Happy 9th Anniversary

As of today, I have been married to the man of my dreams for 9 years! It has been an amazing 9 years and has brought about so much love and so many good things. Lest you worry, it has definitely had its rocky moments and frustrations, as well. Marriage is not easy...you don't sit back and watch the story unfold like you do a television show...you create the story line and you have the power to determine where your story goes. With God, good attitudes (most of the time) and a little bit of patience on both of our parts...here we are, ready to put a life time under our belt.


That being said, Chris got to exercise some of that patience on me this morning. First of all, I am heading out in a little bit to spend our anniversary driving to Ohio to go to the funeral of a very dear friend. I thought, I would love to surprise him with his Grandma Besson's sticky rolls as an anniversary present before I go. Awesome idea! He was looking forward to it when he saw them last night and we were good to go...until I glanced up and the oven was on fire. Yes, leave it to me! I used too much bread and, well...here is the result! Thank you, Lord, for a husband that just shakes his head, puts out the fire and says, "That's my Liza!"

Happy Anniversary Dear!

Love is Not a Color

My dear friends, Chris and Carin are in the process of adopting a baby from Ethiopia. In an effort to get to this sweet baby a little quicker, they have been selling some products and putting the money toward their adoption. They already sell coffee (if you want some go to http://www.justlovecoffee.com/mcmanus it is fair trade and yummy) and also necklaces (check out this post to see the necklace...and let me know if you want one for $25). Now they are also able to sell these cool shirts for $25. Just go to their blog to order one. Or, better yet, you can try to win one! All you have to do is post about this cool give-away on your blog and/or your facebook and let them know. May 29 is the drawing date. So, hurry and check it out! Seriously...at least go visit their blog to hear the cool song about the shirt. :) It's going to such a great cause, too, so you might as well try something while you are there. In the meantime, be praying about baby McManus and his/her mommy and family situation and thanking God that He already knows exactly who their little baby is and what he/she will grow up to be like. Have a blessed day!

Pony Tail

Grace has ALWAYS loved being a girl and wanted her hair brushed and combed and pulled back. So, after I pulled Libby's hair into a pony tail tonight, Grace brought me a hair tie for her hair too. I thought for sure I wasn't going to be able to help her out, but on our second attempt (the first attempt ending in the hair tie catapulting through the air as it let go of her wisps) we got her taken care of. She won't let me take it out for the life of her. I love this little girl. :)

Momma's Big Boy

My baby is growing up way too quickly. He is sitting up on his own for the most part. He's 19 pounds already. And...just this week he has started saying "mamamamama" and "dadadadada". It is so fun to watch him grow, but sad, too. This is the last time I get to have these firsts so I'm treasuring them. :)

A Swinging Good Time

Both girls were having a blast down at the swing set last night. I think for the moment, the play set part is "old news". :)

Libby is such a good sister! She took the time to swing Grace and make sure she was happy.

John had an absolute blast on the swing. Especially when Libby would stand in front of him and make funny sounds at him. He was cracking up!

Grace is being a big girl and swinging on one of the "regular" swings so that John can swing, too.

What Bliss!

We have had all of these pieces laying in our basement for some time, patiently waiting for grass to grow and the ground to become solid enough to put together.
After a little elbow grease and a game of memory (it's been about 3 years since Chris pulled this thing apart) Chris had the main part put mostly together.

Here he is adding the roof.

And here is the play set part...all put together...taking a slow ride down to its permanent home. This trip was kind of exciting for Chris. :)

Now, we have a play set, but what's a play set without a swing set? So, off to the store Chris went to buy all the necessary parts. And now we have legs.

Here is the swing set part on its side awaiting transportation to the bottom of the hill...this part was even more difficult than the play set part.

Here we are...but we aren't finished just yet.

We HAVE to add the monkey bars. Ta da! Let the fun begin!!!

Duckity Duck

This is the newest member of our home. His name is Duckity Duck the Goose...we call him Fuzzy for short. Chris was driving to town the other morning and he was just sitting in the middle of the road. Chris couldn't just leave him there to die, so...he brought him home. He is now living in our kiddie swimpool in the basement. Wh have had to "safety proof" it about 10 times now because he keeps figuring out how to get to the top and jump out. (Yes, Janet, I realize you aren't visiting our house until something is done about this...bird.) Anyway, the first night we had him we told Grace to tell him "night, night." She said, "Night, night Duckity." Thus his name. :) I love having kids...and I think we'll have some fun with our first family pet, even though he is a little unusual.

Finished!

We now have a kindergarten graduate in our home. Libby has been going to preschool, but she has such a love of learning that she was ready for me to teach her at home this year, as well as preschool. So, she has now finished her kindergarten curriculum and still has a few weeks left of preschool. Who would have imagined that...she graduated kindergarten before preschool. :)

She is looking forward to starting first grade within the next month. In fact, the first thing she said to me when I got home from my homeschool convention was, "Did you buy something hard for me?" Well, you know what I'll be up to for the next month. Preparation! I have most of the supplies bought and have even designed a weekly schedule in Excel so I can have everything at my fingertips that I need. I just have to get some of the copy work done and, more challenging, try to get Grace's mini-curriculum around. This year she has just sat with us and cut, colored and pasted in her coloring books. It wasn't a big deal and I WANTED her in the room with us so that her mind would at least filter some of the information (probably more than I realize) through it. This year, though, I want her to have some "centers" where she can be working on different skills instead of the same thing every day. Who knows...maybe I'll let her have a "color, cut, paste" center some of the time too. :)

Happy summer for all of those who are finishing this year of school and quite glad for it! As for us...off to more school. :)

Fun with Color

Yesterday, daddy was busy helping a friend move all day. While he was gone the kids and I had some friends over, got some school done, and just hung out. Toward the end of the day I decided to pull out my book full of wild and crazy concoctions and let Libby choose something to get goofy with. Her choice was "bath finger paints". It worked out perfectly because they needed to get their Saturday baths anyway. :) So, I mixed them up and the girls had a blast with them. Here are a few of the early pictures. I should have taken pictures of the colorful bath tub at the end of their bath. They had so much fun and when they were done, Libby wiped the tub down with a wet wash rag and I followed along with a dry wash rag. Voila! Right back to normal. We will definitely use this recipe again. :)

Angry Libby

Tonight Libby chose not to finish her supper. Usually, that's not a big deal, but tonight...was a little different. First of all, she told her Parents As Teachers lady today that it is one of her favorite meals (spaghetti with butter). Secondly, she immediately asked for dessert. She was a bit stunned and angry by the resounding NO she got from mommy and daddy and started to ball her head off. So, she was sent to her bedroom where she proceeded to scream even louder. I told her I didn't want to hear anymore and she needed to shut her door. The door did not go shut, but the sound stopped, so I left it alone...until quite awhile later when she still hadn't come out of her bedroom. I went in her bedroom and this is what her bed looked like. It didn't look like she was under there, but I checked anyway...NOPE!

Then, I noticed her closet door was shut...it isn't usually. So, I opened it.

Here is what I found. No, this 5 year old doesn't need naps anymore! No way!

Hello

...is anybody there?

My Princesses