play matt

this is daisy-landia right now. she spends a good few hours on her play matt every day. thanks sgedly!



she is starting to grab on to things, trying to sit up and a super star at holding her head high during tummy time. oh and the best- she giggled today when i tickled her. =)



sj likes to join her on the matt. yesterday i had sj on my hip and went in to get daisy up from a nap, sj wanted to get in the crib with daisy. so she played beside daisy for about 40 minutes in the crib. she shared the poo poo socks- one for daisy and one for sally. she covered daisy with a blanket, then uncovered her....





video- sj says "gowaukee"- milwaukee at the beginning....

well- our thanksgiving weekend turned out a bit different than we had planned.
uncle cookie arrived on thursday and was pretty sick for his entire stay here. poor guy- he is a marine officer now- i guess they are just working him hard. he ended up sleeping part of thursday, the entire day friday and then was awake but pretty miserable for saturday. coughing, with fever some of the time and just plain miserable. he ended up going to a medical clinic on saturday and got an antibiotic and a dr.s note to excuse him from the 5 mile run the marines had for him today. pray for him.

so we were stoked to have him, but bummed to barely have coherant time with him. sally did get cookie to read her some books and she called him cookie the whole weekend.

on top of that- my side of the fam had sickness going on too.

guess it's that time of the year.

as for this week- gow is wrapping up the camp project and has a deadline for Friday for his Harley Davison project and is feeling lousy on top of that.

i got to run errands this morning childfree! wowie what a feeling! as auntie jane played with the girls and even took sj out in the cold for a walk with her baby stroller.

k- hope ya'll get some sunshine today.

dad's hat

looks like a trucker. =)

laughing at something her daddy's doing.

its fun that sal and daise are starting to be entertained by each other. you can see here that daisy is watching sal. and sally LOVES it when she can get a reaction, any reaction from daise.

i am soo pumped that today is gow's last day of work! yeehaw for a long weekend!

tonight the kerhlis are coming to town! can't wait to see lil parks.

and then tomorrow caleb flies in and we will head to my sis' house in Crystal Lake for our feast.

adding to the greatness of today- our sweet sal was her sweet self today! woot woot! nothing terrible two about her. oh lovely day.

k- short n sweet today folks.

love to ya'll and have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!

dk squeeks

just had to upload the video for you to hear for yourselves!

talk about high pitchin it here!

the park and all of the joys of being outdoors

this is the park at calvary church- it is my fave park around cuz it is safe for sally. i don't have to hover over her every move... however, she did have a spill on the twisty slide and ended with a bump on her head this day...

she loves being outside as much as i do- and the freedom that she can have at the park... oh to run free and climb and play on everything!

she is experimenting on the slide

the rock climbing wall- notice, i am on belay!

yeah buddy! she is on the climb!

i am the queen of the world!!!

this action shot was followed with the spill. somehow she turned and flew out of the bottom of the slide sideways. next time- she will wear her safety helmet . jk

and this is typically how daisy enjoys the park! =) cozy, snuggly and in dreamlandia- possible dreaming of the day she will romp with sj at the park!

sj feeding the horsey she just took out for a spin

and sj pushin daisy's stroller around while i load daise in the car.

welp- dreary wintery day #2 for us. i guess it's cuz i didn't make any plans with anyone else... with daisy's deep deep cough and busy fam weekend coming up-i was trying to lay low for all of us. oh well.

tomorrow we have a play date with a friend from church, her two boys and cyndie and timmy .

us three gowanitas are pumped for it!

then tomorrow night james, silvs and parks are coming to visit! wahoo!!!

can't wait to see how big parker is - and we miss james and silvy tons.

then gow has thurs and fri off! woot woot!

uncle cookie- ie, uncle caleb flies in on thursday and that marks the beginning of vacation for us.

sweet sal fell asleep on my lap today while i was typing on the computer. she wanted to listen to gow's headphones (for when he works and we are all sleeping) so i put BOB on and by about song 4- she was out. an hour earlier than normal nap time.

i am thinkin she is working on her top eye teeth now maybe?

