Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Delightful days...

We are loving the warm weather and sunshine that finally decided to settle in the Louisville area for the summertime. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but we've accomplished quite a bit around the house and have had lots of fun family time too! We headed back to the zoo a couple of weekends ago, but that will be a story for a separate post. I'm almost 18 weeks along pregnancy-wise and am feeling really good! July 1st is our big ultra sound to find out whether Sadie Beth will have a little sister or little brother. Right now, when asked, she says Mommy is having a "Baby Sister-Boy." We'll work on it. Here's our little munchkin sitting in her "spot" in the living room. We set up a little Book-Nook for her, and often she will sit looking at her books for long periods of time....I love it....Sadie Beth loves to read just like her Daddy. She's getting to be quite the "helper" too. On this particular Saturday, she was "helping" Daddy vacuum.
We decided it was time to say farewell to our little booster seat chair, at least for every day use in the kitchen. We always knew we would like a high chair one day when we had more space, but recently Sadie Beth figured out how to tilt back her chair, lifting the kitchen chair legs off the floor - scary if you aren't paying super close attention.
Introducing, the "big-big" chair! She is still very excited about her new high chair, the newest addition to our kitchen space. She probably won't be in it for too terribly long, but since we hope to have a house full, it will certainly be well-used during its lifetime.
Summer clothes are so fun! Baby #2 is coming in November - warm clothes I think will be much more difficult with a newborn than summer clothes. In the summer you can stick'em in a onesie and they are ready to go. This will be a different experience, though with Louisville weather it could be 80 degrees in November...who knows.
Water fun! One sunny Sunday after church David took Sadie Beth outside to play in the water hose for a short time before her nap. Fun time with Daddy! Mommies might be the favorite, but Daddies are definitely more fun.
We forgot to take her church shoes off! Oops.
Look at this cute girl with her big girl pony-tail. This was the first time I managed to get it back in one. It didn't last for long before it was gone....notice my bad habit of taking my shoes off and leaving them wherever I happen to step out of them . My dad once tried to break of me this habit, especially because growing up I always left my shoes in the bathroom and this drove him crazy. So, we made a deal in the sixth grade. If I could keep my shoes out of the bathroom for 6 weeks, I could get contact lenses. It worked - I got my contact lenses, but it wasn't too long before my shoes started mysteriously appearing in the bathroom again.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Green thumbs? We'll see....

Unless you are obsessed with my Sadie Beth, you will surely find this to be way too many pictures. But we had so much fun that I couldn't narrow them down. Grandma Balzer sent me a Mother's Day package full of gardening tools and flower seeds...so Sadie Beth and I decided to try our hands at it. First we just planted the flower that Sadie Beth "planted" in a cup for me at church on Mother's Day. She was thrilled to give it too me.
It didn't take her long to realize the soil was "messy!"
...so she had to check it out....

It wasn't too long before there was more soil on her than in the bucket! (not really)
She repeatedly told me that the "shower" (flower) smelled pretty.
What a fun time we had!
One more sniff...
Our finished product, before planting the seeds from Grandma...I'll post some pictures from that soon.
Sadie Beth has discovered the art of saying, "CHEESE!" and smiling for the camera...I love it!
We think she's irresistible...
And silly...

Monday, May 25, 2009

Dear God, "kyou shor strawbees!"

Can I tell you how much I just love this sweet little girl to pieces? Last night, as we were getting Sadie Beth ready for bed, I had just finished drying her hair and told her it was time for her medicine (antibiotic for bronchitis last week). Since Sadie Beth LOVES taking it and her "job" of putting it back in the refrigerator, she took off RUNNING for the kitchen shouting "Medikun!!!" She practically landed in the refrigerator, since she was running so fast with her sleeper padded feet. As David caught her, he made a comment about just how much JOY we have in our lives because of Sadie Beth...and it is true. She is so full of love and life and sweetness (and stinkerness at times too). We are so blessed by her. One exciting thing as of late has been to hear and watch Sadie Beth love to pray. I think I've written about it before, but it is just such a special thing for a mama to see grow in her little one's heart. Whenever we sit down for each meal, she announces that it is time to pray...but it is more than that. She will want to pray all day long. I was especially touched because the other night she was SOOOOO excited to have some strawberries at the end of dinner. If you can imagine a bouncing toddler in her high chair, that was Sadie Beth as I was cutting them up for her. I put them on her tray, and she ate a couple and then stopped. I asked her if everything was okay and she said, "Pray!" I said okay; we folded our hands and started our typical routine....I say, "Dear..." and Sadie Beth says, "God". Then she piped up with, "Kyou shor strawbees!" And my heart melted. She wanted to thank God for her yummy strawberries that I had made for her. David and I are always trying to teach Sadie Beth about thankfulness. We want her to know that everything we have comes from the Lord and that we need to be thankful for all His blessings in our lives. We talk about being thankful regulary. It was so neat to see this little bit of "fruit" blooming in her little heart at such a young age.

