sunflowers

Yep, these are the gigantic sunflowers...so beautiful.

We have plenty to praise God for; such a variety of beautiful flowers, from the very delicate small to the sturdy large, we can enjoy so many.

new threads for our bed

My mom made us another quilt for our bed. We love the way it goes with the sheets and curtains we already have and it's so colorful. Thanks mom for using your talent to make such a beautiful quilt for us. We love it.

We have plenty to praise God for; a generous talented mom.

a pound heavier

playing in the bushes

eating

some picking

"please I can eat this one?" (She must have said that about 300 times...at least she asked and did so politely!)

a bit of picking

eating

more eating

getting ready to eat

picking out the green ones before eating

eating(grandma is actually picking!)

more eating and yes, grandma is still picking

I think she was actually picking here!...must have been early on!

proof of some actual picking

The few years that we lived over in DeMotte, we had the great fortune to be close to at least 8 or 9 blueberry farms...they like the sandy soil there. Since we had just moved last year, and didn't have a deep freeze, I missed a year of picking blueberries. So, this year since we have the deep freeze and little girl who loves fruit to help us eat them up, we ventured out to the blueberry farm last Saturday. Grandma came along to help us. Maria had a great time picking, I mean picking and eating, the blueberries. She did have her bucket covered on the very bottom at one point. She dumped them into the larger bucket and from that point on basically just ate blueberries. It's a good thing they didn't weigh her before and after picking, we're sure she ate at least a pound.

It had rained in the morning, and by the time we got there it was done, but the bushes were very wet. You had to be careful or you would end up soaked as you reached into the bush to get the nice, big, juicy, ripe berries. In total we ended up with just over 19 and 1/2 pounds.

It was a fun day!

a 4-H winner for sure

Yep, these sunflowers have grown like crazy, and they were the ones we started from seed not seedlings like the other ones in the flower bed that are maybe 4 feet tall. Grandpa was helping Maria try to reach to the top. She was almost there, and considering my dad is about 6'4" that is one tall sunflower! Maybe we should join 4-H.

We have plenty to praise God for; amazingly beautiful flowers.

mom

2 months

Wow, sure seems like time is going quicker the second time around.

Anna weighs in at 12 lb 14oz, 90% and is 24" long, 95%.

Doctor said she looked excellent, and is gaining well. She is a great eater. Usually about 6 feeds during the day. She still takes several short naps during the day. She isn't big on long naps on most days, and then will surprise me with a 4 hour nap some random days. Maria was never a super long napper till later on. Anna does, however, sleep awesome at night. She will usually go down just after Maria about about 8:30 or 9. I go in just before I go to bed around 11 and feed her again. Most times I can change her diaper and feed her and she never wakes up. Good thing I can't eat in my sleep and not know it, I might weigh 500 pounds! She will then sleep most nights till about 7 in the morning. Ahhhh, we love our sleep. How blessed we are to have two girls who are great sleepers.

Anna is starting to be awake more so we are able to interact with her. She has a sweet, calm spirit and loves to smile at us. Doesn't cry much except when she is tired or hungry...hmmm, just like me! She really likes her big sister and looks toward her voice when she talks. We love to hear the coos and babbles she is starting to make. She also received the first of her immunizations today and seems to be a bit fussy, but no major reactions.

We have plenty to praise God for; our healthy 2 month old.

unusual sleeping arrangements

She came into the kitchen and said "my babies are sleeping." She wanted me to come and look. This is the sight I saw. All lined up on the stairs...how cute is that. She loves to put her dolls to bed all over the place, but this is by far the strangest place she has come up with.

We have plenty to praise God for; Maria's imagination.

conjoined squash

Don't you love that we have conjoined twin summer squash. Can you guess what the vegetable of the week is at our house...let's see how many different ways you can eat squash. Actually my favorite is to slice and cook with a little butter and brown sugar. YUM, YUM...sounds good enough to go snack on.

I am going to try and start a little tally system of all the garden produce we get. I have had several people comment that they don't think a garden is worth their time. I am curious what we find out. The time and money we put into it and the results we get out of it.

