Marshall Turns 4!

I can't even believe that he is 4 years old already!

It doesn't seem possible.

When I first started this blog Marshall was 7 months old and just learning to crawl, now look at him....

Russ, Jaylee and I snuck into his room this morning and woke him up singing happy birthday this morning.  The first words out of his mouth were "When do we get to go to my birthday dinner??"  

We came down for breakfast and let him open his gift from us and his Grammy.

I told him yesterday that it was going to be the VERY last day of him ever being 3 years old.  I told him that he will never be 3 again.  I asked him how he felt about that, and this was his reply

"Mommy I'm tired of being 3 anyways"

I asked him if he felt any different being 4 years old now and he said

"I think my voice is starting to change"

This child cracks me up every single day.....

Marshall is a bit of a handful... but in a good way.  He is such a unique and amazing child.  He is full of life, and mischief.  He is also sensitive and is full of imagination and ideas.  He is hilarious and loves to make people laugh.

He tells me that he will be my "snuggle buddy" forever.....

He melts my heart on a daily basis.  

He will do anything to make his sister happy and to stop her tears.

He loves his baby brother.  I was so worried that he would be jealous and upset about the new baby, but he has done amazing with such a big change.  Although he can be a little rough with him at times, I think it's because he just wants to play with him so badly.

I feel honored to be Marshall's Mommy.  God gave me an amazing gift when he brought Marshall into our lives 4 years ago, and for that I will be forever grateful.

Peace and love....

The Big Brother And The Toothless Sister.......

Marshall has handled having a baby brother so incredibly well.  I am so proud of him.

Yesterday Marshall was so proud of being such an amazing big brother to Sawyer.  All day he was singing to him, and playing peek a boo with him to make him laugh.

Then he decided he was going to teach Sawyer all about the game Operation so that when he's big enough they can play the game together.

I thought that this was the cutest thing ever!

Thursday nights Jaylee has her cheer/dance class.  On the way home she was snacking on an apple, when she realized that her second loose tooth, just fell out!  But.... we think that she ate her tooth with her apple.  It was dark when we got home, so I searched the truck with a flash light just to make sure it didn't fall onto the floor, but we didn't find it.

So Jaylee wrote a note to the tooth fairy all by herself explaining our predicament.

We left the window in the truck cracked open so that if the tooth was lost somewhere in there, she could fly in and retrieve it.  If anyone knew what happened to that tooth the tooth fairy would.

How adorable is that?!

Jaylee was talking a little funny after losing her tooth, you would too if you had a gaping hole in the front of your mouth!  She interrupted herself and she said "Mommy, am I talking funny?" 

I couldn't help but laugh, I told her that she would get used to it in a day or so, and she would be talking normal again in no time!

Another day in the Lederhouse house.... never a dull moment, or a quiet one either.

But we wouldn't have it any other way.

Peace and love....

Girl's Day Out

Today Jaylee and I left the boys at home and we had a much needed girls day out.

It's so stressful living with all of those boys!!

First stop..... Subway for lunch.

Jaylee's favorite place to eat lunch!

Although it's difficult to eat a sub with a loose tooth!

Next stop.... nail salon.

We had a mani and pedi done together.

Jaylee loved getting her nails done at the salon.  

All of the ladies fussed over how cute she was sitting there.

She picked out her own colors and chose a design to have painted on her nails.

She looked so cute in that big chair!

Pink sparkles for her fingernails.

And blue sparkles for her toes!

Then we stopped at the mall so she could pick our an outfit.

Our very last stop was Petsmart to replace a couple of her fish that died last week.

Rest in peace Sunshine and Flower.

We had so much fun spending time together.

Jaylee is such an amazing little girl and I feel so blessed to have her as my daughter.  She so deserved this day.  Life is so busy taking care of her and her little brother's that it's sometimes hard to give them the one on one time that they all need.  It's so important to take them aside and spend quality alone time with each of them.  

Today is Sawyer's 3 Month Birthday

Today Sawyer turned 3 months old.  He is really starting to play with his toys now.  He is grabbing things and batting at toys on his play yard.  It's amazing at how much he has changed since he was born just 3 months ago.

