Could It Be Our Little Girl is Three?

Despite feeling sometimes that Mae's been around for years upon years, it's still a little hard to believe our little Mae J is 3.  She had a great day though.  It started with having Aunt Jackie there in the morning, followed by going to church with friends, and capped off with grandparents, aunt, uncles, and cousins, and of course the return of Redneck Baby. -T 

A birthday morning gift from Aunt Jackie

Time for her to learn her Disney Princesses

Playing Disney Princess dominoes with Aunt Jackie

Okay no one tell Mae, but we're lighting candles on her breakfast muffin

Hesitantly checking it out

Our family - Dad, Mom, Big Eyes, and Too Good to Smile

Why do we keep lighting more candles in front of this poor girl?

Okay yes you are 3 - how old do you have to be to make it inappropriate to take a picture with your underwear showing?

Opening presents - keeping the cousins at bay

SCOOOOOTER!

She's wanted a scooter for so long!

YES!  Redneck Baby is BACK!

Why couldn't you make such a fun mess like this on your 1st birthday like you were supposed to!?

First and last chance to ride the scooter around the house

Redneck Baby wanted her turn as well

Doesn't Redneck Baby just make you smile?

Getting her gardening on - compliments of Aunt Beth and Uncle Brian

The next morning working back to back - a sight we could get used to seeing!

Here Comes Baby Schlenk #3

We kept it quiet for so long, but yes, Baby Schlenk #3 comes in February.  We're happy and scared to death all in one - like 90% happy, 10% scared.  Okay, maybe 80% happy, 20% scared.  Wait, all 3 kids will be just 20 months apart - 40 months and under?  Right...we're 10% happy, 90% completely terrified. -T

"Okay girls...here's some news...we're going to have a baby!  How do you feel about that?"

Mae: "Yeaaaa! Someone else new to bully!"  Anna: "Wait...what did you say?"

"Are you kidding me!?  Does this mean I'll have to detach myself from Mom's hip?  And would someone PLEASE wet my hair down!"

Crazy Girls

Just some random shots of Mae and Anna, well, being Mae and Anna. -T

Mom was proud of her drawings so this is Mae...happy?  Excited?  Fake smiling?  Over-smiling?  Who knows...just a whole lot of Mae being Mae

Anna getting attacked by a lion

Oh those big brown eyes

Who's idea was this?

Ummm...is anyone watching Anna?

That's peanut butter, right?

Going back for more

Can't get enough of it

Well hello there, Sister Hair

Joys of General Conference

Mom did a real nice job of pumping the girls up for Conference.  We actually even heard a few talks.  Since we worked on the prophets and apostles with Mae, she was excited when they showed up to speak so she can identify them, cut their pictures out and tape them onto a piece of paper. -T

"Elder Hales!"  Atta way!

Yep, for 8 hours of Conference talks, our perfect girls just sat and entertained themselves =)

Birthdays and Byes

Since Grandma and Grandpa were leaving for their mission 2 weeks shy of Mae's 3rd birthday, we had a birthday celebration before saying our goodbyes.  Mae was a little emotional.  After all the festivities we found she was actually really sick.  The emotional goodbyes went pretty well though.  Good luck on your mission G&G! -T 

Books can calm them down a little bit

Grandpa went a LITTLE overboard with his "dressing up for a birthday party" attire

Mae wasn't totally down with the picture taking (we figured it was the kilt), but come to find out later that night that she was sick and had a 104 degree temperature

Gifts from the grandparents

If she gets a toy tent with dolls as a gift, do you think she'll want her father to ever take her camping?

It must be candle blowing time!

She calmed down enough to have dessert

Go to the Mattresses

Grandma and Grandpa parted with their trundle bed (to us).  Before setting it up upstairs in Mae's room, we had one of the mattresses up against the wall in the Family Room for a few days.  The girls loved it!  They loved sitting on the top of it and sliding down.  Mae would slide.  Anna would bounce up before she flew down.  Anna's "bounce and slide" was never caught on camera, but what was caught on camera was one of the best videos we've taken. -T

Cuz girls just wanna have fun

Ready to slide

 

 

 

Everything about this video is funny.  It's funny to watch the girls zip down the mattress.  It's funny that after Anna's "leap of faith" that the camera just seems to go crashing into being turned off.   Mom's reaction is probably the funniest of all.  It was also funny afterwards when Mom had to take a lap around the house to cool down.  No one believes me and you can't tell on the video, but I did ease Anna's leap with my foot.  Oh, and Anna was completely happy and laughing and was not hurt in the making of this video.  

Saying Goodbye to the Last of Blue Ash Road

On a bittersweet day, we laid Uncle Pete to rest.  It's always sad to see someone you care about pass on, especially when it meant so much to me growing up back in the private confines of Grandma and Grandpa's house across the street from Uncle Pete and Aunt Connie's on Blue Ash Rd.  Now they are all gone or as what I once said when I was little that made Grandma Fish laugh so hard (and quote many years after), "They are outta here!"  It was a special and good day - and the four of them are finally together again. -T



Say hi to Grandma and Grandpa Fish for us

Without losing the reverence of this post - to answer your question, yes, Mae is wearing warm-up pants under her dress (but she didn't during the funeral)

R.I.P. Uncle Pete!

A tender moment

And then they fought each other with sticks

Welcome to the Hall

There is no way on this earth a coach with his resume shouldn't be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame the first year he is eligible.  I am very happy that the Hall of Fame Committee agreed with me.  We all went to support Papa D (I think that's the name they even put on the plaque) as he was inducted into Madeira's Hall of Fame.  Mae and Anna LOVED the football game.  For many days following this Mae wanted to play football in the backyard where she was the blue team and either Mom or I was the red team.  She's smart - as when we left at halftime the "blue team" was up big! Congrats Papa D - we are all so proud! -T

Class of 2013

Welcome!

The accolades could (or at least should) have gone on all night

Super cute Anna lovin' the game!

Beautiful night with beautiful girls