How tall will he be??

According to an old wives tale if you double boys height at 26 months that is how tall they will be as adults.  For girls, you do at 24 months. I remember Elizabeth was 3 feet tall on her 2nd birthday. Grant was a quarter inch shy of being 3 feet on his 2nd birthday. But boys get an extra two months and guess what....he has grown another inch! So Grant's projected height is 6 feet and a quarter inch! We shall see. I guess there is a chance, a good chance that someday I will be the shortest one in my family!

Elizabeth's 4 Year Old Birthday Quiz

Better late than never....I don't think her answers would have been any different two weeks ago! It is my hope to do this every year.  We will see how the answers change from year to year.

1) WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Elizabeth
2) HOW OLD ARE YOU? 4
3) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? Pink (small pause) Orange & Purple
4) WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND? Hannah, Lauren, Gavin, Brady, Stella, Grant & Andrea
5) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? A Mommy
6) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE? Lady and the Tramp (I think she has seen this once, maybe twice!)
7) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW? Octanauts
8) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK? Fancy Nancy
9) WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY? Playing with my friends
10) WHAT MAKES YOU SAD? Not playing with my friends
11) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Steak and Mushrooms
12) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG? God is Watching Over You (...24/7) from VBS
13) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GAME TO PLAY? Candy Land
14) WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE GIFT? Dot Paint

Grant's Speech

Grant has been taking speech for a month now and we can all see improvements - yah!!! His therapist comes to our house once a week to work with him for 45 minutes.  Elizabeth does really well with this. I was concerned about her trying to interject too much, but she will sit there and say a few things and then get bored and go and do something else.  Although she always me afterwards what they did while she was gone.

They work on puzzles and books and other activities that get him to make sounds and words.  His vocabulary is slowing expanding.  He doesn't say many words clearly, but his language is building and that is important.  He says "please" and "thank you" very well and I am most proud of that!  He tries really hard to say "milk" but still signs it as he tries to say it.  He repeats words with proper intonation to the point that he is now expressing dislike with a cute little sounds.  If I tell him it is time to put his scooter he will make a little "ooooohhhh" sound, like I don't want to - hard to explain, trust me it's cute :) He can also say "rub back" because he likes to have his back rubbed when he goes to sleep.  He still does a lot of pointing, but a little less "uhhhs" and more different sounds.  Every time we cross the bridge he sees a "boat" - quite certain that it is sometimes a buoy, but that's ok!

A lot of times Elizabeth will be talking to him and he will repeat a word that she says.  The other day he said "yellow" and Elizabeth will always exclaim, "Mommy! He said yellow!" (or whatever word he repeated).  It is nice to see her always cheering him on.

Keep up the work little man!

Kids in Church

We make an attempt for the whole family to go to church each Sunday, but some days we do better than others.  There is no doubt that the kids can be a huge distraction, not only for us but for our fellow church goers.  Here are such a few examples of what happened today and last week.

Children's Sermon time: First, I do not dare take Elizabeth up and leave Grant behind or he starts crying.  I learned that lesson last week when Elizabeth and I needed to blow our noses and I had failed to packed any kleenex.  So this week we were at early service and Grant and Elizabeth are 2 out of the 5 kids at the altar.  They are sitting quietly until we do the prayer and Grant starts covering my mouth (I wasn't saying anything) and saying "nooooo, noooooo, noooooo!"

We get back to our seats and the sermon starts.  Elizabeth turns to me and says (in a non-church voice), "Mommy I saw something on TV today" I try to shush her but she keeps going... "it's this hook that you can hang on the wall and when you want to take it off you pull a strip and it comes off! Just like that!"  Fantastic honey, we are trying to listen to the story of the good Samaritan and you are telling me about 3M hooks!  At some point, Grant who doesn't normally say much, lets out this big string of gibberish that sounds like he is speaking fluent German!

We didn't even feed the kids breakfast because we pack them so many snacks to keep them quiet.  Today they got juice and milk, normally it is just water.  They also had Chex cereal, Cheerios and pretzels.  They pretty much eat their way thru the service.  We of course pack activities and the church has a spot with things they can grab, but food always seems to work best.  Last week Grant choose some Noah Arc animals to play with...well should I say gnaw.  We had to take them away from him.  Today Elizabeth choose a lovely coloring book, but it contained permanent markers to color with.  We had to take that away too.