We have plenty to praise God for; such a yummy variety of good things to eat...imagine just having manna.

take two

How about these two pictures. Which one is which girl? This is kind of fun!

(Mindy now you can't tell by the clothes!)

stir-fry

We enjoyed stir fry tonight that was almost completely from the garden; peas, beans, carrots, squash, zucchini, kohlrabi, peppers. We also had celery and chicken, which aren't from our garden :)

I also had enough veggies to make a stir fry mix and freeze it for later. I froze two gallon size bags of beans and one of peas too. And this is just the beginning of the beans.

We have plenty to praise God for; this garden is going strong.

more bars in more places...

from the big and beautiful to the baby bite size...Bugs Bunny would be jealous.

We have plenty to praise God for; beautiful rains to nourish our garden.

who does she look like?

That is a common question for Anna...you decide. Do you think she and Maria look alike. Can you tell which is which? There are about the same age, wearing almost the same outfit, lying on the same playmat.

at the fair

We visited the local 4-H fair yesterday. We have some friends from church whose kids were showing some sheep, so we wanted to visit them. Maria wasn't super into petting anything, although she did keep insisting that we go look at the roosters...and of course the barn was being judged so it was closed for a while. Larry did manage to sneak on the side between two buildings to let her get her look.

She did pet some goats, and seemed to like the baby ones.

Maria and her pigtails in honor of the pigs, which she doesn't really like. She prefers the stuffed variety.

Feeling the super soft bunnies.

We also got some yummy 4-H ice cream. While I was taking a break to feed Anna, Larry took Maria to look at the rides, which weren't going. We think she was more interested in the carousel horses than anything real!

It was a fun, cheap way to spend our Monday afternoon.

smiles

Those first few smiles are hard to capture, but oh so precious.

imagination

What a fun stage to watch Maria go through. She is constantly making up words, stories, songs...you name it. She doesn't have that fear that we develop as adults that someone will laugh at what we have imagined. Such innocence.

Here is a video of her playing with the Connect 4 game...no idea how to play, but making up her own way, and that's totally fine with her, she doesn't care about the "correct" way, nor should she.

At the end of the video I was asking her how old she is, which she normally answers correctly, and where she lives...Culver, Indiana is there but very run together.

It is quite amusing to us when we are out and about to have people comment on how quiet she is, because at home she is very good at narrating and jabbering about things.

Things overhead:

"Bolt, Bolt where are you"(we watched an animated movie about a dog named Bolt) She then was seen running around with a belt that was her dog's leash, she said she was walking her dog.

"the big bad wolf is going to get me" (She really liked that story too)

"I baby bear" (Then she goes on to say that daddy is papa bear and I am mama bear)

summer fun at the beach

My friend Dorte with her little boy Jonas in the floatie car, the two girls belong to my friend Kim. (There were 3 other moms and there also...I just didn't take very many pictures)

Yes, we have a beach here in Culver...yes, we know you are probably jealous. It's on Lake Maxinkuckee...that is a mouthful huh? I just wish I really enjoyed the beach. I have never really liked the sand. At least this is freshwater. I really don't like salt water. Good thing I wasn't born near the ocean. Perhaps I would love it then huh? Anyway. We had an impromptu get together with a bunch of other moms and their kids on Monday. Maria was more interested in the sand than the water, which was good considering Anna was more interested in eating than anything else!

We have plenty to praise God for; a nearby beach to help cool us off this summer.

garden spoils

We have started to get more of a variety of goodies from the garden. Here is a picture of a head of cabbage, 3 kohlrabi, some carrots, and 3 peppers. This week it looks like we will have some eggplant, broccoli, and summer squash ready in addition to more peppers and carrots. We are looking forward to some good eats!

We have plenty to praise God for; a productive garden.

4th celebrating

We were invited by a good friend to celebrate the 4th with some great food, good friends, and scary fireworks(according to Maria). We hope you had a nice day of celebrations. We had yucky weather, but enjoyed ourselves anyway. Maria and Anna both received these outfits from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Ryan. Maria's has a cute fireworks picture on the front. Not the best picture of either since Anna is screaming, and Maria looks mad.

