No Tornado For Us

We have been getting calls and messages asking if we had any part of the tornados that killed three people last night. We are about 20 miles South of the areas that had the storms. They were in our county but we are in the south west side of the county and the tornados touched down in the more rural, north east side of the county. We did watch the clouds form before nightfall and saw lightning, but over our heads it was clear and we never even heard thunder. We watched the news all night and knew that we were not in any danger. So no worries, no tornado here.

ROLLS & BREAD

A couple of weeks ago, Katie made bread and rolls from Scratch!!!

IT CAME BACK ALIVE!!

This is of Lindsay last night! She fell asleep reading!

Sad day...

Our camera is dead. We bought it when Lindsay was born so that we would have an easy way to share our pics with family and friends on the net. It has become even more important since moving here. Our friends and family have gotten to see Lindsay and Leslie grow over the past few months from far away. Today it just stopped working. So now we are back to our regular film camera, if we can find it. So when we find the camera, buy film for it, process the film, then scan it into the computer, we will once again post pictures here. Since we won't be buying a new digital anytime soon.

I am really sad about this, pictures have become so important to us lately. :-(

9 Month Update

Leslie has passed the 9 month mark now, can you believe it? She is a big girl and gettting around really well. She pulls herself up on anything that will stand still long enough. Leslie is crawling like crazy now and following everyone around. It seems like the second you put her down she is after something or someone. She has begun taking some steps while holding onto the furniture and we are trying to get her to walk with the baby walker that Lindsay used when she was this age. She now has two teeth on her bottom gum and seems to be working on the top ones now. Much to our agony, Leslie's favorite thing to do is screach. And I mean ear-piercing screaching. We hope that this won't be a problem when we visit everyone this summer.
Lindsay, at 2 years, 9 months is developing her imagination. She is a great storyteller. We often hear her "reading" her books with amazing accuracy. On Easter, she told Sarah the story about the angel being in the tomb and Jesus was gone! I have to tell you what is happening right now. Lance got an extra shirt from one of his orders that is a small child size so he brought it home for Lindsay. She is now carrying it around and talking about how it is her team shirt and now she can play soccer ball and she really wants to put it on right now! It is a little big so I told her she could wear it for bed. She wants to take it with her to the store I asked why, she said, "because it is my shirt!" Funny girl. I will try to post some pictures too.

Kicking the habit.

I think we have at least come close to kicking Lindsay's pack a week habit. Pack of diapers that is. I thought it was going to be a lot harder. We started on Tuesday with big girl panties all day, and before I knew it, Lindsay was down to only one accident a day. Today is the first day she has not had one accident.
Better still, we spent two separate days at the local mall where Lindsay told me she had to go and held it all the way to the family bathrooms. I was extremely nervous about the public bathrooms since I am a germophobe (not sure how to spell it though). After scrubbing down her legs with anti-bacterial wipes, I became ok with the public bathroom thing.
I also had heard that a certain type of big girl was usually a problem for todlers to get comfortable with on the potty. Not Lindsay, no fear there. I won't go into any further detail.
For now, we will keep the diapers around for bedtime, though she has had more dry than wet mornings lately.
One thing that I never guessed about potty training is that now we have to get Lindsay to keep her dress down in public. :-) A little modesty please.

See, no big deal!

I don't know if you can actually see it, not the best pictures.

It's not my fault!!!

Let me start by saying, it is not my fault. Today I was out running errands and while I was leaving Walmart I got bumped in the parking lot. I had already pulled out of my spot when I looked over my shoulder and saw a GMC Denali coming for my car. By the time I honked, she was already crunching my side of the car. I couldn't believe it! How can this keep hapening!!?? The damage is on the driver's side rear tire well. I will post a picture soon. Lindsay got a little scared. She probably saw the rear of that truck comming really close to her. That is what got me, the idea that she could have been hurt. She got over it quickly though. The lady that hit me was very apologetic and I have already filed my claim with her insurance. The damage seems pretty small to me. It is enough that we wouldn't let it go but not too bad, she wasn't going very fast. I should also add that there was no damage to her car. It's just nice knowing it's not my fault. :-)

101 DEGREES!!!

Sarah, Tyson & Doug joined us for lunch as mentioned in the last post. After lunch we all went to the park. The last picture is from our car's dash! Today was our first triple digit day in Texas!

