Another 6 months have come and gone already!

I'm late posting this one too... but Tyler has all but finished classes!  He has one more month in January and then he's done with classes, now it's just rotations, baby being born and boards, piece of cake ;).

In September Lyndi started Joy School again. I've loved doing this with the group we have.  Lyndi loves it and counts days in between until she can go back.  The other day she told me she wanted it to be preschool all the time so she could have fun all the time instead of just at preschool, haha.
We had a campout for church that was so fun!  The girls both miraculously slept all night, although Emerie somehow ended up going from in between me and Lyndi, over top of Lyndi's head in the tent over to Tyler's head by morning... without waking up... haha.  Lyndi wants to go camping more now.
We found out also in the beginning of September that our baby was a boy!  Tyler claims he knew it all along, well I guess so did I, but I think we both hesitated to say it out loud just in case we jinxed it haha.  He is an extreme wiggle-worm, stronger and more wiggly than even Emerie, which is saying something. I went with my friend Torrey to a consignment sale right after that and bought a ton of clothes for super cheap so now we're all set... for the first 6 months!  Well, as far as clothes go... I'm realizing now with 7.5 weeks left I have to lot to get still! We went to a Fall Festival with friends that have all moved away and on with their lives.  It was fun!  We bounced on these giant pillow things, went and picked apples, went through a haunted alien invasion house thing, and looked around at everything that had to see!  While we were waiting for the tractor to pick us up after we picked apples, Emerie was playing in the dirt and all of a sudden found a spot that was not dirt, but mud and slipped and fell in it!  She was covered in this weird mud and was crying.  Good thing she was new to being potty-trained because I had an extra outfit on hand.  After using about 100 wipes to clean her off she got some new clothes, but no shoes, I forgot extra shoes... It was funny and sad at the same time!

In October Emerie turned 2, which is crazy to me, but she milked her birthday for all it was worth haha.  She gets it!  Tyler also turned 29 in October!  We actually made sure we all got up before him and made him breakfast in bed, which is... 6  birthdays overdue!  Lyndi was so excited to make him breakfast in bed, she loves that kind of thing.  Emerie sang happy birthday to herself all day on his birthday too.  For Halloween we carved pumpkins and Tyler made one look like he was eating a fake arm that we had on hand.  Emerie did NOT like that, she cried and wanted to save the poor man that was getting eaten by a pumpkin!  We had a chili cook-off for church that was really fun! Lyndi was Rapunzel this year and Emerie was her side-kick Pascal, which nobody understood, I guess it's been too long since Tangled came out haha, and Emerie wouldn't keep her tail and hat on, so she just looked like she was wearing pajamas.  But it was cute!  Tyler and I even dressed up as mummies.  Emerie has issued with masks, or people with pumpkins on their heads, haha.  There was a boy with a clown mask on at the party and she grabbed on to my neck and didn't let go until I distracted her with some food.  The next night we went Trick-or-treating and we had a blast!  It was chilly, but the girls got loaded (since when is it tradition to hand out King-size candy bars, or handfuls of candy to each child?) and when we got home we broke open the hot chocolate and watched a movie.

In November we went out to eat with a bunch of Tyler's classmates and they threw us a baby shower, it was so sweet!  None of them have kids, so some of the girls were saying it was good to shop for baby things to get it out of their system haha.  I loved all the clothes and things we got!  Plus it was at the Hibachi Grill, so it was delicious too!  my sister, niece and mom came to visit for a week.  It was nice to see them!  I haven't seen my sister and her baby for a year and a half or my mom for almost a year.  We honestly didn't do much that week haha. We mostly sat and talked, which is was girls do I hear. My mom helped me go through baby clothes and get rid of a lot of girls stuff, sniff sniff.  My sister interviewed at 3 PA schools including Salus and got into all 3, of course ;)  We went downtown the last day they were here and it was gorgeous weather!  I love going to Independence Hall every single time.  It makes me feel so patriotic and strangely close to the people who started it all.  We went to my mom's for Thanksgiving and I got a lot of fabric to make receiving blankets, including a pattern with mustaches on it, it makes me giggle every time I look at it, it's hilarious!  After stuffing ourselves full of food every day we headed home and began December.

