Can You Believe I am Posting!

So we are back and settled after a busy couple of weeks. It started in July by going to Pennsylvania for Josh's brother's wedding. It was beautiful. The travel wasn't bad at all, but the rest of the weekend was a little stressful. But that is to be expected with two small children. Charis did a great job being the flower girl - I will have to post pics when I get them. I am so excited to have a new sister and it is even better that they are living around here now. In fact, I put her cell phone in my speed dial today. Yea for new sisters and new friends! (BTW, this picture is our first family picture - kinda sad.)

I love this picture!

We also went to Panama City Beach in Florida. Again travel in the car was great. We got to see Jeremy and his girlfriend (for now - yea!) Melissa on the way down. The weather was fabulous and the beach was beautiful. Charis did not like the sand though, so we spent a lot of time in pool. The girls got all off their schedule and were waking up two hours early - not easy sharing one room. I wouldn't call the week relaxing, but we had some special moments that we wouldn't have had if we would have stayed home. My mom has tons of pics that I will have to post later, including a good family picture!

This summer has flown by for me and the girls. Selah is almost five months and has learned to roll over from her tummy to her back. She is really close on sitting up by herself and rolling from her back to her tummy. And she is getting very vocal, i.e. cooing, "motorboats" and blowing rasberries. Sometimes she just stops eating and looks at me and starts "talking". All of this makes up for the fact that she still sleeps less than Charis.

Charis will be turning two in a couple weeks. I can believe that I will a mom of a two year old. Her vocabulary has taken off this past month. She now says her name, "Selah", and can repeat pretty much anything you say to her. Grant it, it still has her little twist, but it is still really good. We have also been working on her counting. She can count to five, yet sometimes decides to skip some numbers, like 1-2-5!

They keep me busy, but I love being the mother of these two.

This past month Josh also celebrated his 27th birthday and was really busy with the youth. They went to the Indiana Dunes, paintballing and he is now prepping for a church garage sale on Saturday and the Fall Film Festival in September. (My video with my girls is awesome!) Next time I post I will fill you in on all of this. Hopefully it will be a lot sooner.

Charis is a little OCD

So here is a story - She has been lining up all her toys, remotes, shoes, basically anything she get her hands on. So while we traveling in the car she would try to line up her Little People, but they kept falling over because of the unevenness of the car and the braking. She would put one up and then it would fall over and she would get frustrated. I would try to explain it to her, but she would keep trying. (Yes, I did have the girls unbuckled in our 12 hour drive to Pennsylvania and our 16 hour drive to Florida - and I do not feel at all guilty.)

Charis loves to wear people's shoes - including my heels. I don't know how she does it considering I can barely walk in them.

I had such a fun time hanging out with Emily and Megan the other day. It was a little crazy being with five children two and under, but it was so good to be with my friends.

Summer Fun

Our summers are always filled with a lot of fun. In June we celebrates our anniverary, my birthday and went on the youth group Senior Trip. Here some pics from our adventures...

For my birthday Josh got my family to watch the girls and we went downtown. I had such an awesome day! We got to do the touristy things that I haven't done in the 25 years I have lived in the Chicagoland area. We went to Navy Pier, wandered Millenium Park, shopped Michigan Avenue, took a trolley ride, saw Buckingham Fountain, waded in Lake Michigan and ate at the Taste of Chicago.

This is Josh on the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier. He is not such a big fan of heights.

We walked the city for about two hours. It was beautiful and exciting.

Millenium Park was so much fun! This is called "The Cloud."

After our time downtown we went to my parents for dinner with the family. All in all, it was one of the best birthday's that I have ever had.

Just two days later we went to Mount Olympus in Wisconsin Dells with our graduted seniors as a final goodbye. We had a blast at their outdoor and indoor theme and water parks. The pic to the left is of Hades, a rollar coaster that plunges below the ground and comes out on the other side of the parking lot only to chuck you back again!

I enjoyed my time with Matt and Amanda as we waited to go on the go carts.

For dinner we went to an all you can eat seafood buffet. They brought huge platters of crablegs to the table with gallon sized buckets for the "scraps." They went through four platters, plus the buffet. I was sick just looking at them. : )

We had a great day with our seniors and will really miss them in the youth group next year.

As for the girls, they are growing like weeds. Check it out...

Facebook

So I am now on Facebook.

