Land of a Thousand Questions

I forgot how questioning a 2-year old can be. Here are some questions I hear multiple times a day...

What's that noise?
Who's there?
Where's my sister?
Can I watch Dora? (or Dragon Tales - that's her new favorite)
Can I do play-doh?
Can I wear a swimsuit? (her clothing of choice)
Can I do that?
Can I ride my big girl bike?
Can I do my scooter?
Can we read that (book) again? (and again, and again, and again)

Leah has even bigger questions.

How big is God?
If God created everything, who created God?

I think I'll take the 2-year old questions please!

Our Newest Addition

Meet Elfie.

He's the newest addition to our family. He arrived very early this morning to greet the girls. Leah spotted him right away perched on top of a picture over the fire place. We read the book. Leah wanted to name him "Santa's Little Helper". I suggested "Elfie". She loved it. Carly loved it. Now we have Elfie. And it's the second most popular name behind "Buddy." I'm hoping he won't cause too much mischief around our house this month while he reports to Santa each night if the girls have been good or not. So far Leah has done the laundry, changed sheets on the beds and has been all kinds of helpful. I think we need an elf for all seasons. :) Stay tuned to find out some of Elfie's adventures this month.

Wacky Wednesday

I really need to start updating the blog more. We have tons going on and lots of funny stories from both the girls.

But today and every Wednesday for the next month are going to be extra wacky - as in we are so busy. So busy shuttling Leah to her various and numerous Wednesday activities.

Here is a "normal" Weds for the girl:

1. school

2. daisy scouts (right after school)

3. home for a quick dinner

4. soccer practice

5. AWANA

6. home to unwind and bed

What busy days Wednesdays are going to be through October.

But who could resist shuttling this precious one around?

Teddy Bear Picnics

Carly has really been into picnics lately. She loves to spread out a blanket and eat her breakfast or lunch on it with Leah. Yesterday she decided that her bears and other various babies and animal friends should picnic with her. So she set them all up in a circle, set out plates, utensils, cups, and food from the play kitchen and had a picnic with them. It's is so cute!

Today, since Leah doesn't have preschool, she got to join in on the picnic. Carly is "feeding" Pooh Bear, Leah, Minnie Mouse, and herself with pretend cheese, strawberries, broccoli, chicken nuggets, all while saying "mmmmm" with every bite or drink. I would love to snap a picture but the camera's is upstairs and I don't want to disturb the picnic.

Updates...

We've had much going on and not a lot of free time. Hence, the blog not being updated. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon. I broke my camera, but that's another issue.

Anyway, here's a look of what's been going on with us.

• Carly got her 1st haircut. She LOVED it!
• Leah has been on a birthday party kick. Her last party was a soccer party for twin boys in her class. She was the only girl invited from school. When Dan took her to the party, one twin told a friend, "That's my brother's girlfriend." Dan wanted to promptly turn away and walk out with Leah but she did get to stay and had a great time.
• I spent Friday and Saturday at the Women of Faith conference. AMAZING!!
• We are in Project Basement overhaul. We've (well actually Dan and some guys) hauled out an amazing amount of stuff from the basement. The front half is repainted. Our new office/work space is almost complete. I still need to finish cleaning out and organizing the girls toys. Tonight, Dan and a friend started hanging drywall in the back half of the basement. Big changes going on! It's going to be GREAT.
• Carly is really wanting to sit on the potty. I think it's just because it's a Dora potty seat. Time will tell.
• Leah is registered for kindergarten. We have to have her hearing retested and her eyes examined. Nothing like failing both your hearing and vision before you start school.
• Carly is starting to pedal her tricycle. She LOVES to be outside.

Hopefully your life is as busy and fun as ours!

In stores...

So as Leah and I were practicing our verses today (Psalm 136), I was having her repeat "His love endures forever" after I read the first part of the verse.

Here's how it went:

Me - Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
Leah - His love in stores forever.

Bit of an Update

Ok, so I have a ton to update on, including Leah's 5th birthday bash!

But for the meantime, here are some tidbits of what's been going on.

• Leah got 5 shots at her check-up. That was not fun! She's in the 90th percentile for height and 80th for weight.


