Camping, Walking & School

So many things have happened since I last wrote. The four of us went on our first vacation together. We spent 5 days camping at Bodega Dunes. We had so much fun! We were surprised by how much Rhian loved being a camper. We spent a hours on the beach every day, had lots of S'mores, took Rhian horseback riding, introduced Lily to ice cream cones, built sandcastles, collected shells/crab pieces/rocks/driftwood, picked wild flowers.....
Since our camping trip, Lily has started walking!!! We hardly see her crawling anymore. She loves to chase Rhian around the apartment, play in the kitchen cupboards, pull every stuffed animal we own out into the living room, and climb on and into everything.
Rhian started Kindergarten on the 17th! Can you believe it?! Kindergarten already?! She enjoys school but is finding that it is not all she thought it would be. She does not have a relative for a teacher, Lily gets to stay home with Momma all day, and she doesn't even get to wear her flip flops. So far everything they have done in class has been things she has known for quite some time.... writing their name, shapes, colors, alphabet..... she is ready to learn something new and be challenged. And she cannot wait to be able to use the SMART Board and check a book out from the school library.
Both girls had their Opthomology check-ups a couple weeks ago. Lily Marie's cataract has not changed and continues to not affect her vision. Rhian's glasses are continuing to help strengthen her misalligned eye and she did not need a stronger prescription. Good news for both, praise God! Neither has to go back for a year, yeah!

So Much Going On!

Things have been so busy with our family. Trinity has been working full time for the past 9 weeks,Josh has been able to use some vacation time and enjoy some time home with the girls, Josh and Trinity went to Oklahoma for JoAnna's graduation, we bid farewell to our Honda, we bought a Kia Minivan (yes we are now one of those families), Josh was a groomsmen in and us girls went to a wedding for some close friends, Rhian turned 5, Lily Marie now has 8 teeth and will be 1 year old next month..... and the list goes on and on.
Tomorrow we are having Rhian's party for her birthday, a little belated, but she is excited. It is themed after Disney's movie Bolt. She is awful curious about the Hamster Ball we purchased this morning.... no we are not getting a pet hamster, we will be BOWLING with a stuffed Rhino (the hamster from the movie) in a hamster ball. I love creative moms who post their ideas on websites for moms like me to take advantage of.
As I mentioned above, Lily has 8 teeth and she knows how to use them..... Josh has the bruise on his chest to prove it. She isn't walking without holding on to things yet but she sure finds a way to get where she wants to go.
Well, we are off to pick up Josh and on to run more birthday errrands.... yes, we are last minute. We will leave you with a smattering of pictures of our recent adventures.

Ok I don't know why everything underlined.... sorry.

Happy Easter Everyone!

I say it every month, but I will say it again.... Time just seems to go by so fast. We cannot believe that it is already April. Since we last updated you all so many things have happened. We will try to touch on the most important ones.....

Rhian got registered for Kindergarten and will start on August 17th. Can you believe it?! She will be going to school in the fall!!!! It is hard to fathom that she is almost 5 years old and starting school. She also entered the Awana Grand Prix this month. With Poppa's help she created what she called "The Pretty Princess Rosetta Car #67" and won 3rd place for speed! She insists that I tell you all that her car was covered with jewel stickers and flower and butterfly rub-ons. And, in case you can't tell in the picture, she says you must know that it was PINK! Rhian has been enjoying being pen pals with her friends Lucy (in Kansas City) and Aurora (in Fort Bragg, NC). She is also hoping to take swimming lessons this summer.


Lily Marie now has 4 teeth, two upper teeth joined her two lower. She has discovered grinding her teeth, which Josh absolutely gets the heeby-jeebies about. She is climbing on, over, under and through everything. She pulls herself to standing and cruises along until there is nothing further to hold on to then she screeches until someone helps her sit back down. She is loving big people food. Her recent favorite is toddler ravioli. She went through a couple weeks of loving tofu squares, but is so over that now. And about the glasses in the picture... those are Rhian's. Lily loves to get Sissy's glasses and the other night she was successful in getting them and was trying to put them on so we helped her and snapped a shot.

Josh's back has healed from his recent injury at work and he is enjoying being back at work. Thank you to all those who were praying for him! Your prayers and thoughts were greatly appreciated. As for me, I have been hand embroidering quilt squares and making blankets on the sewing machine I got from all the grandparents for Christmas. I have also been enjoying my camera. With that, I will leave you with this photo from our Easter photo shoot. Not the one going out to some friends and family, but a fun shot nonetheless.

Happy Easter!

Army Crawls and Paula Deen

Happy March! The girls have both gotten over their colds, Lily with the help of some antibiotics. They enjoy each other so much. It is such a blessing and joy to see how much they enjoy each other. Last night Lily had Rhian pinned under a clear laundry basket. She was standing up on it knocking and laughing away as Rhian was jokingly pleading to be let out of her cage. Next thing I know, Lily is under the basket and Rhian is knocking at her, both laughing.