Easter!!!

We had a fun Easter! Lindsay is an Easter egg hunting machine! Sarah, Tyson, & Doug came over for Katie's cranberry roast and then we went to park. Here are some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses! A funny one of Leslie from the night before too! :-)

POOL TIME

Today we used our apartment pool for the first time. I only had one appointment and because we are in the Bible Belt, it seems like no one goes to work or school on Good Friday! That is pretty Cool!!!

It will be 90 degrees today, 95 on Sunday. Anyway, when I got home from my appointment at 11:00am we decided to go to the pool before the day gets too hot.....it was already 80ish.

Lindsay was so excited to go play at the pool, which got Katie and I excited because as many of you know, SHE HATES THE WATER!

By the time we got to the pool, her attitude changed and there was no way she was going near the pool. Katie drug her! NOT DRUGGED HER, but Drug her to a little cut out that only had about a 8-10 inches of water. She was not happy, but after realizing that it was not too bad, she played there for about 45 min. Right before we left, she got the nerve to join Katie in the pool.

We spent about an hour and half at the pool. Leslie cried and would not have the water at all. Just like Big Sis at this age!

Katie and I got a little crisp, but I think we should have a good tan by the time we come home in May! We need it. You can see our White Pasty Washington bodies!!! :-)

Talk to you soon!!!

Big Girl Potty and a Tooth

Today has been a busy day in our house! Leslie had her first tooth break through and Lindsay is 4 for 5 on going big girl potty!

Diapers have become expensive and it seems we are going through about 3-4 a day for Lindsay! I have started to look at those little white diapers in a new way. They are starting to look green and I am seeing George Washington's face on them! :-) It is no longer fair to Lindsay to keep her in one diaper during the day, they just get too full!

Katie has been trying little girl panties on Lindsay from time to time and we think it clicked today!!!! Hurray!!!

Katie took Lindsay to Target tonight so she could pick out a "LINDSAY POTTY." It only cost $10 which is quite a bit less than a pack of 50 diapers! They came home from Target about two hours ago and Lindsay and her Potty have been inseparable since! Just look at our pics! :-) She has been sitting on this thing for some time now, I am thinking of bringing her some reading material!

Also, I have told Lindsay she could carry her potty around with her tonight. She was bringing it out of the bathroom to play with and I was quick to put an end to that. Well after seeing her disappointment and not wanting to take any steps backwards, I told her she could play with it tonight only (this will mean taking it to bed I am sure), but that it was not a toy and starting tomorrow she needed to leave it in the bathroom. That sounded like a good deal to her!

Enjoy!

A reply to comments.

I was writing this in the comments of the last post and decided that it was getting too big.

It's kinda funny, you would think that we are applying for a job. I guess a lot of people want to go to church to be served. We see it as an oportunity to serve others, while serving God.

Another thing that we have noticed in this Church search is how important webites are. Not in how they look or how cool they are, but in the abundance of information and resources. Right away I look for information on the beliefs, the staff, the ministries. Most websites give me an idea of what to expect on Sunday mornings. Even down to the sunday school class that we go to. It has been very helpful. If you want to see the best church website I have seen so far: www.stonebriar.org . Keep in mind that this church has a huge membership and Chuck Swindoll is the pastor.

I guess I better clarify...

So I guess I was a little excited about First Baptist. We have not decided that we are not going back to the first church (Fellowship of Frisco). We actually found out today that something we thought was a pretty significant problem was just a missunderstanding on our part. Please help us pray about this because it is pretty tough trying to discern right now. We are trying to choose between a church that is really like a church plant and an established church. Fellowship of Frisco as it is right now, is not a place we would like to be but may have the potential to be that place. Does that make any sense? It has been extremely hard to get involved and get to know anyone. We are making great efforts, but not much has come from those efforts. The preaching is great, what we hear from the pulpit is not so much what we see now, but maybe a vision for the future. The pastor has been at Fellowship for only a year, and in that time, he has had deal with a lot of pain left behind by the last pastor. So the question is, did God bring us to this church for a specific reason? On the other hand, First Baptist is a church we can see ourselves comfortable in right now. But, maybe just maybe, we are called to be uncomfortable for a while in order to further His kingdom. It is really hard for me because I need a network of friends. I don't expect it to be like it was at home, but I would like a way in, somehow. Right now the only women's ministry is a women's retreat at the end of the month that was too expensive. Since that is the only thing, it left me feeling like I have to wait another year to get to know any other women in the church. That is what we are dealing with here, no community. Lance and I have a strong background in community and we feel that we might be able to help in this area. The question is, does the church have a vision for that or are they just happy where they are? Anyway, God knows the end result. We just have to be patient.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Fellowship of Frisco Website: www.fellowshipoffrisco.com

