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8.29.2010

bits and pieces

"I wash clothes Mama... I wash clothes!!" Here's Lydda Grace with all her dolls and animals lined up singing Jesus Loves Me. Wade just watched and watched her!
Playing with Evelyn. We end up playing with and/or coloring on boxes everyday now that there are so many floating around the apartment.

new dress

Jon's colleague Lani gave Lydda Grace this sweet dress for her birthday. As soon as LG opened it she tried to put it on herself....we need a little bit of practice in dressing herself!

8.28.2010

potty time

Lydda Grace is a potty training champ!

Thursday we borrowed a seat to go on the big potty from some friends and Friday we started a chart with stickers for every time she goes in the potty.... she loves it! (most of the time.... a few times we've had some tantrums b/c she doesn't want to sit on the potty!) But overall, she's doing great!

8.21.2010

house update

We're still waiting!

So far the seller has accepted our offer but we are still waiting for a signed contract from the bank since this is a short sale. We have a verbal acceptance from the bank but still nothing firm so we can't move forward. We'd really appreciate everyone's prayers because if we don't have a set contract by this coming Friday then we have to start looking elsewhere due to our time frame.

We are just trusting that if we are meant to live in this house that the Lord will work it all out!

8.18.2010

for the record...

At dinner Lydda Grace ignored her pizza and said... and I quote....

"more bokly, more bokly"

We made her eat a bite of cauliflower to get some...

bokly=broccoli

8.17.2010

who me??

This is classic Wade right here.... he has his little eyebrows raised like this so often. Makes me laugh!
Wade is a super happy baby. He puts up with so much from Lydda Grace and is SO laid back... I hope that trait stays with him... he just lets it roll right off and keeps on smiling!

Yesterday he weighed in at an even 16lbs! He really is just a little cuddly, chubby, happy baby and so much fun!

Lydda Grace

Here are recent pictures of Lydda Grace. Yesterday she didn't take a nap... but I got her to rest and read on the sofa for a while.
Today she had fun with this word/letter/picture puzzle game we checked out at the education resource center on-campus a couple weeks ago.

8.05.2010

birthday bash

We had grand plans for a fun morning at the park with family and friends for Lydda Grace's second birthday. However, due to threatening thunderstorms we decided to just hang out here at the apartment.

The Caldwells, Smiths and Snipes came, as well as BeBe and PopPop and Granna Wylie. We pretty much just let the kids run around and play and ate cake.

Lydda Grace really got into the cake this year! Jon and I went to get her up singing happy birthday with a mini cupcake and candle in the morning. She ate it right away and then we gave her another mini cupcake for breakfast. I had this amazing plan in my head for a dog cake for her and I designed the template and everything but stuff just never quite turns out how I envision it... oh well, it still tasted like cake!

Overall it was a really fun day! Thanks to all who celebrated with us (and thanks to Carson for the photos!)
I made Lydda Grace a bunch of felt food for her birthday present. It was fun to make!
Everybody got into tasting the felt food!





Dear Lydda Grace

Happy Birthday Lydda Grace!

You are two years old now and I am late in posting your birthday post because you and Wade are keeping me extra busy these days! :)

Thinking back it is hard for me to even grasp all that has happened in the last year. You weren't even walking by your first birthday and now you run and climb and hop and dance all over the place.... all the time!

Also in the past year you have gone from just a few sounds/words to talking all the time. You love to talk and have an amazing vocabulary for a two year old. You pick up little things that Dada and I say and then a few days later will repeat them when we didn't even know you were listening. I love being able to talk with you about things that are happening during the day.

The biggest change that has happened is that you are now a big sister, and you are a GREAT big sister. You always want to give Wade "big hug" or "big kiss" and he puts up with all of it quite happily. We pray that you and Wade will continue to love each other and be great friends as you grow up.

One of my favorite things to do with you right now is to put you to bed. You say "one book, one book" and I say "yes, we'll read one book" and then you say "two books, two books!" Usually I just laugh and say, "okay... two books then." We cuddle in bed together and read. When we finish we talk about your day, we talk about what we did and what was fun and who we saw or talked to. Then we talk about people and things we are thankful for. You almost always mention Dada first :) Then we say prayers together. After that I always ask you, "Now what should we do?" and you say "Holy, Holy, Holy" (but it sounds more like "hole, hole"). So we sing your night-night song (you've recently started to sometimes sing along) and then I put you in your crib. I so enjoy this sweet time when we get to cuddle and read and pray and sing.

