What?

So I pull this out of the bottom of Rebekah's backpack the other day.

Me: Rebekah, what is this? Is this dinosaur food? (They've been studying dinosaurs.)

Rebekah: No. It's my handprint! (very matter-of-factly)

Me: Your handprint?

Rebekah: Yeah, my handprint. You're s'posed to cook it.

What?

More art from Rebekah

I know we're her parents, but we can be objective.

Really, we can.

Rebekah's attention to detail and ability to draw what she sees SO impresses us. We're very proud.

Here's a picture that Rebekah drew at school the other day. You can see that she tried to write Lydia's name at the top.

This is a picture of our house, complete with the round attic window at the top. (Like I was saying...attention to detail)

She didn't have a green crayon, so she made green by coloring with blue and yellow.

Very resourceful.

To the left of our house is our "yard sale" according to Rebekah.

The window with the red curtains is our bedroom (we have red curtains).

The window with the purple curtains is the girls' bedroom (they have purple curtains).

The window in the top left hand side shows the girls' bathroom (also painted purple). You can see the toilet, the bathtub and the bookshelf that's in their bathroom. (She colored the shelf purple as well) I KNEW that was the bathroom when I saw it.

Because Rebekah is talented and has a good eye for detail.

But I'm being objective.

Really, I am.

(Click on the picture to see it bigger.)

Lydia's ABC's

Here's Lydia singing her ABC's the other day.

She started and then decided she was going to sing a "cool" ABC's. Here's what she sang:

Mom, listen to this! They are cool ABC’s and a different ABC’s

ABCD
E! S! G!
XIJ WX DIX Y or Z

Now I know my letters in my name, next time won’t you sing with me?

"I not stink!"

The other day I told Lydia,

"You are SO stinkin' cute!"

Lydia said,

"I not STINK!"

Dress-up

I've been meaning to post these photos for a while. They girls were playing dress-up, like they love to do. Lydia is wearing a little dress that we bought at a yard sale and Bekah is wearing one that a lady from church gave us that her daughters had outgrown.

Lydia was dancing with the little stuffed dog that Mammy & Pappy gave her as a baby.

And Rebekah was singing her heart out. It was quite a show!

Blech!

That’s how we’ve been feeling this weekend. Rebekah started with it last week, but mostly just coughing at night.

Then Lydia’s nose started running on Wednesday.

Then I started feeling bad on Friday.

It hit David on Saturday night.

We all missed church on Sunday.

Rebekah’s teacher called today to say that Rebekah was complaining of her stomach hurting. I think she was able to distract her and get her back on track for the day (because she stayed the rest of the day).

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Enough about all that.

Just uploaded these (including some other old photos from December 2004 and January 2005) on Shutterfly. Click the PICTURES!!! link on the left.

Lydia still wrinkles her nose like that.

Mug

I finally got my mug back that I made a few weeks ago. But the girls have been so cute lately that I didn't take the time to post the pictures. Here you go...

Don't go breakin' my heart

This is Lydia in her Rock Star costume singing "Don't go Breakin' my Heart" from the Chicken Little soundtrack.

She was in mid-verse when she stopped to have David put her sunglasses back on.

She was singing, "Don't go breakin' my heart. I couldn't if I tried. Oh honey, I might get restless. Oh Baby, you're not that kind."

In this video, she's singing it and has to stop to ask me what the words are again. She's saying"

"You're not that kind

Honey I might get restless.

What-what does it go like?"

In other news...

Rebekah learned to tie her shoes this morning!!!

Wooo hoooooooo!

I'm so proud of her. Once she got past the mental block that she wouldn't be able to do it, she did it on her first try.

Here are some photos immediately following the triumphant moment! (Of course the camera was right next to me!)

My Little Rock Star

My friend, Suzie, from work, asked me to go shopping with her for Lydia's birthday.

We saw this box of dress-up clothes and I told Suzie that the girl on the box reminded me of Lydia.

See for yourself!

Isn't that hilarious?
Lydia LOVED it!

Bindi's speech

This kid is incredibly brave. What a great tribute she gave to her father. It touched my heart.

Amy, thanks for sharing this on your blog. I was wanting to hear what Bindi had to say.

Lydia's birthday castle

Here's Lydia getting her Dora pop-up castle on her birthday.

Rebekah's school pictures

Rebekah brought home her school photo proofs yesterday.