I felt like I had so much time in December and then it passed so quickly I'm not even sure what happened!  Tyler finished finals, and then we had Lyndi's birthday party and then he flew out to Utah for a week to bring us back a car, which I'm so excited for!  We are just about way overdue for 2 cars.  The day before he left there was a Christmas party at church, and the girls were both sick, but Lyndi wasn't as sick so she and Tyler went and came home with homemade ornaments with pictures of the girls on them.  They did the nativity with all the kids and Tyler said right before they went up on stage he told Lyndi he was going to give her a thumbs up, but she said that would be embarrassing for her so she told him not to.  When the kids were on stage Tyler gave her a thumbs up anyway and she yelled back down at him that he was embarrassing her!  Haha, such a funny girl.  That night we had Lyndi's birthday party and then Sunday Tyler flew out to Utah.  What a long week!  But we survived in one piece.  Makes me feel like I might survive maybe when he's gone doing rotations.  I took Lyndi shoe shopping for her birthday and she picked to eat out at McDonalds, and she LOVED shoe shopping!  She wants to go back :)  Tyler got home with his dad a week later and they brought gifts of home-grown canned food :)  I LOVE the apricot jam that they make.

Christmas was so fun this year!  We had friends over for a dinner on Christmas Eve and everything was delicious and the kids had fun with each other.  We might end up doing that more often, it was so fun!  We did the nativity for the first time with the girls after everyone left, which was chaotic and funny.  I wish we had a video camera!  Then we watched Frosty the Snowman and the girls went to bed.  Tyler and I stayed up finishing those last minute gifts and then went to bed.  We had planned on leaving all the Christmas lights on all night, but where the girls doors are glass, we decided it was better not to.  Then Tyler (the Christmas 5-year old) went and woke everyone up, as he does every year at 6:30 to do Christmas.  The funniest part was Emerie opening the movie Frozen.  I knew she'd react exactly as she did and I missed recording it!  She saw it, gasped, and squealed "I. got. FROZEN!!!"  Haha.  That afternoon we headed over to my mom's and stayed for a few days, ate lots of yummy food and candy, played games, went to see the last Hobbit BEFORE it came out on redbox, rare for us haha, and went over to my mom's friends house, where the girls were introduced to her dog, Emerie got licked all over her face and neck several times before she finally didn't like it and Lyndi didn't like it to begin with.  Granted it is an overly excited dog when new people come over!  We ate some really good cinnamon rolls, Tyler got some Playstation time in and then we went home.

Sorry, these always turn in to novels, but I don't ever feel like writing here more often. 

Happy Birthday Lyndi!

I'm way late posting this one... but Lyndi turned 5 on the 16th!  5!  I reminisce every year on her birthday. She was the girl who made me a mom.  I still can't believe some of the things that she is doing already.  She was born with more brainpower and maturity than most adults I know, especially me! ;) 

This year for her birthday we celebrated a few days early because Tyler flew out to Utah and was gone on her real birthday.  She picked out a strawberry cake and put yellow frosting on it and decorated it herself, complete with a half melted Ariel candle on top haha.  She kept asking when her friends were going to come over and what we were going to do for her birthday, but I decided I'm not the mom who does parties every year for every single child, so we are doing every other year for now.  So this year was just a family party, to which she proclaimed "This party is not as fun as my party with my friends last year."  Haha!  She had a candlelight dinner (compliments of Tyler's creativity) with Ramen Stir-fry and grapes for dinner, then we opened presents and Emerie was NOT happy about not being able to open anything or take away Lyndi's toys haha.  Then we sang to her and ate cake!  Happy birthday to this little girl.

This girl is so "old".  She is so much more mature and thoughtful than most kids her age and I've seen it ever since she was a baby.  Emerie will throw a tantrum because Lyndi's playing with her own toys and she will just hand them over in order to stop the conflict haha.  We get mad at her sometimes for doing it, because Emerie needs to learn not to throw tantrums... but Lyndi does it anyway.  She's so funny! 
She learned to read this summer and it's been so fun to listen to her in the car or at the store, yesterday she sounded out "Blueberry Smoothie"!  Her world is opening up for her.  She got a little lego set for Christmas and she was reading the "destructions" (instructions, I can't get her to say that yet). 
She seems to catch on to my panic and stress and will just jump in and do things for me without me even asking!  She will go in her room and clean it up or fold laundry or something and then have me close my eyes and she'll show me the "surprise" she did for me.  It's so sweet!  A lot of times Tyler and I feel bad getting mad at her when she does something bad because she's good and perfectly obedient 90% of the time. 