3 shots later, sj is almost vaccinated for the season. she just got her second flu shot and now only needs her second H1N1 shot. she's such a trooper.

i got out of the shower this morning to two strange things..

daisy was on the bed squeeking in this high squeek that only dogs ears could hear.

she's been doing it all day. she is not crying, but has a smile on her face. it is like she is trying to communicate with dolphins. =) maybe she is trying to sing? i tried to video it, but every time she saw the camera she got distracted and quit. =)

the other strange thing was sally in her crib saying "go-walky" "go-walky" - like 10 times. that is her word for Milwaukee. what in the world do you think she was thinking about when she woke up, laying in her crib?

k- enjoy your evenin'

in honor of a cold day... pix from the summer

yup. it's cold and dreary today.

so, to keep things warm and sunshiney- here are some fun pix from the summer that i had on my phone.

can't believe how much sal's hair has grown since summer! and i love how cutsie they look beside each other!

wearing my glasses on the lake walk

ah- wearing summer dresses. the good ol days when going on walk (or as sal says "gowaaak- one word) didn't require socks, shoes, hats, jackets and blankets. =)

cuties. falling asleep and loving on each other.

so, whatever the terrible twos are, i think we are quickly approaching.

this morning sal wanted to sit on the stereo speaker to watch her BOB show (veggies). i told her to get down.

she did.

then she looked at me and got back up.

i told her to get down.

and she did.

then she looked at me and got back up.

hmmm... i told her to get down.

and she did not.

so i turned off bob.

she got down.

i turned bob back on.

she looked at me and got back up on the stereo.

i turned off bob.

she got down.

i turned bob back on.

she climbed up.

i turned bob OFF.

for good.

sally cried.

weeping like she lost her bff.

ten minutes later- she had recovered from the devestation and it was lunch time.

i made her a plate of potatos, brocolli and peaches.

and i made myself the same.

she wanted to stand at my chair to eat-- which would be MESSY.

i go to put her in her chair, her legs curl up and she says no.

so i put her down and go to sit at my chair to eat.

i tried to put her in 3 or 4 times- with the same reaction.

finally i leave her on the floor and tell her that i am going to eat.

she cries.

comes to me and ask to get up.

i pick her up.

she proceeds to watch me eat my whole plate.

sometimes wimpering sometimes asking for a potato or peach.

i tell her she can eat in her chair- she says no.

finally i finish my meal ( btw- i commented on each bite of how delicious my meal was)

and finally she asks to sit in her chair.

she eats her lovely meal.

she's happy, i am happy.

but wow. am praying this is only a stage with our sweet sal. and i think that really what's behind all this is that she is seeing that she can make some choices. and often, she wants to make ALL the choices. please pray we will discern what battles are worth fighting and for gentle patience in it all.

=)

on the daisy front- she is working on rolling over.

and my word is she the happiest 3 monther alive.

she is talking and smiling at walmart greeters, neighbors, friends and family, and even in the morning while i am burping her she smiles at the dolly that she hangs out with while i shower. =)

daisy is working her way towards two long naps a day.

she's not quite there- will often take a few 10 minute naps in there too.

will wait til after the holidays to establish a real nap routine.

k- thats alot today.

am hoping gow will be home at norm time tonight.

oh- and i think donnie is gonna have her baby soon!

a fun saturday

this morning the gowan house hold soaked up having daddy home! (and not working WHILE being at home!)

daisy slept in until 7am, sally slept until 9am and gow and i moseyed around getting breakfast ready for our friends, the Lenzes to visit!

(i have no clue how to spell moseyed, but since it's my blog, i am not even gonna spell check it. cuz in "lauraism" that's how it's spelled. i love this freedom!)

Kelli ( a friend of mine from JBU), her husband and their 2 year old Eli came for a morning of playing, eating and double jogger ridin' to the lake and park.

