My Dollhouse

 We finally brought my dollhouse from when I was a little girl into the house.  My Papa (my mom's dad) made this for me when I was around 7 years old.  It was a birthday present and it was probably the most played with gift I ever received.  I played with it for hours and hours and for years and years. A lot of the furniture is from when I was little.  We have a few newer pieces here and there. But now Lulu is old enough to play with it.  We moved it into our guest room.  Eventually we are going to move it up into the girls room.  They have an extra room off of their bedroom and it would be a perfect dollhouse room.  Mark would love to build more houses to make a town for the girls.  

Lulu's Violin Recital

 Lulu and I have been both taking violin lessons for about 4 months.  Our teacher had a recital with the other students.  I didn't join in but it was sure sweet to see the other kids. 

Lulu's Solo

Today at church Lulu had a solo in the children's choir.   She was so excited and did very well.  She got to start the performance with the first verse of Tell Me the Story of Jesus.

Lulu's Solo from Kimmy Tersieff on Vimeo.

Happy 7th Birthday Lulu!

 Our sweet little Lulu turned 7!! We are so blessed to have such a loving daughter who loves to serve.  She loves the Lord and has a heart to share the gospel with the lost.  She can read and loves doing her homeschool activities.  Lulu helps make breakfast almost daily and can sew many different things.  She helps me stay organized and knows where everything is in our house....something I don't even know.  When she grows up she wants to be a wife and mommy.  

 For her birthday we got her a porcelain doll.  This doll was a fun surprise for her because a few months earlier she saw it in the window of our favorite thrift store.  The store was closed but we were doing some window shopping.  She just loved it and I knew then I had to go back when the store was open to get it for her birthday.  So a few days later I went right when the store opened.  There was a lady in front of me and she went right to the doll, looked and walked away!  So I got the doll and looked at her to make sure she wasn't broken.  She was in excellent condition and came with her original doll box and stand.  A week or so later we all went to the thrift store and Lulu didn't say anything but I saw her looking at the window where the doll was.  She was a bit sad to see someone had bought the doll of her dreams but she was ok and didn't think much about it after that.  So on her birthday morning she was thrilled to see the doll sitting in the living room waiting for her!!  

For all the kids they get the amount of balloons for their age on their birthday. 

 The past couple birthdays Lulu has wanted chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.  I used to make fun themed cakes but it's hard to do that with chocolate frosting.  This year she asked for the same chocolate on chocolate.  I then said "would you like a surprise cake" and then she got excited.  So I made her a doll cake.  I got this doll cake for her 1st birthday when we had a luau and made a hula girl.  I still had the doll and cake pan.  

Sisters

 Lulu and Ila May are 4 years apart.  They love each other so much and Ila loves to be like her big sister.   Recently I was changing out everyones clothes because all 4 kids seemed to have hit a growth spurt at the same time.  While I was doing that I came across Lulu's old night gown from when she was 2.  Along with it was a bigger one I had stashed away for Lulu when she got older.  Well it was perfect that Lulu's old one fits Ila May now and the bigger one now fits Lulu.  

Here is a picture of Lulu in the same nightgown with the robe on when she was 2.  

Lulu's Tomato Plant

 Lulu has been growing this tomato plant since it was tiny.  My mom gave it to her and she has been so diligent about watering it and caring for it. Finally all that hard work has paid off and she found her first ripe tomato!  And she said it was delicious.  Since then she has had a few more and has been sharing with her bother and sister.  

Tomatos are Lulu's favorite food by the way. 

Our Day

 We are sort of back to the swing of things.  Lulu's finishing up her workbooks....she's doing so well.

 Silas is sunbathing trying to work on his jaundice.  We do this daily and he loves it.  

 The kids had a popsicle and Ila thought it was so funny she could see her red tongue.  

 Levi working on an activity.....dominos.  I'm doing laundry in the background.  Silas was napping.  Yep...back to normal almost. 

 Today Silas is 4 weeks old.  He's doing really well.  He's a happy baby.  He sleeps well and has some great awake time.  He is getting stronger and I notice more of natural schedule he's getting on.  I tell him to SLOW DOWN all the time, he just won't listen.  