Isn’t she cute?

And she told me that she smiled her frog smile.

Silly girl.

But we’re not buying them. I just wanted to post them. I’ll wait until the spring to get her school pictures this year. They have the class pictures then too.

She's her daddy's girl.

Lydia is her daddy’s girl.
She gets so much of her little personality, interests, and go-get-‘em attitude from him.

So Wednesday, he takes her on a hiking trip.

Brave man to take a 3-year-old on a hiking trip.

David said that he could actually see when she stopped walking and started hiking.
She let go of his hand and set out to explore. She climbed, crawled, jumped and got around the trail any way that she could.
While they were walking (oops, I mean hiking), Lydia said,

“Daddy, I like being with you.”

Melted.
Her.
Daddy’s.
Heart.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from their trip.

Professor frustrations...

My professor is lazy.

Or at least that’s the impression that I’m getting of him.

It took him a week to post this email to the class:
Author: Duane Smith
Date: Wednesday, September 6, 2006 12:06am
Everyone do a summary of each chapter that you read and post it in the module area
and that will count as your discussion work. The quiz should follow the module. It should
somewhere for you to click on the the quiz should pop up.

Mr. Smith

The syllabus said we were to answer a discussion question, but there wasn’t one listed on the discussion board. So, instead of thinking up a discussion question, he just wants everyone to submit a summary of the chapter.

And, the weekly quizzes are not ones that he has designed. They are on an alternate website. He doesn’t grade them. We have to email our grades to him.

Today, we got this email.
Message no. 10
Author: Duane Smith
Date: Thursday, September 21, 2006 2:01pm
Please make sure that you are putting the summaries in there right modules and make
sure that you send your quizz results to me at duanesmith89@hotmail.com.

Mr. Smith

His spelling is not impressing me. We have an exam that opens on Sunday, but we have had no lecture notes and no guidance from him whatsoever. No responses to our discussion board postings and very slow email responses---very slow---like a week slow.

I’m just a little frustrated. I will be VERY frustrated if I don’t get an A in this class because he has chosen not to participate.

That’s all. Just needed to vent.

Look what I have...

Look what I have in my hot little hand!

Just a little over a year and I'll have my Bachelor too!

Woo hoo!

The Crocodile Hunter

They just had the memorial service for Steve Irwin. It's just so sad. I really feel for Terri Irwin.

But I just wanted to share that a friend's church had a guest speaker who happened to be part of the Irwin's church in Australia. A month before his death, Steve gave his life to Christ. I'm sure that it must comfort Terri to know that the man with whom she shared her life, now shares her faith.

Please pray for the Irwins. This will be a tough time, to say the least.

Volcano video - trying to post video...

This is the volcano from Lydia's birthday party.

Click on the video twice to activate it.

Third attempt to get this to work!!

My friend

My friend, Suzie, is on her way home from the hospital now. The pains were an after-effect of the tests she had performed yesterday in addition to the stress that she is under. She's fine.

Thank you for your prayers.
Jayna

Please pray!

My friend Suzie, from work, just left for the ER. She's having chest pains. (She just had heart tests yesterday.) Please pray for her.

That's all.

Please pray.

A Ballerina & a Junkyard

Rebekah comes home with this yesterday. She drew it in art class at school.

"What is it?" I ask.

"It's a ballerina." She answers.

Lydia drew this last night at Bible study.

"What is it?" I ask.

"It's a junkyard." She answers.

I'm not comparing skill, because there are 2 1/2 years age difference between them.

I'm comparing the subjects they chose for their works of art.

A ballerina and a junkyard

Hmmmm... These girls are just so different.

So wonderfully different.

Happy Thursday.

Got my sweet girl back

Lydia has had a rough month. With David in and out of the hospital and Rebekah starting school, she hasn't been getting the attention she is used to (and that she deserves).

She's acted out a bit. Okay... a lot. Made us wonder what happened to our sweet girl.

But now, she's back.

Our sweet girl who gives sweet kisses unprompted, who covers her mouth when she giggles, who scrunches up her nose when she's telling a joke.

We were missing her.

But she's back now.

A little extra special attention---just for Lydia.

And she's back now.

Sweet girl---we love her so much!

Diamonds are a girl's (best) friend

We're in the car last night, on the way to the store, and Rebekah announces:

"Today I learned that diamonds are a girl's friend."

