"CIAO"

Funny story between Katie & Lindsay today.

(Lindsay about to go outside to play)
Katie: "CIAO"
Lindsay:"WHAT IS THAT MOMMY?"
Katie:"THAT IS GOOD-BYE IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE"
Lindsay:"OH"
(Lindsay thinking for a second)
Lindsay:"ADIOS"
(Lindsay goes out to play)

We've got some updating to do.

I have not done an update on either of the girls in a while, so here we go.

Lindsay - Turned 3 recently and is really turning into a "big girl." She is independent and wants to do everything by herself. She loves to sing and tell stories - usually half out of made-up words. She is very helpful with her little sister and sometimes forgets that she is not the mommy. Since moving to our new house Lindsay has gotten her own room again and has chosen butterflies to decorate her room in. We are hoping to paint it pink because, as she will tell you, pink is her favorite color. Lindsay's favorite room in the new house is the gameroom. She loves to go up there and sing, play with her little people doll house and read stories to her mountain of stuffed animals (seriously, the stuffed animal thing is way out of hand!). Lindsay would love to play outside in our yard, but it has been way too hot do do that, even when the sun goes down. About the only thing that we do outside is swim at the pool, something that Lindsay is becoming more brave at. Lindsay is showing signs of missing people back in Washington. She talks about her grandparents often and her aunts and uncles and her special friends John and Cole, Mr. Kyle and Miss Kathy, and of course Drew and Brook and Payton. There is a little girl who lives about a block away that is about 6 months younger than Lindsay who Lindsay likes to play with and we have been going to playgroup once a week so that she gets some time with other kids.

Lindsay showing you her butterfly mobile over her bed

Leslie - Turned 1 right before we left Washington and is quickly showing off her "todlerness" if there is such a term. She is at that age where you can see her learning something new everyday. Since we have been back in TX (only 3 weeks) she has begun to sign. She signs more, all done, and please. Yesterday she picked up saying uh oh! Now she likes to drop things and she gets a surprised look on her face and says uh oh! She has had fun with the new gameroom too. She has decided it is fun to drop blocks from the gameroom into the living room below, something that we are going to have to get on top of. Speaking of on top, Leslie has been caught a few times now balancing herself on-top of Lindsay's coloring desk. She is certainly not afraid of much.

Leslie giving you "the look"

I know I say this all the time, but the girls are so much fun right now! I definately think that one of the blessings of Texas has been that since we are not as busy here, we spend a lot more time with our girls.

As for Lance and I, we are enjoying our new place. We love the new floorplan. It is wide open and well-used space. I love that I can hear the girls from pretty much anywhere in the house and that they have a special place where they can go and play. I also love that we have a special guest room for visitors and my crafting supplies. Lance's work has picked up since we returned and he is getting a lot more done in his new office.

A lovely guest bed for you to stay in when you come down to visit us!

We are starting to get connected in our new church. We came forward for membership last Sunday and are invloved in an "Experiencing God" study together on Wednesday nights. I have signed up for a bible study for mom's on Wednesday mornings. I have decided not to do Mops this year (or at least this semester) because it meets the same time as our Bible study on Wednesday nights and I am really excited about doing a study with Lance.
Before I sign off - if you haven't recieved our new contact info please let me know, I don't want to post it here for obvious reasons.

The view from upstairs looking over the kitchen and breakfast nook.

WOW it's hot!!!