A few other sweet and cute things she does.  She asks these deep and thought provoking questions that I'm not sure how to answer, but makes me think we're on the right track in teaching her things, although no credit can probably even go to us, because that's just how she is.  She uses these huge words in random conversation, perfectly placed, it's so amazing to me.  She gives me hugs that are so gentle because she doesn't want to hurt the baby :).  She will have us do family prayer on the couch so I don't have to go kneel down on the floor.  She will sing Emerie songs at night when she's crying.  She draws pictures of me and Tyler with a big heart over our heads.  She asked a few weeks ago while I was eating dinner how the baby knows when to open his mouth when I'm eating.  That one made us laugh for a while.  She has named him Hercules, Arthur, and all kinds of other names.  She may be disappointed when she finds out it's not any of those names. She has the sweetest disposition!

Happy birthday to my "old soul"!  We love her so much and are glad we've had her for 5 years, looking forward to many more!

Family Photo Shoot 2014

This is my favorite time of year, because we get to see our family through good pictures!  And now so do you :)

My brown eyed, brown haired girl :)  I love this one!

My blue eyed, blonde haired girl, I can't believe how different these two are, in looks and personality!

This guy.  Even holding my belly haha. 

Haha, I always love the faces of the girls, it's either not looking at the camera or caught trying to say something, or not smiling...

Happy Birthday Emerie!

Every year, several times a year, I think to myself "How is my child doing this already?" "How is she that old already?" "How did she learn to say that or do that?"  And every time I think it's because I don't stop and remember those little moments often enough.  I'm so thankful for the technology we have so that we can remember things without necessarily keeping a written journal!  I can remember my kids through other ways.

I just have to brag about this girl a little bit, well, a lot I guess.  She has continually blown me away in the things she learns and does!  When I found out I was expecting, I made a list of 3 pretty big things that I needed Emerie to do before the new baby comes:

1) Get rid of the stinking pacifier!
2) Potty train with coincides with
3) Getting into a big girl bed

In the middle of August we just decided to go cold turkey with the paci.  We had tried weaning, but it has proven with both my too-smart-for-their-own-good kids, weaning has proved a nightmare.  They will work the tantrums and screaming until we cave if they know eventually they're going to get it back!  The first night was long, but she ended up screaming (quite literally) for only 1/3 of the time it took Lyndi when we did it with her.  So after an hour she wore herself out and then it was about 10-15 minutes every nap and bedtime for a week.  Boom number 1 done.  Then a few days later she decided ON HER OWN that she was done with diapers!  Whaa??!!  She ran into the bathroom and potty trained herself!  Before she was 2!  She is so insanely independent (which is incredibly frustrating at this age) and wants to do everything Lyndi does, which has proven to be really great as far as potty training.  "No, I do it! No help, no help!"  So number 2 was done!  Then a few days later we decided that she couldn't stay in a crib with underwear because she would get up at night needing to go potty, so we took the side off and boom number 3 was done.  These things were supposed to take months according to my timeline, but not according to hers! 

I think she's a good mix between independent and dependent.  She needs to be touching or snuggling something or someone most of the time, but will refuse help even when we can see that she needs it.  I love this little ball of energy.  She will be a great match for her little brother.  For her birthday the only way I could get her to do anything was to put "birthday" in front of it.  Haha, we were at the park and she refused to go home so I told her we were doing a birthday lunch, and she came right home, then it was time for a nap, which was also refused, so I said birthday nap, and she ran right in to her room and tucked herself in!  When she wouldn't get in the car to go get pumpkins, I told her we were getting birthday pumpkins, and she climbed right in.  She loved painting her "birthday" pumpkin, opening presents and eating ice cream with her fingers.  She's starting to speak more clearly so I can tell more of what she actually understands and it's so fun!  She's still way up in the 90's for height.  She has never been under 95% and for her 2 year check up she was 96%, weight was 87% but her head is only 37%.  I can't believe she's 2 already!  Such a big, loving girl! 

