My 15 Month Old

Dear Lydia,

You are 15 months and 1 week old today! Crazy to see how big you are getting every day! You and your brother are definitely getting closer and it is so much fun seeing you spend more and more time together during the day. Daniel loves holding your hand and walking you out to the car when we go anywhere, and he also gives you big hugs and kisses at various times of the day. I love watching you two together!

You have been on the sicky side for the past few weeks... still have a runny nose and a bit on the sleepy side. Mommy keeps thinking you will be getting more teeth in, but nope, you still only have seven or eight teeth so we'll see when the others come in!

We put up our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving and you love it! You and Daniel spent one evening playing with Christmas lights that were brightly lit while we turned off the other lights around the house and you thought that was awesome! Both you and your big brother think that our village set is the best play thing ever, and we have had to work a lot training y'all not to play with all the village people! I think you are going to have an amazing Christmas in a few weeks! Daddy is making you a kitchen which you will LOVE! We are getting SO excited to watch you play with it!

Lydia, you are FINALLY enjoying people reading to you! At least somewhat... Daniel still loves it much more than you, but Mommy is so glad that you enjoy it when we read even just one book at a time... You still don't quite know how to take good care of the books, so occasionally we see you sitting with a ripped page in your hands... not knowing quite what to do about it! The other morning Daddy and I got out of bed to find Daniel in your room with you. You had waken up and he decided you wanted to read so he brought in at least 15 of his books and dumped them into your crib with you! Lol. :) See, he takes good care of you!

You still have no interest in watching TV or movies, which I guess is a good thing although that means you just want to go, go, go or have me hold you when Daniel watches one of his shows so that is always fun! :) You are enjoying doing more fine motor things lately... it'll be fun to get out some of Daniel's older activities maybe after Christmas so that you can do some activities with Mommy!

You are still cruising everywhere and in your adorable 24 M coat that we got you this past month, you look like a little, big girl walking everywhere with your coat that goes down to almost your ankles! So cute! :) You still don't like keeping your hair pony-tails or bows in, though, which makes Mommy very sad... :( You have no clue how happy I would be to make your hair oh so cute every day especially since your hair seriously goes to your mid-back now!

We love you SO much and are loving seeing you grow and grow! Excited to see you experience the Christmas season ahead of us!

Love,
Mommy

Lydia Grace - already 14 months old!

Dear Lydia,

Hello my big girl! You are 14 months and 5 days old today... This past month was such a big month for you! The biggest "step" you took was walking! Probably three or four weeks ago you took your first three steps without holding onto anything over at Grandpa and Grandma's house with your grandparents, Daddy, and Daniel. I was so sad to hear that I missed your first steps, but I was also super excited to see you walk some more! You took your time, though, and waited almost an entire week before you took a few more across our living room while playing with Mommy... Once that happened, you began walking a few more steps each day and we knew it was about to be a constant action for you! Your daddy and I went to Denver last week to spend most of the week with your Uncle Geoffrey who is in the hospital :o( and when we got back you walked all the way across the front yard to tell Maw-Maw bye bye and continued walking everywhere else! SO cute! I love watching you walk each step very carefully... usually falling or stumbling after every few steps, but then you stand back up and try again. And, it's also really funny when your brother notices what you are doing every few days and he exclaims "Look! Sister walking!" Lol. He thinks it is awesome! 

Another thing you've been doing a lot more is dancing with your big brother! You both love dancing together and will hold onto each other's hands and spin around and around... It usually results in Daniel dragging you around which means you fall over and then Daniel falls on top of you and instead of crying, you laugh and laugh! Lol. Mommy loves y'all SO much and are SO happy when you love hanging out together! 

After Daddy and I got back from Denver we were very excited to see you and Daniel and it was so cute watching how excited you were to see us, too! You just wanted me to hold you for quite awhile afterwards and you kept saying "Hi" and gave me big hugs and kisses! :o) So sweet!

Lydia, you love tickling our feet and it makes us laugh not always because it actually tickles, but because you say the funniest noises while you are doing it! You will seriously say things that sound like "gitchie gitchie gitchie" while you tickle. :o) You also make some great car noises when you play with Daniel's cars... It's so funny seeing how early you learned all those noises! 

 You love climbing everywhere and I already know I'll have to watch you as you grow up before you break your leg or something! You are a little risk taker who loves heights and anything adventurous even at such a young age. We went to the pumpkin patch this past month and they had a big bump-n-jump there that we took Daniel on. He was a little scared of it at first but soon warmed up to it and really enjoyed it. And you? You saw Daniel having fun and knew that you needed to have fun too! So we took you up there and jumped and jumped and you had SO much fun!

Every day while I watch you and Daniel play I am reminded how different you both are and how much you love doing different things! I love how much you add to our lives, Miss Lydia! God has blessed us in many ways! Sometimes I think about when God will add another little one into our family... It's crazy thinking back to when Daniel was your age and how you were about to join us in just two months! So crazy! I know you will love having a little brother or sister eventually and I'm already excited to see what you'll be like as a big sister! But that'll have to wait for awhile longer... :o) Right now I'm going to enjoy every minute we have with my 14 month old! AND I'm excited to see how much fun you'll have for your second holiday season!!! Thanksgiving is just two weeks away! 

Love you sweet girl!

~Mommy

Scott in Denver and Days with the Kiddos

I am sitting in an organized and somewhat clean home after spending the past hour doing dishes, sweeping, cleaning off the counter-tops, cleaning toys and just getting things all ready in case we showings in the next few days. We haven't had any showings for quite awhile, but I figure it doesn't hurt to have the house cleaned and ready just in case and I'm actually enjoying making it look so nice all the time. :o) Daniel took a pretty short nap today (just under an hour and a half instead of his usual 2 to 3 hour nap) so after "helping" me do the dishes (mainly just dumping water all over the counter - lol) he is now watching his "Super-Why" show on Netflix with his Teddy. He hasn't watched a show for a few days now... it's amazing how much he loves that show! I hear Lydia just now waking up so I will go get her up in a just a little bit... Just figured I would update a bit on life with the Slades!

Scott headed over to Denver last Thursday and has now been over there for almost a week with his mom and oldest brother, Geoffrey. Geoffrey found out that he has leukemia about two months ago now. :o( He had his latest round of chemo like four weeks ago now and although he was supposed to be able to leave the hospital within a few days after, he ended up staying longer and longer because of eye pain, headaches, etc. They found out about a week and a half ago that he had a bacteria then saw that he had a fungal infection in his sinuses also... They ended up air lifting him over to Denver to have more surgeons to look into what all was going on. It was a tough weekend for him with a long surgery this past Saturday in which they scraped away a lot of the dead tissue from the sinus area and he had a team of people praying for him as we took it hour by hour hoping the anti-fungal medication would kick in before the fungus got to his brain! Since Sunday things have little by little gotten better and we are praying now that he will be completely healed of this fungal and bacteria infection! (That's a long story shortened, but I know many of you have followed my prayer requests on facebook...) Scott is planning on heading home tomorrow if the weather ends up being okay (a big storm is hitting the mountains today and tomorrow, so we'll see what it will hold) and his other brother, Bryan, will head over to Denver to switch places... Then the plan is unless Geoffrey gets to come home before then, Scott and I will go over this coming Tuesday for a few days while his mom comes home with Bryan. Please be praying for both complete healing from these infections for Geoffrey, but also for quick healing of his leukemia! Thank you!

We have had a pretty good week overall, even though we are greatly missing out loved hubby and daddy... I have tried to keep busy doing fun things with the kiddos which has been good to keep them from missing Scott too much and keeps me a bit more sane then just staying home watching TV and playing with toys. Lol. ;o) Let's see... what have we been up to?

