Oh Daddy We Love You SO!!!

Justin's birthday was on the 12th, and we definitely celebrated! A dinner at Hard 8 BBQ on Thursday with family and friends, a birthday date on Friday night, and then a little 24 hour road trip with just the 2 of us for a wedding in Tulsa. I just wanted to share the girls birthday cards to their Daddy:

Oh how this girl loves and admires her daddy!

From Lizzie:

The pic she drew is of a fort in case you were curious...

a girl who CANNOT get enough of her daddy!!

From Lainie:

a pic from vaca this summer-

sorry, I keep forgetting to ask someone to take a pic of us together recently!

And, from me- My sweet wonderful husband- It is such an honor to be called your wife! As we recounted the past several years together this weekend, it was impossible to not worship God and thank Him for the precious gift of you. The ways you love me, protect me, cherish me, challenge me, comfort me, forgive me, and encourage me are to numerous to list! God uses you so powerfully to teach me and grow me. Oh how I love you so!

the making of birthday turtle cheesecake!

A few of Justin's buddies who joined us for birthday dinner

What do you do at Lizzie School?

The question has been posed multiple times, "What exactly do you do at Lizzie School?" And, the answer is... Whatever we want:) I mean, I do plan, but the freedom to change our plans based on the weather or an invite from a friend is really nice! Lizzie is really interested in how things work, so we do a good bit of science related things, logic puzzles, and jigsaw puzzles. We sing our calendar songs and practice saying the date and also practice writing letters, specifically those in her super long name! Art is also a big hit for Elizabeth, and she loves to have guests (good friends) join her for Lizzie School. Below are are a few pics of Miss Lizzie Grace hard at work!

Following a fun fall leaf collection at Bear Creek Park!

Birthday cards make great puzzles!

Testing the surface tension of milk...

Add a drop of dish soap and Ooh La La! FIREWORKS!

A first attempt at writing her name! Not bad my dear:)

Free paint with Addie as a guest.

Backpack on and ready to go... It's Tinkerbell- a must for Lizzie school!

Another science experiment: mixing colors and...

What are the properties of plastic baggies?

Poke a pencil all the way through, and NO LEAK! Polyethylene, a component of most zipper baggies, has a shrinking property which causes it to shrink around the pencil when poked through the bag! Who knew?

Not from Lizzie school, just a funny pic of a mommy mishap! Elizabeth was watching me put on my makeup when I dropped my loose powder which hit the counter and then exploded in her face! Poor baby- I made her stand there blinded while I went and got the camera!

My Cupcake and My Frosting Fairy

We had a great couple of days dressing up the girls and partying! Friday afternoon, we had a great time at Justin's office party where the girls played with the other kiddos and had some great snacks! We darted off from there to CityView where we had our very first family fall fun night! Since Justin and I were pretty much in charge, we were thankful to Nana and PawPaw and Grammy for taking the girls around to enjoy the fun! And unfortunately we didn't get any pics. Saturday, we enjoyed hanging out at a couple of different friends' homes where they had a bounce house and inflatable slide set up. My cupcake and frosting fairy did get to go trick or treating with their friends, Lainie in the wagon with Juliet, and Lizzie running to keep up with Rae, Anna and Aidan. It was a fun couple of days, and we are still reaping the benefits/consequences of the loot!

Elizabeth's cupcake costume was made by Grammy:)

THANKS GRAMMY!

17 Months

October 31st marked 17 months on this earth for Lainie K... and she celebrated by putting on her pretty pretty princess dress. Although her vocabulary is still limited, we are communicating much better these days and throwing fewer and shorter fits. Elaine's motor skills still baffle me. Not sure if it is because she is advanced in this area or if it is because Lizzie struggled- maybe a little of both:) The combination of these skills and her fearless personality is quite scary! She quickly makes it to the highest slide at the big kid park, and though she is on the smaller side has skillfully figured out how to climb onto our bed. The advantage of her motor skills is eating time. I decided to be brave and give her a bowl of cereal with milk just to see what she would do, and to my pleasant surprise, she easily spooned every bite of it into her mouth and then asked for a 2nd and 3rd bowl! Which brings me to her eating patterns... probably the healthiest possibility, but just not very convenient, Elaine eats A LOT for breakfast, gets down and five minutes later requests a snack "nack," she eats a reasonable lunch, continues to snack, and then is pretty uninterested in dinner. I think we are working our way out of that 14th percentile though! I can ask Elaine to do pretty much any task, and she obeys well (ie: take Lizzie her cup, go put that in the trash, go get your shoes, clean up your mess (she will then request a napkin), put your toys away (we have this awesome organizer from Ikea, and she knows where everything goes!), go to your room for a diaper change (she is now telling me when she is pooh pooh)). She has also become quite the little helper, assisting me in unloading the dishwasher and moving laundry from the washer to the dryer!

Elaine LOVES:

-DOGS!

-Babies (pretend and real)

-Balls

-Outside (the wind in her face gets a million giggles)

-Baths

-Daddy

-Dancing and Singing (the itsy bitsy spider can cure most car time blues)

-Washing her hands

-Playing BOO! (lots of giggling involved!)

-Sissy (Zizzie)

-Kisses (everyone gets one or two or three before bed, including Kyleigh, and more recently belly baby!)

I have the power of the SPOON!

I love my JULIET! (Ju Eh)

Danger!

Yup, those are curls you see! Mommy is still trying to figure out what to do with them...

*Posts to follow... "Cupcake and Frosting Fairy", "What do you do at Lizzie School?", and "Ode to Grandparents!"*