"I'm Mommy!"

It's A Boy for Amy #2!

Today at 1:00ish (EST) our dear friends, Nick and Amy, (pictured below) had a baby boy! His name is Benjamin Edward and he is 8 lbs and 9 oz. Nick said everyone is healthy and happy. We are thrilled for our good friends and pray God's abundant blessings on this new and improved family!

Dave Proves A Point

Over and over we keep hearing, "Wow! Delia is sure looking like Dave!" from our friends at church. (We also hear, "All I see is her Grandpa when I look at her!") The other night Dave and I were giving the girls their bath and I was studying Delia's face trying to claim some-- any!-- of her characteristics for me and my family. I too had to agree that she's all VM, resembling Dave more than me. Even so, any trait the girls get from their nearly perfect, kind, good-looking, brilliant, even-tempered father is fine with me!

***

Then Dave pulled out my baby albums...

What do you think? Dave thinks Delia and I would be hard to tell apart if we put our baby pictures side by side. Now the story has changed and he keeps teasing me saying, "I sure wish I saw some of ME in Delia!"

Scenario

Tonight I was telling Ella about the sermon I heard on one of her favorite Bible characters, David. Here is where the conversation went...

Ella: How come David only threw one rock at Goliath and not two?

Mom: Because God only needs one rock to get the job done.

Ella: How come there are no Davids and sheeps and Goliaths in our world?

Mom: Because they are from the Bible. People from the Bible lived a long time ago and they are dead now.

Ella: Well, I wish I could know David and his sheeps. But not Goliath. If Goliath came to our house, Lily would BARK, BARK, BARK at him and scare him. Then he would fall off our step and bump his foot and get an ouchie and run away and I would say, "Good girl, Lily."

A Day of Family Fun

Last night Ella had a lot to thank God for when she said her bedtime prayers. We had a day packed with fun as a family! We started it with breakfast in bed for Daddy. Then we headed out to the big further-away pumpkin patch...

The girls loved climbing around in the pumpkin patch. Delia has added another word to her vocabulary (making 6 words now!): "Cheese!" Again, I take this as a clear signal that I take WAY too many pictures of my kids for the blog! This is the smile that always accompanies her "Cheese!" We have about 10 of these pictures, she kept hopping to different pumpkins to pose.

We let Ella choose which one special activity she wanted to do-- they had a train ride, petting zoo, bounce house, etc. She picked a pony ride and loved it.

Then after naps, we headed out again to the community center to support our Christian School. They were hosting one the biggest fundraisers of the year: Family Fun Night and Auction. We ate dinner there, browsed the Dutch bake shop (indulged in some Ollie Bolen), then hit the carnival. Ella again had to make some choices with her tickets, but had fun with each game she selected. We even came home with two new family members-- Sam and Michelle. They are goldfish and though Ella can tell you, "They won't last very long" (bracing her for the inevitable lesson on death this prize will bring...) today they are still swimming!

I Heart My Sister!

It's a Girl for Amy #1!

A week ago I had three good friends who were pregnant. Coincidentally they are all named Amy! Amy (Jared's mom) had her baby last Wednesday, a beautiful baby girl named Jayci. Amy #2 (Nick's Amy) was due yesterday and Amy #3 (Jonathan's mom) still has a few months. Today we got to walk over and meet this precious little girl. Jayci is the perfect angel so far, sleeping constantly and crying rarely. Ella's buddy Jared is doing great at being a big brother too.

As we prayed for Jared and talked about his new baby this week, I retold Ella the story of how Jared is her very special friend. There are not too many people about which you can say, "I have known you every day of my life." Amy and I were in the hospital together and Ella and Jared met when they were newborns. We are so blessed that this friendship has grown and gotten stronger...and now Delia has a little buddy from their family too!

How Van Gogh Got Started

Delia dives into the sidewalk paint...

Two Ballerinas

I am blessed to have lots of hand-me-down girl clothes. Both my friends Julie and Penny share tubs and bags of clothes with me when their daughters are done with them. With the change of season, I've been going through stuff to winterize the girls' closet and look what I found! These leotards and ballerina skirts were hiding in a size 6 tub. This is Ella's new favorite dress-up outfit. When she's feeling especially Cinderella-y, she'll pair it with high heels, a tiara, a sparkly bead necklace and gloves.

On a Hunt for Fall

Today we went looking for fall. We did have one week of cold weather, but besides that it's still been pretty hot here. We had to drive to higher elevations (about 2000 ft.) to find trees starting to change. Ella observantly noted, "Hey! This is where the snow lives!" as we drove. We started our Fall Fun Day at the beautiful Sierra Glen Ranch where we had a picnic lunch, ran through a hay maze and wandered around the aromatic bakery. It was nice to actually need coats.

Next we stopped at the Jamestown Railway Museum. They had some fun fall things for the kids to do. Ella painted a pumpkin and had a pumpkin painted on her. We took the 40 minute steam engine ride, got some popcorn and perused all the old train cars and engines.

This winter Dave finally made me watch all 3 Back To The Future movies, since we live right next door to where they filmed much of the 3rd. This museum is home to the steam engine in the movie (it's currently being refurbished because it's only one of three in the country that actually still functions!) Apparently this little red caboose made an appearance in the movie too.

Tonight us girls will stay home while Dave caps off Fall Fun Day with a high school football game.

Happy Birthday, Helia!

