He doesn't hear me!

Emma was looking at a photo album with pictures from a couple years ago. As has happened in the past, she got really sentimental looking at Lexi's baby pictures. She cried and said she missed her chunker baby Lex. I told her Lexi was still here, and then she was hugging her all morning and kissing on her, lol.
After this, she asked if we could get a new baby. I told her she needed to pray about that which led to the following conversation:
Emma: but God is way up in Heaven, He doesn't hear me.
Me: Of course He hears your prayers.
Emma: no He doesn't, watch. 'Hi God.'
she paused for a moment.
Emma: See, mommy? He doesn't hear me, He's not talking to me.

Oh boy. Where to begin with this one? Haha :)

"Mommy why is Christmas so long to come?" :) -Emma, 4 years old.
I remember feeling the same way once upon a time.

'Tis the season!

For Christmas lights galore:




For gingerbread houses & visits from Grandma :)



And for happy, excited, little girls:

getting ready for CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas is my favorite time of year. It has to be, the way I was raised! My parents made Christmas so magical. I treasure the memories of all 3 of us kids sleeping in the same room Christmas Eve, decorating our house, the time with family, and of course PRESENTS! :) I remember the most amazing Christmases up north with my grandparents where we got snow on top of all the other delights of the season.
Any song on Amy Grant's Christmas cd's immediately takes me back to those days. My dad started the Christmas tunes and always unpacked the decorations immediately after Thanksgiving.
Of course the memories are bitter sweet now. Sweet because I was blessed beyond words with a wonderful childhood. Bitter because one of the people who gave me that idealic childhood is gone. Bitter because of all the wonderful memories and things I have missed sharing with him.
Anyway. Having a 4 year old this year, has already been a lot of fun. Emma has been flying high ever since the decorations came out. She tells me at least once every day, 'Mommy I'm SO excited for Christmas, I just can't wait!'







I'm excited to share another season with my beautiful family celebrating our Savior, Jesus. Thank you, God, for sending your Son.

Family ♥

We took some family pics in mid November this year for our Christmas cards. I was really happy with how they turned out! It's so difficult to get nice pictures with little kids, but I would say this shoot was a success :)

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with Mikey's family this year. We're as traditional as it gets, so nothing exceptional to mention :) We watched the parade, stuffed ourselves on turkey, watched football, and had a great time with family.

This was the girls watching the parade...Emma LOVES the Thanksgiving Day parade!


Emma having fun with Caitlin :)


Lexi is thankful for cookies...she probably had at least 5 that day!


I'm thankful to be married to the love of my life and my best friend :)


Family!

Pumpkin painting & Halloween

We didn't make it to the pumpkin patch this year which I'm kinda disappointed about! I guess it just wasn't meant to be! The day we planned to go ended up being the day Hurricane Sandy brushed past us, and it was not a pretty day. Mikey's schedule didn't work out for us to get in a visit after that, so, I guess we wait till next year :)
We did get some pumpkin time in though...the girls went to a little Halloween get together and got to decorate their pumpkins there.






For Halloween we started at church at the annual trunk-or-treat.

Mikey decorated our trunk and I thought he did a great job!

The girls made their rounds at church with their friends


and then we headed back to our neighborhood for trick-or-treating!




Now we're into November...electing a president this week, and gearing up for Thanksgiving a few weeks after that!

And we're off!

The fall season is back! If you read through the last several years I've been blogging I'm sure every September I have a long list of reasons why I love this time of year. It's my favorite :)
This fall is a busy season for us, but also a very enjoyable one. On Monday mornings we start off with Alexa's speech therapy. She has struggled with speech, but after a couple sessions she is already making huge progress. I think a few months of this and she will be ready to go. On Tuesdays Emma has gymnastics in the afternoon. Wednesday mornings we joined a Bible Study at a nearby church. It's for all churches in the area...any lady who wants to attend. The girls go to their own classes and have a study of their own, while I am in my class. We are really enjoying this new addition to our schedule! I'm still directing the 3-4 year old program on Wed nights at church, so Wed is a busy day for us. Thursday brings choir practice in the evening, and Friday is usually a playdate day. Now all that is well spaced out and probably doesn't sound bad, but factor in trying to get in about 2 hours worth of preschool time with Emma, as well as the cooking, cleaning and laundry that keep piling up, and I would say our days are full! In a good way though...it's just the right balance of being busy but still having down time.
Emma has impressed me so much since I've been really working with her the last couple weeks. I was concerned that she didn't have the cutting skills necessary for kindergarten, or that she'd be behind all the other kids who've been in school for years before k5. I shouldn't have worried! She can cut out any shape, nice straight lines, color in the lines. She is writing her name, and learning a lot in phonics. She is such a joy to teach. I know she will love school next year.
Here she is making playdough one morning:

And her new haircut (first time we cut it short!)

