Lately...

Here are a few quick pictures--mostly from my phone--of life at our house lately...

It was a little too quiet for too long upstairs, so I went to check what Emma was doing.  She was snuggled up in her chair reading!  I love seeing my kids love books and reading.

Another day, it was also quiet for a long time upstairs…that time, I found that Emma had had a lot of fun with two bottles of her eczema lotion!  It was smeared EVERYWHERE!  Doesn't she look proud of herself?!?

All of a sudden, Emma is everywhere!  We started working on potty training recently, so Emma isn't always fully clothed anymore.  Earlier today, Isaac yelled, "Mom, Emma is outside naked!"  We were getting ready to go on a walk, and she'd headed out the garage door and was playing with her push-toy on the driveway.  She wasn't completely naked--she at least still had her pajama shirt on!  

I heard a lot of noise during Emma's nap time today.  She'd gone down at her regular time (1:00 p.m.), but around 3:30 p.m. I heard her yelling "Isaac" over and over.  I opened her door to find her standing at her door--completely naked--with a huge grin on her face.  Her room was a disaster--she'd knocked her lamp and bow tree down, and there were clothes and books spread all around.  I put her back in her crib and asked her to show me how she climbed out.  She stacked her two stuffed animals (which aren't very high at all) in the corner and vaulted up on the top.  Emma tried scaling the slats when she was showing me, but she just didn't have the strength to do it that time.  I guess Emma used all her energy getting out the first time!  Yikes!  :)

tickling and laughing with Daddy before bedtime

Isaac loves to climb into bed with Emma each morning and after naps.  Actually, I'm pretty sure that he gave her the idea of climbing out of her crib.  Emma has a pacifier in in this picture, but as of last Wednesday she hasn't used it anymore.  We put her to bed last Wednesday night without one.  She laid down as usual, but then sat up and said, "Where's my bite?"  ("Bite" is her word for pacifier.)  Dave said she was a big girl now and didn't need one.  She cried hard for about 5 minutes, and then she spent the next 5 minutes screaming "Mommy!  Daddy!" again and again.  But, that was it!  The next morning, she asked me again, "Where's my bite?" but she's never mentioned them since!  Whew!  That was easy!  Maybe potty training and moving to a big girl bed will also be that smooth.  :)

(Isaac thought it was so funny to make Emma laugh by putting in one of her "bites.") 

Sleeping beauty!

All snuggled up on the couch with Daddy watching "Little House on the Prairie"--we've been reading the whole series to Isaac and are almost finished with the 7th book

out for ice cream one afternoon with Pop!

~out for cupcakes with Emma another afternoon while Isaac was playing with friends~

Emma only wanted to eat the frosting!  (Just like her mom!)

We were the only people in the bakery, and after Emma had eaten all the frosting, she walked up to the counter and said "more, more" as she pointed to all the cupcakes.  The girl who was working thought Emma was so cute that she gave her another one for free.  :)

helping with dishes

We visited Dave at his new job site, and Isaac brought a drawing of the job site for Dave to hang on the wall.  If you look closely, you can see "Daddy and Isaac" in the top right corner. :)

I had surgery three weeks ago and spent many hours on this couch.  One night, Isaac was so sweet and wouldn't leave me.  He gently rubbed my feet and prayed for God to heal me.  

A very smiley dinner helper!

We were getting ready to leave for swimming lessons one morning, and Emma put her own socks on (backwards) and her own shoes on (each on the wrong foot)--so adorable!  

 One more picture!  Dave and I got to have a date night a few weeks ago to see Focus on the Family's film "Irreplaceable!"