Playgroup Halloween!

For our playgroup today we met at the New Hampton Nursing Home where Brian's grandpa and great grandma live.  Kathy came with me so she could help me with the girls on such a cold and rainy day.  Plus, she wanted to see her dad and grandma!  It was so much fun to see the joy the kids brought to the residents there.  A lot of them just wanted to reach out and touch your hand or the kids' hands and say how cute they were.  Kezzie mostly just shook their hands and told them Happy Halloween and to have a nice day!  Adah was squirmy but when we put her down she would hold our hands and walk.  We tried to get a group photo but with that many kids, it's hard to get them all looking and smiling at the same time!  The photo up in the left corner is the kids with Selma (Brian's great grandma) and down at the bottom is the kids and I with Dave (Brian's grandpa).  Kezzie had fun playing catch with Dave too!  He doesn't always remember people but since Kathy was there I think it helped him to know that the girls were Brian's kids.  I'm glad we could brighten the residents' day a bit even though it was so yucky outside!

Henry's 1st Birthday!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY!
We are so blessed to have you a part of our lives.  We can't wait to see you grow and become a strong young boy!  We love you Henry Augustus!

We spent almost all day Saturday with some of Brian's family.  I say SOME because Brian and his dad had tickets to go to the Iowa Hawkeyes game in IC, so they were gone.  It was so much fun for Keziah and Brady.  They play super well together now that they are getting older. 
We wanted everybody to be there to celebrate Henry's birthday so we waited until Sunday morning to do that.  We went back over there for a big breakfast and cake and ice cream.  Brady and Kez still love playing the piano and drive us all crazy when they do!  There's a lot of pounding going on.  As you can see, they like to use their elbows to play until we tell them to play gently and then they use their fingertips!  Henry was pretty dainty about eating his cake at first but then did manage to get pretty messy!  Can you believe how much Brian and Adah look alike?  She is a spitting image of him.  I never noticed how much until I took that picture of them with their heads right next to each other.  Brady and Kez always have a blast on the bean bags.  They played a game that Kezzie was pretending to sleep on them and Brady would come and wake her up.  I love pretend play...it's so fun to have an imagination!  Adah loves to stand up to the window and look out to the back yard where Remi (their golden doodle) likes to play.  Adah gets really excited when she sees Remi and makes a noise that imitates a dog barking!  Henry was off playing with toys when Steph was opening gifts for him...Kezzie didn't seem to mind sitting right in there though! 
I pray you have many more birthdays to celebrate with us, Henry!

Austin's Football!

Austins last three games were good.  They went something like this:
Win
Tie (he kicked the field goal to tie it.  Austin got hurt on his shoulder.  The team was vicious.
Loss (game pictured).  It was rainy, and Austin was injured so all he was allowed to do was kick.

Keziah is 35 MONTHS!