Here are both of my sweeties :) They are getting so big!

And here is one of Lexi and I on a recent playdate:

Out with the Old.

We rented a tiny little, adorable house the first 2+ years of our marriage. It was really small, so we didn't want to buy furniture to fit that house. Plus we didn't have any money! Haha :) Our couch and bed were wedding gifts, and other than that the furniture we had was given to us or bought super cheap at yard sales. After we bought our home in 2007, we slowly started buying furniture for it. Still nothing fancy, still some used stuff, but furniture just for our own place. The place we plan to raise our family. It's only taken 5 years, lol, but we've just about finished with furniture buying for now.
We finally replace our garage sale table with the wobbly leg and china cabinet with a new table that seats 8. And can I just say, Sam's Club sells amazing wood furniture at unbeatable prices?! Cause they do :)
Before: (also before we painted, it's no longer red, thankfully)

After:

The dining room still isn't completely done. I still need a baker's rack for one wall and some things for the table.

Gymnastics, Vacation, & the Cutest girls EVER!

Emma started gymnastics this month :) I've been wanting to put her in since last year, but things didn't work out till now. I found a gym about 2 minutes away that is really nice, and Emma loves it. She is a bit on the shy side and I wanted to get her used to being around other people than just her bubble of home and church. She has handled it so well! She absolutely loves gymnastics, and I must say, is doing very well so far :)
Here she is all ready to go:

We also took a short trip this month with friends of ours to Mikey's parents second home. We had a relaxing several days just hanging out and playing with the kids. My camera officially finished self destructing on the trip, but I've learned the art of stealing other people's pics in the meantime :)
Here we are going tubing:

Here are all of our girls! 6 between our two families!

And just one of our family :)

I snapped a picture of the girls yesterday. They were sitting on the floor together watching me make lunch, and just being so sweet. They are really attached to each other and I love seeing the relationship they already have. It's precious!

4 and 2!

Well, my girls' birthdays have come and gone! They both loved their Strawberry Shortcake swim party earlier this month. I wish I could post pictures, but I'm still having camera issues. Hopefully I'll get that figured out soon.
They also had their yearly well checks last week. Alexa is growing perfectly as usual. She's actually pretty tall for a 2 year old, meaning she certainly does not take after her mama! But with her blond curls and big blue eyes, we already knew that :) She is 25 lbs and 34" tall. The 70th% for height and 25th% for weight. Tall and thin and perfectly healthy thank God! We had a bit of a scare with her legs. The dr was concerned she was showing signs of a developmental disorder called developmental hip dysplasia. We had the x ray done, however, and all is well.
Emma, is almost off the chart. But not that way you're probably thinking! My peanut just keeps getting smaller for her age! She gained half a pound. That's right I said half a pound since her 3 year check up a year ago. She only grew maybe an inch as well, lol. She was 27.5 lbs and 36" tall. She is in the 3rd% for both height and weight. That means that 97% of 4 year olds are taller and heavier than her! Haha! She is so incredibly tiny!! She must take after my dad's side of the family...my dad's mom and sisters are petite ladies :) She is starting gymnastics on Tuesday and is super excited about that. What a perfect choice of sport for such a tiny little thing :) I can't wait to take her!

Ten years.

Tomorrow is ten years since the accident when I lost my dad. I lost a lot more as well. That accident was the end of an idyllic childhood. The end of life the way I had known it for nearly 19 years. The end of my family the way that it was, and the start of something new and different, though still wonderful.
I don't feel sorry for myself and don't expect or want anyone else to. Everyone has their struggles in life, and I didn't expect that I was going to get through life without mine. I have been blessed in countless ways, and though I did go through times of anger and blame, that is something I have long ago worked through and is not something I struggle with now.
In many ways this accident and the whole wretched summer that followed feel like a distant memory and a dream. It's devastating for me to admit it, but memories of my dad are beginning to feel that way as well. Like a long ago, pleasant dream almost. But then, sometimes, it comes rushing back, and the pain is very real and very now.
I don't think anyone who hasn't been through a tragedy can understand that it doesn't just fade away with time. That just because everyone else moves on and forgets and the world keeps spinning doesn't mean we have moved on. Because sometimes, the summer of 2002 is still now for me. Not a day goes by that it doesn't cross my thoughts. Oh, it doesn't always upset me anymore. That is progress. But not a day goes by that I don't remember my sweet dad, and I pray that one never does. I want him to live on in me. I was blessed to have him for my dad, and I am very proud to be his daughter.
I think this song sums it up quite well!

Girls don't fix cars!

