Justin and Kristin

Remember This Little Cherub?

 

Well here she is now . . .

. . . all beautiful FOUR YEARS of her!

Cadence is still our sweet little girl who has a fire deep inside her. She definitely can get rilled up with massive amounts of energy by her older sister, but if it came down to it think she prefers to play quietly and calmly on her own. She's the "girliest" of all my girls, evident by her love of purple, Rapunzel, and the fact that she would dress up like a princess every moment of every day in every circumstance. She walks around almost all day on her tippy-toes, and I hope that is an indication that she is going to be an amazing en pointe ballerina some day! She has amazingly beautiful lips, and long hair that I doubt she'll ever let us cut (after all won't it lose it's power if we cut it?) She loves her dance class, loves to read and color, wants to live in a purple house with a purple chimney right next to Curious George (so I take that as she wants to live near her uncle Nick in NYC), and prays almost daily that she can be old enough to go to preschool. 

I'm constantly worried that she is going to fall prey to the middle child syndrome so at times I may give into her a bit more than I should, and I definitely look for opportunities to make her feel special. I hope she does, because she certainly is. She is our sweet little Cadence. We love her! And we're so glad she turned four - 'cause now she can go to preschool this fall, just like she's always wanted!

 

After a few challenges with weather, we finally got some great shots for her four-year-old photos. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

(For a few more photos from this shoot check out my photography blog HERE!)

Ok Fine, but Just 'cause I love You

Cadence has been anxiously awaiting her birthday. I had given her this birthday crown and she decided to get all decked out in a pretty dress for her special birthday lunch with her dad.

It was so sweet to see her face light up when she saw Justin. I loved seeing her excitement (as I spied from across the courtyard) as she sat on her one on one date with daddy; her little legs dangling and swinging from her chair; not hearing their conversation but seeing their sweet interaction as they talked; her timid and reserved enthusiasm as he bought her a special birthday cupcake. I wish I could have it all on video to be able to replay for a lifetime. 

After a day of a bit of fun we had a dinner of "Rapunzel" hair and an outing for special birthday ice cream - bubble gum flavor! 

 

For MONTHS I've been trying to brainwash Cadence into wanting anything BUT a princess party. I even had her on board, more or less. But I could tell in her heart of hearts what she really wanted was a Rapunzel party. In the end, I had to give in right? I mean she's only slightly obsessed with Rapunzel. So we invited a few friends and put our entire heart into preparing the best Rapunzel party possible. After staying up until 3am we were mostly ready (thanks to the internet and a few creative ideas of our own to make things come together)!

 

As the kids were arriving we started them off decorating lanterns. This was a lot of fun and a huge hit!

 

Then we found a clue in a box of jewels that sent the kids on a scavenger hunt for the crowns that the Stabbington brothers hid. Once we found the crowns, we decorated them with the missing jewels.

 

We then played pin the pan on Flynn Ryder. Way to go Justin for sketching his face onto the poster (such an artist)!

 

For lunch we had Rapunzel Pizza Braids, Max's Apples, and little orange boats floating on jello! All of which was consumed on "frying pan" plates!

 

We thought this lantern themed cake I found on line would be easier than the tower we did for Sage's birthday. In theory it would have, but those darn lanterns! I seriously gotta find a place to get pastillage or modeling chocolate. I'm just finding that fondant for certain cake decorations is just too difficult to work with! The cake still turned out ok though. Someday though I want to have a huge house with a wonderful kitchen and an entire closet full of amazing cake decorating tools and materials! Then maybe cake making for birthdays will only take a few hours instead of all night! But Cadence was happy with it and that's what matters most right?

 

We finished up the party by letting the little princesses paint the "walls" with Rapunzel paints! This was a blast for them!

As much work as it was putting this all together and actually pulling it off, it was all worth it because Cadence got the Rapunzel party she was dreaming of. I know it won't always be this easy to make my little girls dreams come true; So if it means putting together an all out princess themed party (against all my non-girly-isms) then I'll most certainly do it while I can. 

At Least She's Honest

The other day as Cadence woke up from her nap she grabbed my hand and in her sweet, tired voice said:

"I love you Mommy. I love you, and Daddy, and Sage, and Nouvelle."

To which I responded:

"Oh thanks, sweetheart. And you know we all love you. All of us."

Her reply was:

"Yeah. Sometimes I like you. But sometimes I don't like you."

