Whoooooosh!

There went our summer!

Seriously, I was just getting into the groove of the atrocious summer hours the Oaks have from 8am-6pm (M-Th) and making my plans for all the fun things the girls and I were going to do on our Fridays together! And now, it's almost over! Holy cats - June and July went fast. There's no telling how fast August will go.

Highlight of the summer is, hands-down, our annual vacation to Traverse City. The whole Gilson fam heads up to a house on Lake Leelanau. We had a fabulous time living life in the most beautiful area in Michigan. Grace has grown by leaps and bounds in her swimming abilities. She ran out with anyone and everyone who was going to jump in the lake. She is fearless and I can tell she will be a strong swimmer, she was underwater more than she was above it. We had to tell her to stop diving off the dock, I was afraid she was going to go headfirst into the boat launch. She is getting to be so big. I can hardly believe I will have a 5 year old on my hands. She is anticipating K4 at Howie and looks forward to riding in to school with Grandpa. This will be my first summer in AGES to go school supplies shopping!

Annie has grown tremendously too. Her current favorite phrase is, "Mom, Phineas & Ferb are making a title sequence!" (don't ask) and she is turning out to be one funny kid. I wish I could capture some of the looks and expressions on her face. She is becoming completely mischievous ( I don't think I spelled that right. Kate?) and infuriates and delights her sister all at the same time. I am enjoying seeing her personality emerge despite wanting to do everything Grace does. We've been experimenting with her diet and doing quite a few restrictions with it (think BLAND food ALL the time) and for the most part, she has been "pook"-free, unless she gets hurt. Then, it's all up with it.

Now if we could just get her to sleep...

I take my previous statement back.

The highlight of the summer was not our trip Up North, although that is in second place. :)

The highlight of my summer, maybe my year is that on Sunday, July 18th, 2010, back in a little yellow Sunday School room, Gracie prayed with her mama and asked Jesus to forgive her sin and the "boss of her life." I cannot tell you how precious it was! It was a bit unexpected, although we have been working with Grace and explaining salvation for awhile now. I have no doubt in my mind that she understands what her decision was and who Jesus is and what he has done to pay the price for her sins. I have no doubt in my mind that she understands that he rose again from the dead and is with God, in Heaven now. And I also have no doubt in my mind that she understands that Jesus loves her. I pray that she will continue and hold fast to this decision she has made and that Clint and I can train her up in the way that she should go. I can see a difference in her daily decisions and demeanor already. We are so thankful and proud of our Gracie girl!

Oh, what? You want to see pictures? Yeah, of course.

I'm horrible at taking pictures. I do have a few of the girls on vacation. I'll post them, just as soon as I can figure out how to get them off my phone!

TTFN!

Singing

We learned a couple of new songs at Kid's Club this year. These two were our favorites. Annie, of course, is not in Kid's Club, but Grace sang these two INCESSANTLY, so of course, one day to our surprise, Annie belted out with a rendition of In the Lord's Army. We love to sing!

Say What?

Those who know me, know that I have hearing issues. I've had a hearing aid since I was in sixth grade.

Those who know me well, know that I hate wearing it. It makes me feel like I'm in a tunnel and sometimes all I can hear is my own breathing...which I guess for a severe asthmatic can be fairly reassuring.

Those who live with me, know that I actually don't exactly know where said hearing aid is...

They also know that my daughter, Grace is either hard of hearing or has completely picked up my mannerism of saying "What?" to everything that is said to her. Seriously - it's like it's a habit. Does anyone else's kid do this? She'll have hearing testing next year in Kindergarten and right now, I really think it's a lack of focus or just because she hears me say it, but it is driving.me.crazy!

For example the following conversation ensued last week. (prompting this post)

Grace: "Mommy, can I have more milk."

Mommy: "Sure - just a minute while I finish changing your sister's diaper."

Grace: "What?"

Mommy: "Yes, in just a minute."

Grace: "MORE MILK, MOMMY!"

Um...what?? I cracked up. It's like the deaf leading the deaf. Good grief. It totally reminded me of a similar scenario I had in college. You may not find it as funny, but I'm still in tears over it. Maybe you had to be there, I don't know. It was hilarious at the time.

I had gone with my roommates comedy/ministry team to stay the night at one of the other members' home (Adam Powers for my fellow Cornerstonians). The whole team was staying the night there after getting ready for the program they were going to put on at a church the next morning.