Here are some things that you love:
- Read- you still love to read and be read to. I think you would sit all day and listen to books if you could.
- Play- you are starting to really use your imagination to go to the store, pretend to pick blueberries, feed Wade pretend peas and all sorts of other creative things, it's so fun to see what you come up with.
- Dada- You love your Dada and run to meet him everyday when you hear his key in the door. It's hard for him to make it off to work some mornings because you will continue to say "big hug, big hug" and "big kiss, big kiss" over and over and will run after him for one more hug and one more kiss before he leaves!
- Church- you love going to church and we are so thankful for that!
- Funny- you love to laugh and be silly. If you see something funny or do something funny you will just laugh and say, "fun-nee" or "I fun-nee" and just keep on laughing! This cracks us up so we laugh at you and you just keep saying it... you really are a funny girl!
- Everything!- You are really at the age where you are curious about everything and want to be a part of everything that is going on. If I am putting laundry in the dryer you want in on it, if I'm feeding Wade you want to get right in his face to talk to him while he eats, if I'm running the embroidery machine you want to sit on the counter and watch it, if we're taking a walk outside you give a running commentary of everything we see and what other people are doing!!

You are so smart and continuously amaze us! You know all your upper-case letters and most of the lower-case ones, you can sing many songs and say nursery rhymes from memory, you know your numbers and can count in order (though you always want to skip from 5 to 8!). The other day you got really excited about "oppsits" (opposites) and had so much fun talking about up and down, high and low, awake and asleep as we acted out all these opposites. You know colors and we play a game where I tell you a color and then you look around and find as many things as you can that are that color, you're really good at it and often find things that I hadn't even seen or thought of!

Even though you are so smart, and fun and talkative and active, I think one of the best things about you is how loving you are Lydda Grace. You love to cuddle and snuggle, give hugs and kisses and will sometimes just randomly tell us "I love you very much!" We love you too VERY MUCH baby girl and we pray blessings on you this next year and in all the years to come.

I love you,
Mommy

bowman

A little while back Molly and Carson came for ice cream and brought their new puppy Rylie and we all went out on Bowman to play. Carson brought his camera along. These pictures are just every day life, and I love that about them!

I'm posting a ton of them because I love them all!








8.02.2010

for those following the house buying excitement...

We made an offer yesterday, the seller and the negotiator have both accepted and signed off on it. Now we are just waiting to hear from the bank (it's a short sale). This could be anywhere from a few days to a few weeks (according to the seller's agent.... but she's hoping for the few days scenario). Our goal is to close by the end of September, giving us a couple weeks to clean and paint the new place before we actually move.

Will keep you all posted....

we're moving!!!!!

Woohoo!!!!! After 11 years of on-campus living for Jon, 8 years for me, 2 years for Lydda Grace and 2 months for Wade (that's a total of roughly 21 years and 2 months between us all), we are moving off!

Jon is taking a job as the Associate Director for the Office of Community and Ethical Standards here at Clemson, we are buying a house and moving.... all within the next couple months!

Please pray for the house buying process as we are in the middle of that, for Jon's transition to his new job (which he is super excited about by the way) and for all the packing and mess that awaits us in the coming months.

We are so looking forward to a home where people can just drop by without having to stop somewhere for a parking pass, where we don't battle for parking everyday, where we can hop outside quickly and easily to play, where Lydda Grace will have her own driveway to draw with chalk on, where we can easily wash our cars, plant a garden, have no more fire drills or alarms at random hours.... can you tell we're excited!

he rolls

Wade has rolled over twice now! Last night he woke in the middle of the night to eat and when I went to pick him up he had flipped to his back! Same thing after his morning nap!!

8.01.2010

visit to BeBe and PopPop's

Since Jon started training last week for the grad students, the kids and I headed to my parents' place for a while. We mostly just hung out at the house which was SO nice!

BeBe and Pop Pop were at a wedding when we got there, but they left a fun little scavenger hunt for the kids to find some bath/water toys!

On Wednesday Aunt Kay and Uncle Talley came to visit and meet Wade. Lydda Grace got a sweet Tasha Tudor book for her birthday.

Lydda Grace played with Zach
She colored with chalk
Wade loved being outside and gave us lots of smiles
And of course he slept!

blueberries

I need to backdate these posts!

We went blueberry picking with Molly and Carson back on the 17th. Lydda Grace wasn't nearly as focused this time, and Wade didn't sleep... it made the picking much more exciting :) We still came away with 4 lbs. of berries which we promptly ate in less than a week!