Swingsets and Cowgirls

This post is long overdue. The girls turned 4 and 2 on July 9th and July 11th. They were so excited for their Sheriff Callie birthday party. We gave them their birthday present a little early. A new swing set for the backyard. I can tell you it has brought hours of enjoyment. It is nice to be able to let them out of the backdoor to go and play.

The birthday party was a great success. It was a beautiful day and we were blessed to have the majority of our family here. The girls enjoyed all of their presents and had a blast playing in the jumpy house with their cousins. We are looking forward to the next adventures we will have as a family.

Emily 3 years and 11 months

How can I have an almost 4 year old? I find this to be impossible. Emily is at a great age. She plays pretend with her dolls and often acts out her favorite Disney Jr shows. All of her animals and dolls are named after her friends at school. Emily has learned how to spell her name and her friend Paige's name. She has been learning her letters and often points them out when she sees them in words. She loves to show us how high she can jump and riding her bike. Em asks lots of questions and has a great memory. She can be very silly these days often laughing really hard is someone puts something on their heads. She loves to sing songs. Some of them she makes up and some of them are from Frozen or Sheriff Callie. She amazes us with what she knows about. She is very curious about animals and how things work or why they happen. She loves to play with her sister and does a good job of including Liza. Emily is a ray of sunshine in our lives.

23 Months of Eliza Jane

Next week Eliza will be 23 months, just shy of 2 years. She is definitely in full blown toddler mode. Eliza is a ball of energy rarely slowing down. That is unless Sheriff Callie or Doc McStuffins is on the TV. She is a great eater and loves to run, jump, and climb on just about everything. Liza has been sleeping in a big girl bed for over a month and doing very well with it. Every night we read the same choo choo books (Thomas). In fact some of her favorite things these days are choo choos and trucks. Eliza's vocabulary is increasing daily. She often asks "Where Emmy go?" then laughs and points at Em and says "Right here!" She greets Emily every morning with Hi Emmy and a hug. She refers to most things as My including her daycare teachers--my milk, my lambie, my chair, my coat, my Kailin, my Danielle. Liza loves to laugh and play. She does struggle with biting her friends occasionally at daycare. But she is getting better with that. All and all she is the sweetest thing and so much fun to be around.. I find it hard to believe that (almost) two years have gone by so quickly.

Mother's Day

I am not the most emotional when it comes to the kids. I generally remain pretty level headed. I didn't cry when they were born or when I left them at daycare for the first time. I rarely mourn the stage they are leaving because I am excited about the next phase they are moving into. I was actually quite happy to rid our house of the crib two weeks ago. However this Mother's Day I surprised myself. Emily sang in front of church with the rest of the Sunday school kids. It was the last day and our church does an appreciation service for all the teachers and kids. At the end of the service they sang two songs. Something about seeing my baby girl (who, as she would tell you, isn't a baby anymore) standing in front of everyone singing her heart out and looking so happy just got to me. I was so proud of her. I was struck by the fact that we made her. She is this amazing child that came from us. I felt so full of love. It was amazing.

In thinking about it a little more--That is what Mother's Day is for me. Knowing that God blessed me with carrying these two miracles. Don't get me wrong they drive me crazy some days. But watching them grow and become their own little people leaves me awestruck. My cup runneth over.

Grateful Heart

There have been a couple of tragedies that have happened within our community in the last week or so. While the circumstances are different each story ends with children loosing one or both parents. Although I have not known any of these people personally, their stories have touched me and helped me appreciate all that we have. I feel privileged and very blessed to be watching my girls grow and see their personalities blossoming. I look at them and see the very best pieces of Kevin and I. I am learning to appreciate the smaller stuff and count my blessings. For all that we have is truly gift.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year. The warm temperatures were a blessing and the time spent with family was great. My mom came to help out with the girls on Good Friday and she spent the weekend with us. In an effort not to totally miss out my dad made the trek to Madison for dinner on Saturday night and then headed back home so he could serve Easter brunch at the club on Sunday. It was great to spend time with both of them.

On Saturday of Easter weekend we took the girls to an Easter egg hunt at the church. Armed with their baskets they searched some of the Sunday School rooms for plastic eggs filled with candy and stickers. They had a great time. Eliza was a little impatient. She just wanted to run from room to room. She got the hang of it though. We are hoping to make this part of our Easter traditions. The girls opened their Easter baskets from my parents on Saturday night. On Sunday morning the Easter bunny had come bringing the girls new Little People Princesses for their castle, nail polish, and writing books. We went to St Luke's for church again this year. The service was beautiful filled with a lot of special music. Eliza wanted nothing to do with sitting in church. Thankfully it was nice outside. She could run a little while I could still hear parts of the service. Emily did a great job using her new writing tablet and books she had already gotten for Easter to keep herself busy.

After church Kevin, my Mom, the girls, and I headed down to Janesville to celebrate with Kevin's family. It was an absolute gorgeous day. Diane made a great meal. The girls got to run around outside with their cousins for another egg hunt. And we watched the Brewers win. It was a great day. We hope everyone had a blessed Easter.

Could it be Spring!?

For the most of this week temperatures have been around 60. It has been great getting the kids outside. Their favorite thing to do right now is run around the house. Emily takes off and Eliza chases her. Eliza often stops to check out her reflection in the patio door and then keeps on coming. She will look at me and say "Emmy go?" and then keeps chasing her. We are not quite ready to get out all of the outdoor toys just yet but hopefully in a couple weeks we can be outside on a more frequent basis.

Emily has been learning letters of the alphabet each week at daycare. The other day I told her that Wednesday started with a W and she said just like Wisconsin. There are days she says things like that where I am amazed. I know she is learning a lot at Tanya's but it is great to see it in action. She is now counting up to 20 regularly, although she often skips 14. She loves watching Sheriff Callie's Wild West on TV and dances around the house saying Yee Haw! She wants to be a cowgirl.

Eliza is talking more and more. She asks a lot of questions. She usually ends her sentences with ok? I am always a little hesitant to say yes as I am not always sure what she is asking. She is slowly starting to become a better listener. She still loves to run away from us. We are working on teaching her the dangers of running into the street. Hopefully the more we are outside that lesson will stick.

We are currently getting ready for a big rummage sale. All baby things must go. It will be nice to get rid of over 4 bins of clothes and other infant items. The goal is to get the basement cleaned and organized so we can begin the process of finishing it. We would really like to have another living space in the house. It would also be helpful to have a place for people to stay when they come to visit. Happy Spring!