Wednesday, August 27, 2008

We have new teefers--FINALLY!!!

I checked in Luke's mouth this morning and I felt a new tooth! YAY! It's about time. He's had only 6 for quite some time now so I've been waiting and waiting. He has his right top molar that just popped through and all of the other molars are on their way in--I can feel them just under the gum. It also looks like his top canines are coming soon as well. How exciting! He could really use some more bottom teeth though, the 2 he has don't seem quite sufficient! :) I always look forward to getting all of the teeth in because that means no excuse (other than illness) for crankiness anymore!! It always seemed to be a big up-swing when my babies got their 2nd year molars and were done with teething. Savannah recently got her new molars in and didn't even know they were there! It's interesting how difficult it is for babies and how older kids don't notice.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

A couple more cute photos...

The other day I took pictures of the girls. It was the first day of school for the kids in the neighborhood, so I had the girls wear their pretty school-girl dresses and pose for some pictures. First Abby was tired and all the pictures I took came out terribly...she was totally zoned. Then I got some good ones, but the camera was on a weird setting and I didn't realize it and they were totally overexposed (notice the cute photo of Abby...good photo, horrible exposure) and then Savannah was getting tired of me snapping away. So here are some cute photos--the cutest of the most recent photos of the children, according to me. (I was only going to do one of each, but I found some pretty adorable ones of Luke and I couldn't decide...so here are a few of him.)







Oh Geez, I just noticed that Luke has a paci in EVERY ONE of these photos!! EEK! I'll have to work on getting some cute ones without that thing!

Dillon Beach

Grandpa Jonathan is camping at Dillon Beach (where the girls went a few weeks back) with Steve and Ashley and Nathan. We decided it'd be a fun little day trip to go visit! We rarely go anywhere on the weekends due to the fact that it's kinda frustrating doing anything with a 17 month old...but today we wanted to do something fun. And fun it was! Here are some photos of the girls having fun on the dunes.





And all of the guys...

...Jonathan is sleeping in the truck and Luke is hidden by Nathan, but they're all accounted for in this photo.

Friday, August 22, 2008

I had the strangest dream.

I wasn't sure if I should post this here, but I don't know where I should post it, so here it goes. I'm one of those people who dreams EXTREMELY vividly, and I usually remember my dreams, and this one was one of the weirdest ones I've ever had.

It started with someone I knew to be a Christian telling others that the "hand of God" had come to earth and was being offered as a sacrifice for our sins (wasn't that already done??). In my dream this was a literal gigantic hand--like on the Addams family--that had been burned as an offering and all that was left was ashes. People were told that if they were to take some of the ash and do something else (I don't remember what it was) and commit themselves, they'd go on to paradise. Paradise was a Club-Med type place where everyone was happy and having a wonderfully good time. I remember that the commitment people were asked to make went very subtly against what the Bible says. In my dream it was that the commitment was handed to the "receptionist" person with the left hand and I had remembered that it was only supposed to be made with the right hand, but I'm quite sure that's not Biblical, but I think it just shows the subtlety of satan. Anyway, I was watching as family after family offered their commitment and went down this long hall to "paradise". You could see them on the other side, playing games, having a good time, smiling very fake, Stepford-wife smiles. It was off to me. So I watched as a group of pretty young girls made their commitment and headed down the hall. They were frolicking merrily when all of a sudden they were SUCKED in like a giant shop-vac and been turned on. They went around the corner where I couldn't see them anymore and their merriment turned to screams and wails of anguish. Again, I dream very vividly, so this was VERY disturbing. It confirmed my feeling that this was indeed from satan and all of these people were being deceived. I went out to tell the next person in line to make her commitment and the receptionist lady kept trying to come between me and the next person. It turns out that she realized that I had found them out and was now hell-bent (no pun intended) on stopping me from spreading the Truth. Then my husband's alarm clock went off and scared the bajeebers out of me. And that was that.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Naked Ladies


The other day Savannah picked me some Belladonna Lilies also known as "Naked Ladies". I just found out that their actual name is the Belladonna Lily, so we've always called them Naked Ladies. I had them in a vase in the kitchen for quite some time and they were getting rather shriveled up. Savannah came in one day and said, "Mommy look, they're naked OLD ladies!"

I couldn't help but to laugh, she's so hilarious!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Pony Rides!




We went to the farmer's market yesterday and the girls used their allowance to get pony rides. They also brought their friend, Felicity, so here are some photos of all of the girls on their ponies. The pony ride was $5/each for 3 small loops around the street. I'd consider it a total rip-off, but the girls apparently thought they got their money's (is that how you spell it??) worth. Next time we'll have to visit our former neighbor from Grizzly Flats who now lives in Petaluma...she's got 4 or 5 ponies, and they can ride all day for FREE. That sounds more like it to me!
I didn't get the greatest pictures of Savannah on the pony because I had to walk alongside Abby.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Luke isn't feeling well.

