Thursday, April 30, 2009

Lily's First Race

Lily ran her first race last Sunday. It was called Run for the Cheetah at the zoo. The kids dash was 1/2 a mile and the proceeds went to the Cheetah Conservation Fund.

Rachel and Lily hugging at the finish line and warming up before the race, Lawrence and Lily and Rachel running, and showing off their medals. (Addie got a metal too, even though she didn't run). Click on collage to see it bigger.
Race Results!

Lily took training for her race very seriously and she went to the track at Southridge High School to practice running around it twice. Once, she even fell down and skinned both knees after the first lap (and I'm sure trying to look behind her while running full blast, as she does very commonly), and she STILL finished the second lap. Go Lil.

Anyway, so the race was Sunday, and I wasn't home because I was at the women's retreat in Cannon Beach. Lawrence took both girls by himself and also picked up Josh, Shawna, and Rachel.

Shawna recently broke her foot (I know if you can believe it!) so Josh and Rachel ran and Lily and
Lawrence ran, and Shawna and Addie cheered them on!

Lily told me later, mama, I'm glad that I raced for the cheetah, I'm glad I could help out the cheetahs.

She had a great time and afterward they all went to the zoo for an Earth Day party. It was great. I'm so happy that Lawrence had such a great weekend with the girls while I was gone. He sure is a super dad! Lily can't wait for her next race, and we are happy to work those muscular little (not really) legs! Even in Addie's tininess, she has her sister's (and her dad's) muscular defined arms and legs, far too much for this young age!

So let's keep em runnin'!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Meet Sabine

Today we finally made the very big decision of hiring an Au Pair. She will come to us on August 14. Her name is Sabine. (Sa-bean-a). She is 21 from Germany. Her parents are married and she has 2 sisters and a brother. Her sisters are one and two years older than her and her brother is 10 years younger.

We have reviewed about 100 Au Pair applications, interviewed about 10 girls, we had one other come close, but Sabine was the definite fit for us. I feel relieved to have made this decision, but
still a little nervous about what it will be like. Her English is very good and we have no problem understanding her. We've interviewed her separately (Lawrence and I) as well as Skyped a few times with the girls. Addie calls her "Bean-bean" and Lily loves loves loves her!

We are excited for the girls to learn some German as well as with all the help she is going to give us. This will be like adding a member to our family who also cares for our children. Exchange student meets live in Nanny. She will be required to take 6 hrs of classes while she is here in the first year. We will have one year with her and at the end we will have the option to extend another 3,6,9, or 12 months with her. We are very very excited. The pictures are of her and her family (top), she is the second from the left, and of her and her favorite little buddy that she babysits, Pierre. I'm sure you will here a lot more about her over the coming months, but that is the gist.

You can see the original post (which I just finished but started in February, sigh) on why and Au Pair here.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Retreat Recap

So what happened after "weee"? She did that for an hour and 15 minutes. And finally went to sleep without a complaint once. Total opposite of what Lily would have done. She woke up in time to play outside and spend a little time together before I left too! Sorry to keep you on the seat of your pants for that! :)

So the weekend, at the Meadow Springs Community Church Women's Retreat, at the coast, was AMAZING. I had a fabulous time. I met some wonderful women. Had great fellowship, something I have been starving for. It renewed my faith and I feel refreshed. I came home overflowing with love to share with my husband and my kids. I learned so much about my gifts and I came home a better wife and mommy. How great is our God!!!!!

I'm a little beat because I stayed up late, and I shared a room with my good friend Tanya and her 3 mth old baby. So I was a bit of her personal assistant (gladly), but the baby slept great, though didn't eat quite on cue as Tanya would have preferred, but did a great job overall for her first time to be out in the world for 3 days straight. I'm energized and drained all at the same time.

Lily had her Run for the Cheetah today. I will post some pictures and a post about that later. Maybe I will even ask my other "contributor" Lawrence to write it. Heh. How I love my husband for giving me the weekend away, and for doing such fun things with the girls and for doing it happily. And for being him.

