Beautiful Week!

It has been absolutely beautiful this week so we have been taking advantage of it a bit. It's perfect when we can go outside and not worry too much about bugs or getting burnt by the sun in seconds and sweating to death! Here are some fun pics from yesterday. And yes, occasionally I dress the girls alike...it's fun! Adah is greatly enjoying her swing and likes her sunglasses on and off! I love her curiosity when I put her on the ground. She wants to taste everything! And Keziah is mastering her skill at pedaling on her trike! She LOVES it! Now if she could just get better at steering! Not kidding you, this is a serious problem! I love my girls. I must say though that Kezzie took a very nice picture of Adah and I. Maybe we have a photographer on our hands?!

Adah is 10 MONTHS!

Adah is such a big girl.  She continues to learn so many new things!  And before we know it we will be planning her first birthday party!  This month Adah got a huge amount of teeth so I will start with that: Adah's second tooth (bottom front left) came in 8/30, third tooth (top front right) came in 9/6, fourth tooth (bottom left next to front tooth) popped through 9/19, fifth tooth (top right next to front tooth) came in 9/25 and number six (top front left) came through 9/26.

Adah is waving hello and good-bye (9/1).  At first this was a whole arm kind of thing but has recently become just her hand and sometimes looks a lot like the sign for milk.  Which brings me to her next talent-she can sign milk (9/9).  She never really has a need to ask for milk because I feed on a schedule but whenever I lay her on her side to start the process she will sign milk and often times if somebody (like Kez) asks for milk she will hear the word and sign it.  It's so cute!  Adah is playing peek-a-boo (9/10).  She LOVES this game.  Daddy and Kezzie are the funnest for her to play with and make her laugh the most.  She will also use her blankie or her arm to cover her own eyes.  She does this A LOT during the day-at lunch, during diaper changes or in the midst of playing!  You have to pay attention to know that she is trying to get you to play!  Adah just recently learned how to clap (9/26).  She used to do it when she would get frustrated but it was more of a 'throw-her-hands-together-and-wave-them-around' kind of a thing.  Now she realized it can be a fun thing to do and does it when there is music or when we cheer for her.  She also dances (9/25).  Sometimes she will get up on her feet holding onto something and bounce erratically or sometimes she is lazy about it and just rocks on her bum.  She will of course have a huge smile the entire time too!  And do I even need to mention how much she loves babies?  I mean, look at her in the pictures...she ADORES all babies/dolls.  We have one that laughs or cries when you push its belly and she will giggle and smile at it and hug it.  So pecious!

This month was special because Adah got dedicated at church.  If you missed that post you can click here.  I had to back-date it so it got buried in some other posts.
And I have to admit that I lost my bet with Brian (I bet him that Adah would be walking by 10 months).  It wasn't ever really a true bet because it wasn't like Brian was rooting against her walking, but whatever you call it, I was wrong.  She isn't walking yet but is getting stronger and even frequently walks holding onto just one hand.  She is a very fast cruiser around the couch/coffee table and has even stood unassisted for a couple seconds on purpose!  I will bet she will be walking sooner than Kezzie was but who am I to say and honestly, I don't know if I am ready for that anyway.  She is just growing up WAY too fast!  I will leave this post with her recent schedule.  I doubt it's much different then last months however that is going to change in the next couple of days because I am going to be dropping a feeding putting her down to 4/day :(.
6:30/7:30 wake and nurse (I  have to make note that this is such a wide range because she will often wake at 6:30ish and squeal/talk but then be completely silent until sometimes as late as 7:30).
8:30 cereal mixed with culturel and breast milk.
9ish nap-10/10:30 wake
10:30/11 nurse
Noon lunch-usually a #2 veggie
1:30 nurse (this is the feeding I am dropping out) and down for nap-3:30 wake
4/4:30 nurse
5 supper-#2 veggie and half #2 fruit
6:30 1/4C cereal mixed with half #2 fruit and water
7:30/8 nurse and bed (sometimes she gets to stay up and listen to Kezzie's books and devotions before I nurse her to sleep)
Adah is such a blessing.  I love how she makes me laugh every day!  I love how she looks at her big sister and brother.  I love how she plays so well by herself.  I love how she is so interested in what Keziah is doing and learns so much from her.  I just love it all!  I am such a lucky mommy to be home with my kids all day long!  I am so blessed that my husband goes to work so that I can be home with them!  God has blessed me beyond measure!

Austin's 2nd FTBL game!