About a week ago, on her birthday, Helia pulled a Delia. She got so sick her birthday party had to be cancelled. The poor girl ended up with a strep throat/pneumonia diagnosis that even sent her to ER. Helia has since recovered and today we informally celebrated her birthday. Though it was just me and my girls at Jetta's, the morning with my friend was as fantastic as it always is. The girls tried out the new Sounds Bingo game we gave Helia, they made mud pies outside in the 80 degree sunshine and they even got to take a ride on the mule with Jetta's father-in-law. Jetta and I sipped our tea and discussed deep topics. Today: how hard it is to acknowledge that it is not us, but God who is in control of our children's salvation and the difficulty of feeling so blessed that perhaps we're not desperate enough for a consuming relationship with our Savior. It was just a typical morning at Jet's!

Embracing Our Inner Bear Grylls

We've been watching it being built for about a year now. This week the new Bass Pro Shop is finally celebrating its Grand Opening! This is a big deal. We live in the land of farmers, NRA and cowboys. Fishing and especially hunting are a way of life. Everyone we know was planning on visiting this Outdoor World today-- some were even there when the doors opened this morning. We laughed as we heard traffic reports telling us alternative routes to take to avoid the masses that were pouring into the new store.

We wandered around in awe. For those who have never been in a Bass Pro Shop it is almost indescribable. Every single thing you could possibly need to survive outdoors is sold here. The merchandise is a distant second to the decor, though (in my opinion). It is a taxidermist's dream with stuffed animals EVERYWHERE. A giant sequoia you can walk though, waterfalls, fish ponds, camping set-ups and an actual shooting arcade are some of the "attractions."

Ella loved testing out the cot in this camping scene. She also cuddled up with this stuffed raccoon. Dave was itching to try the shooting arcade, but surprisingly our brave (yet tender-hearted) Ella freaked out at the idea of him shooting things.

Delia loved the big trout swimming around this pond.

Look very close and see if you can find Dave and Ella in the waterfalls...

Pretending to drive the boats in the boat show room was a lot of fun too. If we win the $25,000 shopping spree we registered for, we'll get this one! ;)

Dancin' Our Day Away

Aren't her moves funny? We have a dance party of some sort every single day. Delia is in that stage where she *loves* to dance. Ella went through it too shortly after she learned to walk and it's funny to see patterns repeat. There are just certain songs on my itunes playlists that equal "Dance Party" to each girl. Even if it's just background music, they will stop what they're doing to dance when their songs come on. Ella couldn't resist shaking her booty whenever "Now That We Found Love" by Heavy D & the Boyz played. Delia's favorite is "Let My Love Open the Door" by Pete Townshend and now "Shake It!" by Metro Station. What's your just-can't-resist-gettin'-down dance song???

Pajama Party

Well, it worked. My previous post whined about how hot and un-fall-like our weather still was. We decided to go ahead and do fall things anyway with the hope that it would give our season a kick in the pants. I am happy to report that we have cooled off significantly. So much so that today I pulled out winter clothes (I'm wearing a sweater!), down comforters and a space heater. I stacked our logs closer to the house and even built a fire. A bit extreme perhaps, but I am so excited about fall and my wimpy California body thinks it's freezing when it's 60 degrees.

Dave has been gone all weekend at a youth pastors' conference in Sacramento. He's loving it and seeing some big name Christian musicians and speakers. With his absence, today/tonight we spent a lot of time in our jammies. We had family movie night again and popped popcorn and snuggled up in the comforter and couch pillows watching another Scholastic movie (The Wheels on the Bus-- which explains the "shh, shh, shh" the kids are doing in the following picture).

The nice cool weather and the excuse to stay inside cuddled up all day, I'm sighing a happy sigh right now...

Pretending It's Fall

My calendar and thermostat are currently in disagreement. They are debating if it is really Fall right now. I know it's October, yet we've only had one good rain and it's still so hot we need shorts and air conditioning! So, even though today's forecast was more blazing sun and high 80's-- definitely not a "crisp fall day"-- we still headed out to Dutch Hollow to pretend. We played in the corn, posed on the tractor, picked out our pumpkins, greeted farm animals once again and even milked a cow! Maybe these Fall gestures will bring this season on already!

Sorry, Very Similar...

...but still blog-worthy. Once again listening to Psalty while we were once again driving. This time the song was "God Has A Plan For My Life."

Ella: What does it mean 'God has a plan for my life'?

Mom: The Bible says God's plan is to prosper you.

Ella: What's prosper?

Mom: To bless you, take care of you and show you how to use your talents.

Ella: I know God's plan for my life. It's to watch a movie and eat a snack when we get home.

Concerned

While we were driving and listening to Psalty's "I'm Gonna Stand Up!" Ella had this to say...

Ella: Why do we need to stand up?

Mom: The song is telling us to stand up for Jesus and live for him.

Ella: But Ella, Delia and Mommy can't stand up. We have our buckles on. Jesus must be sad.

Ending the Blog Silence!

Sorry for the slow blog week, folks. This one is in direct response to my sister's demand for a new one...

One of my best mom tips is this: Be prepared for a "rainy day." I often take advantage of 4-for-3 deals on Amazon to stock up on new stories, craft books and movies. I stash them away and pull them out on days like yesterday. Our Saturday included a cancelled birthday party, an actual cloudy day of rain (the first big one of the season, which I didn't really mind...) and a hush request from Dave who was sleeping all day to recover from his weekend lock-in. I was glad to have my "Hail Mary" move-- a new movie to pull out for Saturday family movie night. I had ordered this Is Your Mama a Llama Scholastic DVD ages ago and it was a hit!

So since we've been very llama-obsessed, today we enjoyed the blue skies and breezy temps and paid our friend the llama a visit. We also fed the goats...and played tag in the grass...and counted fish in the pond...and had a splendid Sunday afternoon.

"GOAT!!!" (from Delia sounds more like "AHHH!") She was very emphatic about pointing these creatures out to me.