Sailing to Grandmas

Last night Stella commandeered a box in the kitchen floor, climbed in and announced she was sailing to grandmas.  Naturally, I grabbed my camera and took some photos.  Oh, and she took Bruce with her.





I promise, she really was happy and having fun.  She just didn't want her picture taken.

Bruce's Blanket

This year, I decided to make Bruce a blanket for Christmas.  It's called a faux-chenille blanket and it was lots of fun to make.  It's very colorful, and I found the perfect little boy fabric!  I used the tutorial found here at made.

3-year old pronunciations

Some fun things that Stella has said recently.

Can we do my choc-wat candelar?   (chocolate calendar)

What are my options?

I was o-omenient and a-speck-ful.  (obedient and repectful)  This is probably my favorite.  We've been working on those two things recently.

I'm saiwing to grandmas.

Christmas presents

As I watched Stella get excited about Christmas this year I began to worry about her getting the gimme's.  So I  decided to nip it in the bud and we made presents for her to give.  I bought some little wooden stars (of David, accidentally).  We spent an afternoon ripping up tissue paper and gluing it on the stars.  Really fun and messy!  The accident of stars of David worked out well.  They looked like poinsettias when they were finished.  I stuck a peice of magnet to the backs and wrote the year on them.  We had fun, and she can't wait to hand them out!

Christmas Outfits

Well, Christmas is almost here. So since it was the week before Christmas, I got my kids all dressed up for church.  Too cute.  Stella fell in love with this dress in the store. She calls it her "lady bug dress." Thanks mom for the Kids Christmas clothes!  These are some hastily taken photos.  We should have left for church already, but I knew they wouldn't be up for it at all afterward.  And since we went to La Roca to visit our Spanish-speaking friends in the afternoon, I was correct.  Enjoy!

I'm feeling as though I've neglected my little blog here.  I haven't posted in over a month.  I should.  Even if it's just to get some pictures of my kids up.  Here are some from Halloween.  Just so that I can say I put them up!

Soon I'll get Stella's birthday pictures up too.

Conversation

A short conversation heard at our house this week:

Stella (while leaning over Bruce in his swing): This is my Darwing.
Me: He's your darling?
Stella (very matter of factly): My Darwing is pulling my hair.

Labor Day 2010

We had such a relaxed Labor Day.  I couldn't even tell you what we did in the morning.  Just a regular kicked back morning.  In the afternnon and evening though we went to my Aunt Sue's for a picnic.

It was lots of fun!  My cousin Jake help Bruce for the first time.  He says the little ones make him nervous, he won't hold them until they are pretty good at holding their own head up. 

We "played" Cootie.  Nikki and Jake are great sports, and dug cootie part after cootie part out of the box and played with more than played the game.

  

On Sunday afternoon we went to my Aunt Ginny's for a picnic.  We had a blast there too.  My Mom and all of her siblings were there and so there were fun pictures of that, and also some fun pictures of Cousins and second cousins too.  

  

Stella just saw this picture and said, "Those are my friends, and we had fun."

That about sums up Labor Day for us. We had fun.

Sprinkler Fun

The other night our neighbors set up a sprinkler in their front yard and we all sat outside and let the kids play in the sprinkler.  They had so much fun!  It was lots of fun to watch too.

First Smiles

We started to get some smiles from Bruce in the past week or two.  I love them.  I love baby smiles, and toddler smiles, but I love, love, love toothless grins.  Love them.  I'm not sure what it is, but I just can't get enough.  I was actually sad when Stella's teeth started to come in, because it meant the end of the toothless grins.  Anyway, back to the point of this post. Bruce's smiles.  They are so much fun.  They are becoming more and more frequent.  My mom gets the best of them, I think, and she got the first giggles too.  SO cute!  The other day, I had my mom coax some smiles out and got a few pictures.  If he's focusing on the camera, he won't smile.

New Tricycle

New Trike!

I think that part of being a grandparent is relishing in trying to spoil your grandkids.  At least that is how my children's grandparents feel!  While we were in Florida G.G. bought Stella a trike.  It's fabulous.  Stella couldn't have been more excited about it, and G.G. couldn't have been more pleased by the reaction.

Seeing it for the first time

  
Since I already knew what was in the back of Grandma's car, I got to focus the camera on the little girl's face as we opened the trunk.  Standing there with G.G. in anticipation, seeing her new "bike" and getting to try it out (with Daddy's help).

Is that for ME?

First Ride

She spent lots of time playing with her bike with G.G. too.  Sometimes out front, and sometimes in the back.  Thanks G.G.!  We still love it!

Florida

We did it. We drove from Pennsylvania to Florida and back with two children under three. It was long, but we did it. We actually broke the trip up into parts. Most of the time, I wish all our dearest friends lived close by, but it was wonderful to have stopping points and to get to see friends. We stopped in North Carolina on our way down, to visit with Daniel and Kayla. It was a great time of fellowship.

We got to surprise Sid's Grandma (G.G. to our kids). We didn't tell her we were coming. And it worked. She was truly surprised, despite a little Facebook slip-up of Sid's. She was delighted to see us, as was his Mom. They did their best to spoil the kids. They just loved and loved and loved on them. It was so fun to watch. G.G. bought Stella her first tricycle. We are blessed by their generosity, as well as their love!

