New Family Pictures

We live next door to the most amazing woman. She's talented in so many ways, but we absolutely love what she can do with her camera. She came over right after we got home with Grace and took some family photos. They turned out great! I would recommend her to all of you, but God's calling her to volunteer for 6 months at an orphanage in Africa. What a woman after God's own heart. We love you Christina!

Sunday Happenings

Sundays are my favorite day of the week. It's a day of rest in our house and I love it! We began the day at church. It was my week to teach Sunday School so I went to the late service. Then we headed to Pizza Hut for lunch. After reading the newspapers and some of us taking naps, we headed outside to play. Abby loves to play outside and it was a little windy, but still nice. We bundled up and headed out. I think this will be her last summer with training wheels. I raised the training wheels as high as I could so they're real wobbly while she rides and she does so well. We'll have more time in the summer, and I'm sure with some help she'll be riding a two-wheeler!

Grace stayed bundled up in her car seat and laughed at her sister's antics.

We even got the roller skates out. They didn't last too long and for some reason she like being on the grass more than on the sidewalk. :)

What we've been up to...

We've had a pretty routine week. I was so excited about this! The past several weeks have had various activities and planned meetings, that I was happy to have a "normal" week. Here are the top five highlights of our week:
1. Grace received her USCIS Immigration Green Card. We need this in order to apply for her Certificate of Citizenship.
2. Abby flew a kite this week with Papa and Nana and it went very high in the air! Abby has also declared that Nana is her special friend. She loves spending time with my mom. I love that she loves Nana.
3. I spent Friday night with my SCAM group and I love these girls! We had another single mom join us and it was so fun. But we truly are getting quite big, there are lots of giggling kids.
4. I only had a four day week with my students. Friday was an inservice day and we were allowed to leave at 2pm. I love getting home early to be with the girls.
5. I didn't get out of bed until 7:45 this morning! I was awake around 7, but all I heard was the giggling of my daughters. They were awake and giggling with each other and it lasted for 45 minutes. It was the best sound ever.
Here are a few pictures of our week.
Just another smile from my precious girl!

Our SCAM group now has 8 kids, and there are 2 more on the way. What an amazingly cute group of kids!

Yeah! Kim has Nyah home!! And they are a great pair! We love you both!

Say Cheese!

Last week it was announced at work that I won a Teaching in Excellence Award. This is the same award I won last year. It's kind of a big deal among the teachers in my district. There are over 3500 teachers and the top 15 were chosen for this award. The top four will receive a huge award (last year it was an all expenses paid trip to the Caribbean). I honestly don't think I'll win that award, however, I would be willing to take the vacation, should it come my way! :)
The top four haven't been decided yet, but all 15 teachers got their awards today.
I was so shocked!! Last year we got a Visa gift card, a plaque, and a nice lunch out. This year was so much better! I got a new Flip Video Ultra (woohoo!), a plaque, and a digital picture frame! I've been playing with the flip video all night. I'm not really tech savvy, but this thing is cool. Abby's been making videos too. I'm also working on downloading lots of pictures onto the digital photo frame. What great gifts! You all better watch out because the next time you see me, I may be taking a video of you! :)

Grace belongs to Jesus!

Today was a great day!

Today Grace was baptized.

Today was the day I declared to all that I will teach Grace about God.

Today was the day that Grace was dedicated to my Lord. Today was the day that it was declared to all that Grace is engaged to know Jesus as her Savior.

Today was a great day!

It started out early. For some reason, neither of my two girls know that they are to sleep later than 6:30am. So we were up at at 'em early. We had to be at church early in order to meet the pastoral elder and get the order of worship. I was so concerned that Grace was going to be loud during the service. Because believe me, that girl has lungs!! But she was great. She did babble a little bit, but it wasn't at such a loud volume. We headed up for the baptism and my dad got to baptize her!! Isn't that fantastic!! It's his 8th grandchild that he baptized and it's just so much more special when it's your dad doing it. When I handed Grace over to dad, she just looked right at him and melted his heart with her big smile. The water didn't bother her either, I mean she was in the arms of her papa.

After the baptism, we headed to my parent's house for a feast. No joke, my mom can cook! My brother and his family joined us there and it was a great celebration. Later in the afternoon the girls and I headed outside for a long walk. Abby loves to ride her bike and has been begging for me to take her outside. Today was a beautiful day so we headed out. Then we parked ourselves in the front yard and Abby played with all her summer toys. She even pulled out the sidewalk chalk. With all the excitement of the morning and the exercise of the afternoon, both girls fell asleep by 7:00pm. Yeah, it's mommy time now. :)

Here are the cousins with baby Grace. They were all excited to see her again.

After all the excitement of the morning, and all the new faces looking at her, Grace fell asleep in her carseat. She was asleep before we even left the church parking lot.

My nephew Seth, wanted me to take a picture of his missing tooth. Isn't he such a cutie?

Even Abraham stayed home for the baptism this weekend. Grace adores Abraham!

