thankful...

....for this Word from my time with the Lord this morning (and thought maybe you could use it too!)

1 Peter 1:18-19 "...you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a perfect lamb without blemish or spot."

i know each of us have a myriad of things to be thankful for...but seriously, is there anything more amazing that the blood of Jesus, shed on our behalf. oh how i need to be reminded to meditate on this amazing gift and walk in its reality.

choices...

i could be doing something about this...the three gigantor baskets FULL of laundry waiting to be folded...(not sure why the picture is posting sideways...or why i am stooping to the level of including pictures of laundry on my blog).....

....but instead we are doing this on a rainy tuesday afternoon while we wait for daddy to arrive home....yep...construction paper mosaics...two year old+four year old+glue+scissors=thrilling! although i must admit, i was a bit nervous about kate and the flailing scissors, so i decided to cut her pieces for her and just let her have at it with the glue...elizabeth on the other hand is busily cutting her paper into the tiniest, most miniscule bits of paper ever.

ten smile tuesday...early!

disclaimer....this is FULL of pictures....FULL of fun....FULL of smiles!

the girls i enjoyed four fabulous days at grandmommy and poppy's house...we missed day, but in the meantime we had tons of giggles, visited lots of friends and family, and thoroughly enjoyed the break from the norm. we also gave daddy the chance to accomplish a few long overdue tasks around the house!

1. before heading to the lake, my friend jamie and i had a morning of sewing. she and her little guy came over...bringing along sewing machine, fabric and the ingredients for a yummy sundried tomato and basil pizza for lunch. i taught jamie a few little things with sewing and also managed to finish a few little projects...a stuffed taggie alligator for kate (not pictured) and one crayon tote (still need to do another)--and i will be adjusting the measurements to make it a bit smaller. i also have a pic of the elephant taggie animal i made for kate last week.

i'll be using the big twistable crayons...less need for sharpening and harder to break...

the other side of the elephant is opposite...purple minky with a dotted ear

2. poppy! upon arriving at the lake, the girls were thrilled to spend some time outside running around and swinging with poppy. kate spent the two days before we left for the lake walking around and talking non-stop about "i doh poppy house!" "i doh dah-ma (grandmommy's) house!"...so she was beyond thrilled to actually arrive there!

3. we had a GREAT time...visiting great grandparents and introducing jillian to some of them for the first time!

great grandma j

great grandpa h...we got to see great grandma ethel too!

G.G....so thankful we've gotten to see G.G. so much since she moved up this way!

4. lego fun. elizabeth and kate had a ball playing with grandmommy and poppy's lego stash...leftovers from when my sister and i were little! elizabeth especially enjoyed created flower trucks and garages to park her flower trucks in!

5. grandmommy! i think this is a great shot of grandmommy and her newest grand-daughter!

6. empty coffee cans...seriously...this empty folgers container entertained the girls for hours....as a hat, as a vessel for carrying and dumping legos and other various objects...and on and on!

7. jillian having the chance to meet one of her namesakes...miss jill! actually, this was a smile for all of us...as the girls, my mom and i all enjoyed jill's visit! (thanks for making the drive up jill!). as you can see from the first picture, jillian had lots of grins and quickly fell in love with miss jill! see this post for more on why jillian got her name...

8. a visit from aunt cak and uncle pat...and look at the cool bib (you might have to enlarge the picture to see the bib) my aunt cak knit for jillian...can't wait to try making one!

9. nails...what could be more exciting! more than nails, the girls had a blast running around in the new addition...somehow the wood floors and drywalled walls must seem like a big huge playground. they thoroughly enjoyed running around, giggling, and "helping" poppy...and stabbing dried spray insulation globs with nails. kate was a nail magnet! the white dusty bottom shoes and pants were well worth the oodles of fun the girls had playing in the new addition. (as a side note...mom and dad have made huge progress...the girls slept fabulously in their unfinished lake bedroom (as did jillian and i)....and they are already talking endlessly about when we get to go back to spend Christmas at the lake)

10. building boats. poppy helped the girls build boats and launch them into the chilly lake. kate and elizabeth had a blast helping poppy drill the hole, pound in the mast with a hammer, and even coloring them with crayons. they tied rope to the boats, launched them into the lake and then reeled them in...what fun!

11. the fact that the 2 1/2 hour drive was without incident or need for a potty break on the way there AND the way back!

12. coming home to daddy! it was a gorgeous saturday afternoon...so upon arriving home daddy and his girls did lots of running around and playing in the backyard!


