Easter Egg Hunt

This morning we had a Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood. Here are a few pictures of the girls. There are many new posts, so make sure you scroll down the computer screen!

Before & After

Lindsay was wearing a shirt that was too small. After Katie took this picture, she asked Lindsay to fix her shirt. The second picture is after Lindsay fixed the problem! :-)

PLANTING

We planted some white and purple plants to liven up the yard. White and Purple for University of Washington!!!!

Daddy's shirt sleeves

I had my first Church league basketball game on Tuesday night. I needed a shirt with no sleeves, so after cutting off the sleeves, I gave the sleeves to the girls.

Disney on Ice - Princess Wishes

Lindsay and I saw the Disney Princesses on ICE last Saturday! We went to the American Airlines Center in Dallas. This is the same arena where the Dallas Stars and the Dallas Mavericks play their games. LOTS OF FUN!!!

Easter Started Early

Today the girls got a package in the mail. Here are a few pictures.

Thank you Mom.

Leslie's Cage

Easter is almost Here!

Easter is almost here. For those of you interested, the following link is to our church's website.

First Baptist McKinney

AND

This next link is for a website set up for Easter Sunday at our church. This is NEAT! The gospel message in the video is AWESOME.

WHATS UP WITH HEAVEN?

Date Night?

Lance had planned a long awaited date night for us last night. Something that he planned about a month ago. So there was much anticipation for me the last week. Before the date, Lance had to go up to Shawnee, OK for a day of meetings and was going to be back just in time for us to go out. The girls were set up to go to our friends and neighbors the Maddock's. Lindsay was equally excited about that. Anyway, at about 5:30 Lance called and said he was stuck in the little town of Coleman, OK with an oil pump with no pressure. I researched and found that the nearest VW repair was near Dallas so he had it towed 100+ miles and got a ride from the tow truck to Melissa. Needless to say Date night didn't happen.
Normally, the story would end there and it wouldn't be much to blog about except we aren't done. Lindsay and Leslie were in bed and asleep by the time Lance got home. I went to sleep shortly after and slept good until about 12 am when I woke to him yelling and both girls crying. He had Leslie who had vomitted her entire dinner on him and Lindsay had been woken by the crying and yelling and was scared, we thought. Soon both girls were vomiting. So we cleaned them up and put them to bed, sat in the media room and 20 minutes later we were doing it all again. At one point we actually had both girls over the toilet taking turns. We decided to sleep in the guest room so we could have a quicker shot at the rooms. It became a guessing game as to who was pathetically calling for us because they both sounded the same and usually when one would start, the other would not be far behind. I can't count how many times we did that last night but the last time was at about 7:00 am and I am not totally convinced that it is over even 7 sets of pj's and 4 sets of sheets later. Lance and I decided we have NEVER had a night like that, not even with itty bitty babies waking up all night to feed. This takes the cake! The good thing in all of this is that I think we now have both girls trained in leaning over the toilet so as to attempt to save their pj's! :-)

A bonk on the head.

Leslie gave momma a little scare yesterday. She was standing on a chair in the kitchen and somehow (I didn't see the fall, just the landing) she managed to knock the chair over and she landed face down, noggin first on the hard tile floor. Normal bonks are not a concern usually, she has fallen on the tile before. But this time, the expected reaction did not come. She sucked in her breath for a big wale and it really ended up sounding a little more pathetic. Then the crying didn't stop, she wouldn't let us put her down, and she tried to close her eyes and fall asleep (nowhere near nap time) and her personality just disappeared. So, I walked her around and made sure she didn't go to sleep. I called the pediatrician just to get advice on what to look for. Before they could call back, she vomitted her breakfast. I know that is not a good thing after a bonk on the head so I called again and they told me to take her to the ER for a CAT scan. So after a little tears on my part I called Lance and had him come home. No sooner than we got Leslie in the car, she bagan to act more like herself again. She was playing peek a boo and giggling and smiling again. So we called and were able to get her in with a nurse at the ped instead of going to ER. We just kept watch over her through her nap and through the night. She is doing fine, other than a purple little knot on her head. After an hour ordeal, I am very glad that it was nothing serious. Whew!

