Church and Short Sentences

Lately Nathan claims to be an author. He has been spending time writing animal books. Each page has the name of an animal and his illustration of the animal below. I am grateful that he is practicing his writing. I decided I needed to encourage him to expand his writing and really be an author. So I suggested he write a short sentence on each page. At first this seemed to be too difficult a task - as Nathan thought it was taking too long. Now he enjoys it - the pages now consist of the animal name and what that animal eats, i.e. The american bison eats grass.

At church today the final speaker was giving a talk and trying to include the younger children in the congregation - his topic focused on animals. The talk went on for about 20 minutes. When the man finished Nathan asked if it was a long talk. I quietly nodded in agreement. Then he blurted out, "Those were not short sentences!" If you know our ward's high council representative, you know exactly what Nathan was talking about!

Elysse's Baby Shower

Though I insisted that we did not need to have any baby showers for Elysse, the paralegals from Ryan's office insisted that we DID need to have a diaper shower. The kids and I went to Ryan's office at noon today and we had a beautiful baby shower. Both Nathan and Audrey felt so special.

Nathan was working hard on writing a book (all about animals) and several people asked him questions about his book and the animals he was interested in. Nathan is very shy in groups and with people he doesn't know. Yet, he was able to answer their questions and really talked to one of the paralegals, Amanda. Everyone was so impressed with his love and fascination with animals as well as his vibrant imagination.

Audrey is and was anything but shy. She walked in, went up and talked with several people and kept the crowd entertained. In fact she had to sneak out for a potty break and everyone was wondering where she had gone.

This is only the present portion of the shower.
We were also given several gift cards and cash gifts.

The cake was delicious white on white our personal favorite (though Audrey is a chocolate girl and may be persuaded to side with both of her grandmas' taste in cake).
They used Elysse's birth announcement to decorate the cake!

Elysse's first flowers. These came from the home garden of one of the attorneys at the firm!

From the Mouths of Babes

I received a package in the mail from our Venice, Florida friends the McGees. One of the things contained in the package was a small journal type tablet titled From the Mouths of Babes. It is a book to record things that the kids say. (I have done a fairly good job of writing down and keeping memories of the funny/strange things that Nathan and Audrey have said. I have included some in journals that I keep and posing them to the blog.) I really enjoy this tablet because I can carry it in my purse or diaper bag and catch the things as they are fresh in my mind. So far I have two entries.

Nathan: Mom do you want to hear something true?

Mom: sure Nathan

Nathan: It pays to discover.

Mom: Where did you hear that?

Nathan: A commercial during my Life video.

(Nathan is very into animals and seems to think that you can get paid to discover animals).

I was changing Elysse's diaper and as always Audrey was looking on. Her reward: to put the dirty diaper in the diaper pail. After my job was finished Audrey happily put the diaper in...

Audrey: Poop stinks.

Mom: Yes Audrey, it does.

Summer Days

Last summer we enjoyed time with our friends the Hatch family at the pool. We were lucky enough to be invited to do it again. We had a lot of fun.

Audrey posing with Elysse. Elysse didn't get any pool time, yet.

Audrey scamming snacks - even though she had lunch before we went!

Nathan, Drew and Nick enjoying the pool.

Audrey offering Nick his own snacks, what a nice girl.

Robert Lake Park

My adventurous friend Amelia finds the best places around to do outdoor fun things. She told us about Robert Lake Park in Montreat, NC. It is a good 30 minute drive from our house but it is definitely worth it. This is the best park I have been to. There are three different play areas, each area having an age group in mind. The draw is the stream that runs through the park at several different places. Kids of all ages enjoy playing in the water there!

Sleeping Baby

What kind of mom would I be if I didn't post some pictures of the funny sleeping positions we have seen so far.

She is a great sleeper during the day but moans and grunts all night. We think that it may have something to do with the dark and she much prefers the bottles during the day to the nursing at night. I will probably decide to pump all of the time so that I can get more sleep at night - win, win.

Eyes

Okay, I am sure everyone is wondering why we haven't been posting pictures of our newest little girl. Well, she is hardly ever awake! This picture was taken moments after getting her dressed for church. Her eyes were only open until she was placed in the car seat and then they didn't open again for quite some time. I am sure there will be more awake moments to come...

Father's Day Weekend

We were very busy this weekend and so grateful we were able to all be together as a family!

Elysse's due date was Saturday, glad she made it ahead of time. We had a VanWinkle Law Firm picnic at 11 a.m. at Claxton Farms. There was so much to do as there was a band playing music, a dance floor, face painting, two bounce houses, balloon animals, water guns, really yummy food, etc. The kids had a great time. There were even a few animals for them to look at - llamas, ponies and cows. Nathan took a little walk around a pond. Audrey went off on her own for awhile (she was looking for mommy) and started talking with many of the other people that work at the firm. Daddy found her as she was deciding to have a blue ladybug painted on her face - good thing they weren't doing real tattoos, he may have been too late.

We left the Firm picnic and headed to the church picnic. The kids met up with their best friends and had a wonderful time. We had a rented pavilion, a grill and a playground set. It was extremely hot and we were blessed with a 5 minute rain shower that cooled things down a bit. The adult guys played catch and another game called boccie ball. The kids were so hot that they preferred water to the soda in the cooler.

Today we were all able to attend church together. Last week Audrey stayed home with Grandma Beadle - it felt horrible to be at church without her. This week was so much better. Next week she will be going back to Nursery class for the first time in over eight months. She is excited and her Nursery leader is even more excited. All in all, I think it was a great Father's Day weekend.

Celebration

Audrey wanted to celebrate the end of chemo with a Nemo cake, fruit snacks and Junior Mints. So, we gave her a little party and she was so excited!

I wanted to do something special just the two of us. After reading my friend Emily's blog and seeing that she and her daughters did manicures and pedicures, I had an idea. We went for our first pedicure together. After arriving home in the garage she also wanted to jump in the driver's seat and do a little driving.

Mommy and Me. We experienced our first pedicure together. Audrey chose a light blue nail polish and I chose pink. Audrey was able to sit between my legs and get her feet in the foot bath - then came the polish. She also had her finger nails done. By the time we made it home her finger nails weren't in the best of shape and today she hardly has any polish at all.

While we were in the nail spa Audrey made friends with everyone around us and even asked and remembered names. Then she proudly declared, "everyone likes me."

Elysse's Room

Elysse's room is finished. Ryan and I painted the room a few months ago. My mom made the curtains by taking apart a duvet cover. My friend Lauren and I made the polka dot wall. Grandma Beadle bought the chair with Elysse's name.

I am hoping she will love this bedroom for a long time. When designing/decorating it I wanted to be sure that the style and the things I put in the room could last for several years without needing to be redecorated.