Thursday my mom came over and stayed until Sunday morning with us. She had a scrapbook workshop Friday night and all day Saturday, but having her here in the evenings and the rest of the time was SO nice and she helped a lot with the kiddos! Friday night Scott's dad came over for dinner and a movie night with Daniel. I made soup and cornbread with peach pie for dessert which was all delicious and then we watched Shrek, Daniel's new favorite movie. :o) (He hasn't watched too many entire movies, but his favorites are definitely "Happy Feet" and "Shrek" which he has both watched like three or four times now!) He loved having a movie night because we don't have them very often at all! It was fun looking forward to it all day! He sat next to his Grandpa to watch it and then I let him eat his dessert on the couch which he thought was pretty awesome since that is definitely a special event!

Saturday we just hung out around the house and went grocery shopping (the kids rode in the little car in front of the shopping cart and LOVED it - I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to normal shopping carts after that... what was I thinking?!) and then after naps we joined my friend Jasmine and her son, Jax, and another family from our church over at Canyonview Park. We had a small potluck dinner which was beyond delicious! Jasmine made an amazing soup (I have GOT to get the recipe for it!) and Sara made homemade rolls - yumm! I made pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies which were (and are still) super delicious! After that I spent awhile on the phone updating people on Geoffrey's surgery while the kiddos played on the park equipment. Lydia slid down a slide over and over while Daniel enjoyed climbing all over the place before I swung them both in the swings. It was a beautiful evening and it was fun spending time with Jasmine and Jax!

Sunday we had church in the morning which was fun. It was Mission's Week even though I didn't realize it before (we haven't been to church in two weeks because of going to Breckenridge and then we went to Scott's parents' church the weekend before). A missionary couple who had been serving in Mali, I think it was, for the last 23 years were there sharing. It was very cool hearing from them and it was nice getting a little break from the kids who did great in nursery! After naps we went over to Scott's parents and hung out with his dad for about an hour before we went to dinner at Drew and Andrea's house. Had a yummy fajita dinner over there and had a lot of fun laughing uncontrollably at Lydia who decided to really enjoy her dinner! Lol. I had taken her shirt off after she was making a complete mess of her clothes (gotta love when we have no highchair for her!) so she ended up standing up in her chair throwing food onto other people's plates and grabbing other people's food for the most part... all while making her really funny expressions. Lol. ;o)

Monday morning we went grocery shopping for two things and then I took the kids to the library/rec center here in Fruita so they could play on some indoor play equipment that they LOVE! That was a fun way to pass 30 or 45 minutes before lunch and I love that we live so close to it! I made a meal for some friends from church who just had a sweet little baby girl and after taking that over to them in the evening we went over to Lelia and Wayne's to eat dinner with them and hang out! It was fun eating over there and letting the kids play while I caught up a little with Lelia. We need to hang out with them more often... :o) The kiddos love their Aunt Lelia and Uncle Wayne. Lydia, especially, gave SO many big hugs to her Uncle Wayne when he got there and played with them! So cute!

Yesterday morning was so much fun! We met my friend, Kacey, and her little boys, Connor and Caleb, over at Barnes and Nobles for their story time! I never knew they did story time there, but it was really fun and I'll definitely put that on our list of things to do whenever we don't have things on Tuesday mornings! Daniel loved sitting on the little benches with the other kids listening to the story (while Lydia crawled all over the place as normal - she will NOT sit and listen to stories!! :o( ) and after they read their little book they did a little craft. He made a ghost with a sucker and a kleenex tied around it... Then the kids played with the train table there for awhile before we used the little $1 coupon for milk and cookies and got cookies for the kids and chocolate milk for the two older boys. ;o) They had such fun! Kacey had us over for lunch afterwards which was also fun although crazy loud... how those boys have so much energy is beyond me, although I guess they had just had a cup of chocolate milk and a cookie... Lol. ;o) Let me rethink that! Yesterday evening Bryan came over for dinner and to hang out with the kids. I made little tortilla pizzas and had veggies for dinner which was yummy and the kids had so much fun playing with their Uncle Bryan and looking at his pictures on his phone of some bears he saw while hunting last weekend...

Today we haven't done much. Before dinner last night we had gone on a little walk in the beautiful fall weather so that Daniel could pick up lots of leaves to do a craft with! I brought their little picnic table inside this morning (a bit too windy and chilly outside) and they glued leaves to some construction paper. I put contact paper on it during their naps and now they have placemats! I probably needed to flatten it out a bit before putting contact paper on it (or I might need better contact paper) because it's not super well done and flat, but it'll at least last for a few weeks! They had lots of fun making their craft, although Daniel enjoys it much more than her... Lydia just liked throwing the leaves everywhere and pulling them off of her paper after I glued them on. Lol. ;o) I am about to put a meal in the oven for dinner (Andrea made us a couple of meals for this week - she is AMAZING!) and then we go to small group tonight! Although we need to spend some time cleaning up the now VERY messy living room. Lol. We have Legos and toys EVERYWHERE! (So much for the clean house of an hour ago...)

Well, I want to write again soon to update a little on my now 2 1/2 year old Daniel, as of two days ago! But that'll have to be another time... Hope everyone is having a wonderful week and enjoy the beautiful fall weather!

Softball Nights = Great Memories

We were able to go watch two of our family and friends' softball games tonight! This fall season has been the first season in probably three years or so since Scott hasn't played with the team (we were saving money and trying to open up another evening for ministry appointments), so I'm SO glad we were able to join everyone in the dugout tonight! I did realize halfway through that I should have brought my camera, though! WHY have I not recorded one of these memorable softball games in the past several years?! I have NO clue! :( But it is definitely a past-time that I'll miss once we move to Denver and a time that I'll always remember!

It was a beautiful evening tonight! It didn't get chilly until the last 30 minutes or so, and it was beautiful watching the sunset during the game! Our team also won both games which is always fun to see, and they all played awesome! I hung out in the dugout with the kiddos... watching them run (and crawl) up and down the stairs, looking on as they climbed up on the fence to watch the game side by side, encouraging Lydia as she stood on her own and clapped for our teammates, and just enjoying our cute little ones! I also loved just hanging out with the other spouses and friends who came to watch the games. 

Daniel was sad when we got home because he wasn't able to play any of the game... I think sometimes he just wants to grow up already! We told him it would be a few years before he could play, but hopefully someday he can play baseball and have a wonderful time! And maybe someday he'll be able to play on a team with us and our family and great friends... I'd love for our kiddos to have memories like I do of evenings filled with the lights, sounds, and fun of family softball nights! 

That was a bit random, but just wanted to share some great times! I hope everyone has a wonderful week! This has been a great day for us and I'm excited to see what the week will hold!

13 Months Old!

Dearest Lydia Grace,

Hello my little, sweet girl! You are 13 months, 4 days old and getting to be such a big girl! We just got back from three days in Breckenridge with Pappy, Maw-Maw, and all of that side of the family! It was such a wonderful time and you started doing and saying so many new things! First of all, you are now standing up on your own again and again without pulling up using furniture of someone's legs. :o) It was SO cute watching you figure it out! Vienna and Daniel were dancing in the living room on Saturday and you started moving back and forth, trying to dance also. Then, before we knew it you crawled to the middle of the room next to them and stood up. You bobbed up and down and swayed back and forth a bit, and then lost your balance and fell down. You repeated this over and over and you'd stood many other times since then... mainly to dance, though. Lol. You are TOO cute! Today you tried taking one step towards your Aunt Lelia, but the second you lifted one foot up you sat down... I think you are still a bit scared of taking that first step! But I think you are definitely close! 

You also really enjoyed climbing up onto the stone in front of the fireplaces in our rooms up in Breckenridge...  Little girl, you are definitely a risk taker already and LOVE climbing into things, on top of places, and doing other things that your brother never would have dreamed of doing at your age! :o) I love seeing how different the two of you are!

