8th Anniversary

We celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary this last Tuesday and instead of going out on the town, we enjoyed a "fancy" dinner with the kids. I set the table with china and name tags, and they even got to sip sangria for the festivity :). I wouldn't have even thought to celebrate in this way if I hadn't just recently read about "theme dinners" in Jean Flemming's A Mother's Heart. 

 The kids and I got dressed up to surprise Daddy.

 Adeline and her jewels.

 Matthias enjoyed blowing out the candles over and over.

The evening was a great opportunity to teach table manners as well...minus the 20 month old wearing no diaper and sitting on the table to blow out the candles ;)

I don't know which I am more in awe of...that I've been married for 8 years and have known Scott for a decade or that we have four children...yes, I am still in shock with that one. Just glad God knew was was going to happen ;)

Matthias swimming

Matthias is 20mths old and loves the water. He obviously has no fear. He continues to be so different from Adeline and Darton. He's curious about everything. Since 8mths old we noticed that he is very observant. Therefore it doesn't take him long to know how to do something....especially the things he's not suppose to do ;). He's also our first to challenge our authority so soon. We are having to stay on top of it, although with an infant in my arms, he knows he can get away with too much! He's now taken to screaming at us in order to get our attention or to tell us that he doesn't want to do something. When he sets his mind on something the boy is SUPER determined that it's going to happen. We are reinforcing that he must obey the first time and have him show us number one with his index finger.
He loves to play with A & D and give kisses to Macklin. Although he's one to kiss the baby when you are looking and hit him when you are not! He is continuing to thrive with his sign language and the Baby Signing DVDs keep his attention long enough that he learns from them more than me. He daily signs "baby" to tell us he wants to watch the videos.
His daily phrases are "Where is it?" and "What is it?"  He also now says "I want some." It's all so very cute!