A New Church

We went to a new church yesterday. For many reasons, the church we had been attending did not work out. So we moved on. This church is a little bit of a drive for us now, but if we stay there we will probably make sure our new house is closer. We really liked it. It is bigger than we are used to but around here you almost wonder what's wrong with a church that is smaller. The kids were in a great facility. They have one whole building for kids with an indoor and outdoor playground. Lindsay did a palm Sunday activity and didn't want to go home when we went to pick her up. They are very organized and have a great security system. We had to go through two guys checking parent badges before we got to the kids. I appreciate that a lot, especially with the number of comings and goings. Lance and I went to sunday school which is a lot like the small groups at CCBC. We were able to see them get some business done. which they apologized to us for, but we enjoyed it, it really gave us the chance to see how they work. I think Lance wanted to jump right in and volunteer for things he knows he is gifted in, he held back though. We are excited to join the church in some of the passion week activities, Jews for Jesus is doing a presentation on the Passover connections to Jesus's death on the cross and resurection on Wednesday, we have seen it before years ago at CCBC, but we might do it again, just for a reminder. Friday we will probably attend their Good Friday Service and of course Easter on Sunday. I spoke to a lady in the Sunday School Class that we went to about a Mom's Bible study that she attends, hopefully I can get involved there. We felt very welcomed. These are all things that were extremely lacking at the Church we had been attending. We were waiting to see if God lead us to feel that we were needed at that church. We had some problems with the way they made church decisions also. We felt very alone with everything that went on with Tim too, we had no way to share a prayer request there. No small group, no nothing. I know that we made the right decision. We are excited to see if this new church works out.

If you are curious, here is a link to the church, you can even watch sermons online live on Sunday mornings, creative. www.fbc-mckinney.org

Milestones and friends visiting.

Each girl hit some sort of milestone this week. Leslie surprised me one day when I went to get her from a nap and found her sitting up in her bed. Since then, we have seen her push herself up from laying down a couple of times. Lindsay, quickly aproaching the age of three is starting to show a little interest in potty training (emphasis on little). Tuesday since we were at home all day, I decided to try letting Lindsay wear big girl panties. She had an accident first, then on her second pair, she ran into the room to tell me she needed to go so we rushed to the toilet where she went! It was very exciting. Later that evening, however we had another accident and a toy cleanup. We tried a pull up for going out on Wednesday, which also had a disasterous conclusion. So it will be a long process, I am sure. I just hate spending money on those diapers!!

Wednesday we had a fun but short visit with Kyle Iverson, one of our close friends from Washington. He had a long layover at DFW so we picked him up and took him to a local diner, called "The Local Diner." We had a great meal and it was fun to catch up a little. Too bad the time was short. Kyle's little boy Drew is Lindsay's favorite friend and since he wasn't with Kyle it was a little confusing for Lindsay. She misses her friends very much! Today we expect to meet with the Richardson's, some friends from Washington that are on spring break down here. All of the visits help us with missing home. We are so looking forward to our trip at the end of May!!

Here is a picture of Lindsay helping me fold the laundry. She decided to try on Daddy's shirt.

Easter egg hunt

Now a tradition in our family (since this is our second year of doing this), we went to the local city Easter egg hunt. This one took place at one of the local sports fields. They also had some little games and bouncing toys for the kids, as well as fire trucks, fire clowns and people dressed up as easter bunnys (I was a little confused because I thought there was only one). Lindsay wanted nothing to do with any of those things. We tried, but no go. She even stood in line for the little golf game and when the lady tried to hand her a club, she freaked out. After waiting for an hour and a half, we worried that she was going to back out of the whole deal. Lance had to drag her into the hunt when the siren sounded. But it only took a second for her to realize what fun it would be to pick up candy, bags of crackers and mini-boxes of cheerios off of the ground. Her hesitation, however, did cost her any chance of getting an actual egg. So next year? We will try again hoping that someday, Lindsay will actually enjoy the big hunt. This was the last year that both Lance and I get to stay in one place, because next year, one of us will be graduating to the three to four year olds group.