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PS Happy Birthday Grandpa Steve - of course we couldn't call since you are out of the country but we were thinking of you!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Weeeee

45 minutes after I put a tired Addie down for her nap today, I heard her talking, then yelling, but not crying. I decided to go in and see if I could settle her. I'm leaving today for a Women's Retreat at the Oregon Coast and I was hoping she'd be up before I leave, so I want her to go to sleep.

When I got in there, her back was to me, she was running around the crib, had taken her sleep sack off. Then she grabbed the crib with both hands and leaned her head back saying "WEEEEEE WEEE WEEEEEE". Like she was swinging on monkey bars. I almost laughed out loud.

I decided to shut the door and see what happens since she didn't see me.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

New Monkey PJs

For whatever reason, my daughters are absolutely obsessed with matching monkey pajamas. They don't have to be matching exactly but they have to both have monkeys on them. I put Grandma Carol on the hunt for these when she was here last in case she found a good deal while outlet shopping or TJmaxing it.
These PJs are seriously so cute, you can't even tell HOW cute by the pictures, but they both look adorable running around in them. Now they both have 2 sets of Monkeys that fit them and one pair of outgrown Curious Georges in the bin.
Addie requests monkeys each night, and when she gets them, she goes into Lily's drawer and finds hers and brings them out. Sometimes if she is dressed in other PJs and she runs across the Monkeys in a clean laundry pile, she will strip down and exchange. This all started with the Monkey PJs that little Ian gave Addie, and now it is a full blown epidemic!!!
After bathtime the other night, I had to stop Addie from giving Lily hers in the BATH! :) She woke up a little cold on Monday night so yesterday when I put a long sleeve onsie on her, she freaked, thinking that meant she wouldn't get to wear them! Geez.


Thank you so much Grandma Carol. They LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!

**********
PS Happy 25th Birthday Uncle Matt! We love you too!
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Sweetest Sisters

Sometimes my girls are so sweet and cute together that I can barely take it. Lily has been very very sweet to Addie, and very "mommy-like". I will overhear her saying things like, "Oh, good job sweetie" in a patronizing sort of voice. Yesterday Addie fell in the back yard and got a scrape on her leg and each time for the rest of the day when Addie passed the step she tripped on, Lily held her hand gently and helped her like she was an 80 year old women crossing a busy street. Actually any time Addie cries, Lily tries very hard to fix it. Whether it is to go get a bear - bear, rub Addie's back, or say, "Oh Addie, you are okay, I'm sorry honey, sweet girl". Usually Addie wants nothing to do with Lily or her niceties after a boo-boo, but Lily tries hard just the same



Their favorite things to play together are babies, night-night (see below), Dora castle, play kitchen-namely picnic, playground and slides, dancing, monkey pajamas, and running around the house naked dancing the jig.

Lily goes into Addie's room in the morning while I'm getting 5 more minutes of sleep. Oh how I love that. What a difference it makes to have FIVE minutes to get out of bed and go from dead sleep to get up in one motion. I love it. I hear the cutest conversations in those five minutes between the two of them, and some times I even come in and see Lily in the crib with her. It is so sweet. Here are a few of their conversations:

L: Addie, do you like these shoes. Oh. Do you like THeeeessseee shoes?
A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oooooooh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Rinse and repeat