Oh what do you do in the summertime?

Well, another semester down and now we officially have spent more time here than we have left of school!  Woo hoo!  Sometimes I feel like I should update more, because there are a lot of things that we do that go undocumented because I can't remember everything at once! 

In May we just played catch up while Tyler was on a break from school.  I made a list for him, and he completed it in no time.  We planted our first ever garden!  Lyndi and Tyler did anyway, I kept Emerie inside so she didn't eat dirt :)  We will see how it does... haha, My thumb isn't green (my garden time expired at the age of 12) and I think Tyler's is more green, he grew up with more garden time than I did. 

We also went to Valley Forge to see the Historical Site down there and, of course, the one day that we go, they are re-paving the road to drive on!  So with it being a million degrees outside we only walked to one site and then turned around and went to IKEA :)  We also decided, pretty much, that we are going to be living through the LONGEST 9 months of our lives next year.  We are going to be living separately. :(  :(  :( We have thought, prayed, contested, and gone nuts over this decision for about 6 months now and have (mostly) decided that me and the girls will be living with my mom in Greensburg starting in August next year while Tyler travels around for rotations.  I so wish we could have made it work together, but we feel good about where his rotations are and feel good about living with my mom.  So... that decision is pretty much made, but it somehow doesn't relieve the stress that I know is coming in a year!  We just figured that's the place that we'll get to see Tyler the most often, with the exception of the last 3 months.  I guess I'll be praying a lot more in the future for calmed nerves haha. 

In June we had Lyndi's Joy School graduation!  It was so fun, so much good food and entertainment.  It was a good year and a good group of kids and moms.  She said she was just like Uncle Brandan graduating ;)

We went to the beach in June and Lyndi learned how to boogie board!  Boogie board?  I can't remember what it's called, but it's when you go out in the water and right before a wave comes, you jump onto the board and let the water push you to the shore.  She did awesome!  It was FREEZING when we first got there and it was raining and I was sick so I didn't think we'd last all day, but the rain stopped and the sun came out for a bit and it was beautiful the rest of the day!  Emerie.... that girl is hilarious!  She spent a good part of the day literally chasing seagulls down the beach.  Or swimming in the sand.  Or eating.  We went to the boardwalk at the end of the day and got some yummy pizza and Lyndi went on the Ferris Wheel with Tyler and had a blast!  The girls both crashed on the way home on our friend Kylee :)

A lot of our good friends moved away in May and June!  The above picture was at a birthday party right before Lyndi's friend moved away.  That's Emerie's 3rd cupcake. 

July came and went in a flash! The 4th was pretty cold, which was a welcome change from last year's super heat.  It was so fun!  We went to a BBQ with friends from church and lit up some sparklers.  This was Emerie's first time with sparklers, she couldn't stop staring at it haha. 

Lyndi had too much fun playing with friends that she barely came over for even one sparkler!  But she got a pink one, so it was all ok :)

Our good friends took the girls overnight for us while we went down to DC for the first time.  It was so fun!  We got to see most everything except for the White House.  I know right?  The White House of all places.  That was going to be our last stop and we drove over to see it, but there was construction on the road and we were too tired to walk anymore haha.  That was our first getaway other than the 36 hours we had from Lyndi when she was just barely 1. 

We spent a good chunk of time in our little pool in the backyard.

In July, Lyndi also finished her reading lesson book!  We started it in March and she just took off with it!  She's so proud of herself when she reads signs on the side of the road or on the TV.  She's such a big girl already! 

 So she got an ice cream party at the ice cream shop down the street for finishing :)

We went to the Zoo with the Evans' one day and we hadn't been there before and the girls loved it! 

 There was a peacock that wanted part of our lunch, came right up to us!

 Those pink pj's are 4T... Lyndi wore them up until she was 3.5...

 Look at how curly her hair gets out here!  LOVE IT!

 Lyndi loves to read to Emerie

 I wish I could get this girl to smile with her eyes open, I'm postponing family pics until she does haha

 We played the flour cup game and Lyndi got to dig through it with her face to get the coin!  I love this girl and her big heart!

 They discovered a new hiding place in the house, the tub!

