Partying On!

The birthday fun continued last weekend when T's family came to our house. It was extra special because not only did we celebrate LL's birthday, but also her Nana's (which had been on Wednesday, the day after LL's). That morning we played outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Here's my favorite photo of everyone: Uncle Matthew holding LL, Nana with SJ, and Grandpa with AG, and of course the handsome Daddy in the background. Try to overlook that our new two year old was doing a little "face exploration" at that moment!

The girls enjoyed a wagon ride to the park and had fun showing off their swinging and sliding skills (and their sunglasses!).

Good thing Grandpa's quick!

Uncle Matthew helped AG get to the top of the climbing tower!

Then we came home for lunch and (finally!) the official birthday cake. Here are the two birthday girls sharing a piece... LL, of course, ate 99% of it!

LL also got to open some very fun gifts. She now has a life-size baby doll (bigger than SJ!) that AG immediately named "Vonda." And Vonda gets taken care of very well since either LL or AG is pretty much constantly attending to her needs, and she came with plenty of diapers, bottles, and feeding utensils.

Adoring family, plenty of dessert, and an abundance of baby doll paraphernalia... what more could a two year old (and her sisters!) ask for?!?

A Few More Pumpkins in the Patch

Last week AG's class went on a field trip to a nearby pumpkin patch. I went along and took LL and SJ so we could all be in on the fun. We had a great time, though the heat and humidity did their best to remind us that fall comes late and slowly here in the deep South!



SJ slept the whole time, but she was there!

Sweets for the Sweetie...

We celebrated LL's birthday several different times, so this is just the first installment of some pictures. I ended up with lots of her enjoying various birthday treats! The week before her birthday Gran and PopPop came to visit and celebrate with us. We had a little party with candles on a piece of strawberry bread.
She had lots of fun swinging, playing, and opening some presents. Her baby dolls are living the high life now with their very own car seat, high chair, "plack and play", and brand new stroller!
This next one actually had nothing to do with her birthday...just a random special treat (a frosted muffin "cupcake") after dinner one night. (As if we need more sugar this month!)
Since "cake" was already abounding and the real thing was still yet to come, on her actual birthday she had pudding... No complaints from her!

Pictures of the rest of the birthday festivities (and yes, a little more sugar intake!) will be posted tomorrow!

Just Playing...

There's always alot of playing going on here, and this week the name of my game is "catch up" on a few things...and posting some of the photos and news of our last few weeks is one of the things at the top of my list. We've been busy with several big events and our usual routine... AG made the above design using her puzzle pieces and didn't show me til she was finished...I thought it was pretty neat!

On Oct. 2, AG officially turned "3 and a half." That night after dinner she had a "date with Daddy" to celebrate. They went out for ice cream...strawberry shortcake for her, of course! Here's a pic of them before they left:

Here are a few shots from yesterday, when AG and LL tried out the finger paints LL got for her birthday...

Nothing like some finger paint to get the creativity (and the handsoap!) flowing!

More to come soon!

Happy 2nd Birthday, LL!

2 big blueberry eyes...

2 delightful dimples and 2 busy hands...

2 dancing feet and 2 ever-talking lips...

2 sisters who love you, and 2 parents who are so blessed... to have had you in our family for 2 years now!

You are a ray of sunshine with a giggle and a wiggle that always make us smile! May you always have a twinkle in your eyes, a song on your lips, and a deep joy in your heart. May you delight in your Heavenly Father and His good gifts, just as He delights in you!

Happy 2nd birthday, LL! We love you!

Cutie Pie Updates

Amazing how fast the days go by here now! I wanted to take a few minutes to record some of the latest funnies from AG and LL before I forget them...

When we say "I love you" to LL, she replies by saying (with unbelievable exuberance!), "I love ME!!!" I just figured out this is not due to toddler narcissism, but the way she's learned to reply to lots of other "you" statements...when we say, "The dog won't hurt you," she replies, "The dog won't hurt me" so why not "I love ME"??

LL's current "most sung" songs are "We are climbing Jacob's Ladder" and "Hush Little Baby..." She gets a little mixed up on the last one and most times if that looking glass should drop, Papa buys another looking glass, and on and on. If at first you don't succeed....

