The Many Faces of our Children!

Yesterday I asked August if he could get some pictures of the girls. Emily was very cooperative and he was able to get some good pics without having to take too many. Audrey on the other hand decided she didn't want to cooperate. She wanted to be her silly self. These are just some of their pics. The one picture is of Audrey trying to take a picture of Emily. And the mark under Audrey's lip is from her crashing into the wall (for some reason the past week there have been many ouchies!)


Enjoy!

Emily's Preschool Christmas Party

Emily's preschool class has been preparing for a while for a little presentation for the parents. August and I were both able to join her last week and she was so excited that we are able to go to school with her! The kids did a great job singing songs for us.




As part of the presentation, the kids and parents had some homework ahead of time. We were given a vest made out of paper grocery bags and we had to decorate it. August and I came up with a number of suggestions for her and she finally settled on being a tray of cookies. So as you can see from her vest, she was a tray of cookies. August made the cookie trays, Emily and I cut out the shapes and then Emily decorated the cookies (I'm still finding glitter around the house!). You can't see the back of the vest, but there was a cookie tray back there just like the front side.

For craft/snack we each got to ice and decorate a sugar cookie.

We enjoyed spending the morning with Emily and her classmates!

Audrey's Birthday Party - #2

My family was unable to come up for Audrey's birthday party, so we celebrated after Thanksgiving with them. My mom did a great job making the Big Bird cake.

Thanks for the gift - especially the noisy ones :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Audrey!!

It's hard to believe that Audrey turned 2 yesterday! My how time flies. It doesn't seem very long ago when we were eating Thanksgiving lunch and then I went into labor later in the day.

We celebrated Audrey's birthday Mickey style. She has been really into Mickey Mouse lately so I attempted a Mickey cake. Frequently when we turn on the tv, she asks to watch Mickey. When we do put on Mickey for her, she watches it for a couple of minutes and then she is off to something else. She doesn't understand when she asks us 30 minutes later to watch Mickey, why we don't let her!

Audrey shows us everyday that she is getting older. She can now put on her shoes by herself, helps getting herself dressed, attempting potty training (she initiated it), saying new words everyday, loves being independent and doing things herself, loves to color, sleeping great in her big girl bed and she's learning to hold her own when playing/fighting with Emily!

She brings us so much joy and excitement. It's fun to see her smiling face when she wakes up in the morning.

Audrey got some great gifts including some Mickey stuff. Emily and her cousins decided to be judges and so they judged each of the gifts as Audrey unwrapped them. Someone gave her M&M's as part of her gift. If you notice the bottom left picture, she is telling me she wants to eat them. She didn't give up the package very easily! Thank you everyone for the great gifts and celebrating her special day with us.

Leaves!

For the first time since living in our house (7 yrs), I actually raked some leaves! August has always said he isn't going to rake leaves nor is he going to mow them. Fortunately we don't have many leaves to worry about. But one day the girls were getting bored and it was nice outside, so I decided to get some exercise and rake some leaves for the girls. Emily was very excited about the leaf pile. Audrey didn't know what to think about them. At first she wouldn't touch the leaves, but then finally warmed up to it and then loved them. They both had a blast so much that Emily suggested we eat lunch in the leaf pile. I agreed and Emily thought it was so cool. Emily will probably suggest we rake leaves again next year - we'll see if she remembers!

Picking Pumpkins

This year we were able to grow our own pumpkins - luckily of all the plants we planted we had 2 pumpkins! It would have been very upsetting for the girls if they didn't both have one. The evening we went to pick them, Emily wanted to swing with her pumpkin so of course Audrey had to too. Aren't they cute?!

Picking Apples

About a month ago we headed to Jollay Orchards in Coloma, MI to pick apples. This has become an annual tradition to head up there in the fall. The girls both enjoyed themselves. Picking apples seems to go so fast now that the girls are getting older and know what to do. They still both enjoy getting up on daddy's shoulders! I don't know how many more years he can do that though! We had a fun morning with the girls.

Happy Belated Birthday August

On October 18, August celebrated his 31st birthday. The girls love celebrating birthday's. Who would complain when you get cake and ice cream? They especially enjoyed getting to make daddy cards. Audrey was excited because I actually let her use markers.

We hope you enjoyed your special day August. We love you very much!

Changing of the Beds

A few months ago (yes I know I'm way behind on posting this) the girls both got new beds. We had decided that it wasn't safe for Audrey to stay in her crib. We knew if we left her in there much longer she would figure out how to climb out. So, she got Emily's old full size bed.

Emily received "new" bunk beds compliments of Nana and Grandpa. They are actually the bunk beds that my sister and I used as kids and then later my brother used. We figured we could get some use out of them.