After the sermon concludes Elizabeth always asks if it is time to go.  We always tell her that we still have offering and communion.  She is into the offering game now.  Last week she emptied her piggy bank and said that she had so much money she was going to give it to people who didn't have any.  That is our kind, sweet Elizabeth.  We took her money to the bank but have been letting her give $1 each week.  We are still trying to ease into the allowance thing.  She made eye contact with the usher the whole time until he brought the offering plate her way.  Grant actually made it to communion with his shoes on today.  Usually by that time we have long lost the shoes!  As soon as we came back from communion today Elizabeth starts packing up.  All I could think was, I can't get these kids to pick up after themselves at home, but at church they pick up all of their stuff without even being asked!  Of course they had a scuffle over who was going to put the pencil back into the red membership pad, but luckily we were singing the closing hymn by then.  Oh until next time!

New Zoo & Diddley's

My friend and I found ourselves with our husbands away on a Saturday.  One traveling to China  (hers) and one playing golf (mine!)  We were determined to stay busy so we packed to kids up and headed for Bloomington to go to the Miller Park Zoo.     I had to "borrow" this picture from the City of Bloomington website because I failed to take a picture myself.  I would drive back just for this playground!  The kids loved it!  I commented to my friend that it felt like the kind of thing you would do on vacation.  We came prepared with swimsuits, but the water wasn't on when we got there so the kids just did the playground.  The splash pad would have been hours of fun though too!  The kids played on the playground for quite awhile before we even headed into the zoo.    I think they wanted to pet the pig but weren't really sure if they were supposed to! This zoo was smaller than our zoo but had different animals so the kids were entertained.  It only took about an hour to walk through it.  We ended with a carousel ride.  It is thrilling to go up and down and in a circle, all at the same time!  We headed home for naps and then make our plans for the evening. As it ended up Brandon's golf finished early and he joined us for dinner.  We decided to go to Diddley's.  I wanted to eat outside because the weather was gorgeous, Brandon wanted a corn dog.  Diddley's offered both!  They used to be a car hop - it is now just a restaurant but we placed an order for take out and were able to eat outside on the picnic tables.  There was a playground for the kids to play on.  We had forgotten to put shoes on Grant, or put any in the car for him, so he went barefoot and was absolutely filthy when we left. Diddley's is so much more than just food and a playground though.  They have a  train, a little ferris wheel and carousel, mini golf and a drive in movie screen.  The movie had been cancelled for the night but they opened the rides for the kids and let them ride for free!  I don't know that the kids even cared if they ate dinner, they just wanted to play!  It was entertaining to listen to my friend try to explain Diddley's to her family over the phone.  Diddley's is just one of those places that you have to go to and experience it for yourself!    We had a fun day and our mission was accomplished...we stayed busy and had tired (dirty) kiddos!

Elizabeth's 4th Birthday...

...the actual day of her birth!

She had been a little under the weather the day before, but she woke up feeling good on August 8th!  I had a feeling she would be better :)  I had to re-arrange Grant's speech therapy because she had been running a fever.  So Pops came and picked G up and he had speech at their house.  He surprised EB with 4 red roses.  We went to Kroger and got a few groceries and picked out a special birthday donut.  It was fun being just the girls - doesn't happen too often.  We came home and ate our donuts and cuddled on the couch and watched Doc McStuffins.  We then met my parents for "chips and salsa" (local Mexican restaurant).  We came home and BOTH kids actually napped - yeah!!!

We headed to the Heights for a special pottery painting date with daddy.  It is always a special treat when daddy cuts out early and she thought she was queen of the castle getting to paint and eat M&M's with mommy and daddy!

We picked up steaks and headed home for dinner and gift opening.  The steak and mushrooms were of course a hit.  We let her open her presents while dinner cooked.  The out of town aunts and uncles took good care of her!  We got her a new Razor scooter (with light up wheels!).  Grant has kind of taken over the orange, three wheeled scooter, so we decided to upgrade her!  However, she did say the other day, "I wish my scooter was like Grant's!"  I think she misses the extra wheel that helps her balance!  Grant's gift to her was jewelry.  He (mommy and daddy) picked out three lovely necklaces for her.  A pink cupcake, "LOVE" and a ballerina.  She was absolutely precious opening them.  "Oh buddy, what did you get me? Oh buddy, that was so nice. I really love them!" Then she leaned over and gave him a big kiss.  Yes I captured this on video :)

I made lava cakes for dessert.  We sang a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday and then headed outside to try out the new scooter.  Brandon of course had to try and let me tell we are lucky he didn't fall!  It was closer than he'd like to admit!

