Thanksgiving 2011

Last night we invited some of our Thai friends to our house to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. We did not have some things, like yams and mashed potatoes. Despite missing some food items, our stomachs were satisfied. Our hearts were also satisfied through fellowship with our friends.

Our decorated Thanksgiving table. (We borrowed two tables and chairs from
the church.)

Thanksgiving centerpiece

Our food table, though not everything was out yet...

Homebaked rolls

Four homemade pumpkin pies

Our Thanksgiving guests

From the other end of the table...

Robbie was the cook for our Thanksgiving and everything tasted wonderful. I was more behind the scenes, washing dishes, cleaning the floor, and keeping our girls occupied. We had a really great Thanksgiving, and have SO much to be thankful for!

Listening In...

Hope was pretending to talk on the phone today and I listened in and wrote down what she was saying.

"There's nothing to be afraid of..."
"might receive it from P'Gop..."
"No, no, no, we're going to persevere that! Because I'm learning..."
"Oh, ya, ya, ya, we would. It's a little bit of a concern."
"Just a minute, I'll call you back."
"I was just seeing if a call was answering the phone."
"P'Gop, there's nothin'. I have a little basket, if you want to see my little basket."
"No, we don't have a prost, we just have a gargen. (Sometimes she makes up words)."
"There's nothing to worry about."
"That's beautiful if you say hi to me."
"No, not all the time. That would be frame..."
"There's no one to be afraid."
"Bye, bye-bye. Miss you. Bye-bye."

The First Egg

Two days ago, we heard our female chicken making some sounds like she might be announcing the arrival of an egg. So, after getting dressed we all went out and had a search for the egg. We never found one.

Yesterday, we decided on some names for all three (finally!). The female is Lady, and the two males are Gentleman and Rogue.

This afternoon, Robbie saw that Lady and one of the males were in their coop. He didn't think anything of it for a little while. Then, he decided that maybe he should check in the egg box, just in case. He opened it up and there was this perfect little white egg.

beside the knife for perspective on size

beautiful white and yolk

and it tasted wonderful!

Catching Up

I know that it has been quite a while since I have posted on here. Life is meant to be lived, not just written about. And if I am not living then what am I going to write about?

Our days have been spent eating breakfast (while I do dishes), playing, reading books, learning to read books, playing, eating lunch (while I do more dishes), playing, nap and quiet time, reading more books, eating dinner, bathtime, bedtime worship, and lights out. Intermixed with all of this are the time-outs, disciplinary actions, hugs, kisses, pinches, pulls, pushes, friendly pats, and attempts to train these girls up in the way they should go. I pray that all of my mistakes will be overwhelmed by the grace of God.

Scrunchie face 

Hope is chillin'

Trying on a shoe

Wrestling

Setting the Table

Hope set the table a couple nights ago. Here are the results:

Robbie's place setting

Kelli's place setting

Hope's place setting

When setting table

Upside down for others fine

Make own place perfect.

Accident-Prone Much?

Haven bonked the corner of her eye on a door-jam last week.

Then she skinned her knee.

Yesterday she slammed her cheek into the edge
of a headboard.

And today she has a black eye from that slammed cheek... and she
slammed the other cheek on the cement.

Hopefully she grows out of this phase soon. I don't know how many more injuries I can handle, but she is one tough girl!

In The Kitchen Tonight

Last night, Robbie suddenly had the feeling of being covered in spiderwebs. He frantically tried to get them off, and then looked around and saw this...

This is no teeny-tiny spider. This is a monster spider. Robbie tried to zap it with our bug-zapper, but it was only shocked and scurried into hiding beneath our refrigerator. So, the hunt was put on hold...

Tonight I saw it again while giving Hope her bath. I saw it, and then when I turned around again, it had disappeared. So, somewhere in the kitchen tonight is a huge monster spider. I get the heebie-jeebies just thinking about standing out there barefoot to do the dishes.

Rollercoaster

Hope wanted to take some pictures "on the roller-coaster."

Her hair remained untouched and she seemed unbothered by the speed. :) She wasn't even buckled in! I guess it's a good thing the roller-coaster is just a photo background...

Fifteen Months

No, that's not a real potato...

This is the best picture that I could get of Haven during our short attempt. Actually, the real reason I was shooting pictures today was because I wanted to document the "owie" on her right cheek. She was attempting to lay down on Hope's pillow, and smacked her cheek very sharply against the corner of the headboard. It bruised immediately. You can't see it all to clearly here because this was taken after icing the bruise for a little while.

At fifteen months, Haven is quite the talker. I haven't even counted how many words she says, but she knows so many.

She is walking and trying to go faster than a walk sometimes, resulting in her first skinned knee last week.

She is accident-prone. Her face has been more banged up than any other part of her body recently. Poor girl. I think she's learning from her stumbles and falls though.

I weighed her again today. I actually weigh her quite often, because I have been concerned about her weight gain... Maybe I should back off on it a little bit. Anyway, she has finally hit the 18 lb. mark for the first time! Yay for weight gain. She's slowly but steadily putting on the poundage...

She definitely has a different personality than her big sister. I can see her own funny, loving, independent and strong-willed spirit emerging more and more as she is growing. Every month brings new accomplishments and challenges. Right now I think she is getting more teeth :)

Fifteen months! My how the time just keeps flying by...

Three Little Birds

I wake up each morning
Smile at the rising sun
Three little birds are by my doorstep...
but they don't sing sweet songs.
Instead, two of them have crowing competitions...