The day I took these pictures, I asked Audrey to get on her bed, and this was the pose she gave me. Too funny! I then asked her to get on the top bunk of Emily's beds, but for some reason she didn't want to. The 2 of them love getting up there. Only problem is Audrey hasn't figured out how to get down yet.

Preschool

It's hard to believe, but Emily is going to preschool this year. Her first day was last Monday and she is LOVING it! She is very proud of her backpack. We were told not to get real backpacks, but something without zippers and stuff to make it easy for the kids to open/close. Well, August just had to get Emily a ND sackpack. She was very excited about it when August brought it home for her.

We were told ahead of time that the kids would be divided into 2 groups - ducks and frogs. Emily decided to wear a frog clip that day and guess what - she was actually in the frog group. Yesterday she came home and showed me that she was the Child of the Day. She was excited about that. She said she received it because she had good manners all day. We were very proud of her.

Audrey and I are adjusting to the new schedule. Audrey still doesn't get it because when we get back to the car, she always asks "Where's Sis?" She doesn't understand why Sis isn't with us. But we head over to the park for our walk and then she gets to play on the playground. We then head home for puzzles and books. Audrey loves being read to and doing puzzles. She also loves her baby Amy. Though if you listen to her, she says, Me, Me. She is doing a good job talking, but we still have some work to do!

The pictures are of her new sackpack and her on the "inside playground". She tells me everday she plays in it during free time.

We're looking forward to the fun things that Emily will do in school this year and watching her as she continues to learn and absorb everything.

Fun at Church

This past Sunday we had Tailgate Sunday at church. August proudly wore his Notre Dame gear. After lunch the girls and August played in the inflatables. Audrey did attempt to go in the bouncy house, but cried as soon as she got in there. Same thing happened when August went in with her. Audrey played for the longest time on the playground and kept going down the slide.

After a while, they all headed over to the obstacle course. August is great because he got in there with them. You wouldn't catch me in there! Both girls had a blast and would have loved to keep playing there the rest of the afternoon. Audrey would get done and then race back to the beginning. You would have thought as hard as they played, they would be really tuckered out. But that didn't happen. Emily didn't take a nap and Audrey took a little cat nap in the car on the way home and apparently that was enough, because she never did fall asleep for her real nap. Oh well - I'm glad they had fun!

Garden Bounty

This summer our garden has been flourishing. Earlier in the summer we enjoyed several weeks of fresh spinach. Currently we are enjoying TONS of zucchini. I lost count, but I've picked at least 4-5 dozen and they are still going strong. The picture above is just what I picked today and I've been picking every few days. My freezer is getting really full of ground zucchini!

I've also gotten a few cherry tomatoes. I have lots of green tomatoes on the vine just ready to ripen. Today I actually got a few tiny carrotts. The problem with carrotts is you can't tell how big they are. I think I won't be picking anymore for a while though. These were pretty small.

I think this has been our best garden since we have been planting gardens.

Our Summer

I've not bothered to update our blog in a while, but here is what we have been up to. Start at the bottom to follow in chronological order.

Last week Audrey spent the week at Nana & Grandpa's so we tried to do spend some special one-on-one time with Emily. On Monday, Emily and I went to St. Joseph, MI to head to the beach. The beach was nice; however Emily could have cared less about the beach. She was more excited about the playset! We enjoyed our few hours there and then headed over to the ice cream shop. I hadn't been to Kilwin's in several years, but it was a tasty treat!

About a month ago we headed to the zoo for a morning outing. The only pictures I took were in the petting farm area. The girls enjoyed the hands on portion!

For our 4th of July party, Emily wanted to bring some food to the party, so August and her decided she would make and decorate cupcakes. She did a great job for her first time decorating cupcakes. August especially enjoyed them because they had a LOT of icing on them.

The middle of June the girls and I went to my parents for a long weekend. It was nice to get away and let someone else help take care of the girls. I did a lot of reading that weekend. While we were there, my sister invited us to watch one of her softball games. She plays for several local leagues. This particular night it was a co-ed league.

August saw where on one particular day, he could go fishing for free, so he decided to take the girls fishing with him. That was an interesting and SHORT experience! Audrey doesn't like to sit still for long and Emily didn't understand why she wasn't catching any fish. Remember - we were only there for like 10 minutes. Who catches fish in 10 minutes?? But, they had fun - I think :)

Fun at the Beach

Saturday we headed to Benton Harbor, Michigan to check out a potential wedding site that August has to work. But we decided to have some fun of our own while we were there. We enjoyed a picnic and the girls enjoyed playing on the playset. It was rather chilly because of the wind, but we had fun. If you closely in the larger picture, off in the distance you can see a lot of sailboats. I couldn't count how many there were, but there were a lot of them out there!

