I love December!

December is such a magical time of year. It is a wonderful time of remembering our Savior's entrance into this world. And it is filled with special music, wonderful food, parties, and on and on. Having children absolutely keeps the magic of the time of year alive. The girls are having such fun with all the festivities. We decided to do an Advent activity each night after dinner. The activity is small - a craft, a treat, a story, but it is something to look forward to do each evening as a family. The girls, especially Elise, are very into it, and I had such fun brainstorming and planning each evening's activity. Here are a few pictures from our December so far. 

Hot Cocoa at Twin H Tree Farm

Choosing out trees with the Arnolds

Decorating

Some of the Advent activities - ornaments, snowflakes, and Build that Snowman - Cooties style (the game)

I just love Lilah's snowman - melted apparently - it has been a warm December

Hot chocolate bar night - toppings included peppermint, Crunch bar pieces (still eating our Halloween candy), and marshmallows

Elise's Letter - Five Years

Elise,

How can it be that you are five?! It was amazing watching you grow and learn this year. You always impress me with your sharp mind, your keen memory, and your ability to figure things out. You have taken to makth, you love to be read to, and I am trying to teach you to read.

Above all else, you are a social girl. you like your social calendar to be full, and ask me frequently, "Who will be there?" when I tell you our plans. You have very special friend who you love dearly, but you get along with absolutely everybody and are eager to relate to others by liking what they like. Because of your desire to please others, decision-making is difficult for you. If you realize your opinion is different from the rest, you will change it to be like others. Even if you sense that your choice is different than mine or Daddy's, you will change to accomodate us. It is a sweet quality, but I also want you to learn to be confident in your own opinion and choices. (You'll be able to learn this form Lilah - she has this down :). And she will learn to be accomodating through you.)

Speaking of Lilah, you are a wonderful big sister to her. You play very nicely with her, and are eager for her to wake from her nap, so you can get to playing. The two of you have very different personalities, which can clash at times, but there is a deep bond between you as well. It is my constant prayer that you will be great friends and advocates for each other as you grow.

You are a girl full of ideas. Sometimes you ask me to do three different things in one minute because your mind is racing with the possibilities. You often lead play because you have a lot of imaginative ideas of what you can do. We are working on asking others what they would like to do rather than assuming they are up for your idea, and you are doing a great job at this!

Your understanding of Jesus grows daily, and you love to talk about what it means to love Jesus. You have received a wonderful Christian education at Faith Lutheran. Because of your great memory, you remember pretty much all of the Bible stories.

You continue to be a super-clumsy kid (you fell backwards into the bathtub this week), but you are very tough and rarely get legitimately hurt. You are funny, insightful, smart, and caring. You are easy going and easy to please. Just like your daddy, you are a great balance to my personality, which makes mothering you so much fun!

Right now, these are some things you love:
Dance parties with Daddy
Taylor Swift
Fresh Beat Band
Crafting with Mommy (or Steph)
Reading, stories, theatre, movies, tv (anything with a story)
Fashion dolls
Disney princesses
Socializing
Academic 'fun' work - figuring out puzzles, mazes, word games, etc.

I just love being your mom, Elise! Happy Birthday!

We Love Fall!

It has been a crazy eight weeks with my new job. I've certainly been busier than I'd like to be, but all in all, we are making the best of the time we have. It has been one of the most beautiful Fall seasons I can remember, and it looks like we are going to get another mild week weather-wise. I'm hoping for a hike or drive through Brown County State Park one day this week.
 Here are a few pictures from our fall so far.

Appleworks

Freeman Family Farm - Elise and her buddy Blythe

Harvest Night at with Church

Elise's Fieldtrip - They were supposed to go to a farm, but it was too wet, so it was off to the Mathers Museum instead. Elise is in a 1950s style house in this picture.

And in a cave at the Museum - who knew these things were in Bloomington?!

Annual Pumpkin Carving Party with our original 'newly married' small group. I'm going to see if I can dig up all the old pictures for a post.

