Meeting Neil

We're having a great trip to visit Matt's sister and her husband and now my sister, her husband and their new baby.  We met our nephew yesterday and enjoyed some great cuddle time with him today.  I think he's adorable!  I'll post more about the trip when we're back and sort through all of my pictures.

Year End Awana Program

I posted a while ago about our experience with Awana and we celebrated the end of the Awana year last week at Grace's year end program.  It was pretty low key and fun to be a part of the program.  Grace's class sang 2 songs and then went back to their room while we watched the older kids receive awards.  Unfortunately I didn't do Grace's hair before the program and she just did weird dances while everyone else stood and sung nicely.  Sometimes my kids humble me and that is a good thing!

After the program we had cookies and lemonade.  It was a great end to the year and we're already excited for next fall!

 

Paint, Beds and Kid's Rooms in Progress

It has been a long time since I lived in a house with more than a neutral color on the walls and that is probably due to my complete state of paralyzation when I think about painting.  Stop judging, I know you're all thinking painting is easy but I just don't want to do it.  So, we recently had our good friend Mark come and paint the kids rooms for us.  He has his own painting business and did a great job!  Too bad he's moving to South Africa so he won't be able to paint for us again:(

Anyway, in an effort to get one of our rooms ready for a foster/adopt child in the future we decided to buy a set of bunk beds that can be split or set up together.  This gives us lots of options for the future too as far as room sharing could go.  We also wanted to buy a bed for Grace and paint the walls.

The other thing we did was move around dressers so every room has a dresser in it and one thing that happened is I refinished Matt's childhood dresser.  That kind of painting doesn't scare me:)

Caleb's room with the top bunk ready for him whenever he's ready to transition out of the crib.
I'm planning on decorating with red, yellow and green as the accent colors (think traffic lights)

The dresser I redid.  Find before picture here.

Grace's awesome pink and purple room!

The 3rd bedroom for an unknown child.  I'll probably decorate with
all of the animal stuff that was hanging in Caleb's room.

Grace is 4!!!

I can't believe my first baby is 4 (and I will probably say this every year).  I wanted to post about her birthday before April was over so I'm getting it in at the last minute:)

Grace was greatly anticipating her birthday since she has many relatives and friends who have a birthday within the 6 weeks before hers.  I'm not kidding we attended 5 birthday parties in March and April and called several people to sing Happy Birthday.  So she was counting down the days and super excited to celebrate her own.

We started off her birthday by singing to her in the morning and immediately going downstairs to open presents.  Grace is currently obsessed with Lalaloopsy Mini dolls so we got her a set of the main dolls.  Caleb also got her a single doll.  She had been asking for the set and when we told her it was time to open presents she said she wanted to go open her Lalaloopsy dolls.  Good thing we got her what she wanted!

The other thing Grace requested was yellow cake with chocolate frosting and she wanted to help make it herself.  No problem there!  So after breakfast we made her birthday cake together.  She even cracks her own eggs now.

Then we loaded up the car and met two moms and their kids at the park for a picnic lunch and of course cake.  It was a a perfectly beautiful day outside and the kids had a blast.  I couldn't have hoped for better weather.

Grace seemed to enjoy her birthday.  She got tons of phone calls and I hope she felt very special.  Because she is!

Grace's Art

I mentioned in a recent post that Grace has really enjoyed drawing and art lately.  She asks to do it everyday and loves when Caleb goes down for a nap because then we get out the markers or paint.  Many people have asked if I am keeping her artwork and for right now my answer is no.  We'd have piles of paper if I did.  I do have one folder for some special projects but it rarely gets added to.  I also am thinking about creating a space to display her new art (and Caleb's) on a rotational basis in our office/sewing/piano/school room.

She currently loves drawing sunshine, rainbows, her friends, characters from books, mermaids and her toys.  I never guide her on what to draw but sometimes when I draw something she tries to copy me.  Most of the time she just decides on her own what she's going to draw.  She recently learned the order of the rainbow because I drew one for her and now loves drawing them.  Today she told me the rainbow is apple, carrot, banana, pear, blueberry, plum.

