Addition Update

The addition in coming along, but not as quickly as we would like. The room is completely boxed in and the workers are starting on the roofing. I would have thought that more would have been done by this time, but the contractors are only averaging 2 days a week at our house. :( I am pretty sure we aren't the only project, but I would really like to see more done! Oh well, it will be finished and I am pretty excited about having more room.

There will be windows, but they are not cut out yet.

I have also completed curtains for Gracie's room. Since the addition is coming off her room, we have to move her window thus I get to redo her room. We are going to do pink with brown circles. My friend Amber gave me some material that is brown with pink polk-a-dots that she was going to do curtains for her little girl, but changed her mind. It is enough material for me to do the curtains, and even a bed skirt for her crib/toddler bed. Although the room is not ready to be painted, I already made the curtains (I just couldn't wait) and plan on starting the bed skirt in the next week.

I enjoy adding little homemade touches to my girls room. I embroidered butterflies and flowers on Lillie's curtains.

As more happens, I will add more pictures.

Quick update

It has been a pretty hectic week around here. Alex's uncle was in the hospital at the beginning of the week and is now home, but in need of a lot of help (he has Alzheimer's). The girls have been extremely cranky. Do you know the saying "IF mom's not happy - nobody's happy"? Well at my house this week it has been "if the girl's aren't happy - then nobody is happy"! What really boils down to is Alex was not able to spend as much time as usual with them on his days off and the ending result is upset kiddos.

We did have Lillie's friend Josiah over yesterday. They had fun - playing cars, playdough and going outside to ride bikes and the lightening car! When it was time to take Josiah home both would beg for just a few more minutes.

Gracie is doing really good with potty training. She has maintained dry all morning for the past two days and then only had a couple of accidents after nap. I don't know how this morning will go since I have to take Alex's aunt to the Indy airport and my dad is coming over to watch the girls. I am looking forward to a quiet, child-free ride home from Indy. I plan on stopping somewhere to get a milkshake - I don't have to share :) - and enjoying the drive home.

Have a great weekend.

Can I have a Pony?

Lillie - Daddy, can I have a pony?
Dad - Where would you keep it?
Lillie - In my room.
Dad - Your room isn't big enough for a pony.
Lillie - It is, if we get a little one.
Dad - Sorry, you can't keep a pony in your room.
Lillie - Then can I have a cow? We can keep it in the backyard.
Dad - No, you can't have a cow.
Lillie - But we can get milk from it!

Updates and deals

This is the second week I am trying the "daily schedule" I came up with. I thought that the girls will do better if I try to be a little more structured, but not to the point of being so caught up in the schedule that we don't have fun. This includes more table time where I am working on letters and numbers and other things that pre-k kids are learning. So far I feel like we are doing good. I am only doing little steps with the routine until hopefully by September we are in full swing. Lillie is loving the table time, but I can't say the same about chore time - lol. She will ask if it time to do table time and then go to the table and wait patiently for me to get there. I found a really good website that allows me to use and print activities for free if interested here is the address - www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten.html . They have different grade levels to pick from if your child is older or younger.

I am also taking a more aggressive approach to potty training. Gracie is wearing panties in the morning and then pull-ups in the afternoon. This way she is learning to stay dry and monitoring her time she is in panties makes accidents less likely to happen. I am happy with the results thus far. She is doing pretty good, although yesterday was a hard day. One thing that is cute is when I forget to set the timer and then say it is time to try to pee. She will tell me it is not because she didn't hear the beep. I believe that it will be no time at all before she is completely potty trained as long as Alex and I can stick to our guns.

I want to share a couple good deals I have gotten recently.

I paid $12.39 for these 3 bottles of Victoria Secret Hydrating Body Lotion - each bottle costs $12. This would of cost me about $45, but I had received an email with a free $20 off a $20+ order plus there was a deal for buy 2 bottles and get a third one free (this may still be going so check their website for the code as I don't remember it). Before tax and shipping my total was $4.00!! I also got $30 worth of undies for free with two coupons - sorry no pictures. : ] I love freebies or close to free items. I should of printed another coupon for a free travel size lotion, but I forgot until I was already gone.

Dirty Dancing

With the building of our addition, comes a huge pile of dirt. Lillie has been wanting to climb it and play on it for several days, but we hadn't got to do it. That all changed yesterday. After dinner I put the girls in old clothes (Alex changed too) and we went out to conquer the Dirt Hill. Lillie jumped right in and started climbing and sliding down, but Gracie required a little more help. After about 10 minutes of Daddy either carrying her or helping her up she started to climb and slide by herself. (Nancy - Aidon would of loved it!)

