loving summer

today started with a walk/jog with daisy kate down by the lake.

then breakfast, a shower, dk down for a nap and sally and i headed to a mini- parade that Emma and Cyndie were marching in.

so fun- and i am LOVING small town life. =)

then hanging out with the cousins, getting dirty and enjoying being outdoors, sally skipped nap today and then bbq at auntie karen's for the folks in her building.

then an hour in the pool.

ahhh the blissful pool.

sally's "new trick" as she calls it is walking across the shallow end all by herself and climbing out the ladder to run back to the stairs and do it all again. =)

daisy goes between drinking the water, blowing funky bubbles in the water and generally just liking the pool.

=)

btw- i hadn't posted and many of you have been asking about Gow's folks re: the volcano.

they are both safe, healthy and their home is safe also. they did have some days of crazy storms, no electricity and john was stuck in the jungle for a few days due to massive mud slides. but they are both home now and doing well as the country has much clean up to do.

thanks for praying and caring.

night!

daisy kate is clapping

seems like everyday one of our girlies are "doing something new" or just simply being adorable.

=) yup, i am a wee bit biased.

sally is zilburching daisy.

k- gonna do bullets today.

-dk is like a bulldozer. nothing in our home is safe, she is under everything, opening everything, pulling anything over and simply on the move.

-she also tends to get stuck or even stepped on as sally/we are not used to her traveling solo...

yup ,sj's foot is on her arm... poor baby girl!

trying to reach the yellow ball... and sally often tries to help!

- first time at "dwamma" and "dwampa's" pool, sally picked up a swim noodle, dropped one end in the pool and said "allys fishing"

- after our first swim of the season, we were leaving and as she could not produce the name "pool" she instead asked when we could take "more big bath" =)

- after bathtub- baths, gow often wraps sj in a towel, holds her like a baby and sings to her. yesterday i was taking her out of the tub, had wrapped her in a towel and took her to her room to diaper and jammie. she looked up at me and asked "song? jesus song" she wanted jesus loves me!

- daisy is now clapping!

- i am down to nursing dk one time a day.

-dk also enjoys the pool. she tried to drink the water and fell asleep in the pool on saturday.

-sally in her big girl bed, with dk pulling herself up to peek

-i did not put those bears there... that is sally's doing.

-sj's quickly learning the "safe zones" - aka- the places that dk can't reach her toys.

exploring

the used to be a safe way for me to grab a 3 minute shower... daisy would be "stuck" standing up.

not anymore!

we have had a full and fun week.

ben and kristi came up for a sleep over on friday night... we hit the pool WOOT WOOT- with PERFECT weather and water temp!

as they are early risers - ben, kris, daisy and myself took a jog down to the lake at 6:30 to check out the boats, fish, spiderwebs and birds.

ate some breakfast, headed to the park with gow and sally and by 10am were hot enough for the pool again. =) Neal, Cyndie and kiddos and amy and dave joined us - then we did lunch at Neal's, naps and dinner BBQing at my aunties.

with all the fun, sun and cousins- both girls zonked out last night!

oh, forgot to say that i went to the Vein Clinics of America last week.

i was SUPER impressed and encouraged by my consultation... really felt like they were the best that i have dealt with.

then after finding out that our insurance would not cover a dime- quickly decided that this is NOT the time to work on my legs. =(

the treatment would be around $10,000.

if you didn't know, i have had 2 ligations (vein strippings) 3 injection treatments, 1 laser treatment and a partridge in a pear tree over the past 15 years.

i was told by the "vein master" at UCLA that i should have preventative work done every two years to keep my vascular system healthy.

i went to get them checked out cuz i have one that is hurting me quite a bit- and of course my legs are pretty bad after two pregnancies...

all in all- God knows.

maybe gow will soon be offered a job with benefits, maybe He will provide insurance another way... or maybe this is simply not the time to work on my legs. i don't know.

but we keep trusting.

on the house stuff... all in all we are waiting.

the seller has a bunch of things they need to do, so we are waiting and praying.

please keep praying as there are a ton of small details that need to fall into place.

the GREAT news is... our current landlord is being super flex and awesome with us.

we will give our 30 days notice on monday, but if anything happens to "our" house, we just have to tell him and we can stay. regardless of if he has someone lined up or not.

PRAISE GOD! and blessings to our landlord George!

k. need to wake the girls for church.

daisy's tooth

so we are melting here. =)

gow is currently working on installing our window AC units.

he did the girls' before they went to bed... and we are drooping/wilting as he quickly works on our other one.

it was 88 degrees and HUMID today.

we hit the lake, gow and the girls got pretty wet, but the lake is still a teeny too cold.

i gave the girls a COLD bath tonight.... felt like we were at a pool.

so daisy's tooth has made it's debut!

she is also traveling from room to room and pulling up on EVERYTHING.

nothing is safe anymore.

as for sally- this past week she has had three days where she simply doesn't nap.

she will stay in her bed - as daisy is sleeping in the crib next to her.

she cries a little bit, plays a little bit, sometimes talks to herself of the bears in her bed... but stays put in her toddler bed.

crazy.

silly things...

1) sally mixed canned mixed fruit into a bowl of baked beans and then ate them all.