• Carly will now give you a hug and a kiss if you ask her and if she's in the mood.


• Carly doesn't walk, she gallops. If you chase her, she will run and giggle. It's so great!


• Carly is starting to really like "Ella" aka Cinderella. And I think she may be part Cinderella, she likes to help put away the dishes from the dishwasher and use the Dustbuster and vacuum cleaner. Wonder if she's too young for all the household chores?


• Yesterday we had a birthday party for Leah's favorite doll, Maddie. This was definitely last minute. Apparently, Maddie's favorite treat is star shaped peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies. So that's what we served at the party. Maddie also got some presents. Two new books and some "new" clothes.

Childhood Flashback

Let's just start by saying that it is so pretty outside! We have inches of snow and huge, falling flakes. We would so be outside playing if Leah didn't have a cold/fever that's kept her out of dance yesterday and school today.Since it's snowy and cold out, plus Leah's a tad under the weather, we had chicken noodle soup for lunch. Nothing too unusual since Leah loves soup. But today I made PB&J on saltine crackers. Have you ever had that? I remember my mom making them for us when we were little. LOVE THEM! Thanks Mom! My girls loved them too. Carly ate almost 3 cracker sandwiches alone! Leah wanted to make her own and she decided to add some apple pieces on hers. Of course I had to try them for her and they were pretty good. It was fun to share something I loved as a little girl with them.

What about you? Do you have any special childhood food memories that you have shared with your little ones?

Happy New Year and A Little Disney

Happy 2009!

I can't believe it's been forever since I've blogged. We've had tons going on from our Disney trip, to Christmas and the New Year. I hope you all had a blessed and joyous holiday season. We certainly did - minus the plane trip home from Disney, but I'll blog about that later!

Here are some of the favorite Disney pics so far.

Leah meeting her all time favorite princess, Snow White.
I LOVE this pic of Dan and Leah with Minnie!

Carly napping in the stroller. We wore her out most days.

Leah and one of her favorite rides - the teacups!

Say Cheese!

What do you get when you try to take Christmas pictures

with a very active toddler? This...

picture by Bethany Baldwin

More Randomness

There are a few things that I forgot about that I wanted to add to the last post.

1. I had a $1 off each gallon of gas at my last fill-up, so I was able to get gas for 64 cents a gallon! My total cost was $10.75. Exciting!

2. Carly is not only obsessed with Dora but also with Mickey/Minnie, Pooh Bear, and books. She should be a riot on our Disney trip in a few weeks.

3. Carly has started saying "shhhh" and holding a finger up to her mouth when she says it when I tell her someone or something is sleeping. It's precious!

4. Leah is hooked on soup. I think she would eat it at every meal. She's requesting my mom's potato soup when we go there for the Thanksgiving weekend. And she also LOVES the creamy, wild rice soup from Tastefully Simple. I'm wondering how much a case of that would be? Wouldn't that be fun to see under the tree?

Random Happenings

Here are some of the happenings going on around this house lately.

Leah and Carly LOVE playing with empty cardboard boxes. The boxes have been boats, toy carriers (esp. for baby dolls), cars, and trains. Why do we bother with toys?

The girls also love to play with deflated helium balloons. Leah got one from a birthday party on Sunday and Monday afternoon we tried to see if we could keep the balloon up in the air. Carly got a kick out of the balloon hitting her head or trying to catch it. It was quite funny to watch her try to catch the balloon. Pretty entertaining that balloon was.

Carly is still obsessed with Dora. She is also becoming quite the little parrot and will try to repeat anything you say. Her newest words are: spoon, sock, shoe, bowl, spoon, banana (progressed from just na-na), balloon, ball (well this isn't really new but anything that's round is a ball, including peas). She's finally getting her animal sounds too and can point to almost any animal in her favorite book for the moment, the Little People Animal book. She's identifying her body parts too. Most likely if you hold her she will "beep, beep" you nose. Her top words are probably: Leah, Dora, Mama, Papa and ball.