Lydia, you are also LOVING talking and have started saying many new words! Your favorites lately have been saying "hi" and waving to almost everyone you see, even complete strangers in the street or a restaurant! (And you don't quite understand if they don't wave back!) You also say "hi" and "bye-bye" whenever you see yourself in the mirror which is cute. :o) You LOVE doggies, so you always say "Hi dog!" whenever you see a dog lately. :o) I know there are some other words you have learned this month but I can't remember them right now... 

You have been very attached to your teddy and doll lately! Sometimes when I come and get you in the morning, you hold onto your teddy so tight that I just let you take it around with you during the morning! You give teddy such great kisses and hugs. It's so cute!

A week and a half ago we took you up to the Grand Mesa to be able to see the fall colors up there for the first time in your young life! Your favorite thing was crawling around in all the leaves and playing with them all! You are quite the lover of the outdoors and anything that could possibly get you covered in dirt is something you'd like to be a part of! ;o) You will love going to a park sometime soon to play in more leaves! 

Mommy has really enjoyed dressing you up in your new outfits you got for your birthday, especially as it has gotten cooler outside! And, this weekend Pappy and Maw-Maw got you you first pair of black leggings which will be SO cute to wear this fall and winter with some of your dresses and skirts! Can you tell that I LOVE dressing you up?! I just wish you enjoyed wearing pony-tails and bows more... Each morning I'll put your hair in something, but I usually have to hide whatever I put in your hair because as soon as you realize you have a bow within reach you yank it out and there goes that! ;o) At least you are still cute, especially because your hair has gotten SO long! It is beautiful!

I'm so excited to see what all this next month holds for you! Love you, my dear, beautiful little girl!

Love,

 Mommy

Here are just a few of the cute pictures we took of you this past month... All taken up on the Mesa! :o)

Just being lazy...

The kids are napping and I just finished writing thank you's for Lydia's birthday party! I am now sitting on my bed watching the fall premier of "Parenthood" while Scott is hanging out with his brother this afternoon. I'm so glad Scott is finally able to go have some fun! He has been doing so much around here - cleaning, taking care of the kiddos, calling and making appointments to meet with people about joining our support team, and so much more without ever complaining! I have such an awesome hubby! It's also nice to be able to have some alone time to just get some random things done and rest some while the kiddos nap! I just drank a vanilla chai, and I have to say that I am SO excited for fall! I'm excited for the cooler days, getting darker sooner in the evenings (something that is a little weird because I usually hate that, but I'm excited to have more evening time with Scott maybe sitting in front of our gas fireplace with some chai?!), watching the leaves change colors, going to the park and playing in the fallen leaves with Daniel and Lydia, taking pictures of my favorite season, and so much more!

We have been doing great! Support raising has been going great and it has still been such an encouragement meeting with people and families who share our excitement with the college ministry! It's hard at times reading and hearing about all the students and staff on the Auraria Campus knowing that we are still here, but it's also exciting because I'm getting SO, VERY excited to be on campus next year reaching out to all of those students and others and sharing God's love with them!

The whole house selling thing hasn't been going the greatest so far, but I know that God has a plan and the perfect people will make an offer when it's God's will! We have only had three showings so far, so a week or so ago we lowered the price a little bit... It's been crazy keeping the house so clean all the time, and making sure it's in showing condition just in case whenever we leave the house, but at the same time I think it's been good to get into this habit because maybe it'll help us in the cleaning/organizing our future homes down the road! I have to say having a clean home is amazing, that's for sure! :o)

The kids are awesome! I know I just wrote has Lydia her long 1-year letter which updated a lot about her, so I will take some time letting you know all about how Daniel is doing! He is almost 2 1/2 years (in about a month), which is crazy! He has been so, very attached to Scott lately which is hard at times, but then super cute at other times! Whenever Scott leaves for an appointment or just to go somewhere during the day, Daniel will usually give him at least two or three big hugs goodbye, hugging his leg while saying "Goodbye Daddy, Goodbye Daddy!" It is so cute! He still LOVES reading and will read his books and have others read to him much of the day! One of the cutest things he's been doing lately has been "reading" some of his books to us lately, at least parts of them! You can definitely tell which books we read to him the most, because he has memorized much of them! I need to take a video of him and Scott reading "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" because that is by far the cutest! I can't believe how well he memorizes parts of the book, even the way we read the words!

He has also memorized many of the songs we sing to him, so it's cute hearing him sing them to his teddies or to Lydia... It is getting more and more easier to understand what he says when he's talking, but we still have those times when he loves to slur his words together as little toddlers do!

The other day I went into his room after his nap and watched as he was lining up all four of his teddies with their backs against the edge of the crib... He then sat in front of them and proceeded to tell them it was story time. It was so cute! :o) I gave him a book and he "read" it to them, taking them one at a time and having them sit in his lap while he read to them and let them touch the pages. It was adorable! He is such a teacher and when he shows his caring, sweet side like that it just makes me so happy and I'm SO excited to see what kind of a boy he is going to turn into! He has also been so nice with Lydia lately... He helps clean up her toys, shares much more easily than before, and tells her "Good job, Sis" whenever she is doing a good job with something. It is so cute!

There is so much more I could say about our boy, Daniel, but it'll have to wait for another time! Thanks for reading my little random update on life!

My Birthday Girl!

My Dear Miss Lydia,

You are our big, 1 year old girl! It's so crazy to believe that you have been part of our family for an entire year and nine months (in Mommy's tummy) now! Here is part of my first blog right after you were born and one of your first pictures:

"Lydia Grace Slade was born Sunday morning, September 4, 2011, at 9 a.m. She was 8 lbs. 5.4 oz., 21 inches long, with a 13 7/8 in. head. She has a LOT of "dirty blonde" hair and has the cutest little face and expressions! She has her daddy's nose and her mommy's mouth and eyes, and other than that I'm not exactly sure because it's hard for me to 'see' those features that look like one or the other of us. :o) Her big brother loves her already, and has done a much better time at adjusting already than I thought he would be! It has helped a lot having Scott home this week because that gives both of us to give him and Lydia attention... Daniel has been great at taking care of his baby sister, bringing her mittens, a blanket, patting her head, or giving her much needed kisses and hugs. And, although he is getting used to mommy having to feed baby sister quite a lot, he has been good playing by himself or with Daddy, and just takes advantage of the times when Lydia is not eating so he can sit with me and Lydia and read books. Our little kids are amazing and I'm so full of love for both of them! They make me so happy!"

You were such a tiny little girl back then! I can't believe how much you have changed and grown in just a year! Lydia, the things about me that just make me smile are too many to list here, but a few of my favorite things about you are...
 * your smiles and cheesy grins that you give out so easily
 * the bright smiles and big hugs you give to your brother when he comes over to see you
 * how you snuggle up with your daddy to have some daddy/daughter time 
 * how you will lie in the corner of your crib on your back holding onto your teddy while you have your finger in your mouth as you wait quietly for us to come get you in the mornings
 * how you will play with Daniel's tools and try to "fix" anything that he or Daddy work on around the house - you LOVE tools and helping Daddy!
 * the joy you show when Mommy just holds you as I go about my chores around the house
 * the happy laughs and excitement you show when you have bath time! You LOVE crawling back and forth all over the tub and sliding down the sloped part of the tub! You are a total risk-taker! 
 * how much fun you have playing with Daniel's cars... you love cars that make noise and you will push them around and around
 * how you try to copy most everything Daniel does, especially when he climbs up on stuff to jump off... you really want to be able to climb up on more things like he does
 * watching you swing - you have such an amazing time and would stay swinging forever especially if your big brother is with you
 * your big, blue eyes! They are beautiful!