We then headed over to St. Joseph to check out Silver Beach. On the way there, we got stopped by the bridge going up for a sailboat to pass under. I can't imagine how many times a day that goes up, especially on the weekend. Behind the girls, you can see a really large ship. It was either loading or unloading something into some silos. It is hard to believe that the ship has to navigate into that spot because right behind it is a railroad bridge that moves to accomodate boats/ships. It was interesting though.

Congrats August!

Friday night August was surprised at the Granger Christian graduation. He received the Alumnus Knight of Honor Award.

I had found out that he was going to be recognized about a month ago and was told I had to keep it a secret. That was hard! He was completely suprised, but the girls and I and August's family were able to be there to see him receive this honor.

We are very proud of you August!!

Happy Belated Birthday to Me.

Wednesday was my birthday and August suprised me by coming home with flowers and the goods to make a steak dinner. The girls helped out by making a cake. Emily did a great job making the cake. The dinner was delicious. Thanks August for making my birthday special.

Here's some pics of the girls in action.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to our wonderful mother's: Teresa & Chris! We love you very much and hope you have a wonderful day.

Here is a picture from today of the girls and I. Audrey just doesn't like to cooperate with pictures these days! Thank you Nana for the matching dresses!

Even Emily's friend Senica wanted to be a part of our family with a matching dress :)

The following is something Dr. Bob Laurent, our guest speaker shared in his sermon today. I don't know where it came from, but thought it was very challenging:

"If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper -- not a homemaker. If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness -- not godliness. Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh. Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window. Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk. Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys. Love is present through the trials. Love reprimands, reproves and is responsive. Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood. Love is the key that opens salvation's message to a child's heart. Before I became a parent, I took glory in my house of perfection. Now I glory in the Holy Spirit's perfection of my child. As a parent, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is LOVE."

Happy Belated Birthday's

Once again, I am way behind on my blogging.

Happy Belated Birthday to my mom and dad. My dad's birthday was on April 18th and my mom's was on May 2nd.

We were able to celebrate my dad's birthday when they were up for Emily's birthday. I even made my first coconut cream pie. I think it turned out pretty well.

We weren't able to celebrate with my mom on her birthday, but we did call her and send her a package which I think she will get today (yes....again.... late!)

Happy Belated Birthday Mom and Dad. We love you very much!!

Happy Birthday Emily!!

Today is Emily's birthday. She is now 4 years old! Though at the time I am actually posting this, she still wasn't born! My children both decided to come late in the evening.

Since all of our families weren't available to come up for Easter, her party is going to be this weekend. Emily chose to go to McDonald's for her special meal tonight.

She did get to open a present tonight which was mailed to her from her Great Uncle & Great Aunt in Minnesota. It is a paper doll book. It's really cool. It includes a TON of clothes to punch out but they attach to the dolls by restickable stickers. We did a few outfits tonight and she absolutely loved it! Thank you!!

Happy Birthday Emily. We love you!!

It's a Little Quieter!

Today Audrey finally got her turn to go to Nana & Grandpa's for a week. She was supposed to have gone over a month ago, but things just didn't work out that week. So, today after church Nana & Grandpa were waiting for her at our house. We enjoyed lunch together and then she was off. It is amazing how much quieter it is in the house!! To top it off, Emily took a 3 hour nap, so we enjoyed some peace and quiet this afternoon. We love the little girl to pieces, but it will be a nice break just having Emily this week.

We hope to do some special things with Emily this week. Not quite for sure what yet. We went to McDonald's tonight for some ice cream and some playtime in the kids area. Well, when we were done with our ice cream, the doors to the playground were locked. Emily was not at all happy about that, but we promised her another trip sometime soon.

Audrey is already settling in well at Nana & Grandpa's enjoying all of the attention! The only downside is when she returns this coming weekend, she will expect to be the center of attention! But we will adjust - just like we always do. Thanks Nana & Grandpa for what is sure to be a fun-filled week for you and Audrey!

Fun in the Sun

No, we're not in any sunny vacation spot - just right here in Niles. It was gorgeous on Friday. The sun was out and it was warm. I loved it and so did the girls!! We decided to get out of the house and have some fun at the park. It's amazing how many things you can see at the park. I would have taken more pictures, but Audrey moves quick. She had fun following Emily around including going down the big slides by herself. She was also having fun chasing the squirrels.

In the hour we were there here is what we saw: ducks, squirrels, dogs, Amtrak train, someone feeding Panera bread to the ducks and squirrels and a boat going down the river! The girls had a blast and enjoyed getting out of the house for a while. Both girls enjoyed being able to run around.

