Valentine's Day

We got lots of celebration in for Valentine's this year. On the actual day, I hung up the girls artwork and cards from their doors (this is the best pic I got of it). Caleb got them candy hearts and a balloon. We also went to Chickfila with some friends to celebrate. They were giving out carnations and balloons. The Austin beggars also were festive with Valentine's signs, one who we gave a bag to, gave Lydia a little plastic rose that were decorating his sign.

We had a family dinner at home (where we had candles and made Lydia stay in her chair). Caleb got me a box of chocolates and I made chocolate covered strawberries-much different from the 14 days of Valentines when we were newlyweds, but this is a new fun season of our lives too!

D-Now

My house is a mess, we are leaving town tomorrow-what a great time to blog :)

Last weekend, we had 7th grade girls at our home for D-Now weekend. They actually weren't there that much because their days were packed, but they had breakfast with us both mornings. The leader slept in Lydia's bed and all the girls slept on Gloria's floor. Caleb was out of town hunting with Bill. The girls 'slept' in my bedroom, Lydia in her blow up Tinkerbell bed and Gloria in the pack & play. L&G were taking a bath (without toys) and were pretending Lydia was Mary, Gloria baby Jesus, me Joseph, the teenagers (who were coming soon) the shepherds and Daddy the wise man (because he was far away). Gloria looked at Lydia, "Mary" "yes Baby Jesus" I was expecting something spiritual, "Can I have a lollipop?"

Lydia needs a nightlight. Gloria does not. The first night, Gloria woke up at 3:30am, saw a light, so popped up and said-morning time!! I said, no, Gloria close your eyes its still night; finally I had to turn off the light so she would go back to sleep, several minutes later Lydia woke up and cried because no ligh; light on, Gloria up. To make a long story short, this happened multiple times until 5am, when I told Lydia she was just to have to be a big girl without a light. After several minutes of quiet, I heard Lydia whisper, "Dear Jesus, help me not be afraid."

The girls seemed to have a good weekend, and the youth leaders showered us with kindness and we are still enjoying the throughly cleaned home (except there are toys etc around now).

Valentine's Party Day!

Gloria's class.
Lydia's class singing.
Lydia & Gloria go to Mother's Day out on Tuesday (the other students also go to Thursdays but we are at Friendship then) Today after a fun Friendship day, we headed to their school for the Valentine's candy. Lydia got to drop her home made cards into each kid's bag. They both got sweets and lots of nice Valentines! Gloria wore the same dress Lydia wore when she was 2. Lydia got a new one (from the Mama Cents consignment sale!)

Snow!!

It snowed. This was the second year Lydia & Gloria got to experience it (last year at Nana & Grandpa's house). The bundled up family, I felt much better in the cold with my nose covered!
Caleb's school was cancelled for the day and we got to enjoy the snow as a family. Gloria didn't like the cold and was still feeling bad from being sick earlier in the, she went out once, started crying then we came in for breakfast, she went out again, start crying and said she wanted to go back to bed, so I put her in bed and she
Its everywhere including our fort!
Lydia & Caleb went for a walk to the pond. They got to walk on fresh snow on the side walk, see other kids playing and watch the birds on the middle the pond.

The Liturgical Year

The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister

(I get free books from Thomas Nelson by blogging about them-BookSneeze.com)

As a life-long Southern Baptist who has loved visiting Episcopal churches, the introduction made me long to attend a liturgical church. This book covers the seasons, feasts, and ordinary time of the liturgical year. But beware, it is not a book to introduce you to or tell you what the liturgical year is; it is a book that tries to bring depth, meaning and insight to one who is familiar with and follows the liturgical year. Sister Joan, with solid theology, can be wordy at times, but overall is an insightful writer who clearly finds meaning in all the exercises of following a church calendar. I learned a lot about how Passover and Easter are determined and was convicted that I don't know much about the 'Heroes' of our faith who have gone before us (but were after the cannon). We only seem to know about the commercialized one such as Valentine and Patrick, but others we can learn from as well. Though I don't anticipate a church move, this book helped me to remember the continuous growth and reflection and community needed as a believer of any background.

Regular Life

Watching the pre-State of the Union show. Gloria napped that day so she got to stay up and watch the Clap-a-thon.
About Gloria's nap-you do the math, when she takes an hour nap she is up until about 10:30 or 11 and sleeps until 8:30ish. When she doesn't take a nap she goes to sleep at 7:15 and wakes up around 8:15. So we really aren't offering a nap anymore, but it sure makes the day long!
Playing in mud on a warm day, first it was their hands, then their feet, then they wanted to put their tummies in the mud, I drew the line at taking off panties! Then the buckets went on their heads and they became witches who were killing bad guys. At least it is better than playing Rapunzel with Lydia saying over and over to me-talk like the Bad Mother!
Daddy got a turn on the swing!
Lydia had been continually asking for us to move Gloria's bed into her room so they could have a bedroom and a playroom. On Friday we said Okay because it was a slow Saturday. Gloria would have fallen asleep around 7 in her bed, but around 8:15 after they had been giggling for an hour, I moved Gloria back to her bed, lots of tears but they were both asleep in less than 10 minutes. Sorry but I love night time sleep too much for them to share a room if they don't have to!

Well the months of holidays, special events and birthday parties are over (though the girls are still singing Happy Birthday to (random) you and Gloria says Jingle Bells is her favorite song) and we are back to normal life. Every morning I say Daddy is at work and share what our day is going to look like. Gloria has roaringly entered into the 'terrible' twos, always wanting to do things herself, throwing fits and not obeying. Lydia has hit a terrible whiny stage and I feel like a loss at how to teach her perseverance (we got out her bike and she wouldn't keep pushing the petals, once it got hard she would stop) and how to stay calm when something is upsetting. They are fighting a ton, interrupting and I also don't know a good way to teach them to keep up with their cups and shoes. But in spite of it all, life is good: we are healthy and well provided for, we have wonderful friends and families and activities to be a part of. They are learning to obey, think for themselves and grow into fun loving healthy girls. God is good to us and its amazing to see so many answered prayers this year.
The other day was the first day of Friendship. After a nice morning with internationals, we had a picnic in the beautiful sunny Texas winter. Caleb was working late and Gloria doesn't nap any more so we went to Central Park, played on the playground, walked around the pond and looked at ducks (I felt like I was back in London), played some more, picked a treat at Central Market and played some more. No fighting, only a little melt-down in transition, I didn't have a camera so I wanted to record the wonderful day here.

Play time!

We set up the train for our party so the boys would have something to do besides princesses and doll :) and the girls enjoyed playing with it all day.
During our cold home bound days the girls did a lot of resting in unusually places like the kitchen floor. I thought it was a great game :)
Gloria gave up her paci for three days until I decided she wasn't really ready to do it yet (no naps and taking forever to go to sleep and fussy during rest time and in the morning, when we gave it back that night she went to sleep in less that five minutes), we'll try again at 3 years old. She had gotten a Dora doll (like Lydia's mermaid) in place of the paci but Dora is back on a shelf until she is ready!

Nothing more fun than emptying out the play cabinet and climbing in. Today they were pretending that the tile was water and sharks were trying to get them and they were mermaids on rocks.