Photo Post

It has been so long since I have posted.  Here is a photo recap of our trip to Fifer Orchard here in Dover, DE.  As you can see, The girls had an absolute blast!  I think they allowed me to get some really good pictures of them. :)  I can not believe how grown up they both are getting.  Lydia just looks so grown-up to me.  And Tessa is a little spitfire like she always has been.  I will try and start posting somewhat regularly again once we get into our house and stuff unpacked next week.  Enjoy the photos!

Lydia and Tessa enjoying the swing

Tessa and the pumpkin

Lydia and the pumpkin (I love how the wind is blowing her hair like a model shot.)

On their way to pick out a pumpkin from the patch

Daddy and his princesses

On the pumpkin barrel train

Sliding down the big slide

Tessa living life to the fullest as usual! :)

Having so much fun together!  I love to see this.

Lydia in the corn box

Love this shot of Lydia and her daddy!  She looks so grown up from the back in this shot

Lydia going through the tunnel, showing her take on life

And. . . Tessa going through the tunnel, showing her take on life

In the corn box together

Me and my girls!

Tessa in the corn box

Tessa on the swing

Lydia on the swing

Tessa demonstrating her favorite new pose. :)

In the pumpkin patch

The girls with their pumpkin

My firstborn and I! :)

Angel Party

The angels in Heaven are throwing a HUGE party right now.  Wanna know why?

My sweet, firstborn, Lydia asked Jesus into her heart last night.
It is a great story.  All last week she has been asking and talking about hell and Jesus and sin and all that stuff.  On Thursday she asked us, Joel and I, if she would go to Heaven when she dies.  We explained to her, that if she wanted to go to Heaven, she needs to ask Jesus into her heart, and if she didn't then she would go to hell.  She then asked what hell was like so we told her.  We did not tell her every detail, but we told her the truth.  Well, that night, in the middle of the night she woke up crying and came into our room and told us that she had a dream about hell and she did not want to go to hell forever.  Joel took her back to bed and told her we would talk about it tomorrow.  The next day, she brought up her dream and we talked about it a little.  That night at bedtime, after putting Tessa to bed, we went into Lydia's room and talked her through the plan of salvation via the Roman's Road.  We asked her questions and asked if she understood everything, and  she said yes.  We then told her that when she was ready to ask Jesus into her heart and life to let us know and we would talk her through it. We wanted to make sure it was her decision, on her own time, and not us pushing her into it, just because she "understood".
Well, last night, after laying in bed for about an hour and a half, she came out and told us that she was ready to ask Jesus into her heart. So, we went into her room and asked her a number of questions to make sure she knew what she was doing and that she really had a grasp on it.  She did.  So, she then prayed and asked Jesus to forgive her sins and to come into her heart and life and to give her eternal life.  It was emotional and she just had this huge grin on her face afterwards. 
I know she is only 4, but she totally understands, and I am so happy and excited that my daughter is going to be in Heaven with me for eternity.  We made sure we called both sets of grandparents last night so she could tell them what she had done.  It was a very exciting night.
So, all that to say that the angels are having a party in her name today and I think we are going to go out for ice cream to celebrate Lydia's 2nd Birthday! :)

I love my sweet daughter, and now sister in Christ!!!!
Love you Lydia Joy!
P.S.  My next goal is potty training Tessa next month!  Little steps! :)

Haircut

So, tonight in the bathtub, I attempted to cut Tessa's hair for the first time.  Let's just say that she would not sit still worth anything.  I am still waiting for her hair to dry to see if it looks ok.  Thankfully, it is curly so if it is uneven, which I am guaranteeing it is, you will not be able to tell.
Yes, I kept some of her perfect curls.  They just look like circles of hair, just like Lydia's did. :)  I hope that cutting some of them off will not make the rest of her curls fall out.  Lydia's did not fall out till she was 4 so we shall see.

