RENEE:

MARIE:

Today (Saturday) was a long day, but a good one. Our church moved to a new location, just a few minutes from our house! No more razor wire and dumpsters in the parking lot, or insects crawling in our toy bins ... or walls and roofs collapsing ... or a host of other difficulties that we had at our former meeting place. I can't tell you how vast of an improvement this is. Most of our family has visited our church at the old location, so I thought they'd like to see the new place. Our first service there is tomorrow, and both of our girls are being dedicated on July 6th.

Logo when you walk in.




Renee playing with the boys in the toddler room. Of course, these boys are not toddlers, but they love Renee and were so helpful by taking care of her today while I worked in the nursery and toddler room.




Toddler bathroom. I know most of you are not interested in a bathroom, but I'm very excited about this one :-)




Toddler room!!! This was my pet project for the past several months, with lots of help of course.




Another one of the toddler room.

Sanctuary. Clara/Gabe/Sam playing around.




Roger in the foyer.




Marie hiding in an ottoman. She missed her nap today and was just plain loopy.




Library.




Mingling area. Sanctuary doors just beyond.

Pastor Ken's office.


That's it.

Messy house / Tired toddler. This is what our house looks like pretty much every day at 1pm - right before naptime. Marie has taken all of the pillows off of the couches, we've made a cave out of chairs and blankets, and the contents of two toy boxes are on the living room floor. Awesome. It's especially bad on "No-TV Days." Marie would watch movies all day long if I let her. No playing = no messes! Not a bad plan!



You can't see the kitchen in this video, but we made pizza this morning, and while I was talking to Aunt Carissa on the phone Marie decided that she would "help" by stirring the dough mixture a little bit more. So the floor was covered in flour/yeast/sugar/salt. I walked in and she said, "I was just trying to help, Mommy." If she thinks I might be upset with her she either says, "I was just trying to help" or "I'm just a little girl."

Marie LOVES Renee. I'm so glad that my mom will be here next week to see them together at this age - because I don't know how long this complete love for her sister will last. Hopefully longer than I think. She's loves to pick out her outfits, fetch me burp cloths and diapers and try to discern what type of mood Renee is in (tired, hungry, fussy, happy). Usually she gets it right, which is the neat part. Today she pointed out to me that I need to do laundry because all of the burp cloths are dirty and Renee needs them if she spits up.

A couple of weeks ago we were eating lunch and Marie randomly prayed for another baby - a brother - and she asked that his name would be Graham (the boy name we had picked out during the last pregnancy). So cute. Sorry, we don't make XY babies.

Well, time to finish cleaning up tornado alley. Have a great weekend!

I'm mildly obsessed with Chuck Norris quotes. Joel enjoys them, too.

CHUCK NORRIS...

and Mr. T walked into a bar. The bar was instantly destroyed as that level of Awesomeness cannot be contained in one building.

can gargle peanut butter.

CAN touch MC Hammer.

doesn't believe in Germany.

doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

finished singing the song that never ends.

destroyed the periodic table, because he only recongizes the element of surprise.

is the only man ever to defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis.

can kill two stones with one bird.

is currently suing NBC, claiming that Law and Order are trademarked names for his right and left legs.

invented black. In fact, he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Tom Cruise invented pink.

has cowboy boots made from real cowboys.

sleeps with a pillow under his gun.

can't love. He can only not kill.

CAN believe it's not butter.

beat the sun in a staring contest.

ordered a Whopper at McDonald's and he got one.

can blow bubbles with beef jerkey.

knows the last digit of pi.

has already been to Mars. That's why there are no signs of life there.

once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger by yelling "Bang!"

doesn't own an oven or a microwave. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

can speak Braille.

can hit you so hard that it can actually alter your DNA. Decades from now your descendents will occasionally clutch their heads and yell "What the heck was that?!"

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If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.

Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.

Light tries to beat the speed of Chuck Norris.

Tornados do not exist. Chuck Norris just hates trailer parks.

When taking the SAT, write "Chuck Norris" for every answer. You'll score over 8000.

A Klondike bar would do anything for Chuck Norris.

What goes through the minds of Chuck Norris's victims before they die? His shoe.

FREE Thomas Wooden Engine (up to 12.99 value) at Toys R Us HERE. Expires 7/05/08.

Thanks Mags!

Joel with the girlies. Marie's wearing a new dress purchased in China by my dear friend Maggie Hoppe during her many world travels. Maggie is currently a resident of Singapore. Isn't it cute? Renee is wearing the matching shoes. We haven't purchased the girls any matching outfits, but Marie enjoys it when they wear their matching socks from Aunt Carissa - and now the shoes from Miss Hoppe.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause the playlist to listen to the video. Marie jabbers when she can't think of the answer to a question. Sometimes she'll jabber for a few minutes and then answer when she finally thinks of it. Kind of funny.

Here are a few of Marie swimming at Lucy's neighborhood pool this past weekend. It was really fun because she got to use her armbands and could swim in the deep all by herself (with a parent close, of course). At our pool they don't allow anything inflatable (including armbands), so she is kind of limited to the toddler pool unless we're holding her. We are really enjoying our YMCA membership, though. I'll have to take some photos next time we go. They have a really neat little fountain play area for the kids. There's a water tunnel they can run through and all different types of sprays for different ages.

Fun!

Renee observing.



The girls are really starting to play together well. We were at Lucy's house the other day, and could hear them fighting about something over the intercom. I ran upstairs to break up the fight, but by the time I got up there, they had worked it out themselves and were discussing who would get what. And Lucy was giving her a tour of her room. They didn't know that I was watching them, and it was just really nice to know that they can play all by themselves and I don't need to be a "helicopter parent" all of the time. Although I still need to work on not hovering so much.

