trip down memory lane

a friend from college, danielle, was in town for a couple of days so we all got together at amanda's to catch up. it was a really nice afternoon of girl chatter, kids playing, and us reminiscing. it is always nice to have a day to spend with friends while your kids play with their kids. who knew that we would all end up at the same place so many years down the road?

me and hilary hana blowing bubbles brooke trying to ride the scooter hana and taylor sharing a car


ok time for a trip down memory lane :)


then...
now...
we don't look that different?? right??!! :)

hopefully you can tell who is who. not everyone from the first picture is in the second, but there are 5 that are in both pictures.

children's museum

we went to the children's museum on torrential rain thursday. the girls had a great time! i will say that it is a bit pricey. for the four of us to go (with a coupon for buy one get one free) it was $23... more than we would pay on a regular basis. but the girls really enjoyed it. i found out on line that you can come and go through out the day. so we played, went home had lunch and napped, then came back. so we kind of got nanny's money worth :)

scientist hana mixing colors

brooke wearing goggles :)


playing with trains

grocery shopping

brooke the shopper
hana LOVES to make up songs so her favorite part was... karaoke
it seems nanny enjoys the karaoke too :)

last the painting room... brooke's first real painting experience :)

all in all the children's museum is lots of fun, but will be enjoyed only when grandparents come to visit and can be the sponsor :)

monkey joes

since nanny has been here, we have been able to go some places that we don't normally go... yesterday it was monkey joes. what a place! it is a big room filled with big blow ups.
for a mere $5 parents can play with their kids. nanny watched brooke (i will say that there was not a lot for her age to do), while hana and i played and played and played. let me tell you , it beats the gym any day! you climb up a climbing wall then come swooshing down the slide. what fun! can you tell how much fun we are having!? (did i say that we had fun?)

hana and i getting ready to slide down one of the big slides

mommy and brooke in the "little kid area" see how much fun she is
having ;)

mommy and hana...see how much fun she is having :)

climbing up

sliding down

fun!

brooke did slide some


but she really enjoyed the truck!

me resting after all of the fun!

so in summary, drop your gym membership and go to monkey joes and climb with you kids! (hey, i should get a discount for all of this free advertising!)

weekend with nana and poppy

jack had a (nother) much needed golf weekend. so instead of having the girls all by myself, i invited my parents to spend the weekend with us. we had a great time :)
on saturday we started out down town at the farmers market. we even ate lunch at trolley stop... ummm hot dogs! it was actually chilly on the river! fall is on the way!

we came home to nap and then headed to the aquarium.

hana got to see lots of fish

everyone enjoyed the views

hana checked out the turtles

on the way out brooke and poppy played in the water

we went to church (early!) this morning. nana and poppy did not seem to understand the importance of getting to church early so the kids could make it into grow zone. so after some prodding, we made it in time to be first in line :)

we even got to eat out a lot meals (which is very much a treat for us since we are NOW on a very tight budget!) we ate at the flaming amy's mongolian grill. it was so yummy!

we had a great weekend!

if i stand

if i stand by rich mullins


"There's more that rises in the morning
Than the sun
And more that shines in the night
Than just the moon
It's more than just this fire here
That keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger
Than this room

And there's a loyalty that's deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

There's more that dances on the prairies
Than the wind
More that pulses in the ocean
Than the tide
There's a love that is fiercer
Than the love between friends
More gentle than a mother's
When her baby's at her side

And there's a loyalty that's deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegence
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

And if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home"

money, money, money...

as my avid readers ;) you may or may not know that we are going through financial peace university taught by dave ramsey, that is put on by port city.
we are not very good stewards of our money. ok let me rephrase... we suck at money.
we have debt. in fact we have a lot of debt. i am sharing this because i am praying for God to take care of our debt. i don't know how he is going to do this. it may involve us paying it off ourselves over a long period of time. it may involve someone paying it off for it. it may even involve ed mcmahon bearing flowers and balloons. i have no idea what God has in store for us. but i know that HE has a plan.
unfortunately finances have been the one area that i feel like we have failed. we have not turned it over to God. we have held on with tight closed fists.
well here you go... take it God... take it now

i am sharing this struggle, so that you can see how God is working through us. even though we have messed up big time. God is somehow going to work this out. He has not let us down yet! i know that He has a plan. i can't wait to share how He helps us triumph in this area!

hana-isms

we had two fun hana-isms that had to be shared!