I don't have time to update this blog let alone have another site to keep up with. So how did I get signed up you may ask? My honey Josh was sick of his profile just saying "Married" instead of "Married to ..." (to put a name in they must also be on Facebook). So on our anniversary he signed me up, filled in my profile, uploaded a pic of me and accepted 19 friend invitations - all before I even saw it myself.

So yeah, I am now on Facebook.

If you are, send me a friend request!

Fun Friday

Today was fun! But it is much too late to go into detail. We had a great day with Emily and her three girls. And tonight we hung out with Talitha and Steph. It was a fun girls day.

In preparation for potty training we got Dora panties, and had to try them on!

Selah kept pulling on the blanket, like she was playing peek-a-boo.

I love her big, beautiful, blue eyes.

All I can say is Hilarious!

Auntie Talitha is so much fun!

We have been learning our colors this week... well, sorta.

This video pretty much sums it up

Busy Thursday at Nana's

We had a busy day at my mom's today. We were there for ten hours. She is helping prep for a wedding on Saturday, so that took up a lot of time. I was glad to help her. All the while, T and DP helped me by watching the girls.
And an update on Charis's potty training: she went three times today! We are still having wet diapers, but I hope to set aside Monday to be an intense potty training day. Any tips?
Below are more pics fromn our day which T sent to me so Josh could see them. (Thanks T!)

We decided to brave the pool while Charis was sleeping. I love Selah's monsterous diaper and her huge cheeks.

Someone was not thrilled to go in the water...

...but she eventually calmed down and enjoyed our refreshing dip.

Here is a picture of the babysitters - thanks guys!

Check out our beautiful girl - So Big!

I love the "Pose", what a hottie!

We had a fun day, but we can't wait until Saturday when we get to see Josh. Love you so much hon!

No Oasis, No Daddy

We had a fun day today. We hung out with my sis, which Charis now refers to as "TT". I had to deal with four poopy diapers before 2:00pm. When I was changing one of Charis's I got some...excretion... on Talitha's white down comforter. Amazingly it all came out with a miracle-working diaper wipe. And Talitha still loved Charis and me after the event. Selah on the other hand had her three-days-of-waiting poop. It was everywhere, but thankfully I heard it coming so I had her on a changing pad. Oh the joys and mad-hot skills of being a mom.

On a related note, check out the film below...

Yes, Charis went pee pee in the potty! And she told me she had to go. It was after our family bath/shower (yes, I am amazing) and we were getting her pajamas on. She looked at me and said "pee pee", so I rushed her naked bum to her potty, all the while telling her to hold it. After this wonderful and joyous occasion she immediately signed and said "Eat", expecting a M&M treat. I was more than happy to reward her. So for the rest of the night I have been praising her for going "pee pee on the potty" (I have made up a song). She must think I am nuts.

Selah also learned to do something today. She has slowly been getting proficient at scrunching her feet up and arching her back, which results in movement. She does this when she cries in her crib, so she will move the length of her crib and have her head wedged against the bars. She also does this when in her swing. Now I typically don't strap her in (Josh always does because he is a good daddy). Today I laid her down in the swing to have her nap a bit more. After a couple minutes of crying I came into the room to see her in the bottom corner of this bowl swing, in a ball, feet in the air, about to fall out. (No wonder why she was crying) So from seeing this, I now vow to buckle her not only in her swing, but also when I have her hanging out in her car seat. (Yes, she is always strapped in when I am driving.) This picture is further proof of this new trick. I sat her in the corner of the couch and she slid all the way down, resulting in a scrunched up face.

Charis likes to play with Selah's toys and sit in her boppy.


Happy feet

As I try to explain in this movie, Selah doesn't typically sleep until she has to feed. So that last 30-45 minutes I need to hold her to keep her content. Today I tried putting her in the Snuggle Me (or whatever it is called) and doing some work. She was content, I got Charis's dinner ready and I even put on an apron to wash the dishes.

So we didn't have Oasis and we didn't have Daddy. We can survive without Oasis, but I am not sure how much longer without our Daddy.

The Photo Shoot

This past week my mom and Talitha have been a little camera happy and had a photo shoot with the grandkids. They are so cute, so I of course have to show you all.
This one of Selah is right before she started to cry...

...and this one of Charis and Noah is right before Noah peed in the cup...

...and this was right before Charis almost pushed Selah off of her.

Yes, I know her swimsuit is a little low cut! But it has Dora on it!

Look at her, all grown up!

Beautiful

We had to teach her not to hold the flower petals, but the stem

Like how her nose is IN the flower?

Happy, naked, chunky girl!

I love her face

And he may not be mine, but Noah is so adorable!