Here she is...my almost THREE year old!  I can't believe it!  She is starting to love the camera even more and insisted on me taking her picture in these different poses.  She is so beautiful!  She is lacking in clothes that actually fit her so in a trip to target I let her pick one shirt.  I gave her two choices and she of course picked the blue one (this has been her favorite color for a while now).  So this is the shirt she picked and I think it looks so good with her hair/eye color.
Keziah is officially fully potty trained!  It's amazing that almost a year and a half ago Kezzie was mastering staying dry during the day and now, finally, I can say even at night she is staying dry!  Ever since she was sick in early October she has been staying dry at night.  Around the same time she really started to complain about not wanting to wear a diaper at night.  She just didn't like the way they felt.  When she started feeling better she had a little hiccup and wet the bed three nights in a row.  As much as I hated changing/washing bedding I was determined to not give up!  And Kezzie was determined not to go back to diapers (I even asked her).  I decided to try a different idea...no fluids after 6:30pm and I wake her to go potty before I go to bed around 10 (sidenote: I don't want to forget something Brian said...partly because he was the one that said it but also because it is so true.  One night when I went to bed early Brian volunteered to take Kezzie to the potty.  When he came to bed after taking her potty he said something like 'she looks so peaceful when you tuck her back in, almost as if she is smiling she is so warm and cozy and happy to be back in her bed' and it's so true.  She looks so precious).  She hasn't had an accident since!  In the beginning she was waking in the morning between 5 and 6AM because she had to pee so bad and then she wouldn't go back to bed.  During this time she would run down to our room to get us up to help her go, but then we changed some things to allow her more independence.  For instance, she has to have pants on that are tight around the ankles so they won't fall off when her legs are hanging from the toilet.  If we forget this, she will wake us in her sleepiness yelling from the upstairs bathroom.  She has even woke Adah doing this-not an experience I really want to re-live! Also on the same note of how she is dressed-she literally only has her jammies on.  If she has undies on she will have the same frustration/yelling when she tries to pull them up.  She is tired and doesn't want to deal with them bunching up and getting rolled so we just eliminate them altogether.  Requirement #2...she has to have lights.  Lights are key!  When she goes potty by herself she has to have the light on.  In order for her to turn the light on there has to be a second stool in the bathroom (see requirement #3) to allow her to reach on her own.  And also she has to have the potty all set up-meaning she needs her potty seat on the toilet and a stool up next to the toilet.  It seems like a lot more work then it is.  And it is so worth it if she isn't waking me to do something she has been doing so well by herself during the day for the last year and  half!  I sometimes even hear her get up at 3AM to take herself potty and then head back to bed.  What a big girl!  I am so proud of her!
Kezzie has become a SUPER picky eater.  This makes for a very annoyed mommy and a lot of drama at the dinner table.  I mean A LOT!  Any tips in this area are encouraged!  I honestly can't tell you anything I am for sure she will eat.  Her reaction is different from time to time of making the same thing!  I think it is her age because she has also become very demanding.  ie: 'I WANT TO WATCH DORA!' (while hitting her fist on the couch), 'GET ME SOME KETCHUP' (with a very pouty face).  The list goes on!  Let's just say she is taking a lot of deep breaths, taking a lot of time outs, and giving out a lot of apologies!
One of Keziah's favorite things to do with Adah is play on beds or in Adah's crib.  Almost every day when Adah wakes from her nap Kezzie will ask, "Please open Adah's door?"  In a nutshell she is asking me if it is ok to go in Adah's room, put hundreds of toys in her crib, proceed to climb into her crib and then have tons of fun with Adah laughing and giggling and squealing!  I listen to them over the monitor and just smile at how much their relationship is growing!  I eventually go in there to break up the fun and to discover exactly how many toys/stuffed animals Kezzie has carted from her room into Adah's crib and then promptly help Kezzie put all the animals and toys back where they belong so the crib is ready for its next use!  Adah equally enjoys joining Kezzie in her bed.  There is a step stool next to Kezzie's bed that Adah has become a pro at climbing.  She will go straight for it every chance she gets.  You really have to watch her on Kezzie's bed because the only thing keeping her from falling off is a bed rail.  The two of them get pretty wild up there hiding under the covers and plopping on their backs saying 'whoa' (Adah says this with her eyes!).  They have so much fun together!  Keziah equally loves Austin's company.  She is enjoying following his lead and doing pretty much anything she is asked.  He is her favorite wrestling opponent and breakfast buddy and the one person she loves to fight with the most!  And secretly she is all those things for him too!
Keziah is doing excellent with her letters.  She can recognize almost all of them and has recently started to try writing some of the more simple ones (i and l, o, t, etc.)  And she continues to get more confident with counting.  She has even started counting backwards from 10 missing a couple until she reaches 5 and then it's smooth sailing!  Good-bye until next month...it will be here before we know it!

Adah is standing unassisted!

She's been doing this about a week now and thinks she is pretty hot stuff! I, of course, do too!!

Adah's first REAL meal!

Over the past couple of days Adah has started to eat a little more people food (see previous post), but today she really had a full meal: cut up chicken, peas and mandarine oranges.  She loved it all and ate almost every last bit!  You can tell when she has a full belly because she starts pushing all her food off the edge of her tray!  She also enjoys a sippy cup of water at this time!  My baby is growing up!

Silly Girls!

Lunch time around here has changed a bit for us...Adah has decided she is liking people food now so we all sit together and enjoy the same food!  It's pretty nice!  We are blessed to get to spend this time together goofing off.  Here are the girls just being silly.  The definitely feed off each others silliness! 

Pumpkin Carving Time!

We had so much fun carving pumpkins. I think this is the first year Keziah has been a part of it.  Last year we pretty much didn't even celebrate Halloween because we were out of town visiting our newest nephew, Henry!  Kezzie thought the goo was really gross!  But she loved the pumpkin seeds once we got them washed and baked!  Delicious!  Kezzie wanted her little one to be carved like a sun so Austin took liberty of doing that!  The big one (mine and Austin's) was carved into a wolf.  We sat together and poked the holes and then took turns carving it.  It didn't turn out the best but it was ok.  And that wasn't because of Austin either!  But to be fair, he did leave the hardest parts for me to do!  Better luck next year!

Scrunched Noses!

Adah has quite the look going with her nose!  This is pretty much what she looks like most of the time!  She will add in the 'snort' sort of noise to go with it!  It's pretty cute! 

And of course Kezzie had to show off her ability to do it as well!

Playgroup Pumpkin Party!

Today we had our playgroup again.  We met at one of the mom's houses and had a fun little pumpkin party.  She did a great job planning some fun pumpkin activities!  When we got there we enjoyed decorating our pumpkin (we only took the little one) with happy face stickers.  Keziah really liked doing this and Adah really enjoyed the finished product!  We also sat around the table and decorated pumpkin shaped sugar cookies with green and orange frosting (and of course we ate them too).  We enjoyed really yummy pumpkin bars and hot apple cider.  And when we were all done inside we went outside for a pumpkin search.  The mom hid little plastic pumpkins filled with candies all over the back yard and the kids went looking for them. I think the girls' favorite part would have to be the kittens that were there.  They both couldn't get enough of them.  In fact, all the kids really enjoyed the kittens!  Who wouldn't?  They are so precious!

Fall time Pt.2!

