The Schmidgalls

My baby girl is THREE years old today!! She has been thrilled about her birthday, of course.  Though, the funny thing is she can’t actually say her “th” sound.  She says she is turning “ssree!”

Honestly, I have been a bit sad as we got closer to this birthday.  For some reason, “three” just feels like my baby is now a young lady.  She is really such a big girl.  She sets the table for dinner.  She can work any electronic device.  She plays games on Daddy’s iPod and can choose a video, put it in her DVD player and get it going all on her own!  She takes such good care of her brother.  I mean, sure, she shoves him away from her toys here and there.  But I will often catch her taking him toys or snacks.  I even found her wiping his mouth after a spit-up the other day.  She always calls for me if he is heading into danger (near the stairs, fireplace, eating something off the floor).  In the morning, she goes into his room and gives him toys in his crib, sometimes even crawling in to play with him.  She calls him “Zekey-boy” and makes him laugh!

Ella is such a generous child.  She will share even her favorite food.  She is affectionate and gives hugs and kisses easily.  She is silly and a bit of a ham.  She has passion and independence.  God knew exactly the little girl for me!

Whenever I would ask Ella what she wanted to do for her birthday party, she was clear - “I wanna go to Aunt Lora’s house!”  When I would ask her what she wanted for her birthday, “I want candles!” (like on her cake).  Well, she isn’t lost on the spirit of festivity.  For Christmas all she wanted was “a Christmas tree with lights!”

Ella is pretty loyal - she decides her favorite things and stays true to them.  She has adored Snow White as long as I can remember.  She is also fiercely dedicated to Grover monster, certainly not the most popular Sesame Street character.  She wanted a Grover birthday party this year! We decided to do dinner for just family at Aunt Lora’s and celebrate a bit early since we have a church retreat this weekend.

It was a special day so we had to do a special hairstyle!  Mama put Ellie’s hair in hot curlers for the first time!

No joke, once I showed her hair in the mirror, she started posing all over the place, looking back at me over her shoulder all sassy.  Have I mentioned how much I love this child?

This fancy little outfit arrived in the mail from Mimmy just hours before the party.  The gloves were her own little addition.  I said she was independent!

“Booter, are you excited about your birthday?”

“How old will you be again?”

Aunt Lora and Grandma decorated the house for the birthday girl.  She loved it!  She made a special request for one of her favorite foods - Broccoli Cheese Soup, made by Aunt Lora.  I made her a Grover cake, chocolate on request.

Loved by her mama…

“Wait, we forgot…how old again?”

She got shy when we all sang to her!

Blow ‘em out baby!

Spoiled with love…Uncle Matt and Aunt Amanda stopped by early before Matt had to run off to sit in the chamber for the State of the Union address by President Obama.  Just another day working for the United States Congress!  The Tinkerbell purse was a hit!

Little brother helper!

Look, she even reads the card.  Okay, she looked at it, couldn’t get the card out so tossed it aside!

Wow Grandma!

All grown up! 1, 2, 3!

Fun little Ella story to end…

Since she gave up her pacifier, Ella has had a harder time going to sleep at night.  She doesn’t understand why she has to be in her bed alone but Mommy and Daddy get to share.  A while back we started telling her that Mommy and Daddy are married and that is why we sleep in the same bed.  She seemed to accept that.  Well, last week, she woke up a few times in the night - out of the ordinary.  I was so tired, I finally went and got in bed with her to soothe her.  We both fell back asleep and in the morning, she woke to find me there and clearly didn’t remember me coming in.  Her eyes got wide and she said, “Mommy, we’re married?!”  I busted out laughing!  Clever girl!

Thank you Lord for three years with such a special little person!  It is such a gift to be her parents.

I tried to wait until he was a year, I really did!  But, he was starting to have scraggle hair…and I can’t let anything distract from his gorgeous deep blue eyes!

I gave Zeke his first haircut tonight!  I did a quick Internet tutorial, gave him his milk for distraction, and snip-snip!

Before

After

Not too bad, huh?

And this is proof…that is doesn’t ALWAYS smile.  Just usually!

What do you get when both grandmas have the love language of “gifts”?

Our family members overwhelmingly bless our children.  I always try to get a picture with their gifts because I think they will love looking back when they are older.  I would love to see pics with my cabbage patch kids, Betsy Wetsy doll, Light Bright, Little Miss Makeup, Cricket doll, etc.

It does make me happy that Ellie has a very thankful heart.  She is truly blessed by her gifts and when she plays with a toy or puts on a new outfit, she says, “This is from Grandma?” or “Mimmy gave me this?”

And we have such wonderful families that I know my kids’ memories will be full of traditions and warmth and not just gifts.  Yay for Christmas!

We had an awesome Christmas season!  I LOVED celebrating with the kids!  We were very festive - baking, shopping, going to parties, enjoying every moment.

We had an amazing Thanksgiving with family.  After being in New York City last year for the Macy’s Day parade, we loved being back to our traditions.  The feast was heavenly!  The company was even better.  My sister joined us from Philly again and, as usual, helped us get our tree up and the house decorated.

To kick-off December, Ella made her stage debut as a baby angel in our church play, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.“  And it was!  Ella stole the show when she got a little nervous and had to be shuffled on stage, cute as ever!  (Note the tiny little shy angel front right.)

Cousin Summer had a lead role as the snooty, snotty Alice.

Cousin Siah and his buddies were shepherds.

We took our traditional stroll back in time to visit the holy family at our church’s Live Nativity.  It is so cool for the kids to see the animals and visit baby Jesus.

Ella and best-bud Giovanni pose with Mary and Joseph.

Giovanni paused to give some kisses to baby Jesus!

My friend Shelley surprised me as a shepherd!  Shelley and I grew up in youth group together and she just moved to DC!

Cookie Decorating Party! - Ella hosted her buddies from our church playgroup for cookie decorating at our house!  The kids ate as the decorated and many sprinkles were consumed!

The hostesses with the most-esses!

Snow Storm! - We had a history making snow fall the weekend before Christmas!  It was incredible!  We went to play with cousins and get crazy in the snow!  Our church had record low attendance since people and their cars were stuck!  The Schmidgalls were there both Saturday AND Sunday, of course!

She insisted on the goggles!

The next day was a little more tiny-kid friendly since the snow stopped blowing.  We took the kids sledding and then built their first-ever snow man!

Since we were going to be gone for Christmas, we went to stay one night with Grandma Schmidgall and celebrate early.  It is always snuggly and cozy to relax at her house and the snow made it even cozier!

Zeke opened his first-ever Christmas gifts!  Stockings first…

…and then the Grandma jackpot!

Joel and I are very intentional about encouraging our kids in service and looking for opportunities to care for others as a family.  On Christmas Eve-Eve (Dec. 23rd), Joel and I took the kids and Giovanni to a convalescent home down the street to give flowers to the residents and wish them a Merry Christmas.  I can’t even tell you how sweet it was to hear their little voices.  They even sang some carols!