We've been having so much fun in the warm weather! Especially at the park with friends.
Here is one of Sadie Beth's friends, Miss Kendra Ruth. She is my friend Katy's daughter and we have enjoyed playing with her lately.
And feeding her goldfish during one of our picnic lunches recently.

Here's one worry off my plate! This was my dad's car, and it had been sitting in the parking lot at the condo since March 2007. The association was on my behind to get it moved - and I really just needed to figure out what to do with it. When Dad first got sick, we weren't quite ready to get rid of his car because we didn't know if he would ever need it again. Now that we know he won't, I listed it on Craigslist and was completely overwhelmed by how many responses we got...over 100 in less than a day. I'm thankful it sold so quickly and hassle free!
On rainy and cold days, we enjoy going to Noah's Ark at Southeast to play. I think Sadie Beth feels big playing here.

Don't be fooled - she actually won't go very far into the ark....she's a little too timid still and unsure of herself physically. She'll get there one day.
Sometimes Sadie Beth plays like it's her job. Serious business...
Fun with daddy!
Sadie Beth is learning how to say "Cheese!" She gets the silliest grin on her face whenever I tell her to look at me and say cheese.
We talk a lot about babies in tummies these days. She frequently reminds me that my friend Miss Jenn has a baby in her tummy named Callie. She has also started telling random people there is a baby in my tummy. She was telling me here as she read her "Nonny" book. It is the book "I love you forever" - the baby on the front cover is being "naughty," and she gets a kick out of shouting out "Nonny" while walking around the house with it in her hands.

Fun new toys! Sadie Beth has a sweet adopted Nana Helen, who just loves her to pieces. Well, Nana Helen's sister, Ophelia, found some toys for Sadie Beth at a yard sale recently. And what a blessing these new toys are for us! She found a Little People doll house - the exact one I've been looking for at yard sales for the past year. I was so excited for Sadie Beth to get this toy, and she LOVES it. I've been amazed at how long she will play with it.
Yikes!Not so good news....we had an adventure last week....we had scheduled for our air ducts to be cleaned out and found out that the entire inside of our air conditioner was covered in various kinds of mold that had been growing because the people who lived in the house before us never changed their air filter. NICE. It had been blowing all through the vents in our house. LOVELY. We think this might be one contributing factor to why we've all been so allergy ridden lately - breathing in mold and mildew is never good. We ended up paying 10x more than the originally scheduled duct cleaning, but at least it is taken care of. We are hoping to get reimbursed for some of it, since the home inspector should have absolutely caught it when he did his inspection before we bought the house. Either way, we know God will take care of us.

More fun posts to come soon!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Sadie Beth and Ra-ra!

Sadie Beth was pretty excited about wearing her new red dress to church. She showed it to everyone, making sure to point out the "pee-pee" (pretty) showrs (flowers)." Thanks Grammy for this sweet dress and all the other summer clothes you got for Sadie Beth.

Moving on up! That's right. Sadie Beth has been doing pack and play time almost every day since she was teeny tiny. She enjoys listening and dancing to her Wee Sing Bible Songs Cd and playing with her toys. Well, we've moved on to bigger and better things...ROOM TIME! This week we moved her independent play time to her room. It makes me a bit nervous still because there is more trouble to be found in her room, but she is loving it and doing so well. She played for 45 minutes on her own yesterday!
Remember these 2 sweet girls?
My how they've grown! Sadie Beth loves playing with her friend Amelia. Amelia is the daughter of one of my dearest, oldest friends Abby, and is 11 days older than Sadie Beth.
When Sadie Beth first started talking, she started calling Amelia "Ra-ra" - and still does. :)
The girls are around each other quite often and have so much fun together. I'm so thankful Sadie Beth has so many little friends to play with -- Amelia and the rest of the gang (of my friend's babies).
"What do you think about this whole new baby thing, Amelia?" asks Sadie Beth. Abby is pregnant again as well and this time we are do 13 days apart!

Amelia's tired of Sadie Beth telling her to, "SHARE." Now, Amelia has no problem with sharing. This is Sadie Beth's new kick. She thinks sharing is the one-way process of other kids giving her what she wants to play with. Yes, I realize this is a problem. We're working on it.


Recently, Sadie Beth has gotten into "sweeping." Oh it's so much fun. Will it be this fun when she is 14? Unfortunately, probably not.