For Every Season...

With much struggle and tossing and turning at night asking myself, asking God, "Am I doing the right thing?" the decision has been made and it will be solidified next week. I am now a work-at-home-mom. I will do a test run with two of our neighbor children (2 1/2 and 1). I have so many mixed emotions about the whole thing, and I'm pretty sure their mom is feeling the same way. I have decided that I am committed for the next year and then I will make a decision whether we will keep it up. I have already purchased a mini curriculum for their kids and a homeschool curriculum for Libby, as I will have to pull her out of preschool to do this. We are taking next week as a test run just to make sure, but I think the following week I will have the 1 year old full time and I will have the 2 1/2 year old on Tuesdays until the middle of November when I take over her as well. I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm just ready to start. I have the first two weeks of Libby's lesson plans done and have started on the third so that I will be prepared. Her lesson plans are themed, so it will make it easy for me to just incorporate that theme throughout the house each week for all of the kids. So, if you think about it in the next couple of weeks, lift up a prayer for me as I settle into the newness of all of this. Don't forget about Libby and Soya (the 2 1/2 year old girl) as it will probably be quite a transition for the both of them as well.

Bath Buddies

The girls had their first bath together. Grace is finally getting used to the water and learning to splash. Libby has been itching to take a bath with her, but I didn't want her (Libby) to make the water situation any worse for Grace. So, Libby had been waiting for this day. :) Both girls were happy campers and glad to play with each other...kind of. Grace pretty much ignored Libby.

The Write Stuff

Here is Libby's art work from while we were in Tennessee. If you look in the bottom left hand corner she wrote her name. This is old hat now, but still very exciting for mommy. :) She wrote ABC without any prompting. Yes, the C is backward, but I have NEVER worked on that letter with her. I have not worked with ANY of the letters in the word TIGER (except the I obviously) with her. She wrote that entire word (with help on the spelling) by herself minus the G which grandma helped her with. Then, up under the sun there are two words that are hard to decipher. She wanted to write HORSE and HANNAH, but chose to do so in a very undeveloped manner. As far as I'm concerned though? She's three, who cares! I assume she has learned some of this at preschool so they must be doing something right. :)

Clownin' Around

Libby wanted to put my makeup on the other day so I put some on her and she looked awful, but whatever. About an hour later she wanted to play with it again. I almost stopped her, but then I figured that I didn't use the stuff, as long as it was going on her face, I might as well let her have fun. This is the result!

A Very Merry Unbirthday!

Ok, so maybe it's Christmas...well, no, we can make it birthday. She is a December 20th baby after all. :) Anyway, I did a little early Christmas shopping the other day and decided that for maximum usability (don't know if that's a word, but it is now) and since Grace isn't going to understand the concept of Christmas and birthday this year, I was going to give it to her. She is enjoying it for the most part, but as you see in the top picture her favorite part is trying to shove the balls in her mouth. Libby was not very happy with me since she DIDN'T get her Christmas present early. She did find it and I did let her play with it before I found a better hiding place for it, but I wouldn't let her take it out of the box.

Top Ten FAvorite Pictures (In No Particular Order)

I just LOVE these first three pictures. The lighting made them perfect!

Look how sweet she looks here getting ready to brush the goat.

It is so cute to see Libby and her grandpa checking out the animals together like this.

Grace just looks so adorable in this picture.

Yea! They're finally getting along and they just look so cute together.

I am SO glad Chris got this picture snapped off! It is SO Libby!

And here she is the sweetest little three year old ever!

She just looks so worried here. Maybe she's worried about her grandpa who disappeared. :)

You Eat What?!?

