Reading

Reese has just started to be interested in reading to Maleah. I know she has some books memorized (she recites them as she plays) but she does not like to have us watch her read aloud yet. I think it is a confidence thing, that and she does not like to be corrected. (Who does?) I am hoping she will gain confidence as she reads aloud to her sister. And Maleah sure enjoys reading with Reese!

Shaving cream letters

Decided to try out this idea many preschool teachers have told me about....using shaving cream to pracitce making letters with your fingers. Well Reese was not about to touch the shaving cream, so I let her use a Q-tip instead.




Then she got brave and decided to use her fingers....




And the letters kinda got lost in all the fun....but she sure did end up enjoying her mess!



I then decided to try whip cream, so we could lick out fingers afterwards....did not work very well at all.



Next time we will try pudding!

Avocado

My sister Kacy encouraged me to give Maleah avocado as one of her first foods. I love to eat it, so I decided to try it. At first I would just mash it with a spoon and add some water....would have added my milk, but who has time to pump....oh right, the lady who blogs everyday! ;) Anyways that was still too lumpy. Tried putting it in a bag and having Reese mash it for me, but the sight of it made her gag. So we got out the blender that Kacy got us, added a little water and it came out great without much work!



Maleah does seem to enjoy it....well she does not spit it out so I guess that means she enjoys it. And I can get 3ish meals for her (and for me) out of one avocado! Kacy tipped me off that I needed to keep the side with the seed in to keep it fresher and store it in a bag as tight as possible. Works pretty well!



And that seed/pit is pretty cool! Reese would touch that part (after I washed it) and wanted us to plant it....well then she thought about it and decided I could plant it if I wanted to eat avocado but she wasn't going to eat any! Funny kid!

Wake up!!

With this new stage that Maleah is in, Reese is able to be much more involved. She helps me get Maleah ready for her nap, loves to pick out her jammies for her, sing her a lullaby, prays for her and then turn on the fans. Maleah loves this extra attention from Reese.



When Maleah's nap is over, I ask Reese if she would like to be the first one to wake up Maleah. To my surprise she will most often drop what she is doing and hurry up the stairs to greet her sister. Love having the video monitor to see Maleah's big smile as Reese peeks over the side. Reese talks so sweetly to her as well.

Here is what Reese sees: (She took this picture)



(Side note...the Maleah picture is staged...she still sleeps swaddled and without a bib on...in case you were wondering)

I love my two sweet girls!

Book mark

This is the book marker I use in my devotional book.....keeps me all that much more motivated to know God more! :)

Things this study is getting me to think about...

• How fast my girls are growing! Reese is so big and tall now it is much harder to snuggle her...this makes me enjoy my snuggles with Maleah even more!
• Luke 2:19 thinking how Mary treasured things in her heart about Jesus and pondered them....what things do I treasure about Reese and Maleah right now and how am I letting them know I treasure these things about them.
• That I GET to be a giver of LIFE to my family! By making a meal, giving hugs, teaching fun lessons, reading good books....I get the "job" of sharing life with Matt, Reese, and Maleah!
• That being a mom is tough...such pain on the tough days and stages (can't believe I wore Maleah 8 hours a day for 3 months!!) and such amazing joy on the good days!

Spring break

Grammie and Gramps came to visit last week for what I think was their spring break, hard to tell since they are retired, must have been a break in their golf classes. :)

Anyways, the week went by fast, but I did get a couple of pictures....






Wish we had more time with you Grammie and Gramps, but we are looking forward to this summer and enjoying your beach with you! Reese will be wearing a tank top or swim suit until you see her again!! :)

Easter Sunday

Reese woke up bright and early this morning...5:30!! We convinced her to stay in bed...until 6:30. Then she cuddled in our bed for another 1/2 hour and by then she was done waiting!

She went downstairs and found her basket right away! Then she found Maleah's (who was still sleeping, good baby) and Sebbers's basket. See I made the mistake of not doing a stocking for Seb this past year, and Reese was so sad for him...so he got an Easter basket.

Maleah was woken up and can down to see her first Easter basket!





