Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We had a milestone birthday around here this weekend!  Daddy turned the big 3-0!

We planned to be gone all day so we decided to sing Happy Birthday in the morning before we left for church.  Boo was QUITE disappointed that we didn’t actually eat the cake at that point.  She kept telling Noni “No eat cake! Mommy no give me cake!  Daddy birf-day.  No eat cake!”  She went on and on about it for a good five minutes. Haha :)

Make a wish!

After church, the girls went home with Noni and Papa to take their naps and T and I went to town.  We went out to the lunch and did a bunch of shopping.  Then Noni brought the girls to us (Grandma and Grandpa were sick and Papa hurt his back so we were on our own) and we went out to dinner at a really fun Italian place. 

The restaurant is in a really old brick building and the architecture was gorgeous!  T had never been there before and I had only been one time, in high school, with my basketball team so it was a fun new experience.  The girls thought it was great!

When we got home it was almost bedtime but we decided to let them have cake while T opened his presents.  They were very happy about that! :)

I let both the girls pick out a Lego set for Daddy.  Boo chose a set with two dirt bikes and a jeep pulling them on a trailer. 

And Bug chose the “recycling center”.  I don’t know if I have ever explained, but T really likes model trains and has always planned on putting together a big layout someday (you know…when he isn’t working on our house 24-7 and has time for hobbies, haha).  But, he also loves Legos, and since we discovered that they have train sets we decided to combine the two.  So we are collecting all the sets that will eventually fit with our layout of a little town.  T had received the garbage truck for Christmas so this little recycling center and truck will fit perfectly on the outskirts of our future little town. :)

Cheese. :)

T was actually gone for three days last week to a conference.  With this job he really doesn’t have to travel very much, and on those rare occasions when he does we usually go with him, but since this was a flying trip and not driving, he went alone. 

The girls missed him so much!  I was actually surprised by how upset they were that he was gone.  I feel like we are so busy with different activities every night of the week that we hardly even see him, but I guess they feel differently.  They were both SO excited when we went to pick him up at the airport on Friday night.  It was so cute.  He landed a little early so we’d just parked when we saw him coming out of the terminal.  By the time I got them out of their carseats he was already coming towards us on the sidewalk and they both ran as fast as their little legs would carry them and jumped into his arms.  So sweet.

We are so thankful for our wonderful Daddy. :) 

And as a birthday surprise, while T was gone, I called in reinforcements to finish the sheetrock upstairs!  Grandpa, Noni, and one of our friends came and helped me get everything done!  Mama came too and stayed downstairs with the girls so I could work and we finished in one day.  I’m so thankful for good friends and family!  I didn’t want T to have to work on the house on his birthday weekend, and he didn’t.  We just relaxed and played with the girls all day Saturday.  It was wonderful.  And hopefully a glimpse of what our future weekends will look like once the house is finished, haha. :)

Happy 30th Birthday Daddy! You are the best and love you more than we could say! 

Puzzle Presents

The other day Boo got another birthday present from Uncle Jason and Aunt Heather!

A really cute foam farm puzzle…

…and some Zoobles (I think that’s what they are called).

She always gets excited when Bug does puzzles and wants to “help” but gets frustrated because the pieces are so small, so she was ecstatic to have a puzzle just her size.

She LOVES it and wants to do it multiple times a day.  The only thing is she thinks she needs help even though she actually can do it on her own.  She wants help with each piece…even if that just means me handing it to her and asking her where it should go.

The funny thing is what she does when she finishes…I had to get a video of it.  She got a little distracted and decided to “run cir-tles” and then she “almost done run cirt-les” before she decides to put in the last piece.

She actually hesitated a bit there.  Usually in the same motion that she pushes the last piece in, she is also destroying all her hard work without even looking at it.  So funny.

Thanks for the fun birthday presents Aunt Heather and Uncle Jason!