Copy Cat

Lately Leslie will do anything Lindsay does. This can be funny but also a problem. Lindsay puts on a dress, Leslie needs to put on a dress. Whatever Lindsay has, Leslie must also have. Lindsay makes a funny sound with her mouth, Leslie tries her hardest. She so wants to be 3 1/2 like her sister we call her a 3 year old trapped in a 1 1/2 year old body. We all know that 3 year olds don't always do what they are supposed to do, so of course, Leslie follows Lindsay into this disobedience. We had our first group spanking yesterday. I came out of the bedroom and see Lindsay and Leslie each standing on a kitchen stool. They both know that is is a BIG NO NO. Leslie will stand and climb on anything anyway, so to see her big sister standing on the stool, she thought that was pretty cool. When I came around the corner, both girls squatted because they knew they were in trouble.
Monkey see, Monkey Do, Monkey Get in Trouble Too, has become our new motto in the house.

Lindsay's Puppet Show

Lindsay and I (lance) played with some puppets tonight! Lots of fun and I am sure more pics to come.

19 months

Well, another month has gone by. It seems like Lindsay was just this age! The other night I was putting PJ's on Leslie that I had just cleared out of Lindsay's drawer. Lindsay had worn them well past fitting but they fit Leslie perfectly right now. Leslie is already wearing 24month clothes.
This age is so much fun! Leslie is a little copycat. She will mimic nearly anything that you say or do. It is really funny when she gets to jabbering and her little head shakes. It's hard to explain through typing but she acts like she is having a completely understandable conversation with you. The other night she was particularly stern about something and kept going around to the three of us and talking with her head shaking and her finger pointing. What are we going to do when she starts really talking to us that way? I guess she is going to be a director. Watch out if you do something different than what she wants you to do, she will let you know by throwing herself back and throwing a perfect fit.
Another taste of her personality comes every time I put her in the van. If I don't strap her in right away, she will find her way up to the driver's seat and pretend like she is driving. When I move her to the appropriate seat, she won't have it. She is rarely satisfied with the car seat.
Leslie's vocabulary is growing daily. Mostly she will mimic sounds, but her favorite phrase is aw man! She finally says "peas" instead of just frantically signing for please. Mostly she uses a lot of pointing and nodding and other non-verbal communication.
This child never stops moving. As long as she is awake, she is in constant movement. It is a rare moment if I can get her to sit on my lap for some cuddle time, but when I do, it is a very cherished moment.
Lindsay, who is nearly 3 years, 7 months old is really our little girl now. She is very independent and I realized recently that I am able to rely on her a lot more for helping me with Leslie or taking care of things herself. She is quite the dramatic one though. She loves to put o shows. The other night, while Lance was watching them in the playroom she nearly sang the entire song "Part of Your World" from Little Mermaid while dancing on the stage. Currently, her favorite cartoon is Charlie and Lola (I have to admit, I love that one too). She loves it because the little girl Lola is just like her (so she says). I will catch her pretending she is Lola all the time. Which is a good thing because Lola is a good girl with a great imagination (OK I guess she is a lot like Lola).

The weather here is getting nice. If it was always like this, I guess everyone would want to live here. It is really quite perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. We get to go to the park a couple of times a week and even play in our yard. It is really nice to get out of the house. We have been busy with Bible Studies, small group, playgroup, me tutoring, Lance refereeing Upward Basketball. Too busy, sometimes, but life is good!

A visit from Grandparents.

Grandpa giving the girls a swing.