13. a fabulous play-date with a delightful friend this morning. i am so thankful for genuine, willing to admit their imperfections, relying on God's new every morning mercies kind of friends. the girls had a blast playing with their friends....and i very much enjoyed hanging out and having some good, honest, deep conversation about God, mommy-hood--the joys and struggles, and walking in grace with my friend.

14. and since most of the other pics were of the bigger girls...here it is...the obligatory jillian picture. isn't see precious!? hard to believe that in one week she'll be three months old...wow!

ten smile tuesday

finally...some smilin' on this ol' bloggity blog...not sure where the past couple of weeks have gone. in fact, sometimes i wonder where the whole month of october got off to...or september for that matter. i can hardly believe it is almost Thanksgiving...and then Christmas...whoa!

1. all things "A"...i decided to start some structured crafting and alphabet time with kate...starting with, of course, the letter "A"...A is for alligator and ambulance and anchor and ANTS...we had lots of fun with "ants"...ant sandwiches (PB&raisin/cranberry)...making our own paper ants. kate had a blast tracing the circles for the body and helping me glue the parts...she really, REALLY like glue...did i mention that she is two...seriously, what is it with two year olds and glue? i only have a picture of elizabeth making an ant though...and she insisted on coloring her ant white....whats that? did i hear you asking why? well...because she was so delighted to find a use for the white crayon that she wanted to throw in the trash last week because it "didn't work" on her coloring book. what a funny girl!

2. chubby little hands...that stay chubby for far too short a time! (these are kate's little marker lovin' hands, by the way...it kind of cracks me up that she automatically grips crayons and markers correctly...something we are still working on with elizabeth...she is definitely our fine and gross motor skills girl while libs is all about the verbal development!)

3. an impromptu and sweet lesson from Jonah. background story: in the mornings i have been trying to spend time during breakfast telling the girls what God is teaching me/talking to me about during my quiet time before they get up. yesterday we had just sat down and i was opening the Bible to tell them what i was learning when kate started repeatedly asking me to read Jonah..."Jonah, mommy...read JO-nah!" so i did...and then we whipped out the gigantor sized sheets of paper daddy brings home from work, i drew some a "big fish" with jonah in his belly...and we colored while talking about Jonah 2:9, "Salvation belongs to God"...such a sweet moment. (and lest you think it was all sweet and perfect theology, i was trying to emphasize that only God saves, and then asked elizabeth various questions, like "does money save us? she would say "no", and i would say, "You're right, salvation belongs to..." and we would all together say God. that worked until i offered the question, "Does candy save us?" elizabeth thought for a moment and responded, "yep mommy...i think candy does save..." so much for that! :)

kate wished she could color too...but instead, she and her elephant watched from the bouncy seat!

4. did i mention that right in the midst of reading Jonah at the breakfast table daddy showed up with donuts (on a monday morning, no less!). yep...we had daddy home ALL day yesterday for an extra special day off. he took the morning off initially to get something fixed on the van, and praise the Lord, it took just an hour for him to drive to the mechanic, get the problem fixed, and get home! even better...the mechanic fixed it for FREE...so the whole morning cost just $6...the price of the donuts he picked up on the way home! then he ended up taking the rest of the day off just because!

5. incredibly tasty homemade artisan bread...our creative activity at MOPS this past week. SO good...and SO incredibly easy. the dough stays in your fridge and you simply pull off a hunk, shape it into a ball with a gluten cloak, let it sit on your counter for a bit, and then bake it in a steam oven...and voila...bread in just minutes! the recipe came from the book, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day"...which is definitely being added to my Christmas list!

6. hand-me-down Crocs for the girls...sometimes it is the little things. but seriously, they are loving their matching purple "monster" Crocs (they came with silly monster figures stuck in the holes)

7. time alone with the big girls. i've had chances a few times in the past week or so to take just elizabeth or just kate out for an outing or some errands...what precious time to be able to spend alone with each girl.

8. tasty salads for dinner. i will admit it...if mike won't be home, i really don't usually cook...this past week he worked several evenings tying up loose ends on a project, so i bought a rotisserie chicken at costco and (okay...i'll confess) one of their prepackaged spinach salads, and voila...healthy tasty dinner for me. true confessions...the girls just might have eaten PB&J or yogurt each of those nights (and whichever they didn't have for dinner they probably had for lunch). good thing mike is home for dinner most nights to encourage me to cook! and i really do enjoy cooking...but mostly when someone else at the table will truly appreciate and enjoy it (and honestly, kate is in a phase where it is a constant battle to get a healthy dinner down...a battle that is a big overly wearying and not worth it to fight on my own when i've already been home alone with them all day!)