We love you so, very much Lydia Grace! You have been trying to say a lot more things lately... Just a few of the words I remember right now are "ball" and you are trying to say "brother" but it comes out more like "baba" or something like that... You also said something very much like "doll" the other day when you were playing with your new baby doll! It is so cute as you are learning more and more! You are in that stage where you love us pointing out what nose, mouth, ears, eyes, and hair are now... You love mouth because you say "Aaaa" and open up really wide! So cute! :o) 

Your third bottom tooth just popped through a few weeks ago! So you now have seven teeth in total! :o) 

Lydia, you are cruising around a lot more now and you almost can come to a standing position without holding onto anything! Not sure when you'll be walking because you still don't like walking very much when holding onto our hands... You are just perfectly happy being a crawler right now! :o) That is totally okay! 

We weighed you the other day and you are just at 19 lbs. now! Still pretty crazy how much smaller you are than Daniel was at your age, but Mommy loves it because you don't tire me out when I hold you! :o) You are my tiny little girl and I love you just how you are! 

You had such a wonderful time at your birthday party! We had a fun little party with all the family and your friends at a park in town! Your Uncle Geoffrey wasn't able to make it, but we were able to see him right afterwards at the hospital so that made your day even better! Mommy decorated the food tables with butterfly cutouts and flowers with bright colors everywhere and it was all so beautiful! You had cupcakes and a strawberry butterfly cake which you LOVED! We gave you a little wing piece for your "smash-cake" and even though you didn't really smash it, you loved smashing your face into it and eating up all the icing that way until you pushed it away... Too much sweetness for you! :o) You played with some of your little friends and then crawled around while Mommy opened most of your amazing toys and clothes that you got! You did help open a few gifts, but I think you wanted to play and crawl around much more than open all those gifts! :o) This week has been filled with much excitement, though, as we take out a few of your new toys each day. You and Daniel have LOVED having so many new toys! And you are too cute in your new clothes! 

Here are a few 1 year pics of you, sweet girl! Look at how big you've gotten and how beautiful you are! 

Love you sweet girl! 

Love,
Mommy

House is on the market! YAY!

So our house is officially on the market as of last Monday! It is so exciting to know that our hard work, cleaning, organizing, packing, etc. finally has ended for now (until we need to clean again in a few days, but it's not the indepth cleaning like before...) and now we just pray and pray that God brings the perfect family to view and buy our home in his perfect timing! It's been different getting used to keeping our house so clean and always ready to be viewed, but we are getting used to it a little at a time and I'm SO glad that Scott is home to be able to help with whatever!

Having Scott home has been SO nice lately! The kids love having him here and being able to have so many appointments during the days now has been awesome! Daniel is extremely close to his daddy as of late, and has been having some difficulties whenever both Scott and I leave him for a date night or something because I think he thinks that his daddy is supposed to always be with him now. :o) I love seeing how much they love each other, but hopefully it won't be too hard of a transition when Scott begins going on campus full-time again when we get all our support raised!

We have had a lot of fun this week having some various family times together because we haven't had as many appointments this week as we had last week. The weather has been beautiful and cooler than it has been so we have taken advantage of that and went on bike rides around town twice this week which has been so nice! The kids pile into our bike trailer and most of the time they LOVE being pulled behind Scott's bike! Although we have had to talk to Daniel several times about not completely leaning on top of Lydia. ;o) Lol. They sit super close together in their seats so sometimes I think Daniel just gives up on trying to stay on his side. I have really enjoyed riding around town with my family, too, and love that we can do free family trips to the park and then Scott has treated us with some ice cream a few times on our rides which is always fun for me and the kids! :o) This morning we rode over to the park and then went to a few yard sales before the kids got tired for their naps. I'm going to definitely miss living in a smaller community like Fruita... that's for sure. It's so nice to be able to ride our bikes and not worry as much about crazy drivers or people who don't want us riding on the roads. I know Denver will be quite different than here, but I'm just praying that we'll be able to find a home in a wonderful neighborhood over there, with parks and ice cream stores and coffee shops within biking distance! :o)

Tonight we are going to the birthday party of a little friend of Daniel's from church! We are excited to hang out with their family and celebrate his 3rd birthday! Plus, I love seeing how much fun Daniel has playing with his friends! Then, tomorrow, we have my niece, Vienna's, 7th birthday party! I can't believe she is already 7! That will be so much fun to get together with all the family and all their friends to watch the kids swim and spend time together!

I have been planning and planning out Lydia's 1st birthday party! It is in two weeks and so far I haven't gotten many ideas together, but we are going to be doing an outside party at a park in GJ! I am doing a flowers/butterflies theme and it'll be so much fun doing something girly! :o) We get to go to Target in a few minutes (once we get the kids up from naps) to go find Lydia her birthday present... It's so different buying girl things! I love that we have both a boy and a girl! Makes for fun birthday planning and gift buying, that's for sure! :o) I'm not sure what to get her, though... I'm thinking something that is clearly girly might be good so hopefully Daniel won't try to claim it as his. Lol. He loves his sister and occasionally shares with her, but he still ends up taking most of the books and toys into his room instead of leaving some in hers... Poor girl. :o)

Well, this was an extremely random post, but I didn't have much time and I feel like there is SO much to write about! My next post might be about Lydia's party or her 1 year letter, but if I get the chance to, I'll try to write another catch-up post soon! And maybe add some pictures since I have been greatly lacking in that... (Although I know that most of those who read this see ALL the pics on facebook that I upload, so I think it's probably okay...) :o)

Are you really 11 months old already, Miss Lydia?!

Dear Lydia,

Hello my sweet 11-month old (and 9 days) little girl! It is so hard to believe that you are already almost a year old! Where has the time gone?! I feel like the last year has been such a blur in ways which is really sad! :o( It's definitely true that with kids time goes by so much faster! Although, at the same time, I can hardly remember not having you with us... I can hardly believe it was this time last year that I was getting near the end of your pregnancy... I was getting antsy and excited to see you and was wondering if you were going to be coming in August or September! So crazy!

You have been such a sweet girl, as normal, lately! You are pulling yourself up to a standing position ALL the time now and LOVING being able to do that! You also enjoy opening cabinets all over the place, looking through the refrigerator whenever we have it open, peeking into trash cans, pulling out toys out of Daniel's toy boxes and making a big mess, and so many other things! You just love exploring and learning what new things you can learn about! (Right now you are pulling everything off the side table next to meet... oh boy! Good times!) :o)

We just switched you to your 12 month clothes which is fun for you and me seeing you in all your new clothes! So thankful still for your Aunt Amanda letting you have all of your cousin, Vienna's, old clothes! You are finally growing and growing... Not sure how much you weigh but I'm guessing at least 18 1/2 or 19 lbs. by now! Such a big girl!

One of your favorite things to do that you have been doing more and more every day has been clapping and clapping! You are so cute when you get super excited or when Daniel or someone else (including you) does something awesome of fun and you clap and clap with a big smile on your face! You also love music and have recently started bobbing your head a little when you see your big brother dancing to music! :o) I am so excited for you to be able to start dancing along with your brother! I wonder if you'll like music as much as him?

You LOVE saying "uh-oh," "wow,"and you also have started repeating a lot of sounds and words when we say them first... I'm sure you'll be "talking" so much more soon!

I have been working on figuring out your 1st birthday party! Not sure what theme we will do yet, but I'm thinking maybe a pink butterfly type theme... I've seen lots of cute ideas and I think they would be so cute! We'll be doing the party at a park because our house goes up on the market on Friday and we don't want to have a showing in the middle of the party, but I think you'll love that because you love swinging at parks and crawling in the grass is one of your favorite activities!

You got four upper teeth this last month! I'm so sorry you had to get them all in at once, but you did awesome and only had a few fussier than normal days. Not sure when the others will be coming in... you have a total of six now!