She really did seem excited to see her baby food in her basket!



Trying to get a "good" picture of the girls together is always a task....






After baskets we had breakfast of cinnamon rolls and waffles. The best part was listening to Reese sing "Christ the Lord is risen today!" over and over and make up her own songs about Christ raising up!

Maleah did her morning nap, we got her dressed quickly and then headed out to church! So thankful to be able to worship together as a family!

Egg Hunt, take two

We all went to the Gig Harbor Parks egg hunt today! It is such a nice day, total sunshine and 66 so EVERYONE was there. So fun to see so many people! Reese loved it! And this was Maleah's first egg hunt.



But what was even better was coming home and enjoying the NEW Easter pool from Grammie and Gramps!



Like her NEW swim suit from Grandma Sue? I do cause it keeps the sun from her skin!



She is still getting her share of vitamin D! :)



And they say it is suppose to rain tomorrow.... :(

Earth Day art

Decided to do this lesson yesterday and paint the earth. It was good to talk about the earth as a planet, why God created the earth and talk about the different places on earth.



In trying to get the earth picture to print, I ended up printing 5! Instead of wasting them, I decided to have Reese paint one, color with crayons, use dot markers and then oil pastels. I painted the last one.





Found out that this was a good time to go over good, better, best. Reese got a little tired of doing the same thing over and over, so in hind sight I should have read a book to her or something between each one, then I think it would have gone better.

I had her compare her work to the one I painted and Reese was able to pick out which one she did that turned out the best. The dot markers were the easiest for her to use, and I think she had the most fun doing the paint. So a printer mistake ended up for a good lesson! :)

Good Friday

Over the years (I am old, 32!!) I have come to look forward to Good Friday as well as Easter Sunday. God seems to take this time to reveal to me something I am holding onto, not trusting Him with. Then at the Good Friday service He gently brings me to my knees and helps me let go. No doubt this process is painful, but pain is not a bad thing.

Thinking about labor pains....the more I tensed up and tried to fight the pain, the worse it was for me. But, towards the end, with some epidural help, when I was able to work with my body through the pain, that felt great! Not that pain feels great, but working through pain feels great.

And the best part of all...that new life!! I know I will never forget meeting that new life for the first time, the amazing, complete joy in that moment. (I am truly grateful to Maleah Ahrens for offering her talents to capture this moment for us! Everyone should be so blessed!)

How grateful I am that God desires me so much He takes the time to clean out my sin, over and over, offering me new life so I can KNOW Him more.

Tent

Grandma Sue sent us this great tent making kit! It makes for a lot of fun on those rainy afternoons!

Watching the rain

Maleah likes to be with us, but doesn't need us to be "playing" with her all the time. She is content just to watch the rain! :)

Puppet Show

Got this idea from a book....curtain rod between a door with a curtain = instant puppet theater for cheap! We had fun going back and forth doing shows....I would do books like "Moo, BAA, LaLaLa" and she would do parts of her favorite shows. It made for some fun school time!



You just can't push on the curtain rod too hard!! :)

Dustin'

Doing her morning chores.....



Hoping Maleah is learning by watching! :)

Ice Cream Sunday...

Sure stinks being too young for ice cream!!

Easter Egg Hunting....

After our Saturday morning swim together, Reese and I headed to the Uptown Easter Egg hunt. Lucky for us our friends Nate, Rebecca and Nolan (expecting twins in 8 days!!) were there early and saved us a stop up front because if you are not up front at this hunt, you don't get any eggs!



We headed down the walk way a little to get away from the crowds and Reese had fun finding a few eggs. She was ready to stop after collecting 8 or so....ending with finding a golden egg!



The "best" part was when she decided to share her eggs with her friend, who got stuck in the back and did not get any eggs. First she shared one. Then she decided that it felt so good to share, she shared another. And Reese talked about it the whole way in the car....how she liked getting eggs but how good it felt to share, the smile it gave her to give and she was SURE Jesus was smiling at her too! That was the best part of this years egg hunt!

Hail storm!

