Faith's "Goatee"

This is what happens when you leave your two year old on the potty and get distracted. She finds your mascara, thinks its lip gloss, and makes herself look like she is growing facial hair.

Our Baby is growing up!

Yes, I crept in her room and took this picture the first night she slept in her bed.
Matching bedding to Grace's bed- they are SO excited!!

Faith is getting to be such a grown up little girl lately. I have been wanting to blog about some of her "new" things.

-Faith recently decided she lOVES pickles. She swiped one from the relish tray at Thanksgiving and hasn't looked back. When we had sandwiches the other day she ate her pickles off and then asked for replacements before she would take one bite of the sandwich. She loves them so much Grace will often get out the jar of pickles when she is setting the table and say, "These are for Faith-er."

-The other day we were reading a Christmas book. Faith took her "pink" (her beloved blanket) and patted it on the picture of baby Jesus saying, "Baby, baby." She will also pat my belly with pink when she gives the baby hugs and kisses each night before bed.

-She has grown VERY attached to her blanket. She drags it everywhere. When she eats she insists on it being on the back of her chair. There is nowhere "pink" doesn't come along. If I do need her to do something without pink she will give her kisses before handing her over. And getting it washed is always a challenge!

-While we were in Michigan Grace discovered she could help Faith out of her pack-n-play. They transfered this skill to their bedroom at home. Grace proudly helped her sister out of her crib twice. She would calmly explain, " I stacked up these toys and Faith-er climbed down the vacuum." Oh, my! I didn't think I was up for a broken arm so we finally got Faith's big girl bed set up. As you can see from the pictures she was thrilled!!! Even though I was dreading this transition it has gone fairly smoothly. Of course the girls LOVE playing together, but they eventually quiet down and go to sleep. (With a little help from a baby gate outside their door so they can't vacate their room.)

-Faith loves to take off her pants, her socks, and occasionally her diaper. Sometimes I'm not sure why I get her dressed everyday. At the end of rest time I am never sure what I will find the girls wearing. The other day Grace was in her swimsuit and Faith had on a skirt and her sister's tennis shoes (oh, and no diaper!)

-The girls have both enjoyed doing a Christmas Advent/Countdown calendar. Each day they open a box with a fun activity. Faith will shout each night at dinner, "Calendar. Calendar." (over and over)

-Faith has also become quite the mama's girl as of late. She loves to be held and sit on my ever growing belly. She is VERY excited about being a big sister so we will see how these two things play out when the baby actually arrives. For now Faith is very helpful with our daycare baby, Regan. She helps feed her, gives her the "bink" and says "sleep" and even shares pink with her when she thinks she needs a blanket.

-Faith LOVES sugar, she has quite a sweet tooth. When we made our Christmas treats I think she would have eaten them till she was sick if I had let her. I had to get everything put away off the counter. I would take one stool away and she would go and find something else to climb up and snatch treats. She was very determined.

Faith,

I love you SO much. I am enjoying seeing how you are growing and changing. You can really make your dad and I laugh. You remind me so much of your daddy. Consequently, you are very good at charming me. You and your sister are developing such a sweet friendship and I love to watch you two pretend together and be silly together. You are such a wonderful blessing to our family.

Your Mama

Faith's Big Mess

Last night I was getting the girls ready for bed. Here recently I sometimes get Faith ready on her sister's bed instead of lifting her up onto her changing table. So I had laid out her pjs, diaper, and diaper rash ointment on Grace's bed. At that point I got distracted with Grace needing my attention. When I finally got that issue resolved I returned to their bedroom to find Faith covered in the Triple Paste. She had used it as "lotion" all over her feet and hands. She was quite proud of herself! Besides the cheap part of me thinking, "That stuff is like $30 a tub!" it was quite funny. Grace was mostly concerned that it wasn't on her bed. She told her sister, "You need to ask an adult for help with that."

My Growing Girls

For Father's Day this year the girls worked together to make Jeremy a piece of art. We are hoping to make this an every year, or every couple of years tradition. That way by the time they are grown he will have an evolving collection. Below, is their first masterpiece. Hopefully they will become less abstract as they grow, and I'm looking forward to how they will add their own talent and ideas over the years.

Grace:

Grace is turning into such a "big girl." Here are some fun facts about what she is up to:

-Lately she has been quite the mama's girl. Even refusing to go to her Sunday School class at times. I'm not really sure what has brought this on.

-She has the most insane memory!! I am constantly amazed at what she observes and remembers. Today we were driving through Quincy and she looked over and said, "Mom there is where we bought my jacket." She spotted the small resale shop we had bought her Spring jacket from several months ago. She often surprises me when driving through Hannibal spotting places and remembering them, even if we only went there once. And she always remember what we did there.

- She has started to enjoy new words. She tries to use them even if she doesn't know what they mean. I enjoy asking her what she thinks they mean. The other day she told me she was a genius. When I asked her what that meant she said it meant she was a very brave girl (nope, not exactly)

-She has become quite set on the fact that when you pray you must say, "watch over us and keep us safe." Jeremy and I aren't sure where it came from since neither of us commonly pray this phrase. But if you pray and don't include this phrase she pipes up and fervently adds it. Listening to her prayers are quite sweet and you never know who or what she will throw in, but I often admire how thoughtful she is to include others.