A week ago Daddy and I went on a 3 1/2 day trip and you and Daniel got to spend some time with your Grandpa and Grandma and your Pappy and Maw-Maw! You did awesome with them (although I'm sure you missed me a lot more than you let on... ;o) and you are now so much closer to your Grandma and Maw-Maw! It is so nice seeing you want to go with them when we go visit now instead of just staying with me all the time... You make them so happy when you give them kisses and hugs and big smiles!

We need to start doing more painting and coloring activities with you because you love doing art stuff! (Definitely like big brother in that!) We did a hand painting activity with your cousin Vienna the other day, and you had so much fun having me paint your hand all purple for your elephant! :o) It was such a cute little elephant!

We love you oh so much little one! Thanks for all you do to brighten our lives! Praying that this next month is awesome for you and that you become even closer friends with your big brother! I love watching y'all grow up together!

Love,
Mommy

Random Odds and Ends from July

So I haven't written on here for awhile so I figured I would update a little on what's been going on in the Slade household! Get ready for random because that's the way I roll!

Scott's last day of work is TOMORROW! How is it that he is almost done with the business world and that we will finally be full-time ministry workers - soon to be on a college campus?! Crazy! It is so cool seeing God work through everything and we are super excited to enter into full-time support raising next week! So far everything has been going great! Meeting with everyone who is so excited for us and thrilled to partner with us in reaching out to college students is amazing and so encouraging!

Scott and I have also been reading through the book "The Master Plan of Evangelism" by Robert E. Coleman with the other new staff and we have been getting so much out of it! The book really focuses on how Jesus evangelized while on this earth. The last chapter we read was about how Jesus chose carefully and focused in on training the 12 disciples instead of just "impressing the crowds". He knew that he "needed people who could lead the multitudes" after he was gone. He never lost sight of his goals and vision. We must be like Jesus... "It will be slow, tedious, painful, and probably unnoticed by people at first, but the end result will be glorious, even if we don't live to see it... It is the question of which generation we are living for..." Good reminder of what we will be doing in college ministry and it's nice to be able to see that Jesus was not all about the numbers, but about training a certain few to be leaders who turned around to share what they learned with others! I'm excited to read the rest of the book!

Scott and I leave on Thursday morning bright and early to go to Steamboat Springs WITHOUT the kids for four days! We are BEYOND excited! I know it'll be crazy being away from the kids that long, but I'm so excited to spend some one-on-one time with Scott and to be able to rest, have fun, play games, fish, hike, pray, talk, swim, and focus on the upcoming changes and decisions that are around the corner! We are taking our pop-up camper and staying in a beautiful campground just outside of town! We don't have tons of plans so far, but I'm excited to just take it easy, go to the hot springs, walk around town, spend a day out at a lake fishing and swinging in the hammock, and just spending time away! Scott's parents and mine are splitting the time with the kids so I know they'll be taken care of and should have a fun time with their grandparents! Lydia had a bit of a runny nose today so I'm praying that she'll feel better soon and won't get sick... That would be so sad leaving a sick little girl. :o(

Speaking of the kids, they are both doing awesome! I've missed writing updates on Daniel since I don't do the monthly updates anymore! :o( So I'll try to write a little update now even though it's almost bedtime... He is 27 months old already - not sure where the days go! He has been talking up a storm lately and even though at times I still don't completely understand him, I probably do at least 70% of the time which is SO nice! He is usually a very caring, sweet little boy, although he has his 2-year-old times of roughness, screaming, and disobeying... :o) Awww, the joys of having a toddler! Most of the time he loves playing with his baby sister (who is almost 1!!) and he does so great sharing with her, bringing her toys, and waiting patiently as she follows him everywhere, but he does have those times where he likes to hit her for no reason so we've have lots of talks about that... He has the greatest smiles and his camera smile of "CHEESE" is awesome! I love how he squints his eyes shut when he smiles for a camera... too cute! He cares so much for people and loves holding hands, giving kisses, and giving hugs (for the most part). :o) Lately we have been praying with him a lot for the people around us who need it and it is so cool seeing how he folds his hands, squeezes his eyes closed, and then "prays" with us! He said his first prayer the other night before dinner... "God thank you food..." He is such an awesome boy and we are SO blessed by him every day! (I would go on and on but it'll have to wait til next time because it's super late and it's time for bed!)

Night!

Happy 10 Months Dear Lydia!

Dear Little Girl,

Happy 10 Months Old! You turned 10 months on July 4th - Independence Day! We had such a great day doing stuff around the house (mainly cleaning, but you even enjoyed "helping" with that) and then we had our small group over for a potluck dinner and hang out time in the backyard! It was SO much fun and you had an awesome time hanging out with Daddy, Mommy, and your friends... You LOVE crawling around in the grass and occasionally sneaking a piece of grass in your mouth when you think no one is watching. :o)

You are finally getting so much bigger! At your 9 month appointment like three or four weeks ago you were around 16 1/2 pounds... You had dropped from like the 75th percentile in weight to the 10th percentile since your 6 month appointment, so we were told to bump up your bottles and your food which you have LOVED! Poor little girl... I just don't think we were giving you enough! In the next three weeks you ended up gaining almost an entire pound which was awesome and I don't think we'll have to worry about your weight for awhile now because you eat up a storm most of the time! You are fully switched to drinking goat's milk now (Mommy just doesn't have enough milk for you... I'm just glad we made it this far at least!) and you are usually okay with that although you are one of the hardest babies to bottle feed because you want to be on the go in like two minutes so we just have to feed a little at a time to you! You have been eating most of what we eat other than dairy and sugary stuff, and you love eating! Like three weeks ago you finally started picking up more things and putting them in your mouth which helps with eating, but has meant we have to watch you like hawks because you try to eat every little thing around the house!

You are crawling SO much and love going from room to room seeing what you can pick up off the floor and try to eat, and seeing what toys Daniel left out for you. :o) Your favorite is still to hang out in big brother's room for a long time just "reading" books or playing with your toys. You don't seem to like books as much as Daniel (which will hopefully change because Mommy is hoping you will LOVE reading!), but you really love playing with all his cars, tools, trucks, and Legos!

You have pulled yourself up to your feet probably at least ten times in the past three weeks but you still don't seem very steady on your feet. Not sure if you are just scared to put weight on them or if you are just a tad bit lazy and just think crawling works fine enough, but hopefully you'll figure it out soon so you can start testing out the "walking around" waters! :o) You haven't really tried to "walk" when we hold onto your hands, either... Maybe you'll surprise me and walk before I know it, but I'm thinking it might be a little while which is totally okay with us!

You have only been taking one nap a day lately which has been so nice for you and Mommy! You usually nap between 2 and 3 hours while Daniel naps, so Mommy enjoys having that gap of time to get things done! Although there are days when you want your morning nap still, this way it makes it nice to get stuff done together in the mornings whether we are out running errands, playing at the park, swimming, or playing with toys!

And, Miss Lydia, you are finally getting more teeth in!! The Dr. said a few weeks ago that you have 4 or 5 coming in on the top alone! Crazy! I'm so glad you get teeth in pretty "easily" without much "fuss." :o) I'm going to miss seeing your sweet face with just your two bottom teeth, but I know you'll look super cute with more teeth, too!

Oh, yes, your new favorite word! You LOVE saying "Uh-oh" like all the time now! I don't think you fully understand when you should say it, but you do say it when things fall down or mess up and whenever you want to! It's just too cute and Daniel loves to say it along with you over and over!

You and Daniel have been enjoying his new pool that he got from his birthday! You really love hanging out in the pool with Daddy, Daniel, and Mommy, and your Uncle Bryan also came over the other day to "swim" a little with you! Your little pineapple swimsuit is just too adorable and you love splashing and splashing for awhile until you end up cuddling up to one of us and almost falling asleep while still in the pool! ;o) So sweet!