 

Well at least she's honest.

And here's to hoping that she has more moments where she likes me than doesn't.

And the Award for Least Favorite Bacteria Goes To:

Escherichia coli O157:H7

Mr. E. Coli approaches the stage, recieves his award, turns to the audience, gathers his thoughts for a slight moment and says:

"I would like to thank the Marshall girls for allowing me to take complete control over their bodies, family, and home for the past 2 and half weeks. I am much more powerful than any puny, measly stomach bug, or flu virus. I have the ability to kill toddlers at my very best, and drive parents to the brink of insanity at the very least. You WILL have to wash your hands all day - to the point of near rawness - to make sure I don't spread . But that is only minor compared to the GI symptoms that will devastate your bodies - leaving you trapped in your homes on beautiful, sunny summer days. I am so honored that your parents could spend hundreds of dollars on pediatrician visit co-pays, ER visits, urine, stool, and blood tests, and medicine; Not to mention the nights of lost sleep.

Oh and a little shout out to Lymphadenitis, who took over once I was gone, just to, you know, reek even more mania and misery to the Marshall family. "

 

Screw you Mr. E. Coli. Screw you.

 

Just to spite you we went to the beach as soon as everyone was feeling better, and had a marvelous time WITHOUT you!!!!

A Look at a Magnificent Three-Year-Old

Winter has really had a hard time letting it's grasp on Boston go this year and each weekend we've had to keep putting off Cadence's three-year-old pictures. With just a bit of green grass poking out and virtually no leaves on the trees, and next to none with blossoms, it's been less than ideal spring photo taking weather.

Well this past weekend I just HAD to get out anyway. We had some great sunshine, but still that bone chilling wind. All the little munchkins were troopers with coughs and all (I know.. give me the bad-mom-or-the-year award for taking my sick kids out in the cold just for the sake of a photo)

But I think that it was well worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our beautiful three-year-old Cadence, with her lamb and lion personality; Who smiles "like a princess" and laughs like a jester, fights like a knight, and loves like a righteous Queen.

 So proud to be her mom, and so lucky to have her in our family.

 

And a little behind the scenes of how cold and miserable it was, and thus just how amazing Cadence is for "preforming" so well...

What I Did For Love

Today was my sweet Cadence's third birthday. I can hardly believe she is as old as Sage was when we moved here a year and a half ago.

It's still hard to know what a three year old REALLY is passionate about, especially when said three year old is the second of three sisters. It seems she's only passionate about whatever her sister is doing at that particular moment. But over the last few months I've been trying to survey her on what kind of cake she may want for her birthday. Overall, it seemed the general consensus was a princess cake..................Oh that is just great. For those of you who know me, you know that giving my girls a princess anything really makes my skin crawl. But when time after time she seemed to just come back to "princess cake" how could I not just give her what she wanted?

Oh the things we do for love.

So I decided to try and make it a beautiful cake without getting too obsessive about spending an insane amount of time on it. After all, I had just got back from my out of town marathon. I didn't have that much time to put into this thing.The night before her birthday my mom and I baked, made frosting and decorated the cake. It was a simplified version, but hey a three year old really doesn't care that much do they? 

As you can see from her reaction she was pretty thrilled to see a princess covered in tasty frosting!!!

Oh and yes....that is a princess dress (thanks to Gramma Gina! Uhh Hem.....)

Cadence is a little independent spirit, who is reserved and a bit introverted at times, but who has a little fiery side to her. She can have quite the temper given the particular situation (as a baby she would cry and cry and scream and scream until she and the entire crib where soaking with sweat- no crying it out for this one). She definitely knows what she wants and is not afraid to let it be known if she mad, but she is also the most caring, nurturing gall I know. And there is now way to contain my love for her!

Happy Birthday Sweet Cadence!

As Of Right Now

this is my favorite picture.

The only thing that could make it more perfect is if my beautiful Nouvelle were in it.

Sleeping Ruse Backfire

The other night I thought I would try an ultra creative/sneaky ruse to get Cadence to go to sleep without her usual struggle and play-for-an-hour-before-falling-asleep routine.

I know! I'll give her the giant Pooh Bear and tell her that he needs help sleeping!

"Here Cadence! You can sleep with Pooh Bear tonight! Can you help him fall asleep? Try rubbing his back and rubbing his face. Help him fall asleep, okay honey?"