yesterday we were on the way home from preschool and there were a lot of gray clouds in the sky. so, i asked hana "do you know what comes out of those gray clouds?" (rain... being the correct answer) she thought for a minute and said "maybe, elephants"
(a note- we have been looking at the clouds to make pictures, so she must have "seen" an elephant in the clouds)


this morning i had a glass of ice and was going to fill it up with water. after it was full hana asked "did you put water in your glass so that the ice could swim?"

priceless

brookie the amazing

brooke's most amazing feet to date is the fact that she is now able to tell me when she poops (OK brace yourself... it is one of those posts!) she will stand in the middle of the floor say "poopie poopie" then actually poop. she has done this consistently and accurately for about the last week or two. she tells me pretty much every time she goes.
so what do i do now???!! do i embrace this and take my 17 month old baby to the potty?? or do i just say, thanks for coming out, you are not ready for this. then wait until she is older???

what is a mom to do? those of you who have been there... PLEASE weigh in!!

brookie talks

just thought i would share some of brooke's new words. she chats quite a lot these days. here are some of the many words that she says on a regular basis :)



and here is another one :)

post hanna

i just wanted to update those of you who don't live here.
we are all doing fine. except for the faint sound of hammering, you would not even know there was a tropical storm here less than 12 hours ago. the storm hit in the middle of the night with some good strong wind and rain. the children did keep us up a bit, so we were able to hear in come on land. we lost power for not even 5 minutes, but just enough time to make us reset all of the clocks.

ok well that is it. we had no damage, didn't (really) lose power, and are doing great.

i hope everyone else fared as well!

mall play

being that we may be stuck in the house, we decided to go to the mall to play this morning.




hopefully hanna will not be too much of a problem!

MHP take 1

these are the first round of pictures from millie. these were taken at gavin's (seth's son) first birthday party. these are not the ones that we did downtown... those will be along later.
just thought i would share! they are great! of course!

kind of scary huh??!!

there are a few more, but since they are SOO big, it takes forever to upload them. i may try more later :)


you can check out millie's other pictures at her blog or her website.

hanna ?

ok a little scary! i just saw this on the afternoon news... seems they have changed the path of the (appropriately named) hurricane hanna. let's say some prayers that this hanna (with one too many "n"s) comes no where near us!!

first day of preschool!!!

it is official, summer is over. hana started preschool today!!
this not being our first year of preschool, there were no fears or worries on my part. i know this is going to be another wonderful experience!
i think jack had it right when, last night, he said "hana, i think mommy is more excited about preschool than you are". well that is right!!
brooke and mommy get to have some time together. and most importantly, hana gets to paint and do other fun things at preschool. what a great deal for everyone! (can you tell that i am exited??!!)
in fact, brooke and i are meeting emily and noah at the library for some toddler story time!

yea preschool!!!

the preschool breakfast of champions

walking to the car with little sister in tow

AT preschool!

i have to add that when i went to pick up hana today, one of her teachers said "she was really good, kind of quiet" i laughed to myself and said "give her a few days :)"

a tale of two brookies

this picture is not related to the story... but it is just so you remember who brooke is :)

our latest battle with the sweet brooke is that she will point to something and scream "mommy mommy mommy" or "that that" until i give her the item of choice. we (by we i mean i) are trying to break this habit. so when she points to her milk and screams, i tell her that she can have it when she says "please or cup". (keep in mind that these are both words that she knows and will use when she wants to.) if she is feeling particularly stubborn 0she will put her rockstar fingers in her mouth and turn her head. sometimes she will even say "nunhuh". you would think after weeks of this same scene playing out repeatedly she would get the hint... not so much. just yesterday she finished her breakfast milk-free since she was too stubborn to ask. (on a side note- i said under my breath "man brooke you are stubborn" hana looked at me and said... she is NOT sunburned!)
now, if you are reading this and thinking "man she is only 17 months old can she really ask for what she wants?" the other night when jack was sharing his popsicle with the girls brookie was very quick with the "peeeese" "peeeese"

since i do tend to share the not so pleasant side of being a mom to two girls, i thought i would share a positive story as well. after picking up the girls from grow zone on sunday, i helped jack load up the girls to go home and i went back in to serve in grow zone for the 10:30 service (our regular sunday ritual). a man came up to me and said "you are brooke's mom, right?" (i was thinking... well that is one of my many names... yes) when i said yes, he just went on and on about how good she was and how much of a delight she is to have in church. being that i didn't hear this much with daughter number 1, i was a bit quiet and didn't know what to say. he kept going on and then said.. "you know this right?!" i did manage to say yes. but after thinking about it, i do know it. i am very thankful for my girls :) BOTH of them :)

Thank you Lord for my sweet daughters! (i will need to be reminded of this is about a week when they are driving me crazy!!)