Mommy loves you SO much, sweet girl! I'm very excited to see the new things you learn and how you grow in the next month! Thanks for being such an amazing little girl! :o)

Love,
Mommy

Weekend in Delta with the Fam

Sometimes I find myself wanting to blog and then I sit here and I have no idea what to say! And when that happens my end result is a totally random, all over the place blog post, so enjoy!

We have had a wonderful, busy weekend with my family and it's one of those evenings that I really would love to be sitting at a coffee shop by myself reading, studying God's Word, journaling, and drinking an amazing vanilla chai! Now doesn't that sound delightful?! The awesome thing is that if we had a coffee shop nearby that stayed open past 9:00, my amazing hubby would totally let me spend the evening out having some alone time, but sad to say, Fruita doesn't have a nice, little coffee shop that stays open past 5:00 right now! Seriously! And this is another reason why I'm getting even more excited about living in Denver! I'm super excited to find an amazing atmosphere in an awesome coffee shop tucked away somewhere cool in Denver that might just stay open past 8 or 9:00!

Anyway, about our weekend... We had a great time in Delta at my parents' house Saturday morning til this morning! Our first plans were to go camping at Silverjack, but with all the fires around us and after thinking through everything, we decided to stick closer to home instead and I'm so glad we did! We were able to hang out with my parents, Lelia and Wayne, and Amanda  and the kids had a wonderful time with their aunts, uncle, and Pappy and Mawmaw! Saturday we just hung out and cooked, napped, and tried to stay cool! It was so nice and relaxing - I love being at my parents home and just hanging out! Sunday (yesterday) Amanda had to stay back at the house because she was taking Vienna to a birthday party in the afternoon, but the rest of us all drove up to the Grand Mesa to fish at one of it's many beautiful lakes! Lelia, Mom, Lydia, and I sat in the shade eating lunch, taking pictures, and watching as the guys - Dad, Scott, Wayne, and Daniel - fished for quite a few hours along the rocky side of the lake! Both Scott and Wayne caught some fish, but Dad wasn't as lucky with his fly fishing, but he still had lots of fun! It was so nice eating our picnic lunch, relaxing in our camp chairs in the peaceful mountain atmosphere, and enjoying each other's company. I love my family! :o) When we left we drove down to one of the little towns between Cedaredge and Delta and stopped at a little ice cream shop where Dad got us all ice cream! It was YUMMY DELICIOUSNESS! :o) I had some of Daniel's chocolate chip cookie dough and I had my own scoop of Coffee something or nother...

Last night Scott and I made / prepared dinner for everyone (burgers, grilled pineapple rings, watermelon, chips, Mediterranian Pasta Salad, and Double Chocolate Oatmeal cookies that were eaten before dinner arrived). :o) It was all delicious! (The Pasta Salad and the cookies were recipes from Pinterest, just to let you guys know... Check out my page under the "Good Recipes We've Tried So Far" to see those recipes because they were AMAZING!) After dinner and after the kiddos were put to bed, Scott, Wayne, and Dad went fishing at the little lake in Delta while us girls watched a movie back at the house. It was another laid-back evening and I enjoyed having some girl time! :o)

So I have pictures of this weekend which makes me now want to get them loaded onto my computer and edited a bit so I can attach some to here in a little while (hopefully) and put them onto my facebook, so I think I'll make this short and write more at another time! Good night everyone!

Big Changes on the Horizon and SO excited for them!

I've been wanting to write on here for so long and actually be able to talk about the exciting new changes happening in our lives! Let's start from the beginning...

Ever since we got married three years ago and even while we were dating, Scott and I had talked about what we thought our future might look like... Both of us had a desire during high school and college to one day serve God in either youth ministry, college ministry, or over-seas, but we didn't know what that was going to look like or where God wanted us... When we ended up getting pregnant with Daniel only a few months after our marriage, Scott began looking for a job to be able to provide for us during the changes a growing family would bring. He was blessed with an amazing job with Marathon Oil Company, and grew to enjoy the people he worked with, his work, and all the things that living here in GJ brought! 

But, over time I began thinking a lot more about going into ministry and prayed a lot about the possibility of entering into full-time ministry somewhere... Scott and I talked from time to time about our future and both of us were pretty sure we wouldn't be where we were forever, but Scott didn't mention much about going into ministry until we talked a few months before this past Christmas ('11) and he mentioned the possibility of joining staff with Master Plan Ministries... He asked me what I thought and I was so excited to hear that he had been thinking and praying about the same thing I had been!

We talked with Jesse and Rhonda Denison in February about joining Master Plan and sent in our application on March 6th! April 21st we had our interview with Russ and Linda (and Rhonda with me and Kyle with Scott). Two days later we found out that we had been accepted on staff with Master Plan Ministry! YAY! It seemed like quite the fast process but we definitely knew that God was the one guiding us through all the steps and we are SO excited to be heading towards full-time college ministry!

Three weeks ago we were just starting our New Staff Training week down in Durango, CO, and the week followed as an amazing time with our fellow MPM staff team and was a great week of learning, growing, and full excitement of our support raising ahead of us and then our move onto our campuses! We met up at the Ranch that Master Plan has owned now for three years and Scott and I enjoyed getting the tour of the wonderful facility up there! It is so awesome seeing the work God is doing at that place already and how much more will be done as the work continues to be done getting it ready for staff trainings, retreats, etc in the future! I wish I had time to tell all about what God has done through the Ranch and how everything came about but I don't so if you want to read more, please go to the following website and read all about it! http://threetrailsranch.blogspot.com/

Part of us during the staff training

The "old" staff praying  for us new staff at the training.

The Denver team on Auraria Campus!

Our entire staff group is AWESOME! Once Scott and I and the other eight new staff have our groups of partners together to help financially support us and pray for us we will be joining an AMAZING Denver team at the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver, CO! We are SOOO excited to be joining Austin and Laura Krokos and their family, Jesse and Rhonda Denison and their family, Brad Jones, and Angi Pratt to reach that campus for Christ!

Ever since our New Staff Training we have been busy figuring our schedules and diving into support raising - telling others about the vision God has given us and adding partners to our group of supporters! It has been so exciting to see how many of our friends and families and people we don't even know are excited for us and are joining us financially and through prayer! Seeing God work and build our team is amazing and seeing my husband, Scott, step up and lead our family in this direction God is taking us has been so great! I love that man so much and I'm SO thankful that God gave me him for my husband! :o)

Speaking of Scott, he told his work a week or so ago that he would be leaving and entering into full-time college ministry! We are sad to be leaving such an amazing job with such amazing people, but it has been encouraging seeing them support us along the way! They have been such a great group of friends and I'm hoping we can stay in contact with several of them!

So I have MANY more things that I could write about but I know that I'll write again hopefully soon and I can share more of what we'll be doing on campus and all of that! If you have any questions please  ask! :o) ALSO, our website for the master plan group is Masterplanministries.net, so you can go on there to see pics and read about the campuses and more about what we will be doing! I think I'll try to upload a few pics on here now and then post this considering it's taken me a few days to even write this much... (Yes, we've been CRAZY busy lately!)

 Have an awesome week everyone!

Our family picture

Our Entire MPM Staff Group - Kids and Adults!

Lydia - 9 Months and 1 Week Old Already!

My dear little girl,

Hi sweety! You are just over 9 months old, and I am amazed day after day how much love you bring to our family! I don't know what we'd do without your sweet smiles, cute little expressions, funny giggles, waves "bye-bye", and the constant babble of "mama, dada, bye-bye, and baba" you continue to say! We love you oh so much!

