Ocean Camp - Day 2

Today we made fishy soaps. It was a fun little activity and turned out pretty cute. If you're interested in how we did it, let me know and I'll post a little how-to. Anyway, here are some pics from camp.

Elizabeth's 2nd Haircut

BEFORE
DURING AFTER

Happy Anniversary

Ok, so I'm only 14 days late, but better late than never.

A couple of weeks ago Dave and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. I can't believe it has been that many years. In some ways it seems like we've been together our whole lives and in some ways I feel like we're newlyweds.

Dave is an amazing husband and I feel so blessed to be married to him.

He is a spiritual leader for me and our family and is always growing in his walk with the Lord. He challenges me to grow because I don't want to get left behind. :)
One of my favorite things about him is that he makes me laugh, ALL THE TIME. We always joke that he can just look at me and I start laughing. I love having someone around to laugh with.

There are a bazillion other amazing things I could say about him, but I'm tired and my brain isn't really thinking very well.

So, babe, just know that I love you and can't wait for many more years of laughter and fun with you.

And now on to the presents...Back in April I started making our bed everyday - like really making it, not just pulling the covers up - thanks to flylady. Now that I was doing it, it became very obvious that our bed was boring - not horrible, but just not much pizazz. And our walls were kind of bare too. I've had fabric since before Elizabeth was born that I have been planning on making pillows with. Well, I finally decided to just do them. And the crazy thing is that I got 3 pillows done in 1 day - something I've been putting off for years. Anyway, enough talk, here are the pictures.

Before:After:And another little piece of art that I added to the walls. I love the word art things.Dave met the kids and me for lunch and had a dozen roses for me. And then surprised me with dinner at the Melting Pot. YUM! It was a wonderful anniversary.

Camp is Back

So, we had to cancel camp for the 2 weeks that we had swimming lessons, but today we started again.
This week is ocean camp.
We made an ocean in a bottle with colored water and oil. Then read the Bible story where Jesus calms the sea. We made the ocean get really crazy with big waves and then let it calm to see what it did when Jesus said, "Be still."

James' First Hair Cut

BEFORE

DURINGAFTER

If I Had a Hammer...

Elizabeth has just recently discovered one of my favorite activities as a kid. Evan and I used to always do this back scratching thing with my parents – do different animals, movements, etc. on each others backs – like an anteater or a spider or something like this. Well, Elizabeth has gotten into this and so she and I were doing this a few mornings ago. She did several that she had done with my parents recently – toothbrush and hammer – and then I told her to do a saw. She said, “wait, first I have to do the nail gun.” And then proceeded to make just the sound that I would have made for a pneumatic nail gun and do a little poke on my back.
Dave does not have a nail gun, although he wishes he did. But, we have some very good friends who are literally building their house from scratch. They obviously have a nail gun and we get to use it on occasion. So, Elizabeth has been around it when we've all been working on various projects - including our awesome shed that we built last year. So, thanks to Richard for introducing Elizabeth to the finer things in life. She'll be framing her own little playhouse in no time.

What's in a Name?

Life in our house has officially become insane. I still don't really know how this is happening, but I am having no time to keep up with the blog these days. I'm hoping once swim lessons end tomorrow things will get a little more back to normal...now, on to the real reason for this post.
Elizabeth, James, and I were driving today and Elizabeth and I had this conversation:
E - Mommy, I want to call James something different.
P - Ok, what do you want to call him?
E - I mean I want to change his name.
P - Well, we can't change his name, because we already named him James.
E - Oh.
P - Well, if we did change his name, what would you want to call him?
E - Ummmmmmmmmmmmm, Rootgen.
P - Oh well, that's unusual, you don't hear that name very often.
Where does she come up with these things? I was cracking up. I know that cruel kids can find things to make fun of you no matter what your name is, but Rootgen just seems to open yourself up for anything. There's no way I'm sending my boy into jr high with a name like Rootgen. I think we'll just stick with James.

Birthday Tea Party

Elizabeth and I went to her friend Reese's tea party this weekend.

Watching Shamu Together

Cooking Camp Day 5

We cooked our own playdough. It was fun and actually worked pretty well. Camp this week has been pretty much nonexistent. We were supposed to have music camp, but we've just been too busy.