I was too lazy to change Renee into her swimsuit and get both of us all wet, so we observed Joel playing with the girls.



Here they are in the deep water, doing great.

We purchased "The Jungle Book" recently, and I thought it was really strange how the voices sounded so similar to the characters in "Winnie the Pooh". So, I checked out the cast - and voila! I'm not losing my mind!

the casts of
Jungle Book
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Kaa = Winnie the Pooh
Mowgli = Christopher Robin
Bagheera = The Narrator on Winnie the Pooh
Junior = Roo

Sterling Holloway does the voice for all of these characters:
Winnie the Pooh

Kaa, Jungle Book

Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland

Mr. Stork, Dumbo
Flower, Bambi

Roquefort, Aristocats

Narrator, Peter & the Wolf

Well, that's the extent of my research for the day. But here's a neat little video about him on YouTube.

And, yes, I do consider this a waste of time during my daughters' naps, but it was fun and I got to eat candy while doing it. Eating candy is good for my emotional well-being. And it's Friday. So there.

Sitting down to a nice meal with friends:

Have I mentioned how much I love my husband recently? I noticed after I woke up today that he brought his toothbrush and toothpaste downstairs this morning so that he wouldn't wake me up by turning on the light in our bathroom. It's the little things.

Yesterday Marie and I were playing with glue and glitter, and I kept getting frustrated with her because she was accidentally touching the glue (heaven forbid) and I had made some pretty spectacular designs that I didn't want her to smudge up. After repeatedly showing her how to sprinkle the glitter a good distance above the paper, so as to not smear my amazing glueriffic artwork, she did it again. I snapped at her rather rudely to which she replied, "Mommy, I'm just a little girl." Aaaahhh. Am I the worst person in the world? Why can't I just relax and let her be 2?

And one more thing: We played "Does it sink or float?" this morning. Super fun and easy to clean up. M&M's and crayons sink, by the way.

Man, I've been post-happy the past couple of days. I'm sure that my mom is enjoying it, though :-) Since she's the only one who reads this blog. It's all for you, Momma D.

Anyway, I thought this Joel-quote was pretty funny the other night.
"Remember when we gave Marie meatballs for the first time, and she totally went after them? It was at that moment that I knew: No paternity test needed."

It's so true, though. Daddy likes them meatballs.

In other news, Congratulations Dustin & Molly Asher!

Molls was my roommate in college sophomore and senior year (or was it my 2nd senior year?). I was on the five year plan. Anyhow, she was definitely instrumental in my born-againness, and for that, and her friendship, I am very grateful. Not to mention she's one of the funniest chicas you will ever meet.

Having fun w/Marie today:

Might be TMI for some of you:

For the past week Renee has made all of her poopies on the potty. No, that was not a typo. Renee (our infant) poops on the potty. It started early last week when she hadn't gone in over a day (which is unusual for her). She usually goes when she's sitting on my lap, and she started kind of straining like she needed to go. I thought, "Hey, I'll save myself from having to change a dirty diaper!", so I just sat her on the potty and let her do her business there. Worked like a charm. Every evening since then I've set her on the potty after her last feeding and she has gone - no problem. Peepeed a little, too. Now who knows if this will continue into toddlerhood, but I'm pretty happy to say that I am the mother of a 2 year old and a 4 month old, and have not changed a poopy diaper in a week! Awesome.

Apparently in a lot of other cultures, where they do not have the luxury of disposable diapers, children are potty trained right off the bat. My dear friend, Maggie, who recently traveled to Tibet showed me photos of Tibetan children (and infants) wearing pants with holes in the bottom. No diapers period from day 1 there, I guess.

Here is an article about potty training infants. No, I don't think I'll go off the deep end and do what these people are suggesting, but it is interesting and now I believe that it CAN be done. There's a bit of a movement among mostly stay-at-home moms to start doing this. I suppose it's good for the environment and spares you the hassle of potty training a strong-willed toddler.

just a few. renee had her first haircut yesterday courtesy of mommy. i couldn't stand the mullet any longer. i cut off maybe 1.5 inches just in the back and she looks so much better now. that hair was preventing me from loving her. just kidding :-) but she really does look cute now. it's amazing what cutting off a mullet will do for a baby.

marie's hair + humidity = ubercute.



we were both tired. it was late.

found her toes!




this one isn't from father's day, but i will say that joel had a happy day. we went to chili's for dinner. marie gave him a t-ball set that they can play with together. i got him a pair of crocs, which he's been wanting for a while. he's a stellar daddy and husband and we love him so much. and he's pretty good-lookin' if i do say so myself. he'll probably make me delete that.

joelisms:

"But you've gotta ask yourself one question: if she wasn't your baby, would you still think she was cute?"

"The only bill that Obama initiated as a senator was to make the word "change" a proper noun with a capital 'C' [paraphrased]."

FLASHBACK:

Ada and Renee meeting for the first time in June 2008


Marie and Naomi meeting for the first time in May 2006

Renee smiling in June 2008
Marie smiling in June 2006




Renee in the Johnny Jump Up in June 2008

Marie in the Johnny Jump Up in June 2006




Tim & Joel holding each other's daughters in June 2008

Tim & Joel holding each other's daughters in May 2006
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More from Tim, Carissa & Ada's visit this past week:

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And a few others because I took them and feel the need to post excessive amounts of photos: