Fathers Day and seeing the future...

This weekend we FINALLY got to celebrate Father's Day with my dad. We have tried and tried to find a time to all get together. With all of us being busy and having different schedules we were just now able to get with dad. They came down and spent the night Sat. night and the girls were so excited to see Grandad and Honey. There was not a good picture of the girls in the same picture. Courtney is making a horrible face...but oh well!

I just LOVE this picture of Lindsey and I. She looks big and I don't know if I like that...but I like this picture! Precious! Especially because she on her own put her arms around me!
Courtney all of the sudden started making this funny face and wouldn't look at me! We had fun with Honey and Grandad this weekend! Thanks for coming to visit!
That was Sunday morning before church. THIS was Sunday night at our house and hopefully a glimpse into our future. Not only with these kids, but that our house would be a fun place that our girls want to bring their friends home to. We had our first "Life Group" aka Sunday School social with our new classes. They are so much fun. They were making me laugh so much. What a great group of kids God has blessed us with. I have really enjoyed getting to know my girls and Ryan has a very neat group of boys. Very very different from eachother, but very fun as a group and you can tell that they enjoy eachother's company. I look forward to hanging out again as a big group! The few that I have talked to seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I know you don't know thses kids, but they are becoming a big part of our lives, so I thought I'd share....

We were playing catch phrase. It got SO SO SO loud! Courtney and I had to go outside at one point because it was all too overwhelming for her. Do you see the boy on the couch that is screaming? His scream sounded like a 13 year old girl's scream...ear piercing for sure! I love that I caught him, Aaron, screaming and Lindsey covering her ears! Totally captured the moment! So great!
Here are some more kiddos...the guy and girl looking at eachother are dating and have been for a while. I just think it is funny that he's in Ryan's class and she's in my class.
This game got so serious...
Can you tell?
I am so thankful for God working in my heart and helping me to be sensitive to these kids and the desire to teach them. They have been so fun. I have enjoyed it so much, but just had to be willing to get out of my comfort zone and God knew that. Praise the Lord that He knows best and this time I was willing to obey! I look forward to the relationships I will have and will build over this year. Please pray for me, these girls (and Ryan and his boys).

Not this time!

Well I had this post all typed out and there was an "error"...ugghhh.

Courtney is NOT potty training. I think she is close. I just refuse to fight her. Lindsey was so easy that I can't imagine fighting for it. So I can wait. I know it will happen and it seems like it will be soon.

She will sit on the potty, but all for not. She doesn't really want to do it, and that is how Lindsey was for so long. One of these days I know she will do it and I'm willing to wait for when she is ready. No rush!

Check this out!

Look at those tan lines! Ok, no really! That is NOT the point of this picture! LOOK AT HER PANTIES! Can I put that on a blog?! Tonight she tted in the potty for the first time in forever. Looking back over the past couple of days she has shown a lot of interest in going to the potty. Even to the point that she was continuing to tell me she needed to go and I thought she had a UTI and called the doctor this morning. Turns out I think she is just really becoming aware of that feleing and not sure about it. Needless to say, tonight we hit it at the right time and she went. It was after supper so I made a big deal about it and put panties on her! She was SO excited to wear panties like Lindsey! Not to mention they had Cinderella on them. She didn't potty on them, but it wasn't long that she was wearing them. As she was going to bed and I was checking her diaper she told me that she wanted to wear Cinderella. We are going to be out and about tomorrow so I don't think we'll venture into potty training, but I think we'll try it next week and see what happens! Now that I have you baited with a big story on the brink, don't worry...I'll keep the potty story updated for you! ha!

It also hit me tonight that if we are not buying diapers...I don't have a baby...officially! :(

Lindsey Update

*Disclaimer:Sorry for the long paragraph without spaces. I've been trying to fix it and can't, so just read carefully at the end! :)

Here are the pictures hanging on the wall in Lindsey's room. I like how it looks and pulls it all together. She does too. She said, "You left some flowers out, Mommy." Since I didn't paint a picture for each flower on the valance! She's such the detail child! Here is the valance that I copied and is finally hanging in her room! Very cute! I love it!
This goes back a few weeks and has a long story with it...
You can see that we now have fish! Yes, this is what Lindsey got for going under the water at the swimming pool. Like I think I have said before Lindsey is NOT afraid of the water, but does NOT like it in her face...in the pool or the bathtub. So Ryan was pressuring her and pressuring her to go under and we came up with the fish reward, or should I say RYAN did. I told him that was HIS project and I was not taking care of 2 girls, 2 dogs and 2 fish! Mercy! So, he took her to Wal-Mart and got her these fish. They picked out the pink one and one that was black and orange (it is in heaven already!). We had our first dealing with a pet dying. Luckily it wasn't too bad, but just mainly confusing more than sadness. It is hard to expalin a little bit of death and not all of it and try to rationalize that with a very smart almost 4 year old. One of the funny things is that when she finally saw the fish she said, "Mommy, the black one tipped over." Which was just so innocently cute. Then we told her that maybe he was too big for our tank and so we gor rid of him. She wanted to know what Daddy was doing with it, she wanted to watch, she was very curious. We told her that we'd get a new one. So the next day we went to Wal-Mart and she picked out a new fish. It is my favorite one. It is some sort of guppy and has a big "fluffy" talk that he/she/it swishes around really fast. Pretty neat.