2) sally also poured 1/2 cup of apple juice into 1/2 cup of chocolate milk, stirred it and drank it all.

3)daisy kate fell asleep sitting up in her pack n play at my sisters.

she must have been talking with sally when she fell asleep. i found her with her face smooshed into the corner of the pack in plan while sitting up- sound asleep!

bucket head!

how funny did we dress the girls... ran boots, winter hats, summer dresses/pants, fall vests, winter scarves, bare arms. =)

LOVE It!

uncle dave took sally out for a spin!

ha- love "twisty's" (kristi's) face in this one!

looks like story time with auntie amy

btw- sally asked me this morning if she could have some bread at her little tea party table and chairs. i said sure. next thing i know, she is putting it in the microwave in her little kitchen, setting the timer on the little kitchen and then moments later when it dings she shouts- READY! =)

my sister amy found this fun elmo suit for sally at a garage sale... she LOVES it!

oh- and the update on our house sitch... we have a one week extension as the loan underwriters needed more time to do things on their end.

we should know something by Friday.

we also discovered some rather large carpenter ants nests in our yard. NIIICE.

k. night ya'll.

el lago fantastico

sal "in our front yard"- ok, not really. but these days we are spending so much time down at the like, it sort of feels like our front yard.

this is one day when we snuck out to Mcd's to pick up lunch and then had a picnic at the lake.

everybody's happy at the lake!

gatherin' "nannywi-ons" (dandy lions) in her "buckies" (buckets) =)

went to MOPs today.

had a good morning... was feeling more "like myself" then i have since being prego with sally.

maybe it's the summer weather and sunshine, maybe it's i am feeling ALMOST my pre-prego bod, maybe it's just that i have 2 sweet girlies that are healthy and happy. =)

whatever it was, it was a good morning.

=)

some of our church stuff...

had a SWEET meal tonight with Auntie Karen.... steaks on the grill, corn on the cob, lots of veggies and a brownie sundae for dessert. and you just couldn't beat the amazing weather today... perfect, sunny- but not too hot... wonderful weather.

thanks auntie karen!

well, sally is doing super well sleeping without her 4th wall on the crib.

she has succeeded at two naps and this is her second night... so far so good. =)

daisy is also sleeping in until about 6:45 now.. thanks to a sheet put up over the blinds.

6:45/7... now THAT - this momma can do! =)

here are some pix of some of our church activities...

marieke- my buddy hanging out with daisy at our house one morning...

at a silent auction, we won the bid for a Swedish Pancake meal at our friends' Herb and Elaine Clauson (you may know this lovely folks from Quito... they were there with the Covenant for 5 years). our friends Julia and Scott Tenbroeck also came....the food was tasty, the fellowship was wonderful and the weather was perfecto.

daisy... i think she's gonna be an athlete. =)

sal..

gow have a convo with the gentlemen..

the guys and the kiddos hanging out on a BEAUTIFUL sunny morning.

the guys hanging out at "coffee shop" - our community group that meets 2 times a month at Neal and Cyndie's.

Kalib - one of our youth groupers - playing with daisy during a family night (when kids come too) coffee shop

my friend sarah and her baby benton

i mentioned this weekend that our church will have a new pastor starting august.... it's Bruce and Alissa Bruns! Alissa grew up at Alpine with us... her folks worked there and her brother Rod was/is one of Neal's and mine's good friends. we are totally pumped!

k. gonna go see what happens on Idol.

night.

fun weather today

happy tuesday to ya'll.

we had great weather today... spent lots of time outside, in fact i made 4 trips to the lake front today.

1st- on a walk with my friend marieke sans kiddos

2nd- taking the girls to the beach, but ended up packing up early cuz we were all three too hot. daisy actually laid down on the blanket and sally ended up just sitting on my lap. the sun was blazing, there was zippo wind and the water is still too cold to get into and enjoy.

3rd- as the girls are both napping at 2pm now, i can sometimes sneak out of the house for some ME time if gow is working from home. it has been SWEET! today i walked the lake front, went to the PO, starbucks and then laid on a dock for a while just enjoying the great outdoors!

4th- we had tim and ems tonight and took the kids to the docks to look for fish. =)

this is from a few weeks ago... daisy has graduated from the exersaucer.

sally playing peek a boo

gow is the "bath man" in our household. often i return to the bathroom with dk in her jammies to see this.... daddy singing to sally all wrapped up and snuggly.

sally went to children's church with emma a few weeks ago... she seemed soo grown up!

enjoying the lake...

daisy looking for rocks or other "eat-worthy" items in the sand.

today sally is sleeping in a toddler bed.

she was a champ at nap time - daisy was crying in her crib across the room and sally was in her bed saying "night night daisy night night" - but never got out of bed.

so the sweetest sister moment of the week....

daisy fell asleep in the stroller on the way home from the lake today.

sally had been walking by the stroller but was also tired, so she climbed in beside daisy.

when she saw that dk was asleep. sally first lightly touched dk's hair. then she softly rubbed dk's cheeks. she even softly touched dk's toes and then back to her face. she was loving on her little sister for almost a full minute. it was incredible to watch!

however, she ended her sweet sister loving with a small pinch to daisy's hand. =)

k. good night ya'll.