So there were about 8 or 9 of us who had to get ready in the morning for this service, so I woke up early, before everyone else, because I wanted to get in a shower and then I'd be out of the way. So I head in to Adam's bathroom and I canNOT figure his shower out. It was one of those systems where it has a strong ring around the faucet at the bottom and you have to yank that down in order for the shower to come out. I totally know how to use one now, but in 1999, I had never seen one of these before and I was just completely baffled as to how to get water to come out of this shower head!! I worked on it for about 10 minutes, before I realized I was going to have to go ask Adam for help.

So I tiptoed in and knocked on his bedroom door, it's completely dark by the way, all over the house and I don't know why I knocked because I wasn't going to hear him say "Come in" anyway. So I knocked, waited the appropriate length of time for him to answer and opened the door. Adam was still in bed.

"Adam?" I whispered.

"What?" he whispered back.

"Adam." I whispered again.

"What?" he replied.

"Adam!" I whispered louder, hoping he could hear me - I really needed to take a shower!

"WHAAAAAAATTTT????" He whispered even louder.

And I cracked up. He had been answering me all along and I had no idea. The poor kid had to get up in his boxer shorts so that I could take my shower, because I couldn't hear him whispering.

Yikes. Is this Karma? Adam had a great sense of humor, so he thought it was funny too. A lot more funny than I am finding Grace's incessant "whating."

Maybe it's just a phase? Anybody else's kids doing this? I'll be interested to see how long it goes.

Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder...

I admit, there is a lot that I miss being an FTWM, and I'm sure there will things that I regret not having been able to do with my girls during these early years, but there is one thing that I get to have that SAHM's don't have.

Everyday, when I pick my girls up from the sitter, I get to enjoy lit up little faces as they come racing towards me from the play area, with arms wide opened, yelling, "Mommy!!!" and it lets me know that they've missed me today. That I'm still number one in their world and that they are excited to see me again.

It never fails to warm my heart to see my two sweeties racing each other to see who can hug me first. Almost makes it worth it to go away...

Easter Bows

Well, I don't have any Easter pics of the girls because someone (either me or Grace) accidentally erased them from my memory card. All is not lost, however, as we have a Mother/Daughter Luncheon coming up at the end of the month where they will be wearing their oh-so-sweet Easter dresses. Hopefully, this time sans the sweater.

However, I did pick up some clearanced Easter ribbon yesterday at Dollar General on my lunch break and the girls had a ball with it last night...all dollies, Barbies, Mommies & Daughters had bee-yew-tee-ful bows in their hair. Except, I think if I were to put a housecoat on Annie, she would look like a housewife/washerwoman from the old days. Her ribbon wasn't quite long enough to get into a bow and the result was so adorable, especially with that little curl on the right side...

Sometimes ya just gotta be silly with your gals, you know? I think this might be a new goal/mindset/resolution of mine. Take time to just do silly stuff.

Clint and I have been discussing the house and its future as we always do this time of year. Focus this May (again) is going to be to go through room by room and just clearing out the clutter that seems to accumulate in a small house with 4 pack rats. My aim this spring is to be ruthless about this project. If we don't use it, pitch it/sell it/donate it.

Simplifying will only bring a clear head, clear mind, ease in all things domestic and ultimately, (I hope!) more time to just be silly and play with my girls instead of having to worry about getting the dinner dishes done or picking up the house.

I highly doubt that, although I do think it's very important and healthy - mentally and emotionally - to have a clean environment to live in, I'll regret not cleaning more when all is said and done. I have to work full-time outside of the home, no question about that, which does make for a shortened time with the family at night so if I can lighten up the clutter at home, I'll free up the time to be with my babies and their bows.

Annie's Birthday Pics

Despite waking up with a 103 degree temp and a quick trip to the Urgent Care, or rather, the ER because I didn't realize that Urgent Care had been cut 6 weeks ago, Annie had a nice little party with the grandparents and the four of us on Saturday. Annie was absolutely darling, and as our house isn't exactly roomy, we don't entertain very much, so the girls are just thrilled any time someone comes to our house!

Her birthday gift from us was a cute little pink Radio Flyer trike, which incidentally, Grace has not stopped riding around the dining room table.

