Some Lost Summer Photos

Back in July, I knew I was getting way behind in posting some photos. I never had the chance to catch up, so for my first Monday Montage, I decided to share a few that I think never got posted...

 

Putting on a performance in the living room. This scene they are acting out became one of their favorites, and we got to see it over and over.

 

Summer days and suntans (and some long hair too) that are long gone :-)

an attitude {of gratitude}

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I sat down to write about things I am thankful for and realized this was going to take me a lot longer than I thought, plus I am very busy burning two Thanksgiving pies right now, so I'm sure I won't be able to finish here before something in the kitchen needs my attention. But in all seriousness, there are lots of things I am thankful for this year.

I am so thankful for our family. Parents, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles (cousins too!) who just spoil our kids silly with LOVE, and are always sharing enduring memories with us. For our three girls, I can't feel anything except gratitude. Joy just spills out of them {sometimes without explanation, and most often when someone in the room is trying to do something that requires quiet} and for that I could not be more grateful. Joy in the simplest things. It is very refreshing. Alyssa was writing thank you cards for the birthday gifts she received, and I looked over her shoulder to see her writing: "Thank you for the gift card, I hope to buy a platter of cheese. Yummy!" ( I won't say who the card is to, I'll let that be a surprise in a few days when you get the card in the mail.) It was funny though, and a reminder to be thankful for all the small stuff ~ like cheese!

I appreciate all the funny things the girls say when they are not even trying to be funny. Lately, Rebekah wants to bathe 3-4 times each day. She'll come up to me, knowing full well she's already had a bath, and she'll bat her big brown eyes and say, "I think I need a soothing bath." Of course she does. We were also trying to get her to try a new food recently (sorry, I can't even remember right now what it was) and Dave got her to take a small bite. Initially she was pleased, "This is yum," she said all surprised. Then she stopped chewing and politely spit it out, "With a little bit of yuck!" She wasn't trying to make us laugh in either situation, she was just being her little self, so honest, even in her attempts to spit out food she doesn't like or get something she knows she doesn't need.

One of the things I am most thankful for the girls' pure faith, the impact this faith has had on them, and all the people that have contributed to it. I was holding Emma the other night during worship and she had a huge bear hug around my neck as we were singing. Suddenly out of her mouth flowed the perfect chorus: "How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be--How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me." I was thinking to myself wow, she knows that song? and not just knows it, but sings it like that? What an amazing thing to come before Him, so simply, so grateful for His love. I am thankful.

Last week I heard a list of about half a dozen questions, that if you could answer "yes" to them, you were in the top 5% of the wealthiest people in the world. The questions rolled by me so quickly that I wasn't able to get them all, but the ones that stood out were: Do you have a house? Do you have access to clean drinking water? Do you know where your next meal will come from? Do you have a bank account? {just have one, not one with a certain amount of money in it :) } I was struck that answering yes to these things alone could constitute wealth. It made me think about the simple things that I take for granted. I have much to be thankful for, much more than I could write about in one short post. And if you're still reading this: Thank You :-)

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

All This Talk About Food

So I turned 30 last week, and while I don't feel much older, I think I might be losing my mind a little. A few mornings after my birthday, Dave walked into the kitchen as I was scrambling eggs. I had put an empty serving platter into the microwave, just for long enough to warm it up, so I wouldn't be putting fresh eggs on a cold plate. He saw the empty platter going in circles in the microwave, and very gently and hesitantly asked me what I was making. I didn't see what he was looking at, so I gestured to the eggs and said "breakfast." He smiled a little (maybe even looking at me as if to ask if I was alright) and he asked what was in the microwave. When I realized that he thought I was cooking up a big plate of NOTHING, we laughed and I told him my age wasn't catching up with me yet. The next morning, I may have proved my statement to him to be wrong. Rebekah and I were shopping, getting ingredients to make lasagna. I thought I would grab some ground italian sausage to flavor up my sauce a bit. Well, I KNOW I had a package of italian sausage in my hand, but as I began to brown it back at home, I immediately could tell that it didn't smell quite right. That's when I grabbed the empty meat tray out of the garbage and read on the label ~ Breakfast Sausage. Great, that should be good!

 

Rebekah loved helping me layer up the tray of lasagna. She wanted to break up all the long noodles for me, so we ended up with a patchwork quilt of pasta. She also kept eating spoonfuls of the sauce, and by the time we were done, she had the cutest dirty face. Apparently the wrong kind of sausage didn't bother her at all. It actually didn't bother anyone, there was not one complaint. I could certainly taste my mistake though.

 

Ah, the joy of a messy face!

My Little Minnie

Last year's Minnie Mouse costume had to be re-visited the other day, and she had so much fun dancing around and admiring the big white bow around the waist. She was so cutie...

