Breakfast in Bed, Movies, and Coloring Books

Another sickness has found our home, and this time it's the flu. Not the stomach flu, but just the plain old sick, high fever flu. We are trying to keep it confined to one room today, Emily was still playing around the house yesterday (while we were oblivious to it manifesting itself). My sister's whole family has had it (except Claire), and Audrey became sick again while Emily and her cousins were with my parents at Pokagon State Park in northern Indiana. So, we brought sickness at Christmas and spread the joy, and now, a month later, sickness is here again. So far, Emily is the only one in our house to have it, hence the quarantine today (and maybe tomorrow).

Her fever was over 103 last night! She hasn't had a desire to play, but she HAS wanted to eat. She was asking for yogurt ~ after a banana, cheerios with no milk ~ all this morning. She said, "I am hungry the whole day!!!" She has been served on her princess tray today, and has been able to watch movies on her travel dvd player, listen to music, and color. We are piling it on, but I don't know how else to keep her away! From time to time she comes in and wants to see Lucy, so every now and then I walk Lucy by her room and Lucy waves. :0)

Please pray for our family and those who haven't gotten it yet, that we won't. Sara and family have had a hard time getting over it. At least Emily has been mostly smiles today, as you can tell from the picture!

Home

We are home! Tyler is not, but he is due back Saturday afternoon. It was a fast week, and I have been able to email Tyler and talk to him on the phone. He is having a great time in St. Vincent. Who wouldn't, with temps topping out at the mid-90's, but a fresh ocean breeze sweeping over the mountain to help keep it bearable. I can tell he's happy about a new experience, and getting to know people from our church (and a few who are not from our church) better ~ people he didn't really know too well before. He has blogs and pictures posted on his link at bachelorcreek.com. His link is "student impact" and his blog is "pen to paper". Sorry I don't have the link to send you right there.

Despite the cold days here, we enjoyed the sunshine, which was nice for our visit to my parents. We arrived on Saturday, and came home this afternoon. Dad was able to be off until Tuesday night (due to the weekend and MLK Jr. day.). Then, Mom was off on Wednesday! My niece Claire turned 9, and had her birthday party on Sunday. We visited Grandma Ball on Monday, and were finally able to give her her Christmas gift! She was happy to see the girls, of course! The week was also full of good food....got to get the necessities...Skyline, a visit with Alli and little Ella at LaRosa's, O'Charley's with my sister, and Mexican with Grandma Manning, Mom, and the girls. So, we did a lot of visiting, resting, and playing (Lucy did a lot of watching the birds and the occasional chicken through the picture window). Emily had her first adventure on a frozen pond! My parents took Emily and Sara's kids out on their pond yesterday afternoon. Sara and I were shopping and were nervous about it, but Dad went out first on it and JUMPED on it to make sure it was safe. I'm glad I wasn't there!

The girls were so excited to be home after a day of packing up and the 3 hour drive. We celebrated being home with ice cream, popcorn, and a movie tonight. Emily was thinking we would see Daddy when we got home, so I had to explain that he won't be home for a couple days. It was nice to have the evening at home, but we're ready to get back to life tomorrow ~ have to hit the store tomorrow for milk and the basics, and send Emily off to pajama day at preschool! Saturday can't come soon enough, though, as we're anxious for Tyler to arrive back safely and pick him up in Indy.

Sorry for no picture this time! I have some good ones from the week, but need to get them from my parents.

Getting Bigger....and Sillier

Here's our little silly Lucy girl, getting so big and about to turn 11 months! Her personality is developing more and more, and we laugh all the time at her funny faces, and say OH NO to ourselves when she starts yelling at the top of her lungs. She is definitely becoming more vocal, and is wanting to be heard. I can picture the look of surprise on your face as you read this. I mean, she comes from such a quiet family! I told Tyler that I thought maybe our 2nd would be quiet. I guess our household will always just be lots of fun! Lucy last week got mad at Emily and yelled "BAAAA!" and waved her hands around. So it has begun. The little baby stage has gone so quickly and now Lucy is such a big baby. She's eating all table food now and is down to a few bottles a day. She seems to like everything we give her and would eat and eat if we let her. She walks just holding on to things with one hand, so she'll be ready to start trucking soon, I'm sure.