In afternoon it was still nice outside so we headed out to the backyard and played on the play set. Audrey continues to show me she is a little dare devil. She went down the slide by herself before I could sit her down. She went down, just not on her bottom!

I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time outside once the weather warms up.

First Day of Preschool - Sort Of!

This week we started our preschool search for Emily. Tuesday night we went to one preschool open house. I will go back next week to find out more about it. Wednesday, Emily and I went to another preschool and we were invited to stay the entire morning. That was a nice time for us to see what they did and get a better feel for preschool. It is so hard to believe that my little girl will be starting school in the fall!!

A Review of Emily's Week at Grandpa & Nana's

Several weeks ago Emily spent an entire week with Grandpa & Nana. This was the first time that weather actually messed up our plans, but we made it down there - Emily would have had it no other way!

She loves having one on one time with them and that week she mainly wanted to have books read to her. But they did do a few other fun things. She had craft time, cooking time (I still can't get out of her what she made!), and then some fun at Kids Commons. They said she really enjoyed it there. The one picture she was riding an adult bike and she could actually reach and pedal it! Part of the reason for that adventure was because it was cold and snowy there so they couldn't play outside - much like it is here - and she needed to use up some energy!

Thanks for allowing her to have a great week Grandpa & Nana.

Oh The Things I Can Do!

Little Audrey is proving to us that she's not so little anymore.

On a daily occurrence, I find her standing on things she is not supposed to be standing or climbing on. Take for example below, she can now pull herself up onto the toy box. She can reach the spindles on the back and then pulls herself up and voila - she then stands up and has this huge grin on her face.

Last night she demonstrated to us she was bound and determined to climb onto the couch. The couch is just a tad too tall for her to climb onto by herself. In the one picture, she used a toy to step on and that was enough to allow her up on the couch. Last night though - the usual stepping stone wasn't good enough. She used the toy box as her "stepping stone" and then managed to successfully climb over to the couch. She is also known to move one of the kid chairs over to something and use that as a stepping stool.

Last night as well, when we weren't paying attention, she climbed all by herself onto Emily's desk chair. She was all too proud of herself for that accomplishment. As you can see, she was being just like her big sister and getting things out of the drawers. It seems like it was only a few months ago we bought Emily that desk to keep Audrey from getting to her things. Now we must move on to Plan B which hasn't been written yet!

She just keeps growing up and is becoming more mischievous by the hour!

Emily's Fun Begins

Last night the girls and I drove down to Seymour. This morning only Audrey and I left. Emily gets to stay with Nana and Grandpa for an entire week! It will be interesting to see how Audrey does not having her big sister around telling her what to do, pushing her, etc! It will also be nice for me to only have one child to care for.

August was supposed to be the one dropping Emily off yesterday, but the weather didn't cooperate so we had to rework our schedule. I was so proud of Audrey, she did an excellent job being good both there and back! She did make it known though when it was lunch time :)

Have fun Grandpa & Nana!!

Christmas on the Road - Part 2

After the get together with the Kuehn's, we then headed to my parents house for the remainder of the weekend. It is about a 4 hour drive. We were spoiled with Emily, because whenever we went on road trips she would just sleep the entire time. Not so with Audrey! She sleeps for maybe an hour and then has to be entertained and/or she is a grouch. We managed though. And of course, nothing a LOT of goldfish can't fix!! The car seats are a mess when we are finished, but it is worth making the troops happy.

Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents.

In case you are wondering... the top left pic of my sister opening the dog treats are not for Audrey! They are for Daisey - not pictured!!

Thanks for all of the great gifts and a fun weekend.

Christmas on the Road - Part 1

Christmas Eve morning we headed over to August's brother's house to celebrate Christmas with August's side of the family. We started out with breakfast and then the presents. The cousins always love hanging out together. Grandma had a surprise for each of the grandkids inside her mailbox that played music. The kids loved it! Emily ended up with a dog and Audrey ended up with a pig. Thanks for the presents everyone!

Christmas at Home

I know I'm really late posting Christmas pics, but here we go...


We did our family Christmas on the 23rd since we were going to be away from home on Christmas. The girls really enjoyed opening their presents. Emily was our official get the presents under the tree girl. This year we also never bothered to get out an extension cord or power strip, so someone had to get under the tree to plug and unplug the Christmas lights. Emily was delighted that we chose that job for her!


Audrey couldn't wait to finally open presents. She had 2 presents in particular in the days leading up to this that she kept bringing me. I was really happy though that for the most part she left the presents alone. I know when my brother was a year old, my mom put the Christmas tree and presents in the play pen! Here are some pics of her opening presents.





And then of Emily...