9. jillian is in a fabulous routine...good sleeping, good eating, great growth! we had her two month check-up friday...she is 12 lbs. 10 oz. and 24 1/4 inches long now...90 percentile weight and 95 percentile length...definitely a happy and healthy baby girl! i am loving all the coos and grins and interaction. go here for some pictures and video of our sweet girlie!

10. crafting...crafting. i discovered this site...and have thoroughly enjoyed browsing through it, feeding my creativity...adding far too many projects and ideas to my already limited time! i did, however, find the time to do a bit of sewing one evening after the girls were in bed...some embellished burp rags for a friend's new baby girl...and a taggie elephant for jillian's Christmas stocking. i'm hoping to get some more fabric cut and projects ready for sewing, as tomorrow morning a friend is coming over with her new (first ever) sewing machine, and i am planning to teach her a few things (which is laughable considering i don't know all that much!...but like i tell her...you really don't need to know much to do some really cool things!)...and hopefully crank out a couple more stocking stuffer projects!

and i could go on...but i won't because in just a few minutes a sweet little girl will be waking up, ready to eat and cuddle and snuggle. and besides that...i really need to do some packing since the girls and i head out for a quick trip to the lake tomorrow as soon as our sewing morning is finished...must pack and finish some cleaning around the house!

i give....

okay...i am going to concede to the reality that there just won't be an official "ten smiles" for this week. BUT, i will share a few pics of our little monkey and cow...and perhaps some snippets from last week.

*as i mentioned before, H1N1 struck, taking me down...we think both of the girls had it as well, but thankfully their symptoms were very mild. mike became the main caregiver for jillian, and thankfully both of them avoided the sickies! actually, getting sick was good for our family...it gave mike some much needed time off at home...a chance to unwind and relax and bit...and best of all, a chance to bond with jillian in an incredible way! and, as for me, i had a chance to rest...

*while the really cold weather throughout october, mike's big project at work, and then the sickies interfered with our plans to do a pumpkin patch or the ZooBoo...we did carve pumpkins on halloween morning, and the girls and i made pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. YUM!

*my mind is FULL to the brim and overflowing with crafty projects for Christmas stocking stuffers for the girls (good thing i have SO much time for crafting...HA!). i made the "mistake" of perusing etsy one evening, and oh my, my mind was filled with ideas for each of the girls...crayon wallets, baby doll slings, an elephant shaped lovey and elephant taggy animal for jillian, bibs...and on and on! i did find some time last night to do a bit of crafting...some burp cloths for a friend who just had a sweet baby girl a few days ago (hooray for another girlie buddy for jillian!) and another baby girl who was born a month ago.

*jillian sleeping through the night! right as i came down with the flu, jillian decided to begin sleeping through the night...what a considerate little girl! she is now consistently going 10 hour or more stretches at night and settling into an awesome routine during the day. she is SUCH a contented and joyful baby...what a blessing!

{family love}

like i said in my last post, i am way behind in this world of blogging. with the flu consuming the end of last week and weekend...and then a week that has simply been full--Bible study, watching extra kiddos, MOPS, etc...a house that doesn't stop accumulating dust and clutter when things like the flu and busyness strike...well, it just leaves me with little time to blog. i suppose i could, in theory, post little tidbits here and there, but i keep thinking i will find a big chunk of time to post my (now very belated) smiles from the last week (fat chance!). anyway...for now i will simply show you the photos we selected from our family photo shoot a few weeks back. i am SO thrilled with the results. we originally intended to get more shots of jillian, but after viewing the results of the photo shoot simply couldn't resist the fact that our photography captured elizabeth and kate to a T...and, really, jillian wasn't at the smiling stage yet, and we weren't as thrilled by her pictures (it was a cool evening...which didn't make for the best conditions for baby photos). so we selected more pics of the bigger girls and decided we can capture jillian on our own for extra photos. anyway...here they are!

jillian claire

katherine christine

elizabeth irene

sisters

family

p.s. our photograher was a friend from church. if you live nearby and are looking to do some family photos, we would highly recommend her....contact me for info. also, let me know if you want the online link to see all our our photos from the session. these were just the ten we selected for our CD.

just jillian

i am way belated in posting anything to my blog...including "ten smile tuesday"....i know, i know...it is coming eventually. but i just want to share some jillian love...here it is! a video...some pics from the last two or three days. i'll tell you...i am loving this stage--the smiles, the coos, the snuggliness, the sleeping through the night...jillian, mama LOVES you!

and the video proof of the coos and smiles and sweetness...