 Today I was trying to do a million things...like usual.  Adding in sitting down to nurse.  I love the time I have with Silas nursing and I really try to enjoy it and not worry about all the things that need to be done.  I was praying that God would help me because I wasn't sure how I would do it all today.  It was getting close to lunch time and I was nursing Silas.  I figured that lunch would be a lot later since I hadn't prepped anything.  Then I just thought I would have Lulu make lunch.  She was so excited and asked me "make it with out you??" and I said "yes" because I was still nursing.  So I told her make whatever......I knew she would make a great lunch, plus I wanted to see what she would do.  It was fun to see her running around the kitchen being creative.  

She made:

Cheese stick wrapped in black forest ham

fish crackers

trail mix

carrots

water

It was such a blessing to have help with lunch.  I was telling Lulu how this might be her new job.  She was thrilled with this idea.  

 Here they are enjoying Lulu's lunch.

 Lulu has been so diligent about taking care of her tomato plant.  But we think the sun is killing it so we moved it to the front door with more shade.  Hope it survives!

Then to top off the day, after the kids were in bed Mark made me a big glass of lemon ice water.....he even made it pretty.  

Lulu's 6th Birthday

We had a great day celebrating Lulu's birthday.  Mark's mom was in town visiting so Connie and I had a fun time decorating the night before and wrapping gifts.  We always celebrate birthday's in the morning at our house.  Tradition is that we eat cake and ice cream for breakfast but this year we had cinnamon toast and strawberries.  

I have been working on putting together a dress up box for Lulu and that was what Mark and I got her. It's been fun collecting all sorts of dress up things.

My mom gave me this pretty chest that she has had for a long time to put all of the outfits in.  

Both my mom and Mark's mom helped put some pretty things in the dress up box.  

That morning Lulu had 6 pink roses delivered from my dad.  She was so excited.  

Levi and Ila May got Lulu a new bike basket and streamers for her her handle bars.  

That evening Connie wanted to take us out to dinner for Lulu's birthday dinner.  Lulu got to pick and she picked a buffet that we went to with Connie back in November when we moved here.  

When we got home we sang happy birthday and Lulu got to blow out her candles.  We were all so full that we ate the cake the next day.  

Lulu's 6th birthday was fun and memorable.  

Happy 6th Birthday Lulu!

I want to wish my sweet little Lulu a happy 6th birthday!!!!  I probably say this every year but I can't believe she is 6!  My first born, what a gift from God. Lulu is a servant and loves life.  She loves to help in any way she can and her favorite color since the day she was born has been pink.  She loves anything feminine and girly.  She loves being a big sister.  She is very organized (unlike me), she loves to keep our family on track and enjoys making things pretty in our home. 

I want to share how we named Lulu.  When I was pregnant with her we didn't know what we were having.  We wanted to be surprised at the birth.  So we had to come up with two names.  I had a few names in mind for Lulu if she was a girl.  One I remember was Camille and if she was a boy we were thinking Tyson.  We didn't really love any of them and just couldn't decided.  There was this store in Cannon Beach, OR that I grew up going to while on vacation with my family. It was my favorite store and it was called Lulu's.  When Mark and I got engaged Mark took my favorite ring that I had purchased at Lulu's and had my engagement ring designed off of that special ring.  I bought that ring at Lulu's when I was in 5th or 6th grade and I spent all my vacation money I had saved all year on it too.  When I met Mark I was 19 years old I still LOVED this ring and that's why Mark surprised me by designing my engagement ring off of it.

So, the name Lulu has always been a favorite name of mine.  But when I mentioned it to Mark we both thought that we couldn't name our baby Lulu, it just wasn't a normal name.  Then one day while I was very pregnant with Lulu I was reading a home decor magazine.  There was an article about this lady and her home and her name was Lulu.  She was an older lady and her home was so fun and feminine.  Right then I knew that it was ok to name our baby Lulu if she happened to be a girl.  Mark and I were sold on the name Lulu if we had a girl.  So, when I pushed Lulu out and we saw it was a sweet little girl Mark looked at me and I looked at him with a big smile and a small nod and he announced to everyone that her name is Lulu!  And she fits her name perfectly.  

Click HERE to read last years post about finding out I was pregnant with Lulu and the link to her birth story.