We unfortunately had to miss Austin's first game but we were told that he did an excellent job.  Apparently we have a kicker on our hands!  He scored 4 of the 18 points at his first game.  The score was 18 to 0.  Today was his second game of the season.  It was played in Waverly and was another great game.  New Hampton won with a score of 27-0.  Austin made one of the two kicks, scoring his team 2 points.  It was so great to see him play.  He got a hold of the ball a couple times but got tackled.  Adah and Kezzie had a blast.  Mom and Dad came to watch too and Jamie and Keith came about halfway through.
Jamie got hot so she took her sweater off and it left her wearing a white tank-top.  Kezzie wanted to be just like her so we took her sweater off and she was wearing her little white tee.  It was so cute!  She really enjoyed yelling for Austin and telling him he was doing a good job and cheering for him!  She is his personal cheerleader!  She was also super excited because she got to have gum for the first time ever!  She always asks me if she can have 'gums' (that's what she calls it) and I tell her when she is bigger.  If I tell her she is a big girl about something she will say 'I a big girl now I have gums?'  Today was the day and she chewed her first little piece for about 10 minutes and then swallowed it (I think it may have been too small).  We decided to give her a second chance a little later and she chewed it until she was tired of it and the flavor was gone.  I think it must have been close to a half hour!  She really is getting big! 
It was a perfect sunny day for sitting at a football game!  Go Chickasaws!

Keziah is 34 MONTHS!

(The big blob on the side of Kezzie's face is a princess tattoo, in case you are wondering!)
I am in total shock as I start to think about planning Keziah's 3rd birthday party!  I can't believe my baby is getting so big.  And you can see in these pictures she has an attitude to go with it!  She is loving life and enjoying every day God gives to her!

Yellow Jackets Invade...

It's been quite a process and it all started with our dog, Bucky! Here is the story...

I was upstairs nursing Adah in her room but I had the gate closed at the top of the stairs so Bucky couldn't get up there. It seems like Adah is becoming more and more distracted while nursing so I try to keep the distractions out. I started to hear a noise in the stairway. Brian came up to talk to me and found that Bucky was chewing a hole right through the carpet in the corner of one of the steps. He chewed it right down to the wood in a matter of minutes. I figured he was just mad at me for locking him out of where I was at. It was definitely out of character for him to be like that but I didn't know why else he would do it. And then a few days later we found out. I was working in the kitchen and could hear a noise. As I started to follow it and look for it I realized it was coming from the wall right next to our stairway. And it was particularly loud right next to that hole that Bucky had chewed. Bingo. We thought we had it all figured out. We were thinking it must be a mouse and Bucky was trying to get at it. It sounded like it was chewing. Within a couple more days we started to realized we had a bee problem as well (all the while I am still hearing this noise in the wall). And we assumed that however the mouse got in, the bees must be getting in too. The bees weren't really that big of a problem at first. We just saw a few downstairs in Austin's room over the course of several days. Brian searched around the outside of the house and found an area where there were a lot of bees. He still couldn't find the hole in the house but we knew they had to be getting in somewhere behind our bushes so he bought a spray and drenched the area. He did that over the weekend and we thought the problem was solved.  And then Monday came and I had to call Brian and give him the bad news that the problem wasn't in fact fixed, but that it was worse. We knew we had a serious problem when in one day we had to kill several and found several more dead or almost dead-and they weren't just downstairs either. And then it hit me...the noise in the wall wasn't a mouse after all. It was a bunch of bees-yellow jackets to be exact. And here's a little yellow jacket info for you: They are one of two kinds of bees that are the most aggressive (and I will attest to that as I had a couple different occasions where I was sure it was out to get me and Austin made several comments that they chased him up the stairs from his room), they don't have stingers so they can sting you repeatedly and lastly we learned that they make their home in the floor joists and walls. YUCK! It was time to call an exterminator. We had a guy come out and he crawled behind our bushes and was able to find two holes that appeared to 'have a lot of traffic' he said. After spraying a powder/mist in there he said we shouldn't have any problems by the end of the week. The next day we found a couple more yellow jackets-one of which was upstairs in the office. This concerned me because we had never seen one upstairs before and the girls' rooms are up there. But it was the last one we ever saw. Now if we can just get those holes filled in, we can maybe avoid having anymore future problems.

Below you will find the video of me recording the sound coming from inside our wall.  WARNING: it is really gross and will make your skin crawl. Toward the end you can really hear them buzzing.  You will need to turn your volume way up to hear it though...just don't forget to turn it back down!