Your biggest accomplishment this past month (about three weeks ago) was crawling! And you are SO excited about it! We had gone down to Pappy and Maw-Maw's house on a Friday night and you made a few little moves on your knees and then the next morning your daddy and I watched as you crawled half way across the living room floor over to us! So glad we were both there to watch you! Just today I watched as you crawled and crawled all over our house, going from toy to toy and playing and then you crawled over to our back door and pulled up to your knees as you watched outside as your daddy and big brother mowed the back yard! I think you wanted to go join them! :o) It won't be long little girl til you are out there running around with them! So crazy!

You still have not pulled up all the way to your feet, but you do go up to your knees quite a lot... You also haven't really walked at all even when we hold your hands, because standing is not your favorite. I'm thinking you might still be awhile until you walk but that's okay; I am perfectly happy with having a little crawler for awhile! :o)

You have been eating and eating up a storm, and this past week you had some of your first actual solid foods... Some of your favorites have been pancakes, oatmeal, rice, beans, and eggs! You seem to be able to eat and eat so much! I'm going to have to keep on my toes with figuring out food for you to eat! It seems like you want to catch up to your big brother pretty fast!

You're still taking two to three naps a day (a shorter one in the morning and then usually a 2 hour ish nap when Daniel does early afternoon and a short one in the late afternoon)... Pretty soon I think we'll be able to move you to two naps, though, especially since you are usually such a happy little girl!

Lydia, I love how much you love your big brother! You are so excited when he plays beside you, or shares his toys, and you love when he gives you big kisses and hugs! It's oh so cute! I love you two so, so, so, so much! I'm so excited to see you two grow up and become close friends and I'm so excited to see where God is going to take you and us in life! Thank you, my sweet little girl, for being such a joy already in our life even though you might not know it. :o) You are so amazing and Mommy and Daddy loves you!

Love,
Mommy

Great Week with Nanny!

Hi everyone! So I just got another load of laundry in the washer, both kids are napping, Nanny (my awesome grandmother who is staying with us all week) is reading her book, and I am enjoying hearing the wooden chimes (from Hawaii) outside blowing in the breeze above my beautiful potted flowers! I am ready to take a little break and update y'all on our great week!

My parents brought Nanny over on Sunday afternoon to spend the week with us (through tomorrow evening) and it has been a fun week! I love having someone else here to talk with and relax with and help entertain kiddos during the days! Sunday afternoon Nanny and spent all afternoon making 2 lasagnas, 2 pans of brownies, and getting other stuff ready for a couple of dinners I was preparing! I took one meal in to Jon and Lacey (our youth pastor at church and his wife) who just had their first little one (a precious little girl, Evie). I was able to hang out with them for a little while and hold their sweet little girl... I'm so happy for them and am so glad they are part of our small group so I'll be able to see them more that way! :o) I got home just in time for a bunch of our friends to come over for dinner (hence the other lasagna meal)... We had a fun time hanging out eating and then the guys played games outside and us girls just talked about decorating and crafts!

Monday was a pretty lazy day just playing and watching as Lydia got more accustomed to Nanny and eventually allowed her to hold her and even feed her some baby food! It was Nanny's birthday so we were so thankful that she was here to spend it with us! I made a crock-pot meal of Chicken Tortilla Soup for dinner which was DELICIOUS and Nanny made her birthday pie - Key Lime Pie (a Weight Watcher's recipe, which was awesome) so we enjoyed those for dinner and then we drove to the edge of Fruita where we went on a little walk enjoying the beautiful evening! Daniel had so much fun running down the sidewalk, pointing out bugs, leaves, sticks, trees, dogs, and all the other things he saw along the way! He is the cutest little runner I've ever seen! Lol. We walked back through some neighborhoods and enjoyed seeing all the pretty homes and yards! I love looking at houses! :o)

Tuesday (yesterday) we went to the mall and I let the kids play in the inside play area while Nanny got a pedicure. Lydia (BIG NEWS!!!) started crawling on Saturday so she was actually able to crawl around with another little girl who was there and thought the super big bugs were super fun and cute to stare up at! Daniel played with another little boy for awhile, trying to figure out how to leap up on top of the play things like that boy did... After Nanny was done we went to Target to get a few things and then she bought me and her some coffee drinks at Starbucks - which was amazing of course! It was nice to get out and walk around in the air conditioning! We spent awhile outside before Daniel's nap at home watching him play with his basketball and softballs and his T-ball stuff... He LOVES to throw all the balls (basketball, softball, and golf balls) into the hoop and he is doing so well at actually getting quite a lot in! He LOVES to be outside lately, and since it's been nice enough still sitting out in the shade under the covering, we have spent a lot of time out there this week! I've also been watering the grass a lot (trying to keep it nice and green and growing those seeds Scott had planted a few weeks back) and I am also watering my garden which is growing in quite nicely! ANYWAY, off topic... Tuesday evening after Scott got home we headed into town to eat at Noodles & Company which was delicious as always! Definitely one of my most favorite places right now to eat at! I tried one of their Mediterranean dishes... yumm, yumm! After dinner we went to Sherwood Park and let Daniel play with Scott for awhile while Nanny fed Lydia a bottle and I went over to the hospital to see another friend and her new baby! They are also from our small group (Kara and Beau) and just had their second little one... a beautiful baby girl, also! So much fun! Yesterday evening after putting the kids down we popped up our camper and made sure everything was in it for camping this weekend in Lake City! SUPER excited to go camping with all my family and Nanny and some friends! Before bed we played Rummi Cube with Nanny which was a lot of fun. We love that game!

Today we haven't really done much at all.... Laundry, dishes, playing with kids, and now updating this! I think I'm going to go ahead and close for now and maybe get some reading in while I have a chance! Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week!

Random thoughts on the book of Judges...

The kids are napping and I just finished another great day of a Bible Study I have been going through! I started going through it a few months ago - my friend Laura Krokos has it on her blog - beholdingglory.com. She has done a lot of different studies that I'd love to also go through someday, but this particular one I've been doing has been one on the book of Judges. You should go over to her blog and check it out! I love it first of all because I've never really read through the book of Judges before, especially to study, so I have gotten so much out of it! And I also love reading her comments because she has three little ones and just hearing her thoughts is nice because they are so close to some of my own! I've also loved it because there are so many connections to our life every day... I just read about Gideon and I love how God was able to use a man who was fearful and didn't fully trust in God, but he was still used for some amazing things such as rescuing the Israelites from their enemies yet again! Reminds me again how important it is for us to take the step and trust God with our life every day even when we feel fearful or when we just don't see how things could work out! It's always been hard for me to trust God fully... I don't really know why considering how much He has rescued me again and again, but I'm just glad that God still uses me in His grand plan and that He loves and cares about me enough to never give up! I'm so thankful that I have a husband who shows me areas in which we need to trust God more... Scott has been such a great man to lovingly help me grow and mature in my walk with God! I love that man so much! :o)

Well, I was going to write more but we are headed into town for Daniel's check-up appointment in a little bit so I need to get everything ready to load into the van and then get the kiddos up! I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Another week away for work... Missing my hubby...

Scott is gone for another week up in WY... :o( I miss him already and he just left not long ago! I'm excited though, because after this trip he shouldn't have to leave again until July for a conference, so that's super exciting! It'll be nice to have him here for longer than three or four weeks at once!

I'm so over me and Daniel being sick! I'm praying that Lydia doesn't catch any of it, because I'm so ready to have a healthy family again and be able to enjoy this wonderful spring weather! Scott seeded our back yard yesterday which is really exciting but means Daniel can't play out in the yard for two weeks! That means we'll be going on lots of walks and playing out in the front yard to enjoy this weather! I'm excited for the grass to grow, though. Our yard isn't that bad, but it has lots of bare patches in it, so we are hoping this will fill it in a bit more. I STILL haven't planted our garden, but I'm hoping to go buy tomato and pepper plants at the nursery on Tuesday and then hopefully plant the seeds and plants by Thursday at least... Hopefully it's not too late to plant them all, but at least doing it this late will mean nothing should freeze!

