Catching up, a little.

Sunday after church we had a small Emmaus gathering and lunch in the Fellowship Hall. The girls came, too, and Natalie practiced her step-climbing. Will she make it?
Yes!

She went up and down that thing over and over and over again! The girls had a great time.

Just prior to that, Joanna ran into the railing in the gym and got a knot on her forehead. You can see it in this picture I took of what happens when you lay your inkpen down with your 2 year old nearby and you get distracted on the phone:

It was all in her hairline, too! Fortunately, a baby wipe took care of most of it until bathtime.

I guess this was Monday... we went to Gran's for another visit to the ducks.

Look at her, carrying the bread -- she loves feeding those ducks!

My mom grabbed one (!!!) and let Joanna pet it. The duck did not think it was fun.

Yesterday at "school" I ran into Natalie's class out for their walk; I was going back to the room with them so I could feed her. Natalie didn't know that, though; she just wanted me to hold her RIGHT NOW! I still had to get a picture, though. She was soooooo tired. She just doesn't take a morning nap at MDO, poor thing.

When I walked in to pick her up at 2:30, I found her sitting like such a big girl on the rocking horse toy. This is what my camera told me when I turned it on: "memory card full." That did not make me happy -- she was so smiley and cute! I quickly deleted an old picture and snapped this one:

You know I would've gotten 14 more if I'd had the card cleaned off. :)

Isn't she just so cute?!

These are some pics of the door installation today:

Pop's finding studs.

Joanna really watches everything. Pop went out to his truck for something, and Joanna went rummaging through her toys. She found this baby bottle and went over to the wall where Pop was working...

She's helping Pop drill. I have the cutest stinking children EVER!

THE DESK!!!!!

It's here, it's here!

Here it is, almost completely installed:
Isn't it so beautiful?!I just cannot believe how beautiful that door looks! Thank you Grandma for the door -- can you believe it's the same door?

And thank you thank you thank you Mamma and Pop for the whole desk set-up! You guys worked so hard, and I just love it. I'm sitting at it right now!

A nice close up:

Here it is getting it's first bit of use.

Ahhhhhh...

Party Pics

We've had lots going on since the last time (forever ago!) that I blogged, including a birthday party at Jumpin' Joey's for our friend, Jacob.

I'll have to find some pics of Joanna last year (they're on the hard drive) to see how big she's gotten! She had such a blast this year, and hardly needed help with anything. I had fun, too, being all not-pregnant! Joanna and Anna, jumping.

Natalie had fun, too!

She was even my sliding buddy some. It was a little tricky carrying her up to the top, but it got easier after the first couple of times!

Even Matt got in on the fun! The major reason I took this picture was to compare it to one last year. I'll get them off the harddrive and update this post soon. Or maybe I'll wait and post it until I have the pics... who knows.

Natalie really liked just chillin' on the floor, too.

The kiddos had a great time -- thanks for turning 5 Jacob!!

The Park and Toast

Our friends the Vandenberges made us go, I mean invited us to the park this morning!

It really was a nice day for being outside. It was coolish -- practically pleasant, and a bit overcast. I could've done without all the mosquitos, though.

Natalie got her first ride on the duck. I bet she would've loved to sit in the mulch for awhile. I knew she'd end up eating, though, so she didn't get to. Isn't Anna's smile so cute here?!
The big girls, riding to town!

Natalie liked sitting in the swing; I didn't let her get much air because she's still kind of wobbly.

Natalie sat on my lap on the big swings and we got going high-ish. She LOVED it! It was hard to get a pic while swinging and holding her on my lap, but this one is cute!

There's this "rock wall" at the park, which is kind of high compared to Joanna. She scaled it all by herself on her second or third try! In fact, I was way across the park and went running toward her when I saw she was already halfway up -- little monkey!

Queen of the mountain:

Back at home this evening, Natalie tried out some toast.

She's a fan, for sure!

Fashion

Joanna trying on some shoes at Famous Footwear recently. We didn't get these, but they sure were stylin.' :) I'm just loving Miss Joanna in dresses lately! She still fits in many 2T/24mos clothes, but anything new she has is 3T. For right now, she can still wear her pants from last year, but with any more length on her they'll be too short. All her 2T/24mos dresses are too short, this one's new from Gran!

The girls "helped" me go through their clothes recently to see what we needed to find for the fall/winter. Joanna spent the time trying on some strange combinations.

Natalie's favorite thing to do was unfold.

Last weekend was a local baby consignment sale. Here's our haul:

It's all 3T, and should get her through the winter! I'll probably pick up some leggings, tights, socks, maybe a shirt or 2 for under things, but she's pretty set! We already had a few things (yay for hand-me-downs and super-sales!), and it's been nice to get the dresser organized with all the fall clothes. I'm ready for cooler weather!! Joanna has grown a little bit lately, but it's been pretty gradual and I hardly notice until I look at her shorts and dresses -- yikes!

I just love her piggie-tails!! She actually keeps them on for an hour or two these days.

Some of the new clothes... yeah, I guess the skirt's a little long, but so cute! (and more piggie-tails!)

My desk!!!

It's coming! Here's my space before desk prep: Mamma and Pop came over on Tuesday and got the anchors up.

I helped a little. (The girls were at school!)