Boring Saturdays/Not so boring Travel plans

So, I have decided that I do not like days when we do not have anything planned.  It just makes the day seem so long and boring.  The girls and I have been in the house all day.  I am going stir crazy.  Luckily tomorrow is Sunday and we will be going to church.  Wish we were headed to RBBC, but we will be in a few weeks. :)

Speaking of heading to RBBC, the girls and I have a lot of traveling planned for the next few months.  As I said in an earlier post, we are headed to my parents house in IL next Friday.  We are going to stay for a week.  There will be lots of fun had at Grandma's and Grandpa's.  We have a sleepover at Aunt Darcy's planned, Lydia is super excited about going to her cousin Langdon's house.  They are 2 peas in a pod.  Here is a picture of them when they are only like 4 months old.

After we get back from Grandma's, daddy will be home for a couple of weeks before heading down to San Antonio for his C-5 training.  A few days after he leaves again, the girls and I will be road tripping to FL.  We miss all of our FL and church family and friends so much.  I can't believe that it will have been 11 months since we last saw everyone. :(  Makes me sad.  These are some of our dearest friends. 

We will spending about 10 days down there visiting and just hanging out.  We are really looking forward to this.  Lydia keeps talking about seeing her Best Friend Corban again.  Aren't they so cute?  We already have marriage arrangements set up with his parents.  Both our families just love each other, so it will be perfect.

After we get back from FL, we will be home for a while.  I am going to potty train Tessa and then hopefully that will mean we are done with diapers. :)  Woo-Hoo.  I will definitely be blogging about that, so stay tuned.

Towards the end of May the girls and I will probably head down to San Antonio to spend a week with daddy.  We will have been apart for almost 2 months at that point.  We will definitely be ready to see him and spend some quality time with him.  Maybe hit the Riverwalk and some good restaurants while we are there. :)

In June, my sister Traci and her husband Darren, who are stationed in Utah will be flying to my parents so we are going to drive over there again so we can see them.  We have not seen them for a year.  Darren was Lydia's first love, and then he met Traci. :) 

So, we are going to get to spend some time with them.  That will be a ton of fun!

The first week in July the girls and I are going to once again head to my parents house.  The camp there is having their Family Camp and we are going to go with my parents and my brother Dave and his family will be coming down from OH so that will be a lot of fun swimming, playing games, horseback riding and tons of other stuff.  That will be so nice to get to see more of my family.

 

So, as you can see, The next 4 months while Joel will be gone, the girls and I will either be traveling, or counting down the days to our next trip.  We are going to have a lot of fun and try not to miss daddy too much.

Joel will be coming home mid-July and then we are scheduled to leave OK around the 20th to move out to Dover.

Are you exhausted yet?  We sure will be. :)  Thanks for reading!  Have a great day of worship tomorrow.



Puzzle Girl

My 4 year old Lydia LOVES puzzles.  She has been doing puzzles for as long as I can remember.  She has always loved them, and has always wanted to do puzzles that were too hard for her to do herself.  Well, we have reached a new stage in her puzzle "putting together".  For Christmas, her Crazy Grandma(self-dubbed), got Lydia a box of puzzles.  It is a box of 8 puzzles, all Disney. 

There are 4 - 150 piece puzzles, 2 - 300 piece puzzles, and 2 - 500 piece puzzles.  The age on the outside of the box says 6-99. 

Well, Lydia is only 4 and she has put all 150 piece puzzles together, by herself, Joel and I did not even do 1 piece. 

Then, she moved on to the 300 piece puzzles, and has done both of those by herself. 

She has now started her first 500 piece puzzle. 

She is a puzzle genius.  She loves to just sit there for hours and work on the puzzles.  She does not even use the front of the box, or the picture to see what it is supposed to look like.  Her mind just works like that.  I wonder how long it will take her to do this 500 piece one.  The 2nd 300 piece one took her just about 4 hours.  That time was broken up a bit, but still, that is pretty impressive.
My Lydia.  She is one in a million.