"I Am Gorgeous"

Well, Faith has been asking and asking to have "beautiful pretties" in her ears. So, after asking Ryan if he minded, I went ahead and let her have her ears pierced on Sunday while we were at the mall. Our friend Amy took pictures for me, and they tell a very accurate story of how it all went. After the first one, you can see she is a little shaken, then really mad after the second one. Finally, in the third one, she is thrilled with the end result. After we were finished, and she was looking in the mirror while I was waiting to pay, "I am gorgeous". I have found her standing on the stool in the bathroom several times this week, admiring herself. She also asked to wear some of my "ear pierces", which for those of you who don't know, means dangly earrings. I convinced her that we need to leave these in until Daddy comes home. All of this is creating a personal struggle for Grace, who would really like to have her ears pierced, but can't get over the fact that it will hurt. She told me she'll just wait until she's 13.

O Christmas Tree

This is the artificial tree that I got at Kohl's at 4:00 in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving. Faith says it is beautiful and Grace says it's too skinny (who is she to talk?). However, once we got the decorations on it, they both decided it is pretty and that Daddy will like it. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but Faith put about 17 ornaments on one branch. I tried to move them after she went to bed, and she wondered why I put the ornaments up high.

God is very good and there was no fighting as we put the ornaments on. I overheard a discussion while we were decorating about Santa (whom we had visited at the mall earlier). Faith said that he was "chubsy" and wondered why he had white hair on his face. She then said to me," but Grace said Santa knows where the prizes are, right?"

So, it was hard to do it all without Ryan, but we had a good time together. And while I am still trying to get used to having a fake tree in the house, I am glad it will be able to be up until Ryan gets home.

Ready for Church

We were ready for church, and nobody was crying, so I thought it would be a good idea to take a couple of pictures. We don't usually make it out of the house without someone crying over something. It's usually Faith wanting me to carry her- she is not easy to carry down the stairs. Or, they are both crying over who gets to feed the dogs. Grace is sometimes crying over the fact that I won't let her wear flip-flops or old Crocs to school. Mornings are not good times in our house. They belong to their mother in that regard...we are all at our best in the afternoon and early evening. Anyway, they both looked so cute in their dresses, and it was nice out, so these are the days we try to remember.

Surgeon Ryan?

These are pictures of Ryan assisting with a surgery that was removing screws from a guy's arm. He is actually making the incision in the arm in the first picture on the left. I am so excited for him with all of the pratical experience he is getting, even if I am a little scared that he is doing the work of a surgeon. For any one else who is a little nervous about Ryan with a scalpel, the face and hands you see in the first picture belong to the actual surgeon.

Chapel Day

Wednesdays are Chapel at school. Grammie got this skirt for Grace last week, and Grace has been counting the days until she could wear it to chapel. Since Grace talked so much about wearing a skirt, Faith needed to wear one as well. Faith doesn't really have skirts, but we were able to compromise on this fancy dress with Tigger, Pooh and Piglet on it. Does anyone besides me think that Faith has her own version of a "War Cry smile" going on?

Hallelujah Night

Our church has "Hallelujah Night" every year on October 31st. We are grateful for this option, since it is too cold to be outside Trick or Treating. This year, Grace and Faith were Bronco Cheerleaders, and in my opinion, the cutest cheerleaders the Broncos could ever hope to have on their team. We missed Ryan a lot, but were thankful that Grammie and Papa were able to be with us this year. There were inflatables everywhere, a bounce/trampoline thing that both of the girls went on, and plenty of candy, cotton candy and funnel cake for everyone.

Halloween Past

Well, with Halloween coming up, I thought a picture from a past Halloween might be fun. These were not the costumes they actually wore on Halloween, but what they wore to Noah's Arc Night at church. This year, they are both going to be Bronco Cheerleaders, and it is fun. I have taught them a cheer, and we are now talking about how cheerleaders wear their hair. It should be a fun night.

Battle Rattle

Battle Rattle is the name for all of the gear that Ryan is wearing in this picture. I am told that he wanted to look "cool" in this picture...you be the judge. I wondered why he was wearing this gear inside, most of the pictures of him are in scrubs. He said they have to carry it with him to and from work every day, as a precautionary measure. And I complain about hauling lunchboxes, coats, loveys, boppys and backpacks.

All American Girls

I have been looking through old picture files, deciding to post some of the ones that I like and I came across this one. This was taken on the 4th of July, and it is a really cute one. In spite of the way the pose looks, Grace was not choking Faith in this moment, and they were both really happy. I think they are super-cute!

First Snow of the Season

We woke up to a couple of inches of snow on Sunday. Faith was thrilled, Aggie not so much. After convincing Faith that she couldn't wear a cotton tank dress in the snow, we got ready for church and were able to get these pictures.

