Miss Hadleigh Claire is 3.2

This past month has been very eventful for the little miss. She has been consistently dressing from head to toe in the morning. This is such a fun activity and I am so happy about this achievement! She loves to have a say about what she is going to wear which can occassionally become painful, but we are trying our best to minimize this. She seems to know which shirts are for school and which socks are for church. This can be helpful but also painful as you can imagine.

Another milestone is that she can climb into her carseat and buckle herself in. Yea! This is such a fabulous skill to possess. Both the dressing and the buckling came with a lot of practice. One of her favorite phrases the past couple months is "I can't", and I have heard this is a common 3 year old phrase. We have been able to switch out "I can't do it" with "I can do it!" After each accomplishment we exclaim (with great joy and excitement) "I CAN DO IT." She loves to say this now...and I love to hear it!Miss HC has begun memorizing scripture verses. This is super fun, although sometimes I have to get REALLY creative about how I explain them to her. She has memorized Colossians 3.20, Psalms 34.15-16, and Psalms 115.1. I love hearing her say the little verses. While searching the web for some resources on Family Worship I stumbled onto John Piper's website. He has a verse for every week that his congregation memorizes, and we thought that was a decent place to start. I had the Bible verses ABC book, but it just seems silly to have HC memorize things like "Jesus wept" when I know she can do a more complete thought. Anyway, we are going to work on Psalm 34 for a while and see what we can come up with. It might be too hard, but so far we are all enjoying it.

I have also been working hard at trying to know and understand HC. I am reading the book "Nurture by Nature" and I think it has been helpful in helping me identify HC's little personality (the book walks through the Myers Briggs Types...ENFP, etc). It has been a fun book to read and tool to help me think through how HC responds in different situations and how that comes from who she is. I love using the Myers Briggs, so it is helpful for me to think in those terms.

OK, that is about all I have to say re the little miss. You can see from some of the pictures that she has a new unique way of smiling for the camera. It usually involves looking off into the distance and smiling. You can see in the picture above that she is showing off the panda stamps she got at the zoo.

Berlin is My City

Here is a link that you must watch when you have 15 minutes to spare. We have written before about our dear friends David and Eowyn, who have been working in Berlin for almost 10 years. David was the bestman in our wedding, and also baptized Hadleigh Claire while we were living in Germany. They are dear friends, and we care deeply for their work.

The Elf is 18 Months

Can it truly be May already? On Saturday our little elf turned 18 months old. It continues to be a treat to be around Annelise. She is always full of hugs and kisses and cuddles.

Sometimes I think I treat Annelise like a puppy as I show off her little tricks, but for the most part Annelise shows off her tricks on her own. She loves giving waves and blowing kisses to all who pass. Last week applied for her passport and she completely charmed the man who took her passport picture.

If you ask Annelise a question requiring a yes or no answer she will always answer. She gives one big nod for yes and will shake her head for no. This definitely helps with communication, but also leads to some tantrums. For example it will be obvious that she wants something so I will begin to ask her about the different things, "Annelise do you want your sunglasses?" I receive a big shake no..."do you want your cup of milk?"...a big shake no..."do you want Dada's hammer?"...a big nod yes..."I am so sorry sweet girl, you cannot have Dada's hammer", and then she will throw herself on the floor. I actually took a video of one of her tantrums the other day since I know that folks like Christy just cannot even fathom that my sweet little Annelise could throw a tantrum. But the video is over a minute and kinda painful. After watching it again I thought it might seem a little heartless that instead of comforting my obviously distressed daughter I was taking a video of her. It is somewhat impossible to comfort Annelise when she is in a mood like that, but in any case I decided not to post and let your imagination take you away with the idea. We usually have at least one day which is kind of annoying, but I hope will pass with time.

