swimming

we went to the pool tonight for the first time this summer. i love our pool and especially the fact that it's free at 7:30. we can swim for 30 minutes then come home and head to bed. a great summer time routine! we planned to go tomorrow afternoon with matt but i decided i wanted to check out the water temperature before we pay to go. it was a little chilly at first, but not bad. sophie didn't turn blue so that was a good indicator.

sophie loved the water. i knew she would because we went swimmng at an indoor pool a couple weeks ago and she had a blast. she loved going down the frog slide,and the best part was it was a frog. sophie loves frogs and so the fact that the slide is a frog makes sophie very happy! pictures to come when matt is with me to help catch.

molly grew like a weed over the past year. last summer she could barely touch over the by the wall 2.5 ft. we didn't feel comfortable letting her that far by herself. this year, no problem. she walks all over the shallow end without the water coming close to going over her head. she wants to swim so bad too! i'm anxious for swimming lessons next year. she's going to be quite the little fish!

i plan to take the girls as much as possible before baby 3 comes along. it's a great way to end our evening!

summer devotional study

this summer i am participating in such a neat bible study and book study. it started last week and i have already learned so much and been challenged by what God is teaching me. the bible study is only a verse or two every day. i was a little concerned that this would be enough but it really is and makes me think a bit deeper about the verses. i fond the study on a blog i frequently read http://womenlivingwell-courtney.blogspot.com/. it is linked up to another site, www.goodmorninggirls.org. the study is focusing on motherhood, raising a family, and building the home. perfect for me in my life right now! we follow a simple plan to study the verses called s.o.a.p (scripture, observations, applications, prayer).

this is what i learned this week:

•  Christ must be central in building the home/family Ps. 127:1
•  I must be totally dependent on God in all areas of my life, my childrens' lives, and my husband's life Jn. 15:4-5
•  Christ must be first in my life. seek Him first, he will meet all my needs (needs, not wants!) Matt 6:33
• timothy's mother and grandmother had a strong relationship with the Lord. they faithfully taught timothy and passed their faith to him 2 tim. 1:5
• as parents, our commands and laws should be the commands and laws of Christ. obeying the things our parents have taught us keeps us from evil.  prov. 6:20-23

some applications:

• do devotions and pray with my children
•  use verses to back up my discipline as well as when i'm praising them for doing the right thing
•  seek Christ even in the little things
•  be in the Word daily to continue learning about the fruit i should be producing in my life
• strive to put  Christ first: read the bible daily, pray fervently, memorize scripture, seek to serve others over self
• bring my children up to have faith as timothy did: keep my walk in check (be an example), teach them the things of Christ, pray fervently for them and their future families
• practice what i preach

tomorrow starts a new week of scriptures and the introduction to the book study. i will be reading the book the ministry of motherhood by sally clarkson. i'm excited to see what God has in store for me to learn through these scriptures and this  book.

i got hooded!

on saturday i finally graduated with my masters degree! i received the master of science, master teacher. it was a long time coming. i started the program back in 2007 while teaching and coaching and finished with two small children and one on the way. i'm glad to be done and don't plan on taking any more classes, ever! here's the highlights of the day!

walking in. i'm sandwiched between the two tall guys!

waiting in line to be hooded.

receiving my diploma (ok, it's really, hey you attended commencement!) and my stinkin' hat would not stay on. it was so windy!

shaking some lady's hand.

the fam.

molly couldn't wait to get home and try everything on!

today

it's been awhile...so here's an update about today.

it was quite an enjoyable day. matt left early to play golf before work so we invited our friends over to play. we had fun playing and then went to eat at a local chinese restaurant. we've gone before together and get a quite a laugh. 3 moms, 6 kids, all 3 and under! we joked with the owner today that he'll need to get us a bigger table because we're all pregnant and will soon be bringing in 9 kids! the molly and her friends are so cute when they eat together. they make faces at each other and giggle and laugh the whole time. precious memories!

molly and sophie played really well on their own today and i let them. i guess i should have played with them a bit more, but they were having fun and i was enjoying the down time. i sat. it was nice.

during sophie's nap, molly and i made two cards. she loves to be crafty and gets excited to use my stuff and help. after naptime, i finished up a sewing project i should have finished two months ago and i must say i'm a bit rusty in the sewing department. i made too many mistakes.

this evening we took a walk and tested out what it will be like when baby girl #3 gets here. molly rode her bike the mile around our subdivision while i pushed sophie. i think i may have to buy a double jogging stroller...molly's fast! thank goodness she's scared to ride down hills and breaks every five seconds or i'd be in a dead sprint to keep up!

after our walk we went to the park around the corner to play. sophie generally goes down this slide with molly but tonight i let her go down by herself. she loved it! now, it's really high so i go up with her to make sure she doesn't fall down the stairs and molly stays at the bottom to catch her. and after 4 trips up, her little legs get tired but she's determined to keep going!

we came home, picked up toys, vacuumed, and ate cheese sticks and the girls went to bed. i

needed a day like today...it was nice!

sophie's 1!