We didn't make it to church this morning because I was still not feeling the greatest... but I'm feeling much better now except for my non-stop runny nose! At least I haven't had to take any Ibuprofin today, so that has been nice. If I continue to feel better, though, I'm hoping to be able to take the kids over to our friends', David and Jessica's, house later on this afternoon for a BBQ with some friends. They have been working all afternoon (or will be working all afternoon) on sanding down the outside of their house to paint so we are sort of skipping out on the work and just coming for food. I know... not very nice of me, but I might just bring some food to help out so that'll make up for it I'm sure! Plus who wouldn't want to hang out with my sweet little kiddos?! :o)

Friday night Scott and I took the kids on a drive and to the park for dinner and they were able to swing and play for awhile! I love having family nights like that! We were talking about more family nights we'll have to have this summer... For one, we'll have to take them to Bananas sometime, because I know Daniel would love to play miniature golf... even though he won't be officially "playing" more than likely, but he'll enjoy hitting the golf balls. :o) I love my family and I love family nights!

Okay, I gotta go... Lydia is waking up from her nap! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday!

8 months old!

Dear Lydia,

Today is your 8 month old birthday! I am watching you roll and wiggle around all over the place, and right now you are really wanting to pull yourself up with your bouncer but it's not happening so far! You are growing and growing and have learned so many new things this month! No, you are not flat out crawling yet but you are oh so close! You get up on all fours all the time but just haven't really moved/crawled on them yet, although you get around really well between rolling, wiggling, and whatever else you do!

One of your favorite things to do these days is wave and wave! You have the cutest little wave that started  out with you closing your fingers into a fist and then opening them again and then closing them, etc (usually faced towards you instead of to the person you are waving to) but now you just wave your hand up and down which is so super cute! I LOVE your waves oh so much!

You are also clapping now, although I haven't seen you do it all that much... mainly just when we are anywhere singing with a bunch of people, especially when you see others clapping! It's so super cute, though!

ALSO, almost a month ago now you said "mama" and "dada" for the first time which was so cute! You haven't said "mama" too many times but you say "dada" and "baba" a lot! I love hearing you say sounds that actually are sounded more like talking but it means you are growing up so fast!

You love to play with all sorts of toys now, but usually end up playing more with your brother's toys than your own... Although you LOVE balloons and Daniel's construction vehicles. Lol. :o)

You have been eating up a storm lately... Three meals a day and usually around 3 or 4 ice cubes of food plus pureed rice... I have a list of foods in the fridge to puree up for you soon because you (and your brother who LOVES your food, also!) have been eating up everything so fast! Not sure what your favorite food is because you love like everything! You've had mango, avacado, peas, banana, rice, sweet potato, carrots, pears, apples, pumpkin, and so many other things! Yumm yumm!

You love to cuddle! This afternoon I was sitting down on the floor playing with you and you sat in my lap facing me and kept cuddling and cuddling! You still suck on your finger whenever you are tired or hungry, which is so cute and keeps you very content, so between that and your sweet face and smiles, you are adorable! You also love playing peek-a-boo now! When you sit in our laps facing us you will bury your face in our chest and then throw yourself back as if to say "peek-a-boo" and then do it again and again just giving us the biggest smiles each time! Whenever you have a dress on you'll hold up your skirt and play peek-a-boo with whoever will pay attention to you, too. :o)

I love you oh so much sweet girl! You have brought so much joy to our family and I don't know what I'd do without you to brighten my day with your smiles, giggles, and cute little face!

Love,
Mommy

Daniel's Birthday Party and Summer Plans

We had Daniel's birthday party on Sunday and it turned out so cute and was a ton of fun! Poor little Daniel was not feeling well almost the entire weekend (still isn't quite back to normal) so that was sad because he wasn't able to enjoy all the activities, opening gifts, and playing with all his friends as much as he would have. :o( We had lots of our friends and family there, and at least all the other kids had a great time swinging, sliding, playing in the sand"boxes" with trucks, coloring, and decorating their hard hats. It was fun just watching everyone play and all the adults just hung out and talked and ate snacks. I had so much fun making all the construction signs using my super cool Cricut machine and planning all the other decorations and snacks. I made a chocolate cake and Scott helped me decorate the cake with oreos and construction vehicles... It turned out really cute and was SO much easier than the normal cakes I have done (his tiger and monkey cakes last year) and the ladybug cake just recently because I didn't have to use all the cake decorating stuff. :o) Some of the awesome things he got for his birthday were a T-ball set, a basketball hoop and ball, a tricycle, a golfing set, puzzles, a swimming pool and toys, trucks, cars, books, clothes, and a bowling set. He has had so much fun since his party playing with all his new toys! (He was just outside playing with all his outside things and now he is working on a puzzle...) Thanks so much to everyone who came! It was such a beautiful day!

We have been so busy lately it's crazy! I seriously just want to slow down a bit but I'm not sure why I think things are going to slow down since summers are crazy around here! We are planning out various weekends / weeks away throughout the summer already which I'm excited for! I'm so happy to go camping and on other trips with my family! We are discussing perhaps going camping Memorial Weekend in Lake City which would be SO awesome especially since that's where Scott and I had our honeymoon and May 30th is our 3 year anniversary! It would be fun to take both of the kids there (we've just taken Daniel there once when he was 5 weeks old). 

Another thing I'm trying to focus on this month is working out and eating right (weight watchers) again! I KNOW, I KNOW... That's what I said back in Jan. when I started doing good with all that. That lasted until the beginning of March and then I stopped working out and paying close attention to my eating after losing 14 lbs! The good thing is I only gained two pounds back and I am ready to focus in on it all again especially before the busy summer starts full force! A group of friends and I are helping each other stay accountable on facebook which is so nice, so I am excited to do a full month of Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred and eat well and see if I can get much more fit! It's still hard to try to schedule everything out and get everything done, but I think I'll figure out something to work soon hopefully! 

I'm also focusing this month on getting in good quiet times each day which is something that oftentimes gets put on the back burner for me. :o( My days go so much better when I have that time so I am putting it on my priority list instead of the "if I have time" list... I have been going through a study on Judges that one of my friends has been doing on her blog. It has been AMAZING especially since Judges is one of those books that I find hard to get through... You should definitely check out the study! I love it because she only covers a few verses at a time and then has some good things to think about and questions to ask yourself which is always good to go deeper. Here is the link to her blog: http://www.beholdingglorycom/. 

So I can't believe tomorrow will be two months already since my nephew, Makaio, went to be with Jesus! I miss him so much sometimes it's crazy! It's amazing how much a little baby who never took a breath on this earth could touch so many lives! I think I had written on here, but I can't remember, about us girls getting together to do scrapbooks of his short life. I'm so glad we were able to have the chance to do that because I love being able to look through his book whenever I go through days of really missing him. I can't even imagine what my sister and Wayne are going through, but I know it's hard to go through some days especially when we are all together as a family because I think of what it would have been like if he was with us... I so wish Lydia still had her little cousin who she was going to be such good buddies with, especially since they were so close together in age! Lelia has been such an encouragement to me watching her go through all this, though! She has had some really hard days but she still tries to be there for all of us and for Wayne! Prayers for Lelia and Wayne over Mother's Day weekend ahead would be greatly appreciated! We all know that it will be really tough for them to get through that day but she is also so thankful that she is a mom so she doesn't want people to just think that it's better to not mention anything but to instead recognize that she is still a mother. I think she and Wayne are going to try to spend the day together... hopefully they can go do something fun just the two of them somewhere! 

Well, I should probably wrap this up. Thanks for reading!