She is becoming much more independent. I have noticed when we are at a playground she will climb up the steps and come down the slide all by herself. We went to one of those places that have a lot of bouncy inflatables and Annelise absolutely LOVED every second. She would crawl into one of the enclosed inflatables and lie down on her back while everyone was jumping around her. I think she like being bounced by someone else. There was also a big inflatable slide, and she loved that I would sling her up and sit her on the top of it (the top was way above my head, I could barely reach it with my hands extended above me) and then she would slide down by herself.

Annelise is quite a destroyer. She is rough and tumble and sometimes I feel like she is dangerous! The other day she completely tore a board book apart. How does that happen? I am glad that she is so different from Hadleigh because it is fun to see her becoming her own little person with her own big personality. It makes life fun and interesting and never dull. She is still my little mischevious elf.

Working

I know, I need to post some pictures of our new and improved living room. But until then, here is a pic of Annelise helping Dave put together a fab piece of Ikea furniture. It was PAINFUL to put together, and they actually gave him some wrong hardware, so he had to go back and get the right stuff...but it looks awesome up! Below is a video of the girls...which I think is super funny. Annelise just LOVES when HC wakes up from her nap!

Yummy Recipes

You do not know me well if you do not know that I LOVE to cook. I just love it. I would cook all day if someone was there to eat, and if someone would clean up after me (I tend to be a really messy chef). Dave loves to cook too, and he is actually a much better cook than I am. We enjoy trying new recipes and new foods and new combinations, so there is always some funky food nights at our home.

I usually make at least one new recipe a week, which is super fun, but recently we have been trying a lot of new recipes, and I was thinking I would be happy to share. For the last three weeks we have been eating mostly vegetarian which has been a blast. We are working on Dave's cholesterol, and I am anxious to see what kind of result it will have, but we are also trying to loose some extra pounds and just be more healthy in general.

I also hosted my neighborhood's Bunco night last night. This is SO super fun, and my neighborhood is awesome. I am SO thankful that the Lord directed us to this house and this neighborhood. It is not at all what we thought we wanted, but it is everything that we needed and had no idea. Our neighborhood is very active and fun and loves to be together. We have several organized parties a year, cook outs, egg hunts, Christmas parties, etc. There is a great wide range of age groups, so we have some older retirees, we have some mid-lifers, and we have some young families with lots of kids. At least 6 families have children under 6, and I love getting to know these other families and children. Anyway, once a month some of the women get together for food, drinks and a little Bunco (really it is more about hanging out, but Bunco is a fun game/activity). We rotate and every month someone else hosts, which is fun because everyone has their own unique personality and style which comes out, of course, in their home, but also in the food they choose to prepare.

For my Bunco night I brought a little European flare with some yummy crepes! We had Chicken, Mushroom and Asparagas Crepes, Mushroom Crepes with Poblano Chile Sauce, Jam-Filled Crepes, and Caramel, Pecan Crepes. Oh there is nothing healthy about any of these crepes, but they are super yummy and a fun splurge. I used the basic crepe recipe from "Joy of Cooking". What a fab basic cookbook, a must have for every kitchen. The nice thing about crepes is although folks tend to think of them as a lot of work (and they can be), they can be done in stages. Fab! So I made all the crepes (a stack of sweet and a stack of savory) on Thursday night. I have two crepe pans which makes it super easy. I also cut up all my veggies on Thursday night. Then on Friday morning I made the filling for the CMA crepes and the MPC crepes. I could also assemble the MPC crepes, which I did. So, 30 minutes before everyone arrived, I filled the CMA crepes and threw them in the oven. I grated cheese over the MPC crepes and threw them in the oven and I was basically set. AWESOME!

I also wanted to link to a couple fun vegetarian recipes. I will say, it is a little frustrating to eat healthy because it is more expensive. I hate that I can feed my family for less when I buy processed foods as opposed to whole foods. Irritating! I do clip coupons and it is helpful for some things (detergents, toilte paper...I got tooth paste the other week for $.75 a tube), but what about coupons for chicken, 7% fat ground beef, vegetables and fruits. I do a lot to keep costs down, I make my own chicken broth and use dried beans, I buy block cheese, but...it is hard! Anyway, that was an aside...here are some fun recipes.