Poor baby. A week ago he got his shots and he's also working on getting some molars. He was just NOT happy today. Thankfully he's taking a VERY long nap. Jeremy just called from St. Louis, MO where he's laid over for 3 hours! EEK!! He had told me that he'd be home at 3 or so, when in reality he won't be home until 8 or 9. I look forward to him being home again...I could use a little retail therapy!! Hahaha.

Tomorrow I'm taking the girls to the Farmer's Market where they are going to spend their allowance on a pony ride!!! They've wanted to do the pony ride for so long, but it's $5 a child and I didn't want to fork over the money...the Farmer's Market is expensive enough...but they earned $2.50 each having a lemonade stand the other day and they're going to use that to supplement their allowance. How fun! I'll take pictures and post them here soon.

When we were at my parents house my dad took them to Leoni Meadows a couple of times. One of the times they came home and said, "We went on 2 horse-drawn carriage rides AND got to swim in the pool!" They are so blessed to have that place to go to. There are so many neat things for them to do and they always spend HOURS there every time they go. They play with the llamas, ducks, rabbits, snakes, etc. They swim, get to ride the train (it's about 5 miles long and an hour train ride), and apparently they also get to go on carriage rides!

Monday, August 11, 2008

You Gotta Wonder....

...when the items on your nightstand have disappeared and have mysteriously been replaced by a red pacifier. I asked Luke and he just looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. Sure Little Man, SURE--is that COUGH DROP I smell on your breath?!?!?!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

"Please", finally!

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but we're teaching Luke some basic sign language...not much, but that's mostly because we don't know any. It's kinda handy though because one of my neighbors is fluent in ASL...is it considered fluent?!?! I'm not sure. And one of the girls good friends brothers is deaf, so we learn a bit of it from them as well. Anyway, Luke knows "MORE" (VERY well), milk and FINALLY he signed "Please" today. We've been trying and trying to get him to sign "Please" because just saying "MORE" seems a bit rude. And this evening he wanted water (Which he calls by name...very LOUDLY...WAAAAA WAAAAAA) and I thought I heard him say "Please" and I said, "Did you say please?" and he looked at me and signed it to me. How great!! Good job, Luke!!

Today right before church he scraped his face up really nicely. The entire right side of his face (mostly near his eye) is covered with a nice abrasion. It didn't really bleed, it just looks nice and pink. I'm sure he'll be fine...but poor baby, it looks like someone backhanded him!

Tonight Abby had something stuck in her teeth--it was late and way past time for bed. I had no dental floss upstairs, so I used my old tried and true trick (yes, it's gross, but it works) a hair. Savannah said, "You used a hair as dental floss??? How clever!" I love that girl...she is so clever!

Yes, I will post a video clip of the kids "show" very soon...but Jeremy is leaving for Virginia tomorrow, so I wouldn't bet on it being up before next week...sorry, but I don't know what he used to make the files smaller.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Absolutely Too Much Cuteness!

Luke never ceases to amaze me with his adorable ways. He completely embodies CUTENESS! Yesterday he was over at a neighbors house, sniffing her flowers. He puts his face right up to the flowers and sniffs in and out really hard. You can hear him "smelling" the flowers from a few yards away! Speaking of flowers and all, he LOVES drinking from the hose. He'll find any leak in the hose and suck away. He's a big fan of water anyway, but drinking it that way just makes it so much fun! Yesterday he was outside and shivering because it was a bit chilly. I went inside to get his sweater and when I came back out, I couldn't find him. I suspected he was playing on another neighbors little play structure and sure enough, there he was--in their play house, protected from the elements--the SPRINKLER! He went out of the house and over to their slide and slid down time and again while the sprinkler SOAKED him from head to toe. He didn't care, he wasn't cold...he was soaked and he was having fun and he was happy!! :) Like I said, he LOVES water. He'll even stick his face in the bath water and blow bubbles. The girls would never have done that...and I'm not even sure they'd do it now.

Speaking of leaning over, this is Luke's preferred method of picking up his paci: Get on tummy, scoot up to paci, stick mouth OVER paci and pick up with lips. It'd be so easy for him just to pick it up with his hands and put it in his mouth, but apparently that wouldn't be as fun!

Today he was standing outside, waving to all of the cars that passed by. He lifted his hand in the air at each passing car until they waved back. It was SO ridiculously cute!

The girls have been having a dance party with their VBS music in the garage. They've got a bunch of the kids hanging out, blasting music and dancing like maniacs. It's great exercise and a fabulous ministry--non-believing kids are hanging out and singing..."Jesus paid the price, so we can have eternal life...get up, get up, get up and tell the world". Not too bad! Tomorrow they're having their actual "show", so I'll try to get some video clips and post them.

One last thing: Yesterday Abby told me that when she was at Papa's house, they let them swim "butt-naked". She said, "It feels so nice" and I said, "Yeah, it feels like being in your mommy's tummy, eh?" and she said, "NO, it's not COLD in your mommy's tummy!". Of course it's not.

I really need to start a drop shots account or something of the sort for photo sharing...but for now, here's a couple of photos:


The renegade markers were at it again!




Daddy's going "bike-packing". And no, those are NOT Savannah's real teeth.