Usually the play well together for a long time and then eventually Addie will start destroying all that they have created and Lily will get frustrated because she likes to have things just so. Sometimes that means that Addie starts "eating" all of the food Lily has laid out nicely for the picnic. Or Addie wakes the babies up from their nap, when Lily has them laid out in quiet locations, nicely swaddled. Addie says "weee" as she pulls one corner of a blanket and the baby spins and spins out of it's swaddle and on to the floor. Of course if you know ANYTHING, this is not the correct way to play babies, just ask Lily. Addie isn't always a destroyer, they play nice for a long time, but that's usually how the game ends if they aren't on to the next first. Addie's favorite thing about babies is to sing "Rock bye Baby, Tee Top" and she pushes their face into her child rocking back and forth. Seriously, cutest thing. EVER. If either of them see the other one down to their skivies the other also has to get "nay-nay" which is how Addie says naked, and that is what both of them call being naked, or even shirtless for that matter. Then they call it "dancing the jig" and the dance with their hands above heads shaking back and forth while bumping bellies. I swear, I couldn't make this up if I wanted to.
The also LOVE their bath time together as well as their snacks. For so long Addie has held her distance from Lily because she didn't like being loved THAT MUCH. Read: too tight and too smothered around the neck or over the face. But lately as Lily has learned to lay off a little, Addie initiates more hugging and snuggling with Lily and Lily LOVES it, this is the sisterhood that Lily has been waiting for.

In the picture below they are sharing a chair eating a snack and thinking it was the best thing ever. It was their "After mommy gets home from work" snack (while I eat..er...scarf my dinner). They were totally pumped about it, and they ask me to take a picture. Okay, Lily asked and Addie said, "yeah, yeah, yeah, cheeeeese".


Sometimes I think my heart couldn't be more full for these two and then I see them loving each other and I think I might burst, just burst. The sweetest thing.


******************************
PS - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear friend Ashley, and Lily's dear friend Keilah. We love you BOTH!

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Easter in Joseph

We had a wonderful Easter weekend in Joseph. We left Friday after work about 4pm, stopped in Arlington at the park, picnic dinner in the car, arrived around 10pm. We had a full action packed Saturday, brunch at Nelson's on Easter Sunday and back in the car by noon, arrived home at 6pm, with another stop in Arlington to run and slide in the rain before getting PJs on. So it was a very quick trip but we were glad that we made it.

True to our kids form they didn't sleep most of the 6 hr drive to Joseph. The finally fell asleep in Imbler (Addie) and Elgin (Lily). It's progress though, Lily used to always fall asleep in Wallowa. If you've done that drive you know that Elgin is one hour (tops) from Joseph.

The great thing they did do was sleep in the same room for the first time alone, and they did great. Lily went to bed about a half hour after Addie each night and didn't wake her and was able to keep the talking to a minimum. Addie woke about 10x on Saturday night (later to find out was due to an ear infection and tear in her ear drum). Lily didn't hear her at all. So it was good to know that since they'd like to share a room soon, they were able to sleep well together and not wake each other up.




Saturday we went to the Easter Egg hunt at the City Park. We got to walk there from my mom's and it started to snow a bit. Better than many years in Joseph when there is actually snow on the ground for the egg hunt. There were about 2000 eggs in the girls age group so they both cleaned up with a full bucket. Addie was cute and knew just what to do, getting all of her eggs on her own. Lily had a strategy to go to the area where no one was and work her way back, passing a lot of eggs on the way there. She was very kind and shared some of her eggs with her sis as well as with other little kids who didn't get as many.
Grandma Lanie and her girls

Us

Smiley Sisters

After we got home and ate the ham dinner my mom made for us, we put Addie down for a nap and Lily was getting special quiet time with Grandma Lanie Scrapbooking. (a whole other blog on this topic later). We went to Will's shop and hung out, after shopping around Joseph a little. Leah joined us and we had a great time hanging out, Lawr cut some soap, and wrapped it. Will has an empty spa room in the building which he recently bought, and it was just lovely. The store smells so delicious that it is the nicest enviroment. We came home for Leah to see the kids and then went back out to dinner. My mom was really happy to have the day with the kids to herself mostly. She did say a few times Lily was annoyed that she had to share her Grandma with her sister. She likes to have her at her beck and call.


Easter morning we packed up and went to the Nelson's for brunch. I was a little disappointed that we were in too big of a rush to go to church down the street from my mom's. It is my favorite place for Easter service. It didn't feel quite right missing church for me on Easter, but we really did have a great time and Mandy and Joe's. The kids had fun, another egg hunt, yummy food, good friends and good company.