Roast Chicken Breast with Garbanzo Beans, Tomatoes and Paprika I know, you are thinking, wait I thought she said vegetarian. I love this recipe with the chicken, but it is equally as good without the chicken (also a note, I do not use as much evoo as they call for in the recipe, and I use non-fat plain yogurt for the sauce). Serve this over rice...AMAZING!

Shepherd's Pie This was super yummy too, although Dave was extremely bummed that I did not include lamb. Next time!

OK, happy, healthy cooking!

Speaking of Britain...

OK, I have watched this several times and decided it was just too good not to post. You MUST watch this. It is a video of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent.

Now that you have recovered from that, you can give a little help. We have been working on our living room. So fun! Thankfully Uncle Sam gave us a lot of our money back this year, so we have had some cash we never expected to have. Kinda nice, kinda irritating too (wish I had not given it to him in the first place, but ah well). So, we bought a desk, which is beautiful. It came last weekend and I have been working on getting it all organized and getting all of my things out of the "man room". This past weekend we had some fun at Ikea. We bought an overhead light for the living room, which is SUPER fun. I was skeptical, but Dave has a great eye and great ideas, so despite my protests he put it up and I love it. We also purchased a sideboard, so now all of my china is out of boxes and in its own place (and all those boxes are sitting in recycling). Yea! This is the first time I have seen my china in 2.5 years, since we moved back here from Germany. I do use my china, but when it is all packaged up, why would I dig it out? Anyway, I am looking forward to using it this weekend. Dave is working on editing a few pictures for us to put up on the walls. These are the ones from London that we are considering. I only want one from London (only because London holds no good memories for me since I was prego with HC and vomitting during our time there). So let me know which one you think is the best.

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Our Neighborhood

Our neighborhood is awesome. I totally love it, and am so thankful for where we live (although it was painful to get here). We have a very active neighborhood which is super fun. The women have been getting together once a month for appetizers and drinks...yes we also play Bunco...which actually is fun. I am actually hosting everyone next week. I am a little nervous, but I am sure it will be fab and everyone will excuse all the projects going on around here...or at least all the projects that should be going on around here. =0

We also have several neighborhood gatherings throughout the year, one of which is an Easter egg hunt. We actually attended this event last year (because we were in contract with our house). This year was actually freezing! It was 46, but the sun did make an appearance. It had rained everyday that week, but managed to stop for our Sunday egg hunt. We had a great time. Hadleigh was able to dye some eggs, and then they ran around yards to find eggs stuffed with candy. Of course we swapped out the candy for a more healthy treat of Teddy Grahams. Either way they are obsessed with having 1 egg in the morning and 1 egg in the afternoon. I am nervous for the day when they figure out I am throwing all the candy away!

Children's Museum

Recently we have received a LOT of rain. It seems a bit extreme to me, but then again, any weather beyond sunshine can seem extreme to me. It is my good CA upbringing. I can handle not seeing the sun for 2 days, by day 3 I begin to go crazy. I still have no idea how I managed to live in Baumholder for so long!

Anyway, it has rained a LOT here in the last 3 weeks. So a couple weeks ago, when it was raining again on a Friday, we headed to the Children's Museum. We had a great time! Hadleigh loved playing with the trains, and would have stayed there all day if we had let her. Annelise enjoyed looking at everything, especially all the balls that went "round and round" in the tracks above our heads. They painted, they played in moon sand (which is super cool), and sat on a tractor. I mean, does it get any cooler?

Miss Hadleigh Claire is 3.1

3.1, three years and one month. Hadleigh Claire is three and all its glory. There are some wonderful things about being three. She is much more verbal and is beginning to communicate funny things. Yesterday she touched me her cold hands (just like Dave does) and then proceeded to inform me that "I am funny!" It was pretty funny, especially since I had no idea what she was doing until I felt her cold hands on my side. I then realized she is picking up little jokes from her dada.

