Good Friday

We attended the Good Friday service at church today at noon. I had debated going tonight at 7pm, but I was afraid Joey and Danielle wouldn't last and that the church would be packed. Mike took a long lunch hour to join us and all the pews were FULL at noon.

I had mentioned in a previous blog about Mike Lewis, the Jesus Painter and he was at our church for Good Friday services. He did three huge painting; each one completed in about seven minutes! It was intriguing to watch him work. The first portrait shown at the left started as a cross and people standing gazing at the cross. It was truly a blessing to see his work. He has a website http://www.jesuspainter.com/

Happy Easter

HAPPY EASTER 2009! Yes, Joey and Dani have been to visit the Easter bunny. No, Easter decorations have not made it up at our house yet. The Marchand family will be having Easter lunch with us on Sunday, so I have until then to get the baskets and eggs out, right?

This week has already been full of Easter festivities. Monday, the kids and I met some friends at a local historical house where we got to see a puppet show, pet a bunny, visit the Easter bunny (again) and make a craft.

Tomorrow we're off to a local farm where we will visit and pet baby bunnies, chicks, pigs, play in a hayloft, watch a dog show and visit the Easter bunny (again!).

I am quite excited about something happening at our church on Good Friday. We have a special guest coming; Mike Lewis, the Jesus Painter. You can google him and see his work. He does a huge portrait of Jesus in 20 minutes. At 4 1/2, Joey is very interested in art and so I am excited that Joey will be able to see an artist in action. If you are in the area, come on over for church with us at 7 pm.

We had snow a few weekends ago. I was so thankful it was on the weekend. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a summer girl; so thankfully Mike was home to take the kids out to play.

Mike and the kids made a volcano in the basement in March. It is pictured above. I don't know if you can tell from the above photo, but they planted trees on the mountain and also dinosaurs. The volcano is a 2 liter soda bottle. They add baking soda and vinegar and the volcano erupts. The kids really enjoy doing this with daddy.

There was a celebration at Mike's work site last Saturday for the opening of a new research facility. The children had a great time enjoying bounce houses, balloon animals, face painting, and train rides. Joey wanted me to be sure and put on our blog a photo of him with his face painted as a skull.

Joey is in his 4th session of gymnastics this year and Dani is in her 3rd session (she sat one out due to her broken leg). Both of them really enjoy it and are gaining so much self confidence. Here is a photo of Dani hanging from the rings with her instructor by her. We will be taking the summer off to relax, but if the kids want to, I will sign them up again in the fall for the next year of gymnastics. Joey's class has a spring performance in May and I am excited to see that. I do not get to watch Joey in his class because it is the same time as the class Danielle is in and her class requires parent participation.

May Jesus bless you as this Easter season. I hope everyone is able to spend time with their family and friends.

Twilight DVD Release Party

Okay, so I have lived a sheltered life and never been to a "release party" of an item. When Harry Potter books were popular, I watched the release parties on the news and it looked like a good time. All these people dressed up as Harry Potter characters waiting anxiously their copy of the newest book. However, I have never been (1) because although I enjoyed the H.P. books, I didn't want one that bad and (2)these parties are late at night and I'm sleeping!

I had girlfriend time last night and was scrapbooking with BFF Michele. Michele reminds me that the Twilight DVD is being released at midnight. Hey, we're up, we're caffienated, so we decide to go and find a party. We go to Border's bookstore; nothing happening except a lot of preteens and teens standing around waiting. Same thing when we went to Blockbuster.

In case you aren't in the know, Twilight is a book by Stephenie Meyer (she has three more in the series) that has been made into a movie. It is a story about a 17 year old girl named Bella who falls in love with Edward. Edward is a vampire.

FYI I have read Twilight and enjoyed it. Awaiting my turn to read the 2nd book (on order at the library), but no intention of purchasing the DVD; will just rent it and watch it.

Michele and I were expecting to see all kinds of vampire costumes and dark makeup. Instead, I think people were looking at us; we weren't exactly in the age range of the other girls!

To commemorate this occasion, here is a photo of me with a Twilight umbrella and a copy of the book and a photo of Michele with Edward (well, a photo of him anyway!)