It was super fun to reconnect with Kelli, a smarm, and to share a bit of our lives now (pregnancies, babies, toddlers, life after JBU etc)

Kelli- come again soon! it was a sweet time- and can't wait to meet your lil man in the new year!

so it has been "one of those weeks" - which is why i haven't posted since Tuesday.

the grand finale was a mini melt down from our sweet sal last night.

not sure what it was all about, hope to not have another one again, and thankful that that is not the norm.

she just was crying. sobbing. nothing consoled her. she was warm so we gave her some tylonol, maybe teeth again? i have no clue.

but she finally calmed down enough to get in the car and go to grandma and grandpas' and she was absolutely fine there.

strange.

thursday i bailed on MOPs to take daisy to the doc. she has developed a juice cough- which the doc checked out and all is good. she just has a nasty yucko congestion thing going on.

friday we went to my aunt's art show- super fun to see what she, neal and cyndie have created!

i am hoping to be able to take the class myself in the spring!

it will be water painting with an emphasis on composition, values and contrast. we will see if it will work out with the girles!

tonight is our coffee shop with folks from church (it's like a community group- but more designed to allow parents an avenue to hang out, connect and sip on some tasty coffee with the kiddos downstairs in the basement with a sitter.

sal has really been into coloring lately. we picked up this easel at a garage sale this summer and i am really thankful for it now as it has gotten cold outside.

and works well to let daisy have a good long nap when we stay home and indoors.

grandma giving the girls a "horsey ride" and if you notice sal's hand in her mouth... this is how she has been while those eye teeth have been working their way out.

i think sally was washing the dishes for me and daisy was looking at the banana. =)

a few weeks ago we got a fun surprise package from great grandma and grandpa hillis!

here is a quick video of sal's interaction with her new fish tank and daisy's new socks.

also, if you'd like to take a peak at one of gow's latest pieces for work, click here

k. love to ya'll.

2 nappin in 1

woot woot!

the two gowanita girlies are nappin in the same room!

this is probably more of a flukey thing as opposed to the norm- but i am celebrating nontheless.

=)

i need to take a pix of the girls room so you can see... it is really quite amazing as we now have 2 cribs, a queen guest bed, a changing table, dresser (in the closet), a small book shelf, a trunk and the baby swing- all in the room! plus there is still quite a bit of room to play!

k- so the game last night was super fun!

it was an amazing feeling to be child-free from 5pm on!

THANKS SOO MUCH AUNTIE CYNDIE!

it was gow, my bro, my bro in law and myself that headed into down town Milwaukee (about 8 blocks from Gow's office) to see the bucks lose in overtime to the dallas mavs.

the game started out slow as the mavs pulled ahead- but the action picked up as rookie jennings, plastic face (face guard dude), and the other guard that we called "dave lewis" ( a friend of ours from nashy) started sinkin some hoops.

an added bonus was that gow got a "cash card" for $50 from his work- for us to spend on food. so we got to eat there -- making the whole evening that much cooler. =)

fun times! it was a $300 package - thanks About Face!

here are some pix from halloween-

after trick or treating- daisy continued her nap by the door to give out candy. =)

it took sally awhile to understand the process- we probably went in and out of about 8 stores before she understood that they had something to give her. then it was after i opened up a 3 musketeers for her to sample- that she understood that those things they were trying to give her were GOOOOOD! =)

we started out with kitty cat emma and snow man tim. =)

an "ink" doggy

video - sally driving around miss daisy.

=)

tonight is paying bills, cleaning the bathrooms (yuck) and just normal life stuff.

i did decide to put other things on hold this AM to make some of my momma's TASTY bread.. the house smells yummy!

toodles!

fun pix with eubanks and taubes

deep dish baby! this is pizza chicago style!

you go girl!

sally was sharing her head bands with us... oh so sassy!

and Daisy getting some eubanks loving!

k- haven't blogged this weekend.

it has been full.

we had friends from church over for pizza on Friday night- they have an Ella that is a few months older than sally. it was super fun to hear them talk the same "language" and to see the interact.