At the Grocery Store

When Ryan is home, I do not take the girls grocery shopping with me. However, with working full time and trying to avoid running errands on the weekend, I have been taking them with me to one grocery store on our way home from work/school on Mondays. These trips are not going all that well. Grace and Faith are tired after being at school all day, I am trying to concentrate on getting the best deals, and we are all just wanting to go home. But, we need groceries, so we go to the store.

So, the Penny Horse has become the "incentive" to behave while we are in the store. They get to ride it once when we get inside, and once after we are done, IF THEY ARE GOOD. Being good includes (but is not limited to) not pulling your sister's hair, not climbing out of the cart, not pulling/touching/looking at any store displays, not throwing groceries out of the cart, and not yelling for any reason. Once, there was a hair-pulling, slapping incident, so we were not able to ride the horse after we finished our shopping. So, the next week, we did better, and we were even able to take these pictures. The horse goes pretty fast, and Baby Faith fell off of it a few times before learning to really hold on.

How many more weeks until Ryan comes home and I can go back to shopping by myself?

Cousins Are Fun

These are some more pictures from when we were in Denver with everyone for birthdays. Grace and Kaitlyn were happy to have their picture taken together, but were not interested in having Faith and Caleb in the picture, as indicated by the one of the 4 of them. Faith enjoys basketball...and it helps when Uncle Chad can give her a boost.

More Dress Up

Well, I think we can agree that what Cinderalla's dress has been missing all these years is a leopard print cap and that any gold handbag looks better with a red velvet dress, black boots and pink camo cap. Grace and Faith have really been into dress up lately. Faith will stay at my feet until I compliment her outfit. Grace is usually the mom, but I've also noticed that Faith puts her babies in time-out quite a bit. One of them also has to have tobasco on a pretty regular basis because she won't talk nicely. It is fun to watch their imaginations working!

Isn't She Pretty?

I've decided that this is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Grace. This is another one from Garden of the Gods the day before Ryan left for Iraq. I am really trying to simply enjoy Grace- which is a challenge sometimes because she is a lot like me. I know that God is using these Grace and these challenges to teach me some important lessons. Some of these lessons are tough ones, like patience, mercy, self control and joy.

I love how much she loves to draw, how well she can tell a Bible story, how hard she works to learn her spelling words and her attention to detail. She has a newly discovered love of whipped cream (not Cool Whip!) and wants to put it on a lot of things (like mandarin oranges). Looking at this picture, the things that she does that frustrate me (hair-combing, anyone?) just seem to fade, and I am reminded of how blessed I am to have been given such an amazing and wonderful gift.

Dress Up

We were just hanging out at home on Friday and the girls had fun playing dress up. Grace had changed into pajamas at this point, but Baby Faith was still "fancy". She told me that she and her baby were going to church. By the way, the object around her neck is a sweater and she is wearing Grace's shoes. Bet you all wish you had a church outfit that looks like this!

Faith as Spiderman

Here is Baby Faith as Spiderman. These were masks that were a favor for Caleb's birthday. Faithie really liked the mask and really got into the character. She liked Caleb's Spiderman toy as much as he did and had a little bit of trouble understanding that it was his prize. Probably one of the cutest Spiderman imitators I've ever seen!

Happy Birthday

I had a really fun birthday weekend. We went to Denver on Saturday and had fun with the cousins and Auntie Pam and Uncle Lyle. We took some good pictures and I'll post some throughout this week. This one of me and the girls is one of my favorite recent pictures. Everyone looks happy and we are all looking at the camera at the same time. Yesterday, we went to Nicole's house and had a Birthday BBQ, which was also a really good time. I was really missing Ryan a lot this weekend, and it helped to be with people we love.

More pictures

Ryan sent an email this morning saying that his biggest complaint over there is the smell of oil. He says as soon as he steps outside, it is overwhelming. Christie wants more pictures, so I went through and found some. This one is again from the day before Ryan left...the girls were in a good mood, so we took a bunch of pictures that day. I'll keep posting them...

Ryan and the Mist

Ryan sent me this picture this morning...I don't know what the mist was for, but this is the first picture we have gotten from him since he has been gone.

Getting Ready for School

This was a rough morning...Faith did not want to get up and Grace did not want to have her hair combed for Picture Day at school. Faith then kept asking for Ryan and was not satisfied with my standard answer that "Daddy is on a big trip with the soldiers". When we were all finally dressed and ready to leave for school, I decided we should take a picture to show that we had made it through our rough morning.

12 Sep 2007

Today is the day before Ryan leaves for Iraq. We spent the day together as a family, and had fun at the park by our house. We could hear Aggie howling from over a block away! Faith had fun with Ryan standing and pushing her on the swing, and Grace was lurking at some of the other people playing in the park.

1st Day of School

Here the girls are, ready for the 1st day of school. Faith has been ready for days now...Grace is a little more nervous. This is Grace's favorite new school outfit for the fall. Faith is more excited about the new Dora backpack than any of the clothes.