-She has loved swimming although she hasn't gotten to do it much this summer. Before vacation she started sneaking down to her room and putting on her swimsuit. She would then "swim" around our house until I made her change back into her clothes. I was glad she got to swim on vacation.

-Speaking of vacation, I have to record this funny Grace moment. I looked up at the pool to see she had stripped naked in 2 seconds flat. I rushed over to wrap her in a towel and explain we don't take our clothes off in public. She was very adamant that she was cold and done swimming and wanted her wet swimsuit off. So we ended up carrying her to the condo in her towel.

-Grace continues to be a STRONG persistent negotiator. I have already started hoping she will have teachers with strong clear boundaries!

-Grace has given up napping on most days. However, I continue to require her to have quite time in her room. Some days this goes smoothly and other days she works quite diligently to convince me to let her come out of her room. But overall, it is still working and she falls asleep maybe 2 days a week.

-Grace loves puzzles and it is something she really excels at. She can sit and help do a 100 piece puzzle when she is motivated or it is a picture of something she likes. She is also becoming more interested in board games.

-We are still struggling with counting. While we practice Grace shows no interest in learning to count correctly. We still haven't conquered consistantly counting to 10. But we are making progress...I have a feeling math may be a struggle when school eventually begins.

Faith:

Faith herself has done a lot of growing up lately, and I think we are starting to see glimpses of the "terrible two's" struggle for independence.

-Faith is still sleeping in her crib, but fell out once during nap time reaching for a toy. I am hoping to transition her to her big girl bed as soon as the basement is fixed and the girls' toys return to their playroom. Their room is way to full for another bed right now.

-Faith LOVES all things girly. She is constantly adorning herself with bracelets & necklaces. She also sits very still to have her nails painted.

-Faith's hair is still very short for her age, but we continue to "work the short do." Her newest thing is wearing headbands from the dollar store. She usually keeps these on for quite awhile. ( I never thought I would have a child whose hair actually grew slower than Grace's did!!)

-At her last checkup Faith was more average in size. She is in the 65% for height and 50% for weight.

-After VBS we brought home a cold/flu bug. Grace and I both had coughs, fevers, etc. Faith had a fever and once again went into mild respiratory distress. We ended up taking her to the doctor for a steroid treatment since her breathing machine wasn't helping. Since this is her third incident of having trouble breathing they will continue to watch her for signs of childhood asthma.

-If you have seen Faith walk most people comment on how she waltzes about on her tip toes. Our pediatrician has decided to watch this. If she doesn't flatten her feet by 2 we will consider having it checked out by a physical therapist. So we are working on what Jeremy calls "stomping" when she walks. I personally think it matches her princess personality!

-Faith also continue to learn new words. I love hearing her talk. She doesn't really sign much at all anymore except when we sing Jesus Loves Me before bed. She also loves to yell, "Daddy, Daddy!" whenever she hears Jeremy's ring tone on my phone.

Both the girls are our biggest joy and at times our biggest challenge!

Vacation pictures coming soon...

Happy birthday...

The girls in their party dresses. Notice Faith's face, she took her first major spill this weekend falling down our back steps.

My girlfriends from my small group, with the window from our old church.

Well, among all the basement craziness we also celebrated birthdays last week. One night two of our friends came over for cake. Here they are blowing out their candles with the peanut butter cup cake. Ashley and Melissa are both very special girls in our home. They are also a part of our small group. 

Our church was also celebrating a very big birthday this weekend, 100 years. We had a huge Centennial celebration. It was awesome. Saturday there was a special program with lots of church history, and cake and ice cream. George Ross came and spoke and gave two inspirational messages. Above are pictures of us in our Centennial t-shirts. On Sunday we had a special dinner at the Quality Inn. It was a great weekend to remember God's faithfulness to our church.  

ER Finale

No, I am not talking about the TV show. We made another trip to the ER and I am seriously hoping it is the final one! (at least for a long time) Friday night almost two weeks to the hour that I went to the the ER we made the decision to take Faith to the ER. On Friday Faith started running a temperature and coughing during nap. I thought she was probably getting a cold. We were headed to Jeremy's dads for the night. We got to Keokuk and his parents had gone to dinner. Faith's fever got to 102 and she was having a lot of trouble breathing. At one point she was grunting to breathe. I was starting to get very nervous at that point. Faith's grandma teaches nursing so we were glad when she got home. She went to get something to check her oxygen saturation. It was only at 90%. I was shaking at this point. I was really having a hard time emotionally, worried about her, flashing back to two weeks ago, and not knowing what to do. Jeremy stepped up and decided we should take her to the emergency room. I was so thankful he decided because I was a wreck.

We decided to take her to the Fort Madison Hospital so Grace could stay with my in-laws. To make a long story short after testing we found out she has RSV and was experiencing respiratory distress. After two breathing treatment and a steroids shot they admitted us to the hospital. She responded great to the treatments and we were able to go home on Saturday afternoon. I am SO thankful! It was a long night, but we made it through.