I died laughing.

She went on to say that when a boy wants a girl to marry him, he gives her a diamond ring.

So, of course we have to ask the question:
Where did you hear all of this?

Rebekah: Ms. Shell told us.

Mommy: Why were you talking about that at school?

Rebekah (very matter-of-factly): Well, we have to learn about our shapes!


In other news, Rebekah and Liam have become really good buddies. We are liking this. There's no more of the "boyfriend" talk from Rebekah. They are just good friends. And I think that Bekah backing off a bit has made Liam more comfortable around her.

The other day in school, Ms. Shell said that she had a little difficulty keeping Rebekah "on task" on some of their classwork. She sent it home for Rebekah to complete at home. I asked Rebekah what happened and she said that there was a boy sitting next to her that kept making her talk. When we asked how, she said, "He said that Liam wasn't cutting right. But he WAS! And I told him that Liam WAS cutting right. Then the boy said, 'That's what I said.' But that was a lie. He told me a lie."

She was quite passionate about it. We explained that she needed to pay more attention to Ms. Shell than to the boy sitting next to her. But I took notice that she was defending her friend, Liam.

The other day, Liam gave Rebekah a toy. And she LOVES it. (And it met David's approval...he said he checked it and made sure there were no diamonds.) It was a very sweet and selfless thing to do.

This is a picture of Liam and Bekah at Lydia's birthday party. They played well together, helping each other. It was really sweet. So, I just wanted to say that I am pleased with how this little friendship has blossomed.

Happy Tuesday.
Jayna

Happy Birthday Lydia!!

Happy Birthday Lydia!!

Today my little Lydia turns 3. Three years old. She’s not my baby any more. She’s a growing little girl. She knows she’s such big stuff too. =)

Yesterday we had a blast at her birthday party. Sorry no updates last night, but we were EXHAUSTED!!

We worked all night on Friday night and most of the day on Saturday trying to get as much stuff done as we could before the big day. David got the yard looking INCREDIBLE! He has been working so hard and it has SO paid off. I just have to brag about what a great job he has done.

Rebekah and I worked on painting the spotting scopes

while David built the framework for the volcanoes.

Then we all papier mache’ed (how do you make that a verb? anyway…) the volcanoes and left them out to dry. (But then it rained and I had to cover the volcanoes with a tarp.)

The next day, the volcanoes dried. An interesting fact: When papier mache dries, it shrinks. Now our volcanoes didn’t touch the “ground” at the bottom. Oh well. They still looked great. David painted them brown.




Rebekah helped me bake the cakes.

She wanted to help with all of Lydia’s surprises. She greased and floured the pans, helped mix the batter, and put cupcake liners in the muffin pan. I drew her pictures for her little check list. (She loves checking things off a list…just like her mother!)

We baked the cakes and waited for them to cool. Then, I started on the candy melts for the trees for the rainforest cake. The trees are made of pretzel sticks, candy melts, and runts candy bananas. I also used some green fruit roll-ups cut into leaf shapes for extra “underbrush” on the cake. I made baby jaguars out of vanilla wafers. It was so much fun and I am SO thankful that everything held together. We had to keep the cake in the fridge until the party because with all the baking, the kitchen was hot and the candy was getting soft!

We picked up the icing screen print from Kroger for the extra cake. (I designed a map on the computer and put Lydia in the cave and wrote “Happy 3rd Birthday Lydia!” on it. You can click on the picture to make it bigger.) Kroger will use edible ink, etc. and make a cake topper for really cheap, so that’s what we did for the second cake (so that we would have enough cake for all the parents too). We were pleased with how it turned out.

It started raining Saturday evening while David was mowing the grass. He had to stop for a while and then mowed when the rain stopped. He was able to finish up right when it was getting dark.

Early Sunday morning, I woke up to thunder and wasn’t able to sleep very well, worried about the volcanoes and the party, since it was all going to be outside tomorrow.

We went to church and stopped by Wal-Mart for some more spray paint for the volcanoes (ran out with one more volcano to paint), some more pitchers for drinks, and stopped by PetSmart for 25 goldfish for Goldfish Pond (a stop on their map).

We got home, David put up the tent for Base Camp and then hung baby jaguar in the tree.

There were fifteen ropes up to the tree. Only one was tied to baby jaguar. Each kid got to cut a string, but only one would free baby jaguar.

