Busy Day

We are loving the weather we've had the last couple days. We can get the girls out to play at any time of day without absolutely melting. Ellie has had more practice on her 2-wheeler, they climbed the tree out front, played with chalk, Ellie tried throwing a frisbee (watch out!) and just had an overall great time. Sarah really enjoys being out now as well, which is nice. We also went to take a look at Ellie's pumpkin that she planted this spring. I was extremely impressed! We dug potatoes tonight and it was Mom's job to do her best to keep the girls from walking on and killing the plants. We ended up with 2 laundry baskets full of potatoes. Yummm! We got a few fun pictures today, though.

F Week

Ellie is in love with projects this week. I'm having to get creative. We took some pictures this morning of all the picture projects she's done this week. "F" is turning out to be a really hard letter to remember. We'll keep working on it!

Plus, Ellie has gotten really excited about that "daddy chain" we made last week. She woke up this morning and the first thing she said to me was, "We need to take off a chain!". I thought she said train and it wasn't until she told me she wanted to take off that colored thing that I understood. I'm glad she's getting the hang of it. Wasn't sure she completely understood what it meant. Hooray for Steve coming home soon!

Can't resist

Sometimes I get the girls dressed in the morning and I just can't resist taking pictures. We took these yesterday. I had bought these outfits months ago and the girls are just now starting to fit in them. It sure is fun having 3 girls to dress up and take pictures of. Just look at how big Sarah is getting, too! It is hard to believe she's already 4 months old. I'm anxious for Steve to come home and see just how big his three girls have gotten. I can bet ya he feels the same way!

"C" Week

So this was "C" week. I wasn't nearly as creative this week and I'm afraid we didn't do nearly as many activities to celebrate the letter "C". Besides, the girls just didn't get along well this week and I felt like I was just playing referee the whole time. Not a lot of motivation to get creative, honestly. But we still did a few things. We made our cookie-cutter cookies, of course. We had a cat, clown, circle, candle, letter C, and candy cane. She made a picture with "C" stickers and of course her visit from Aunt Carrie (on the right) who arrived on the choo-choo train. Ellie put clips in Carrie's hair and outfit and Carrie (and her friend, Denise) had a birthday cake. Next week we move on to the letter "D". She wants to save "E" for when her dad is home, so we'll put that off for just a couple weeks. Steve leaves in only 3 weeks to come home on his R&R. I am so incredibly excited. Can't wait!

On a side note... you know how there are some days you wonder why you even bother? Well, church today was one of those days. I got to hear about 10 minutes out of the 3 hours of church. The rest of the time was spent chasing Katie and keeping Sarah from crying. So why was I there?

Katie's New Trick

Here's Katie's latest trick. If she finds the dryer door open she'll dump all the clothes and climb in with a big grin on her face. She thinks it's great!

Family Visit

We had such a fun time with family here. Geoff and Emily (brother and sister-in-law) arrived Wednesday night and Duane and Jessica (brother-in-law and his wife) arrived Thursday afternoon. We were able to spend most of the afternoon outside playing on the trampoline and just visiting together. We had a wonderful time. Then after bedtime we played "Ticket To Ride". What a fun game! I loved it. I'm definitely hooked! Duane and Jessica were able to stay through lunch (at Avanti's... yummm) on Friday. The girls loved their attention. It was fun to spend time with them. I'm very happy they were willing to stop in on their way home to Idaho. The rest of our time with Geoff and Emily was a lot of fun. Like I said, the girls just loved having them around. It was sad to see them leave yesterday morning. But, they had two more days of travel plus unpacking once they arrived in New Haven, CT. They hope to get there by dinner time tonight and have the Elder's Quorum help unpack their big Penske truck. On to new adventures at Yale! I put up a few pictures from their visit.

It Was Inevitable

So, my little climber, Katie has finally outdone herself. Not only has she climbed into the clothes dryer and up the doors at church, but tonight she climbed right out of bed and fell head first to the floor. Great... I don't know if it was inspiration or luck, but I had just put down a couple pillows under her crib just in case she decided to try that climb. My mom was in there telling stories when she did it. So I guess the fun begins? Now I need to decide if I should lower the crib rail so she has less distance to fall or just wait and see if she learns her lesson? That's a tough one... certainly don't want a broken neck in the process!