Austin's class project

Austin had a big science project due today.  He had to create a diagram of a plant cell.  I thought he did an excellent job!  Here is the result.  While he was at school I baked the cake in a tinted green color.  When he got home from school we went to the store and bought all the yummys to represent the parts of the cell.  He did all the rest by himself.  Looking at it now Austin decided it looked more like a cattle ranch!  I think that is a pretty accurate thought unless you know what it really is and what it all represents!  When he was done presenting it he frosted it up and fed it to the class.  He said his teacher seemed very pleased but he won't get his grade for it until next week!

Best Tent Ever!

Austin and Kezzie made a tent on Saturday...Austin did a really good job and the two of them had a lot of fun making it and playing in it. The next day was Sunday and Brian thought it would be nice if Austin had it picked up when I got done putting the girls to bed. When I came down he was half finished and I asked him to stop. I really wanted to play in it with the girls this week so to do that I had to remake it. This time it was bigger and better than before because we knew what to do different. It turned out awesome and Kezzie and I even got to watch a little netflix movie on the computer inside of it while Adah was napping. She thought it was a pretty nice treat and I got to relax so I thought it was a pretty nice treat too!

Adah's Dedication

Adah got dedicated at Orchard Hill Church this afternoon. It was a very nice ceremony with 9 other families (17 other kids). Alanna was dedicated along with Rylan too. It was such a special time for us to be reminded of how incredibly blessed we are as a family! We have so much to be thankful for. We are thankful that our church does infant and parent dedication. They also offer infant baptism but we prefer to dedicate instead. We would like Adah, and our other kids, to be able to make the decision to be baptized when they are ready to give their life to Christ.  We were given this statement as one of the forms when Adah was dedicated and I wanted to share it with you...

We acknowledge our dependence on God in order to be the loving and faithful parents that God has called us to be.  For without Him, we can do nothing.  We believe that in dedicating her to God we are giving her back to the Lord, the Giver of Life, and recognizing that we are stewards to whom God has entrusted this amazing treasure.  We are stating that we are going to do all in our power to rear her in a Christian home, to teach her the truths of the Christian faith, to pray for her daily and to do all that we can to bring her to a place of personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  We are also stating that we are going to model for her a Christ-like lifestyle, living a God honoring life of discipleship, seeking to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

We firmly believe that this is what we are called to do with our children and commit ourselves to doing the best we can in living out this pledge to our church, to God and to our family and friends.

Cutie-Pa-Tootie!

There is a lot going on in this collage of pictures...many things that Adah enjoys doing! I will help point them out to you (starting at the top left)... Adah likes the registers-she thinks it's funny how air blows out of them and hits her in the face. She will squeal while standing/sitting over them. Adah loves this window in our living room. She stands here quite often. She likes to look out at the street and squirrels. If you click on the picture you can see the drool coming down Adah's chin-she is currently working on three teeth coming through. Adah loves to stand up to the coffee table. She will bounce up and down with glee so much that on several different occasions she has hit her chin on the table pretty hard. I can't keep her from it though, it's one of her favorite places to hang out! Another thing she does while standing at the coffee table is she will play peek-a-boo. She kneels down so that her head is below the edge of the table and then pops back up and giggles. We will say 'peek' and she gets so excited! The last couple pictures are her latest trick. She has discovered Keziah's baby stroller she received when she turned one and stands herself up to it and walks. I am so impressed with this accomplishment! She does it and I don't even realize it until she gets stuck somewhere. She looks so adorable! But then again...when doesn't she!

River Fun!

We've been hanging out the last couple weekends at the river. Labor day weekend we were there all weekend and enjoyed family being there also. We got to watch a nice fireworks display on the river. It was right at dusk so Kezzie even got to watch it before heading off to bed (she was skeptical of the noise at first and then really got into it and loved it). At night it was a bit chilly but we managed to stay warm and sleep well. Adah had to sleep in the pack-n-play since she is too big for that bassinet anymore. Even as crippled as dad is with his ankle, he managed to get out in the boat for a little bit! I enjoyed a nice run while the girls took a nap one afternoon. Austin and his 'cousins' (some of my cousins were there and even their kids) had a blast starting campfires (notice Austin with his torch), searching for craw-dads (and cooking them over the fire), fishing, canoeing and of course letting off bottle rockets! The girls had a blast on our boat ride. Adah was squealing and Kezzie couldn't get enough of splashing in the water. We are sad to see the season end but ready to stay home for a while. We are already looking forward to next year's camping season!