And of course, Dora was present thanks to our resident artist, Clint.

Grace did pretty well being the observant, yet oh so wanting to help tear off wrapping paper, big sister. It just blows my mind that I have a 2 and 4 year old now. My little blue-eyed and brown-eyed girls!

Annemarie Violet Young

Is turning TWO today. How is that possible?

2008 was a rough year for our family, undoubtedly. But one sweet gift came out of that year: my sweet Annie. It seems hardly possible that two years have passed and she is turning from my baby to my toddler.

Annie V gets so many comments on what a happy baby she is! And they are right, she has a sunny personality, a smile that will cheer up even the grayest sky and this girl is FUNNY. She is going to be our comedian, I can tell. She will be cracking us up at the dinner table with her stories and her facial expressions. I know, because she is doing it even now!

I love Annie's cuddliness, the feel of her little cheeky against mine at night when getting ready for bed. I love when she unexpectedly says "I yuv oo, Mama! I YUV OO!" I love how big her brown eyes get when she sees something she likes ("PACI!") and how is a complete female replica of her Daddy.

Annie is going to grow up to be a strong woman and a persistent one, one with a sense of humor and a big heart of love. I know, I've seen it all – in the past two years.

Happy Birthday, Annie Bannie! I sure do love you.

Waiting for Spring...

Could winter get any longer??? Seriously! Six more inches yesterday. Although, I must say I am particularly pleased that the Lord keeps melting most of the old snow before replacing it with the new inches. At least we aren't completely buried.

These winter doldrums definitely bog down the old mindset. Everything seems blah in the bleakness of winter and I find us drudging through the weekly routine always reaching for Fridays and the weekend. We've had some little bouts of sickness, but on the whole, we continue in good health.

I need some ideas to spice and jazz our daily routine up. We are fairly active on the weekend, but our weekdays are same old, same old. Kids thrive on routine but I need the change and variety. Otherwise, my mind turns to mush.

I think I actually just need spring! We had such a wonderful summer last year, I don't think I ever really adjusted to the fact that it was over...

Christmas Pics

Could they be any cuter? Seems like this Christmas EVERYBODY got them matching outfits. I'm sure they won't love it when they're older, so we're milking it now! Annie is turning out to be an even bigger ham than Grace! She cheeses it up for everyone, but the camera definitely needs to be QUICK!

Been a while...

Yep, it's been a while! And here we are, with a New Year upon us - 2010, who would have thought? And I have no resolutions firmly in tact! I have a few that I've contemplated, but nothing mapped out in place...other than, the inevitable Weight Watchers!

So, this will not be a resolution post, although it's my first for the year.

We had a fabulous Christmas this year. The girls were adorably cute through the December season. We decorated, we baked, we made candy, the only thing we didn't really do is go outside and make snowmen, etc...but there is plenty of snow still around. We'll get to it!

Annie has been consistently progressing in her speech. Every day it seems we get a newer, more complete thought out of her and she's not even 2 yet! Last week was marked by her "pinching" my *patootie* and saying "I got your biscuits!" This week was marked by, "I want a cheestick, too!" and "I don't want it" (after she took two miniscule bites of the cheesestick).

It's very fun to hear Grace and Annie talk with each other. I have full confidence that Annie is understanding everything now, as she responds appropriately. Next up for her will by potty-training! Woohoo :)

Grace is consistently surprising us with her speech, too. She constantly asks what new words mean and then tries to incorporate them into her speech as soon as she can. She has picked up "left" and "right" from somewhere and will be the kind of student in elementary who "gets" her teachers jokes - I can just tell! I always loved those kiddos! :) It's weird to be thinking about Kindergarten for her, but we are!

Clint has almost reached his 2 year anniversary at MPI. It will be 2 years in March. He is still enjoying it and we are so thankful for the Lord's provision for us in this job, while many are laid off in our area, we are both gainfully employed with excellent benefits. Although our house is small and the bills are many, we have so much to be thankful for!

So - that should catch us up to January 2010. I really didn't intend for a 2 month break from Blogland, but it happened, thanks to busy work, holiday, November doldrums and a crappy case of carpal tunnel! I like having a blog to chart things and times with the girls, so I plan to keep it up and if I could just get myself to the store and remember to buy a new memory card, lots more pictures of two of the cutest girls on the planet!