When she first got her fish we of course asked what she wanted to name them...Lindsey Lee and Lindsey Lee. That was it. No discussion. She wanted them to match her! So, that is what the first 2 were. We still have one of the Lindsey Lee fish and now the new fish's name is Silly Fish "because he has a silly tail" Lindsey said! So cute! She loves feeding them. She does a good job. When you turn the light on in the tank they come up to the top and swim fast. They know it is feeding time. So cute. As much as I didn't want it, it has been the easiest pet we've had!

Today Lindsey started swimming lessons. I was so unsure of where to go and who she should take from, but God worked that all out. Miss Jane is her teacher and she is WONDERFUL! She is PERFECT for Lindsey's gentle personality. She is very soft spoken, encouraging, yet just expects them to do it. Lindsey did everything she asked her to today. It was great. I was so proud of her and so thrilled to see what a great experience I could tell this was going to be! I'm so thankful and have very high expectations that she will be much more confident in the water at the end of next week! She did great!

Fun on the boat!

The fam in the lake! Maybe it doesn't look like clear water, but compared to what Beaver Lake has looked like, this was much improved! Lindsey would NOT get in the last time we were there, but we could not get her out this time!
We rode in the red boat and Lindsey likes wearing goggles so that when the water splashes it doesn't get in her face! So funny!
She was doing so well that we let her swim without her lifejacket, but we were always right there within arms reach...most of the time! :) She isn't our dare devil so we felt confident that she wasn't going far. She just paddles herself around and loves it!
She was worn out! She never falls asleep like this, but she came and crawled up in my lap and layed down. We were just riding around and she was OUT quick! So sweet! Courtney saw mom taking a picture, so she wanted to lay down and "sleep" too! Ha! She didn't lay still long enough to go to sleep! She did in the car, thankfully!
As we were waiting for the million boats to load and Ryan to back the trailor in the water, there were TONS of geese that came really close. The girls thought this was so great! (Notice the colors of the girls' legs...brown and white!)

We are having so much fun on the boat! It has been a blast! My mom got to go with us yesterday. Dad was playing golf and she loves to go with us, so we invited her. The girls had fun seeing Honey swim! She didn't ride in the red boat, but maybe next time! Thanks for going with us, Honey! It was fun!

Just call me crafty...

These are three canvases I painted for Lindsey's new room. I ordered a valance from Pottery Barn that matches her bedding (but isn't PB). There are flowers on the curtain and I tried to just copy the flowers onto the canvases the best I could. Then I trimmed the canvases in ribbon. For my first go at something like this, I am pleased. There is no shading or real artistry to it, but fine for a 3 almost 4 year old.





I have Courtney's room started and will take a picture tomorrow when the bed is made. Pretty much all that is done in there is the wall painted and her bed. We still have the changing table and glider (which don't match her new bedding at all) in there so it feels very unfinished to me. It will come along I guess. I had moved the glider out, but she asked two nights in a row to rock so I put it back.

Hollywood Watchout!

If this is not cute I don't know what is! She had pig tails for the first time today! Oh my word!

Pool

Courtney LOVES the water! She will put her face in (she did that last summer too) and go under. She doesn't "swim" under water or really kick very much. But, she does love the water and holding on to the ring. She does really good. She jumps in and has a blast!!

Lindsey likes the water, but doesn't like to be splashed. Although she is getting much better and doesn't freak out when it happens. She doesn't like to go under, but we finally convinced her this week and she did. That is a whole post all in itself that I will have to do tomorrow. But, she will swim wherever she wants with these floaties on. The goggles are new and they don't really have a purpose since she doesn't go under! I guess they look cool...but not really.

She is starting swimming lessons a week from Monday. I'm excited to see how brave she might get! Since she finally at least went under without freaking out and was even sort of willing, then I'm even more anxious to see how she does. I don't know the person she is taking from, but according to the girl that I registered with "Miss Jane is great and has been teaching for 30 years. She'll have her swimming by the time lessons are over." So my hopes are high! I think she'll do great. If she can get comfortable with going under, I will consider it a TOTAL success!