 Is it all rubbed in mom?

 This melts my heart.  Emerie is so affectionate!  She will snuggle (well, I think nestle is the better word) right into me and hold my hand :)  And I just now noticed all the pen marks on her leg haha!

 In August, Tyler's parents came to visit, and we saw so many things!  We went to Lancaster and went on a buggy ride with an Amish man.  So fun to see things down there!

 Then we went up the NYC and rode the ferry

 It breaks my heart sometimes to explain to Lyndi that the world isn't the happy bubble she lives in.  She understands things really well for a 4 year old though and she was asking all kinds of questions about the Twin Towers, for days after.  Such a neat place.  Eerie though, watching reflections of the planes before they fly over the new tower!

 LOVE this guy ;)  I didn't get a picture of it, but we got to go see Newsies while we were there.  AWESOME SHOW! 

 Niagara Falls

 Hill Cumorah

 This shirt sums up Emerie's mischief pretty well!

 The girls helping dad clean the car

Emerie giving herself kisses in the mirror



Well, the last big news ;) is that we picked our first tomato and it was delicious and meaty!  And our first corn that was 2" long and Lyndi ate it in about 1 minute.  I'm thinking we'll get a few more tomatoes, and maybe some cucumbers, but that's about it haha.  Good thing we don't have to live off of it!  that's all for now.  Tyler starts his LAST semester of classes tomorrow!  Woo hoo!  So excited!

Rotations

Alright... alright... Here is what we found out this last week.

Tyler's first rotation (Feb-April) is in Horsham, and he found a bus route so we wouldn't have to get another car... yet.  That's about 30 minutes from where we live. 

His second rotation (May-July) is in Trooper, which is... 45 minutes away?  not sure on drive time for that one yet.   But it's PAID (not very much, but still!) and he won a lottery (the other students that applied with Ty for that one had to basically draw straws) for that one :) which is crazy because our luck and life here has not worked out at all the way we thought, so it's good at least something is pulling through for us for rotations. 

His third rotation (Aug-Nov) is at The Eye Institute, which is about 15 minutes from where we live.

His fourth rotation (Dec-Feb) is in West Virginia with FREE HOUSING!  Yay, such good news!  We didn't think there was any chance that he'd get any with free housing, haha, those are all that we applied for.

His last rotation (Feb-May) is in Montana also with FREE HOUSING, and meals I think!  Yay, more good news!

But NOW I feel like I'm almost back to square one with deciding where me and the girls are going to live.  We were planning on taking care of Ty's parents house while they were on a mission, but they might not be gone the whole time we live there, which is hard because we're at the point where we NEED our own space and routine.  I thought there was no way we'd get free housing rotations and any in the area.  But now that he'd be living somewhere else for free, I feel like we can make it here (barely, like we've been doing).  Then I wouldn't have to uproot my kids for 9 months and then do it again when he's done.  And now it's 6 months without him here versus 9 months without him there.  It'd be about the same amount of support either way, our ward = awesome, but a lot of people I count on now will have moved by next fall, but more people will have moved in... Ahh..  decisions, decisions, decisions...

Anyway, just to let the world know, we know our rotation schedule and places :)

It's that time of year again, but with pictures :)

Here are a few pics, mostly of the girls, I'm not a fan of my face on camera, and Tyler's usually gone when I take pictures.

This picture may speak for itself ;)

Playing in the snow, these pictures also speak for themselves ;)

The Please Touch Museum

Maple Days

 Lyndi made a "rainbow" egg for Easter, it turned out pretty well!

 Emerie water colored two eggs, then proceeded to peel and eat them

 Easter girls

This picture perfectly describes the girls.  Lyndi so happy on Easter, Emerie so tired and wondering why she doesn't have a cup full of candy to hold. 

 Our little Obi-Wan ;)

 Lyndi likes to watch tv like this sometimes

 And wear a lot of store clothing while we're shopping

Emerie likes to eat a whole tomato and wear purple boots

 Lyndi was practicing letters, so Emerie wanted to

 They really do love each other!

Their matching aprons from Grandma for Christmas (I have one too).  Making chocolate chip cookies to celebrate Dad's finals being over!

The Joy School kids were making the ABC's with their bodies.  Such a hilarious day at our house!