The ride back was LONG and the girls did sleep for a few minutes at the same time. Lawrence and I listened to Financial Peace CDs and then had a few minutes to talk and a few minutes to just enjoy the silence. Ah the silence. All of the things described above are somewhere in this multitude of pictures. You can click on the collage to see the pictures bigger.

Just no time

It's been so long since I blogged that I'm so far behind.

Here are the blogs that are still waiting in the wings:
Easter weekend in Joseph
Cutest Sisters Ever
Au Pair busy-ness
New Monkey PJs
The Sun is Shining
What's for Dinner

I don't know what's up with me, but I can't get the brain (or the time to actually write about any of these things). Then when I do, I don't have the pictures ready, and that simply won't do, you know, having the blog written but not the pictures posted. Sigh. I'll get there.

In the meantime, I'm just writing to say that we are alive and well. Life is good. Just too. darn. busy. Good busy, but blogless busy just the same!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Is it Friday yet?

We had an awesome, exhausting weekend in Joseph, and I have no energy to choose photos and blog about it.

After Addie hasn't slept for 3 nights, and last night being really bad, she woke up crying even when I was holding her. I decided to make a pediatrician appt today, suspecting and ear infection. It finally occurred to me last night after the 100th wake up to give her some Tylenol, and she slept for the rest of the night.

She does have an ear infection in her right ear with a slight tear in her ear drum. Yuck. She cried so hard while the dr was checking it, and I felt terrible. All was made better by some Nemo fruit snacks and cuddle with bear-bear tho.

I was supposed to take her in for a weight check this month anyway but had opted not to since she'd been healthy for a few weeks. heh. I didn't want her going to get weighed and coming home with a nasty stomach virus. To ease my worries, she had diarreah right before we left for the dr. Hope it was from too much Easter candy because it was a one time only type deal. So far. Sorry Rosy, I know that is your least favorite word!

She is 21 lbs now at almost 21.5 months. Still 3 percentile. Still not dropping off. Her dr did want to discuss the allergy appt and options of going to a nutricianist etc so she was glad I came in (though not glad that Addie wasn't feeling well).

I'm beat. Oh, so beat. Sometimes you are amazed as a mother how deep you can dig when kids are sick to find energy that surely was not there. To find kindness and patience, and not the fake kind. To get up and soothe one more time in the middle of the night or to play one more round of babies in the middle of the day (realizing that the making up something, anything will make your child happy). To hold and cuddle when you just want to be held and cuddled, or better yet, left to sleep the week away. Small sickness reminds me to be glad to have children who can and will recover and to not take for granted a healthy family, thought at the moment it feels like it is a million years away. I surprise myself sometimes, and even in a good way.

Coffee, vitamins, sunshine...all in my future tomorrow, and I think we might just be on the mend.

Blog about the wonderful, relaxing, action packed, weekend to come, I promise, and some other goodies...but wait...is it Friday yet?

Friday, April 10, 2009

Funnies

Addie: (looking at my gross after work out pony tail sweaty head while I was putting her to bed), "ohhhh eeeewe pepey" (pretty) - that's exactly the noise I make when I put a "pretty" in her "hair".

Lily: (while praying) Thank you for giving me and Addie cookies and for helping daddy to not eat them all.

Addie: putting elbow on hips and palms face up: "Uh iyee doe?" (Where Lily go?)

Mommy: Lily what do you like about princesses?
Lily: That they wear pink
Mommy: What else?
Lily: Hmmm That they are nice and they are like rainbows. I'm going to have to think about that and tell you tomorrow, and if I don't tell you tomorrow I will tell you the day after tomorrow
Daddy: Why do you like Legos?
Lily: I like that daddy likes Legos and we can do it quietly together. I like spending time with my daddy and he likes Legos. (Aww)


When I put Addie to bed at night, she likes me to sing Rock a bye baby. She sings the first line of it, "ock a baby" and rocks her body and hugs whatever baby, stuffed animal, blanket she is holding. She loves it. So usually she's say "Kitty" and I'll sing "rock a bye kitty"or whatever it is. Tonight she said "mama Carkol" (Grandma Carol) So I sang "Rock a bye Grandma Carol", she thought it was THE funniest thing. She couldn't stop laughing at her idea and the fact that I followed through with it. I love the glimpses into a sense of humor!