"Okay mommy" was her sweet reply.

I leave the room and..... silence! WOW!

I'm a genius!

For about 20 minutes I thought it had worked and all our future bedtime problems were solved. Then I hear a little something coming from her room. Oh man what is it now?

I go in and check on her (kind of internally preparing myself to try and not get mad, but expecting this will just be another one of her typical "excuses" as to why she isn't sleeping.)

As I walk in the room I hear her soft voice tell me . . . .

"He won't go to sleep mommy. Pooh not sleeping."

I tried to convince her otherwise, but she adamantly insisted that he wasn't falling asleep! To prove it she showed me that his eyes won't close. Right. So how can he sleep? Who's the genius now?

"Maybe he can help you go to sleep?"

It got her to quiet down, but I don't think that the idea really worked, 'cause 3 hours later when Justin went in to check on her the first thing she said to him was,

"Pooh not sleeping daddy."

Ah man, I thought I'd discovered the sleep-time trick of all time!

Any other creative ideas!?

A Taste of Vermont

This last weekend we headed up to Vermont to experience one of the famous New England Falls. We made it barely in the nick of time. Many of the leafs had already blown of the trees, but the ones that remained were beautiful. The countryside and the town we were in where magical and picturesque. The girls did pretty well in the hotel and absolutely loved that there was an indoor pool we got to use before bed. 

It seems I got a million pictures of my girls and just a few of the area we were in, but even the breathtaking Vermont, pales in comparison to my beautiful girls, right?

But here is a taste of our Vermont experience.

• Covered Bridges
• Cheese farms and tasting (9 year aged Cheddar! Crazy!)
• Maple Farms (Aunt Gemima will NEVER cut it again)
• The most well manicured farmland I've ever seen
• Antique malls
• Old train rides
• Handmade icecream
• Hiking through the trees to the magnificent Quechee Gorge

Ahhh....what sweet memories.

....and I always will. No matter what!

Cadence our little "terrible 2 year old" has now started informing us whenever she is sent to time out that she is going to cry if we do so. What a little attitude! This is so funny to me that I often times have hold back a smile or resist laughing out loud.

The other day when Cadence was getting in trouble, Sage had enough wisdom to add to Cadence's statement, "Don't worry Cadence, mom's mad but she still loves you!

It melted my heart and brought that smile and laugh to my lips. I'm so glad to know this true concept is sinking in for Sage enough that she is trying to make sure Cadence knows it too. Now when they are saying they are sorry to each other for some indiscretion like stealing a toy or hitting, the offended will often remind the offender that they still love them.I hope they can always feel this way about each other.

We try to remind them whenever they get in trouble that we love them still even when we're mad....  of course I always add, "and I always will. No matter what!"

Proudest Moment

"7-11"

As my two girls ran into the 7-11 at the top of our hill they screamed, "Slurpees!! I love slurpees!!"

I've never been prouder.

 

But really? Does it get any better than this?

I have always been a slurpee fan and that love has just grown deeper through the years. My obsession with this frozen treat reached it's peak while I lived in NC where our closest 7-11 was a 4 hour drive away. 2 years without them really intensified my longing! 

I am proud to pass this love on to my children and cannot help but grace a humongo grin when they find as much joy (maybe sometimes even more....heaven forbid, is that even possible?) in this treat as I do. 

We all know the truth. When I tell them "If you are good we can go get slurpees" that what I'm really saying is "pretty much no matter how you behave we are going to 7-11 for slurpees and if you misbehave I may just 'find it in my heart' to forgive you!" It's just as much a treat for me as it is for them!

We have had, at minimum, weekly trips this summer. But don't get me wrong now that I'm not pregnant anymore and things taste normal again we will still be making weekly trips in the winter. It is NEVER too cold for a slurpee! The 7-11 worker are so familiar with us that once I forgot my money and he said I could pay next time. I mean he knew I'd just be back in a couple days for more! I also asked him if we bought more slurpees than anyone else and he laughed and said, "Oh yeah!" Ahhh that just melts my heart!! :)

This has impacted Sage's life in such a POSITIVE way that she is now, (completely unsolicited by me - I promise) play pretending in our living room to take walks to 7-11 for slurpees, and doing many drawings of slurpees. See what I mean? Could a mom be any more proud?

 

Nice blue slurpee. One of her favorites. Notice the straw as well.