Open Mouth, Insert Flip Flop

The weather here has been in the 70s and Joey and Dani have both outgrown their flip flops. So, Tuesday we went to the mall to find some new ones.

We went to Children's Place and the flip flops were $3.50 ea or 2/$5.00. Of course, Murphy's Law is that one child will throw a fit and not want a pair now that we are there.

As we are checking out, the sales clerk reminds me of the price and I decided to go ahead and pick up a pair for Dani anyway because as soon as we get home, I know she'll want some. The sales clerk says to me, "yes, I know how that is. I have children at home myself." She was wearing a loose black top and I say to her, "oh! and you're expecting another one!". To which she replies, "no, I'm just fat!"

I wanted to die right there on the spot. I was so embarrassed and I apologized. Anyway, hope you all get a laugh or learn a lesson from my outing this week.

Bagel Fridays

On Friday, Joey attends a Kids Day Out program from 9:15 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. After I drop him off, Dani and I run errands. One Friday morning, we stopped for a bagel. Now on Fridays, as soon as we drop Joey off and I put Danielle in her carseat, she says, "Go have a bagel, mom?". So this has become our weekly routine. I extremely enjoy it. This is one of the few times where it is only Dani and I and it is fun to see her little personality shine and how much she is growing into a big girl.

Today, while we were waiting in line for our bagels, she went and picked a table out for us all by herself. (It was two feet from where I was standing). Then, I went to get my Diet Coke and Dani says to me , "I stay here, mom." She stayed at the table and waited for me to get my coke and bring it back to the table, grinning from ear to ear.

Last night while I was at Bunco, I received a phone call from Dani that she had peed and pooped in the potty. She was very excited. This morning when she got out of bed, she peed in the potty. So after grocery shopping and bagels, we took a trip to one of my favorite stores. When Joey was about 2 1/2 years and we were in this store baby shopping for Danielle, he fell in love with a dinosaur bank. I bought it for him. Totally by fluke, the next day we began potty training with it. He got to "feed" the dinosaur each time he went on the potty.

It worked so well for Joey. (Mike and I gave him about $100 in change!) I explained it to Dani this morning and showed her Joey's bank. So we went to pick out a bank for her. Here she is with her new kitty bank that she chose all by herself. As soon as she got home, she pooped in the potty and got to "feed" her kitty! Hopefully, this will continue as I know she is very young to potty train.

I am enjoying my kids being a little older and a little more independent. They can play together now, have conversations now, wrestle (usually initiated by Dani), and walk without a stroller or being held. However, part of me is sad to be leaving the baby days behind. There is nothing better to me than a little cuddly snuggly cooing baby. Luckily, I have several friends still having babies, so I can always snuggle with their little ones.

If you would like to contribute to the Danielle potty fund, please email me for our address! just kidding! Wouldn't you know that I would have children that want money and are not thrilled by the stickers or M&Ms most mommys hand out for going in the potty??!

Danielle Marie turns two!

Dani turned two on February 22. It is hard to believe that our baby is no longer a baby! On Saturday, Feb 21, she had a birthday party at Olympiad Gymnastics, where both she and Joey have gymnastics classes. At the side is a photo of some of Dani's friends that were at the party. (Dani is standing in front in the unitard with the two pink stripes. Joey is to the right of her in the blue t-shirt and what looks like a rainbow on it).

Dani had 15 kids at her party between the ages of 5 months and 12 years. Everyone had a blast going through the obstacle course, jumping on the trampolines, jumping in the block pit, and just running around. We hired a photographer to come for her big day. She took over 300 pictures! Of course, I am not going to post all of those here, but the photos are great and she has a website you can visit to see Dani's party pics. http://www.jillarnoldphoto.com/ look for the tab labeled "Parties". Click on it and you will see something similar to "Danielle's 2nd birthday". Click on that and you will be asked for a password. The password is Dinah.

Bethany and Jacob (my sister Karen's kids) came with my mom and dad to the party and that was a very special treat for my two. The four cousins don't get to see each other much, so it was a very special day that they were able to join us for Dani's party. Grandpa posed with his four grandchildren. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera in hand when Grandma (my mom) posed with the kids.


