Nearly Two Months

I can't believe our little Aliya Evelyn is nearly two months old. She's getting big and wearing 3-6 months clothes now and graduating to size 2 diapers. She has a doctor's appointment next Friday. I'll post how much she weighs and how long she is then. I was able to capture a big smile on camera...enjoy!

Weather Girl

Madison loves Preschool at Harvest Church. Above you can see some of her crafty work at school. They made some beautiful paper mache hats. She accents with "doctor glasses." Every day she gets to preschool and runs in to see if she has a job or if she's "on vacation." This past Monday, she was the "Weather Girl." I think I'd take the weather from this funny looking character very seriously!

Fusion was a blast!

So we made it through Fusion and I would say it was went pretty well and I enjoyed myself. The added challenge of having Aliya at practices and preparation was something new. Thankfully, the cast seems to love Aliya, so we got lots of help with them holding her. Derrick was really excited to act the part of his character, Gordo. It was fun to see him on stage. 

We had a huge crowd and the performance was one of our better ones. It's so rewarding to see the actors and families attending having fun and enjoying themselves. I will post pictures as soon as I get them from our photographer. 

One more quick note, Aliya slept 8 1/2 hours last night! She's as cute as ever and starting to smile more often.

Back to Work

We made it! We all survived my first week back to work. It went amazingly well. Aliya started sleeping even better at night (one night, over 7 hours), so that helped a lot. Madison & Breanne were excited to get back to church to play and hang out with their friends and teachers. Fusion is next Tuesday, November 18, so I was concerned about being overwhelmed with so much to do. God has helped me work efficiently and I don't feel overwhelmed and actually feel kinda ready for the production next Tuesday. I'll have to let you know how it goes. Thanks to all of you who prayed for our transition and a special thanks to my sister, Traci & mother-in-law, Barb who provided the meals in our freezer that we used for dinner this week! That was super helpful!!

I'm posting a picture of the girls right before bed last night. Madison & Breanne love it when Aliya snuggles in bed with them.

U is for Underwear

Every week Madison's Preschool class learns a new letter or number. On Fridays, the children are encouraged to bring something that starts with that letter for Show & Tell. This week the letter is U. On the way home from Preschool Monday, we were starting to discuss what in the world we would bring that starts with the letter U. Any ideas out there besides umbrella? To be funny, I said she should bring underwear. She seriously thought that was a great idea even though I kept telling her that's "kinda weird." On Wednesday after Preschool, she climbed into the van and said that she, Anneka and JoJo were all going to bring underwear for Show & Tell. (The less crazy kids were bringing umbrellas.)

Last night, I thought about Ursula, the "bad guy" in The Little Mermaid. I recalled a book about Ursula from the library and tried to convince Madison that we should bring that book for Show & Tell. She simply said, "No, I'm bringing underwear." Thankfully, at the library I found a book entitled, Authur's Underwear. So what should she bring: Authur's Underwear or her underwear?

Of Mice and Girls

Breanne & I just finished creating some fascinating creatures with her KidKnex: a little girl, a queen catepillar and some other created beings she hasn't named yet. This week has been maybe a bit long and I might contribute it to the change in weather. Last week was 50-70 degrees all week and on Tuesday the weather turned to cold and windy. This has kept us inside and all the girls are going a little stir crazy. (Including their mom.)
Last night was a little exciting in more ways than one. Aliya slept for six hours! This was a first. She's also started to be more awake/alert during the day and conciously smiling at her mom and dad. She ate at 2:3oam and by 3am Aliya and I were headed back to sleep. About 5am I was awaked by a very strange "crinkly" noise. I ignored it, but it continued. I thought, it must be the water softener regenerating. But wait, that's finished regenerating by 4am. Now my brain was in full gear....hmmmm, what could it be? I crawled out of bed and cautiously tip-toes out into the hallway, following the sound. It was coming from the bathroom. I thought it might be leaves rustling in the exhaust fan. But that didn't seem quite right...I flipped the light on. What to my wondering eyes should appear, but a mouse. In our bath tub. The noise was caused by the mouse trying escape the tub by climbing up the shower curtain. YUCK! I still have the oogly-googlies thinking about it. I reported to Derrick (whose husband doesn't sleep through everything?) His only words were, "Do I have to deal with this right now?" I looked for the mouse traps myself immediately, but couldn't remember where they were. I guess there were a few cobwebs in my brain at 5am. It took me about an hour to settle myself down and fall back to sleep until Aliya woke up at 6:30am.
This morning I told Madison & Breanne that a mouse took a bath in the tub last night while they were sleeping. Madison says the mouse is a girl (what else would we have in our house?) and that we should name the mouse Zoey. Tonight, we will try "catch" Zoey and her family. I'd rather NOT share my home with a family of mice. Thank you very much!
On a more serious, less gross note. On Tuesday, I start working at church. It's hard to believe that Aliya is 6 weeks old already! I think it will be a good thing for me and the older girls especially and hopefully the transistion for Aliya and myself will be smooth. Since the girls stay at on-site childcare, I will be able to nurse Aliya and therefore see her every 3 hours or so. And if she wants to stay with mom (more likely mom wants her to stay with mom), she can. We've began a 40-day prayer campaign at church and we're praying about our dreams as a church and on a personal level. I think getting back to work will revive my passion/dream of teaching kids about having a relationship with Christ.
Before I leave to get MJ (Madi) from preschool, I'll give you all a heads up on the next American Idols: Madison & Breanne. They're new favorite song is "Today Is The Day" by Lincoln Brewster. When it comes on, they immediatly break from what their doing and start singing and dancing. Two days ago, we added "microphones" to the dance performance. I'll have to snap a picture and post it soon.
One more nugget. Breanne wrote her name this week for the first time! Way to go Breanne!

Corn Maize

Yesterday we went to the Corn Maize. It was a really fun time to have with our girls and Auntie Melissa (here from the weekend). The maize was challenging and the girls had fun trying to lead the way. In the maize, we would arrive at posts on the path with a number on it. Then you read a question and it directs you in the correct direction to the right or left. We took the kiddie questions. One question read,"Where does popcorn come from?" Madison yelled out, "the microwave!"


Madison volunteered as "half-time" entertainment during the pig races. (They seriously raced pigs...it was quite entertaining.) She raced another boy in a horse race. As a prize, she won a pig nose. Aren't you so proud of her papa Leon? We decided that next year the girls could be the Three Little Pigs for Halloween. Then we had fun on the hayride telling the girls that story.

The big girls also had fun playing in the box of corn, sliding down the huge slides, pedaling the big bikes and riding the cow ride.











Here the girls pose with dad before we leave.

Before I sign off for the day. Aliya continues to be cute and adorable! The last two nights she's been sleeping 5 hours! Praise God for more sleep for momma! I took this picture because Derrick has a baby picture like this as do all three of our girls now.