Tonsils and adnoids

Here we see a perky Miss I., awaiting surgery. She feels pretty special to be alone at the hospital with mommy and daddy. Look at those massive tonsils! They were so big that her Dr. couldn't see the adnoids until he took the tonsils out - which is when he decided to take her adnoids out, too.

First day of school!

Kindergarten

Preschool

Yesterday was our first "official" day of school. We are finally fairly well organized, and have reserved mornings (for the most part) for school. So far the girls are doing great!

Toilet Paper

A couple of weeks ago, I thought Miss I. was taking WAY too long in the bathroom - which usually spells trouble! So I went barging in to find out what was taking so long. She looked at me with a very proud face, and told me she used the last of the T.P., so had to replace it! :) I guess I shouldn't be so quick to judge.

Dressed up

The girls are getting more creative with dress-up play! Here you see Miss O. sporting a skirt as a strapless dress, and then we have Miss I. wearing 2 princess dresses, lamb ears, and using a megaphone (not that she needs it).

Summer over?

Miss I. finished swimming lessons today! She'll probably start up again in the winter, when we need some indoor exercise!

Miss O. swimming in the pool

I. swimming

I. has become much more brave lately in the water! Here she is jumping into the pool without me catching her!

Boating pictures

Good times!

Well, this weekend and so far this week we have been pretty busy having fun! Some church friends took us out on the lake in their boat on Saturday, and the girls both went tubing! I. didn't like it so much - but O. grinned from ear to ear the whole time, and never fell off! Then yesterday some other church friends graciously allowed us to invade their pool. The girls are doing so well with their swimming! Both of them can be independent in the water with their floaties on. O. had no fear jumping off the diving board and going down the water slide. She even told me to stop catching her! I can't believe how much my girls are growing up!

We have found a group of parents on-line whose children have the same chromosome deletion as O. - 1p36. There is a conference in Boston in September, and we're hoping to take both the girls. Mike will fly out early in the week for work purposes. We are praying for a flight from Lifeline Pilots for the girls and I, as we can't afford for all of us to fly out on a plane. Please pray for that to go through, as it would be really great to learn more about the deletion, and meet other families. there is even a special activity planned to thank siblings, which would really be spectacular for I. We'll keep you updated.

VBS video

Well, it's hard to hear the little kids in this video because I was so close to the speakers when I taped it, but it gives you an idea of the program anyway. Enjoy!

VBS program

The VBS program was so much fun! It worked great to have it outside on the hill! It was like a natural amphitheater! The girls did great! O. sang and did motions through the whole program, and I., well, she stayed there for the whole program. :)

O. singing in the chorus

This is I. bent over looking for a stick under the risers. :)

I. after the program.

O. after the program.

We made it!

It was a long week, but we made it, and had a lot of fun along the way! This week at VBS the kids learned, among other things, that God calls, changes, and loves each one of us forever! Here are a few shots from the week. We will dot the musical tonight at church, and then I can sleep! :)

I. eating lunch

O. in arts and crafts

Group lunch every day!

Group picture Friday morning!

Prayers, please!

Hi everyone! We are in for a busy week! It's VBS, nad I'm the coordinator this year. We would like to pray for the rain to stay away in the mornings and Friday evening! Also for God to guide all that we do, that many kids may come to faith this week, and bring their families to faith. But I'm also pretty nervous - as we have lots more kids registered than we expected. Four years ago when our pastor started, they cancelled VBS because there were no kids registered. Now this year we have over 100 registered! Praise God! - Please pray for us this week!

Sisters

I love this picture - especially because they have been fighting so much lately. We took this on a nature walk, and I think it was the only time during the walk that they weren't fighting. Actually, this was really just a second that they looked like this. I snapped the shot, and then O pushed I. :)

Blessings overflow

As I sit here watching my children, I am reminded how truly blessed I am. 5 years ago I thought O would never stop crying, never be healthy. Now today I is the one who's sick (stomach stuff), and O is out in the yard playing - BY HERSELF! No coaxing was needed, she just decided she wanted to play outside. Since I is sick and mommy needs to stay with her, O decided to just to out and play on her own. - She has come SO FAR! Thank you God! Your mercy continues to astound me. I quietly reads a book, waiting for me to finish this blog so I can snuggle more. The Lord is certainly merciful and mighty. I pray He brings our next child home to us quickly.

Softball game

O and I decided to play softball with the grown-ups at the picnic. I didn't last too long, because the bat hit her in the face. But here's O on 2nd, running to 3rd, and running home!

Church Picnic

We had our annual church picnic last Sunday. It was a great day for it! Here are the girls in the sac race. Daddy is helping O along, and Pastor is helping I.

Weekend fun

We had a really fun weekend! It started with a going away party for some church friends here on Friday evening. Then Saturday our friend Kevin was in town visiting from Taiwan! So Lisa and her family came over and we all hung out. Kevin was able to spend the night and join us for church and lunch before he had to go. It was really great to see him again - it's been 3 years, way too long! Thanks for the visit Kevin!

Swimming

We spent the afternoon at what the girls call "the tire swing park" with our friends J and Lisa on Thursday. We always have fun with them!

More cleaning

More cleaning was done by the girls yesterday! Here they are washing the windows!

Happy 4th of July!

We spent the morning of the 4th picking strawberries. It was a lot more fun than I had expected, and it was nice to have fresh strawberries for supper and for strawberry pancakes!

Cleaning

Cleaning has been VERY low on our priorities lately, so week took some time to catch up on just a very small amount yesterday. Olivia took some coaxing, but still helped out. Isabelle couldn't get enouch vacuuming! Here she is sucking up the hair in Mandy's kennel for me. It's nice to have such great help!

The drive home

It's pretty obvious that they had fun when they look like this 3 minutes into the 30 minute drive home.

Camping

We took the girls on their first camping trip this weekend. It rained, but they still loved it!


Here they are helping put the tent up.

Muffins - yum!

Fun in the tent.

It was cold at the beach, but they had fun anyway!

Roasting marshmallows is always so much fun! Too bad the only fire we could get going was a paper fire. The wood just wasn't catching.