One of my best friends has a five month old baby who Dani calls "Baby Chubba". Dani just loves him! She was so proud that she got to hold him at her birthday party. When I tried to take him from her, she said very firmly, "NO!" and held on tighter. Baby Chubba weighs 20 pounds and Danielle weighs 23 pounds, so if you think they look about the same size in the photo, that's because they are!

(By the way, Dani did not come up with this nickname on her own. My friend told Dani that they call the baby "Bubba Chubba" and from there, Dani came up with "Baby Chubba".)

There have been a few warm days here and there and the kids really like to go to the park to play. One of our favorite parks also has a paved walking trails and horses. We take a picnic lunch and enjoy being outside. Here is a photo that Joey took of Danielle and me on one of our park outings:

And now from the retro files....this blue McKendree College sweatshirt that Dani is wearing is mine. No, we don't wear the same size! ha ha This is a shirt that my mom saved from my baby days when my dad attended McKendree College.

Okay, well, I need to go, as usual, and referee (why do my kids fight when I update the blog??). I just heard Joey yell, "Dani, never mess with me!" This doesn't happen at anyone else's house does it??

Thankfully, Mike is a great daddy and will be staying with the children tonight while I go out and play Bunco with the girls!

Enjoy the weekend. We love hearing from everyone!

Joey Meets a Famous Author

Not much has happened since the last time I wrote. I am busy taking the kids to gymnastics, swimming, preschool, and going to MOPS. We are finally pretty well adjusted to our "new" schedule that began in January.

On Wednesday, February 4, our church had a guest speaker, the author Dr. Mary Manz Simon. Dr. Simon wrote a book that I purchased when Joey was a baby. This book is well used and well loved in our home. Some of the pages have had to be taped back in. The book is called "Little Visits for Toddlers" and it is short devotions to do with toddlers. What I really like about this book is that most of the devotions require some kind of action (jumping, twirling, etc) while you are reading it, and it keeps my kids interested.

Mike and I were laughing because this is the ONLY children's book we own that the kids fight over! We let each of them pick a devotion before bed and sometimes arguing and crying ensues over who gets to pick first.

Dr. Simon gave a talk on "Parenting in Pop Culture" and it was very interesting. One of the comments she made was this: Children read emotions even before they read books. She talked about how children are growing up faster in today's society. Even though a preschooler can operate a computer, does that mean that same child will not throw a tantrum? Sometimes, we, as parents, forget that children still go through developmental stages. Dr. Simon stated: Children are not in a race to the finish line. We cannot rush God's timeline for child development.

If you would like to know more about Dr. Simon, her website is http://www.marymanzsimon.com/ and she has a blog http://marymanzsimon.wordpress.com/ . She also has a radio show called Front Porch Parenting.

After the lecture, I had Mike run to childcare and get Joey so that he could meet Dr. Simon who wrote the book that he calls "Toddler Stories". We had brought our copy so that she could autograph it. Below is a picture of Joey and Dr. Simon.

At the end of January, our church started a new service called "Family Live". We went to the pilot service and it was awesome! Think VBS type worship service. The music was all kid oriented and there were about 10-15 preteens and teens on stage dancing. There were also skits and a message by one of our pastors. This service has really stuck in my head and I am looking forward to the next one at the end of February. This service was on gratitude and Pastor Ryan talked about keeping a gratitude journal. We have implemented this at our house and at dinner time, we write down one thing we are thankful for that day. Joey understands the concepts and is thankful for friends, Jesus, God, etc. Dani doesn't always have something to contribute, but her submissions have been those of an almost 2 yr old: her baby, her pacifier... I hope this is a tradition that we can keep up for many years. I think it will be fun to look back later and see what we were thankful for when the kids were small.

The only other thing that has happened recently is Joey woke up Tuesday around midnight vomiting. He was out of commission all day Wednesday. He couldn't believe that he had gotten the flu again. The poor kid is on about his third round since fall. Today, we skipped MOPS because I wasn't sure how healthy he would be. He woke up and was wanting to get out. So it was nice enough we spent some time at the park and grocery shopping. I am keeping fingers crossed that it passes by the rest of us.

I want to leave you with a quote, out of the mouth of babes:

We are sitting at the table getting ready to eat dinner and Danielle farts. Joey says to her, "Did you backfire?"

I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. The things kids come up with!

Until next time, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers and we are doing the same for you.