I hung the stars in the tree so that the kids could “catch the stars along the way” just like in Dora’s adventures. It started sprinkling, so we waited until the last minute to do some of these things…hoping we wouldn’t have to move everything inside.

We also hid animals all over the yard. An hour before the part was to begin, almost all of the goldfish were dead! We called some friends who ran to PetSmart for some more!

We set up the “mud” (chocolate icing) for the animal crackers to get “stuck” in along with teddy grahams and animal fruit snacks.

By the time the party was to start, it had stopped sprinkling and the rain earlier had only served to cool things off for the party. It was absolutely perfect weather to have an outside party. God is SO good. I believe our final head count for the party (not counting baby siblings) was 13 kids plus parents, so I’m glad we had it outside.

Part I: The kids first went to “Base Camp” (the tent) to get all of their adventure gear: safari hat, map, spotting scope, video watch.

Then they went to the picnic table to pick a screen for their video watch, decorate their spotting scopes with Dora stickers, and color coloring pages.

Part II: When they were finished, we checked the maps to see that everyone needed to find animals in the Rainforest (around the yard). Each child found five animals.

The kids had so much fun and we were SO pleased that everything went so well.

Part III: Then, the kids had to rescue the goldfish from the shark in Goldfish Pond (the kiddie pool). They were all pretty excited about it. (I had already scooped the dead fish out. David said he was a little disappointed because he wanted to make up a dramatic story about how the shark had already killed some of the goldfish! Too funny!)

Anyway, the kids had a lot of fun scooping out the fish. We put each kid’s fish in an individual bag for them to take home.

Lydia was totally shaking her fish around like the kid on Finding Nemo. Poor fish. She hugged the bag really tight several times and then she laid the bag on one of the steps and told everyone “Ssshhhh!” because her fish was taking a nap!

Amazingly, her fish survived and we put hers and Bekah’s in the small fish tank in the kitchen. (The other leftover goldfish became fish food for the Oscars in the big tank after the party. Some of the kids who were hanging around after the party was through thought that was cool. Some got a little freaked out…understandably so.)

Part IV: The kids headed back to the picnic table to recheck their maps. But then, on the walkie talkies, Base Camp (Daddy) called in to talk to Lydia. Baby Jaguar was caught in a tree!! Base Camp said, “Lydia! Can you help save Baby Jaguar?” She said, “No! I can’t!” It was so funny! We all went over to where Baby Jaguar was caught in the tree.

Lydia cut the first string and then went to try to catch Baby Jaguar while the other kids cut more strings.

 She loved Baby Jaguar so much that she slept with him last night.

Part V: The kids went to “catch the stars.” Thankfully, none of them broke any tree branches in the process!!

Part VI: The last stop on the map was Volcano Island. The kids lined up behind the line (so they wouldn’t get splashed). The volcanoes erupted one by one. Between each volcano, the kids were yelling “Volcano! Volcano! Volcano!”

They were so cute. David would ask them, “Are you ready for another one?!” and they would all yell, “Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh!”

We had three strawberry sodas and one Diet Coke volcano. The Diet Coke volcano shot up the highest, but the strawberry ones looked the most like lava. (If you’re wondering, we put 13 Mentos in a tube and quickly dropped them in the sodas for the volcano effect.) I haven’t figured out how to put a video on this blog. If I figure it out, I’ll try to post a video.

It was such a nice evening that we decided to have the cake and snacks outside.

Then the kids all sat in a circle and watched Lydia open her presents. She was so sweet and said thank you to her friends for their gifts.

Rebekah had a little bit of a hard time not getting to open gifts too.

We let her help Lydia open some, but had to remind her that these were Lydia’s gifts when she started to check them out before Lydia got the chance. We opened family cards and presents inside after the party was over (when there was less chaos). Rebekah got a few presents to open too, so that she wouldn’t feel left out.

We tucked the girls in and didn’t hear a peep out of them. They were pretty tired too! After they went to bed, we put the fish in our little fish tank and they have survived the night. Rebekah named hers Nemo, but I don’t think Lydia has named hers yet.

I’ll get the pictures posted on Shutterfly as soon as I can. You can click on the link to the left called PICTURES!!! Select Lydia’s birthday album and scroll through the pictures.

I’ll also post some slide shows. I’ll try to get them in this post if I can.