this season. You're a fish and it scares the living daylights out of your parents when you dive right in. Good thing we only have a kiddie pool.
Sis, your happiness is contagious and many people love you for that. You're an easy going child and as your parents, we thank you for that. Happy birthday!
Whoa, where did the time go. May got away from me an now its July for cryin' out loud. Here is a picture update for those following along.
This picture worked out a little better.
I only got a picture with Sis because Noelle was riding in a cattle car with a bunch of strangers at the back of the train. When we went through the tunnel I'm pretty sure I could hear her screaming over all the other kids.
Not to let it go undocumented, but Boo and I also celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Being that I'm quite near the finish line of this pregnancy a good babysitter is such a treasure.
Noelle started a new session of swimming lessons and I couldn't bring myself to enroll in parent-tot with Sydney for two more weeks. Getting three of us ready is rough, but putting a swimsuit on over my enormous belly is down right pathetic. So in my attempt to keep summer interesting for Noelle I kept her in swimming and hired a babysitter for Sis during that time. It was heaven to sit for 30 plus minutes without a child climbing on me or nearly dying of heat stroke while strapped in the stroller.
Then the babysitter stayed and had lunch with us and played with my girls as a waddled around the house getting things accomplished. My kids love her, I love her. Win-win situation. Did I mention she walks to and from my house?
I might cry when she moves.
We got to visit with some of our favorite people who also happen to be relatives.
How cute is my Sissy?
We assembled a shed, and the garden that we planted at the end of March began to grow. It looks a lot different now that it resembles a jungle. Maybe I'll post an update in my May post.
I celebrated my birthday. Each candle on the cake represents four years of my life. 
That's right folks, she made it to the fifth year of life without major incident. Its hard to believe myself. This girl is one big ball of fiery energy that keeps all of us on our toes. Don't be fooled by her silliness and charm because before you know it she'll be telling you how lame your fashion choices are and how uncool you've become overnight. Some things that make Noelle special to us besides all her wit are as follows: She is so stinkin' smart, I had to buy a Human Body book for kids so that she and I could learn together. She's quite the artist and leaves her sketches, notes, stories and all other written things all over the house. She loves to draw girls with fancy dresses and high heeled shoes and recently has been having me cut out fish so that she can illustrate each one with its own personality. She then stuffs them into an envelope and asks me to mail them to various people. My favorite was the one with a "backpack" and falling out of that backpack is a bear. There was a very elaborate story to go with the backpack fish. Noelle loves to make up songs. Just today in the car she was singing a song about leprechauns and how they will mess up your hair and your room. I tried to catch it all from the front seat of the car and laughed the whole way. Lately she has started playing with Sydney more. This makes Boo and I both very happy considering just six months ago she was still asking when we planned to return her sister to the doctors who "got her out." The best is watching them together on the swing set, it makes my little mother heart swell. Noelle still loves to dance and still loves those darn tap shoes. I have to set a timer for tapping so that we can all keep our sanity around here. Sometimes it works. Noelle is very, very excited to go to kindergarten, however she feels the need to explain to anyone who asks her about it that she will indeed need to have some shots or vaccinations done before she can go and that after this she'll be done with shots forever. If only it were really true. Five has been a long time coming for her and now that it has arrived it seems she thinks she has the power to do even more amazing things. Our dear Noelle, we are so excited for you to learn a lot more things that hopefully include tying your own shoes and riding your bike without training wheels. Swimming wouldn't be so bad either. However those are just a smidgen of the things you will embrace in the next year or so. Thank you for your sense of humor that keeps Dad and I on our toes. Hopefully you'll never take life so serious that you can't have a good laugh. We sure love your guts even if they do stink from time to time.
Here are some birthday party extravaganza pictures that pretty much sum up the birthday experience at our house. (in no particular order.) 
We decorated the yard with many balloons and after the festivities one of the highlights was to gather them all together and run laps around the yard. It was also a game of keep-away from Sydney and Jackson. 
Every year Noelle request some sort of bubble maker. This one was pretty awesome. 
Here are the parting gifts for our birthday guests. Man did they make out like bandits. 
Noelle and her friends sat in a big circle for the gift exchanging. Sis did her best to be in the middle of the action as much as possible. 
We played some fun games to make all our guest tired including sack racing, go old fashion foot races the length of the yard, poisonous snake (jumping over a rope), a pinata, and pin the tail on the donkey. Some kids were in it to win it, and other chose to stand on the sidelines and spectate. 
The party riff-raff 
My girls had their picture taken last week. Check out the Yellow Pear Photography blog for a little preview.
Christmas was good. We traveled up to Utah to see our family and to surprise one of our Papas. I'm pretty sure he was surprised by the look on his face when he answered the door. It was a treat for him to have all his family together for Christmas since its been a few years since we've all been together during the holidays.
On Christmas Eve, while Noelle was sleeping and dreaming of the presents she was going to open, Santa brought her some great things in her stocking and while he was putting out the gifts he thought he'd better check to make sure Noelle was asleep. Sure enough, she was and Santa was kind enough to cover her up with her special silky blankets.
Noelle was especially delighted with the set of markers she found in her stocking. She's been using them since. We decided that we should store the chocolate from all our stockings and ration it out from time to time. Noelle even tried to convince her Grammy who was at our house that it would be okay since mom was gone to get the chocolate down from the closet.
During our Christmas vacation our girls did a fair amount of sleeping in coats, in the car. We're not used to wearing big coats and I think Sis thought it might just be a sleeping bag.
Our girls also spent some time with their cousins. This is just an example of how much fun it can be. You can't tell from this picture, but Jackson on the other hand was not having all that much fun. Poor guy.
Next year we're going to suggest that Santa bring Sis a bucket. She had more fun playing with a bucket on her head than she did with any of the toys she was given. Isn't that always the case?
We were glad to have had the chance to spend the holidays with our families despite the long drive. We're glad to have missed any major storms during our travels and maybe we'll come again in a few years...maybe.