 
Later in the afternoon Brian was even feeling good enough to get outside for a while.  It was such a gorgeous day and the perfect opportunity to get some fresh air after having the flu!  The kids had so much fun!  Kezzie's hair was standing on end at the top of the slide.  She would climb up it from the bottom and as she approached the top her hair would stand up more and more...it was so weird!  Adah was on pins and needles every time I set her near a pile of leaves but really enjoyed sitting in the grass!  Me, Keziah and Austin all played some good kick-ball too, as well as shooting some hoops and playing catch.  While the girls napped I helped Austin practice his kicking!  Even though we didn't want to expose my family by going to CF (and everybody else at church) it turned out to be a wonderful day!  And I am praising God that we are all feeling so much better!

Fall time!

Well, Austin is home and feeling much better.  He feels too weak to play in his football game today so we decided to play outside instead.  He got the rake out and he and Kezzie jumped in leaves together!  Keziah had such a great time!  Her and Austin have been having so much fun together lately and playing so well (Austin actually begs me to let her do certain things with him)!  I brought Adah out to see what was going on and she enjoyed watching them but the second I tried to put her down for a picture, she got scared.  She was deathly afraid of the leaves and how noisy they were.   I guess we won't be getting any good fall pictures of the kids this year!!  See part 2 of our day in a later post!

Seriously HOT!

I can't believe this weather!  It was seriously HOT today (88)!  After being confined for this whole week, we really needed some fresh air to rid ourselves of the germs!  Adah started puking on Tuesday at 3AM and Brian was puking last night (friday). Austin is with his dad this weekend, but he called and said he has been throwing up as well. Kez and I started puking Wed. in the middle of the night.  Today is a new day and the girls and I are feeling much better!  What a beautiful day it is!  And look at the purple flowers!  They are so gorgeous, I love them! And you have to look close to see the giant bumble bees that love them too!

Silly Kiddos!

Adah found a new place to play...the quilt rack!  It is covered in blankets and apparently it is a blast to fall into!  Her and Kezzie played there for quite a long time tonight!  I guess when the flu hits your house and you are confined for several days, you find things to do!  Austin is also feeling a bit bored-here he is rough-housing with the girls!  Adah and daddy look so sweet together (with her finger up her nose).  And I bet you can't guess who got a hold of the camera...she took a pretty good picture of her baby, huh?  And the last one is Kezzie being goofy with stickers!  I think Austin might have helped in the placement of them directly over her mouth!

Pumpkins!

The girls and I are in a playgroup for moms and kids and we meet once a week.  Today we went to a nearby pumpkin farm.  It was perfect for Keziah because there wasn't a lot to do and not a ton of pumpkins to look at.  She pretty much just walked right up to the pallet and grabbed one.  She's not too picky!  We picked one big one and one little one.  Adah was at home taking a nap (Brian stayed home so Kezzie and I could go).  Normally I would take Adah with to playgroup but she woke up at 3AM puking so I thought I would let her have a normal rest at home.  Kezzie got a few free stickers out of the deal too!  When we got home Adah was just waking up!  She really enjoyed seeing the pumpkins we picked out.  She thought she was pretty big stuff being able to lift the pumpkin!  Next weeks playgroup meeting will be to decorate our pumpkins with faces.  Later in the day Kezzie and I made some yummy caramel apples!  We love that fall is in full swing!

Austin's 3rd Ftbl game!

Austin played well today, however they didn't win.  They didn't lose either though!  The game ended in a tie of 8-8.  Nobody scored anything in the first half and then right away in the third quarter the other team scored.  They also got their kick for the two extra points.  It wasn't until the fourth quarter that New Hampton scored.  Austin made the kick for the two extra points to tie up the game just before the time ran out.  Austin said it was a good thing he read the scoreboard wrong because he thought it said 6 to 6. He thought that if he made the extra kick he would win his team the game but that if he didn't make the extra kick that they would still be tied and it would still be an ok thing.  He said he didn't feel pressure under those circumstances so he thinks that is why he made it!  I guess a couple of the bulbs were out on the scoreboard making the 8 look like a 6!  If he hadn't made it, his team would have lost!  I am so proud of Austin!

Sorry there aren't any pictures...I didn't actually get to attend his game because it was during the girls' nap time.  The game was in Fredericksburg at 3:00.  Brian was able to go and even Austin's dad and Linda were there!

Austin's Tree-Fort

This was our project today!  We woke up this morning and I told Brian that our tree just had to be trimmed TODAY!  It's been a huge eye-sore all summer and every time I back out of the garage, the branches hit the top of it.  We went and rented a chainsaw from our local hardware store and chopped away.  When Brian's arms got too sore/tired I took over with a manual saw.  When it was all said and done, this is what we were left with. Austin saw it as an opportunity to climb!  We ran back to the hardware store and bought a box of nails.  With the wood that we had laying around he was able to build a ladder on the side of the tree to reach the stumps.  He climbed up there on several occasions today and sat there.  He even built a little platform!  Kezzie stood by and watched him build the whole thing (when she wasn't napping).  There was only one occasion he sent her inside because 'she was being annoying'!

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!