A day in the park

Monday morning is normally library time. But today when we went to get into the car I wasn't sweating instantly, this was strange, what could be going on? I stepped out of the garage, it was cloudy and not as humid or as hot as it has been all summer. So I said to Hannah, would you like to go to the park? And of course, being a two year old she said YES. We went to the park and had a most lovely time. There was a nice breeze, clouds and the current temperature is 87, so it was at least cooler than 90s. Hannah had fun running around and found water to play it from the rain last night. She "swam" in the puddle and had a good time digging in the rocks and creating "lakes" all in all it was a fun morning. And needless to say Hannah was dripping wet from head to toe :-) Definitely worth missing the library. Now if I can just remember to bring the camera we'd be in great shape!

Expressing emotions

Today Evie pulled a blanket off a doll Hannah was pushing in a stroller. Hannah was not happy, she got into Evie's face and yelled at her that she should not have done that. I called Hannah over to me and she said "no, I need to stay and watch the stroller so Evie doesn't get it" I told her she needed to come because I called her and she did. I explained how we do not yell at people and if Evie is doing something she doesn't like she needs to ask her nicely to stop or come and get me. She goes back to the stroller and says "I'm angry" I was very impressed she was able to identify her feelings and verbalize them.

walking

Today Evie started doing a lot more walking than she has been and was using it more as a primary mode of transportation than secondary. So I was able to get a video of her walking :-) I also have some pictures of other trouble she's been getting into. At church on Sunday when I picked her up from the nursery the report I got was she's trouble. I guess she was walking and tripping and climbing on/over/through everything. She is also a bad influence on Hannah.

Please note Evie's face. She was the first one in the bucket Hannah followed. And you see that white lid in the lower right corner of the picture? That is another one of Evie's favor places to sit that Hannah is just starting to pick up on as well.

Evie LOVES to sit in the stroller while it's closed up. Hannah started joining her today.

Please note the good morning sunshine playing in the background. It's still going over and over and over again all day long!

A visit with Rachel

Besides all the craziness of last week we had a nice visit with Rachel. She came to the library with the kids and I on Thursday and Friday we went to the park. Well we were at the park we discovered that Evie claps any time someone says "Good Job" it was cute as a mom across the park was saying good job to her daughter and Evie starts clapping. Another notable moment from Rachel's visit was when Hannah wanted to be picked up, the following conversation ensued.

Hannah: Can you pick me up?
Rachel: Can you pick me up please.
Hannah: (funny look)
Rachel: Can you pick me up please.
Hannah: (grabs Rachel's legs) no, you're too heavy!

Nathan and I enjoyed visiting with Rachel after the kids were in bed as well. Here are some pictures from the visit.

Rachel enjoying?(it was really hot, so enjoy might be an overstatement) the park

Hannah sliding

Evie going up the slide

Rachel and Evie

Hannah and Rachel

fondue

Yesterday was our anniversary and we decided to try fonduing at home to celebrate. We bought a fondue pot from Goodwill last week when we were on our date while Rachel was here, and Nathan researched and found recipes and bought everything we needed and made the dinner! It was very exciting. For a first attempt it wasn't bad. The dessert was really good. We had some problems getting the flame to stay lit at first, we realized half way through dinner the stand was upside down. That's what happens when you buy it used with no instructions/picture on the box. The broth had a little too much (ok, a lot of too much) pepper and the cheese sauce just didn't work. I don't think it's a good recipe. We retried the broth tonight for dinner and it turned out really good (1 tsp instead of 1 tbls pepper :-) ) but I still couldn't get the cheese to work. The best part was definitely the dessert and the oreo cookie coated marshmallows! Yum!!!! The moral of the story is for a first attempt it wasn't bad, we learned a lot and it's definitely worth trying again.

Weight check

Today Evie had a weight check at the doctors. This was scheduled for 8:30 am, I made it out of the house and got there 15 minutes early! I was excited, there was a line to check in, but I was still 10 minutes early by the time I got to the front of the line. I thought I was in great shape, a quick in and out with the nurse just to weight her. After waiting for 30 minutes I went back to the desk and asked how much longer it would be. They went and check and said I should be next. 20 minutes later I walked back over and they were surprised I still wasn't taken. The supervisor (who was also checking people in) said she knew how to work a scale and would weight Evie herself. So she took us back and weighed Evie. Evie is 19 lbs 4 oz!! She put on over 2 lbs! Since the doctor happen to be in the hall way, the supervisor cornered him and made him enter the info into the computer so we even got a little doctor time. He said not only is it good she put on 2 lbs, but she also went up 10 points in percentile from 33rd to 44th. This is very good considering at two months she was 90% for weight, at four she was 75%, at six she was 50% and at eight she was 33% (see why the doctor was getting a little concerned?). So we don't have to go back until 12 months!