Here are the girls being silly w/ their Gma Carol during the latest visit.


We pulled weeds on Sunday, while it was beautiful and sunny out.
Lily: Mommy I love pulling weeds, this is so fun.
Me: Yep
Lily: I want to do this every day. I really missed the sun Mommy.
Me: Yep

Next day when we woke up.
Lily: Mommy can me and Tamara go outside today and pull more weeds.
Me: You bet!

Jeez there are so many more, I wish I had a brain recorded. Oh well, imagine all that would be lost to me if I wasn't blogging a few times a week. We are excited for our trip to see me mom tomorrow, though we won't get to Joseph until very late. I worked late tonight and Lawrence and the girls packed the bags. The Easter bunny got the girls 2 pairs of matching pjs. They are going to be SO excited. He also got Addie a few Elmo shaped eggs which are also sure to be a hit.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

O.C.A.

It all started when she was about 9 months old and she would crawl over and shut doors, no door in her reach could remain open. Then as she neared a year, she loved her shoes. When you would take them off for her to nap or sleep, she'd remember exactly where you left them immediately upon waking up. She's always had an uncanny nack for knowing if she's dropped something. Even when still crawling, she'd know to turn around and pick it up. And if she ever accidentally drops a raisin from the shopping cart? Forget it, she's "talking" and pointing back at it for the next 3 aisles!

Obsessive Compulsive Addie

Last night when I put her to bed, I pulled down one sleeve that had pulled up a little into her sleep sack. Before I left the room she made me pull down the other sleeve (which was already fully down). It's all about the symmetry. No cupboard or drawer goes opened, no book or shoe out of place. Asking her to close the pantry is a real treat for her (and a rather sly trick for me, by stopping her from actually getting into the pantry digging for food instead).

At 21 months, I never have to worry about letting her eat things like cheerios or crackers on the carpet because I know that if she spills (and she always does) she picks up every last one.

Yesterday I had moved her chair so she could watch a little Elmo while I was working and Lily was at school. For afternoon snack, Lily was sitting in her chair and Addie was standing in the empty place where her chair GOES. She stood there grunting and pointing "chair, chair". Addie do you want mommy to move your chair back? "Yeah, yeah". Please mommy, things need to be in their place!

There are a million more things like this that she does. It is so funny how aware she is of herself and her space, and how much she likes things to be right where they should be.

To counteract the post, I thought I would show you (on one of her all time favorite things to do) that she CAN also fly by the seat of her pants.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Mark & Ty Visit - Day 1

Here is a collage of the best of day one pictures from Lawrence's brother, Mark, visiting with his mom and our nephew, Tyler.

We had two days and will filled them.

Friday morning started off with Addie coming downstairs and going straight to Mark with no hesitation. Something that makes everyone happy when kids are small and family lives across the country. I woke up to Lily bossing and mother Tyler around, which suited him just fine since he has two sisters at home doing that pretty much 24/7.

There were a million things we would have liked to do with Mark and Ty but decided not to run ourselves ragged. The kids played together (all 3 of them insisting in being in the red car at the same time and making it work some how peacefully!...come to think of it, this might be the first peaceful dual, much less 3, playing in that car, usually someone is carjacked!), they had a bath together and we headed to the zoo. It started raining on the way to the zoo so we went to the Children's Museum instead. Everyone had a blast. Red Robin for lunch (I let Addie fall off a bench on her head as we were leaving, so that was awesome). All the kids napped, and I worried over a game of Blokus with Mark, Carol, & Lawrence that she had a concussion. Luckily after a Drop Top, I was feeling a little more relaxed. We grilled in, which was a treat because Mark is an awesome cook. The kids had Chicken Nuggets and Little Einsteins for pizza / movie night. After dinner Lawrence, Mark, & I went out for a bit...even though we were too tired...after all, we only had two days.