Wordless Wednesday

Daddy’s Little Helper

We’ve had another working weekend around here and with the extra day we’ve made some great progress!  We are officially done sheetrocking Bug’s room!  And as of tonight we should be done with the guest room/baby’s-eventual-big-kid-room!  Then we’ll only have Boo’s room to go before we can get it all mudded and taped.

Bug has actually been a big help this weekend!  Normally when we let them “help” it ends up taking twice as long but I guess she is growing up because her help is actually becoming quite helpful. :)  Especially when I have to come downstairs to help Boo with something or make dinner.  I hear her and Daddy up there.  He asks her to bring the T-square, the drill, screws, etc. and she does great.

She also helps clean up after him…a full time job.  Haha :)

And he allows her to help do a few screws in each wall, although that part does take quite a bit of extra time when she “helps”. :)

It’s fun to watch her growing up and getting so big, and she just loves being Daddy’s little helper!  If I ever ask her to do something while she is helping she says, “But Daddy NEEDS me!”  So sweet. :)

Talking Tom

Boo discovered Talking Tom the other day on Daddy’s phone.  She thought it was pretty darn funny. :)

Bonus Points

Last year we started a “young marrieds” bible study in our home and had 6 couples (including us) start off with a marriage study by Chip Ingram.  Once that was completed we did the Love and Respect series which we finished just before school let out for the summer last year. 

Around that same time a baby was born to our little group, officially making us all parents so this year we decided to do parenting studies.  We did the Parent Adventure last fall and in January we started Dr. Dobson’s Essentials of Discipline.  This is one of my favorite studies we’ve done so far.  We just finished week four and I’m really liking it. 

Now we are up to 8 couples and every other week we get together to have dinner together and do our study (we’re meeting at church right now since our house is under construction).

The ladies, of course, are in charge the food, but since yesterday was Valentine’s the guys decided to take matters into their own hands.  They told us that they would do dinner.  I must admit I was a bit skeptical that they would be able to pull it all together (especially since all of them work full time and I didn’t know when they would have time to make food).  BUT they did an amazing job!  Major bonus points to the daddies of our group!

They even decorated and bought us roses and chocolate! 

Of course I had to get a picture of all the guys standing in the kitchen. :)

We were totally impressed with the meal they served us!  Pork chops, homemade applesauce, a green salad with strawberries and other toppings, baked potatoes, asparagus, a pasta salad, punch (even put in a fancy dispenser!), cranberry apple pie and coconut cream pie for dessert!  Wow.  Way to go guys!

They even cleaned up afterwards!  What a treat, and a great end to a wonderful Valentines Day! :)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We started out our Valentine’s Day with a bang.  The girls woke up and we brought them into the kitchen where we had a few treats for them. 

The most exciting being this Jessie costume.  Bug has been wanting one since we went to Toy Story on Ice.  I looked for one but even used ones on eBay were $25 at the cheapest…a little too expensive for a dress up costume in my opinion.  But then the other day I saw that a woman here in town was getting rid of one that her daughter had worn at Halloween last year for $5 so I snatched it up.  Bug was thrilled…even though it’s a tiny bit small. :)

And she is even sharing the hat with her sister. :)

They got princess treats from Grandma, new pjs from Noni and a whole bunch of stickers from Aunt Karen.

Sticker time!

We had heart shaped blueberry pancakes for breakfast and plan to go out to lunch with Daddy later.  What a fun Valentine’s Day so far!  And it’s not even 10 in the morning. :)

Workin’ Weekend

Sorry I haven’t been posting much.  I haven’t been feeling all that great so we really haven’t been doing anything too exciting that I could post about.  Unless you want to read about me laying on the couch watching the girls play. :)

Actually, I have nothing to complain about.  Compared to Boo Bear this baby is a breeze!  With both my girls I didn’t have “morning” sickness; I had “all-day” sickness.  With Bug it was just more of a mild queasiness from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed, and it lasted 12 weeks exactly.  With Boo it was like I had the flu.  All day.  Every day.  Until 16 weeks.  I actually had to get on anti-nausea medicine with her just so I could function. 