i can't believe sophie turned one 3 weeks ago! (i know this blog is a little late). the year went by too fast! she started out as the little, chunky bundle of joy, weighing 9 lbs. 5 oz., full of dark hair and has grown to this petite little toddler, weighing just 17 lbs. 10 oz.

sophie's my cuddler and always has been. i love that she loves to be held and snuggled with. Really, she still sleeps best in my arms. Right around a year she started sleeping through the night more consistently (she still doesn't do it all the time). however, before that, every night around 3 she would be awake. once she snuggled into my arms on the couch, she was out! and so was i, which is why i spent the majority of my sleep time her first year on the couch. she'll also nestle into bed with me if she wakes up but that's not as comfortable for me so we generally pick the couch.

she's figuring things out so quickly these days - learning animal sounds, attempting to say the animal's name, building towers, driving cars around, trying to do everything molly does, cooking, climbing ( i really think i'm raising a monkey!), and finally, walking! walking was the big thing i've been waiting for and i'm glad it happened just in time for the weather to warm up. the girl loves to be outside and it would have been a long (and painful on the knees) summer if she wasn't walking.

we celebrated her birthday by purchasing her first pair of shoes. the trying on experience wasn't the most pleasant. i think she was scared of the lady measuring her feet and putting the shoes on. she took quickly to the strange objects on her feet once she was allowed down at the park that day (a first). wood chips were lots of fun! we came home, unwrapped presents, then went to the park, ate a spaghetti dinner (one of her favorites) and had cupcakes.

the next day we had a party with family and friends. sophie had lots of fun and we once again realized how blessed we are to have such wonderful family and friends in our lives. thank you to all who made sophie's first birthday so special! another big step in sophie's world is wearing a bib! she finally will wear one which makes meal time so much easier to clean up. those of you who've seen sophie eat know that she's an eater! and a messy one at that. she refused bibs for the longest time, taking them off and so she ate all of her meals in a diaper. now she stays clothed (most of the time) and wears her bib to catch her droppings. i no longer have to bathe her after every meal.

sophie doesn't talk much, she babbles but not many actual words come out. she says moo, kitty (which doesn't sound like kitty), woof (fffff), frog (ffffff), quack, na na (this is daddy and banana), bubbles (bub bub), yucky (uck), drink (dnk) and mmmm (this is for food that she sees and i'm hungry). now that i'm looking at this list, she does do quite a bit! i guess you don't realize it until you write it all out. :)

life's just better with a ball in your hand! sophie continues to love balls. she loves to throw them, hold them, put them in things, really it doesn't matter. she's happy if there's a ball in her hand. she was getting restless in the swing the other day (but everytime i took her out she wanted back in) so i gave her a ball to hold on to. much better. we also went for a short (slow) walk the other day so molly could practice riding her bike and once again, a ball made the stroller ride bearable. i love, love, love that she likes balls. i only hope this is the beginning of my little athlete (more specifically, basketball player)!

there is so much more i could say about my little mouse. i love her dearly and she's such a blessing to me. i'm so thankful God blessed me with her and gave me the privilege of raising such as sweet girl.

pre-preschool

i've started doing some formal "school" with molly. until this time, her learning of letters, numbers, and such has been through play, books, or t.v.. i really haven't sat down and truly taught her anything. however, she's really showing an interest in preschool and is determined to go next year (i need to start visiting the ones in town and make a decision) so i thought i'd give her a head start. i'm always looking at different blogs and websites with activities to do and finally found a curriculum (for free) that i like, a lot. You can check it out here: http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/RaisingRockStarsPreschool.html. I've added a few other things in addition to this from various sights. the internet is a great thing!

we started with the letter L, the number 1, and the sight word, see. molly already knew the letter L and number 1, however, now knows the sound L makes and really does recognize the sight word see and can pick it out in other books. She's reading a little easy book called I See with pictures of the "L" words to help out. i'm not paitent enough to wait any longer for this video to load so if you want to see it, check it out on my facebook page.

In addition to reading, we've been practicing writing L's on lined paper.

We also made a cute ladybug thumbprint craft.

i'm still here!

well it's been awhile! mainly because i'm exhausted after the girls go to bed and just want to sit and do nothing, oh, and my insane class i'm taking to complete my masters. i can't wait for may - i'll be done! finally!!! the saying do it while you don't have kids is true...it's much harder when you do! :) anyway, here's a glimpse of what we've been up to.
omaha, nebraska: we went to omaha at the end of february so matt could run in a stair race. we made a weekend out of it and went to the zoo and children's museum.
the stair race that matt ran in was 40 stories, 870 stairs, and 633 feet in the sky! he did great too placing 109/1,417 with a time of 6:54. here's the outside of the building - First National Tower. Pretty impressive building on the inside too! celebrating sophie's 1st birthday - there's a whole blog post to come about this but here's a snapshot of her enjoying her first cupcake!

playing outside. we love to be outside and sophie loves that she can finally get down on the ground (although she needs lots of reminders to walk outside and not crawl!) visiting the mermaid princess at crown center