I've had a lot going on lately, hence the lack of posts. God has been working some things in my heart and my life...presenting new challenges and growing me, mainly. Although I value these times, they are typically very difficult also.
That being said, I will be changing my blog site a little bit. I will be mainly using it to post information and pictures of just the girls for family and friends. I am going to try to get more reading and housework done in the evenings (fewer interruptions!) and may not be able to post as often as I would like, however I will try to be fairly consistent.
As to my blog thusfar, I would like to say that I hope it has blessed you, the reader. I have only endeavored to share my heart and my life. If I have ever, in any way, offended anyone or hurt someone's feelings, please accept my apology. I'm afraid I put very little thought into my words, often times (one of those new challenges I mentioned above!), and I'm sorry if anything I have posted has upset any of my readers.
On to more cheerful things! Abby is two years old and healthy (according to her pediatrician)! She began singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" - adorable, of course. We had a small, somewhat impromptu, party for her on Sunday with a few close friends in Puyallup - the BIG party is on Saturday :)
Allison is getting increasingly better at reading. I believe she's reaching the bend in the road and expect her to be fairly proficient any day now. Yesterday, she opted to bring her children's NIV in the car with her and proceeded to read a verse or two to Abby every so often. (It was very interesting to listen to her sound out Biblical cities and names!)
I wanted to quickly mention, for the benefit of many of you reading this who are not very familiar with blog sites, that there is a "comment" link at the bottom of each entry I post. If you would like to make a comment or leave a message for me, you can click on the word "comment" and a comment window will pop up. Type in your comment/message and click the "post" button. This allows me to see what you think of my week! Have a great weekend, everyone!
I've got a lot to catch up on. When the weather is nice, there's all of a sudden a whole bunch of things to do! We've been biking and hiking and swimming and all kinds of fun things lately.Last Friday (I can't believe it's been a week already! Time flies!), Noah went to swim lessons with us. It was quite the juggle with two toddlers. They had a great time in the pool (sorry - I forgot my camera!) and Allison got her first pair of goggles.
Here are some pics of the kids at the playground on Thursday.
Abby wanted to "share" the bike with Noah.
Chris, blowing bubbles for the kids....like any true engineer would blow them.
Here they are eating a Blizzard...mmmmmm......
Story time before bed (yah!!).
After swimming and lunch, we headed to Portland to drop Allison off with Grandpa Cary and Grandma Andrea for the weekend. After a quick stop, we dropped Noah off with Auntie Brie and then it was just Chris and I with Abby! It was a really different experience to just have Abby with us, but we had fun. We headed out to the Dalles and got some starters (tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions, strawberries), camping gear and birthday presents. The nice thing about two-year-olds is that you can take them shopping, let them play with the toys, pick out the ones they like best and....drum roll......when they open their gifts on their birthday, it's like seeing them for the first time! :)
Here are my starters! I am very excited about them. Hopefully we will get a great little crop out of my garden. I am waiting until sometime next month to plant some lettuce, cucumbers, cilantro and carrots. I have never had a garden before so this is really very fun and I am excited to see the results of all my hard work (removing dead plants and brush to make room for my veggies). On Monday, I dug up all of the ground cover over the stone pathway in the backyard. It looks fantastic! I will try to post some pictures later.
We also went for a nice 11 mile bike ride - very beautiful - very painful. I am rather out of shape. Sad, but true. I made it, but man was my rear sore! Those bike seats are definitely not made for comfort! Perhaps I am not sitting on it correctly? All the same, I definitely got a good work out and could feel that I was already in better shape when we hiked up to the top of Multnomah Falls on Wednesday evening! My dad (Tom) met us there and climbed to the top with us - it was a lot of fun. Allison walked all the way to the top with just a few quick breaks (more for us adults than anything else). Chris and I were fairly impressed considering she would never have made it up there last summer. Unfortunately, I have forgotten to bring my camera with me pretty much all week, so Chris has all of the pictures on his camera. I'll try to snag some later on. My dad took a really great family shot of us.
Abby came into our room the other morning, looking like this. I had to snap a pic.
Thursday morning, Chris had an appointment in Gresham, so he decided to take the whole day off and we headed over to OMSI. There were a ton of school field trips there, but they all left about an hour or so after we arrived. We had a blast! Chris took Allison through most of the regular exhibits, while Abby and I spent most of the afternoon in the new pre-school room. The room is fabulous! There are things to climb on and through, a water play area (complete with waterproof aprons and rubber boots), a sand pit area (in retrospect, I recommend playing in the sand area and THEN playing in the water), a kitchen area with toy foods, a puppet theatre with puppets, flubber, construction crafts.....there are tons of things for toddlers. Abby could have stayed there all day. We also watch an Omnimax movie about undersea African coast. Very cool. Abby enjoyed it very much, although she was a bit antsy half way through (it was approx. an hour long). Allison, of course, thought is was "awesome!"
Today, we had swim lessons again and Allison is currently finishing up her schoolwork for the week. She and Chris finally went on their Father - Daughter date this week. They went for a picnic and bike ride and had a great time together in the outdoors! That's about it for us, this week. Whew!
PS - I found pearl sugar at IKEA. Now I just need to find my recipe for Belgian Waffles!
Alright, I'm putting a plug in for http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/. This blog site was forwarded to me by a good friend and I'm passing it along to you moms with young children. The mom who authors this site is....well....craftastic. I'm not sure if that's a real word, but I'm certain it applies to her. She comes up with daily crafts for young children (approx 2 to 5 yrs would be my guess) and often includes books and songs to go along. Each craft is actually doable by a young child (I know! It's amazing!) and uses many items you probably already have around the house or could easily get ahold of. I am amazed by this woman and feel rather embarrassed that I've never thought of most of her ideas...I mean...they are toddler crafts, you'd think they would have crossed my mind before. Anyway, I hope you enjoy....
Right afterward, another visitor meandered across the front lawn - a sea otter! :)
The girls really enjoyed collecting shells, sand dollars and rocks on the beach.
A local church held a carnival on Saturday. Allison enjoyed a fun horse ride and bouncy castle!
Abby won a cake (it figures that the cake walk would be her favorite game!) and played a little golf.
The girls enjoyed their first taste of cotton candy.
We spent the next week enjoying beautiful weather, with plenty of playing outdoors!
While getting ready for swim lessons, Abby discovered Allison's goggles and decided to give them a try.
Here's the butter that Allison made while studying colonist life in the New World.