So compared to that this time is easy.  I just start feeling queasy about 4:30pm every day and it gets progressively worse until bedtime so I end most evenings laying on the couch.  BUT I was 12 weeks on Friday and last night I noticed that I was actually doing pretty well at, what is usually, my worst time of night.  So hopefully we’re on the downhill side of the morning sickness. 

All that to say I will try to start posting more regularly. :)

This weekend we worked hard on the upstairs and we are getting so close I can taste it!  Well…that could be the sheetrock dust I’m tasting.  That’s right!  We started the sheetrock this weekend! 

T has been working on getting all the insulation and plastic sheeting up most evenings for the past few weeks.  On Friday we let the girls pick out a Kid Cuisine (they love those things!) and put on Curious George and we went up to finish plastic-ing.  I’m sure that’s not the right term. :)

It was some of this…

And a lot of that…

Then on Saturday my parents came over and we started the sheetrocking process.  My mom cleaned out upstairs and then she and I finished tearing out the carpet that was still in the hall and on the stairs.  Whoever did the carpet got a little staple happy when they wrapped the piece over the banister edge.  There was a staple about ever 1/4-1/2 inch. :P

And T and Papa got all the big ceiling pieces in! 

On a side note: the room looked totally clear when I took this picture, even though I could smell sheetrock dust.  I was surprised when the camera picked up all the little specks floating through the air! 

It’s SO nice to see some sheetrock going up!  It feels like one of the last steps!  We went in to town after church and picked out our carpet so I’m really getting excited!  T and I worked another hour last night and just about finished the ceiling in Bug’s room.  We plan to work on it every night this week after the girls go to bed so I’m hoping we can make some good progress.  We’re getting there!

“Nicken Nuggets”

I just had to get a video of the way Boo says chicken nuggets.  We think it’s really cute. :)

AND it’s a darn good thing she is so cute because she apparently got the memo that it’s time to start working on those “terrible twos”! 

She has really been asserting her independence lately.  Before she was always compliant and now she is testing the waters.  At bedtime and naptime (previously no struggle) she now says, “No yet! No yet!” and if, for example, she is banging a fork on a table at a restaurant and we take it away, instead of sitting there happily she will grumpily look at us and say, “No take way fork mines!”  She is also a fan of “No mean!” anytime we do something she thinks is “mean”.  Haha:) 

I’m hoping we’ll be able to nip things in the bud and skip over the terrible two’s like we did with Bug!  Otherwise it could be a long year!

Sisterly Bonding

We haven’t had much sisterly bonding around here lately.  My theory is that we’re just all a little tired of living in cramped quarters. The fact that we have been living in 1000 of our 3000 sq. foot house for the past 8 months is starting to take its toll. 

It’s really just been the past few months that have gotten bad because ever since it got really cold the breezeway just isn’t able to warm up above 60, even with the room heater going full blast all night.  So consequently Bug has been sleeping on the couch.  BUT she goes to bed at 8:30 and T and I don’t go to bed until 11 so she goes to sleep in our room and then when we are ready to go to bed T transfers her to the couch. 

And although she loves being around people and playing with others she is also a girl that likes her space.  Normally she just instinctively knows that she needs some alone time and will disappear.  When I start wondering about her absence I peek in on her and find her playing happily on her own.  She will play on her own for over an hour…when she has her own room. 

Now that she doesn’t have her own room she gets antsy that she can’t find some space and starts pestering her sister.  This ends up in a squealing/screaming and often times pinching/pushing cycle.  After which Boo is sent to her room and Bug is sent to Mommy and Daddy’s room for a time out.  It’s a vicious cycle we’ve been repeating about three times a day.

All that to say that those moments when they do play sweetly together are all the more precious to me.  And I’m REALLY hoping that once they have their own space back things will cool down between them. 