First, let me apologize for not being around lately. There has been a lot going on lately and lot of decisions to be made. I think we are in the final wrap up "nitty gritty details" portion of the decisions now so I can let everyone know about our life in the next few weeks. :)

Anyway, back to the post at hand. As I was rushing into the local grocery store, Hy-vee, for a really quick trip, I noticed they had Dad's rootbeer. I bought some for sentimental purposes and headed out excited about tasting my purchase. I remember as a kid I LOVED Dad's rootbeer. As I, being me, dropped the silly thing on the floor of the van, and then had to open it v-e-r-y slowly so it wouldn't fizz everywhere I thought about one of the memories tied to the rootbeer. I remember we were doing a Christmas store at one of the local retirement homes so that the elderly people living there could buy Christmas presents without having to leave and we earned money for Lottie Moon (or maybe it was Annie Armstrong...I'm pretty sure Lottie Moon was Christmas though) missions. Anyway, we were there long enough that the kids got bored and went exploring and we found a pop machine with Dad's rootbeer and bought some. Sorry for the nostalgia. Back to yesterday...as I finallly got the bottle open I took a good swig of it and just tasted it. It was sweet and I realized that I would stick with Mug's, but, hey, I'll keep the bottle for sentimentality of my childhood. :) After taking a few more drinks, I started thinking about other childhood memories that had to do with food. Here are the list of the things that I came up with that mean something to me from my childhood.

~Pink Cottage Cheese~My aunt would bring this dish to all holiday meals.
~Grandma's Rolls~Another holiday staple...still is.
~Mom's Mashed Potatoes~While we're on the holiday trip, here's my absolute favorite!
~Miracle Whip Sandwiches~Mmm...yummy. These were also my craving while I was pregnant with Grace.
~Cottage Cheese and Applesauce~I still won't eat applesauce without cottage cheese with it.
~Cottage Cheese and Tomatoes~Another good combination, although I like the applesauce better.
~Chipped Chop Ham Sandwiches~I don't know how often we did this, but for some reason it sticks out in my mind that we used to get together with my cousin's, who lived four houses down from us, after church on Sunday nights and eat these.
~Cake with Milk Poured Over It~This one came from my dad and I very rarely do it anymore, but when I get the hankering...I just gotta have it.
~Tuna Casserole~Stephanie and my LEAST favorite meal in HISTORY!!!
~Tacos and Taco Pizza~Still my favorite!
~Curry Stew~The meal Mari taught grandma to make.

Those are the things that stick out most in my mind. I'm sure some of them you are going gross, you ate what? I think it's fun to see how food (sometimes) defines a family. Food is just part of the cloth that weaves who we are, whether we like it or not. So, tell me some of your food related memories.

Fun in Tennessee

Daddy decided that his favorite activity while we were in Tennessee was going to the zoo as a family.

Mommy's favorite activity was going to Andrew Jackson's Hermitage. Yes, I'm morbid. I enjoy looking at graves, their styles, the names of whom they commemorate and the dates. This is Andrew and Rachel Jackson's tomb.

Libby said that "grandpa's lellow car" was her favorite thing.

As for Grace? The usual...playing with mommy.

We're Home!

We had a great trip to Tennessee and took lots of pictures to prove it. The plane ride went well (for the most part) for the girls and they seemingly enjoyed it. Libby did put her window shades down every trip except for one. She doesn't get along with the sun very well and didn't like being even closer to her friend (the sun) than normal. Anyway, double click on the picture below and you can look through all of the pictures (and a few videos) at your leisure. I'm sure you will see some of the pictures again throughout the next week or two so that I can expound on them. I'm sure you just can't wait, can you?! Ha!

I'm Leavin' On a Jetplane

Just to let everyone know, I probably won't blog next week at all. We are headed to Tennessee to see Grandma and Grandpa Tucker early tomorrow morning. Our flight takes off at 6:20 am. Hope you all have a great week...I know we will!

Sleepy Girl

Wordless Wednesday

Libby's Labor Day

Libby has enjoyed getting out and riding her tricycle with Kayla. I have been enjoying watching her ride her bike. I am VERY thankful that we live in a cul-de-sac so that Libby can enjoy riding her bike somewhere other than the garage.

Play Time for Gracie

Grace doesn't play well by herself. She likes to cry if left by her mother. So, yesterday when she played so well in her bedroom...for 45 minutes...mommy was quite excited. Until she went to check on her for the third time and Grace was beating on her cd player. We found that the cd changer part wouldn't shut. Why? Grace managed to slide one into the machine.

Here is Grace's handiwork.

In the above pictures she is helping daddy retrieve the cd.

And here? Well, this is what you do with cd's, right?