The girls all dressed up

Daddy and Elise carving

Lilah crafting - we made 'Foot Ghosts' and 'Hand Spiders'

Transitions and New Fall Goals

Well, the last few weeks are absolutely marked by transition. I am back to work after a wonderful summer off. I am now teaching a brand new class at IU helping freshmen business students chart their path. My classes are from 5:30-10 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday nights. That has been, well, not the best, but manageable. I enjoy the work, but just don't love the hours. By the end of the night I feel a little loopy and struggle to form coherent sentences.Wes spends those evenings with the girls, and seems to be enjoying the extra bonding time with them.

The girls returned to school a few weeks ago as well. Elise is in her pre-kindergarten class, and Lilah is in the 'Bear' room. They both seem to be enjoying themselves and doing very well at school. Lilah started potty training about the time she returned to school and is doing great. We had an all undies weekend, and she was accident-free!

The girls and I both have had our moments - emotional outbursts and such - as we transition to a new schedule. Change is hard on everyone. But, we are hanging in there and will come to enjoy our new schedule, I'm sure (though not as much as the summers off....)

With the holiday weekend, we wanted to do something fun together as a family, but the weather wasn't too cooperative for some of my ideas, so we crossed one more item off our summer list. We loaded up on the bus as a family and traveled downtown for lunch and a walk around campus. Then we loaded back up on the bus. The girls seemed to get a kick out of it.

So, with the fall upon us, I've started a small list of fun, family things we want to do. Not quite the ambitious list of the summer, but some things to look forward to.

1. Appleworks (it has become an annual tradition)
2. Hunter's Honey Farm (you get a tour and get to roll your own candle)
3. Spring Mill State Park (this is a carry over from the summer)

 Well, that is all I have so far, but I'm sure I will think of more....

Waiting for the bus (it wasn't raining, but they wanted to play with the umbrellas)

On the bus!

Elise on the bus!

We walked around campus - Lilah in her independent fashion, didn't want Elise touching her, so she scooted far away and pouted.)

Happy Second Birthday Lilah!

Happy second birthday Lilah June! It is bittersweet for me to say that. It is so fun watching you grow, but two means you are definitely not a baby anymore. How does the time go so quickly?! We had a wonderful celebration of your birthday this weekend. We swam and cooked out with Nana and Papa J, Grandmama and Papa T, and Uncle Jon, Aunt Christi, and Katherine. It was a perfect setting for you - a small group of people who love you and who you love dearly.

It is such fun to watch your personality emerge more each day. You are bashful around people you don't know. When strangers talk to you, you cast your eyes down and become a statue, as though they might not see you if you stood still enough.

In your comfort zones though, you are active, talkative, and ready to play. You love to play with your sister and her friends, but you also like to busy yourself doing your own thing - which is usually caring for your dolls and cooking in the play kitchen. You like to sing, 'Rock a baby' to your dolls, change their diapers, put them on the potty, and feed them. You like to act out the the things you see in life - cooking, carrying purses, and other nurturing, domestic activities. While you don't mind being an observer or staying close to Mommy when we are out and about, at home you are quite busy. 

Your vocabulary expands more each day. You like to tell me about what you see - 'Neigh, Mama,' 'Baby, Mama,' 'Snack, Mama.' You like to sing and dance. Right now you especially enjoy 'Manamana' from the Muppets. You sing, 'Do do manamana.' Very cute! You, Elise, and Daddy like to have dance parties in the evening after dinner.

You are generally sweet and up for anything, but you have an independent and stubborn streak as well. You like to be able to do things on your own and get very frustrated when you need help. I admire your drive and persistence, even if it makes my life more difficult at times. You remain a picky eater, but are getting better. The only way I can get you to eat veggies is pureed, which is better than nothing.  You'd prefer to eat goldfish crackers for every meal....

Lilah, your daddy and I love you to pieces. You are just as sweet and cute as can be. Happy birthday!

July List Update

It is hard to believe my two months of time off is coming to a close as of August 1. I have thoroughly enjoyed this extra time with the girls as well as having some extra moments to do other things I enjoy - nap, read for pleasure, and complete household projects to name a few. I have had a couple of great garage sale finds this season that I will have to post at some point. But, this entry is to update where we are in our list of summer fun. It really has been awesome to have this list. When I've had a day where I'm not sure what we are going to do, I already had the brainstorming complete and could just choose what was feasible for that day.