Cuddling with G.G.

We also spent a lot of time at the dojo. After all my husband had to learn his Ninja Skills somewhere! It was so much fun to watch Sid and his Dad as they would discuss a student or a technique. It was more fun to watch them moon over how cute Stella is in a karate gee. I have to admit she is pretty adorable!

Sid and Bruce discussing... something Karate related!

And to see the pride and love in Papa Bruce's eyes as he saw and held Bruce was beyond what I imagined. He had no idea that we were planning to name our first son after him and he was floored. He loves his little namesake!

Baby Bruce with Papa Bruce

Stella had fun playing at the dojo. Her dad taught her how to bow when she entered and exited, and he showed her some basic stances and they practiced some punches.

Stella, learning how to punch.

She also enjoyed her Papa Bruce teaching her to do crunches (unfortunatley that was when my camera batteries died), and getting to dress up in the sparring gear.

Stella and Papa Bruce in the Dojo.

On our way back up to PA we stopped for two days in Lynchburg, VA to visit with Rick and Martha and their boys. We had another refreshing time of fellowship with them. I also spent Saturday morning visiting with "Mom and Dad" Plyter, another couple who loved and encouraged me through college. Sunday morning we went with Rick and Martha to their Sunday School Class's activity for the Churches "Gone for Good" project. An interesting way to reach the unchurched, but that is another post for another day.

As I said a long trip, but a good one, and I'm sure we'll do it again!

Cape May

This summer Sid and I had the incredible opportunity to go to the beach with two of the teens from our youth group. The guys invited to go with them to Cape May, NJ and spend a long weekend at the beach house of one of their families. We had such a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

I love the beach. I mean really love it. I don't have to get in the water, although I do enjoy that. I just love to hear it. And marvel at the beauty and vastness of God's creation. I love to sit and feel the breeze and hear the waves. I love to look as far as I can see and see... more ocean.

I had never been to Cape May before and it is a quaint tourist town at the southern tip of New Jersey. It has very cool old Victorian style houses. And a town center that is nothing but cutesy shop after restaurant after cutesy shop. I love it!

Coming back up from the water.

Stella and Sid also had a great time. Stella was fascinated and terrified of the water. She loved, sometimes, to get her feet wet, and sometimes not so much. One evening Stella and I got to take a walk on the shore, just the two of us. We took a bucket to collect some shells. We couldn't leave the beach until she had thrown (almost) all of them back in. I was able to rescue a few of them (and the quarter she found).

The shells I managed to save

The guys were/are so good with Stella, and Bruce. And Stella loves them. They were patient, and loving. We climed to the top of the lighthouse one afternoon, and Stella walked about 20 of the steps up and then was carried the rest of the way, they would take her to the edge of the water and hold her hands and let her look, they showed her rocks and jellyfish and all kinds of things and she reveled in the attention.

Looking at a washed up Jellyfish.

Bruce was a champ. He spent the first day on the beach eating. For about two hours straight. The second day we were on the beach he slept. It was wonderful. And he looked so cute in his little bathing suit that was two sizes too big!

Sleeping away in his tent on the beach!

We are so grateful that we got to go and not think about anything but where to go for dinner, and what time was bedtime. It was a wonderful vacation. We'll never forget it.

Brown Butterfly Outfit

In early July I sat down to make Stella some new pajamas. They turned out really cute. I love them. They have a few flaws, but for my first real self drafted "pattern" I'm pretty pleased with them. I made the shorts and then realized I had enough fabric left for a top. It has pleats in it, a first for me. I'm very proud of them, even if they are a little off center! The straps come together in the back, meeting in the middle. I have decided that they are too cute for PJ's and can be worn as an outfit. Not that she has worn it yet.

(Please ignore the angry face, she was done with trying them on and done with having her picture taken!)

Playing Catch-up

Stella having fun in Cape May

So, it's been well over a month since I posted. Ooops. But I've been busy. In that month I have been to New Jersey for four days, Florida for 10, AND packed and moved.

Not that any of that should have stopped me from blogging. There's plenty to write about. Like going to NJ for 4 days and FL for 10. Like moving, and packing, and getting our (Stella's) first tricycle. Like the cute little outfit that I made Stella and haven't had the guts to put her in yet. Like Bruce's first smiles! Those are all posts "coming soon."

We are also looking for churches, or just... work, for Sid. And trying to figure out what to do about a Masters program and how that will look. There are some developments on that front (school, not church). But there is no decision made yet so I'm not quite ready to share.

We have moved in with my wonderfully loving and gracious parents. It's a great thing, but it does take some getting used to. I feel like I'm very busy, but I'm not busy at all. It's probably not a good thing. It will get better as the school year starts and there is more of a routine to follow.

I will be more involved in my Bible Study this year. And I am looking forward to it. But I'm also a little nervous about it. I know that God will enable me to do what I need to, since he has called me. I'm very excited to be studying Isaiah this year.

Baby Bruce with his very proud Papa Bruce