He has discovered his hands now, and just the other day he discovered his feet.  He was grabbing at them and staring at them.  He looked like he was thinking, are these things mine??  

He is starting to really look a lot like Marshall did at this age, it's amazing.

Peace and love.....

Oh the things kids say.....

I've kept a collection of funny quotes from Jaylee and Marshall.

I thought I would share...

Marshall says to Russ:

"Daddy, you smell bad, you smell like a hot shower"

Russ replies:

"How does a shower smell bad?"

Jaylee then says:

"Actually you smell like a dead chicken"

I laughed so hard that I cried!

After Marshall did something wrong he looked up at me with the most sincere look and said.....

"Sorry Mommy, I accidentally did it on purpose."

Genius!!

Jaylee:

"Mommy, I want to wear high heel ups when I grow up"

We were driving around when Russ mentioned that he ran over a soda bottle, Marshall then said:

"It's ok to run over soda bottles Daddy, just don't run over people"

He was dead serious when he said it too.  He had this look like he was giving Russ some life altering advice.

Last but not least are a couple examples of Marshall's random questions.  I love these because I can get a perfect idea on the way he thinks.

On a rainy day he asked me why the clouds were crying.

I think that brought tears to my eyes it was so cute.

The other one that sticks out in my mind is when he asked me how people put light bulbs in fire flies.

I live for these moments.

Like when Jaylee talks about herself in the third person as she spritzed herself with body spray she said:

"Jay Jay smells like lemons"

Everyday for the first month after Sawyer was born Marshall asked us if we could keep him.  

It's like we brought home a stray dog or something....Mommy can we keep him, can we? 

I am so glad that I write these down, because I know I would forget most of them.

 As hard as it is to be a Mom sometimes I am trying to treasure every moment.

Peace and love.......

The New Addition to Our Family..... Baby Sawyer

We have a new addition to our family!  

Sawyer Jackson was born on October 5th

at 2:21 in the afternoon.

He was 7 lbs 4ozs and 20 inches long.

He is absolutely perfect in every way.....

The proud Mom and Dad

I still can't believe that I am the mother to 3 children!  It is such a wonderful feeling.

Baby feet are the best.....

Jaylee meeting her new baby brother for the very first time.

Marshall meeting Baby Sawyer

The proud Daddy for the third time.

Coming home!

Sawyer's first car ride.

Even Maddie Dog was excited about the new baby.....

"Yo give me some milk!"

I can't wait to see what you are going to grow into Sawyer.  I can't wait to see what kind of person you are going to be, and the good things that you will do in this world.

Peace and love.....

The love of music

This post is also from June 2011

Anyone who knows us, knows of our love for music.  Especially live music.  The kids share that with us, and enjoy seeing live music.  We were so lucky that one of our favorite bands, Dangermuffin, was scheduled to play at a local bar restaurant near where we live.

The kids loved it!  We were all honored to meet and chat with the band.  They were even nice enough to autograph a poster for us.

We had such an amazing day!  

Peace and love......

Vacation Part 7, Bahamas Castaway Cay Island

Our last stop, before coming back home was at Disney's private island in the Bahamas called Castaway Cay.  It was wonderful!  We were, again, blessed with perfect weather; which made for a perfect day.

The scenery was gorgeous, and the island was so much fun.

I think we all enjoyed this day the most.  The kids love the beach!

  

My little diva!

Relaxin' in a hammock, life is good!

They had a little splash park area, it was a perfect place to cool off, and rinse the sand off.

Passed out!

Another visit from Daisy Duck!

This is Marco, one of our waiters.  We had the same waiters each night for dinner.  The kids LOVED him.  Marco would bend over backwards to make sure they were happy.

Our last visit with Mickey and Minnie!  This cruise went way too fast.  This day was so relaxing.  Just hanging out at the beach and exploring.  The whole trip was relaxing.  Disney spoiled us rotten.  It will be a hard adjustment going back to reality!

Peace and love.....