Here we are. A beautiful family of 3. A family who belongs completely to our Jesus!

This is Grace Elisabeth. This beautiful girl who was a promise of God. This girl who will grow up to know about his love for her. This girl who is engaged to know him as her Lord and Savior. Isn't she just precious???

Who really listens to the doctor anyway???

When I took Grace to her first doctor visit, her doctor wanted me to keep her on formula for the next month. He wanted to see her growth and weight change with a diet of only formula. It's much more nutritious. He really didn't want to see her start cereal yet. I was so disappointed. I was really looking forward to the cereal, because it helps her sleep through the night.

Well....let's not tell the doctor. But cereal has became a part of her diet. In fact, she's loving it so much we have it in the morning and the evening. And she's sleeping through the night beautifully!
Whenever I put Grace into her highchair to eat, Abby is right there too. She loves to keep Grace entertained and she's such a helper. I just love these two girls!

When did this happen?

When did my daughter turn into a teenager? I found all these pictures taped to her bedroom door. She told me I wasn't allowed into her room while she was "creating". Who taught her to tape signs to her bedroom door and to ban your mother from your room? Seriously, who taught her? I'm placing blame on her cousins. :)

She loves to make new pictures and lately scotch tape has been her new best friend! She's taping pictures everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I went to bed last night and there was even a new picture taped to my nightstand.

The Lord's Prayer

This is a short video of Abby saying the Lord's prayer. She actually memorized it quite a while ago, but I finally got around to capturing it on video.

Settling In

I started back at work this week. I'm not going to lie. It was hard. Sometimes I wish God would send me an amazing Christian husband so I could be a stay-at-home mom. But until he decides to put that in His plan for my life, I'll continue to go to work. It honestly felt as though I never left work. I was able to pick up right where I left off. The kids were great, my substitute teacher did a great job and it was fun to be back with my teaching partners.
Grace is doing well. However, she's having trouble finding naps at my mom's house. She didn't nap at all on Monday and only got 20 minutes of nap on Tuesday. Today she was able to get a morning nap of an hour and a half. We're hopeful that every day it will get a little easier. She's also doing well at night. She usually sleeps 6-7 hours before needing a bottle. However, last night she woke up at 4:30am and didn't feel like going back to bed. So that meant mommy was awake at 4:30am too. I'm headed to bed early tonight so that I can catch a few winks before I have to do a night time feeding again. I can't wait until she sleeps through the night.
Abby continues to dote on Grace. She's making hats out of paper for Grace to wear and coloring pictures for her too. It's so fun to have girls who are getting along. I know it won't last forever, but I'm going to enjoy it for now. This is what was happening tonight in our home. Abby tied herself to Grace's bouncy seat and then tied it around her waist. She was pretending to be the horse and Grace was riding in the carriage. What an imagination!

Don't you just love this smile? It's one of my favorites, even when it happens at 4:30am.

What a cutie! How did I get so lucky as to have two beautiful daughters?

Meeting Her Namesake

So you all know her first name: Grace.
But, do you know her middle name?
It was chosen with care. It was chosen with love. It was chosen because I adore my sister.
Her name is Grace ELISABETH. She was named after my sister, and yes it's Elisabeth with an "s", not a "z". I absolutely love my sister and I couldn't think of a better way to honor her than to name my daughter after her.
We traveled down to visit with my sister and her family this weekend and had a great time. My brother and his family also traveled down. It was nice to have everyone together, which hasn't happened since New Years. This is a picture of my sister adoring Grace. It was so fun to introduce Grace to Beth and her family. They all adored her, but I wonder, does Grace even know how blessed she is to be related to this family? Does she know how amazing her aunt is? Does she know how much her aunt already loves her? Beth, if you're reading this, know that we love you!!!
Sophie, Lauren, Julia, Abby and Grace. Five peas in a pod!

A tight hug from her cousin Julia.

Lauren lavished love on Grace too!

Of course, after the newness of the baby was over, the kids headed outside to play. Then it was time for Popsicles!

For These Children, I Have Prayed

and aren't they adorable! God sure outdid himself when he created these two! Things here are going great. I'm feeling much better. The doctor visits are almost done (one more tomorrow). The mountain of laundry is done. The suitcases are packed away. And these two girls giggle at each other every day. Ahh...life is good!

We are home and a family of 3!

After 25 hours of traveling we made it home yesterday around 5:30pm. I was exhausted. As soon I stopped moving, it hit me like a semi-truck! Today we went to the doctor. She weighs 14 pounds. She started her rounds of immunizations. She needs to start at the beginning with everything. My Dad woke up this morning and felt fine. I however, am another story. I am so tired and I woke up with the chills and a fever. After the doctor appointment, my amazing mom took Grace home for a little while so I could rest. Abby was so upset that she couldn't be with her sister that she decided to stay with mom too. Abby truly has done so well! She's loving on Grace all the time. She just wants to hold her hand and kiss her and bring her whatever she needs. It's really going well. Thanks so much for all your prayers. We're loving life as a family of three!