HC chatters on about a lot of things. She always wants to know what I am doing/making/going. When we go for walks we talk about the flowers, trees, clouds, cars, puppies, etc. She asks about her friends and what we will be doing/where we will be going on any certain day.

Recently HC has done a fab job of sharing. This is quite an answer to prayer because (surprise, surprise) sharing is an issue in our family. Lately I will give HC two crackers, or grapes, or whatever and ask her to keep one for herself and give one to Annelise. She has done a great job of listening and obeying and joyfully giving to Annelise. She has also begun giving her 1/2 of her macaroni noodle, or 1/2 her cheerios. I do not care what she is sharing, I am just glad that she is sharing this week. And I hope that we can continue to cultivate that desire in her...let's be honest, even adults do not like to share all the time.

I have realized more and more how much HC and I are alike...poor girl! Sometimes it makes it easier for me to understand the battle she has with her will, and sometimes it makes me more frustrated than ever. It is such a hard/humbling thing to be responsible for a child. We want her to be a good, well-rounded, adjusted child, and we hope that when she is 25 she will not act like a 3-year old (as we have met some who do), so how do you get that end result? It continually takes me to the Lord in prayer. Whenever we have a discipline issue, we pray and ask that God will give Hadleigh strength to obey Mama and that God will give Mama strength to obey God. That is a hard prayer to pray, but I want her to know that it is always hard to obey. Ultimately we are not under our own authority, but under someone elses...our parents, a boss, a teacher, the governement. We have to learn to submit and obey even when we do not want to, or do not understand...and it is the same way with God's authority. We are under it, and we must learn to love and value the authority in our life.

In HC's Sunday school class they have been using John Piper's curriculum Desiring God for toddlers. They have learned the song, "My God is so great, so strong and so mighty there is nothing my God cannot do..." I never really cared for that song, but it has been fun to use it to talk about God with Hadleigh. We have been reading the "Jesus Storybook Bible" (which is FAB and a must-have) every night with Hadleigh. In each story it seems that we are able to talk about how God is great and strong and mighty, he saved Daniel from the lions, he rescued the Israelites from Goliath, etc. I'll ask HC, "Why did God do that?" and she can respond because God is great, and so mighty.

HC is doing a great job with her chores. She is able to empty the clean silverware into the drawer without any help. While she does it, she gives a running commentary, "that is a little spoon." She also helps me put her clothes away in the dresser. She is a fab little worker. Dave and I have been talking about how we need to encourage her as she does these things. We want her to know that as she helps us she is blessing our family. We know the day will come when she doesn't WANT to do these chores, so we want to build up in her a sense of ownership.

With summer nearing I am thinking more about the pool. I would really like for Hadleigh to take some lessons this year. I would actually really like to teach her myself, but I think she might work better with someone else. We will see, we might do a little of both.

The Elf is 17 Months

It is true, Annelise is now 17 months old which is incredibly hard to believe. She is quite a little rascal and seems to have grown up quite a bit this past month, and everyone seems to notice how much she has grown.

Last week in nursery, she needed a diaper change (she will tell you, "poopoo" while pointing to her diaper), and after the diaper change the worker put her back down on the floor to play and Annelise turned to Hakima and said "Thank you". What a polite little girl I have!

She has quite a vocabulary of words and uses them often. I am not going to list them for you because only 4 people care (her grandparents) and I will just call them and tell them myself. She is a girl who knows what she wants and has been really resistant to using any sign language. We finally broke through and she will now sign "please" when she wants something. THat is her only sign, otherwise she points and uses words.