Ok so we are finally back in TX and man is it hot!! It has consistantly been in the triple digits all week. How we have come to apreciate airconditioning.
Talk about a crazy week! It took us 4 days and 9 states to get here. We arrived Sunday afternoon and signed papers on our new house on Monday. We moved everything out of the truck on a scorching hot Monday afternoon, then Lance's cousin-in-law Tyson came Tuesday and helped move things out of the apartment and to the house. It was so hot and Lance and Tyson were pretty wiped out when it was done. My mom came down to help with the girls while we moved. She was a great help. Since Tuesday we have spent our time organizing and decorating the new place. We have a few more square feet in this house and with all of our stuff, it is amazing that we ever fit into the house back in Washington. We will have to put up pictures as soon as we have some! I will take this oportunity to advertise our very comfortable and lovely guest bedroom to any and all who would like to visit us. Come on, you know you want to!!
We celebrated Lindsay's birthday last night with a steak dinner at Saltgrass (we will have to make this a place to visit when people come down, talk about good!!). When we got home we had icecream (melty from the trip between the groceries and home).
We had fun on our extended visit to Washington and look forward to seeing many people in October when we come down for Heidi and Bobby's wedding.

We will keep y'all posted!!

Leslie is 11 months old!

This is a little late, ok A LOT late! But things have been busy for us.
Leslie began walking the day after the 11 month mark. She has opened a new world up for herself and her parents. She proves to be a lot more daring than Lindsay was at this age and is trying to climb into chairs already, a feat that Lindsay didn't even try until after 18 months. Leslie's favorite thing is splashing in the pool or bathtub. She loves to stand in the bathtub and even accidently flipped herself out of the tub yesterday. I had turned to reach for a towl and all of the sudden heard a big bump. I turned to see Leslie laid out with her head toward the bath and her feet away. She is lucky she didn't get hurt!! She is a handful and always keeps us on our toes. Leslie doesn't really have any words yet but she does get pretty forceful with her MAMA sounds when she is trying to get to me or trying to tell me something. She makes lots of different kinds of sounds now and it is fun for everyone to make up words out of what she is saying. We are trying to introduce some signs with Leslie like we did with Lindsay, but she hasn't gotten the hang of them yet. It's hard to believe that Leslie will be 1 year old in less then a month. Wow does time fly!
Lindsay is almost 3, that is really hard to believe. She continues to amaze us with her growing vocabulary and understanding of how things are. She is really a little girl now, hard to believe that a year ago she seemed to be a baby still. She has developed some favorite things to do now. She loves to draw most of all. Her drawings have recently become more distinct from the scribbles that she used to draw. Yesterday she amazed us all by drawing a face with eyes, eyebrows, nose, a mouth and hair, then she added legs with shoes. She probably sat for an hour decorating paper with her swirls and people faces. She even drew some faces that seemed to convey some emotion and she told me (without prompting) what those emotions are. I think the most fun development of the last couple of months for Lindsay is the ability to have conversations with her. Her understanding of the world is quite interesting. The only bad thing is that she has learned the ever popular toddler question, "Why?" Oh how we love answering those!! :-)

We are still enjoying our extended vacation in Washington. We just got back yesterday from a couple of days camping with our friends the Grubers. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed their company. I will try to add some pictures when we get some from Nichole or John because our camera is pretty much garbage these days. Lance is golfing today with his buddy Kyle and tomorrow we look forward to celebrating a new little I with Kyle and his wife Kathy.

It's done!

The people who put an offer on our house accepted our counter offer this evening. So we begin the process of closing. We had a few little details that we streightened out in our counter offer but we were pretty sure that they would accept the offer, and they did. So now it is the process of getting the rest of our things packed up and down to TX and trying to get the ball going on a new house, a thought that exhausts me right now!!

Thanks for your prayers!

Whew!

Well, some of you know by now that we recieved an offer on our house yesterday. We are very excited, and barring any major issues we plan to accept the offer. We are also sad because this was our baby, our daily retreat, our dreams and now it is someone elses. Since being in Washington I have not been able to bring myself to visit the house or to bring Lindsay, who I am afraid will not understand why we can't stay. The first night in town we drove by it and I cried. I really want to stay away as much as possible. The young couple buying the house is so excited, they have seen it twice and brought their parents to see it, this is before they have even heard from us. It kinda tugs at my heart that someone else is dreaming about our little house and yard. The happy thing is that we should be able to move forward soon on purchasing a house in Texas. Nothing will replace our view of "my mountain" (as Lindsay calls it) or the huge yard where we played bocce and celebrated two of Lindsay's birthdays but we move on! Keep praying for our search for a new home in Texas.