Saturday was carmel rolls at grandpa and grandmas and then the rest of the day gow and i both felt pretty lousy with sinus/cold/naste.

Sunday was a fun outing on the lake! Yup- in 40 degree weather- we hit the lake on Neal and Cyndie's SWEET new boat! then an afternoon at home and church.

tomorrow night we are going to a Mav's vs Bucks game! woot woot!

gow scored box tickets from work and my sweet sis is taking on both girlies plus her two kiddos to enable us to go! BLESS YOU CYNDIE!

i wanted to take a minute and talk about sally's purple passion.

while buela was here, she worked on teaching sally some colors (by using fruit loops).... poo poo is the color that REALLY stuck. ( i feel like i already mentioned this- but bear with me)

so now, sally only wants to wear her purple pants.

she only want to have poo poo pony tail holders.

our poo poo marker is almost dried out.

and she steal daisy's poo poo socks right off of her everytime i put them on. =)

we are working on other colors- but for the time being- poo poo wins every time!

as for daisy- she took her first nap in her crib today!

funny as she has been looking soo huge in her bassinet, that in the crib, she looked teeny!

she did great. she will do her morning naps in her crib in sally's room (soon to be THE GIRLS room) and then we will slowly work up to having her afternoon naps and evenings in there too.

k. it's 10.

i am headed to bed.

happy three months daisy kate

good grief my baby girl is growing and she won't stop!

=)

seriously, she is getting so big, i want to be able to snuggle her for at least a few more months!

this lil video is her sweet sweet smiles.

daisy is sleeping from 8pm- 7ish am. however, we are at the same place we were with sally shortly after having her sleeping in the nights... she is waking up about 3 times in the early morning for her plug. ugh. we pop it back in and she is out again. but that still means getting up to pop in back in...

with sally, we had to just let her cry for about 5 minutes and let her put herself back to sleep.

guess we will need to do that with daisy girl too.

sally- i think she has said "key koo" (thank you) about a trazillion times in the past two days. it is soo sweet and she says it after EVERYTHING. gow changed her poopy diaper tonight and as he was putting her back on the floor she said "key koo" =)

gow's at worship practice and i think i am gonna head to bed.

g'night ya'll.

praise the Lord for the weekend!

fall colors with eubanks

ahhhhhhh

ohhhhhhh

OHH!!!

this pix were taken on our block... the fall leaves were AMAZING! and as you can see- we had a sweet time with Toddly and Jess!

this is walking the lake trail... jess has daisy in her arms.

daddy and sal

this is the house that todd and jess bought.

teehee- okay, so in our dreams they bought it. the lake has mansions all the way around.. makes for a really fun walk.

this is the one WE bought. want to come and visit? there is a pool on the roof.

the girls conked out on our walk home

so fun to be with friends - come back soon eubanks!

so today i mastered the kitchen floor.

yes, this is quite a feat when sweet sal wants to "hep" by stepping in my swept pile about 16 times, dumping my dust pan on the way to the "tash" EVERY time and is quick to replace every matt, basket and chair that i had moved out of the way. (she likes things in their place - just like momma) =)

and that was just the sweeping part (AND our kitchen floor is teeny)!

so whoever mister swiffer is.... THANK YOU and i love you! =) you make my life wonderful.

two highlights of our day so far....

1- gow will be home for dinner! WOOT WOOT! we are sooo pumped!