Last week I loaded the girls up in the car and got ready to head out to the bank and grocery store. Unfortunately, when I went to start the car, it didn't start! I knew immediately it had to be the battery, so I got the girls' out and decided we'd spend the day at home and let Mikey figure out the battery thing on his first day off. Well, my 2 brother in laws came by later that day, jumped my car, took it in for a new battery and then brought it home. I thought that was the end of that. Wrong! Apparently, a certain little almost-4 year old girl was paying much closer attention to the whole process than I thought! Yesterday evening I was outside on the patio watching the girls play. Lexi was in the playhouse, and Emma was sitting in the red little tikes car that she loves to cruise around in.

She waved at me and started a conversation that went as follows:
Emma: bye mommy
Me: bye Emma, have fun
Emma: (turning the key) oh wait. I can't go. The car won't start!
Me: well, you better fix it then!
Emma:(Looks at me as if I should know better and sighs) Mommy, girls (pronounced geyurls) do NOT fix cars. I need some boys to come fix it for me.
Me: (trying to keep a straight face) well then you need to call some boys to come help you
Emma: where's my pink princess phone?
Me: I don't know. Get the phone in your kitchen.
Emma: (gets phone)
Me: why don't you call daddy?
Emma: ok
Emma: (in a very loud, diva tone) DADDY!! I need you to come home NOW and fix my car! I have errand I need food!! (Apparently daddy must've protested because she continues, even more irrate) NO, daddy you been at da gym ALL day! I need my CAR!!
Me: Emma, why don't you try talking nice to daddy and saying please?
Emma: (pretends she didn't hear me)
Emma: (She then lowers her voice and pretends she's Mikey and says "I'm almost there") Then she turns super sweet and says "ok daddy sanks (thanks)". She turned the key again and 'drove' away. Now, I know what you're thinking. She was simply copying what she heard from her mother the other day. Um, NO! I never called Mikey the day my car wouldn't start! He was in bed asleep having worked midnight shift the night before. I do not tell him he's at the gym all day, he goes regularly one hour every morning..it's part of our routine. So me telling him he's been there all day simply wouldn't happen. The only part of this conversation she would've overheard would have been me telling my mother in law that we were loaded up in the car ready to go run errands. And I certainly was not yelling at her :) No, this was all an original production, straight from Emma's creative, dramatic little mind. I usually try to keep a straight face, but by the end of this I had lost it and was giggling like crazy. She couldn't have cared less. The actress was having her moment and it was as if I wasn't even there :)

summer's coming

Mikey was released back to full duty at the beginning of this month! We are happy for him to be back doing what he loves, but hoping his poor body adjusts back to midnight shift sooner than later. It is no easy task to go from nights to days back to nights! Poor guy. He is certainly enjoying the thrills of being back on patrol, however. The girls and I are gearing up for the lazy days of summer. AWANA just ended at church for the year, and choir is wrapping up. That makes my weeks much more open. I love summer time. I'm especially excited this year for the summer olympics! I am a HUGE gymnastics fan...borderline obsessed, so I cannot wait for that! I will also be closely following swimming, diving, track, and basketball. I'm hoping to make a couple trips this summer as well, and although they will probably just be short trips to the northern part of our state, I'll take what I can get. I love to travel. Plenty of pool days will probably round out the rest of our summer plans :) And just about the time I get tired of the lazy life style, fall will be upon us again, with all of the activities that I am involved in. Life is good :) It's so hard for me to believe we are less than a month away from the girls' birthdays again! Emma is turning 4 and this will be her last year at home before kindergarten. Where does time go? Everyone says to enjoy it because it goes fast. Well, I have enjoyed it. But that didn't make it slow down any! Lexi will be 2. Try as I did to make her stay a baby, she grew up even faster than Emma did. I just love babies and the baby stage, that first year doesn't last long enough for me! Well, I do have a camera with pictures on it that I would love to share, but said camera is not working when I hook it up to the computer. So until I figure out what the problem is with that, this will be one boring blog.

Spring has sprung!

Starting this year off with no car wasn't exactly part of our plans, but we're surviving :) It has definitely been an adjustment not being able to go anywhere during the daytime. Thankfully, we've been able to stay pretty busy at home. I've tried to get some projects done, and stay on top of cleaning; we've also had lots of time to play outside. This week has felt more like summer than spring, so the girls have enjoyed playing with the water table and kiddie pool on our patio. We got good news from Mikey's dr this week...he said that Mikey has progressed so well in his recovery, that he may release him back to full duty at work next month. Needless to say, we are pretty excited about that!
Shortly after my last post we went on our annual Disney trip. Both girls love Mickey and Minnie, the princesses and Tinker Bell, so they were captivated!




We also went to Animal Kingdom which we all enjoyed as well!