What perfection in a cup!

 

The wonderful effects of a slurpee run:

1- Brainfreeze -- in the best possible way

2- Blue tounges

3- Happy Giddy Children

4- One satisfied mom

 

Come on admit it.....you want one now too don't you?

Pollywogs and Tadpoles

The girls have started swimming classes. They were super excited to swim in a "Big pool" and both are doing well! I didn't know how Cadence would do, but she is a natural and can almost pull herself up on the side of the pool all by herself. Sage is kicking and stroking all by herself. The only problem with swimming class? The tantrums they throw when this much-too-short class is over.

 

(looking at this picture of Cadence I realized just how big she is getting! She's a little girl now!) 

 

 

And not to leave Nouvelle out....

This is in honor of her healthy appetite! She had her four month check up today and she is by far the biggest kid we've had. She's not huge compared to some other kids out there but 50th percentile is big for my kids! She really just loves to eat! I love how content she is in this picture now that she has a full belly. And notice the lovely milk drool she has! :)

The Power of Lips

....Cadence has recently discovered this for herself....

 Oh boy.....Really what else needs to be said?

When she sticks that lip out I can't help but laugh and not be mad. And yes, she usually gets what she wants afterwards. I mean, how can I resist?

 

So Loving

Just an adorable/funny example of how absolutely loving our sweet Cadence is.

Cadence had just finished going pee on the potty, flushed the toilet, and as she was leaving turns around and says, "Bye-bye potty, I love you!"

 Whenever she does these things I just want to squeeze her to death she's so freakin' adorable!!

 

Challenge #105

Amongst the many challenges of parenting 2 children (3 years old and younger) along with a newborn, is trying to get a decent artistic shot of Nouvelle that I feel is as "good" as the ones of the other two girls. It takes about 3x more attempts in about 3x less available "free" time.

Here are just a few of our first attempts. More to come as I try to find one/some worthy of a birth announcement.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

New Role as Big Sister

Cadence is relishing in the new role as a big sister. The first thing she wants when she wakes up is to see and touch the new baby! She still just can't get enough of Nouvelle. She is our little sweetheart!

(Remember if you want to just hear the video you'll need to pause my music on the bottom left of the blog!)

A Glimpse at Easter

It's a bit weird that Easter falls on General Conference weekend this year and we won't be in church on Sunday. So in trying to think ahead, I bolstered all my remaining energy (which isn't a lot at this point) and took the girls out for a quick Easter dress photo shoot. The lighting was less than ideal and the girls weren't overly cooperative so let's just be happy with what we did get.

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

 

 

Look Who Is 2!

I think that there are so many changes between one and two! I can't even believe that my little Cadence is the same girl from  last year!

She has recently become enthralled with Shaun the Sheep (Claymation) so I decided to attempt a Shaun the Sheep cake. I thought it would be less ambitious to do him a bit smaller, and in the end I think it ended up being harder to make him so small! I also did some sheep cupcakes to go along with the cake.

Here are the results.

 

 

She loved eating the fondant and frosting off the cupcake!

 

And LOVED that she got an actual Shaun the Sheep for her birthday!

 

She got some other great toys. One on the top of her list was her Thomas the Train track she got. She is such a delight and just loves everything!

I'll try and post some more "artistic" photos of her soon. I'm feeling the drag of these last weeks of pregnancy. Hopefully I'll get some "official" two year old pics taken soon too!

We love you so much Cadence! Happy Birthday!

{Betrayal}

Cadence was suppose to be the one who loved me "more" than Justin. And though she is definitely more clingy with me than Sage ever has been, it seems that hope is somewhat dissolved. For the past week every time Cadence wakes up she repeats 5 words over and over until I go in to get her up.

"I want my Daddy back."

Geez thanks for nothing Cadence. :) I'm sure it will only get worse once the new baby is here. Ah well, what can you do? Maybe I'll be the next ones favorite.

 

She's Back

After three horrible weeks of sickness, culminating in Cadence's seizure last week, we finally are back to "normal." Cadence is finally back to her usual self; talking up a storm, running, jumping, laughing-that guttural laugh of hers, and being as cute and sweet as ever. We're so glad she's back and hope to never have to watch her go through that experience again.

Justin and I still have some residual anxiety, but we're hanging in there.

Welcome back Cadence. We love you!

 

 

As you can see she still has those unexplainably amazing eyes!