{1984}
Happy 29th Birthday to my favorite twin sisters Adie and Haley.
I bet you can’t guess which is which?
{2010}
Thank you for being my best friends and biggest supporters for the past 29 years.
*Head over HERE to see my sister Haley’s sweet post.
Today Sophie is five.
1825 days old.
Not that I’m counting.
{My favorite picture of all time… Sophie just 16 days old. Mia loved her more than anything.}
We love you so much Sophia Grace.
Stay loving, caring and compassionate forever and ever.
Today we are celebrating Sophie’s final day as a four year old.
Don’t even get me started because there have already been a few tears shed by Steve and I.
Enhanced by the fact that yesterday I decided to scroll through a few hundred photos to select my favorites for our bare stairwell wall.
I saw little tiny baby Sophie, one year old Sophie, two year old Sophie, three year old Sophie and four year old Sophie.
The final product.
And the cause of an increase in tears shed as another year has come and gone for one of our girls.
This morning we did our “last day at that age” annual photos shoot (click here to see all the others!) and twirls…
I just love this girl.
Do you know what else I love?
Picking a winner from last week’s post to win a set of my Backpack Nook Initial Wall Decals!
Is it you?
If so, email me your requested initials!
The past seven days or so…..
Sophie actually got to play outside thanks to some warm weather. When I picked her up we found her special sidewalk chalk design.
{I love her backwards p’s so much. }
On that same warm day, we spotted several “plane tracks” as we played out front. Sophie loved the “Jesus cross” that two made after crossing paths.
We stopped to check in on some of our favorite neighbors after dropping Sophie off at school.
Mooooo!
With my sinus infection blazing full steam ahead, I still mustered up the energy to make some yummy Sour Cream Sugar Cookies, among many other goodies.
{AKA stress baking. When in pain… bake! }
Gracie assisted in her cute apron that Aunt Haley made her, as well as Mia and Sophie, for Christmas.
{She may or may not have hoarded some kitchen utensils in the stellar front pockets.}
We have been prepping for Sophie’s upcoming birthday celebration…
I bet you can’t guess how old she will be on Friday! :)
But maybe you can guess the theme?
And finally, did you enter to win your very own set of backpack nook initials yet?
I am picking a winner tomorrow!
Go now!
Here is one of my favorite pictures from the past. Me, at age two, posing with my dad in October 1981.
Look how excited I am to be dressed up like a ballerina for Halloween!
*Probably because I knew that this would be the one and only day in my life that I could pretend that I was actually a decent dancer! ;)
And just for fun, which of my girls do you think looks most like me at the same age? I love hearing what others think…
Here is a closer shot of silly me.
Mini Mia
Little Sophie (in the beginning phase of her stress induced hair loss!)
And Gracie Lou.
Who do you think is my clone?
Are you sick of backpacks lying all over the floor?
Or randomly flung around the house landing on chairs, couches or the stairwell?
So was I up until this past weekend.
I simply could not take it anymore.
I needed a place for each girl to hang their backpacks everyday so that when they were about to head out the door, they would know right where to go.
No searching.
No drama.
So Saturday I made this fun little backpack nook right by our front door.
I bought these awesome, non damaging, sticky hooks from Joanns for about five dollars each and put each girl’s initial above them.
They love their initials and having their very own special hook.
Grace walked around all weekend saying, “I am going to go hang up my packpack on my G.”
Do you want your very own backpack nook initials for your children?
Good because I am adding them to my Haus of Girls etsy shop today!
Or you can win a set right here!
Just leave me a comment below with one of your best organizational tips and I will select one of you to get your own backpack nook initials.
Drawing will be next Wednesday.
Go!
This easy soup is a fan favorite dinner around Haus of Girls.
I literally throw all the ingredients into the crock pot at lunch time and when dinner time rolls around, all I have to do is spoon out the yumminess.
Anything this quick, this easy and this healthy makes me very happy.
And the fact that all three girls request it every single week?
Simply amazing.
Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken Soup
1.5 lb thawed chicken cubed ( I usually chop up 3 chicken breasts)
3 cans 98% fat free cream of chicken soup
1 can 98% fat free broccoli cheese soup
4 cups of your choice of frozen vegetables (I do cauliflower, broccoli and carrots)
Add all to your crock pot and stir.
Cook for 4 hours on high.
*8 servings, 1 cup each
124 calories
3.4 g fat
PS Guess who I finally got to meet?
Sweet little Cooper!
I am going to steal him…
Happy Wednesday!
My sister Adie had her sweet baby yesterday.
Another boy!
He is so cute and the fact that I yet to hold him or see him in person is torture.
I have come down with an annoying cold and I didn’t want to risk exposing his new baby lungs.
So home I will stay and be tortured until this weekend when I am well again.
Boo.
We are so excited though to welcome little Randolph (our dad’s name!) Cooper Smith and are so thankful he is healthy.
He’s perfect in every way.
It’s such a blessing to have another sweet boy join this crazy girl-filled family.
Adie is definitely expanding her house into a Haus of Boys!
I wanted to also share this cute journal entry that Mia, age six, did yesterday evening before going to bed.
She has started journaling and drawing in her new hot pink and white polka dot notebook I got her a few weeks ago. I thought it would be fun for her to jot down her thoughts from the day and be able to look back at it in a few years and smile.
This is what she wrote yesterday:
Don’t you just love Adie’s big lips?
And how baby Cooper is already standing up walking around town?
Priceless.
2-16-11
Today I got a new cousin!
Out of my aunt’s belly.
His name is Cooper.
He is cute.
Soo cute.
He is a boy.
I was moved by an article I read in my local newspaper this weekend titled “Love…short and sweet.”
Readers gave their definitions of love in six or fewer words influenced by a legend that Ernest Hemingway once boasted that he could write a complete story in just six words.
His masterpiece: “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
The legend, which has never been proved, provoked this article that I read to apply this theory to LOVE.
Here are some of the responses I wanted to share.
Six Words to Describe Love:
”And they lived happily ever after…”
”Family, Friends, Faith and Something Chocolate”
”Love is watching your daughter marry.”(I kind of teared up on this one)
”An art that’s hard to master.”
”I think love is a choice.”
”Love is pancakes at 4 am.”
”Love is sharing the same dreams.”
”Good times. Bad times. Life time.”
“Retired couple: fireplace, movie, separate recliners.”
“Love is my husband and kinds.”
”Sitting side by side saying nothing.”
”My beautiful child smiling at me.”
My two favorites…
An eleven year old wrote…
”Love means peace and security forever.”
And finally, “Love is God’s everlasting gift. Amen!”
Happy Valentine’s Day!
On Flashback Fridays I post pictures from the past to document fun times before I started blogging.
This week I wanted to share some pictures from my sister Adie’s wedding back in December, 2006.
I don’t have very many from my camera on this beautiful day, mostly because I was juggling my sisterly duties of being a bridesmaid, two year old Mia, who was the flower girl, and my 9 month old Sophie who was into everything!
The Viefhaus sisters at the rehearsal dinner.
Getting ready for her debut as a flower girl.
She looks less than enthused.
The sisters all ready to go.
Gorgeous!
Mia and Adie posing by the tree.
(Isn’t Adie’s dress the most beautiful thing ever by the way?)
And finally, Ryker and Mia, the second cutest couple to walk down the aisle that day.
Happy Friday!
When Gracie will take this hat off?
Maybe when the weather starts to warm up?
If not, I will have one silly bikini wearing sweaty two year old.
*Update: She no longer refers to this as her “Cow Hat.”
She is now calling it her “Russian Hat.”
Happy Wednesday!
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