We in Washington!!

So I have been a little slow on getting our blog updated. Sorry about that, I've just been really busy.
We had a looooooong drive up here but we are excited to finally be here. We visited with some of our other misplaced friends who recently moved from The Graham area to Colorado springs and Boise, very conveniently placed on our way back home. It was nice to see them and talk to people who are experiencing some of the same struggles that we are in living in a completely new place.
We spent our first weekend in Chelan with my extended family. It was a crazy time with all of the kiddos running around but Lindsay really enjoyed the time especially with our cousins Megan and Kiera. They got along really well and Lindsay still talks about the fun things they did. Yesterday when Lindsay woke up she sat up and said, "where did Megan go?" I think she must have been replaying something in her dreams. It has been a long time since Lindsay has had consistant playmates, it was really hard for me to see her say goodbye to them when they left.
Since returning from Chelan we have been really busy with playdates with some of Lindsay's (and Mommy's) old buddies and visiting Grand parents and Great-grandparents. Lindsay even had a teaparty with Great Grandma Walker and still talks about it.
Tomorrow we are going to the Ocean with some of Lindsay's favorite people, the Graham family and Uncle Tim.
I wish that we could take all of our friends and family back to Texas with us. I guess for now, we will just enjoy our current visit.
Lance is in Texas for business right now, we expect him to be back in a couple of weeks. Our house is still slow going for now. We are trying to keep it in God's hands. Somehow, worry keeps creeping back in. We know that there is a buyer out there somewhere, we would like to meet them sooner than later. The girls and I miss Lance very much. Lance is afraid that he is going to miss Leslie's first steps. I am not sure if she is going to cooperate or not. Since leaving Texas she has begun climbing stairs and stands up without holding on to anything for a long period of time. She sometimes tries to take a step but can't get the ballance down yet.

OK- there is the update. Hope that it satisfies those who have been complaining! :-)

Howdy

We are on our way home! Just wanted to check in and let everyone know that we are safe in Boise with our friends the Smith's. We will be there soon and look forward to seeing you all. We will post more pics later.
One funny thing from our trip so far- We left our apartment at 5:00 am on Saturday, and had to get gas 20 min. down the road. Lindsay exclaimed (full of emotion) "We in Washington!!!!" We were sad to tell her that there were many more miles to go.

See you soon!

The First 10 Months/ 300 Days

Well, Papa Gordie pointed out to me today that it is Leslie's 300th day of life. Leslie will be turning 10 months old this Friday so I thought I would take a moment to update everyone on Leslie's life.
Leslie is really getting around these days. She crawls on all fours, no more army crawl. She pulls herself up on anything she can get her hands on. Unfortunately this means that she has also pulled a couple of chairs and a tv tray over on herself. No injuries though. She will stand for very short periods of time and she will take some steps with help or with her walker. Though her vocabulary is still just sounds she seems to try to be talking to us. She likes to jabber a lot. Leslie is also trying to teach her sister to leave her alone as well. She has bitten Lindsay twice now, once on the nose and today on the cheek. No broken skin but Lindsay has 5 teeth marks on her cheek now. Lindsay probably deserved it, she pulls on Leslie a lot and gets into her face, thus the bites have been on her face. I guess she'll have to learn the hard way.
Lindsay, nearly 2 years, 10 months old is becoming quite the little lady. Her favorite thing to do is sing and play pretend. Her favorite songs are "B-I-B-I-B" also known as "B-I-B-L-E," and "I'm in the Lord's Army! YES SIR!" and "ABCD." She also loves to read books, some that she has memorized and she recites to Leslie.
We are really excited about our coming trip and Lindsay talks about seeing everyone.
Keep praying for our house to sell!

Consider yourself updated!

Some Recent Pics of the Girls

Leslie posing for Daddy!

The Girls Playing in the Box.


Lindsay getting ready for Papa Jim's Boat.

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! :-)