OK, so I know that it has been a really long time since our last post. But we have been busy! For the last 10 days, we have had guests in our home. Grammie and Papa Jim came to visit! It was lots of fun! Unfortunately, the weather was frigid the whole time they were here. And of course, today it hit 70.
So since the weather was not cooperating we tried to find some indoor activities. We visited the local malls and played in their play areas. We also went to an indoor play area one afternoon where Lindsay and Leslie had the entire place to themselves!! Much to their joy and a picture-taking Grammie's. We did get a chance to go to the park in our neighborhood two times while Grammie and Papa were here, but we were pretty bundled.
One of the highlights for the girls was a valentines present from Papa and Grammie in the form of a play kitchen. They are in heaven with that thing. Both girls love to make various concoctions. I can't tell you what they are because often Lindsay will use made up words to describe what she has made. Leslie will just pass out plates and say dee-doo (thankyou) as she hands them to you. Lelsie loves to serve water that she gets from the kitchen's sink. Lindsay discovered that she can combine her new kitchen with her stage and become Rachel Ray. She spent an evening while Lance and I went on a date (what's a date??) playing Rachel Ray while Papa Jim played cameraman. We will try to post some of the video, but Lance is going to have to do that because I don't know how.
Leslie also learned some new words while Grammie and Papa Jim were here. She learned how to say Pampa and she says Grammie but it sounds a little more like Bobby. The best thing though is that she loves to say "oh man!" The girls have been a bit spoiled with all of the personal attention this week. I am going to miss having someone there to watch the girls and play with them all the time. (Don't get me wrong, I love to do that too, but then my house would never be clean if I did that all the time!)
This weekend when the weather got a little better we went to Dallas to see Dealey plaza and then we did some shopping at Southlake (a fun little place you will have see if you visit us), we ended the day with a dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse (Mmmmm).
Anyway, we had a great visit and wished that we could get on the plane with them when they left. We miss them already! They left with a picture that Lindsay made them. It was Grammie and Papa walking on the plane. It was a very good picture and I know that Grammie and Papa will put it in a special place at home.

As a side note- we heard that our friend Rich Durost was going to be landing in Dallas today (on his way to Kuwait, then Iraq) too and then we found out that his plane was the plane that my parents were leaving on so we got passes to go to the gate and got to see Rich for a little bit of time. It was short but sweet.

Would you say that is pure joy on her face??












Lindsay on a calf at Southlake.












Leslie getting a ride at the playhouse.












Lindsay and Leslie finding other things to do with their bowls.

18 months and (almost) 3 1/2

Can you believe it? Leslie turned 18 months on Friday! Lance and I cannot believe that it has been a year and 1/2 since Leslie was born, not to mention 3 1/2 years since Lindsay was born! When did time start zooming by?

Leslie is growing up so fast! She is really transforming into a little girl, and leaving babyhood behind. In the last few weeks, she has added more words to her vocabulary. She will try to say anything you say, and she has perfected some of her "old" words. Like, shh has become shoe. Some of her favorite new words are up, down, mow(milk or more), dolly, ball, moo(moon). But like I said she will mimick almost anything you say. Diaper is bipo with a pat on the bum. It is fun to try to get her to say new things. Suddenly, she is feeding herself. Quite by accident I discovered that she can use a spoon so this has opened a whole new world. Not to mention, I get to eat my cereal at the same time as the girls! Leslie has also discovered sitting on the stool at the counter is much more fun than the highchair. This can be a problem, however, since she can climb up onto the counter from the stool. This child has no fear. She also tries to take the stool wherever she wants to get to in the kitchen, though she can't climb up it yet. She just pushes the stool to where she wants to be and says up until someone gets the point. We are currently trying to get her ready for taking the sides off of her crib so that she will be in a "big girl bed." I don't know if we are brave enough yet to go through with it yet, even though Lindsay started being in a big bed at 18 months.
Lindsay must be 3 1/2 going on 13. We are finding ourselves dealing with more stuborness than we have had to in the past. She is definately testing the waters, trying to see what Mom and Dad are going to do if she does the opposite of what she is told. She is coming through though and since we know how important this time is for her learning how to deal with us in the future, Lance and I are resolved to be more stubborn than her. I have to say though, it is a bit easier now that Leslie has become more of a playmate for Lindsay. Fun times, for sure! This girl is growing up so fast!! This week we are registering Lindsay for a 2 day pre-school for next year. I am excited because I know that she is going to LOVE school. She is so curious and excited about learning, it will be really fun to do it with a bunch of other 4 year olds next year.

As for Lance and I, things are changing a little for us too. This week, I start a part-time paid tutoring job. I think it will be fun. I am a little worried about how the girls will take it. Lindsay doesn't like me leaving at night for anything. I remember when I was young and when my mom worked at night, it was hard for me. Of course I turned out ok, but it kind of bothers me that I can remember it, it must have been a little traumatic. I don't want to cause problems for Lindsay. I guess we can call it "character building." Oh well, that's mommy guilt for you! It is only a few hours a week and it is going to build up slowly as I gather more students. I will only max out at 8-10 hours a week. The pay is good and I feel like I am using my degree.