Back to school

Today was Nathan's first day of class. He's taking Hebrew this semester. For those of you who may not know, Nathan is working on a Masters of Art in Theological Studies (MATS). He's currently completed six of the 12 required classes. This semester his class is M/W/F from 9-10 am, with an hour one way to school it will make it a challenge to do work, home work and class, but the class looks a bit easier than the ones he's done in the past. No research paper :-) This past weekend I made him a back to school cake, we now have some very yummy carrot cake in the house!

Did the washer eat my sock?

After finally getting our water problem fixed I was excited to be able to do some much needed laundry. I went to do a load yesterday and the washer was not draining or spinning properly. I thought this might be due to chunk cloggage from our bad pipes, but tried a couple things and couldn't get it working. Well, Nathan took a look at it today and figured out that the pump was broken. We got out our warranty information and of course it was a five year warranty and it had been five years and two months. :-p Nathan looked into replacing the pump himself and it didn't seem too hard, so he bought the part, took out the old one and found the real problem. There was a nursing pad stuck in the pump. I never knew a washer could actually eat things :-) Nathan removed the pad, put the old pump back on and now the washer is working great again. Yay!!!

Water leak fixed

So yesterday we (Nathan with my pointing out there was a water spot on Hannah's ceiling) were able to determine the water leak was coming from the air conditioning unit. It appears the pipe for the condensation output got plugged and the water was overflowing. Nathan got up in the attic and into all the fiberglass to try and fix the clog with a plumbing snake. After working on it for over an hour he gave up and used drain-o. This resolved the issue. Of course it was 9 pm by this time and the air conditioner had been off for several hours at that point and for someone the girls weren't going to sleep when there was someone banging around above their heads. But after it was fix the girls feel right to sleep and the house cooled down quick. Now we just have to fix the hole in the ceiling :-)

Exciting day

Today my sister Rachel flew into town. She'll be visiting until Saturday. Yay! I think she got a little more than she bargained for when she got in though. Yesterday we had noticed a water spot on our ceiling in the entry way. Well, today right before I went to pick Rachel up I noticed it was bigger. Not a good thing. I called Nathan and gave him the number for our friend's son who is a plumber, which I had just happen to get on Sunday. Nathan called Danny while I picked up Rachel. Nathan and Danny concluded that Nathan could cut up the wall to determine if it's an inlet or outlet pipe issue, Nathan finally concluded it's inlet around 9:40 this evening. But that was after the excitement of our power being out for 3+ hours as well. The power went out around 4 pm so we decided it best to go out for dinner (this was the original plan, which was scraped due to the water leakage issue). After coming back from dinner the power was still out. Not so cool (pun intended) but it probably ended up being a good thing, because without electricity you have no water pressure (at least in Houston), I think it probably ended up saving us from more severe damage. God works in strange ways sometimes. Anyway, Danny will hopefully come by tomorrow or recommended someone else who can, as if it's an inlet issue those can cause BIG problems. Did I mention we have steel pipes? Brilliant isn't it? Our neighbor had her hot water heater and a pipe fail within a weeks time last year, so we were already looking into getting all our pipes replace. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Videos

Ok, so I finally got around to posting some videos, and wasn't sure the best way to do it, so I did each video in a separate post, check them out below.

10 little Indians

Here's Evie with Daddy as she helps us sing 10 little Indians.

Hannah singing my God is so big

Nana started Hannah on singing into the camera when we were driving home from the library after visiting with Lyn as a way to keep Hannah awake. She has sang many songs since, but singing my God is so big is still her number one choice.

Evie laughing

A baby laughing is always cute.

Good kids music...

Recently we've been exploring new kids music lent to us by various people. This is a great thing as it gives variety for both the kids and the adults. This is all good until your two year old decides she like only one song on the CD and wants to hear it over and over and over again. Hannah wasn't feeling well Saturday morning and was in a some what zombie state, so when she wanted to hear the same song again and again Nathan decided to burn it to CD multiple times, since we don't have a repeat button on our stereo. This was fine for one day, but now it's been in use for several, today Hannah was finally branching out more at home, but in the car she now has another favorite song that she requests over and over. So if you're looking for some addicting kids music, that's not all that annoying until you've listened to it 100+ times. I highly recommend Slugs and Bugs and Lullabies. This one is by Randall Goodgame and Andrew Peterson. That's the car CD. The other CD is from one of Nathan's co-workers and is by a Canadian folk singer, Jack Grunsky and is Waves of Wonder.

