Busy day at home

Today was the first day of summer that we didn't have appointments to interrupt our day. We had a great day. The beautiful weather allowed us to spend most of our day outside, but we began in the house. Emily wanted to play with my school things a little. Nothing fulfulls my teacher/mommy heart like a little time with the magnetic letters.

Jenna enjoyed some good books, she had a bit of trouble figuring out how to hold this herself, but we have a great picture of Emily holding a book like this at Jenna's age, so this is to match that one! :)

Several times today, Jenna seemed to be unhappy when she wasn't being held up - finally by this evening when I put her in the corner of the chair she was thrilled with herself. She played quietly for the whole time I cleaned up the dishes from supper. She is growing up quickly.

Who's Who??

We were looking through some old pictures this evening... Can you tell which picture is Emily and which is Jenna. They seem to have some similarities.

My Best Friend

Emily wanted a turn holding the camera the other day, this is the picture she took! :) (I had to crop it a bit, but I thought she did pretty well) I thought I'd take this photo as a chance to think about how blessed I am to be married to my best friend! Pat and I sometimes laugh at how "deep"into parenting we are right now, but we are also finding ourselves falling deeper into our relationship with one another. I am always amazed at how energized I feel after spending an evening with Pat. He is so easy and fun to talk with, this was one of my favorite qualities about him when we began dating. I'll admit that occasionally this isn't my favorite quality **like when we're ready to go home and he's still not said hi to EVERY person at church** but for the most part I totally admire his ability to put people at ease.
I am still happily smiling at and with him daily and for that I thank God for putting us together. What an incredible man to raise a family with.

Oh Happy Days!

Jenna has been full of smiles now that I'm done with teaching!! :) I had my last work day today, I have a pile of boxes of books and other miscellaneous things that I'll save until someday when I get to have a classroom of kids again. Until then, I am SO excited to have just three kids to teach for a bit!

Preschool Graduation

We went to Emily's year-end preschool program this evening. They shared some favorite poems and songs with us. Then they had a little "graduation" ceremony for the kids heading to Kindergarten next year. A little silly, but the kids enjoyed it.

Emily and Ms. Kristen - we will be forever grateful to Ms. Kristen for the tender love she showed to Emily as she got her first taste of what school is like.

Daisy & Emily laughing together at their silly hats. I often heard stories after preschool days about the silly games and things these two dreamt up together. It was fun to see a first friendship blooming.

This picture is a bit blurry, but Emily's happy smile was worth posting it anyway!

Our little girl has grown up SO much in the past year. She seems so much more confident - she really enjoys being on a stage. I especially enjoy seeing her proud/shy smile when she knows we're proud of her.

Living Prayer

The Living Prayer group from our church invited some young girls to join them for a dance this Sunday morning. Emily has loved practices and has amazingly learned the entire dance. She is almost 2-3 years younger than the other little girls they asked - which was obvious during practices. She worked hard, but also spent a bit of time spread on the stage on her tummy between instruction. At first I had my doubts that she would be able to remember the movements for even small parts of the routine, but she surprised me and had them all by performance time, even to the beat of the music!!

This angelic smile will forever be etched on her proud parent's hearts!! What a wonderful way to spend my Mother's Day

Mother's Day

These three kiddos make every day a little brighter! I feel so blessed to have them to help me celebrate my favorite job - Mommy. I recieved some gifts straight from their hearts :) (blue jelly shoes and a pretty butterfly necklace)

But the best gift of all was a day spent with them. We had Jenna dedicated in church Sunday morning, and Emily was asked to dance with some high school girls for a special mother's day performance during church. We had both of our moms over for a simple lunch and then I got a rainy day nap (those are the BEST). We concluded our day together at Braums for ice cream - can't beat that!!