Here are the girls ENJOYING every bit of being outside last Monday. It was 60 here and we took advantage of it. We took a walk down to the park (to circle around the park, but it was too soggy to play), and then after lunch went outside to play. Emily once again said, "This is amazing!" while swinging. She has heard me tell people that she has said that, and now that's her thing to say. I like to get on a swing and hear Lucy laugh when she watches me swing by her. She has such a silly chuckle!

I welcome every single somewhat warm day in the winter, as I'm sure most people do! It's so nice to get out. I walked around the block another day with just Emily last week while Tyler was home, and I actually forgot I had a neighborhood! I get so used to just being inside, or just heading straight from the car to the house, anxious to get inside and get warm. Speaking of WARM, Tyler is heading to St. Vincent this Saturday for a mission trip! I am pretty jealous, but I am also happy for him to be able to go. Our church supports W.I.S.E. ~ Winward Island School of Evangelism on the island, and he is going this year to help do some work down there. It's a 2 week trip, but he will just be going for one. He didn't want to leave us or his job too long. The island is 45 miles from South America, and this time of year its around 90. It's where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. They'll be able to go to the beach a little bit, so that will be nice for him. Keep him and the team in your prayers. I always feel a bit anxious when he leaves, especially to go far away.

And to top it all off, tonight on the way to church, Emily out of the blue said, "Mom, I want to see the lighthouse again!" I asked her if she was talking about St. Simons (our fun getaway in Georgia, thanks to Linda and Joe!). She said, "Ya, I want to go to the blue and white house where we ate princess snacks." She was talking about the condo and yes, now that I think about it, I took along some princess fruit snacks for her (that was well over a year ago!). She talked about how she wanted to play on the beach again. Seems like we're all dreaming of warm weather and fun this time of year!

A Work of Art

Emily loves to draw, even more so now that we found dry erase markers of Daddy's up in the cabinet. She sat in front of her easel for about an hour today! She told me about everything she was drawing ~ ponds, hills with trees (she's coloring in her hills and trees in this picture), all the letters in her name (but not in order), kitty cats and doggies, and funny faces. I must say, I think she is going to take after her Grandma! She takes time to add the cutest details. I am a little biased.


Her creative side also includes interior design. :0) I rearranged the living room today, and she was right along side me, moving her and Lucy's stools around and their toys baskets to just the right spot. I have a new (old) cabinet ~ new things in this house are usually old. For the 1st time in 5 years, I rearranged the living room to open it up more by moving the couch way back to square it off with the cabinet. The girls have a play area behind it, which has been there for a while now, but it seems like they enjoy being back "behind the couch" now in their little nook. Dad will appreciate this new arrangement, since he mentioned moving the room around like this when he was here to help with the cabinet in December. See, it runs in the family! Ha!



I suppose Lucy will love to design and draw...I think she has an eye for it. :0) I heard Emily yell, "GET HER AWAY!" so many times it drove me nuts. As you can see, Lucy kept sneaking up on Em wanting to get in on the action. Oh, I mean, she was sneaking up on "Cheetah Girl". Emily got a Cheetah Girl dress up outfit for Christmas from Great Grannie and Grandpa, and wears it all the time.











The little stubborn girl is finally asleep. She has not napped all week, though in desperate need. After about an hour of being in her bed today, she was yelling for us and woke Lucy up. Tyler marched upstairs and put her back to bed because she was "in trouble", and she would just have to stay in bed longer for yelling in the hallway. It sure did get quiet quickly, and though I didn't want her to nap so late, I let her go. I turned on her light and took this picture, and the tired little artiste was too tired to even budge.


I, once again, am pledging to blog more often. It has been almost 2 months! I think one thing that keeps me from doing it more often is that it takes forever to load the pictures, and I know pictures make it more fun! I will do my best!