After a long day at school.....

Ellie's class does not take a nap at school and by Thursday she normally crashes on the couch. She was so asleep last week that it was pretty funny to watch.  I have noticed as she has gotten older that she sleeps much deeper than she did a year ago. 

A very fulfilling day!

Well, I have been waiting for this day since May. Ellie is so great at going pee pee on the potty, but has always been terrified of going #2. She holds it all day till I put a diaper on her for nap time or at night. I tried a couple of times to let her sleep in undies, but she has not been ready and it is a huge wet mess. I preferred the nap over the other! She woke up this morning and said I go in the potty! She tried for a really long time and then we all went out for a jog. We came home and she tried again with success! I got teary eyed because we have talked about this for months. We often pray for her to go in the potty and or pray during the act. She has known for months that the day she goes #2 in the potty that she could go to the toy store to pick out a toy. We celebrated Ellie all morning today as Mike had lots of errands for work to do so we went along. She loved getting to pick out something just for her. She picked some new paint and some markers/notepad. The Dr. told me not to push it and when she is ready she would do it. Ellie has always been this way in that she will do it when she wants to and to force it is just awful. I have been so excited all day for her and I think it is because of all the work that had gone into this potty training moment. I'm hoping Anna will be much easier. I think she will as she already loves to "act" like she is going potty. Sorry to inform you all of such boring info, but it was a big deal at our house!

Our little artist.....

Ellie loves to paint and today she enjoyed painting her arms along with her paper! It was washable so I let her have some fun. Her teacher said that anytime the easel is open during center time it is immediately the center that Ellie goes to. I am so not artistic, but I love that maybe she has a love for artistic things! I haven't ever let Anna paint. I'm not sure that is a disaster I am ready to conquer!

It's just a season.....and I'm lucky!

Well, the school year has for sure begun and we are at that point where Mike says "It is just a season" which means we are really busy where we are passing each other in and out of the door. It is really just a week where there seems to be a lot and a big retreat is coming up for student ministry. It also happens to be a week where Anna does not feel well and is fussy cause of having allergies/cold. I feel so bad for her cause she is congested and actually asked for medicine. Tomorrow night we are hosting the 9th and 10th grade leaders for a leaders mtg. We have them every other Thursday and this semester they are doing something different where they divide us up by grade rather than us all meet as a big group. We are excited to have them over, but with pre-school tomorrow it is going to be a really busy day. I am refusing to clean my house till tomorrow afternoon so the girls will not mess it up. They seem to be pretty good lately at making messes!
Tonight, I got to lead my 10th grade girls group for the first time. My co-leader was out of town and it went well. They are so sweet and really stand up for Christ at their school. We went out to dinner before and then did our small group. I am really excited to get to spend the next 3 years with them. I did feel a little old when we got on the subject of text messaging. I asked them how many they sent/received a day. They said most the time it is close to 200 a day! One girl said she for sure uses her 6,000 messages a month. I still don't understand why you would want to have a conversation by text rather than over the phone?
A big highlight of the week was I put my name in a drawing at our salon and I won! I get $450 worth of services of $37 a month for 9 months. I am pumped and know I will look forward to this monthly pampering session. Anyways, I hope you are all enjoying your week and you can slow down in the midst of busyness.

Are they twins....

I get the question "Are they twins" almost everyday? It is normally when they are in the double stroller and you can't tell that Ellie is a few inches taller. They are startng to look alike and can share most clothes and Anna's foot is growing like crazy so I am guessing that she may be a little bit taller than her big sis. They are so alike and so different in so many ways. It was so sweet this morning cause in the middle of the night Anna woke up screaming so I moved her to our guest room. Ellie woke up this morning crying and saying "where's Anna"? She was kind of panicking and when I told her that I moved Anna to the other room she said " I was really nervous, mommy!" Anna always wakes up and her first words are "sissy, bed". They play together almost all day and then share a room most nights. However, they are different in many ways. Here's a few I want to remember:
*Ellie was a paci girl and loved it so much. Anna sucks her thumb to go to sleep.
* Ellie is very independent and has never cried when she gets dropped off anywhere. She runs to the church nursery. Anna takes awhile to warm up and normally cries for a minute or two.
* Anna is a momma's girl and loves to sit in my lap or me carry her everywhere. Ellie loves whoever and will go to almost anyone.
* Anna is a great sleeper. She never misses a nap and will go right to sleep at night. Ellie would stay up till midnight if we would let her and never have a melt-down. She has an abundance of energy.
* Ellie loves movies, tv, etc.... Anna has never watched it for more than 5 minutes.
* Anna is obsessed with things like shoes etc.. and loves to carry them around all day in her hands. She would also love to have a blankie, but I try to limit our time with it so I don't have to keep up with one more thing.
* Anna has done everything early and amazes me at her lack of fear. Ellie has taken awhile to figure things out. However, once she does she loves it!
* I don't think either one is going to be a girly girl. They might surprise me, but so far they are not interested in princess or baby dolls. They love to play outside and with their friends.