Currently we are doing breathing treatments at home and waiting for her little body to fight off the virus. I am totally exhausted. While I was hoping to get back to some type of normalcy this week I think that will have to wait.  To be totally honest I keep thinking about God's promise that he won't give us more than we can handle. I keep asking him, "Are you sure you didn't get me confused with some super strong woman?" I feel like I've been running a marathon lately, and I'm close to running on empty. I'm so thankful I don't have to rely on my strength alone I know God can fill my tank. And so my prayer, FILL ME LORD!!

My Gorgeous Girls

Sisterly love!






My mom recently took new pictures of the girls. As you can see they weren't super cooperative. Or maybe this is just what a photo shoot with two kids looks like.  Although we did get a few cute ones, especially the ones with Aunt Jo Jo. I especially love the ones of their feet. I of course think my girls are absolutely gorgeous!! (even if they aren't cooperative) They are getting so big.

Girls,

I hope you will always know that you are beautifully and wonderfully made by our heavenly father. I continue to learn that truth in my own life so I can model it for you.  Your dad and I will keep reminding you how beautiful we think you are on the outside and teaching you how to allow the Lord to make you beautiful on the inside too. 

Fun "Firsts" for Faith

Grace wasn't sure about the strap around her neck!

Faith proudly models her new swimsuit.

Sampling her cookie dough.

Faith & Grace work together.

Faith shows off her pink painted toes!

Well, I have to admit I haven't always done the best at recording Faith's "firsts." Although I have blogged as much as possible, so I count that. Lately we have done some activities for the first time. On Thursday night we went to the YMCA to take the girls swimming for our family night. They had a great time. It was really fun. Above they are modeling their new swimsuits they got from Gramy for Christmas. I thought they looked SO adorable. 

We also made cookies for our Super Bowl party. It was the first time I have let Faith truly help with cooking. She has "helped" with her own bowls and spoons before but this time she actually got in on the dumping and pouring action. She did great! At the end I let her and Grace lick there spoons a a reward for a job well done. The next day I went to bake the cookies and she wanted to climb up on the step stool and check out what I was doing. I was putting a second set in the oven when I heard Grace say, "We lost some cookies." I was so confused! Then I saw Faith had reached over and managed to grab the cooling rack. Six jumbo cookies were now on the floor. Faith was screeching, she was mad she didn't get ahold of one before they fell on the floor. I couldn't really get mad though because I decided it was probably too much temptation to put freshly baked cookies within the reach of a one year old!

We also painted Faith's toes for the first time. When I was painting Grace's toes recently she expressed interest in having hers painted as well. She held really still and was so excited! It was great to include her in the fun.

Faith turns 1!

What is this?
Blowing out her candles with a little help from Grace.

I like cake!!

Opening a birthday gift from Grandpa Rick & Grandma Leeanne

Faith tries cow's milk for the 1st time...not sure yet!

On Sunday Faith had her first birthday. I can't believe she is one! Because her Birthday fell on a Sunday we celbrated by having cup cakes before youth group. She took one tiny taste of icing and then dug right in. She really enjoyed her first official taste of cake. Her big sister helped her blow out her candle. Here are some pictures from the big day. At her doctor's visit on Monday she was 29 1/4 in. and weighed 21 lbs. 10 oz. She is also walking now more than crawling. In one week she really took to walking. We are still celebrating with family in the coming weeks, so there will be more cake & presents pictures to come.

Faith,

Mommy & Daddy are SO glad God blessed our family with you! You are such a sweet little girl and we love you very much. You make us laugh & we love watching you explore, bounce, and try things you see Grace do. We pray you will continue to grow and learn more about Jesus.

Love,

Mommy

My "Big" Girl

Normally I refer to Grace as my big girl. But this week I found myself saying to Faith, "You are such a big girl." Oh, dear when did she become big? She is supposed to be my baby. Faith has had a lot of milestones this week. On Sunday (Mother's Day) Faith had her baby dedication ceremony. It was just as special getting to experience this with her as it was with Grace. The girls wore coordinating pink polka dot dresses (See new family pic). On Monday, Faith slept in her room with her sister for the first time. Due to the girls sharing a room Faith had still been in our room up until this point. I was excited for Jeremy and I to reclaim our bedroom but also sad that she no longer needed to be near us. Both girls have done great adjusting to the transition. They really love each other right now. Faith also had her first stinky diaper. (Moms, you know what I'm talking about the diapers get way smellier when you start baby food!) Also, she tried out a sippy cup and "puffs." I just put some in front of her to see what she would do. She picked it right up and popped it in her mouth. She thought it was fun practicing getting them in her mouth. She is deffinitely getting more enthusiastic about baby food. So far she has tried green beans, peas, squash, apples, peaches, & pears.

Faith,
You are such a happy and content baby. You are so content to just be with our family and experience life around you. I have started praying that you will always feel that kind of contentment through your relationship with Jesus. I tend to be a doer. Sometime I struggle to just be with Jesus. I pray you will find enjoyment throughout your life, simply being in the presence of God. Your smiles are a true blessing to your mama. I love you.