We had a hail storm last week. It was a long one for us, lasting 2 hours. But after seeing the facebook pictures of the snow in Redlands, our spring storm is looking a little sad right now....just fine with me!! Bring on the sun!! :)

Speaking of organizing

Had Reese sort out a big mixed bag of these pom poms. I was warned that I should start with less and only a couple of colors, but to my surprise she did great! Reese decided to pretend they were different flavors of ice cream that she was scooping out for us to enjoy! Have I mentioned that I LOVE teaching my daughter?! :)

Spring reorganizing

I don't really clean. (Thankfully I married a man who not only is great at this, but also enjoys it....the man asks for a vacuum cleaner almost every holiday!)I organize!

The bookshelves made it into Reese's room for her reading corner.



And into the bathroom for those potty books!



I have been so annoyed at all the stuff that piles up, usually on the counter, that needs to go up stairs. (Man I sound like my mom!) So now we have this cute basket as a place to put those things. Working pretty well so far...just need to train the troops!



The other annoying thing was jackets! Yes it is April and yes we are still wearing jackets. Probably until June this year! We have a coat closet, but Reese can't hang her coat up there yet, and it takes more time than a hook, so my coats and Matt's coats would often join Reese's on the shoe bench. Hence the quick and easy coat hooks! Again just a little training and they will be great!



No reorganizing these two...just a cute picture of them because I love them!

The Best Book...besides the bible that is....

I am reading through a mom devotional call "Diapers, Pacifiers and Other Holy Things" by Lorraine Pinuts. I LOVE it! Each chapter is a couple pages with a good mom story that is then related to the mom's relationship with Christ. It ends with a verse to memorize and some questions with other verses to look up. It brings me to tears each day I read it! Some how the stories are speaking to just what I am struggling with. If you need a good devo this could be a good choice for you!

Every so often I want to share what I am learning through it, to encourage you and to remind me of what God is teaching me!

Using a story about peek a boo it is pointed out that we have a God who sees, not only sees but opens our eyes, with the purpose of meeting our deepest needs. I struggle with eating...I like to reward myself with treats when the girls are sleeping...some how I earned it. But God gave me this body and wants me to fill it with things that are good....food included. So no sense in hiding what I eat. God already sees it all and is ready for me to give it up and to help me to do so!

Best birthday!

I had the best birthday celebration!

Let's start with Matt....he planned ahead! :) The night before, he had Reese help him wrap presents and make a card. Then in the morning he had her help put up the birthday banner and balloons. Next he made waffles and fresh fruit for breakfast. He then took Reese with him to show a house so I could get a morning nap while Maleah slept. Matt came home and made a yummy veggie spaghetti for lunch. He got me just the cake I wanted and he bought me my own camera, so I won't whine about wanting to use his! Next he "made" pizza for dinner. He was wonderful and I felt so pampered!



Reese planned ahead as well....with some help from Grammie. As we would ride in the car listening to her music I would tell her that I liked the song "Apples and Bananas" so she would say that she would get it for me for my birthday. Grammie helped her shop online while we were in CA and I get to enjoy another Raffi CD. (No joke, I love Raffi!)



Maleah, she has been planning this for a while now, I know, but she slept at night and for her naps! Sleep is the best gift from a baby! ;)


(I know, you just saw this picture, but I LOVE it!! So you get to see it again!)

My sister Kami sent two CDs, Water mark and one of her favorites JJ Heller. Love them both and love to listen to them thinking about my sister.

My sister Kacy got me the best nose sucker! You put one end in the kids nose then the other in your mouth and suck! Works so well!! Gross, but a wonderful mommy gift!

My mom and dad sent oranges from Redlands, so sweet and yummy and great at helping us fight out colds. They also got me new running shoes!! So excited to start that habit again...it's been over a year off!

Grandma Sue and Grandpa Dan sent me some yummy snacks, which Reese made sure I shared. They also got me gloves, a mat and some thoughtful seeds to plant in the garden. Reese and I have dreams of doing a garden this spring...high hopes!!

Such thoughtful gifts and a great day with my little family! Feeling so loved and blessed as I turn 32!