Happy Anniversary to Us!!

7 years ago we took the plunge and got married. I was excited, I know Jeremy was probably scared to death, but hey, it's been a good, wonderful even 7 years. We've been so incredibly blessed with health, happiness, beautiful, wonderful children, a nice home and best of all, we're STILL close to our family (distance wise as well as relationship wise!).
Yesterday we were at church and the pastor's sermon was about how God is our EVER present help in trouble. He was naming off difficulties that most people are facing in our economic situation our country is in...and Jeremy and I looked at eachother and realized how truly blessed we are. Really, none of the economic stuff is affecting us too badly. Yes, of course I'd like to pay less for gas, but it doesn't affect Jeremy's commute (Praise God!). God has been so good to us these past 7 years, even if we haven't been completely obedient to Him. I praise Him for his Grace and Mercy to us. And of course, I look forward to what blessings He has in store for us as we continue our lives as man and wife.

We are so excited too because we've gotten a FABULOUS deal on the condo we spent our honeymoon in and are going away to Tahoe for 3 days, 2 nights next weekend!!! We haven't been gone together since our honeymoon...I'm SO looking forward to it. I remember being kinda bored on our honeymoon...in fact, we even went to Apple Hill and visited my grandparents because we didn't know what else to do. I don't think we'll be bored this time...back then I didn't know how valuable time is...this time I will RELISH each moment...and each soak in the HUGE jacuzzi tub!! AHHHHHH....I can't wait!

Luke is 18 Months!!

Today we celebrated Luke's 1/2 birthday. The girls asked if we could have a party, and I figure, why not?!!? So the girls and I baked a cake and we invited some of Luke's favorite friends, (actually Savannah and Abby's friends, but Luke loves them) Josephine, Felicity and Tayler. We sang to Luke and had cake and "margaritas" (lime, lemon and tangerine juice--freshly squeezed, blended with agave nectar and ice). It was a nice little celebration. A big 1 and a half year old...wow! At this age he's clearly saying, "Mama", "banana", "Hi", "More", "AH-Ya" (water), and I think that's it. But he's signing "please", "thank you", "more", "milk", "cereal" and "all done". He's so curious and so into how things work. The other day I was mowing the grass (he follows me around with his lawn mower and "helps") and I ran out of gas. I got the gas can and he ran over and showed me exactly where to put it. Now he's learned how to "prime" the mower for me. He's so helpful. He's also very frustrating. He's climbing on everything, getting into everything, and walking EVERYWHERE! He's borderline driving me crazy, but he's also very receptive to discipline. The thing is that I'm not consistent ENOUGH, although in the things I've made an issue (staying out of the road), he's totally responded to discipline. He really is a wonderful boy...but such a boy! We took him out for Thai food last night while the girls were at AWANA and he LOVED it! He ate so much rice and mango, I'm surprised he didn't get sick...he even enjoyed the green papaya salad!

I cut the girls hair. They both have rather short hair now. I was a bit scared of cutting it because I'm NO hair cutter...but it actually came out rather cute! It's so much easier to take care of now and Savannah loves that fact "Mommy doesn't have to put our hair up anymore". It's cute, but with her missing tooth, Savannah is looking WAY too old now!!

On a side note, we had a bit of a rough day today...Abby had trouble keeping her hands to herself and had to be disciplined for a good portion of the day...and Savannah cried over every little thing...tonight when they went to bed, for the first time in their lives I think, I didn't read them a story. I asked them to choose their clothes for tomorrow and they didn't, even after I asked them 3 times. So Abby laughed at me when I told her I discipline her because I love her with all of my heart and Savannah said, "Abby...Mommy disciplines us because she doesn't want us to go to HELL!". Wow...true, but WOW! That's a bit much for before bed "chat". Leave it to Savannah!

Here are some random photos...Luke has discovered his tongue, Savannah loves her hair and Abby is so squirrley that it's very hard to get a "normal" photo of her...but I guess for Abby, this IS normal! My sweet, silly girl!!

More fun with refrigerator magnets...

Hooked on Phonics:

The Toothless Wonder is at it Again!!

Luke went poop on the potty!

What a big boy!! This evening he and the girls were playing "tag" after bath time and Luke hadn't gotten dressed yet...so he accidentally went piddle on the floor. He looked at it and pointed and said, "UH OH". Then while I was putting his diaper on he was passing gas, so I thought, let's try it. I put him on the toilet and in a matter of seconds he did a nice, big poop!! HORRAY FOR LUKIE!! He's getting so big! I let him flush the toilet (we've got an industrial type toilet that you can flush with your foot, so it's a big deal to flush it) and the girls and I cheered for him and told him how big he was. It may not happen again for a very long time, but here's to a step in the right direction! YAY!!!

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.

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!