8 months

Leslie is now 8 months old. Can you believe it?? Where did the time go? She is now sitting up pretty steady and trying to pull herself up to stand, but only on mommy's legs so far. She is also trying to get herself up from laying down to sitting up, but that is not quite accomplished yet. She is crawling all over the place and gets into things much more than I remember Lindsay doing. Maybe there is just more for her to get into because Lindsay's toys are certainly in the line of fire. Something that Lindsay has not gotten used to, having to share with the baby sister. Leslie has a hard time sitting still for any amount of time, it is often a struggle to change her diaper and get her dressed. Leslie's vocabulary consists of ba ba ba and ma ma ma and her favorite, da da da. She seems to be our serious girl but when she smiles, she lights up the room. She has been a pro at eating solids since we introduced them in January, but she is officially exclusively bottle fed now. We also believe that her hair is going to be on the red side. We get more comments about her red hair and If you see her in the outdoor light, you can definately see red highlights. All in all, it is a lot of fun having a baby around!!
Lindsay, now 2 years and almost 8 months is a typical little todler. She has developed quite an imagination. She often pretends to put on shows, to chase monsters (the seseme street kind), to be a doctor, to go grocery shopping, to cook (like her favorite, Rachel Ray) and to talk on the phone. She is a chatty girl too. She will talk your ear off and does so with mostly complete sentences. She still jabbers a little, mostly when she doesn't know what to say. She is still quite timid, probably always will be. But that is ok with me. Right now she is "reading" a book to Leslie, I will post a picture of it. She is a good sister and and although she can be aggressive with Leslie at times, she usually gives lots of hugs and is protective of her.
There's your update on the girls. Lance got home late last night safe and sound. We are very glad to have him back. We all missed him very much.

Another Storytime

The girls and I went to storytime again today. Usually, at stortytime, Lindsay doesn't venture more than a foot away from me. And that is even a little far for her comfort, she rather sit in my lap. Well this time, when we walked in she quickly found a friend and glued herself to the little girl's side the whole time. She participated fully in the singing and dancing and listening to the story. It was fun to see. She is starting to feel more comfortable.
Lance is still in Edmonton, of course. Right now he plans on coming back Monday, but that could change. Tim is doing really well except for really bad headaches. I guess that they are worse than migrains. I am glad that Lance could go up there, we just miss him a lot down here. I am a little jealous that he gets to see family. But I wish the circumstances were different.
Anyway, the girls and I are missing everyone back home especially today. We can't wait to see everyone in two months!

Sleep deprived today.

Lance was off to Edmonton this morning to be with his family by Tim's side in the hospital. Tim is doing much better now, as most of the readers of this blog know. He should be out of the ICU today. Praise God!!!
Anyway, Lance had to be at the airport by 6:30 this morning so we got up at 5:00. Unfortunately the girls had to be woken up, which didn't really bother them much, both girls did pretty well. Lindsay was very observant at 5:00 in the morning when she noticed that it was dark and said "uh oh, it still night!" I responded "yeah?" She said "We need go back to bed!!" Very funny little girl! I had to agree.
I did get Lance to the airport, a little stressed that I was going to get lost on the way home. But it was easier than I thought. Lance gave good directions. Hopefully I will remember them by Monday night when we go to pick him up. The girls slept in the car and I took a little cat nap while Lindsay watched Dora, but I still have some sleep to catch up on. I decided to get out of the apartment since I actually have a car now so we checked out the local Costco and the new Walmart. It is supposed to be a new concept Walmart. I thought it was a lot nicer than the usual Walmart. Wider isles, less clutter and I guess they have organic foods. Still not enough of a big deal for me to drive as far as I did to go there, but better, at least. It is very cold today so no outdoor activities for us. The girls are down for a nap, so I am headed there too.