Lightning

Our house got hit by lightning two weeks ago . . . it tripped all the breakers for the upstairs and cost $920 in damaged parts on our A/C.  It also ran thru our cable line so we lost phones, modems, routers, cable boxes, the DVD player, messed up the picture and sound on our TV, and then last but not least my computer died a few days later.  I guess it had a few extra sparks left in it to last a couple of days and then died.  So we've been really busy the last couple of weeks dealing with the insurance company and checking out equipment and buying equipment, etc.  Today is the first day I feel "normal" again when it comes to our stuff and where it all goes.  Luckily my hard drive was still good so I've been spending time copying data over to my new laptop.  So glad it's not all lost!  It's amazing how much I rely on my computer to know what to do each day!

In the midst of all of this I took the girls to go see the Peter Pan play at the local children's theater.  We had gone to a tea party about a month ago to meet the cast and then got to see the play last Wednesday.  The kids in the play did a good job and Emily enjoyed watching the play.  Abigail lasted until the last 20 minutes so she did good too.  She didn't watch a lick of the play but spent her time eating snacks and digging thru my purse and playing with her diaper bag . .. but hey . . . it kept her on our row until the end.  Right about the time I took this picture of the girls waiting for the play to start, one of the pirates yelled that there should be no flash photography during the play . . . so he told me I had to walk the plank : )

Last Wednesday was such a rough day for us.  Emily was SO GRUMPY that day and had several run ins with her friends and with me.  Everything made her cry and she even caused our neighbor to want to go home because Emily was being too bossy with her.  I was pretty stressed out about all of this because I was trying to figure out what was wrong with her, how best to handle it, and how to teach her how to treat her friends, etc.  But this weekend Emily and Abigail went to stay with my parents for the weekend and since Emily has been back she has been a complete angel.  No meltdowns, she doesn't fight me on stuff when she doesn't get her way, etc.  It's a mystery to me.  I guess kids have their bad days just like adults do . . . and maybe the change of scenery for a couple of days did her some good.

Speaking of the kids being at their grandparents, Joe and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary last Friday.  We had a weekend to ourselves and it was SO NICE!  We were busy shopping to replace damaged equipment from the lightning, but still had an enjoyable weekend together:

We saw a movie in between computer shopping on Saturday and went to the water park together on Sunday afternoon.  We had a great time riding all the water rides!  We hadn't been there in over 10 years and at first I was anxious about getting on all the rides because I assumed I was too old to handle it : )  But we saw lots of people in their 50s and 60s having a blast so I overcame my anxiety and had a great time!

When Emily and Abigail came home on Monday they were sweetie pies and made coming home an enjoyable evening together.  That afternoon, Emily told me she was an artist and wanted to paint some flowers.  So I set her up in the kitchen and was very impressed with her drawings:

I also captured her on camera the other night in her life jacket.  She LOVES wearing this jacket when we are at home.  She played in it and had it on during dinner and put it back on after her bath and kept it on until bedtime!!!

We are looking forward to a quiet enjoyable 4th of July!!!!

Water Park

On Monday we went to the local water park for the first time.  I met my friend Shannon there with her kids because I didn't want to try this adventure alone : )  I decided to get the annual pass this year because Joe and I had already decided to go all together later this summer, but for us to go on 1 day was just going to be $9 cheaper than for Emily and me to get an annual pass and then use the free passes out of the coupon book you get for us all to go up to 4 times together this summer.

Long story short, going by myself was a little stressful for me so I think we will enjoy it more when Joe is with us.  Abigail is too small right now for me to feel safe with keeping up with her and helping Emily with her fear of water in her face and getting her to try the fun things at the park.  After much convincing and a lot of tears (and a good show for all those around us), I finally convinced her to try this slide.  Once she went down it once she was hooked!  I think she went down the slide 20 more times.

 

 

There was a big slide in the middle that adults could go down with their kids, so Abigail and I went down that slide several times and she loved it too!

When we first got there I didn't put Abigail's life jacket on her but when we got in the pool she kept trying to jump out of my arms to try swimming like everyone else, so she had to wear her jacket the rest of the day:

 

The kids taking a break from swimming:

When we got to the parking lot and I got the kids changed, Emily informed me that she needed to go to the bathroom "really bad."  I didn't want to hike all the way back up to the park entrance so Emily can now say that she knows how to pee in the grass : )  I pulled the car over to the corner of the parking lot and helped her squat down.  She did a great job and didn't get her shoes wet . . . and security didn't come running at us when we watered their grass for them : )

Running Errands

On Sunday the girls wore these dresses I made for them:

Abigail got upset about something but I took several pictures of her anyway : )

After church we had several errands to run and the girls enjoyed going to all the stores with us.  Abigail thinks she is just as big as her sister so she has to walk everywhere too:

By the time we made it to Target it was time to contain them to a buggy and give them snacks so we could concentrate on what we needed to get:

We had an enjoyable day together.  Speaking of Abigail thinking she is as big as her sister . . . this girl has learned to climb!  Emily NEVER climbed on anything but Abigail can now climb on all the couches, the piano bench, and the kitchen chairs:

She ate her lunch sitting just like this the other day.  What really has me worried is that she also figured out how to climb onto Emily's bed!!!!  I still don't know how she did it and Emily has told me 10 times that she DID NOT HELP HER SISTER UP THERE.  I have to watch this girl like a hawk!