And I think I might be getting a little carried away with all these photo collages, but it's just too much fun!! I think I am going to start doing a "Montage Monday," where I'll try to put together a quick little collage each Monday. Try not to look for it every week though, I'm not that good a getting things posted in a timely manner :-)

Happy 10th Birthday, PRINCESS KA'IULANI!!

Alyssa turned 10 yesterday!! And, WOW! I can't believe how time has flown. It seems like just yesterday she was a tiny baby. In fact...

 

I was looking for one of my favorite newborn pictures of her to post here, and in scanning my hard drive, I couldn't find it anywhere, I couldn't even find a 1999 folder. That's when I remembered...it's been 10 YEARS(!!) since she was a newborn, and we weren't digital then. So while I have the lovely photo in an album, there is no digital record of it. 10 years is a long time, and lots has changed, but at the same time, it has passed by in the blink of an eye. Maybe on her eleven year old post, I will have scanned it in and can share it then :-) And a few of these pics above prove that at one time she did have chubby little baby cheeks (I miss those). Happy Birthday, to my First Princess!

 

10 year old princesses are so much fun! She's such a sweetie, very expressive, generous, and caring. She loves putting on plays and singing (even if it's just in our living room), going to school and church, she loves her her family and friends, dressing up all fancy, and being a leader (of anything or anyone). And I don't like to brag but since it's her birthday a little bit won't hurt: she's getting straight A's { except for a "B" in MUSIC (go figure)!?! We'll have to invite the music teacher to the Christmas musical and see if he can still give her a "B" after that :-) }What an awesome privilege and responsibility to be entrusted with her care!!

All Dressed Up!

So, I guess I can always be counted on to post about things that happened WEEKS ago. I drafted this post only one week after Halloween, but here it is, November 24th, and I am just now getting around to finishing it. Here are some photos of the girls all dressed up for Halloween.

A quick family photo before trick or treat. Further confirmation for me that I should never wear a hat. I always look so weird, must have an odd shaped noggin or something, but it was a chilly day.

I should have gotten a wider view of this house. It is an old beautiful victorian looking house. It was all decorated (not in a spooky way, just pretty fall decor) and as the girls approached the door, it was one of those moments where I wished I could pause time. They looked so cute in their costumes and of course the anticipation of the candy was fun too.

Here the girls are looking out the window just hoping and hoping to have the chance to give some candy out to all the treaters passing by. For some reason, everyone kept passing my parents house without coming up to the door. They do have a long driveway, but come on people, are you trick or treating or what? Eventually the girls took the candy outside and jumped up and down and waved people up to the house as they passed. It worked.

The girls with their good friends.

I started posting several individual pics of the girls all dressed up, and realized the post would be way too long. Making these collages was even more fun, feel free to click on them to see them closer up...

Princess Em all pink and sweet, being a little bit silly at times too.

Beautiful Bride Minnie. She actually looked quite elegant in all white, and was so proud of her painted pearl nails.

Tiny Snow White, singing into the well, just like in the movie. She loved her high heals.

Thank you to Grandmommy and Granddaddy, who sent the girls money to buy costumes. Some of these items we already had, we bought some accessories along with their outfits, and put the rest of the $ into the girls' savings accounts. Thank you, Thank you!!

Going Fishing at G&G's

 

Her moments like these are few, but I thought Emma's little pout face was cute.

 

After seeing my cousin's children enjoy this game a lot in Mississippi, my dad thought our girls would like it too. We all had a lot of fun with it, I was getting to the point where I wanted to play by myself and set a stop watch to see how quickly I could clear out the pond.

 

Kamele barely ever wants anything in her hair! But this morning, she asked if I would put it up in a pony tail, so I was happy to do that. It actually lasted for most of the day, and I loved the way her baby fine hair looked up in the pony tail.

Ronald Reagan's Boyhood Home

 

We visited Ronald Reagan's childhood home in Dixon, Illinois. I guess even after serving as President, he always loved returning home to Dixon. It's a very nice, quiet town. We went into a McDonalds after visiting his home and there was a cute old lady and all her friends there celebrating her 90th birthday. Everyone there seemed to know her, it was a true small town America kind of feeling.

 

By Reagan's statue in the courtyard that is now in the home's backyard.

 

A and E by Reagan's cut-out in the gift shop. Sorry about the glare.

 

Reagan's childhood home. On his first visit back there after the home had been restored, he commented that if the house had looked that good when he and his older brother lived there, they would have never left.

 

The girls and my mom on the front steps of his home.

 

When the Reagan boys grew up, they bought their parents a home in California (it was the only home they ever owned, they rented here) , and they took all the original furniture from their home here, to that new home in California. This chair is the only piece of furniture in the home that Reagan ever actually used. It came from a friend's home, and they donated it during the restoration process of this home. The rest of the furniture was chosen from catalogs by the two Reagan boys to fit what they remembered having in their home growing up.

 

Both Ronald and his older brother were Radio announcers for the University of Iowa, so they hung this pennant in the boys' room to signify their roots there. Go, Hawkeyes!!