Click on the collage to see the pics bigger.


Posted by PicasaThe whole day was a highlight, but we laughed hard at Tyler's "Hello/Goodbye" song at the CM2, taking the microphone off the stage to his own corner. Addie and Ty went shirtless in the water area, and they look so much alike that we laughed at our naked children. I think they actually got less wet that way vs wearing the smocks and having all the water run down their sleeves and into their shoes. The kids filled the sandtable with rocks and it kept them busy for a full two hours. Everyone behaved and everyone had fun together the whole day. Lily was sad because she and Ty had agreed to have a sleep over in Gma Carol's room that night, but by the time it came down to it, Ty didn't want to, he was too tired and just wanted to crash. It was cute of them to want to try and ask permission and plan on it all evening though. Tyler played equally with Addie and Lily so it didn't feel like anyone was left out at all. Somewhat hard to do with 3 kids.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Mark & Tyler visit - Day 2

The forecast was sun and 70 so we woke up and planned to go to the zoo after breakfast at Hayden's. It was a very Yummy breakfast and walk to feed the ducks and then a blast at the zoo. It was FREEZING in the morning, but still beautiful out and the kids just LOVED every single thing about the zoo. I wish I had a picture of how cute Addie's face was when she saw the Monkeys or of Tyler showing Lily the huge turtles he had discovered. After the zoo we went home for nap time, and Carol and I went to the mall for a few things. When we got back, Mark and Lawrence took the kids to a nearby park and Mark got to see Mt Hood very clearly. They also got more awesome photos of the kids. We had a nice dinner of ordered in pizza, and hanging out talking too late with Mark about home improvement. And that was that. End of day two. So fun, and so fast. Click on the collage to see it bigger.

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Thursday, April 2, 2009

Wating for a jet plane

It's my Friday, because I'm taking tomorrow off work. Except I'm not working from home today and I'm working super late tonight, so it's not really like Friday at all. Anyway, when I feel like I can't look at one more excel schedule...I'll just come write a blog.

Thanks to all who are praying for Heidi and her family. My mom talked to her dad, and he said, "She's one tough cookie", and that she was handling pretty well considering. On the website they've posted pictures of the wreckage. It's so terrible to imagine what that was like.

Anyway, life goes on and I appreciate my family and my husband. Except when he snores.

Oh, and speaking of snoring my brother-in-law is coming to visit tonight. (I hope, as of now the plane is 43 minutes delayed!) Addie was practicing all day saying "Tye-Tye", that's for Tyler, our 3.5 year old nephew. He is one of Lawrence's brother, Mark's, three children. So this visit is Carol (Lawr's mom), Mark, & Tyler. It will be a pretty short visit and they are staying until Sunday. We should be able to do a few fun things and let the kids and brothers get some QT, which is the point of the trip.

It is supposed to be sunny here this weekend, so we are hoping for a visit to the Tulip festival or a short hike somewhere or maybe a trip to the zoo. Two days isn't long and we certainly don't want to jam pack it full running from one place to another. Anyway, we are looking forward to some one on one time with Ty and Mark, and of course we get to see Grandma Carol again too!

Lily used to call Grandma Carol, "Mama Turtle" and it was so cute. Addie was saying it like that for a while, but now it has graduated to "Mama Care Care". It is so funny the use of double words, I thought that was Lily's signature move, but Addie does it too.

Addie is going Potty about 6-8 times a day now, and actually going potty about half that. It's mostly just inconvenient right now, and I think we might be using twice as many diapers because she is usually wet when she has to go. She knows when she needs to poop, and grunts on the pot, but then gets down and loads up her diaper once it's back on. This is probably why it is so annoying. If I have to take her potty 8x a day, it would be nice if I could get out of changing ONE poopy diaper.

