the many faces...

having some fun with the camera...here are some of the many faces of Sydney and Miles :)

a belated birthday post...

Since we were traveling over Sydney's birthday I haven't had a chance to sit and reflect (on here anyway) on the fact that she is now four years old. Honestly, it just blows my mind...where does time go??

I have to say that I have really enjoyed this year with Sydney. Of course it had it's challenges of gaps in communication/understanding, testing boundaries, and the like. But maybe because this was my first year of being a stay at home mom, as I look back it was good year :). I love being able to watch Sydney learn and grow each day and am blessed to be able to be at home with her.

Now...on to the four year old...Sydney is just precious. She really is! She has such a tender heart. She shows genuine concern when someone is hurting. She wants to be helpful. She cares about what is going on around her. She is hilarious and says and does things that have us laughing constantly. She remembers the smallest details of the strangest things. She has a wild imagination and is always coming up with something to play that is so elaborate and creative. She loves music and can pretty much memorize a melody and lyrics after hearing something only a couple times. She loves to draw and color. She is SO shy (which we're working on) and avoids even eye contact with strangers which can make meeting anyone new a HUGE challenge. She loves her family and talks about everyone often. I have no doubt she will be an amazing big sister to her little brother. She is patient and flexible which I know is not typical of a 4 year old, but is a quality I cherish, praise her for, and thank the Lord for. She is full of love, tells Josh and I that she loves us several times a day....and I will never get sick of hearing that nor will I take it for granted because I know she won't always say it so often. And my favorite quality of our little girl is that she knows Jesus loves her, and she loves him....and she believes that he actually lives inside her heart (literally in her chest) which I think is such a beautiful example of faith like a child :)
I cannot imagine life without you, Sydney. You are such a wonderful daughter with a beautiful heart and I cannot wait to see what God does in and through your life. We are so lucky to have you.

week in photos...

Here is a little of what we've been up to this week....

Syd had a Polly Pocket pool party

a little playground time

and Sydney made a button necklace

week in photos...

I wasn't much of a picture taker this week, but here is Sydney having fun playing in the water....

week in photos part 2

Sydney all dressed up for the tea party!

Tea party with her cousins!

Riding a car ride at the Johnstown fair

Apple ride :)

fun with the camera at the fair :)

Finished our time at the fair with
the ferris wheel. Here we are at the
tippy top! (This is the excited side
of the seat!)

(this is the nervous side of the seat :)



week in photos part 1

Here are some pics from last week. I'll post more from this week tomorrow...

Going for a walk on the local bike trail

Sydney with her Grandma

Syd with her cousins Calli and Kyah

Josh and his brother Dave were trying to copy this photo of their parents....not bad :)

Josh and his mom

we went to see a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Springfield, OH

this is the house Josh's mom grew up in,
just across the cemetery from the FLW house

AWESOME sign we saw on a window of an apartment complex
(Click to enlarge so you can read it!)

family photo :)

Josh and Syd with Josh's brother Dave, sis-in-law Kim
and their girls Calli and Kyah

a week in photos...

I went the collage route this week as I had so many to post.

You can click on them and see them larger.

Sydney put on a show for all of us. You can see the progression
of her dramatic performance.

we made s'mores!

cute as a button

Performance #2 for the week. The first photo is her setting
up all her stuff for her "show". She paid a lot of attention
to detail, it was impressive :)

saturday sydney-isms

sitting at the table eating breakfast, Syd breaks into song (Santa's coming to town)...
"You better watch out, you better watch out, you better not cry, you better watch out. Santa Claus is coming to Johnstown"
Pulling into our neighborhood later that day
"Yay! Johnstown! Woohoo!"
*Sidenote: we live in Johnstown, which Sydney believes is just our subdivision, not the whole town.

Sydney was playing pretend and she was the Mommy
Me: So, what do Mommies do all day?
Syd: Cook
Me: What else do they do?
Syd: This *Makes very vigorous stirring motion
Me: They stir things?
Syd: Yep, stir food and things.
Me: What do Daddies do all day?
Syd: Work and this *Makes vigorous stirring motion again

WARNING: ending this post with bathroom visit quotes :)
It never fails, Sydney always looks into the toilet after going number 2 and identifies what she sees. Here are some of her bathroom quotes from this week...
Day 1: "Look Mom! A hot dog and a ice cream cone!"
Day 2: "Aw, a mama bird and her baby eggs"
Day 3: "Haha,  Look Mom, it's ABCs"

And a Josh-ism....
Sydney brings him a paper with animals drawn in crayon on it...
Josh: "Oh wow Syd, that's really good......oh wait, I drew that"

a week in photos...

Yay, it's Friday :) Here's what we've been up to this week....

we got Sleeping Beauty from the library and she wanted to
watch it every day. She LOVES her some Disney princess :)

we had another backyard picnic and decided to pretend
it was in the jungle since our grass was so high!

Sydney and her chalk art

how cute is this little guy!

we (re)discovered Yo Gabba Gabba on Netflix instant streaming.
It's been awhile since she's seen it because we don't have cable
and as you can see, she was amazed at it's awesomeness :)

Look what we saw yesterday! It was gorgeous!