Lily has not quite mastered crawling yet. Not for lack of trying. She army crawls with a fierce look of determination on her face. She makes her way all over the apartment and gets into everything. More babyproofing is in our future.

Rhian received an autographed photo of Paula Deen after having me e-mail her and tell her how much she loves her and how sad she was to not be able to go to her restaurant while in Georgia last May. There weren't seatings available the day they went until 9pm so they had to pass it up. After e-mail her sob story, dictated by her, to what I thought for sure was a dead end, she received the autographed photo. Now Rhian has decided that Paula Deen is her pen pal and has a letter and drawings for her and her sons ready to be mailed. She was watching Bonnie Hunt with me the other day and informed me that if I couldn't get Paula Deen to meet Rhian that, in her words "That lady Bonnie could make it happen Mom!" Oh dear.

Meet the kids.... Sicky & Cranky

Rhian is sick for the second time this month. We are thinking it is not an ear infection this time, thank God, but probably just more your normal everyday virus. She has a cough, a headache when she coughs, a fever, yet somehow she has more energy than Josh and I put together. Earlier this month we housesat for Mammy & Poppa while they went on a little trip. Part of that was watching their dog, Cassie. Rhian made sure that Cassie wasn't lonely, and Cassie demanded her attention.

Lily is teething more. Today in particular she has been Miss Cranky Pants. She has been enjoying doing anything fit for a "big girl". Things like sitting in her sissy's bowl chair, standing herself up on things, and walking across the living room pushing a laundey basket. She is not fully crawling yet but she can project herself forwards now while on all fours. Now her two bottom teeth are very visible. We were finally able to get a picture that showed them off a little.

January/February Update

All of January breezed by and here we are nearing the middle of February. So much has happened since our last post. In late January Josh led worship for a youth retreat and Rhian and I were able to join him for a fun weekend in the snow. Our Lily got to stay with the McKennas for the weekend. Rhian and I got to have lots of Mommy/Daughter time. We did lots of coloring, playing, walking to the lake, fingernail painting, snuggling and throwing snow at Daddy!

We found out in January that Lily has some acid reflux. With a change of diet, which included adding more solids and adding cereal to her formula bottles, we were able to avoid medicating her and she is doing very well. On January 27th Lily marie got her first tooth and on the 29th she got her second. Both teeth are on the bottom and are still rather hard to snap a good photo of.

Lily is really enjoying being able to eat solid foods, and Rhian is enjoying all the things Lily is able to eat. Who would have thought that a 4 year old would really want and love Biter Biscuits?! Have you tried them?? They are quite disgusting, but Rhian and Lily sure do love them. Rhian also enjoys eating Lily's butternut squash and baby food bananas. Lily's favorites are butternut squash and spring vegetables with brown rice. Yesterday she got to enjoy some of Rhian's Kix cereal for the first time and loved being able to eat some of Sissy's food for a change!

Rhian has her first ofiicial ear infection. A couple times in the past she has had sinus pressure in her ears and we have thought ear infection and taken her in but it has just been pressure. A little Sudafed and Motrin and POOF! all better. Well, that was not the case this time. After being up all Friday night in pain and then spending all Saturday morning trying to have fun at Mammy's but only being able to lay there and whimper we took her in. Sure enough, this time it was official. She got her first dose of antibiotics last night and she is feeling a bit better.

Well, that is all we have for now. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! a little early.

December 22? Really?

We cannot believe that it is already December 22nd? Where has the month gone? For us it has been spent in a blur. Josh's schedule got changed from mornings to nights which has thrown all of us out of whack. I have been picking up more hours to help make ends meet. The four of us have been playing hot potato with a nasty cold bug which had it's first go round when the girls got their flu immunizations... we may be skipping that one next year.

Here is a little update on the girls.

First we have Rhian.......

Her Sunday School class performed a few songs on the stage for the whole church on Sunday. Rhian was very excited about this performance. She practiced the songs and hand motions all week. We heard about "telling it on the mountains" and "mighty days" and "wishing you Merry Christmas" all week long. Then comes Sunday morning, the big day. She gets up o nthe stage with her class and proceeds to cup her head in her hands and grimace while the class sings. Mammy was sure she was nervous and was pleading with me to get her and remove her from her anguish. When she did come down her words were simple...
"They didn't give me my own microphone!"


And now for Lily Marie......


Since the last update Lily has started eating some solid foods. She has tried Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Peas, Squash and a little bit of Banana. Believe it or not, Squash is her favorite and much more believeable, peas are her least favorite.... and our least favorite when it comes to diaper time. She is such a smily girl. She has a wonderful laugh and a funny sense of humor already. She "talks" with her eyebrows until you crack a smile and then she giggles and coos. Her sissy can really get her laughing (thanks Rhian for helping us get the picture above!).

Merry Christmas!