We have plenty to praise God for; those who have fought to gain our freedoms and those who continue to serve to protect our freedoms.

I call you friend.

The adorable Gracie

Look at those gorgeous eyes!

Mama and her girl...Jackie spent quite a bit of time pushing Maria in Gracie's swing(thanks!).

Teri bonding with Anna.

The Ecuador girls!

We had a great time celebrating Teri's birthday today. She was a good friend I met while I taught in Ecuador. She and her husband are home for a short time this summer and since we missed them when they were home 2 years ago, we wanted to be sure that we were able to get a chance to spend time with them this summer. Teri's brother Will and sister-in-law Jackie, whom was also a good friend I met in Ecuador, hosted a little get together for her birthday in Marion. A good time was had by all, especially Maria and their precious daughter, Gracie. Gracie was learning the finer points of walking from Maria. She normally prefers to hold on to things while she walks, but we think Maria challenged her to walk on her own...she was too cute toddling after Maria.

We don't get to see each other often, but it's good when we do. I treasure the true friends I have made throughout my life.

We have plenty to praise God for; good friends.

a typical day?

Today started out to be a great day, but Anna just had a rough day of napping...at most she slept only 45 minutes...so I was feeling a bit frazzled and about halfway through the day I started to mentally note all the little tedious things I was getting accomplished, although at the end of the day I sometimes feel like nothing much got done. So this is my little post to encourage myself that I am doing some meaningful things, and to have something to look back at in a year and be thankful that life changes and never stays the same...wouldn't that be dull.

(all times are approximate) :)

5:30 awakened from golden slumber to 1 month old screaming, satisfy her hunger and change diaper

6:15 head downstairs to pump since Anna had such a longer than normal sleep

6:30 go get some clothes, take Maria to the bathroom, tell her she has to stay in bed longer and try to stay quiet

7:00 head out to the garden to weed

8:00 back inside to help with breakfast, Larry has already gotten it started (he is our regular breakfast maker), get Maria dressed, make bed, start a load of diapers in the washer, put away some dishes

8:30 eat breakfast, clean up, brush teeth!

9:00 call three different places regarding bills from Anna's delivery (FUN!), call eye doctor, organize some pictures to put in an album, put a picture in wall frame, stamp and address a couple bills, file papers, play with Maria

10:30 hear a hungry girl finally waking up, change diaper and feed, read some books to Maria, get markers and paper for Maria to color, get Maria a snack

12:00 change Anna and put her down for a nap, take Maria to bathroom, eat lunch(Larry is our lunch maker also!), clean up lunch, sweep floors

12:45 Anna is up and ready to eat, work on computer at the same time, Larry puts Maria down for a nap before heading back to work

2:00 change diaper and put Anna down for a nap, finish computer time

2:20 foolishly think I can get a nap in...20 minutes later

2:40 Anna awakes, go in and rock her for a bit...she is not quite ready to wake up

3:00 after putting Anna back down, I step in the hall and hear Maria awake...sigh, so much for my nap, take Maria to bathroom, get her redressed

3:15 mop the floors, in the meantime Anna starts screaming again, get Maria a snack, change diaper

3:30 feed Anna while backing up pictures on DVD's, watch Martha Speaks with Maria, trim both girls' nails

4:00 build a farm with Maria, diaper change and put Anna down for nap, fold and put away diapers

4:45 reheat dinner, which is Calzones I made previously and had in the freezer, make salads to go with dinner, Anna wakes

5:45 eat dinner, clean up, feed Anna

6:30 family walk

7:30 get Maria ready for bed and read/sing to her, say prayers

7:45 change and feed Anna, put her down for the night(hopefully)

8:30 read a book, do an Easy Sudoku(which took me 20 minutes!), hang out with my hubby

9:30 get ready for bed

10:00 go to bed, whew...what a day!

We have plenty to praise God for; so much accomplished...all the small things that really do count for something.