Growing Up.

Yes, our little cutie's are growing up. The other day Annora had a cookie...

... and loved it, of course.

And on the note of food, we have recently learned how different the taste buds of our children are. Maddie has never cared for meat, unless it's in the processed variety, but she loves milk and cheese. Annora won't touch milk or cheese, not even the once loved cottage cheese, and she loves meat. Even spicy meat! We've recently brought in a new rule to our dinner table that many may find familiar "You must eat one bite before you leave the table". There are variations of this in almost every household. Maddie is finally in a place where she can understand this, and thus it begins...we've had some very long dinners lately. Our first night we had victory and she ate turkey, and then it dawned on her that it was good and she gobbled it up! Monday was not so good. Let me just say that in the end there was a large pile of food and milk on the table and someone had to eat it. I can tell you that it would have been a lot more tasty if she would have tried it while we were all still at the table when it was warm and not squished all together.

Tuesday night Maddie saw her trike in the garage coming home and decided she wanted to ride it. She's been really hesitant about riding either of her bikes, or her 4 wheeler. I would have been happy to oblige at that moment had it not been bedtime already. So, I told her it would be waiting for her in the morning. She pushed it around the house all day (she thinks the pedals don't work). Then when Ryan came home he wanted to see if she would ride the 4 wheeler. She did.

Today is Annora's birthday. Yeah for 1! We had ice cream for breakfast, mixed with oatmeal means it's healthy right!? And she got to wear her special crown and play with a new doll! I think later I'm going to let her stir the cake! What a big girl!

Thank you Whittakers!

Danny and Betsy, hope you are reading.

So, a couple years ago our friends came to visit. They live in Singapore where Danny is a teacher. Their little guy is Maddie's age. And with them they brought Maddie the most beautiful little outfit. Too big for her 6 month old body at the time, but it's been in her dresser ever since. I've had it in her pajama drawer lately as she's been only into dresses and thought they'd make really comfy sleep clothes...which turn into daytime play clothes ;) But Madeleine is very particular about most things in life. I think this might be a toddler/preschool phase. She likes to choose her pajamas, and she always has in mind which she wants, and more often than not the ones she has in her mind are dirty. So now the routine is that she opens the drawer and picks out what she wants. A couple nights ago she opens the drawer, throws everything out looking for "the princess mermaid pajamas that mommy sewed that Maddie cut with pink scissors", which were dirty. As I am explaining this to her, she looks at the pile of clothes and picks out the red paints and says, "Hmm. What's this. I never tried this before. Let me try it." And she proceeds to put the pants on and then finds the shirt. We've dubbed them the "Mulan" outfit. I was very happy to see her put it on. I've wanted her to wear it for quite some time, but it's very hard to get her to wear what you want her to these days. It's one of those battles I don't think is important in life, so I drop it most days. She wore them up till she got under the covers. That's when she realized they weren't the "princess mermaid pajamas mommy sewed that maddie cut with pink scissors". Ha! Good thing we have more than one pair of mermaid pajamas.

8

I love this man.

From the ends of my hair to the tip of my toenails.

I'm so glad we're not perfect...

that would make life boring.

I'm so glad I have this special person to walk through life with.

To experience God with.

To share my joy with.

Happy Anniversary.