nani yuvonne, age 4

last thursday our nani girl turned 4!!!! she was elated to say the least and she's so excited to be 4 like the rest of her sunbeam classmates at church. nani was my only child that came "on time", just 2 days before her duedate. and she was a tiny little thing, weighing in at 5lbs. 3oz. mason & i didn't even realize just how small she was until shawn & darcy came to visit me in the hospital where shawn says to mason & i, "guys...she's TINY!" i suppose almost getting lost in his elbow should've given us a clue. but something else that stands out in my memory was when i first put her over my shoulder to hold her, she REFUSED to lay her head down! she looked all around her and would not put her head down. i guess she wanted to see exactly where the heck she was. we love that little girl and we can't imagine life without her-happy birthday you little peanut. we love you nani!

4 things we love about nani:
1) she always has something funny to say...(nani to luana) "luana!get up out of my grill!!!"
2) her favorite color is violet.
3) mason's dubbed her "cuddle bunny" because she's quite the cuddler.
4) she's far too creative...she comes up with all sorts of reasons why she can't do anything involving physical labor. (she so didn't get that from me)

happy 4th birthday nani!!!!

mason & melina plus...5

i know it's not 8 but 5 is a great number for us! we're so excited to be adding another little one to our family, due relatively around early june or july. i'm very nauseated:( and very exhausted all day long:( but...i couldn't be happier:) the kids are convinced little tau will be joining our family soon:) we're so grateful to have this blessing in our lives.

watch out

the turkey trot is fast approaching and here at the patterson household, training has already begun!sila will be defending her title of last year's turkey trot 1st place winner for kindergarten girls!(so you can see why practice is in order:) mason started training the kids last week. he takes them down to the track at the old banning high school(nicolet middle school now) and they run, walk, do bleachers, run some more, and do lines. they try and get out to the track 3 times a week and last night i had the joy of watching them work hard...and i ran a bit myself. not too much, but a bit. so, come November everyone better look out for those patterson kids cause they're in it to win it. (and coach/dad really wants 2 turkeys this thanksgiving). GO MESE & SILA!!!