It's been a fun week with family here. I'll be sure to write more about that when I get a minute. The girls have loved having the attention from their aunts and uncles. It's fun to let them get to know them all better. Fun!

Typical Army

So we had it all planned out... Steve would come home the middle of October and be here for his birthday as well as Halloween. We've been talking it up to Ellie basically ever since he left. Plus we were planning on flying out to Utah for my nephew, Jacob's baptism the end of September. Then we find out Sunday that he has been selected to take command of the Signal Company in the Battalion (a great career move for him). He will take over the end of November, which means he starts signing for things the end of October. So that means his leave has been moved up over a month. He is trying to head out as soon as September 8th! Whoa! Definitely wasn't planning on having him come home this soon! It's a good thing we didn't have plane tickets or other reservations already made! Now, I don't want to sound like I don't want Steve home... believe me- that's about as far from the truth as you can get. But- I like some control over my life and the Army gives me NONE! I am extremely anxious to have him come home and can't wait- only about a month away! It's all very crazy. So now I need to start planning some fun activities.

We're excited to have my brother, Geoff, and his wife, Emily come visit. They should arrive tomorrow night sometime. Then Steve's brother, Duane, and his wife, Jessica will get here sometime Thursday. It's hotel Streeter around here! We're very happy to have all them come visit.

This week is "B" week. I'll get some pictures posted soon.

McLean County Fair

The McLean County Fairgrounds are only a couple miles from our house, so it's only right that we would take a trip over to the fair this week. Before we left we talked a little about it and Ellie wanted to be sure she didn't step in cow poop and she really wanted to talk to the farmers. It's a long story as to how she came to those two conclusions about what happens at the fair, but we thought it was hilarious. She was disappointed when she got home and realized she forgot to talk with the farmers.

With the humidity it's near 95 degrees out there right now, so we spent only 2 hours there today. But I think the girls had a really good time. They really enjoyed seeing the animals. Even Katie got into it. She loved the petting farm and Ellie let a pig slobber all over her hand. My dad showed pigs in 4-H growing up, so this is all very comfortable ground for him. We walked through the barns for the horses, cows, sheep and pigs. Ellie took a pony ride then we went into the air conditioning and enjoyed our barbecue pork sandwiches. Even if we don't attend the fair, we always get these sandwiches- they are so, so good! Last of all we took the girls on the merry-go-round. I wasn't sure if they girls were enjoying it- their faces were so serious, but once it stopped I had to practically drag them off the horses. I think they were having fun! Sarah was hot, sweaty and feeling pretty miserable in her stroller so we decided to call it a day. On our way out we bought a bag of cotton candy for them to share on the way home. Ellie still isn't convinced about cotton candy. Katie and I love it! I'm really glad we did that. I've always enjoyed going to see the animals, too.

Learning the Alphabet

Okay, so I've had this idea basically ever since we moved here to Illinois that I wanted to teach Ellie her letters. She knows "E" and that's the only one. So, a couple weeks ago I went shopping for fun things to do with letters and I decided to start this week. So, for the next 26 weeks we will be learning our letters. Of course we started out today with "A". I had good intentions to begin our lessons Monday, so I made up the sugar cookie dough. But without Mom here it's tough to find the time to do these projects with Ellie. But anyway- we started today. And Ellie had a great time making her "A" cookies. We had the letter "A", an angel, apple and arrow. Then I had her find the letter on her alphabet puzzle and her fridge phonics. Then we carved the letter "A" in our pot pie tonight. She's really excited about this. I'll think up another fun project tomorrow. I'll also be posting the pictures of our projects as the week goes on. If anyone has some good ideas- I'd love to hear them!

So Sad

You know how you reach that point after having a baby that your hair falls out? Well, I reached that point about a week ago. And the horrible tragedy that followed was that Sarah started to lose hers the same time. NOOOOOO!!!!! And she had such full, beautiful, dark hair. So, so sad :-(

I can't believe it's already the first of August. Time is just flying by. That's good and bad. The girls are growing too fast- I feel like I can't keep up. But, it's also bringing Steve home that much faster. To celebrate the beginning of the month (okay, not really... I just thought it would be fun to dress the girls up) we took some pictures of the girls in their skirts. They are just too adorable...