Whew! How is that for an update? Hope you didn't fall asleep reading it!

Lance's Birthday and Sickos

Lance's birthday was several days ago now, but I still wanted to post the pictures we took. We made a chocolate cake (Lindsay put the sprinkles on) and sang the traditional happy birthday song. Lindsay got a little excited though, and while Lance was taking a breath to blow the candles out, she was blowing them out herself! It was quite funny and I wish I would have gotten it on video. She realized quickly what she had done and covered her mouth in surprise. So we lit them again so daddy could do it. This time she held her mouth so that she wouldn't make the same mistake.

This week has started off slow. The girls have been nursing colds since Sunday and last night Lindsay woke up with a fever in addition to her cough and stuffy nose. She threw up the medicine I gave her and is just miserable this morning. So if you think about us this week, please pray that these little ones can get better so we can get back to normal life. When the girls are sick we miss our playdates and Lindsay's favorite church activities. Gotta go, I hear Lindsay crying.

Snow in Texas (again!???)

I thought the good thing about Texas was that it is warmer here! Right now, as I am typing I see that our highs for the next 3 days are lower than Puyallup's highs. What is with it? My feet are cold and my hands are colder. Anyway, we woke up to 1/8th of an inch (gasp!) of snow and ice. Maybe we shouldn't have given away our snow shovel. The whole world stopped here in Texas. Every school is closed, as well as the pediatrician I tried to call and make an appointment with for Leslie's 18 month check up. Our church activities are also cancelled tonight. The roads have been pretty bad though. I heard on the news that they are running out of sand and salt south of Dallas. So unless we get some better temps soon, we are going to be freezing for a long time. Not to mention stuck in our house!
So we made a snowman. Don't laugh, we did our best.

Family Date

It had been a while since we had done something fun together outside of the house. So this past Monday, despite extreme cold and ice on the roads, we ventured out for a family date. We went to Wiggly Play Center in Frisco. The first one in the US, by the way. It is a Wiggles themed playhouse with bouncy toys and a huge jungle gym and little kid play area. Compared to the place we went for playgroup recently, it seems a little smaller, but the girls didn't notice. They had fun, especially since their daddy was there. Most notably, Lindsay ran up and flew down a slide so many times she was flushed and sweaty when we were ready to leave. Afterwords, we went to "Old" Mcdonalds (as Lindsay calls it) and had lunch. It was a very fun family day! We accidently left our camera at home so these are pics taken with Lance's Treo. Can you see Lindsay moving a huge foam block and Leslie dancing to the Wiggles? Lindsay was going around playing air guitar too!

Catch up time.

It has been almost a couple of weeks already, since we returned from Washington. So we better catch up a little.
We had Christmas #2 last Saturday when our packages arrived from Washington. We had a little scare on Friday when the tracking on Fedex said that one of the boxes had been delivered, but it hadn't come to our house. It was a great surprise when we heard the doorbell ring Saturday afternoon. The girls got so excited. Lindsay knew exactly what the doorbell meant, CHRISTMAS!! Lindsay and Leslie excitedly re-discovered their gifts.
This week, the girls and I went to play group at a fun place with lots of bouncy toys and a huge fun jungle gym. We had so much fun. Lindsay was brave and tried everything. Leslie wanted to try everything, but there are some limits to being 17 months.
Friday the Guthries came over and brought a cookie cake for Lance's birthday (just like last year!). We played a couple of games and had a great time.
The last two days we have been kind of shut in because everything is cancelled due to possible icey roads. Our trees are glazed with ice but the roads seem fine. Texas can't handle the cold very well, I guess.
Today, we all slept in front of the football game. And though I would have been happy had the outcome been different, Lance and Lindsay celebrated the Bears win with their bears attire and a little Super Bowl Shuffle (a la 1986). So that has been our week and 1/2 since being back in TX. We have been busy!

We're home!

I think that this picture says it best. This is how we all felt when we got home last night. It was a loooooong trip home but we are here and we are safe. Lindsay coughed all the way home, and is still sick today. Needless to say, after 12 hours of traveling, we are happy to be home!