Yesterday Bug found her nail polish in the drawer and started painting her nails.  Boo wanted me to paint hers but I wasn’t feeling up to it so I suggested that she let her sister do it.

What followed was half an hour of giggling, color choosing, and happily exclaiming over “pitty pincess toe finger!”

Why can’t they get along this well all the time? :)

P.S. Thanks for all the well wishes everyone!  We’ll keep you posted on any baby developments. :)

Guess What?

That’s right!  Baby #3 will be here at the end of next summer! 

The girls were so funny when we told them. Bug didn’t have quite the level of excitement that I anticipated. She just kind of smiled and nodded, but the a few minutes later she said, “You mean it’s in Mommy’s tummy right NOW??” and when T said “yes” she got all excited and started waving her arms around.  Funny girl. :)

We took the girls with us to our first doctor’s appointment so they could see the baby on the ultrasound.  It was so cute to see the baby waving it’s little arms and legs around.  It got all excited and started wiggling all over the place when the doctor was pressing on it.  My friend who is an ultrasound technician calls this the “dancing gummy bear” stage and that’s exactly what our baby looked like!

We told Papa we were going to be in town and wanted to surprise Noni by going out to lunch so he set it up for us.  Little did he know he was going to get a surprise too!

Then the girls actually managed to keep it a secret for the next three days until yesterday morning when Grandpa and Grandma arrived and we were able to tell them. 

This morning we put a praise in the prayer book for the Pastor to announce and when he got to it he asked if Bug wanted to go up.  She skipped down the aisle, grabbed the microphone and said, “We have a new baby!” 

Our best reaction was definitely Auntie Katherine!  We got a full on scream out of her while we were skype-ing with her and Aunt Karen!  Haha:)

The due date is August 25th and the doctor says that baby looks really good!  We’re very excited for this fifth member of our family even though it will mean T and I will be outnumbered. :) 

In our parenting class we joke that the families with two kids get to play a man-to-man defense and the families with three kids are playing a zone defense.  So we’ll have rework our playbook and plan some new zone strategies for when the baby gets here. :)

As for boy/girl we are a bit divided.  Daddy and Boo want a boy.  Bug wants a girl.  I would be perfectly happy with either but as I told Grandma, I know how to handle girls. :)  We will be thrilled with whatever God chooses to give us, but we’ll have to wait a while until we discover what that is!

For now I’ll leave you with baby’s first picture!  (head on the right, leg sticking up on the left)

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above… ~ James 1:17

Post-Birthday Fun

Boo and Bug have been enjoying some post-birthday fun this week.  We took them shopping last night and Boo used some of her birthday money.  Before we left she told me she wanted a baby. 

The first thing she picked up was a stuffed dog.

After that about twenty things came off the shelves…

…until she finally found the baby section.  And she did end up picking a baby.  It has a bottle and actually makes a sucking motion when you put it up to the mouth.  After you feed it she blinks her eyes and goes to sleep.  It’s pretty cute.  Thanks Pawpaw and Nana and Grandma V and Grandpa J!  She only used about half her money so we’ll let her pick something else later.

The chair that Noni and Papa ordered came this week too.  She was SOO excited!  She plopped her little bottom down in and got quite comfortable.  She wanted to watch her one “show” of the day in it and surprisingly she sat still through an entire Super Why episode (20 min.).  Usually she is up and moving during the show.  She must have been comfy, but then I noticed she’d already smudged the ottoman with her fruit snacks so I boxed the chair back up until I can get some Scotch Guard. :)

Aunt Nina sent this beautiful quilt and a small matching one that she has been using for her new baby.  It is just the right colors for her new big girl room.  They spread it out on the ground and got out the kitchen set from Uncle B and Auntie M and had a picnic/tea party.  It was pretty cute to listen to them playing. 

Thanks for the wonderful presents everyone!  We are getting hours of fun out of them already!