Beep, Beep, Beep

Yesterday at book babies as we sang the wheels on the bus, as we do every time we go. But this time Evie joined in singing "beep, beep, beep" for the horn on the bus. It was so cute! This morning she also started clapping. I had been working on clapping with her, but she hadn't done it yet. We were talking to my grandparents and aunt and uncle on skype and Evie clapped with them. There must be something about grandparents, as she never does any of this stuff me. Anyway, after we finished skyping with them, we skyped with Debbie and Evie showed her new skill to Aunt Debbie as well and I got it on video. So here's Evie clapping!

Why you have multiple kids

Ok, so there are lots of good reason to have multiple kids, but tonight made me smile once again at what they'll do. I was getting a laundry basket while Evie was eating in her high chair and Hannah was downstairs with her. I came down, Hannah turns around, sitting in the chair I normally sit in to feed Evie and said "I'm feeding Evie mommy" with a spoon in hand and all. Evie had a huge grin on her face as well. Hannah actually managed to get a couple spoon fulls in before Evie got frustrated. She doesn't like to be fed and would much rather eat on her own. I never knew a two and a half year old could be so helpful in caring for her younger sibling! :-)

A date with Aunt Sarah

Sarah came down to visit Friday while Nathan went to her house for a guys night of video games. She had told Hannah last week that she'd take her on a date. When Hannah woke up from her nap on Friday I asked her if she knew who was coming over, she said "Yes" I said "Who" "I don't know" That's her current sequence of response now. It used to be "no" pause and then the answer, now it's yes and I don't know. Anyway, I told her aunt Sarah and she said "and Uncle James can read me a book. I can ask him." I told her uncle James wasn't coming and then she said "Aunt Sarah can take me on a date!" she's such a bright young lady. Anyway, they went and got a banana split and brought me back some flowers. Isn't that sweet. Here are pictures from the night.

Fun eating ice cream!

The flowers. Aren't they beautiful?

Teen or two?

I've heard twos and teens can be very much the same, but I didn't think I'd be hearing I was wrong until the teens. Although she was right in saying I was wrong :-)

Hannah: what are you making Mommy?
Me: peppers and onions
Hannah: and what else?
Me: perogies
Hannah: and what else?
Me: Hannahs
Hannah: Mommy's wrong

First steps?

Does two steps really count as first steps? Evie took two steps today, she had done one yesterday too, but that was getting from one object to the next, so I don't really count that one at all. I'm not sure if I really count the two today either, but I suppose they count. Here's a picture of her standing. Everyone is amazed at her balance, as she can do numerous squats in a row.

Did I mention she loves the phone?

New Toys

Yesterday a family from church came and dropped off a few new toys their daughter had outgrown. One is a kitchen that both the girls are enjoying. I'm not sure who likes it more as Evie loves having a new object to pull up on and was actually playing at the kitchen more than Hannah. They also brought a canopy bed for dolls. It has wheels on the bottom of it and Hannah is enjoying pushing her animals and dolls around as they sleep. :-)

There's plenty of room for both of them to play

The bed, the canopy is too restricting for Hannah, so that was taken off

Evie enjoying the kitchen on her own

Teddy Bear Cake

My sister-in-law gave us a 3D teddy bear cake for Christmas and I love it. I've used it twice now, once for Hannah's birthday in January, and again this past weekend for a baby shower a co-hosted. Here are pictures of the cakes, I'm trying to do different things with them all, so I thought you might like to see them as I learn and create different bears as well. I have to admit, I didn't follow the recommended recipe for the cake on the baby shower one and the bear would not stand up, that's why I ended up with two looking at each other. After a little creativity I think it came out ok.

Not too bad for a first attempt

Try number two

Tiny Talk

On Monday right after dinner Hannah had the following conversation with Nathan.
Hannah: Did you have hopes for dinner?
Daddy: Did I have hopes for dinner?
Hannah: Yes
Daddy: Hopes are really something we it, it's more of what we'd like
I often call Nathan and ask if he has any hopes or dreams for dinner before he comes home from work. Little ears listen to EVERYTHING.

While Hannah was still eating last night and Nathan had been gone a couple minutes...
Hannah: Where's Daddy?
Mommy: In the bathroom
Hannah: Is he going to nap in there?