We have also entered the world of tantrums. Yea, for us. I think I can count the number of tantrums that Hadleigh had on one hand, so this is new territory for us. She will slowly lower herself to the floor while making a fuss, and when I walk to other room, she will get up and follow me and slowly lower herself to the floor in that room. It actually really makes me laugh. It is hard/impossible to distract her from what she wants, so we just wait for it to pass. Or if it is really bad, I will put her in her crib until she calms down. Her tantrums generally revolve around food (she will see something out on the counter, or in the cupboard) and REALLY want it, or it revolves around brushing her teeth (as in she wants to brush them all the time).

She loves people and whenever we are out she waves to everyone. It is super sweet. She is very affectionate too, and gives lots of hugs and kisses and cuddles and we just LOVE that. We are a very affectionate family, so it would be almost impossible to be one of us and not like hugs and kisses.

This month she had two rounds of pink eye. She came down with it first, and then she passed it to HC, and then HC passed it back. Currently both girls are on drops...I am going to rid this household of pink eye!

I think that Annelise is going to be our naked child. I have heard most households have at least one. The last two mornings we have gone to get her up she has managed to get out of her pajamas...what a feat!

I was asking the nursery worker about her the other day about how Annelise is in her class. I wasn't sure if she was really clingy, or independent. She seems to have a little of both. She wants to go out on her own and then come back to someone who will hold her. That seems to jive with what we have observed about her. At playgroup she can hold her own with HC and all HC's friends (all the kids are either a year younger or 1-2 years older) which is fun to see. And it seems that some of the playgroup friends are noticing Annelise as a friend and not just a baby.

I am getting a lot more questions about the girls being twins. I think because Annelise now looks more like a little girl, and when they are sitting in the stroller they seem to be the same size. I still find it fairly obvious that they are not, but whatev.

The other day I was helping HC do something in the playroom. When we were finished I realized I did not know where Annelise was and I could not hear her (BAD NEWS). I began walking around the house calling her name (of course she does not answer yet) and when I went into the family room I saw her in a little corner holding a Christmas bag. She had put her sippy cup in the bag and was drinking from it. HILARIOUS!

I recently posted a couple videos of Annelise on my facebook page, so if you have not checked that out, it is super cute and you need to.

News...

I have been slacking on the blog front. Ugh! So I will give a bit of a decent update on our happenings.

At the beginning of March, Dave and I went away for a weekend...that is right, Dave and I...no children! Dave had his 10 year reunion from dental school, so we flew up to Memphis and had a fun weekend connecting with old friends (or Dave connected with old friends and I met new friends). We rented a BMW convertible 1 series (at Dave's request), and had a fun time driving around Memphis. The weekend was jammed packed, so we did not have any time to ourselves, but it was still nice to be away and sleep in! A couple of our good buds kept the girls for us, and they all had a blast.

I was able to attend Intown's women's retreat this year. I actually did not take any pics (lame), but I did have a fun time. My good bud, Steph and I drove up together and roomed together and since kiddos we do not get to spend a lot of time together, so it was great to reconnect over an extended period of time. It is always fun to connect with new women and reconnect with friends I do not get to see often. It is funny, I actually did not care for the speaker during the retreat, but I have found myself considering some of the things she said in the weeks since. So, it was definitely worth while and I am so happy that I went! That means I have been childless for 3 weekends in the last 6 months (I was able to attend the singles' retreat last fall because Dave stayed home with the girls). I am also looking forward to a girls weekend in May with a couple college buddies! It is great to take advantage of the girls being in a non-needy-mama phase.

On other travel news, we are really excited because this summer we are going on a mission trip to Belize. THE WHOLE FAM! We are so thankful for Mission to the World (the sending agency of the PCA) because they are making it super easy for us to take our 3 year old and (will be) 20 month old on this trip. This is the beginning of a big dream that Dave and I have had for our family. Our ultimate goal is to be able to go overseas for up to a month at a time. Dave can do dentistry and the girls and I can do...whatever. We can help with anything else that anyone else needs help with. This trip will hopefully be the first of many trips we take as a family. We hope that we will always care about all kinds of people, and that we will continue to learn and remember that the world is bigger than our little corner. I cannot wait to get Annelise her passport, and take HC to her 11th country.