Leah is busy planning her 5th birthday party. Forget Christmas, she's already planned out her list and has moved on to her birthday. The theme for now is Fancy Nancy. The one thing she is bonkers about is this doll that goes potty. Baby Go-Go I think it is. Why the fascination with a doll that goes potty?? We have told her that Santa wouldn't be able to bring that to her. Cruel? Probably, but she is also asking Santa for two American Girl dolls. Since they are best friends they HAVE to come together she told me. She's also busy planning our Disney trip that's fast approaching and is SO EXCITED to see her cousins. The one thing that she HAS to do while we're at Disney is...everything. Sounds like we'll be quite busy while we are there.

What fun stuff has been happening in your home?

Weekend in Reveiw

I can sum it up in one word...sick. From colds, to the flu, to an ear infection - every single person in this house was sick this weekend and all on some sort of medication. At least it was gray and cold. There was lots of football and reading going on in our house.

Let there be light!

We have power!! Yes! After 2 1/2 days of no power we are back in touch with the world. Although I think I may miss part of our "pioneer days." Thankfully our neighbor let us plug the fridge into his generator so we didn't lose anything there and we had hot water. But the peace and quiet that came at night was so refreshing. No TV, no phones, no lights (minus the flashlights), no laundry to do (ok I could have washed by hand - dishes too), no cooking, no vacuuming (thankfully the little dust buster still worked), a gaggle of girls in the house and outside (there were eight of them at one point).

But today it's back to regularly scheduled programming...dishes, laundry, email, work, etc. But maybe at night I can regain some of the solitude and peace that came with no distractions and no power.

And Lord I thank you for the peace and quiet that came with the power loss and I thank you that we lost nothing but gained a tremendous amount. Please be with those that are still without power.

Cock-a-doodle-doo

How do you wake up in the morning? Or what wakes you up in the morning? Mostly the alarm clock helps to rouse my sleepy body but on occassion Leah becomes the alarm clock.

Here's what the Leah alarm clock likes to say...

wakey-wakey, eggs and bakey
Mama, Papa, I need your looooving
Cock-a-doodle-oink-oink

a happy heart

This morning was one of the best ones I can remember in a long time - filled with love and peace and contentment. I woke up with the alarm at 6 but didn't get out of bed until 6:30. Made my chai tea, started a load of laundry and then had some quiet time with the Lord. During my quite time I start to hear a happy, babbling Carly up in her crib, then the lovely sounds of Leah wishing her papa and sister a good morning. Then all 3 come sit around me on the chair. Both girls on their papa's lap, full of laughter, giggles, and smiles and papa loving every minute of it. It was the perfect picture of happiness and peace and perfection in our family. Thank you Lord!

May in Review

Well life it getting back to a slower pace these days and I'm so glad! Here are some of our May happenings.

1. Dan graduated! Way to go love! We are so proud of you!

2. Leah finished year 1 of preschool. She has changed and grown so much this school year. She's already asking if she can go straight to kindergarten. Ummm, no. I love the 4-5 year range. I really wish I could just freeze her!

3. Carly turned 10 months. Can you believe it? 10 months already! She loves eating regular, people food. Some favorites: pancakes, nectarines, grapes (peeled), blueberries (again peeled), yogurt, green beans and carrots. And of course, cheerios! Other Carly happenings: 6 teeth, almost walking, will try and climb ANYTHING, is way too curious and into everything, will hardly sit still for a simple book - she has to stand and then try and chew the pages.

4. Lots of parties: birthday parties, graduation parties, preschool parties

Wii got it!

So Dan totally surprised Leah and I last night with a Wii and WiiFit! i can't even begin to tell you how excited Leah was (and me too!). I am not a great fan of the video game but I LOVE the Wii. Dan and I stayed up playing with it until 1am last night! We won't talk about our fitness levels and fitness age. Let's just say we've got some improving to do. Okay, maybe a lot but I did have 2 babies. Oh what fun we had! We bowled, hula-hooped, skiied, slolam raced and more.

Leah didn't see it until this morning and she was so excited! Her favorite, for now, is bowling. And she even beat Dan this morning. Let's not rub that in his face, shall we? We're having lots of fun with it and I think it will be a fun way to add a twist to our family fun nights!

Want to play with us? Come on over, it'll be fun!