Quick Look at our Life

Helping bake.


Cleaning up.


Sharing.


Happy about boots.


Reading on the princess couch.


Pink girl and blue girl, loving the pink couch. I call this one: "Zoned out in monochrome."


How not to have a sticky house.


CHEESE!


Family fun at the Pumpkin Patch. It means the holidays are coming, yay!




With Gwen and Julie, 4th annual trip together! 8) We love traditions!

What The Girls Are Up To

Eliana is up to:
-Having a mind of her own and proving it whenever possible. Luckily she's still easily distracted from her forays into mischief.
-Eating and wearing volumes of yogurt.

-Talking! She told her first story: "Book on foot, oww." after standing on a book with one foot that her other foot was underneath.
She also says:
No,
yeah, (said oh-so matter of factly.)
baby, juice, car,
more, cheese,
nigh-night,
dog, meow,
apple (her clearest word),
Lijah (for Elijah),
Yiana (for Eliana),
Detta (for Adessa),
Rella (for Cinderella- I know, how proud/concerned should I be that she already recognizes the girl?),
airplane (sounds more like "ay-pay" but it's clear what she means),
Tico-tico- means tickle me more, please.
-Grunting when things are heavy (or when they aren't).

-Climbing on everything.
-Dancing and jumping (and paying attention when the TV is on, a blessing and a curse!) Sidenote: I LOVE how she says "Yeah", here.

-Making all kinds of sound effects- she can do a pretty mean airplane immitation.
-Smiling delightfully. Melts my cockles every time.
-Swinging. For as long as anyone will push her.

-Putting on other people's shoes. She doesn't discriminate, any shoes will do. On either foot.

-Her hair is long enough for bath time fun and bed head.




Adessa is up to:
-Saying sweet things, like: "Leaves are what keep the trees warm." and not so sweet things like: "Leave me aloneeeeee." In some ways Adessa is figuring out how to be flexible and less stubborn, and in some ways we're into a whole new level of inflexibility and stubbornness. We're working hard to keep her blood-sugar constant, as she's outrageous when she's hungry, which has helped.
-Preschool, twice a week of intense fun and social interaction. She's always ready to give me a lowdown of who cried, who played with her, who took her shovel, what the puppet show was about, and what the snack was. She routinely takes 3.5-4 hour naps afterwards.
-Singing, and dancing, and telling stories, or singing a story while dancing.

-Expressing her sense of humor, and understanding our humor. Calvin always corrects my grammar (thanks, babe), and after I said: "Lay around", he reminded me that it was: "Lie around, Keidi. Unless you mean you're going to lay an egg." We didn't even know that Adessa was listening, until she started cracking up. We just looked at each other in disbelief, because, ahem, it wasn't the first time that very conversation had happened in front of her. She's starting to "get it".
-Spending quality binky time on the bed, in full princess regalia.

-Wearing rubber bands in funny places.

-Enjoying church with her Nina, Romina.

-Bubble fun.



And one for the road: Dreamy girls after an evening walk. We love the fall!

A Few of our Favorite Things, Lately

Dress up clothes! A coworker handed down her daughters' amazing princess dresses, and Adessa is rarely to be found in her own clothes.


Eliana gets in on the game.


Sweet! (And becoming rarer every day).


Posin'.


How they really feel about posing. 8)


The creek! We've finally had some hot days (weird weather this summer) and have enjoyed time spent at the creek.






Evening walks that end at the rec field.


Preschool time! Please, God, help me figure out the logistics. We're having babysitter issues, and Adessa goes to school on days that I work. This Tuesday is her first day of preschool, and my first day of teaching for the homeschoolers. Whereupon I'm going to be running all over and trying to exude inner calm so that Adessa doesn't come unglued. Which has been a pretty frequent occurance these days--we're experiencing some profound disequilibrium.

Adessa (working hard not to smile) with her preschool teacher, Mrs. Zweers, at Visiting Day.



Skylake Family Camp... was so fun. We went when Adessa was Eliana's age, so it was cool to remember and compare.



Horseback riding was a highlight. Adessa was gleeful the whole time, starting the second she put on the only pink helmet available.






Hanging outside our cabins, relaxing catch-up time with family.


In the dining hall. A favorite part, the staff did all the cooking and clean up!


The whole gang!


Two years ago with Adessa outside our cabin, the famous "eyewear" shot.


Attempting a reenactment of the eyewear shot, but no! Adessa had other ideas. We chose an inopportune moment for her.


So it was reenacted with just Eliana. There.

Remodeling, Family Visits, and Happy Hollow

Remodeling is terrible. Its going to be great when we're done, and by then we'll think the inconvenience is worth it, but... its terrible. I had a melt-down half way through, when we were napping the girls all over town and I was forgetting things between three houses and never could actually DO anything productive because I was never where what I needed was. Its been crazy. Our house, however, is looking great. So that's good. Right? It's all done this week!

The finished big bathroom. Couldn't figure out how to turn it, sorry.


Getting ready for a bath in our newly remodeled bathroom. I was going to stay away from naked pictures, but this is so cute!


Underneath what we thought was old linoleum, even older linoleum.


Eliana saying "cheese" in the new improved kitchen.

Eliana and a virtual Kitchen Tour.


Walking back and forth on one of the many trips between our house and grandma's.


Eliana helping Daddy walk the dogs. She's starting to have ideas about the things that she wants, and the stroller isn't one of them. Whatever Adessa is doing is what Eliana wants to do. She's a climber, fearless, and has a new relationship with the word, "No!" Still lots of fun, though!


Happy Hollow
Our mom's group did a last hurrah at a semi-close-by hot spot for tots, Happy Hollow. Fun was had by all!

Adessa and Eliana on the carosel.


Gwen and Adessa on the carosel. Again.


Eliana and Adessa sitting in the fire truck, moments before tandem full blown histeria in which I had to remove them from the ride.


Adessa and Eliana trying to get close to the goats without the goats getting close to them.


La Familia
We've also had oodles of Calvin's family in town, also sharing his parents' house with us while ours is torn up. It was great to see them, the girls had lots of fun with their cousins and second-cousins.

Waffles with the cousins. (Okay, not a great shot of anyone, but you can see that Adessa is, indeed, with her cousins.)


With second cousin Ian. These two had lots of fun.


Matching girls in front of grandma's house.


The Lewis/Frigaard/Alligood clan!