The girls are still doing a fab job of sleeping together. I know, I am a lucky sack! They are not napping together, although I am beginning to think we might be able to start doing that in the next month or so. We will see. They are learning to sleep through each others issues (I just ran upstairs because HC was calling for me to change her diaper and A slept through the whole thing). It is also nice because when they wake up in the morning they are entertaining each other, so I have been able to wait to get them out of bed until 7.30. That is a major change from my previous 5.30 wake-up calls! I am still getting up around 6, but it is nice to be able to work-out, check email, and take a shower all before the girls get-up.

Last update is about my garden! It is coming along nicely. I have my little starters , and am hoping Dave will get a chance to build the garden bed in the next couple of weeks, so I can actually plant them in the ground. My compost pile is looking amazing, and it is SO super fun to do. I really hope I can keep it all up, we will see what the spring brings.

Night 7

Last night as Dave and I were eating dinner he turned to me and said, "It is 7 o'clock." I was confused about the comment, but then realized it was 7 and I was not hearing a sound come from upstairs. Yea! We have arrived, the girls are doing a great job of being in the room together and it is so wonderful.

This morning Annelise woke up early, cried for about 5 minutes and then went back to sleep without waking up Hadleigh. Sweet!

They are still getting up around 7, which is a blessing. I love having a little later morning, though once I get over this cold I am going to start getting up with Dave again. I lost my voice on Friday and I would REALLY like to find it again! And feeling better would be nice too.

Night Two

Last night as Dave and I were climbing in bed I noted one thing for sure: Hadleigh is an extrovert and Annelise is an introvert. Of course I could be wrong, but after the happenings of the last two nights I feel mostly certain.

The girls went into bed at 6 last night, after some worship songs and prayer (I think Annelise loves this part, and was even quiet as we prayed). We encouraged Hadleigh to be quiet, and that did last about 30 minutes. But they were both SO excited to be with each other again last night. The squacking continued until 8, when I went up and put a stop to it. When I went up, Annelise was lying down in bed trying to sleep, and Hadleigh was standing up in bed yelling to Annelise about something. Hadleigh was all wound up and Annelise was exhausted...energized by people...worn out by people. See where I am going with this extro, intro?

Anyway, we only heard some random noises out of them last night, nothing like the night before. And here we are at 7.26 and I just heard some stirring. I need to put the oatmeal on to boil.

Night One

I just had to report that last night the girls slept in the same room. There was MUCH rejoicing over this move and I think they finally settled down to sleep at about 8.30pm (their normal bedtime is 6). Hadleigh was just beside herself and you could hear both of them squealing together. We thought this was pretty sweet, so we let it go, although occassionally Dave would say (in a deep, loud voice), "BE QUIET". I did end up going up there twice. At about 11 Hadleigh cried out for me, and when I went to her she asked aboutmy Kermit the Frog?" I took that to mean she was just awake and did not need anything. The incident did however wake up Annelise.

Now it is 7.32 in the morning and I am just hearing Annelise wake-up. So far, so good. Hoping for a more quiet night tonight.

Grace Upon Grace

This past weekend I was able to attend Intown's women's retreat. I don't have much time to say anything more than this is the fav song from the weekend. It is written by Sandra McCracken and if you do not know who that is it is a MAJOR shame. She has written a lot of music for Indelible Grace and if you do not know who that is it is we might not be able to stay friends. In any case you can link below to amazon to see her cd and preview this song...I will just write the words since I am singing it today.