Yesterday as we were strolling through the neighborhood we passed a statue of Mary in someone's yard (these are very common here). LL said, "I see Mary and Christmas!"

One last LL story...tonight she and AG were chasing each other and making lots of noise. T called AG over to the couch and LL came with her. T said, "AG, I already told you..." and LL immediately finished his sentence, perfectly, "not to scream like that." Little mind reader, or do you think we've said that a few times before??

AG came to me last night and told me she'd just come from "work." (She'd actually just finished having supper in the kitchen.) I asked a few questions and found out she works "at Daddy's work" where she "colors" and gets paid "one hundred...no, 3 moneys... no, one money and one toy"! Not a bad job for a 3 year old!

Both girls have taken to wrestling each other and have some moves that would almost make you think we watch the stuff. But the best one is initiated when AG says "Give me a hug" and then of course LL does, and then it's on to see who can take the other one down.

Watching them is so much fun...it gives me some much needed energy some days! Hope y'all are having a good week!

Visits Here, Visits There

We've had some fun visits with family over the last week. Last Tuesday Gran and PopPop (my parents) came to see us for the day. LL loves her PopPop and as soon as she sees him she starts asking to "fwing!" They must have spent hours out on the patio with her swinging, but here's a fun moment captured inside.
Gran got to cuddle with SJ some, and of course AG keeps a close eye on her baby sister at all times! She keeps me in line, reminding me often to feed SJ and change her diaper.

Last weekend we went to Mimi and PawPaw's to introduce SJ to her great-grandparents! Here she is chatting with Mimi.

Mimi rocked SJ for hours, and SJ loved every minute of it! (I'm sure Mimi did, too!) However, Mimi did find some time to read a Curious George book to AG.

LL took over PawPaw's rocker for a little while and gave it a good "test drive"! Think she enjoyed it?

We are so thankful to have chances to spend time with all our dear family!

Recycling?

Here's a story I forgot to share earlier... before I tell it you should know AG has a doll that she calls the "potty baby" (you know, one of those dolls that tinkles in the potty, or anywhere else you happen to feed it it's bottle).

SJ's little cord came off last week, and AG was with me as I was changing SJ's diaper and discovered this. I told AG what had happened and she asked what I was going to do with the cord. "I don't know," I said, "maybe save it or maybe throw it away."

AG quickly replied, "Maybe I can use it for the potty baby!"

Pretty in Pink

Here are the girls wearing their pink pillowcase dresses before SJ's first time to go to church (weekend before last). I made these months ago, and AG and LL have worn them through the summer, but it was really fun to pull out SJ's from the closet for the first time... even if she was barely seen since she was asleep in the sling all morning! For now this is the only matching outfit for all three, but maybe I'll work on that, eventually!

Sisterly affection!

Nothing adds elegance to a nice dress like a matching camo hat!

Here are AG and LL after church yesterday. We are so thankful their sweet smiling faces are part of our family!

Super Saturday

T's Dad and brother came to visit us on Saturday! The girls had a great time playing with Grandpa and Uncle Matthew and we all enjoyed watching MSU win over Auburn...Go Dawgs! SJ woke up to meet her uncle...
Here's another shot of the little cutie. When we went to her two week check-up last Thursday she weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces (just an ounce shy of a whole pound more than her birth weight) and had grown half an inch. She already seems to be growing up right before our eyes!

Keeping Us Rolling...

Well, here you see that LL keeps us rolling in more ways than one! Even though AG can ride by herself, sometimes a little sister just wants to lend a hand!

A few nights ago we went into the dining room to discover the above scene... LL was sitting at the table, where T's books were spread out, and she announced, "Look, Daddy...I'm studying!" A little engineer in the making? We'll see! If that doesn't work out she could almost certainly make it as an entertainer... she continues to make us laugh with her funny words and ways. Most of what she says now is in complete sentences, and there doesn't seem to be much she can't communicate clearly. I am amazed daily by what she soaks up and remembers and repeats... just this morning as we drove home she said, "The wise men...told baby Jesus...happy birthday!" Yesterday we all went out for a walk and as we passed a neighbor who was unloading groceries in her driveway, LL looked down at her own shirt and said, "Look! I have a pretty dress!" Tonight she got AG's backpack, put on my tennis shoes, and went to the door with a set of toy keys and said, "Go to school! I'm ready!" When she's not putting together and saying every thought that crosses her mind, she's singing the dozens of songs she knows, and I think her little flat, raspy singing voice is the sweetest I've heard in quite a while as she belts out her one-of-a-kind medleys!
She's been wearing this beret around and likes to pull it down over her eyes and run through the house. Today she put it on to sit down and color...talk about abstract art!
Peekaboo!

