Mission Trip

I will be blogging this next week over at bearcreekmissions.blogspot.com
I am so excited to see what all God is going to do!

Playing Together

This really blesses my heart! So thankful for a husband who is willing to get in the floor and play with our kids!

School News

We have officially registered both kids for a Tuesday/Thursday Mother's Day Out program.  It is at a church literally 5 minutes from my school so that's a blessing.  I am a little sad that my kids are old enough to go to school.  However, we are VERY excited about the socialization that both kids will get.  The kids are around other children during Sunday school and Wednesday night programs, but mom and dad are always just around the corner.  I am excited for Claire and Cole to be "under" someone else's authority and see how they do.  Just praying that we don't have to have too many parent/teacher conferences...

We are still fervently praying for a Monday/Wednesday option to come available.  We wanted everything to be solidified by this Friday but now we are feeling the need to wait. There are some variables that could open some spots up at the place we want to be...and God could have other options for us still.  We are waiting on His timing to show us what to do!

Skating

Our church rented out a skating rink for a fun Wednesday night fellowship.  I haven't skated since I was a senior in high school and the kids have never skated.

They both did really great!  Cole's skates were locked so he didn't have any trouble.  Claire was having trouble but then they tightened her skates and she was soon pulling herself along the rail as fast as she could!

Several of Claire's friends came and they were all super cute on their roller skates!

We had over 70 people at the skating rink - Not sure if that was 70 people skating or total.  It was such a fun night and we can't wait to do it again!

Praying for child care

Would you please join Michael and me as we pray fervently for our kid's preschool next year? We have a couple of choices for a tuesday/Thursday Mothers Day Out programs. The problem comes on Monday/Wednesday programs. They are full. There is one place that has spots but it is $100 per child more than all the rest. So we are praying that God would make spots available. He is bigger and can do more than we could ask or imagine. So we are praying with a boldness that he would put the kids where He wants them. Thank you for joining us in this!!

Just some pictures

These are some random pictures I took the day before Cole's birthday and totally forgot that I took them!

He got a bubble mower from his Mimi and he loves it

Claire Prays

We pray with Claire on a daily basis.  We are teaching her that God hears our prayers.  We are teaching her that He answers our prayers - but sometimes not the way we want Him to.  We are teaching her to pray with boldness in all things. So...here some of the things she has been praying for...

1. Mommy, I'm asking God to give you 2 babies in your tummy.  I want a brother and a sister.  She goes into her room, gets on her bed and proceeds to ask God to give her a brother and sister at the same time, she asked that God would make those babies grow quickly so she can take care of them! 

Um...Michael and I just looked at each other and laughed.  Michael then asked her if God answered her prayers where we were going to put those 2 babies.  Claire said, we will get rid of some of my toys and put 2 baby beds in my room and they can sleep with me! Holy moly that is super sweet! Not so sure we are on board with her plan :)

2. Claire decided to pray and ask God for a bigger room.  She would like it the size of mommy and daddy's room with her own bathroom.  This happened 3 days after the baby prayer so not sure if this is connected...

3.  She is praying very hard that God would make her nose not stuffy.

4. She has been praying that God would give her a new preschool that she could make friends at!

5. Every night she prays that God would give her good dreams and not bad dreams and lots of rest.

Our sweet praying girl.  I love her faith and belief!

Cole's Quilt

My grandma made Cole a quilt for his birthday.  It is a really cute ABC quilt.  It has been on his bed for several days now and each morning when he wakes up Michael and I can hear him pointing to the pictures on the quilt and talking about the quilt.  It's a really sweet moment in the morning!  I'm so glad he will have this quilt forever.

Cole's 2 year well check

Today Cole had his 2 year well check.  This is the appointment where you have to fill out the very long questionnaire about how developed your child is in different areas.  Our pediatrician was very on time today so I didn't have the questionnaire filled out when she came in so we went through it together. Here are his stats - he is 35 1/2 inches tall and in the 80th percentile for height and he weighs 27 pounds which puts him in the 40th percentile for weight.  She said he is just going to be a tall and lanky boy!  After talking to him she said that he is above average for his communication and verbal skills.  She said that it is not how he sounds but how well he communicates. She said that he sounds great too and she can understand almost everything he said.  She said for communication skills he's almost above average for a 3 year old! On his questionnaire he fell in the high or above average range on every area except gross motor skills which we knew he would fall low on.  His leg doesn't allow him to walk up 4 steps with out putting his hands on the step, and he can't run for more than 30 seconds with out running. He also can sometimes but not always jump with both feet coming off the ground.  She said usually she gives a long list of how parents should help them achieve these or become better at these skills but this is something that he will have to adapt to and what we are doing is on the right track.  We just have to give him lots of opportunities at the skills and then he will adapt himself to them.  So if you have stairs in your house we would like to come and use them - ha! It did make me a little sad that he will always (or until his leg is fixed) be behind in this area. But, then I look at him and see that he does walk, run, jump, kick a ball, and climb and that he has taught himself how to adapt his leg to those activities and it makes me so happy that he is one VERY determined little boy!
The next round of shots he has is the Hepatitis vaccines and he is not heavy enough for them yet so we are waiting until he turns 3. So no shots today. They did check his blood levels and his iron is right on the cusp of being low.  Anything below 10 is low and anything above 10 is great and he was a 10. So she just said to make sure he has some sort of dairy product at each meal if he is not going to eat meat.
The best part of this visit was that Cole did not cry at all.  He was very talkative for the doctor and showed off all of his skills for her!  He didn't even cry when they pricked his finger!

Creek Week VBS

We have been having so much fun this week at VBS! This is Claire's first real year to go to VBS. She is loving traveling from station to station. Her favorite parts of the week are Buford the Bear puppet and dancing to the music!!

This girl LOVES to dance

Sweet picture

Mustache Monday

Tacky Tourist Tuesday

I'm in charge of crafts and this is my awesome youth crew

Wing Wednesday

Buford the Bear

Preschoolers in a box!

My little pudding face boy

She looks really grown up here :(

Cole's 2nd Birthday Party

Cole's party was exactly how I wanted it to be!  It was just the right amount of people for Cole - although he was a little overwhelmed at first when people started arriving.  I was able to talk with people there and enjoy my family and friends!  Cole had a TON of fun.  All in all it was a perfect day!  Get ready for picture overload!

My window ready for Cole's birthday

Happy Birthday banner created with my cricut

In the bottom left corner is one of Cole's presents - a train table that turns back into a coffee table!

 The backyard

You can see another of Cole's gifts - his amazing sandbox!

 Again...my mom is amazing!!! I created the pow, zap, boom and his name with my cricut

Batman and Robin!

Created these sponge bombs from pinterest - SUPER easy and a lot of fun!  We are going to make more of them soon!!

 He was insane in this jeep...I thought someone was going to get hurt!

Sweet pregnant Melanie cooling her feet while her Jillian is occupied playing!

I can't remember what he said exactly...but this is my "you're ridiculous" face for Michael

My amazingly talented sister painted this for Cole's room!!

 He is crying here because he wants to play with his toys and not eat cake

 Once we got him his new batman figure he was happy again

Everyone is singing to me!

May all your wishes come true this year!

 I created an ice discovery block for the the party. It had a ton of little goody bag treats in it that they had to work to get out.  I will post about how to make it on my Pinterest blog

My niece is adorable!

Happy Birthday Cole!!!