I have been trying to take pictures of her particularly inspiring pieces before they hit the recycling bin just so I can see her artwork progress.  So, here are some recent Grace creations...

Aunt Again

My sister had her baby the other day.  I'm an aunt for the 4th time!!!  I think being an aunt is almost as good as being a mom and I can't wait to meet the little guy.  Just a few more days....

Dual DVD Players

I just did something I thought I would NEVER do.  So, never say never!  I bought dual DVD players for the car for the kids.  I'll start by explaining I am in no way against children watching TV in the car (or TV in general).  But usually the longest we travel is less than 2.5 hours to Matt's parents' and the kids generally do fine with little to no entertainment.  If we have traveled further distances we have borrowed a DVD player from a friend and that has worked great.

But alas, Caleb is now forward facing and likes to watch TV.  If only for those things I still would have seen no reason to buy dual DVD players.  But very soon we will be embarking on a road trip to Texas to visit family.  This will consist of almost 30 hours in the car (not counting stops!) and possibly many hours of fussy kids.

Flying was on the table as an option.  But ultimately driving won out for various reason.  But the cost equation is as follows...

Gas + oil change + 2 nights at a hotel + dual DVD + headphones <<<<<<* 4 plane tickets + a rental car + millions of dollars worth of luggage charges due to the copious amounts of stuff kids need with them at all times

*that is the less than sign and I put many to show WAY WAY less than

The kids are trying out the system and ready to go...

1st Quarter Book List

I have mentioned before that I want to get better about recording what I'm reading on the blog.  Since I am no good at and don't really like doing book reviews I'm simplifying to a list.  My goal this year is to average about 4 books a month.  I love reading but I also love sewing, cooking, playing the piano, surfing the Internet, sleeping, sometimes exercising, and many other activities during the few hours a day when the kids are asleep and I'm awake.  So it's hard to prioritize reading and I really want to do that more.  Anyway below is my list of books that I read since the beginning of the year (right on track with my goal).

I have rated my books on an astrick system that is as follows...
* - Not great and don't read it unless you're bored or it looks really really interesting to you personally and even then you might want to think twice.
** - Pretty good and if it looks interesting to you I would recommend it.  I don't think it would be a waste of time.  I generally enjoyed these books.
*** - Great book!  Definitely read it (if it looks interesting) and you will like it.
F is for fiction and NF is for non-fiction.
The purple one is my favorite and I'm actually not quite done with it (50 pages left).  I'm reading it slowly because there is so much to process and digest.

1. The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro - (F)**
   
   
2. The Bridesmaid by Beverly Lewis - (F)*
   
   
3. The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges - (NF)***
   
   
4. Cleaning House: A Mom’s Twelve-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement by Kay Wills Wyma - (NF)**
   
   
5. A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master” by Rachel Held Evans - (NF)*
   
   
6. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - (F)***
   
   
7. Reshaping It All by Candace Cameron Bure - (NF)*
   
   
8. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin - (F)*
   
   
9. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - (F)**
   
   
10. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom - (F)***
    
    
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - (F)**

12. The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? The Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World by Richard Stearns - (NF)***

    
    
    
    

Children's Museum with Cousins

Last week my nephew was on spring break so his family came down to Normal for a couple of days away.  One of the activities on their list was to go to the children's museum.  Since we live fairly close and Matt was able to take the day off of work we took the trip over to meet them for the morning at the museum.  I love the museum and it was extra fun for the kids to go with their cousins.

After spending the morning exploring and playing we went and had lunch at Meatheads.  Even though we have one in our town I hadn't eaten there yet.  It's now on my list of places to go here because it was delicious.  I'm craving a burger typing this right now.

Below are some fun pictures of the kids.  The painting wall was a hit and Grace especially loved it since she is so into drawing and art these days.  There was a whole room of drawing and art stuff that we didn't go in that I would love to take Grace to sometime this summer.  They also have a fun stage that the kids loved playing on.  And the last picture is us watching a puppet show.