Family Weekend

This weekend was great! We had very few plans outside of spending good family time together! We were able to start all the fun on Friday since Matt had off work! We spent a couple hours playing with Sammie while Daniel took his morning nap. We played Duck, duck, goose and London Bridge. After lunch we went to see the movie Ratatouille. Neither of the kids enjoyed the beginning of it. Daniel cried everytime there was a loud noise and Sammie held her hands over her eyes until I gave her some candy to eat. After the first fifteen minutes, they did great! When we returned home, we filled up the pool and watched the kids splash to their hearts' content!

On Saturday, Sammie got a new bed that our friends Barbara and Nick generously gave her. She loves it! After lunch, we spent some time in the pool. The kids loved it! Sammie helped Mommie get Daddy wet with the squirt toys and then they took revenge on me and got me quite wet too! Saturday night we rented some movies. Matt and I watched Friday Night Lights. Have you seen it? What did you think? From what I saw of it between my snoozes, it wasn't really that exciting. What good came out of it? They lost!

Then there was Sunday...of course, we attended church, and then Matt had his last meeting for his trip to Moldova this week. After lunch the kids and I took naps! Sammie's first nap in a week! Thank goodness! She's been wearing me out! Then off to church again for the evening service and a tailgate party afterwards! It was fun! They did a really nice job with all the food and games they had! Could not have asked for nicer weather either!

Here are a couple of pics of the kids from this weekend!

It's not a clear Pic but I love the expression!

Daniel on the move

He's almost there!! This month he has started to roll from one spot to another intentionally, scoot around in a circle while sitting or on his belly, getting on all fours with a rocking motion, and most recently, pulling himself onto his knees and even to his feet a couple of times. Thankfully, due to recent overnight guests with walking one year olds, we had to put the gates up. They are in place and ready for use! Sammie gets so excited when she sees him move. She's quite the little cheerleader for him.

We have had a slue of things going on. We are currently in a two or three week slump from having overnight guests at our house. Ever since June 29th until last week, we have had visitors every week. Our next visitors come in two weeks and I am really looking forward to their visit. Heather and Seth Karl are coming for a full week! Yipee!!

These past three weeks have been rather productive with the help of our babysitter! Our wonderful babysitter Stacy started taking Sammie to the library last week. Today I took the kids to the library for "Tales for Tots" time and to see the firefighters. Tomorrow there's a puppet show so Stacy will hopefully be able to take her to that. (I was going to go but I have to get some cleaning done for tomorrow night!) Thanks to the library and my friend Amy, I now have plans for almost every week until preschool starts in SIX weeks!

Right now Matt is on his way home from a three day trip to San Jose, CA. He was supposed to leave San Jose around 12:45pm (3:45 EST) Wednesday but the flight was delayed. Then when he got to Chicago for his layover, the second flight was delayed over an hour due to lightning and heavy storms. I just checked his flight status and he is not due to arrive into Reagan until 1:46am. Poor guy. Lord willing, he'll be able to take some time off tomorrow. Let's pray it's the entire day!!

For myself, I've been mentally preparing to lead our church's weekly playgroup (mommy & me) as well as helping to prepare for a special event at church. Both will happen after school starts but it's better to start now than wait until I'm freaking out about it & should have done it two weeks ago! Know what I mean?

Well, it's almost 1:30am so I off to bed! I'll be up around 6am to my almost 10 mo. old alarm clock!

The Potty Adventure

Sammie and Daniel have had a great week. Auntie Melissa, Uncle Steve, and Baby Sarah were visiting until Thursday. We went to Mt. Vernon on Wednesday to ride the ferry. After a slightly difficult time getting on the boat, we had a great ride. The babies did great! Sammie was more interested in visiting the bathrooms on the lower deck but thankfully there weren't many others who were in need of them!

Potty training has taken a turn for the more difficult. Sam has not been very consistent with staying dry, not since the first week. It will be a challenge this week because we have VBS every morning. Fortunately, my good friend Amy will be one of the teachers in her class so I know she will be well taken care of! This is definitely an area of prayer for her and me...that we both stay consistent with it. She has two months before preschool starts and she has to be ready by then!

We have family and friends visiting over the next two weeks, a "normal" week or two afterwards, and then Matt will be off for Moldova for ten days. Will we ever have a "normal" month!? Probably not. It's not at all what I imagined life would be like, but that's how God works, doesn't He!? Sammie will just have to deal with the changes in big girl panties, and I'll just have to focus on doing at least two loads of laundry every day!

Other events of the weekend...We had a yard sale today. It went well. We made more than what we thought we did. We didn't sell as much as we had hoped but that's ok. After the yard sale, I dashed off to a bridal shower at church. It was one of the nicest ones I'd been to. Very fun yet relaxing too! Today was a day of talking with people I hadn't talked to in a while or are getting to know. At our yard sale, we met one of our neighbors and our other neighbor came over and hung out with us for a while. Also our friend Erin came over to hang out and attempt to sell somethings...she sold one and gave one to Matt...You'll have to ask him yourself!

The past three weeks...