Grace Upon Grace
In every station new trials and troubles
Call for more grace than I can afford
And where can I go but to my dear savior
For mercy that pours from boundless stores

Chorus:
Grace upon grace every sin repaired
Every void restored you will find him there
In every turning He will prepare you
With grace upon grace (to intro)

He made a way for the fallen to rise
Perfect in glory and sacrifice
In sweet communion my need He supplies
He saves and keeps and guards my life

To thee I run now with great expectation
To honor You with trust like a child
My hopes and desires seek a new destination
And all that You ask Your grace will provide

Miss Hadleigh Claire is 3

It is true, the little miss celebrated her third birthday on Saturday. Amazing. I am a little nervous because we had a really rough two weeks leading up to three, so does that mean the twos went out with a bang, or the threes are entering with a bang. Yikes! In any case Hadleigh has calmed down a bit and we are looking forward to a good year.

We had a little party for her a couple weeks ago. It was small and uncomplicated. I have heard from other parents that sometimes birthday parties are the most un-fun time for the birthday child. I hate that idea, so we have always tried to keep things super simple and thus far we have had great success with all our parties. She had three of her best buds come over and they all brought their parents with them. And then our good bud Jess came too. We had yummy hamburgers and hot dogs, guacamole and chips, and fruit. Dave made the cake which was Elmo...that was a last minute decision, but it turned out well. The kiddos played, we ate lunch and cake and we played some more and everyone left. Pretty simple and no melt downs. Hadleigh got really nervous when it was time to blow out the candles. She realized everyone was looking at her and did not know what to do. She did end up blowing out the candles but as you can see from the pictures she looks concerned.

Enough about the party and onto info about Hadleigh. We have told her that 3 things happen when you turn three. 1. You start going poop in the potty (still working on that one). 2. You will start sleeping in the same room with Annelise. 3. You will get a special chore to do everyday. We are still working on all three of these things. I think this next week we will be moving Annelise into the room with Hadleigh, but we are all ready to begin that endeavor and I think it will be a good move. I have heard other moms say that once they moved their children into the same room the kids began to get along better. We will see, but I hope that it will continue to grow their relationship as sisters. We are also still trying to figure out a specific chore for Hadleigh to do. Any suggestions are welcome. We are thinking about putting her dishes in the dishwasher. Making her own bed. Putting her clean clothes away...I am just not sure which one I want to give her control over.

We have had a lot of sharing wars over the last month, drama! I wish there was a magic bullet for that, but we are working on it day by day. She has also become a little more dramatic and there has been a lot more whining and lot more tears. That results in a lot of "breaks" where she goes u pto her room to gather herself. That seems to be working. We also continue the, "do you hear me speaking to you in a normal voice? I would like you to ask me in a normal voice." That is working on the whining. It is TRAINING all day every day it seems and I get tired of it. But I figure if I don't want her to whine forever I better begin to nip this. I do not have any delusions that the whining phase will go away quickly.

There are so many fun things that Hadleigh does these days. She is always so excited about life in general and I LOVE that. She loves school, her friends, going outside, getting special treat, working on special projects, etc. It is somewhat easy to distract her from her fit by getting her excited about something else. We love going on walks, or just playing outside. She loves getting in the van to go somewhere, especially the park. She loves her friends and gets SO excited when she sees them or they come over to play. She helps me do a lot of cooking. She also helped me plant seeds for our garden. So far so good. They are still in the pellet form, but everything is beginning to sprout! She loves animals and is always asking if she can pet any puppy she sees.

Her vocab is growing and she is always asking questions like, "what are you doin' Mama? what are you doin'?" and "what happened Mama? What happened?" and "Where is ______(Dada, Annelise, or any other friend she can think of) and "Going to school today, Mama? School today?" She obviously likes to repeat herself. I do not know if that is because I fail to answer her sometimes, or if that is just her way. Sometimes it is hard because these questions tend to come right at a tense time...when I am trying to find something, or get everyone out the door, or...you get the idea. I am working on that. She is just curious which is SO fun and I love it, it just also gets tiring.

Last night I heard her in bed singing, "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty there is nothing my God cannot do." Dave and I just laughed. She loves going to church and learning about God. And we also try to teach her about God when we do things around the house. I know I have mentioned this before, so I will skip the repeat.

