One Two Three

Dear Noelle,

You are such a joy to me and your daddy.

You make us laugh and you make us wring our hands at times.

You love to tell us jokes.

You copy your older sister to the T. 

(You drive her crazy).

You want to be just like her.

You are fierce in your affections.

You are a snackmaster.

You are the first to get up in the morning.

You are loud and do not comprehend volume control.

You love stuffed animals.

You are carefree.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made by God.

You are Three.

You also requested a "blue mermaid" birthday party (from an obscure episode of Team Umizoomi). 

 We had a special cake made for you ... and you even requested party hats and balloons too. 

You had a blast playing with all your friends but one of the highlights was riding on Unni's back and pretending she was your horsey. Unfortunately, this was short lived and resulted in you crying your head off when Unni no longer enjoyed being a horse. I was reminding myself in the midst of your dramatic wailing, that you are three...only three. You also loved hitting the turtle pinata - it was hung off an elaborate ladder contraption that your daddy and uncle painstakingly constructed. Those things are hard to hang.

Blowing out your candles surrounded by all the grandparents, aunties, uncles, and cousins was awesome. We missed them dearly and it's good to be back home. By the way, mommy dressed you in a sweet polka dot dress that morning, but you changed your outfit yourself. Rascal.

And of course, grandma had to go all out with the mermaid costume...

you loved it. 

Mommy had an equally good time putting the wig on daddy when he least suspected it and laughing her head off...it was a happy day all around.

Happy 3rd birthday to my firecracker~

I love you to the moon and back!

For Noelle's 2nd birthday post, hop over here.

Special thanks to Elaine of Patty Cakes for making a gorgeous and delicious cake for us!

Someone today

"We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, 

yet we forget that he is someone today."

- Stacia Tauscher

Celebrating my little someone, who is not so little anymore - a brand new three year old~

Some more pics to come, but wanted to post this (rare) calm moment with her....

Chu Family Session

Loved this shoot! Two adorable sisters and a field, one of my favorite combinations~
Big sis was the expert at getting the biggest smiles out of her baby sister - best helper ever - thanks Miss Audrey!
Enjoy~

Smiles and Stutters

Hope everyone's having a fun Labor Day!

Some pics from a recent outing to Greenlake...

We are still used to SoCal weather and keep underdressing when going out. I hate to say it, but I am freezing here - yes, freezing - don't roll your eyes please! 
I forget that the key to dressing for the weather in the NW is to wear layers - it was actually a beautiful sunny day, but cold in the shade so she donned my sweatshirt. Note to self: bring an extra sweatshirt so mommy doesn't freeze.

In other news, Naomi is starting Kindergarten this Wednesday... I'm avoiding thinking about it because of the inevitable tears. My firstborn baby is growing up.

But I'll be busy chasing this one around...

Around the time of our packing and moving in SoCal, Tim and I noticed that Noelle was tending to stutter here and there. It has gotten a bit worse recently, so we've made a conscious effort to work on her language skills. It's so sad to see her get stuck and struggle with language when her older sis was such an articulate talker by this time.

We think the stress from moving and a new environment has affected her, plus she's always trying to compete with the constant chatter from her big sis - no easy feat! Thankful that one of our friends from SoCal is a speech therapist, and has given us some helpful tips. For now, we're making an effort to talk slowly and clearly and pausing before we respond to her, so we can slow the pace of the conversation, amongst other things.

Also giving her lots of hugs and affection lately as she's had more difficulty adjusting to new people and environments. She's been much more clingy to me and prefers me over anyone else - which is flattering, but only for like, 20 min. I know she needs time to adjust so trying to be patient and love on my little fiery buddy.

Otherwise, the girls are adjusting well and loving all the new friends and family they get to hang out with~ hope to be better at posting more pics of them! 
Coming up this week is another beautiful family session, excited to share with you all~