I am so thankful for my girls today. We've had a great day in the "cool" weather (low 80's) just being together. I know God has great things in store for them and I am blessed to sit back and watch!

#200.....

It is my 200th post and since I have nothing important to write I figured it was exciting enough to have written 200 posts! We had a good weekend that was filled with the following.....
*Mike spoke at a retreat for home-school seniors at Pine Cove Camp. He enjoyed it and quite a few of our students were there.

* I spent the night with some friends while he was away. We took the kids to CiCi's which is always a huge success cause of the games, pasta, and lots of loud children. Ellie had a sleep-over with her friend Caleb. They actually fell asleep in his twin bed and slept the whole night. It was pretty sweet.

* Saturday night we watched football and hung out with our friends Russ and Amy. We don't get to see them to often cause of work etc... However, we always have so much fun with them and can't wait for their baby to arrive in February!

* Sunday was a busy day as it kicked off student ministry on Sunday nights! Our church started a Sunday night service to ease the crowding on Sunday mornings. It is at 5:30 so I decided to take the girls at night then go to Shoreline (h.s. weekly event) at 7. It was really fun and we ended up going to the zoo for the morning. They loved it and it was like an extra weekend day. I won't always go, but Mike was busy all morning so I thought it might be a nice change of pace. It was really fun for Shoreline to start again and we are so excited to see what God is going to this school year. Mike's passion gets me excited and it is so neat to see him exactly where he is supposed to be in ministry.

* I am doing better this week as far as not feeling overwhelmed and on a routine. Last week was really rough with all the changes for school, small group, etc... We were all so exhausted by Saturday that we all took a 3 hour nap. It was so nice!

Sorry for the boring 200th post! Have a great night!

School Days....

Well, we started school on Tuesday and I must say I think the girls look so cute and so much older in these pictures! It has been a really different week than we've ever had. Ellie is in the young 3's class and Anna is in the 18-24 mos. class. I am teaching the older 2's class. Ellie has loved it and runs into her room everyday. They are there from 9:30-2:30. Anna has done so good and has the sweetest teacher. I cannot imagine having 6 18mos. old children in one class. Wow! She has taken a nap everyday on the floor with her mat. Ellie has learned a lot already and gets to go to Spanish, Music, and Bible. Anna goes to Music and Bible. I am co-teaching the 2 year old class with my friend LeeAnn. We've had a lot of fun together figuring out how to teach pre-school. The teaching part is easy it is the management part that can get a little interesting. However, today we had all 11 children asleep at the same time on the floor. It just shows me that all children need a nap at this age. I've enjoyed being on a routine and seeing the girls grow apart from each other and me. I am learning all about little boys as I have 5 each day with only one girl. The whole p.t. thing is way different with boys! I am really thankful for this job as it is perfect for me and our stage of life. The only challenging thing is since Anna takes a nap at school she didn't take one today after school so it made for kind of a long afternoon. However, she did on Tuesday so we will see how it goes. I haven't really tried putting Ellie down so that she will go to sleep at 7:30. I do make them have room-time so that they can play by themselves for a little while after school and I can take a little break from toddler world!

Labor Day in Lawrence....

Mike and I got to go to the Kansas football game!

We went to the Topeka zoo and it was so much fun!

We are so glad that we got to see Momma!

Ellie and Granddaddy on the train!

Mike and his grandmother! She's almost 91 years old and so sweet....

Ellie and Daddy on a fun train ride!
We went to Lawrence, KS for the weekend to visit Mike's parents. We had such a great time and the girls loved it. It is always so nice to get out of the city and go back home. We got to do so many fun things while we were there and it was so fun for Mike and I to go to the KU game. Mike's mom got us 2nd row tickets right behind the Kansas bench. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings on Mass Street right before the game and after the game. It was such a fun date night. Thanks so much Mimi and Granddaddy!