Write That Down!

It happens alot. Sometime in the middle of the day the girls will do something cute or new and I tell myself, "I really need to write that down, or blog that." I forget. So, here we go.

Emily has really been such a thankful child. I'm not really sure why. We always make sure she uses her manner words. Please and thank you, but she takes it beyond this. Sometimes in the evening time when she is going to bed she will thank me for something she had for dinner that night. Two nights ago she really enjoyed her potato. She tells me, "Thank you for the potato, Mommy."

Tonight we had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. I don't know why, but they love it. I'm so glad. When I gave Emily her sandwich she says, "Mmm. Yummy Sandwich. Thank you for the sandwich, Mommy." It just makes me sooo happy to here that. Precious little girl.

While Emily is at school, Meredith and I get to hang out together. Today we went shopping together. (Kohl's had some REALLY good deals. I ended up getting a rice cooker for $5 and the generic brand of the magic bullet for $4. Who doesn't love a good deal. :) After we were done I was a little eager to get back to the car so we could get some milk and stuff at the grocery store. So, I looked both ways without stopping and started to cross the road. Meredith stopped and pulled be back as she said, "Stop. Watch for cars." An older lady was right behind us when she did that and thought it was SO cute. It was really. "Oh, ok." I said. "You're right. Let's look both ways. Ok, no cars. Here we go." Then she was mimicking me. "Where's the car?" she said. And then she found it. All by herself. Sometimes Meredith really surprises me. She'll say something and I'll think to myself, "wait. Can you say that? Really?!! Ok."

Oh, and today I was late to drop Emily off at preschool. This means I have to get both of the girls out of the car and walk into the building. Sign my name as well as why I'm there, what time I got there, where I'm going, and I cheat and just put the time I'm headed out which means a whole minute later. So, Meredith found the classroom door and opened the door. Then I went to go pick Meredith up so we could leave and she grabs the side of the door and screams, "NO, I WANT TO GO TO PRESCHOOL!"

Emily and Meredith have both learned a lot this summer. They both know their alphabet and the letter sounds. They can count to at least 10. Emily can count to 13 and needs a little bit of help after that to 20. Meredith has surprised me. She can count to 11, I'll say 12 and then she'll say 13. She needs a little bit more prodding to 20 then Emily, but I'm still pretty impressed for a 2-year-old. Emily knows her shapes and colors. Meredith knows black, gray, white, pink, brown, red, blue and green. Every once in a while she tell me the other colors. She also knows most of her shapes. Circle and oval are her favorites. I still think it really strange that she would get the non-rainbow colors down first. But, hey, however she wants to learn it.

U of A Experiment

Nathan's First Experiment at the UofA for his Ph.D. I'm thrilled to see it and helped him out by testing it for him. Now I can't participate, but you can. You can check it out and see how good you are at knowing if people are lying or not.

How good are you at detecting a lie? The researchers at CMI want to learn more about what makes a good lie detector. Visit http://cca.cmi.arizona.edu to test your lie detecting skills! The best performers will receive cash prizes. The entire test should take from 30 to 40 minutes. After judging the credibility of 20 interviewees, you will be given a performance score reflecting your lie-detecting ability. This online experiment is open for participation through Friday, October 2, 2009. Good luck!

File Folder Games (the links)

I sort of forgot to post the links to the file folder games. I meant to.

I tripped over this one first, File Folder Fun. Then while I was searching the website I found that it had links to several other websites. Another of my favorites was the Mormon Chic file folder games. The Ice Cream Cone game I did I did myself. Of course, I made it BEFORE my computer crashed on me, so I can't share it. But, it was really easy to search for clip art online and color it in with markers (or crayons, or whatever is cheap and available). I made it to teach Meredith her colors and it was really easy. It's her FAVORITE game. She's happy to let Emily go to school with the promise that when we get home she gets to play the "Ice Cream Game". What I don't understand is why she learned all of the "odd" colors first. She decided to learn brown, black, white, and gray first. She would call every other color "purple" until she learned most of them, which is really typical for 2-year-olds. Right now I'm working on sight words with the girls. I think I'll be making some File Folder Games for those.

*To the person who asked me for the links, I don't have your email! I'd love to have it though. :)

Meredith's Belated Birthday Pics

Here are some pictures of our Family Birthday Party for Meredith. She's just such a beautiful little 2-year-old. People love to stop me in the grocery store and tell me that she looks just like the little gerber baby (except she has a lot of curly hair) and she is beautiful.

Little kids are so cute eating chocolate cake, if you don't mind the mess. :)

She was SO happy on her birthday. She just loved all the attention.

Here is her picture just after she found out how her Jack-in-the-Box worked. She was very excited.

She had a very happy birthday. I would post all the other really cute pictures, but then this post would be WAY too long.

Cooking

One of their favorite things to do. Aunt Jessica, they're in heaven.

Here's Meredith signing "make" for me.

Most likely they spilled something (cooking with them, typical) and Emily saying, "uh oh".

The Newest Family Member

My sister is engaged and the big day is December 19th. One day after Nathan's and my 5th Anniversary. Of course, I'll be helping with several of the reception details which I am very excited about. This should also help explain why from here until the wedding I'm not sure how often I'll be able to blog. Let's just say that I'll know Photoshop and Movie Maker a LOT better by the time the reception rolls around. I also have my little secret for Jess so I can't tell you here, but if you ask me about it I'll tell you all. I'll put out a hint and say it's one of my hobbies (oh, that narrows it down a bit. NOT!) and I'll get to learn something new. Of course there will be a picture up after Jessica sees it. Not that she'll have a lot of time to ooh and aah over my handiwork since she will be a little bit busy with a new husband. :)

I love you, Jess! You look so beautiful and happy and I'm so excited for both of you.

Singin In the Rain

....without the rain. :) Of course, it was raining.

The girls found some umbrellas at Grandma's house. I'm sure they found them with the help of Uncle Matthew.

Senses

I love September. This is when all of the senses start to pick up. It's the start of decorating, seeing (one of the senses); and baking, smelling, and tasting, for the holidays. I've got some of my fall decorations up, it's raining, and I smell some freshly baking banana bread. :) Oh, the joys of life! I also love listening to the thunder that comes with the rain and listening to the wind.

We just enjoyed a weekend at my parents house. It was wonderfully relaxing and a great break. I also grabbed the pictures from my parents computer (including some Meredith birthday pics) and took some great pictures. I'll have fun updating the blog.

Emily is at another milestone. Her speech has improved a lot and she's started coloring people. Her last picture she had a dinosaur that she had colored in. I really love this milestone. The girls continue to come up with new things to imagine and pretend and I LOVE it.

On the flip side of reaching new milestones there is the frustrating. A while back Meredith found out how to get past our childproof front door and undo the top lock. We turned the childproof "thing" upside down so we had to push the lever up to get out of the house and she has just figured out how to get out the front door today with it upside down. She's been out a couple of times today. Of course, Nathan and I have been right on her tail, but it's still scary.

I also love how Emily is smelling the baking bread. "I like that smell, mom." She says. As she's loudly smelling so I can hear it. What joys these girls will be during the holidays, the good and the bad. :)

Fall is also a very romantic season for me. It's when Nathan and I met and courted. Oh, I love the fall.