Abigail has also enjoyed reading books to herself and playing with baby dolls lately.  The other night we found her reading her book to herself while she sat in her pool float:

 

 

Emily

I have often seen pictures that parents post of their children falling asleep in the craziest places and thought, "wow my kids have never done that."  I think because I have always been so diligent about nap time in my house since that's when I work.  Well, now Emily can be added to the "crazy napping places" group.  The other day I was busy trying to figure out what computer equipment was working since our house had been hit by lightning and Emily said she would wait for me to get done before going downstairs together.  When I was done I went to look for her and found her here:

She was completely asleep.  I picked her up and moved her to the couch and she stayed there for an hour.  Bless her!  She went to church camp all last week and by Friday afternoon she was tired.

I love this little girl so much and she is getting so big!  She helps me out with Abigail and is so good about letting me get work done while Abigail is napping.  She plays so well and has such a great imagination.  Here are several things she has told me lately that I want to remember:

She was singing the alphabet song and told me that "LMNO" is Spanish for M

She loves to tell me that there are 3 rules for whatever it is we are doing.  Her rules for poop are this: You cannot touch it, you cannot eat it, and you cannot throw it up in the air.


She told me this morning that she wanted a heart shaped purse.  I said, "ok, we will be on the lookout for one."  She said, "Mom, can you draw a heart."  I said yes and she said in a matter of fact voice, "well you can just sew me a heart shaped purse then."  As if she couldn't believe that I had not thought of that.  Smart girl!  So I'm actually going to attempt to make her a heart shaped purse with straps.


I love to watch her try to get Abigail to play a certain game with her or try to read her books.  I love it when I look in the backseat and they are holding hands together.  I love that she gets so excited about going places and meeting people.  She says hi to everyone she sees no matter where we are.


I love how she says:
mecidine for medicine 
mazazine for magazine
ephalent for elephant 
lellow for yellow

I LOVE to hear her pray


I love how she talks with her hands and has such a beautiful smile


I love how much she loves her daddy and I pray that she will always have a great relationship with him.


I could go on and on.  I just want to remember my sweet girl of 4 just how she is and to always cherish her and love the spirit that God gave her.

Lake Trip

This past weekend we went to the lake to visit our friends Larry and Katy.  We had a great time!  Here are the girls getting reacquainted at our trip to the store:

 The girls are ready to hit the water first thing Saturday morning:

 Abigail enjoyed having someone that WANTED to sit down all the time and read books to her : )

 Abigail and Emily's first time on a boat!

Our hosts Larry and Katy:

 Sarah Anne and Amelia were pros on the raft:

 Joe and Emily giving it a try . . . .

 Sarah Anne and Amelia came along for the ride:

 Abigail was getting too hot so she got a quick dip in the lake:

 The last time we came to the lake I was pregnant with Emily so didn't get to try this.  So here I go!

 Poor Emily had gone to the doctor on Friday to put some strong medicine on some spots on her skin  . . . so her legs were sensitive to the water this weekend : (  Here is our bandaged girl taking a rest on the couch:

 Abigail tried to join in on the coloring time but decided to try to color her face instead.  She got so mad when Joe picked her up and took her markers away . . . if you look closely you can see the remains of a brown marker under her lips:

We had a great time hanging out and relaxing with our friends!  We hope to do it again soon!!!

Birthday

Today was Joe's birthday.  We celebrated tonight at his restaurant of choice and then Emily presented him with his favorite: banana pudding.  Emily helped me make it this morning:

 I also finished Abigail's outfit last night so they wore them today:

 Here is the back of Abigail's outfit.  I love these criss cross outfits on babies:

Bowling

Today we went bowling for the first time!  We met our friends at the bowling alley.  They have a special in the summer to play 2 free games a day, every day, for the whole summer.  You do have to pay for shoe rental so today's fun cost me $4.50 : )  The girls had a great time!

 Cool bowling shoes!

 Getting her first lesson from dear ol' mom:

 

Ready . . .  

  

set . . . .

go!!!!!

 Abigail taking it all in:

 After a while the girls decided to take a running start to give the ball a good push:

 

And of course a 19 month old can't go too long without having a snack break:

 

Their first game ended in a tie!!!!  Emily's first bowling score is 61.  Yea Emily!

 

Towards the end of Emily's 2nd game she said she was done so Abigail stepped in and finished the game:

 

 "My work here is done":

 High fives all around:

 We finished the day with lunch at our favorite chicken joint and then home!  Fun day all around!