We have a busy day/weekend. Today is the annual Cintas family picnic! FUN! Ryan becomes MR. SOCIAL and I'm not even kidding. The first year we were here when Lindsey would NOT speak to anyone, I made the comment "She is shy like her daddy." The person I was talking to that works at Cintas laughed. Yes, laughed! I guess shy may not be the right word for Ryan, but quiet is for sure! Needless to say, he is not quiet at work and he is great at making conversations with his employees and it is great to watch! Thankfully today it isn't supposed to be AS hot and so we (Lindsey and I) won't be sweating to death. Then we have 2 birthday parties. One is later this evening and Ryan is going to go with us. So we have a full day. The girls will be wiped out by tonight for sure!

Have a good weekend!

Camping with the Cowgurs

He's Here!

Meet Nikita "Nik" Bo Hester! He is our new friend from Russisa! Our friends Bart and Ashley adopted him and got home last weekend. I have typed about them before, here. We got to meet him while we were in Bentonville. He is so precious and so cute with Ashley! He wanted Ashley a lot, so we just talked to him while she was holding him. He doesn't say much, but he's only been in America since Sat. night late! I don't speak Russian, so there wasn't much for us to talk about...ha ha ha! He has a precious little giggle that we heard a couple of times when Ashely would tickle him, but other than that he just played with his trucks.

He will be 2 on June 30, so we will get to see him at his birthday party soon!

Welcome home Nik! You are so loved!

Name That Tune

Courtney is a performer for sure! I have been meaning to do this for a long time and just thought about it and had a few min. this afternoon to have her sing some. So, here are some interpretations as needed.

First she is singing "God is so Good." Then she does half of her ABC's, but she can do them all the way through! Then she goes into "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." Here she starts with "brothers and sisters" (pointing to herself). You can't really understand that one at all. Then she sings about the "little bitty babies, in His hands." I tried to get her to say her name because she says "Nortney." Pretty cute. She has been into singing "Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun." Sorry if you aren't familiar with it. But there is a part that says, "These little children are asking you" and I repeat that after she says it. One part (on the Barney version) says "hiding behind the tree" and that is why she is putting her hands on her mouth. We cover our eyes, but she just missed I guess! :) When she is telling me no it is because I start to do the motions for her to show her and she doesn't want me to! She's the star I guess! Then we do "Wheels on the Bus." She goes right to "swish, swish, swish" for the wipers. Then I help her with the babies and the driver. Then Ryan walks in. He has on a shirt that says Cintas, so she says that at the very end.

I tried to remember what she sang and said. Sorry if I missed something. Just precious to me! Enjoy our singer! She breaks out in song a lot around here! I love it!

Red Boat

Lindsey LOVED the "red boat" aka tube! It is enclosed on the bottom, so you aren't in the water, but it is like a boat. This is just so cute of them both waving I had to show it off! She stayed in the tube as long as we would let her. We would just have to tell her it was time to take a break! We tried to get Courtney to like it, but she wasn't sure if she did or not. She cried while we put her in, but then when she was in she was frozen still. I think she was just very unsure of the situation!
She was much happier just hanging out on the big boat!
This is Courtney's notorious "silly face" that she makes all the time. She started doing it when I would tell her to do (or not do) something and she didn't like what I had said. It was so funny and so cute, that I would just make that face at her and she'd do it right back! So cute! I love it!

Camping

This is from Watts Happening, but I had to put it up. My dad took it and I just got his pictures from him! How cute is this?! I love it! I never make it in any pictures, so since this one was decent I put it up. Disclaimer on the hair adn makeup. It was about 99 degrees with 150% humidity there! I had been sweating ALL DAY! None the less, it was fun and I like this picture.
We went camping! Yes, for the 2nd time in my life I went camping and slept in a tent! :) We went with some friends from Cintas. We were all 6 riding together and the back of the suburban was packed to say the least! Check this out!
Ryan and Jason cooking up some good burgers! Yummy!
The group! The 2 girls in front of Ryan work at Cintas and the other guy does. His wife and I are the only non-Cintas people that go. This is the same group that went last year. It is turning into an annual event...with t-shirts! So fun! We had a blast. We don't have any pictures from the canoes because we all only had digital cameras and didn't want them ruined when we got wet, which we did this year! Last year none of us tipped and this year we all did. Luckily for Ryan and I and Jason and Jana, we didn't actually tip all the way over, but just had to get out of the boat b/c water was coming in. The Buffalo River is beautiful and the weather was perfect! Fun times and great memories and stories!

Interesting!

A friend sent me this link and it was unreal to watch. When you have time, you should watch it. It will make you think about a lot of things!

http://www.eyeblast.tv/Public/Video.aspx?rsrcID=2036

I have no idea what is true, factual, fabricated or anything else. But scary none the less!