She loves Annelise and would do anything for her. She is so excited about sharing her room with Annelise and is always willing to get Annelise's bunny or puppy for her. When she gets in the car after preschool she always walks over to greet Annelise. She watches out for her and of course Annelise LOVES Hadleigh. I look forward to seeing them continue to grow.

Snow in Georgia

I am a bit behind in posts, but am working on catching up. March came in like a lion this year with a big snow. It was amazing. I felt like I was back in Germany because it was that big, fluffly, sticky, snow. And we got a lot of it. You can see from the pictures it looked like it dropped 4-6 inches.

It was Sunday morning when it started and snowed for several hours, so after the girls napped I bundled them up and we went outside to play. Hadleigh kept saying, "snowy day, mama!" We made snow balls, made tracks through the snow, and kicked around the soccer ball.

Annelise wasn't too excited about walking in the snow, she liked just looking at it without having her feet in it. Hadleigh enjoyed walking around in the "slipperly" snow. I obviously enjoyed catching the snow in my mouth.

The Elf is 16 Months

As you can see from the picture below, my little angry elf has come a LONG way. Annelise's middle name is Louise. We picked that name for a couple of reasons. The first is that one of our favorite places in the world is Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada. GORGEOUS! I cannot wait to go back there one day. Also, Louise means warrior, and after being prego with Annelise and going through labor with her, I just felt like she was a little warrior. And upon meeting her, she still seems like a little warrior, but a super sweet too!

She continues to be soft and cuddly, she loves to give kisses and hugs. She LOVES people and has a few favorite outside her family. She loves Dada and exclaims his name when he walks in the door, and she runs to greet him. She loves Hadleigh and exclaims her name, which sounds like "Daddy" and runs up the stairs after her nap to see HC. Of course she loves me...she also loves our nursery worker, Hakima. There are a few other folks that she really likes and will instantly go to when they walk in, and it is so sweet to see her interact and love people. This is something that we pray for both our girls, that they will love the Lord and all kinds of love people.

Her vocabulary is expanding which is super fun to hear. She thinks every animal says "rough", and especially likes to says, "Ooo puppy! Rough! Rough!" She likes to talk about her shoes and socks, her cup, etc. She is a girl that knows what she wants, so when in doubt she will point until you get it. She always says "thank you" and she also has been using the word "mine" for quite sometime. I love the thank you, but could do without the mine. Ah well!

She likes to feed herself these days. This is always a little painful to watch, but she does a decent job of getting things into her mouth. We also hit a big milestone and got rid of the bottle! This was PAINFUL! She was taking a sippy cup for her juice but had refused to drink milk out of a sippy. She only wanted her milk in a bottle. So when we took the bottle away she refused to drink milk. We did that for 3 days, and in desperation I called a mommy friend. Help Dianne! After much discussion she suggested offering her only milk to drink (I had been giving her juice too). Sure enough after her afternoon nap she was thirsty enough and drank down 3 cups of milk. VICTORY! But in the process she sure showed her stubborn side...wow. So now she gets milk and juice from a sippy.

Annelise has mastered walking, and is now working on running. It is weird to think that when HC was this age she wasn't even walking yet, and here is Annelise running. She loves the stairs and knows how to go up and down them "like a big girl" (on her tummy). She is quite the daredevil, so I do sometimes see her peering over the edge at the top of the stairs. I think she longs to walk down standing up...but we are hoping to put that off for a while.

Singing is a fav past time with both girls. I will sometimes hear Annelise in her crib singing "EIEIOOOOO". And Dave said the other day he heard her singing "Happy Birthday". She has also mastered shaking her bootie. I love it when she dances, so CUTE!

It is sometimes hard to get things done with Annelise around. She seems to want to be with me a lot. That is great and I need to enjoy this while it lasts, but sometimes I just want to cook dinner without her hanging onto my legs.

I think that is about all I have to report for The Elf. I love my little, crazy girl!

16 Months Ago

Dave and I were looking through old pictures and found this one...I don't really think I need to comment.