I think she had a pretty fun day and I did a good job of not getting weepy about my little girl turning four.  Instead I embraced it and just rejoiced in how lucky we are to have a healthy daughter to celebrate a birthday with.  Next milestone...preschool!

Brandon's Birthday

Yes, this post should have come before Elizabeth's.  Brandon's birthday fell on a Friday this year and he was coming home from Indy from a business trip.  We had BLT's and his mom made his favorite pineapple upside down cake.

Apparently it isn't a birthday unless we have a balloon.  This one was on clearance, imagine that!

Happy Birthday B!

Our Little Gardners

The lack of rain has not helped our garden much this year.  I tried to stay on top of the watering, but let it slide.  We have tomatoes, but they are small.  Our roma tomatoes once again well victims of blossom rot.  Our cucumbers are bitter - maybe bought the wrong variety? Our  cherry tomato plant never disappoints and is always bountiful!  Picking tomatoes is something the kids love to do.  I send them out with a bowl and they have a blast.  Check out these pictures!

Yes, she has her baby with her to pick tomatoes!  She was even bouncing her up and down!

Grant loves his sister's pink rain boots!

In their PJ's with sunglasses.

Thomas the  Train underwear and pink boots...priceless!

Elizabeth's 4th Birthday Party

This year's birthday theme was the Olympics.  Elizabeth was born on the day that the Beijing Olympics started, apparently the luckiest day in the Chinese calendar.  There were pros and cons to the this theme.  Cons - party supply stores do not believe in celebrating the Olympics, therefore no olympic decor.  Pros - since we are Team USA and celebrate our independence in July, red, white & blue item were greatly discounted!  I really wanted the kids to have Olympic tattoos.  The web did not let me down and I splurged on some that I found online.  Five days before the party I get a call from the director of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital saying she has receiving some really neat Olympic tattoos.  I probably should have told her to keep them and give them to the sick children, but I was in the middle of vbs and it was the only Olympic themed item I had gotten for the party.  She put them in the mail to me and I received them the day of the party.  Brandon withheld them from me when he got the mail Saturday morning and when he saw how sad I was he quickly whipped out the envelope, which brought a huge smile to my face!  I used my Cricut to make Olympic ring sandwich picks.  The main course was 5 sandwich rings.  Elizabeth choose her favorite sandwich as one of the rings, PB&J.  Brandon and I worked all Saturday morning preparing for the party.  We finally had decided on the games, something we really put off until the last minute!  The sky was cloudy and it rain was in the forecast, but it hasn't rained all summer, really what were the chances of rain on the day of the party?  Apparently, pretty good because as we had finished cleaning up the basement so we could do the bouncy house indoors, we walked upstairs to see the rain coming down!  Given the fact that we are in a drought, we certainly could not complain about the much needed rain.  So we thanked God for the rain and just went along with the day.  As it ended up we were able to eat and do presents and cake and by that time the rain had cleared and we were able to go outside for our Olympic games.

Just to recap, the food was Olympic sandwich rings, fresh fruit, fresh salsa and chips (so kindly made my by friend!) and a veggie tray.  Very low key, to say the least.  I actually went to bed feeling guilty that we hadn't done more.  The week before was just so busy that I was running out of steam, but we will make up for it on her real birthday!  The cake was going to be easy, just M&M's on top to make the rings, but a few days prior I decided that we should do a five layer cake (one for each color ring).  I baked the cakes on Friday (after the sleep-over!) and Brandon was a huge help decorating on Saturday morning.  I used Aunt Sandy's frosting recipe, which is awesome and used the Viva paper towel trick to make the frosting look like fondant, or in our case, more like fondant (not perfectly smooth, but for a first attempt, not too bad!).  Honestly, I was just glad the cake didn't fall over!  Brandon put the rings on top, but then added an additional "USA" on one side and gold #1 medal on the other side.  Secretly I think he enjoyed decorating the cake.  He and his mom did an awesome job cutting and serving this monster 5 layer cake too!

Our neighbor's 12 or 13 year old son entertained the kids at the kids table.  I am not really sure what he was saying but the kids were in stitches.  When Gavin left he said to his mom, "that guy in the blue shirt was soooooo funny!"  Nicholas was a real crowd favorite!

The Games: I had prepared an Olympic Trivia Quiz for the adults, but failed to get a prize.   Luckily, I think my mom won and was more than understanding!  I did have a pretty new ball point pen for her, but still kind of lame on my part!  We had a water balloon toss between spouses and amazingly the balloons only bursts on the women!  The first game we did for the kids was filling up a glass container with water until it over-flowed.  We did a water balloon toss into the baby pool that had a hula hoop inside of it.  But the favorite game was the water gun squirt game.  We turned over a two solo cups (I had glued on some red, white & blue ribbon to dress it up a little!) and put it on the kids picnic table and  let the kids compete to shoot water at the cup to knock it off the table.  The kids loved it and the looks on their faces were priceless!  We had some very intense competitors!

showing off the tattoos

Elizabeth got a lot of really nice gifts.  She is really enjoying her name games and books.  Our neighbors closed down the evening with us complete with a trip to Pizza Hut.  The party ended when all three kids melted down at the same time.  It was one of those moments that we just all had to laugh.  Elizabeth was literally crying, "I'm so tired!"

It was a little odd celebrating her birthday before her birthday, but we had an awesome day and she had fun.  We keep our birthdays pretty low key and try to make it about our friends and family being just being around us.  When everyone sang to her and it was loud and so many different voices, I couldn't help but think how truly blessed we are too have so many wonderful people in her/our life.  My mom always does a slideshow/movie of the kids from the last year.  It is so much fun to look back at the pictures from the last year.  Mandi did one this year too of pictures of the girls and our families.  Truly some of the our most cherished moments and what an awesome way to capture them.

First Friend Sleep-over

After a busy week of VBS and an ice cream cone at 9pm, why not have a sleep-over?!  Sure, why not! Brandon pretty much took care of getting Grant down and I strapped on getting the girls to bed.  Since they had been at church all night there wasn't much time to play.  I had them take a bath to help calm down and get their feet clean.  I can't stand dirty feet in bed!  I got them clean and we retreated to Elizabeth's bed for a few books.  We read a Fancy Nancy book and a story from the princess bedtime book.  We said a prayer and I said goodnight.  Two minutes after walking out I hear the totes of toys being dumped.  I put them back in bed and tell them goodnight again.  Two minutes later Lauren has to go to the bathroom.  Two minutes later Elizabeth needs a drink.  You get the idea.  They finally start to settle down and Elizabeth says she wants to sleep in her tent because Lauren is "bugging" her.  Ok, no problem, I put her on the floor in her sleeping bag and Lauren can have the bed to herself.  All is quiet for 20 minutes.  Elizabeth is out, but Lauren comes and says she wants to sleep next to her bud bud.  So I make a spot on the floor for Lauren.  By 11 pm both girls are asleep on the floor!  Grant woke up at 5:30 the next morning and the girls got up at 6:30, bright and smiley!  We watched TV and had breakfast and Lauren was back home by 7:15!  Not bad for a first time sleepover and I am sure we have more in our future!

VBS

Wow, has this summer been busy!  I was a coordinator for vacation bible school (vbs) at our church this year and although it took quite a bit of preparation ahead of time, when the time came I guess all of that preparation paid off because it went pretty smooth.  We only had two minor incidents and they had happy endings.  We learned a few things and made our list of improvements for next year, but all in all it was successful.  We had a lot of volunteers and great team leaders which made all of the difference!  Our summer intern and senior pastor did skits of bible time and they were so good that it was actually too real for some of the kids (Elizabeth!).  The theme was Babylon, Daniel's courage in captivity, so there were lions and fiery furnaces.  She did fine the first night, but pretty much cried at some point during the next four nights.  I think it was a combination of the time of day (6-8pm) and being scared of the bible stories.  She had her two best friends with her and someone could always find me.  Grant was supposed to stay in the nursery, as I thought that would be a great experience for him - he disagreed!

The music was very good and we got a CD of the tunes.  Singing along to "Watching Over You" with the motions has to be one of her favorite things to do.  It's pretty cute when she does it in the car and Grant starts following the motions too!  They got to toss around giant beach balls in the sanctuary during closing while signing the songs and this seemed to be a high light for all of the kids.  The kids brought in over one hundred cereal boxes for our local food pantry.  Grant even got a special mention in the sermon the following Sunday for being a great helper (moving the cereal boxes) even though he is small.  Too bad we weren't there to hear it!  After a week of vbs and a birthday party (next post!) we were all pretty wiped!

The girls dancing!

We promised the girls an ice cream treat after the last day of vbs.  So off to the DQ we went!  Elizabeth wanted  chocolate cone and Lauren wanted vanilla, which perfectly describes these girl - great friends but total opposites! Next was the sleepover, but it's worthy of it's own post!