You can get the idea of what it will be like:

Matt's dad is (has already?) going to round out that corner by the door so we don't kill ourselves walking into the room. He's also going to build a bunch of shelving above the desk for all my crafty/coupon/computer stuff. I'm so excited!

Misc.

Natalie is...
-Pulling up on everything, including the cozy coupe, which moves! She's also discovered my paper recycling bin... time to move it!
-starting to wave "bye-bye." It's in the early stages yet, but I've caught a little arm movement at appropriate times.
-drank milk from a bottle at MDO! It was only a couple of ounces because that's all I had and I didn't want to work hard to pump a bunch if she wasn't going to take it. Her teachers warmed it up to body temp and she loved it! I may have to try again with more of a full serving next week.

Joanna is...
-such a Mommy's helper lately.
-spent all evening in dry panties!
-is just talking up a storm about everything.
-actually went back to sleep when Matt told her to this morning from about 6:30-7:30 -- whoo hoo!

Storm

We had a pretty nasty storm blow through here on Monday. We lost power about 4:00pm and got it back around 7:00pm. I was having Ike flashbacks, in not a good way. Monday was a busy day for us! I found out a few minutes before 10am that I needed to be at the church for a meeting at 10:15 -- yikes! The girls and I were mostly ready, so we got out to the car pretty fast. Unfortunately, the car wasn't so ready. It didn't start. My wonderful in-laws came to the rescue with their truck, though! Fortunately we'd just put Joanna's carseat in the backseat on Saturday for a trip to the hardware store, so I was able to install it again very quickly. After we got back home, I decided to cook... a lot (for me, anyway!). I roasted a chicken (or baked... what's the difference?). I was actually going to do it in the crockpot, but just felt that I should do it in the oven instead. Good thing! It wouldn't have been done by the time we lost power if I'd done it in the crockpot! Anyway, I cooked the chicken, then used most of the meat to make chicken and veggie soup -- yummmmmmy! I also did some chicken taco soup in the crockpot. When the power went out (and stayed out) I just moved the taco soup over to the stove to finish. I LOVE MY GAS STOVE!!!

I was planning to serve leftovers for dinner and freeze the soups. We ended up eating the soups because they were hot and we couldn't use the microwave for leftovers. There was still plenty of soup to freeze, though, and my freezer is full of dinner for lazy days! I was a little worried I was going to have to haul the soup to my mom's to freeze, but the power came back on just as I was getting ready to go. Man I love electricity... a lot.

Sadly, we went out back to discover this: No we haven't decided to widen the backyard. No, we haven't gotten suddenly very friendly with our neighbors. Yet another tree decided to shed it's top. Grrrrr. Fortunately, of course, it didn't hit the house and it didn't hit the brand new fence we just put up and it didn't knock down fence between us and neighbors with dogs. As far as I'm concerned, it can stay this way for a while! Ha!I'm pretty sure there was funnel activity in the area. It was no common thunderstorm, and there was some pretty serious damage around. We were actually pretty fortunate.

So behind!

I'm so behind on blogging! I know the last post is listed as having posted on Monday, but I actually wrote it on Friday, so I haven't blogged in OVER A WEEK! Aaaahhhh! Life and work are crowding me lately. I'm feeling foggy-brained and tired. It's late, and I'm not going to post pics now, although I do have some cute ones finally downloaded. Recent events:
I got my computer back and it's running great. Mel had to do a clean install of Windows and reload my programs, documents, emails, favorites, etc. Yay for computer guys!
Matt and I started Financial Peace last Sunday and are liking it very much. The thought of it is a little intimidating, but it's broken up into 13 weeks, so not so scary all at once. I started playing around with a working budget tonight in a program we have access to during the course. It's pretty cool software, but it can't make up for my lack of budgeting skills! Red is bad, right? :) We'll get there...
I'm really hoping to get "caught up" (you know, for 5 seconds at least) with laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc. this week. I just feel so out of it and behind and a little stressed. I'm not even sure why. I guess it could be the hecticness (word?) of the fall settling in on me. Who knows. I really like our schedule during the week... but I think we're all a little tired. Oh, and I'm trying to wean myself off all the caffeine. Better get to bed...

A girl and her ducks.

She'd go everyday if it was up to her, I think. Look at this little baby duck who swam up!
Joanna just loves feeding the ducks!

Happy Birthday, Anna!

Today is our friend Anna's 3rd birthday! We went to her birthday party last week, and had lots of fun!

Joanna found a pair of wooden clogs and walked around (rather well, I think) in them. I brought my face paints for the party. Most of the girls got butterflies, including Miss Joanna. Check out the Vandenberge's blog for more pics of the party.
Natalie did not get her face painted, but she did have some lunch!

Anna wanted a pink and blue party -- here she is getting ready to blow out candles on her pretty cake.

Natalie found this toy very exciting. :)

The drums were a big hit!

Emma is very into Natalie these days.

After all the fun, Lisa and Tony wanted to get ALL the kiddos together for a picture. It almost worked. :) Guess who didn't want to have anything to do with it? The birthday girl, of course! Also, Bella wasn't very excited about it, and Logan didn't make it in the picture, either. Natalie did very well wedged between Joanna and Abby.

We had lots of fun; we love our Anna!!