A date and Evie skills

Friday night Sarah Barnes came over because James was out of town, so Nathan and I got to have a date. We had delightful dinner and then went ice skating. It was great being in the ice rink where it was nice and cool! We had a great time. After ice skating we went to walmart (it's right next door to the ice rink) and got Nathan notebooks and such for school which starts two weeks from tomorrow. One of the best things about the date was Evie took the bottle from Sarah and we didn't get called while out! This was the first time Evie had taken a bottle from someone other than Nathan or I, so that was very exciting! This brings us to the other skills Evie has learned recently. On Tuesday (the 4th) we were at the park and I decided to put Evie on the slide since the park has rocks as it's base and Evie loves to eat them. Well, she thought being on the slide was great and even figured out how to climb up it! I thought that was pretty good for a nine month old. She has also learned how to take off her diaper if there's nothing covering it, open gatorade bottles, she did that with Daddy's fruit punch gatorade and spilled it everywhere. :-) She's started working on learning how to go down the stairs, she was letting herself slide down a couple the other day and then would climb back up them and go down again. She is also great at repeating sounds and will repeat back lots of things you ask her to. We've also heard lots of words, but I'm not sure she actually knows what she's saying, an airplane flew over head the other day while eating lunch and she said airplane, she was pulling up on the gate at the bottom of the stairs and said stairs, but none of it has been consistent. She loves standing and cruising, but still hasn't taken any steps on her own.

The eye doctor is bad

That's what Hannah said this morning as we pulled into the parking lot of her eye doctor. This to me was a much more positive and communicative response than the last time we went and she broke down crying the minute we pulled into the parking lot. :-) She had to have her eyes dilated today, not a fun thing and last year when they did it she cried through the whole appointment and they were not able to check everything they wanted to. But today she only cried when the put the drops in, she did WONDERFUL the rest of the time. She had three people examine her and she cooperated for all of them. That examine was after waiting half an hour plus in the waiting room. She's been going to the eye doctor since she was 9 months old due to a lazy eye, we've been patching it since the first appointment. Today the doctor told us we could stop patching and they'll check her in a month. As long as we don't see any crossing in the next month she won't have to wear the patch again. Yay!

Bedroom Set

Ok, we finally got around to moving the bedroom set into the proper location in our bedroom. We were only up until 1 am Tuesday night/Wednesday morning doing it :-) Now you can see our before and after photos.
Before:



After:


Before:


After:


Size prospective:
Take 1


Take 2

As you can see the chest is almost as tall as Nathan and the armiore is huge!

A few pictures from the last couple weeks

Nap? I don't want to nap

This is a toy borrowed from a friend. Both the girls love it, Hannah sits on the window sill and "types" on it and says it's her computer.

Yum!

Another long night..

After the bad dream incident I was really hoping for a goodnight sleep on Friday night. Well that didn't happen. Nathan ended up working until 11:30 pm, so he didn't get home until late. I stayed up and visited with him for a little bit and then went to bed. Before I had fallen a sleep, at around 1 am, Evie woke up. I ended up getting to bed around 1:20 am, and Hannah was kind enough to wake up at 5:50 am. Not so fun. The good thing was on Saturday we went to the Barnes' house and I got to have a nap, even though my kids decided not to nap.

Sunday was a low key day at home. Nathan had a grand time playing with the girls in the evening and it was fun to watch as they were laughing and squealing. :-)

For those of you wanting pictures of something other then bugs, I'll hopefully post some soon. I have been taking them, they just haven't gotten loaded on the computer yet.

Random Hannah quotes

OK, so I've been keeping funny quotes and debating if I should just post them as she says them or in a group. Here's a group, but I think I might start posting them regularly instead....

5/29: We were riding in the car the other day listening to the radio and the song "I can only Imagine" by Mercy Me came on. It has a line "will I stand in your presence to my knees will I fall" after they say that from the back sit I hear "We don't stand on presents!!"

6/8: "Mommy, can you please open the door so I can go poop in Evie's room?"

6/23: "I want a cold one!" (she was requesting a cold piece of lasagna, but Daddy couldn't keep form laughing)

6/24: Hannah: I got bit by something outside
Mommy: Was it an ant or mosquito?
Hannah: I think it was an ant. It might have been a Miss Quito. Or maybe Mr. Quito
Mommy: There isn't any Mr. Quito, there are only mosquitos
Hannah: there can be a Mr. Quito when Miss Quito gets older

7/9 Hannah "aahhhhh, aaaaaaaaaah, aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!" (in a very loud voice) Nathan "What are you doing Hannah?" "going ahhhh aaaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaah" in a much quieter voice.

7/10 I take a piece of pizza from Hannah that I just heated up and she decided she didn't want she says "careful Mommy, it's hot and could burn you"

8/2 Hannah was sweeping in the play room and she was sweeping everything under the ottoman. Daddy says "Hannah, who taught you to sweep like that? Was it Mommy?" Hannah nods her head and then says "No, it was Daddy"