The Park

Here are some pictures from our Mommies Group morning at the park. James constantly blows me away with how different he is from his sister. I asked Dave what Elizabeth would have done if we had taken her to the park at James' age (10 1/2 months). His answer was the same as my thoughts - sat in the corner and played with the mulch. What did James do? Climbed on the playground equipment, laughed at all the kids running around him, ate the mulch, and had the older kids following him around and playing with him. They are like night and day. What a wonderful thing to watch the difference in the way God made them. It makes me excited to see how He will use their unique personalities to further His kingdom. I can't wait.
the tire model:
yummystrong girlhappy boy

I'm back

At least briefly... It has been a crazy week. I'm not really sure what happened, but all of a sudden I have no time to do anything. So, I have a bunch of stuff to blog about, but no time to blog. Elizabeth started swimming lessons this week, so that's been an adventure. She was super excited Tuesday and all ready to go. She did great. Then yesterday she didn't want to go and pretty much did this soft, whimper kind of cry the whole time. Today was much better again. So, hopefully tomorrow will be good too.

First Day:

Second Day:

Cooking Camp Day 4 - CANCELLED

Last week when I was planning cooking camp I decided to let Elizabeth pick one thing to cook - anything she wanted to. I told her she could decide and gave her a while to think about it. I actually talked to her about it on the way to school and told her to think about it. So, on our way home from school, she said she had decided what she wanted to cook. I asked her what and she said barbecue. Ahhh, that's her Daddy's girl, and her Beto's girl, and her Poppy's girl. Yes, Dave and my dad and Dave's dad all love to barbecue - and I think my brother does too, but don't quote me on that one, and actually Dave's sister does too. So, it's in her blood.
So, the plan for tonight was to bbq - this would have to be Daddy's Cooking Camp because Mommy doesn't know how to bbq. But, this afternoon when it was naptime, I told Elizabeth that if she was going to bbq tonight she would have to take a nap. (Elizabeth is the kind of girl that really needs her sleep - so if she doesn't take a nap we try to start putting her to bed at 6:00.) So there would be no time for bbqing if she didn't take a nap. And she said she didn't want to take a nap. So, that was fine, but we didn't bbq. And we won't bbq tomorrow night, b/c we're going to Sea World - woohoo!

Cooking Camp Day 3

Well, I haven't taken pictures yet, but yesterday we decorated cooking spoons and made them into little people. I'll take pictures and post them soon.

Cooking Camp Day 2

Cooking camp continued today with a trip to Krispy Kreme to watch them "cook" the doughnuts. And while we there we just HAD to sample some too. Yummy!

Cooking Camp Day 1

This summer I decided that Elizabeth and I will do weekly, themed camps. I have a theme for each week and an activity every day related to that theme. Most of them are simple activities, but just something fun for us to do everyday.
This week is cooking camp. Elizabeth loves to help me cook.
I am trying to incorporate a Bible story into each week, so today we read about Jesus feeding the 5000 then cooked fish and bread for dinner. It was fun.

Last Day of School

Friday was Elizabeth's last day of her first year of "school" (really Kid's Day Out). She's come a long way from when we dropped her off for her first day of school last September. She went in that first day really sad - she did not want us to leave her. She didn't really say much to anyone and it took a long time for her to start talking. She now talks to the other kids and has a couple of friends - Erin & Mercedes. But, she still doesn't talk to the teachers, maybe that will come next year. :)

Walking in to her last day with her teachers' gifts

We started a new tradition of getting a little welcome to summer activity box - filled with a couple of toys, some craft supplies, soem coupons for summer actvities (Sea World, zoo, etc.) and other fun stuff.Here we are doing one of the craft projects in her little box. This takes me back to Vacation Bible School. I love these little bead crafts.And our 2nd tradition - going out for ice cream on the last day of school.

Teacher Gifts

Well, sewing has been a little slow lately. But, I was able to embroider these cute little lunch boxes for Elizabeth's teachers. They were such a blessing to our shy little one this year. I feel so grateful for the way they took care of her this year and was glad to be able to give them something they will hopefully enjoy. I've got 2 Tiny Tot orders this week, so the other projects will have to be put on hold for a while longer.

Birthday Party

Well, we had a milestone this week. Elizabeth went to her first birthday party for one of her friends that we didn't know. This is one of her friends from school. So, it was kind of fun to take her. She had a good time. It was at a place that has all these bounce house things. Elizabeth liked the "Elmo one" and wouldn't really go into the other ones because they were too close to the huge Batman that she was afraid of.

Scary Batman guyYummy chocolate ice creamMercedes and Elizabeth

James, the carnivore

James is a pretty good eater and pretty much eats if there is food in front of him. Here's a video of him eating fajita meat a couple of weeks ago. He was eating it as fast as I would give it to him. He's just like his mama - I LOVE meat.

My 2 Kids

A couple of weeks ago Dave and I were trying to get a little more sleep on a Saturday morning. Elizabeth got up at 7 and was kind of playing and stuff. Then she came in and told us that James was awake. So, I was still in bed just kind of resting and she was in James' room. I could hear her playing with him. So, when I got out of bed, this is what I came into.