...were as usual...BUSY!!! Memorial Day weekend we visited my mom and sister. We spent Friday and Saturday doing necessary work around the farm. Then Saturday night we met some friends for dinner and then off to a local carnival. Sammie was so excited to go on all the rides, except the dragon/dinosaur ride, which she was absolutely terrified of. Sunday was spent as Sammie's celebration for her birthday. We went to the circus in Hershey! It was really fun! Loud, but fun. Daniel got upset when fireworks went off but they both did really well.

Two days after we returned home Grandma Brown came to visit. Her first week-long visit with us. She taught Sammie about colors and did fingerpaintings with her. She took the kids for walks around the neighborhood, which, sadly, I fail to do on a regular basis. Also, We went to Ikea, a must whenever Grandma's in town! We had a great time with her here. It was great to have her here for Sammie's birthday.

The first weekend in June was Sammie's birthday party....a Princess party. We held it at the local park. We were blessed with beautiful weather! We invited a few boys to the event so I twisted the theme abit and involved dinosaurs through the favors. She had a great time. I hope all the kids did too. Sammie received a lot of wonderful, generous gifts. We are so blessed to have such giving family members and friends.

Last week we had a friend of Sammie's over for the week. It was a great experience for Sammie. She had someone her age to play with and to help her learn how to share. She isn't the greatest sharer, like most three year olds, but she needs all the experience with it she can get!!

This past Saturday was a birthday for two of Sammie's friends...twins. It was a great Elmo party. Their mom is so creative. I love getting ideas from her. Sammie and I ventured to it alone so Matt could get some work around the house done and Daniel could get a good nap. It was great yet a little weird at the same time to only have Sammie with me. I was able to catch up with some old friends while Sammie played and met some new girls her age.

Since this past Sunday the kids have been house-bound for the past three or four days. Why? Because Sammie has been potty training! It's been going really well! She has been in big girl panties for the past four days with very few accidents! She has really impressed me. We took our first venture out today for lunch and she even was willing to go while we're out....which isn't suprising, but we were at my old work place and they are have a kid size potty (and sink). She loved it! She would try to sneak in there just to "potty" or wash her hands for a fourth or fifth time. I never realized how liberating it would be for me to have her independently using the potty.

Now this coming weekend we are hosting most of Matt's family and my mom and sister. Daniel is getting Dedicated on Sunday at church. This is exciting to have the family here because we weren't able to have anyone here for Sammie's Dedication. Also it's Father's Day so it'll special to have Daniel's only Papa here for this special day.

I should be helping Matt finish up all the cleaning but like any other time, I'll do a little tonight and then rush around and stress about it tomorrow! I seem to work best under that kind of pressure!


Here's some pics from the past few months. Hope you enjoy them!


Daniel finding all kinds of toys in his basket


Sammie helping Grandma Starr with dishes


Sammie on the Day of her birthday party


Our first Spring Day in the Sandbox

Mother Daughter Day

Sammie and I attended a mother daughter luncheon at church today. Well, Daniel too. (Matt's in NH this weekend, again.) At first I wasn't at all excited after the morning we had (Well, at least the past hour) and I had a difficult time carrying everything in so I had to make two trips thus stressing me out more!! Once we were all seated and starting to eat. Things did calm down a bit! Sammie got a brownie from one of the ladies b/c she hurt her toe on the way into the church. That calmed her down quite quickly!! Can't imagine why!! I must say after the horrific morning and day yesterday, she was very well behaved! It's amazing how different they are in public than they are at home. I can say that b/c I was the same way! Fortunately, I sat at a table with loving women who graciously helped me with both kids. We played a couple of games and then one of the ladies gave a brief testimonial/words of encouragement! It was a nice time and good to visit with people.

This past week has been busy...with out-of-home activities again. Therefore, we have only gotten a little bit more done...more than we have in the past but not as much as I would have hoped! I am still trying to catch up on laundry...which, I know, never ends!

The only room that is the closest to being declared complete is the kids' room...the kitchen's a close second but not to its best! After the kids go to bed tonight, I will be able to focus a bit more on just putting books and things away! Or put in the yard sale pile!! I'm on my sixth box for that! I've very excited!

Hope you are having a great weekend and enjoying this beautiful weather!! We're going for a walk after our naps!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Just want to give a big shout out to all the moms and mommies-to-be (you know who you are!!) in our lives! We are so thankful for all of you! We hope that you all have a blessed day and one that is happy and relaxing!

Matt is off in New Hampshire working on Kayaking shop stuff with Jim! I'm slowing getting some more boxes unpacked and tomorrow, we'll be spending Mother's day with my mom at a half-way point between here and Lancaster, PA! Hope you all have a great weekend!

A sure sign of summer...

...when we go to the last Mommy & Me for the year. Today we'll be heading to the park with our friends from playgroup. Just as a last "Hoorah" for the kids to play together! It makes me a little sad b/c then I have to find a way to fill the two hour slot with another task...just so that it doesn't put a lull in our schedule and make me lazier for the summer. I have three days that are more lax than the other two...I don't really need a fourth! Well, at least I know I can always fall back on unpacking!!! HAHAHA!

Update on the kids...Sammie is doing well. Both of them are suffering like most people around here with allergies. I guess it's the negative of the nice weather! Daniel is also dealing with a double ear infection. He just had one about a month ago too! Poor little guy! He's been such champ!

Hope everyone has a great day! Enjoy the beautiful Sunshine!