SIX

And that last of our April birthdays, but definitely not the least. Nan was SO excited it was FINALLY her birthday. Nan is the spice of our family. She brings laughter and smiles and silliness where there is too much seriousness.

I love how Nan and Lydia's hair curls in the summer. Perfectly matches Nan's spunky personality. That's the word I would use for Nathalie-- spunk! This girl rolls with the punches. She wears her emotions on her sleeve and lives life 150%. She has the best laugh, smiles and giggles all the time. She forgives easily and loves the world.

Nan has an absolutely precious heart. She loves most people and she has oodles of love to give.

Nathalie is a great reader now. She can ride a two-wheeler and writes things to me all the time. She'd rather spend her time dressing up and playing princess than doing homework. She loves to be active and loves to be outside.

She has a big silly streak too. She loves to bother her sisters to get a reaction (because Emily always reacts) and gets a good laugh out of surprises. Nan loves to be a helper.

She is our Broadway star. She loves to sing and be the center of attention. Nathalie, we love you! Thank you for lighting up our world with joy.

TWO

Lydia is in that delightful age right now. She's adorable and funny and feisty. She loves her sisters and wonders every day when they go to school. "Emily school? No, Emily home!" She especially loves Emily. She has a vocabulary of hundreds of words and talks very well now.

She loves to touch things and loves, loves, loves to grab everything she's not supposed to. Knives, phones, tablets, markers, scissors, makeup-- if it's not allowed, she wants it. When she doesn't get what she wants, she tells us we are "mean" and shrieks. It's adorable but we don't let her know that!

Lydia loves to be outside and asks "side?" all the time. She loves to swing, ride her scooter (she is actually really good on her scooter!) and play with Odin.

Lydia is healthy! She has her appointment next week, but she weighs almost 22 lbs. She is learning her numbers and colors already and she is doing SO great. We couldn't be more blessed to have this special little girl in our family.

For her birthday we did milkshakes with sprinkles and she opened two presents before she decided she was done. Lydia still loves me more than anything else. She won't go to nursery at all, so she comes into Primary with us. She likes Matt and several other people fairly well, but none as much as me. She is still clingy and needs me to "holding Lydia, Mama?" a lot.

Oh my sweet Lydia, we love you. After all the difficulties we have been through, you are so so sweet to us. We appreciate the sweet moments so much more because we have had so many hard moments! But we wouldn't trade you for anything. You have brought another dimension to our family and joy to our marriage that we didn't know we needed.

Easter

After waking up suuuuuuper early on Easter, Nathalie took an afternoon nap. When she woke up from that, her hair was sticking straight up! It was hilarious.

Charlotte wore her silly egg glasses and rode her bike in the house. (Can you tell Matt and I were getting a little desperate to listen to Conference in peace?)

Emily lost her second tooth!

Charlotte had her Easter party at school and we took a picture together to prove I'm in my daughter's life!

Lydia took her first ever bubble bath and it was a HIT.

Easter morning was a hit-- especially with candy carrots!

And more silly egg glasses!

And dyed waffles!

We had a busy, busy Easter weekend, but the best part of all was listening to General Conference. My favorite talk was Elder Bednar. He always speaks to my soul.

FOUR

Charlotte is FOUR! Honestly, it feels like little Miss Sassafrass has been four for a long time, but now we actually get to celebrate it!

We decorated the kitchen. The girls did the crepe paper-- you can't tell, can you?

Charlotte picked out this cake since I really didn't want to make one. The frosting was a little much, but the cake was surprisingly good!

Charlotte really wanted to do a pinata, so I acquiesced. We had all the neighborhood kids join for candy, cake and ice cream.

She had a hard time blowing out candles!

We opened presents in the morning! Birthdays are so fun.

This was her school picture. The day before her birthday she went to the doctor for a checkup. She said, "Mom, I'm getting so big now that I'm going to be four!" I had to laugh, because she hasn't gained any weight in a year! She has grown a few inches, lost a few lbs and then put them back on. She is 32 lbs and 39.5 inches. But she IS getting bigger in many other ways-- she recognizes and can write a lot of letters, she can count to 29, 31-39, 41-49, 51-59.... (She's not getting the tens yet!)

Charlotte is still an absolute sweetheart. She loves to cuddle, to hold hands, and to be held. She constantly alternates between wanting to be big and help me with dinner, cleaning, laundry, or do what her sisters do, and wanted to be small and cuddle with me, sleep with us in our bed, getting scared when I'm not around. She is a joy to have.

She has a strong leadership capability (read: bossy) and frequently I hear Lydia shrieking because Charlotte is trying to get Lydia to do something. Charlotte loves to be in charge and to be the center of attention. She simply wants everyone to love her and to show it!

Charlotte loves anything with princesses. She loves to be read to, to write her name, to color, cut, paste, and glue. She recently learned how to say her "c"s and "g"s, so instead of saying "tooties!" she can say "cookies!" She loves to ride her bike or scooter, to swim, to play on the playground and run "really fast".

Charlotte, we adore you.

Mini bunk beds for mini girls

 Lydia has been sleeping in a pack n play in our closet since she was about 6 months old. At first, this was a great arrangement because she still needed to wake up in the middle of the night to eat. But now she is able to sleep through the night, and since she's almost two and getting taller, the time has come for us to figure out how to get her out of our closet.

 We looked and looked around on craigslist for bunk beds, but they were all out of our price range. So Matt decided that he'd be able to make toddler-sized bunks for under $100, and since we already had the mattresses and blankets, it'd be a lot cheaper.

 He decided to make these beds out of wood, like our table. Instead of using screws or nails, he used a biscuit joiner and pegs.

 Charlotte has been so anxious for them to be done.

 Lydia has really liked them too, although we'll see how well she does when we try to transition her.

 It took a lot of sanding and patience to do these bunks, but they are beautiful and very sturdy! Charlotte absolutely adores them. Lydia loves them until it's time for bed, and then she wants to head back to her pack n play. No worries about that though; she'll transition when she's ready. (In this photo she's mad that I'm not letting her play with the camera)

I love these.

The joys of my life