Our most recent list item occured today when we visited the animal shelter. We stopped at Kroger on the way to get some treats, pet food, and toys to donate while we were there. The girls thoroughly enjoyed playing with the cats. Rather than having the cats caged, they have 'cat colonies' where the cats could roam freely in a room. 

Elise also attended 'Spirit Camp' last week, which was the Vacation Bible School at Faith Lutheran. She had a wonderful time, and now is very excited for preschool to get started again.

I don't think we'll thoroughly complete this list before the summer's close, but we'll keep chipping away at the remaining items into the fall.

Elise on the last day of Spirit Camp

Making a mailbox wasn't on the list, but I didn't have any other list pictures to share. We pinned this tutorial on Pinterest and when we ordered a new carseat, we had the perfect box for the occasion. The girls, especially Elise, spent a good hour and a half making, depositing, and opening mail. (This is a great feat because very little holds Elise's attention.)

1. Go to Holiday World
2. Go to Columbus, IN for children's museum and indoor playground
3 Indianapolis Children's Museum with friends
4. Paint a canvas
5. Outside tea party
6. Go to the Splash Pad
7. Visit Blythe, Uncle, Tim, Aunt Molly and Colton in Chicago
8. Potato Stamps
9. Make Giant Bubbles with the kiddy pool
10. Invite friends over to swim
11. Go to every public playground in Bloomington (there are 15) - About half way through
12. Visit Nana and Papa J
13. Invite Katherine down from Indy to swim
14. Go to the zoo with Katherine
15. Go to the Paynetown Beach for a picnic and splashing
16. Go on a nature hike
17. Visit the animal shelter
18. Go to a farm
19. See the True Story of the Three Little Pigs  - Had to replace this with Beauty and the Beast because the other sold out before we bought tickets - Elise and Wes are going this weekend
20. Go to Jumping Joey's when it opens
21. Walk to Bruester's (hopefully we'll do this more than once this summer!)
22. Swim lessons
23. Vacation Bible School
24. Ride bikes on the B-Line Trail
25. Ride city bus to the Chocolate Moose
26. Lunch with Papa T at the IMU
27. Read all 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know - Only 22 more to go!
28. Build ice cream sundaes
29. Make fruit pizza
30. Visit the Pioneer Village at Spring Mill State Park
31. Bowling
32. Do something kind for someone else

Mini-Vaca

Elise wants to go to Disney. Really bad. It is expensive to go to Disney. But, totally worth it, I'm guessing. Imagining Elise meeting 'Real Belle' warms my insides. It will be special....

Relevance to this blog post - we didn't get to go on a real vacation this summer. However, we had a great mini-vacation in Chicago and Lake Geneva. We got to spend time with our good friend Sarah and her kiddos on Thursday, play around the city on Friday, and then head to Lake Geneva with family on the weekend. It was a wonderful getaway (and I would have welcomed a few more days :).

Things are starting to get busy here as we near August. It will be a transition of school and work after a lazy, fun summer, though I hope to get a few more of our list items knocked off before the summer officially comes to a close (list post update coming soon.)

Family

We had the greatest blessing of getting to spend time with our entire family on each side in one week's time. Josh, Rachel, and Caleb were in Indianapolis for Alex's wedding. Wes and Lilah got to meet Caleb for the first time, and Elise and I got to see how much he's grown since March. He is a sweet, smiley baby and cute as you can fathom. 

 

 At the end of the week we traveled to Chicago and then on to Lake Geneva for an Erwin family gathering. We so appreciate Tim and Molly's generosity in inviting us to the lake and enjoying the beautiful, relaxing atmosphere. Colton was busy crawling and pulling himself up - he'll certainly be walking the next time we see him.

Wes and I are so fortunate to have two families who enjoy and love each other - we realize how rare that can be. We attribute so much of that to our wonderful parents - thanks to each of you.

4th of July in Bloomington

Lilah didn't love parade this year - too noisy!

There is nothing that quite says "Happy Independence Day" like the 4th of July Parade in Bloomington. It is the wackiest display of freedom of speech you'll come across.

Elise got to meet up with her good friend Molly

Elise said it wasn't scary taking a necklace from this 'Fourth of July Skeleton' - anything for jewelry