Happy Birthday, Sweet Girls!

On Saturday we had the girls' birthday party at Gingerbread Acres, a horse farm about 10 minutes from our house. Charlotte has been talking and asking about her 4th birthday party since her 3rd birthday party so she was quite excited about it! Naomi enjoyed seeing her friends but isn't as big a fan of all the attention as Charlotte is. Despite not wanting to ride the pony (or even pet one of the mini ponies), I think she had a lot of fun.

Naomi did laps around the van when Jared first brought them over :)

How cute are these girls?! And doesn't the warning sign add to the festivity?

 I labeled a lot of the food to fit the farm theme. The popcorn was "Feed".

 Oreos = "Tractor Wheels"

 It took me several hours, but I made the cake! The barn was a store-bought pound cake and the rest was pink lemonade flavored. I found the idea on Pinterest and it linked to Family Fun, which gave detailed instructions on how to assemble it. It wasn't complicated, just time consuming. But totally worth it when the girls saw it and got so excited about it!

 The farm cake had chicks...

 Pigs...

 And cows... But no horses. Charlotte pointed out that she was having a horse party and there weren't any horses on the cake. She doesn't miss a detail!

 After the safety spiel, we were asked if we had any questions. Charlotte popped her hand up and confessed that she had already fed the goats. Sweet girl!

 Naomi wanted nothing to do with the ponies, but Charlotte hopped on with no fear. And homegirl made sure she got to wear the pink helmet!

 So excited!

 Sweet Ella rocking her boots on the farm!

 Some of the party guests! The Riccis and Gambinos.

 Hannah, being coaxed into riding the pony. Can't you tell she loves it? ;-) It took her a minute, but she did get used to it and even wanted to ride again.

 Naomi found other things to occupy her time. They had games set up for the kids to play.

  My nephew, Donaven, let all of the girls go first. What a gentleman!

 Naomi, dismissing whatever Angela was telling her. She's quite stubborn!

 She figured out the best way to jump rope. You run and swing the rope behind you. Much easier than the traditional way!

 They also had a hay ride for the kids, which they all loved.

 Naomi, quite content to watch everything from the other side of the fence

 Charlotte had to ride on the other pony too!

 The kids had a blast feeding the goats. Charlotte had a clean conscience after she confessed she had fed them before she was told she could.

 Samantha was playing in the dirt with the stick and couldn't figure out how the ground kept getting wet

 The banner I made the girls

 The whole spread...

 "Vegetable Garden"

 "Hay Bales" (Sidenote: I am incapable of making rice krispy treats that don't fall apart.)

 The girls blowing out their candles

 One of the gifts was a sweet tea party tray. It was made by my sister-in-law's parents. They do custom wood working of just about any sort. We have quite a few of their handmade pieces in our home!

 Jared and I gave the girls each a scooter. It has two wheels in the back so is more stable for them to ride. Charlotte's has princesses, Naomi's has Tinkerbell. They both love them!

 My best friend, Shannon, drove up from Melrose for the festivities.

My mom was a ton of help. She was there early to help me get things set up.

The girls had a blast and are already talking about their next birthday party. Hopefully we can get away with a joint party for a few more years!

Happy Birthday, Charlotte!

It's hard for me to believe that four years ago today, we were holding this sweet little baby for the first time.

We made the mistake of blinking and now she's already four. I'm not sure how it happened, but our baby is no longer a baby. She's officially a big girl and does not hesitate in telling you so.

She's a snuggler, thumb-sucker and she still loves her cross.

She is spunky, sassy, and full of life. She loves playing with Naomi and teaching her new things. Here, she is apparently teaching her the art of hide-and-seek.

She loves to sing and even makes up her own praise and worship songs. While not always theologically accurate ;-) it is so sweet to hear her sing praises to our King.

I'm not sure where she gets it from, but she has bossy tendencies. Here, she is telling the girl behind her to "Sshh!" because Charlotte felt like she was singing too loudly during the performance.

She keeps us in stitches with the things she says. Here is a sampling of some Charlotte-isms that will give you a glimpse into her personality...

"My back is a disaster... my neck is killing me!" (Dramatic, much?)

"Mommy, how do you spell PUPPY?" I tell her "P-U-P-P-Y. "Mommy, when we get home, can Naomi cuddle with her P-U-P-P-Y?"

"When you get blood on you, and you fall down, and your eyes close, and your tongue sticks out... That means you are SO dead!"

"Daddy, if you give me a dollar, I will play something else with you."

When I was spending many hours of the day on the couch with "morning" sickness, she asked, "Mommy, what can I do to make you feel better?"

One day last month she helped me make dinner and I asked her what she thought her Daddy would say when we told him. "I think he'll say, 'Oh snap!'"

She saw a tattoo on the foot of a friend of mine and came to tell me, "Mommy, I've never drawn on myself before," then proceeded to ask how old she needed to be to have writing on her.

She saw the Siri icon on Jared's iPad and said, "Daddy, push that button. You can ask her questions." (We don't have Siri on our phones but she's seen the commercials and has already figured out how it works!)

Sweet Charlotte, we love you so much. We're excited to see how the Lord uses all that passion He's given you!