2- sally was the queen of the playground today. she has now done three different slides on her own. i am soo proud. however, she did have a spill today- not sure what happened, she was not sitting right by the time she got to the bottom of the slide and i only half way caught her. but she is a-ok, had a small bump on her cheek and even went down the slide one more time on my lap.

tomorrow daisy kate will be THREE MONTHS old! CRAZY!

we love her and she is the best baby!

ahh.. more on her tomorrow.

i am off- i have 6 minutes left of a gilmore girls- luke just asked loreli out for the first time!

camp harvest fest party

both girls in dry diapers and all dressed to go (this may sound like a small feat- but sometimes it is quite a huge task)

blues with grandma and grandpa ( grandma made this blues outfit years ago for sally's older cousins- check out the little tail!)

if you haven't spent much time with sal, she is QUITE the talker. (must get that from her daddy) =)

friends from church

my brother giving a big "B" for the blog! =)

just being silly

before the festival there was dinner. this is a short video of sally running around with cousins and kiddos at the dinner.... by far, this was her highlight of the night. not the candy, not the games or prizes, but just chasing the other kiddos.

so, when buela was here, she taught sally the color purple.

it is quite hysterical as sally now talks about purple ALL day long.

she is accurate with calling things purple about 85% of the time.

she says "poe poe"this and "poe poe" that... makes me smile and makes me think of you buela!

gow had another UBER long day of work. he is on his way home now... he must be exhausted.

i know that i am- and i have a HUGE compassion for single moms. how in the world do the make it?

pray for gow to make it thru this week.

our weekend is looking much slower... we are soo looking forward to rest and some family time.

today sally kept asking for daddy. ahh...

oh- please also pray for lil sal. she is working on her "pointy teeth". one is popping thru... and she has been hurting. last night she woke up crying a few times and tonight had a rough time going to bed. poor lil one.

i had a youth group meeting tonight- and am soooo thankful for living in the same town as family. these long days without gow would be more than i could handle on my own.

i am soo blessed.

k- gonna hit the hay.

camp party- my two fave pix

love these pix with our little blues clues. =)

the one of gow and sj seriously cracks me up.

these pix were from the fall festival that covenant harbor (dad's former work) put on.

this blues clues outfit has been passed down from cousins. =)

so- this morning the girls and i cleaned up the house and then headed to walmart with grandma. (ok, so not so much the girls helping on that one- but i am hopeful for the future on that one) we picked out material to cover an ugly but very functional bumper for daisy's crib (found one for free at MOPs-woot woot). then grandma treated us to a mickey d's parfait. yummers.

then we came home to unload, feed daisy, drop off grandma and we headed 20 minutes south to meet sarah, ben, kris and dave at the park. we had to soak up this SWEET warm weather while we can- and the cousins had today off of school. it was fun! sally is feeling quite independant these days and has now mastered about 5 different slides by herself.

now the girls are sleeping, i am feeling sleepy and hungry. hungry cuz i haven't been spending energy on cooking so we have just been living on grilled cheese, burritos and eggs. ugh. if you have any inspirational cooking ideas that literally only require 2 or 3 steps to prep- send em my way! =)

daisy slept well last night on her tummy.

we plan to pick up the other crib from mom and dad's this week and in the next couple weeks transition daisy to sally's room.

last night was youth group. we played sardines in the church with the lights off. SUPER fun. the kids loved it and it totally reminded me of JBU days... anyone remember playing that with our latino friends?

and Andrew gave a great talk using one of Rob Bell's videos called Rain . God totally spoke to me thru the video... check it out. the part where he took his boy into his arms and CHERISHED their time together in the storm. TREASURED the closeness and the fact that his boy had cried out to him and that he DID know where the cabin was and that there would be an end to the storm. gave me a totally different perspective on how GOD views the storms of life we go thru....

i love doing youth group- but totally don't like that we only meet every other week. i feel like it is a tease at what youth ministry, discipleship and friends are really all about. ho hum. i am praying about that one.

well- gow is going to work later tonight- maybe hoping to come home around 7pm.

both today and tomorrow will be long days for him as he picked up at fast deadlined project this morning. these three day massive jobs are really great for us because the produce extra hours, which is extra cash but only last a few days due to the deadline. gow is tired - cuz of our crazy fun and full weekend. but we are happy and blessed.

k. this is getting long.

gonna go wander in the kitchen and find something to munch on.

love to ya'll.