pictures

I've posted pictures from Christmas. Just click the link on the right for the website then click on "Christmas 2007". Or, click the picture below:

7 weeks...wow

Wow, who would have thought that finding time to blog while having a 7 week old and a 3 1/2 year old would be so difficult?????

Sorry for the slow updating. And sorry for the lack of pictures. Our camera is busted. All we get on the display is white. It will still take pictures, but it's not the same when you can't see! I do have some, though, and I'll post them soon.

Yesterday my friend, Sharla, and I witnessed the first time Bethany has "fed" a baby-doll; if you know what I mean. It was so cute! I remember when another friend, Joline, told me about her daughter doing the same thing. I was kind of wondering when she might start doing that!

Bethany has been doing pretty well with the whole baby thing. She has good days and not-so-good days. Even at school. Monday her teacher told me that it has been taking a little more prodding than usual to get her to do her work. Today she told me that she was her normal self again. I imagine it will be like this for her for awhile.

Okay, let me go work on those pictures. I'll let you know here once I've got them up.

she's here!

Penelope Jane
6 pounds 8 ounces
19.5 inches

The WiFi in here won't let me FTP to our server. So more pictures will have to wait.

And the final movement...

For Penelope -

almost done!

Well, this is it. Tomorrow at 5AM we head for the hospital. In less than 15 hours Penelope will be here! I am a little nervous about all of the prep before the surgery, but I am just looking forward to having her with us, on the outside! So, stay tuned here. We'll get pictures up as soon as Nathan can. I don't think they have wi-fi at our little DeLand hospital!

theme and variations

Maybe she's got a whole suite of these:

our b, budding composer

So Bethany decided to sing a little song the other day.  She sat down at the piano and told me that she wanted to sing a song about Jesus and God and how much she loves them.  This is what she came up with:

christmas in the air

Amy and B spent today putting out Christmas decor and playing Christmas music. Tis the season. Fa la la. Deck the halls and such. All and all a relaxing change of pace. B has been in rare form.

Awkward moment of the day: Bethany just started singing Santa Baby. Amy explained that it was on the radio in the car the other day. Amy and I laughed and then stopped, in an attempt not to encourage it. Not exactly something I want my three year old singing. Little too much innuendo.

We'll laugh more later. Hope you do so now. Merry Christmas!

something worked!

Bethany LOVES quesadillas. I've tried putting chicken or beans in them and she won't eat them that way. She likes them with cheese ONLY (as she prefers most things!). Well, while I was at Publix today I stopped in the baby aisle and picked up a jar of pureed chicken. I spread it (very thinly) on the tortilla before putting on the cheese. SHE'S EATING IT!!!!!!! She has no idea what I did! Halleluia!!!!! Next time she wants mac 'n cheese, I may try putting some pureed squash or something in the pot! I hope that this isn't a one-time experiment gone right. It better keep on working!

Ah, fall!

Last night as I was leaving work around 8:30 I could see my breath!!!! I love this weather. Now what is wrong with the weather people??? I was watching the weather report the other day and the guy actually said, "By the middle of next week we should finally see temps warm up back into the 80's". WHAT?!?!?!?!?! What does he mean FINALLY??? We've been waiting since May for this weather and he's ready for it to get WARM again???

sick

Well, it never fails. I have 3-4 days of lots of work to do and as soon as I get a day off, bam!, I get sick. The change in weather probably aggravated it, too. Bethany is even a little stuffy, but not acting sick. I, however, feel like my head is about to explode. I have pictures that I need to post from the Fall Festival that we went to (rather than the traditional trick-or-treating). We've been so busy since that night I haven't had a chance, and now this. But I can't hardly even see what I'm typing right now, my eyes are so blurry! I'll try again later.

Trying the movie thing

Okay, here's a little movie I took the other day. Since school started I've tried to get her to say the pledges for me and the other day, having the microphone in her hand got her going! She did this routine about 5 times in a row! I got the last time, which, of course, was not as good as the first! She was much more distracted my this time! Anyways, sorry it's a little dark, but it's more about the sound anyway! She starts off with the pledge to the flag then "My Country 'Tis of Thee", followed by the pledge to the Bible and "The B-I-B-L-E". Hope you enjoy!

Okay, I'm here!

Thank you, Jen, for hounding me. And thank you, Melissa, for wondering where I was! :)

Okay, not really time to catch up, but I have uploaded some new pics to the website and I've put a couple of pics here for your immediate enjoyment. The first 3 are of Bethany's room. We finally got around to painting a couple of months ago, so here is the fruit of our labor:





And here now is a recent piece of art by Bethany. She went from scribbles to circles to happy faces and now to whole people so quickly (it seems!). This is a picture of Penelope that B wanted to put on Penelope's door. Notice the amount of hair she thinks the baby will have!