 

Looking into their dining area. The china on the table was purchased one piece at a time until they were able to accumulate an entire set.

 

We took a photo of this tea cup because Rebekah and I love tea sets, and as a funny coincidence, my mom bought her this exact tea cup as a birthday present a couple of months ago.

 

Emma washing her hands in the Reagan kitchen.

 

Our girls LOVED this ~ President Reagan remembered from his childhood that there had been a loose stone in his fireplace mantle as he was growing up. He would hide a few coins in there on a regular basis. When he first was able to tour the restored home, he asked them to pull up one of the tiles so he could leave four pennies in there. It was really neat for the kids to kneel there and imagine how many times he had been right there as a kid, hiding coins from his brother.

 

President Lincoln also has history in this town. I believe in campaigning (maybe even the early campaigns where he experienced some faliure) he spent time here. Look how young the statue makes him look ~ no "whiskers" yet, he hadn't heard from young Grace Bedell with that recommendation.

 

Reagan's statue in town. It's always neat to walk through history a bit, even if it's just in a small way like this. I'm glad that the girls enjoy seeing it too.

Emma Lost Her 1st Baby Tooth!!!

Emma's four front teeth (2 in the middle on the bottom, and 2 in the middle on the top) have been wiggly for several weeks. Last week the 2 loose ones on the bottom went from being wiggly to LOOSE, LOOSE, LOOSE!

 

On Monday night after school, one of them was so loose, that it had to come out (she could spin it around backwards with her tongue). It would have come out easily if I just tugged on it a bit, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It had to wait until Daddy got home from work. Isn't her little window cute? Alyssa lost her first tooth ever at almost the same exact time in first grade.

 

All the tooth excitement happened at the same time that we are trying to learn how to take care of two caterpillars we found in a forest preserve near G & G's house. The two caterpillars are the two dark (fuzzy!!) horizontal lines in the bug box, right on top of each other. Once I have the chance to look through the pics we took over the weekend, I'll hopefully post some where you can see our new "pets" better (and some Halloween photos of the girls too :-). Emma named one of the caterpillars Poofy, and Alyssa named the other Calico.

Apple Harvest Party

Last Wednesday, the Room Parents in Emma's class organized an "Apple Harvest Party" in celebration of autumn. It was a lot of fun!

 

When I arrived, Emma's group was at the snack table where they had hot apple cider and caramel dipped apples. YUM!

 

They asked me to help with the beaded necklace station, and here is Emma's friend, Kylie helping her put her necklace on. Rebekah was also very happy to be helping with the beads, it kept her little fingers busy!

 

This little girl, Amari was very sweet helping Bekah put together the part of the necklace that she couldn't get on her own.

 

The necklace seemed to finish up more quickly than some of the other crafts, so when we were done Emma read a book to her group.

 

Rebekah was hugely entertaining to the little boys in Emma's class. They kept wanting to play games like tug of war with her, or chase her around the room, and she loved it. It was kind of funny, because I found out later in the day during Alyssa's party, that the girls in her class were much more interested in playing with Kamele, and the boys hardly even noticed she was there.

 

Making an apple flag with Herr Haase.

 

Emma's decorated apple cookie.

 

Posing for a quick pic while she colors her apple.

 

After a while she covered up her picture that she was coloring, and at the top I saw she had written "Mommy" on it, so that was my cue to stop watching her, because she wanted to give it to me as a surprise later :-)

 

Emma was the last child to get her face painted, and at that time, Herr Haase called for the kids to listen to instructions and they all froze in place making the shhhh sign over their lips and holding up two fingers. I always love seeing teacher's routines for getting the kids' attention and maintaining order. Last year it was clapping back a pattern and waiting for the teacher to give directions. They didn't seem to know when to put their hands down, they held the position the entire time Herr Haase was talking.

 

Ms. Josephine painting an apple on Kahiwa's cheek.

 

Very happy with how it turned out!

 

Ms. Barb reading to the class. Emma has come home and told me, "I am so lucky to have Stefan in my class this year, his mom is the best German reader."

 

Ms. Jospehine painting a pumpkin on Bekah's hand. She had to be talked into the hand painting, and did not even want to have anything to do with the paint going on her face.

 

Cute pumpkin!!! Thanks Miss Jo!

Autumn Playtime Between Parties

 

We had a couple of hours in between the girls' parties, so we played at the park for a little while. I love all the autumn colors.

 

My little running shoeless wonder. Can't keep shoes on this little one's feet.

 

Tiny smiles as she plays.

 

She ran over to the grassy area and started kicking the leaves as she ran through. She was having fun until...

 

Splat! She fell down right into some soggy, really gross looking leaves (I don't even want to speculate as to what may have been under those leaves ~ yuk, at least it came out in the wash). By now we had less than 25 minutes until Alyssa's party, and she wasn't just a tiny bit dirty. We had to run down the street to Target for a new change of clothes.