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