Switching It Up

It seems that Fridays are no longer good for me to post with all of the activity, so we're switching to Mondays...

 

Our week was filled with learning, play and work for everyone.  Several days this past week, this Mommy was helping run parts for Kritex in addition to the other "jobs", which made for a very tired Mommy by the end of the week.  Thankfully, the girls were able to spend one afternoon playing with Oma to fill up some of the time I was outside working, and they were thrilled to have the chance!

 

Ezri has been working each week on learning a Bible story, letter, letter sound, and number in addition to other skills.  She is learning so quickly, and is able to write many letters without seeing them first.  She loves to paint and create when it comes time for a project.  One day last week, I pulled out the paints for fun and let her create - soon we had green everywhere!

 But, she had fun...

 The girls are filling their time indoors with plenty of play together.  Alora follows along with whatever game or story Ezri is imagining and they play very well together most of the time.  I will often find them giggling together in some weird place - like a box filled with pillows and blankets that has become a bed or rocket ship.

 Not to be outdone, Alora puts herself in plenty of interesting places to keep us laughing.

We are looking ahead to Thanksgiving this week.  One of the things Ezri and I have done together each day is fill our Thankful tree with a leaf on which I, or lately Ezri writes something she is thankful for.  Our tree is filling with leaves and we have been very mindful of the many things we have to be thankful for.  This has been a rewarding project for all of us.

Blessings



We have had plenty to celebrate the past few weeks.  Life has been full and blessings many.  The smiles have been plentiful as have laughs.

 

While at home, as weather has turned quite cold, much of our play has been in the house.  After the time change a few weeks back, our routine has been a bit goofed up at nap and bedtime.  This has resulted in an especially tired little Alora on some nights.  One night, while we were playing in the basement, she made herself a bed in a basket of clean laundry.  Soon, Ezri had her covered with a sheet and it became quite a fun game for them!

 Ezri was surprised with a special gift in the mail from Uncle Andy - a fox, and it has been added to her little zoo that must accompany her as she sleeps.  In addition to Barky (the chosen one and his 2 matching buddies), she also has a cat from Alora, a white dog named "bony" (don't ask), Baby Brother (a monkey) and a puppy that was once a toy of Tucker's.  It is a full house in there at bedtime!

 We have seen snow a couple of times in the past weeks, and the excitement is growing as Ezri immediately wants to go out and play in it, to make a snowman.  She is so anxious for the snow to stick around - not so much yet for Daddy and Mommy.  There have been plenty of cold mornings and afternoons at the bus stop for me as I cross the kids, and as Sally grows, it is much more difficult if not impossible to zip my winter coat, making staying warm more difficult.  Who plans to have these winter babies anyway?

 Last weekend, we headed up to Pentwater again, for what is becoming a nearly monthly visit.  We again enjoyed ourselves immensely with our good friends.  It was so much colder, with a lot of wind off the lake making outside play less than enjoyable with little ones for long.  Much of their play was inside, either at Lexi and Bella's or in the Retreat Center where we stayed.  There was plenty of opportunity to play dress up...

 On the occasions that we were outside, the kids found plenty to entertain themselves.

 We are so grateful for our friends in Pentwater and also that Ezri and Alora can have friends to play with while we are there.  Ezri really looks forward to going.  While it sometimes gets hard as Lexi (5), Bella (3) and Ezri all want to play together and someone ends up a third wheel, for the most part they play really well together!  Alora and Jack fit right in wherever they can as well.

While we stayed this past weekend, the guys (Alex, Andy, Jay and Scott) worked hard to help Nick finish winterizing the camp, draining water lines and the like.  It turned into quite an adventure, but we were all so glad to be able to help our friends in this way.  We also were able to celebrate Daddy's birthday with our friends, and again at home on his actual birthday.  It was hard for Ezri to understand why we weren't having a big party with friends and family to celebrate with Daddy.

We spent much of this past week catching up and cleaning up from our trip.  Sally is more active and we are now 23 weeks into this pregnancy.  Ezri is very excited and making plans daily for what she will do when Sally arrives :)  We have been working on our Thankful Tree daily (she adds a leaf each day with something we are thankful for) as well as learning letters and sounds and Bible stories.  I am so often amazed at how much and how quickly she is learning - Alora too!  We are truly blessed in this season of our life.

Happy Halloween

We had a very fun week!

 

This past Sunday afternoon, we were able to participate in the Trunk-or-Treat put on by our church.  After dressing the girls and walking them through the line to get their candy, an estimated 800-1000 kids from around the Dorr community walked through the 30 or so cars to get candy.  

The girls enjoyed some of their gatherings while Alex, Andy and I handed out candy :)

Soon, Ezri was interested in helping hand out candy.  Alora, on the other hand, was tired out and content to snuggle with Uncle Andy.

This year, Ezri was insistent that she and Alora be butterflies.  Alex and I tried to come up with costumes that would work with theirs - a butterfly catcher and a butterfly bush.  We had a lot of fun together!

Ezri was able to spend some time with her friends Lexi and Bella, who were in town for the weekend,

And her little friend Allie, who is her best buddy at church!

Alora was just happy hanging out with her candy :)

The girls continue to grow, as little girls do...

On Monday, Alex, the girls and I were able to "meet" our new baby, "Sally".  Ezri is determined that this baby is a girl.  She will not even discuss the possibility of a baby brother!  She has been telling people at church that she is going to get a baby sister and that her name is Sally.  While we do not know the gender, nor will we find out, Sally it is for now :) 

 

At the ultrasound, the girls were both interested in seeing the baby, though surprisingly Alora more than Ezri.  After we left the appointment, however, Ezri asked if she could have one of the pictures for her room so she could see the baby :)  She is very excited about being a big sister again and has planned out how she will rock and hold the baby and help the baby when it cries.  Love that kid!

 

Meet "Sally"...

Thursday brought a wet, but warm (60's) Halloween.  After supper, we took the girls down our street, starting with our favorite neighbors, Pamaw and Danny.  Both girls were so excited to see Pamaw and get a special bag of candy she made just for them :)

 The rain held of a bit while we made our way down the street and back, stopping and gathering sweets.  Alora caught on quickly and Ezri got braver at each stop.

 They could hardly resist digging pieces of candy out to eat as they walked.

As the rain began again, we headed out of town to Great Grandma's, Aunt Nancy's and Uncle Fred's to visit and get more candy.  We ended the evening with some very tired but happy and excited little girls :)