So I hope you all enjoy that little update. I wish my life would slow down for a minute! I have some cute video I need to put up, too, and as soon as Nathan's life slows down, he can help me with that! :)

yikes!

Has it really been over a month since I posted???? I must be busier than I realize! Things have been so ridiculously busy here. I don't even really know what to write at the moment. I was just shocked to see my last post was September 10!

I will have to sit down and catch you all up on what's been happening. But it's 11PM right now and I must sleep. Hopefully by Wednesday there will be something here to read. If there isn't, please feel free to hound me.

melt my heart

Last night at dinner, instead of Nathan or myself praying, we asked Bethany to say the prayer that they say before snack time at school. It goes like this:

(to the tune of Frere Jacques)
God our Father, God our Father
Once again, once again
We thank You for our blessings, we thank You for our blessings
Amen, Amen.

After she finished she said, "When we pray, do we close our eyes so we can see Jesus in our hearts?"

Gasp...tears...(a little choked)"Yes, we do".

She takes my breath away.

cravings

So, I've been on a big chocolate milk kick here the last week or so. Only, I have to buy like the Publix chocolate milk. It's not the same as making it myself. I don't know why. Bethany saw it, though, so she wanted some. I mixed it half and half with plain milk. Tonight she was drinking plain milk and she says, "I LOVE plain milk. And I also love chocolate milk. But I wanted plain milk this time."

When we dropped Nathan off to teach his class this evening Bethany asked where he was going. I told her that he had to go teach the students in his class. B says, "Is Daddy a teacher?" "Yes" "Is he going to teach them how to walk in a line?" Uh... "And how to play on the playground?" Um, sure... :)

spiders

So yesterday afternoon when Nathan came home, he took Bethany outside to pick up sticks, one of her favorite Father/Daughter activities. Nathan found a spider and web while they were working and used a big twig to remove it from its location.

Last night B woke up about 10:00 crying. At first she told me that there was a spider in her dream. Then she was sure that there was a spider on her wall. She was laying as far over in the bed as she could to stay away from it. Of course, nothing was there. However, my "squahing" it and throwing in the garbage did not convince her. So, I stole an idea from Melissa. I got our bottle of odor neutralizer and "sprayed" it all around her bed. Some spray did come out of the bottle; just enough to be able to smell it but not make us sneeze. It worked! (Thanks, Melissa!) Plus a prayer to Jesus to keep her safe and to keep the spiders outside. All told, it was about a 30-minute process.

Let's all pray for no spiders tonight!

big words

Yesterday, B and I went to the mall. We took a break from our shopping to grab a slice of pizza. She was eating very slowly and was constantly distracted by one of those Chinese cats (at the chinese food stand) that waves its arm. So I told her that we couldn't go to the Disney Store until she finished her pizza. Here's her response: "You can't go without me. Otherwise you have to come back and get me!"

Yes, "otherwise". I called Nathan and told him what she said. He busted out laughing!

1st week of school!

Well, B had a great first week of school! She has been so excited about going and the big day finally arrived! This is how she looked when I got her up:



Then after she woke up a bit we got her dressed and her bag packed and she was ready to go!



She went right in to the class and had no problem with us leaving her there. We started to say our good-bye's and instead of big hugs and kisses we got, "BYE!!!" We talked her into at least a LITTLE hug and kiss, though!

The rest of the week was about the same. She did keep me informed of what her teacher wore from day to day. And so far she's been pretty good about telling me what they did at school each day. Sometimes she'll start up with a random song and I'll say, "Where did you learn that?" and she'll say, "At my school".

I just hope the novelty doesn't wear off anytime soon!

PS - you can click on either of those pics to see a few more from the first day.

vacuum help!

Okay, I think that I would like a new vacuum for Christmas. I've never been big on researching the best ones. We lived in Chicago for 4 years and just needed a little floor vac as we didn't have carpet. Then we bought a bagless vac when we moved to Hawaii. Now, our carpet in the faculty apartments I don't know if you could even call carpet. It was exactly like my dorm room carpet at Stetson. So we didn't need anything really heavy duty as most dirt could never make it through the astro-turf-like fibers of the carpet.

Now this same vacuum we've had for 3 years. I has about 4 different types of filters on it that are IMPOSSIBLE to find anywhere in order to replace. I'm also thinking about going to a bagged vacuum because I HATE cleaning out the canister. It's disgusting.

So, anybody out there have a vacuum that they just LOVE? What are your thoughts? Then, I'm going to put that new vacuum on my Christmas wish list.