My new girl at work is doing so AWESOME. Seriously after only a month, she is doing so much better than the last girl did after pulling her along for a year. It is amazing, and it has made my days working at home with the girls so much easier. I can't imagine how great she will be after fully trained. For now, I'm learning a whole new thing about trusting that someone else will do their job and do it right and it isn't my job too! So, you could say, I'm really liking that.

The working out has still been going well and in total, I've lost 12 pounds since December. I'm feeling really good, and the gym during my lunch at the office is so much more doable than outside the house in the evenings. I wish I could run, but since I can't, you will find me occasionally walking on the treadmill and watching old Sex in the City DVDs on the laptops. Carrie's size 2 muscular legs really get me motivated. To what? To walk harder on the treadmill? I'm not sure. But I can last 2 episodes or an hour of walking up hill so that's better than nothing.

I have a million and one funny things that the girls are doing right now, but of course I sit down and get writers block when my fingers are touching the keyboard. Here are a couple of things:

Addie is now quite vocal and knows exactly what she wants, highlights in the morning are her vitamin, brushing teeth, and having milk. Yesterday I got her milk cup out of the fridge and it didn't have much milk in it, when I reached back in, she was handing me back the carton of rice milk out of the door. I thought it was cute that she knew which milk was hers and didn't want to waste any time getting it in.

Lily has been such a big helper lately with Addie, she is always telling her what she should and shouldn't do, in a nice "teacher" type way. Ususally. Of course sometimes I'm sure that Addie thinks she has 2 mommies because Lily is a bit bossy. She likes to tell you what the rules are. It works out good because Addie usually likes to follow what her sis says. Except when she doesn't. She'll let you know.

Addie sings "rock a bye baby" now. She'll prompt me to sing it when we are in bed. She likes to rock her elmo, bear bear, or baby too.

If you start the ABC's and say "A", Addie will say "B".

Lily has almost filled up the Crap, er, I mean Scrap book that Gma Lanie got her at the end of Feb. In just over a month, she has crafted almost 80 pages front and back. It really is something to see.

3 deer were in our yard on Thursday night. It was the entertainment of the evening. The usually get in the field behind our house, but this time they got into the neighbor's yard then jumped the fence into ours. Lily kept saying, "Oh, I hope the do not poop back there, I do not want to help mommy and daddy clean that up" I bet she said that 5 times in a worried voice. Like we have this long history of making her clean up poop outside.

Addie now looks out the window each meal and says "nay" meaning deer meen where the H ARE they mom?

Addie also says "yeah yeah yeah" really fast when you get what she is trying to say? She sounds like Beavis and Butthead.

A friend from college on Facebook got in touch with me after I did a survey about my "First Born". I mentioned our 2 vessel cord, and she has it too, 20 weeks pg. She was so happy to find out that someone else she knew had it after researching all the horror stories. She noticed that my girls looked healthy and fine. She wrote two paragraphs of questions. So I wrote her a novel about my experience while pg with Lily(2V). Imagine that, writing on and on and on. Who does that?

Okay, back to work. I see the plane has taken off, only 23 minutes late and that leaves me exactly 4 hrs left to work! Get ready for lots of pictures from the fun filled weekend ahead!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Sad.

I wish this wasn't true... Youth group leader, Jeff Gaertner, killed in crash, up to seven teens injured in Wallowa County.

Read Here

I was friendly with Heidi (Miller), his wife, in high school and went to their wedding. I didn't know Jeff at all and haven't spoke to her since my senior year of HS or so, when we double dated for the prom. I feel so sad for her and their two children. I'm also worried for many families in the small community that I grew up in. There are several children hurt and many, many families affected.

My mom took this picture a few years ago when Jeff worked for the Chieftain, writing sports, and Heidi and the kids brought him dinner while working late one night. Every time I think about her and the kids my heart hurts. It makes me want to go squeeze Lawrence and my kids and keep us all in a bubble. That's not possible, but I will give thanks with every inch of my being that we have each other here and now. It will be another reminder to hug them a little tighter tonight.

Please pray about all those whose lives have been changed by this tragedy.