"Helping" Mommy

We're looking forward to having Grosi and Grosvati spend the night at our house tomorrow. When I asked Katie if she wanted to come with me to get their beds all set up she was very happy to come and help.
The following pictures are of Katie hard at work. Enjoy!

Yup, she sure knows how to make work look like fun!

Wagon ride anyone?

Our dog Gordie loves to play and work hard. Jeff ususally goes for a run with him every morning and the rest of the day Gordie is in our back yard chasing balls, toys and pretty much anything that moves. That is when he's not lying in the sun and having a nice nap.
So Jeff has started training him on pulling our wagon with the kids.

So far so good. The girls sit reasonably still, and Gordie seems to like the challenge of pulling the wagon around.

Of course, he still needs some pulling and guiding help, so we don't just hook up the wagon and let Gordie run. I'm sure that as we continue to work with him, he'll get it down pat soon.

SOOO Proud!

It started Tuesday at bedtime. I was lying in bed with Katie for our snuggling time when she told me "I want to pee on the outside". Great!! Lets go to the potty. And sure enough she really did empty her bladder. One Smartie as a reward and off to bed we go again. I wasn't sure if it was just a fluke or what, but the next day she asked to go pee on the potty again and again. Of course we made a big deal out of it, praised her, clapped, gave her one Smartie and off she goes to play. And it has been going like that ever since. We had one dribble in her pull-ups after being shopping all morning, and one wet diaper after a nap. (#2 still goes into the diaper, but she wants to dump it into the toilet after the bum change). And this morning, she came to snuggle in our bed as normal but then around 6:30 she says that she needs to go pee. She had a dry diaper!!
I know this isn't the end of it, and we haven't switched to big girl underware, but we are sooo proud. This was all totally Katie initiated! I guess when they're ready, they're ready and they know it.
No pics this time ;)

Our Little Meat-atarian

Maya is hanging out with Daddy in the office. We inherited swing hook in ceiling, and found this swing in the mission storage room.
Both girls like the swing and it keeps them out of trouble when we have office work to do and they are with us.

Wheeee

So last night I made a roast for supper. As the dutiful Mom I cut some of it up into smaller pieces for both of my girls. However, Maya's reach is getting longer and all of a sudden she grabbed a whole piece of meat right out of the bowl.

and proceeded to eat it with gusto.

Yup, this one sure does like her meat.

Gotta go, Maya's up for the day.

Skating Shoes

In the evening, I was trying to cook and make some biscuits to go with our soup and the girls got into my plastic ware cupboard again. It is the one they are allowed to play with, but it still leaves a mess everytime. So anyway, they were happily playing, I was mostly happily cooking when Katie was talking about wearing "Skating Shoes" This is how I found her:

Yup, and she was "skating" all over the kitchen like that.
She's a funny kid!

Playing Outside

Yesterday was a cool but sunny days. Maya had a short nap, Katie had none, and I was going crazy with them inside. So I packed some cookies and apples for a snack for the guys who were working outside and went to surprise them. I hooked Gordie up to our wagon and the two of us pulled the wagon to the pavilion. (Sorry, no pics)
While we were there talking about how to best put some interlocking brick down, Maya was finding the most comfortable spot to sit and watch.

Meanwhile, Katie decided to run away and go down to the pond by herself. A big NO NO! I went down to get her and then after she asked nicely if I could come with her to the pond we went to hang out on the dock.

She loved looking down between the board and was hoping to see fish or frogs. Sorry girls, they are gone for the winter.

It was beautiful and calm down there and I enjoyed some special one on one time with my big girl On the way back Katie wanted to crawl on the boat like a bear. Not like a lion or a tiger, like a bear she said. Running to catch mommy.

Waiting for us at the Pavilion was Maya. I love it when they come running when they see me or Daddy.

Wrestling with Mommy in the leaves. Katie joined us shortly after, but with both of them climbing on top of me, taking pics is pretty much impossible.
We all had a lot of fun!

P.S. And bedtime was short and painless.

Uncle Marc

We are blessed to have Uncle Marc come to our house every week! He's been volunteering at the Liebenzell mission since May, has been cutting our grass pretty much all summer long, and now is helping out at the mission wherever we need help. We are glad that our girls have the opportunity to get to know him and interact with him on such a regular basis.
We enjoy being able to share life with the only uncle that is anywhere close by. (The other 3 are in New Brunswick, California, and Switzerland). We just finished a games night with him and our 2 Germans and had a lot of fun playing, cheating, laughing and munching on junk food.
Thank you Uncle Marc for being such an active part of our family, we always enjoy having you over.