Lillie's first climb of the night.

Gracie was starting to climb, but was more concerned about getting her shoes dirty and she would stop to brush them off periodically. :)

Getting to the top together with the Cousin It hair.

Daddy helping the girls slide down. I am not sure who had more fun with the pile, Daddy or the Girls?

Right before coming in. The bath tubs were a mess after getting the girls both clean, but worth it with all the fun they had.

This is a really short video of Lillie starting to dance. I tried to get more, but the camera battery died. :( Although it is just once second, it is still funny. She is a very serious dancer. LOL

Parade

Yesterday on our way to Wal-Mart we drove by Bemis. As though in this area know, they are currently on strike. Lillie looks out the window and sees the signs, lawn chairs and cars. She then says, "They must be having a parade, where's the candy?" :)

VBS

Lillie and I have kept busy this week going to our church's VBS. I have enjoy helping and watching Lillie. She has given her heart to Jesus 3 times thus far and probably will go up once again tonight. :) I asked her the first night if she gave her heart to Jesus and she said, "Yeah, but I think I had done that once before." It was cute. She had been a little disappointed because we had brought a couple of her friends with us (while their momma is re-cooperating from having a baby) and they had one little prizes and she had not won anything. Last night that changed as she got a chocolate bar and a little cowboy hat. I wish you could of seen her eyes when she turned to me after Pastor Jay handed her the chocolate bar. Tonight is the finale with the big giveaway of DSI or DIS (I can never remember which way the initials go). I am not too worried since Lillie doesn't really know what they are, she is not going to be disappointed if she doesn't win.

Ice Cream Cones

I love watching little ones eat ice cream cones. The girls and I were having some one evening and Gracie decided to start at the bottom. She did switch to the top, but every once in a while she would again go for the bottom and sides. She was a mess by the end of the cone. I, of course, was the bozo who gave a bath before the ice cream. What was I thinking?

Our house is becoming a bit cramped amongst the toys and toys and more toys as I am sure most of you can relate to! We have took the plunge and hired a contractor to build on an additional room. This will act as a family room. The girls are pretty excited, but Lillie did say she did not want another room because that would mean more cleaning. I would say bless her heart, but she isn't concerned about me cleaning, but me making her help clean. :) I will try to post a few pictures along the way.

The only one not too excited is Tallie because she got kicked out of the big backyard, and moved to a smaller corner of the yard. She still has plenty of room to move and eventually will get her domain back.

Update

Lillie had her stitches out last Thursday and I wanted to thank those of you who were praying. Alex took her (that is who she picked) and he said it was just as bad as putting them in. Dr. Mayrose was great though and got them out quickly. One stitch was actually untied that morning when she got up. That evening she was climbing on Alex and bumped her chin hard enough to make it bleed again. I was extremely frustrated because she would hardly let us look at it and I did not want to go back to the hospital especially since we were leaving the next morning for Tennessee. We ended up putting a butterfly bandage on it and it looked just fine the next day. Now there is to be no wrestling until it is good and healed!

Last night I got to do one of my favorite things -- put Lillie to bed. I usually put Gracie to bed and Alex puts Lillie to bed, but Gracie fell asleep on the way home from church and Lillie asked to me to take her to bed. It is a precious time. Last night she talked about her new bracelet and then I asked her about what Miss Thanasoula taught her at church. She went on to retell me the story of the woman who was about to lose her sons to bill collectors and the prophet told her to get all the jars she could find and fill them with the oil from her little jar. It was so cute to hear her tell me the story in four year old terms. I thank the Lord for the little blessings I have.

Back Home

We just got back from spending the weekend in Crossville, Tennessee. My husbands mother's side of the family has a reunion the first Sunday of August every year and we have been able to go the past several years. We rent a cabin and the girls talk about "our cabin" the whole year. It is a pretty relaxing weekend. We swim, shop and visit with family. On the way to the cabin Lillie started to get really antsy and asked who could get her to the cabin the fastest. I told her Daddy, but he could only go the speed limit. She then begged, "Break the law, Daddy, break the law."


We decided to make smores this year and Lillie thought it was great, but the smores were too sticky for our little Gracie. She is weird about things making her too messy and sticky. She would eat the smores, but someone had to hold them for her and then immediately give her a wipe.


Here are pictures of the girls relaxing in the cabin.

Alex climbed a fire tower and snapped these pictures.

This is the view from the front door of our cabin.

I love the porch swing and so do the girls.

But, my oh my, how nice it is to be home.