Forever and a Day

Here are some pictures of the goings-on around here the last few weeks...

Charlotte is in Awana Cubbies and is loving every minute of it! She is memorizing a new verse or two each week and constantly amazes us with some of the things she shares or questions she asks.

At the first sign of cold, we built a fire in the fireplace and made some s'mores, using this recipe. The girls loved it and ask constantly if we can build a fire, assuming that the where there's fire, there's s'mores!

Charlotte is in a stage where she either wants to help you do anything and everything, or she wants nothing to do with obeying and good luck trying to get a simple task from her accomplished. This picture shows her and Naomi in very eager to help moods. Jared has been doing their laundry lately (yes, I know, how lucky am I?!), and he's been getting them to help hang up the clothes. I'm not even letting the fact that the shirts and dresses aren't all facing the same direction bother me. Too much anyway :)

I consider myself a fairly crafty person who can usually whip up something cute in a matter of minutes. Pride cometh before the fall, though. I waited until the day of Halloween to start their costumes. I had to dye some socks, stuff them, sew them, and attach them with ribbon to hang from their arms. Easy, right?

They're pink spiders, can't you tell?! Martha Stewart, I have failed you.

But at least their bags turned out cute!

This is what happens when you tell a three year old that she can play quietly in her room at bedtime. You find her in a bed full of potato head pieces.

Movie night with Daddy, popcorn, and Veggie Tales. It doesn't get much better in their books!

My Bump, My Bump, My Lovely Baby Bump (Check It Out)

Belly shots from 16 weeks

I have just returned home from a sonogram and doctor's appointment and am so excited to announce that we will be having GIRL #3! The tea parties, princesses, and frou-frou have already taken over this house so I'm trying to wrap my mind around it happening to the next degree. Baby Girl, who is unfortunately nameless because Jared and I aren't going to name her "Flower", no matter how much Charlotte wants us to, looks completely healthy. She slept through the entire sonogram, despite the sonogram tech poking and prodding and trying to wake her up, so I'm hoping she'll be a good sleeper!

Naomi is still a bit clueless about all the goings-on, but will finally point to my belly instead of her own when asked where the baby is. Upon learning that she would have another sister, Charlotte said, "But I wanted a brother..." She later confirmed that this was only so she would have someone to be her "Prince" :) During the sonogram, we pointed out Baby Girl's backbone to Charlotte and she said, "It looks like corn!"

We're beyond excited for how God is blessing us. Now we get to decide on a name and figure out how to decorate Baby Girl's room and Charlotte & Naomi's "big girl" room!

Thanks to Fergie for the inspiration for the blog title... or rather a T-shirt I saw with it written on it. Funny stuff!

Charlotte at VBS

Here is the video of Charlotte that I mentioned. The first verse we taught Charlotte and what we refer to as "her verse" is John 3:16. She knew the verse she was supposed to say, we even practiced with her saying it to her teacher that morning, but I guess in that moment she just reverted back to the good 'ol John 3:16 :)

We're Still Here!

Sorry for the lack in posting lately. I've been out of commission for a few weeks. Here's why...


Yup! I'm preggers again! We're all thrilled, including the girls. Well, mainly Charlotte. Naomi is still clueless to all that's going on. Charlotte shared the news with the family, which was especially cute. We stopped by my Dad & stepmom, Bobbie's, house on the 4th of July and in the middle of a conversation Charlotte just blurted out, "And guess what? Mommy has a baby in her belly!" And later that day while we were out at Lake Swan Camp, where Jared's dad is the new camp director, his dad prayed for our meal and after "Amen" Charlotte said, "You forgot to pray for the new baby in Mommy's belly!"

Other things that have gone on around here...

The girls and I have kept very busy.
Naomi has had much business to tend to.

And I've been teaching the girls important things, like how to curl your hair. Life is rough, I tell ya what.

Back in June, we went down to Gissy Springs, southwest (I think?) of Ocala. It's owned by some good friends of my grandparents on my dad's side and they invited all of the Meng family to come down for my grandfather's 90th birthday party.
Pop, all embarrassed that such a fuss was made over him :)

And this is part of the spring area. The whole setup out there is beautiful! Kayaks, snorkel gear, rope swing, that screened in area for the food, camping area with a volleyball court... It is beautiful!

Also in June, we drove over to Gainesville to watch Megan pinned as an officer in the Gainesville Police Department. She kicked butt in the academy and had the fastest hiring process in the history of the department. And now she's packing heat!



Charlotte went to VBS at our church and had a blast! The Sunday afterwards, all the kids sang some songs and shared some verses they learned throughout the week. Charlotte was one of the kids they asked to share her verse. We have a cute video of that that I'll try to upload soon. From the picture, you can see how into the songs and motions she got!

And, in other exciting news... we have a new niece! Katie Joy was born on June 10th and weighed a whopping 5 lbs 6 oz! She is tiny and precious and just perfect!


That about sums up the past month or two around here. We've been busy but the last couple weeks have slowed down a lot with the pregnancy hitting me hard. The nausea seems better than it was with Charlotte and Naomi but it's still wiping me out. It seems to be getting a little better so hopefully I'm on the upswing! I have my first appointment next week and will hopefully have some alien-like ultrasound pictures to share!