Sweet SJ

3 days old: Snuggling after her first bath at home

4 days old: Napping on Daddy

5 days old: Flexing her muscles :)

6 days old: Enjoying her new bouncy seat

What a Day!

We had a very exciting day! Here's what LL thought about it:Actually, after I took this she said, "Like a tiger!" She is very into animals and their noises these days and asks T all the time to "do the elephant." However, when he does his elephant impression, she immediately starts backing away from him and saying, "No, Daddy!" with a mixture of terror and delight, and as soon as he stops she asks him to do it again. Anyway, back to our big day...

We all got up and moving early this morning because it was AG's first day of preschool! We have been talking about this all summer and yesterday we went to orientation and she met both her teachers, saw her classroom, the playground, the snackroom, etc., so as I drove her there I was hopeful that she was ready to jump right in. And she was! Here she is just before we got there:

She hopped out of the van and I did manage to give her a hug before she bopped away with one of her teachers to the playground. And although I had at least considered that tears might be shed at this moment, I didn't expect that they might be mine instead of hers... but seeing her walk away carrying her little backpack and into a whole new stage of life was bittersweet! I sat at the stoplight and watched her through tears as she walked out onto the playground and climbed the ladder into the "treehouse," and I felt excited and proud, but I also couldn't help but think, "Who will help her get down?" It is strange to know she is now going to be having 9 hours of activity each week that I don't have a constant window into. It is even stranger to be entrusting her to people I don't know very well. I guess this is the first of many parental "leaps of faith" that will be taken through the years... we pray and trust it will be a wonderful experience for her, and if today was any indicator, it will be. I picked her up 3 hours later with a smile on her face and a neat painted picture in her backpack. She told me the names of some of her classmates, that she had cookies for a snack, and showed me how she learned to sit "criss cross applesauce." She is growing up!
AG holding SJ...just one of her new favorite things to do!
Showing off her sassy "first day of school" skirt!

One other fun story: Tonight Trey was reading from the creation narrative in Genesis. He was at the part where God created the sun and moon and asked AG, "What gives us light in the day?" to which she answered, "The sun." Then he asked, "And what gives us light at night?" Her answer came right back, "A flashlight." Of course!

Our First "Labor Day"

Well, yesterday was nice, especially since it meant T got to be home with us an extra day. But certainly the most significant Labor Day for our family happened 6 days ago, when SJ came to join us on her due date! August 29 the contractions started at just before 5 a.m. and she was born just before 3 p.m. It wasn't the "quick and easy" delivery I wondered if it might be, but thankfully, she was born safely and is healthy, and we rejoice to have her here with us! She shares a birthday with her maternal great-grandmother and T's beloved aunt Camille, who said she was praying for contractions that day so she'd have a new birthday buddy! She was given two special names... S is a family name from generations back in T's mom's mother's family, and J is T's mom's middle name. Here we are with her in the delivery room right after her initial "check-up"...
Here is her first introduction to her two big sisters:
LL is really interested in "baby S" and loves to kiss and "hug" her.
Do you think AG is proud? She is taking her role very seriously!
Welcome home, SJ! We are so glad you are here!

Baby Girl is Here!

Just a quick post to update this family record, in case anyone happens upon it who has not yet heard our news...

SJ was born on Wednesday, August 29 at 3:56 p.m.!
She was 7 pounds, 10 ounces and measured 19 3/4 inches.

Thankfully the delivery went well and she is healthy; we were able to come home yesterday afternoon and she was warmly welcomed by AG and LL. She was also introduced just hours after arrival to all four of her delighted grandparents.

We give thanks for this blessing and will post more pictures soon. By the way, if you are a family friend seeing this but did not receive an earlier email sharing the news including her name, leave a comment or email me to let me know and I'll send you that important detail!