Thanks

Just when I feel like I have settled into a groove it all feels disrupted. I think I am doing a better job, writing down my thoughts and then 6 weeks pass and I haven't written a thing. I know it would be easier if I just kept up but goodness knows that is much easier said than done at times.

In the hurried up life we lead no matter how much I try to slow it down, I am backtracking and writing down things I am thankful for several days after Thanksgiving. I guess that leads me to my first thought:

1. Grace: I am so thankful for grace in my life. I am thankful for the grace of my Lord and Savior, without whom I'd be in trouble. I'm thankful for the grace of my husband who is so good to me. How romantic to think that I have a man who loves me during my greatest moments as well as my darkest. He loves me not only despite my faults, he loves my faults because they are me! For anyone who thinks that life gets less romantic after marriage, to them I say it doesn't have to be. I pray our lives get only more romantic. Of course with that we must get a little more creative at times and of course its not the same as when it was just the two of us, but oh the joys we share now as our family grows! I am thankful for grace from my kids. Goodness knows I make mistakes and that their faces still light up with joy every time they see me is astounding! Grace, grace, grace. I love that I have family and friends that know me and still love me. I am one blessed woman!

2. My home: not just my physical home but my home--my family, our dog, our routines, neighborhood walks, and the memories we have made in our little house. I am getting antsy at times to get in a bigger house but the dreams that have come true in our little house on Amelia Island Street are the happiest of my life.

(This list is in random order, not in order of importance.)

3. My coffee pot: Last year I got one of those single cup coffee pots. That little coffee maker has helped me through some sleepless nights.

4. My family: This includes my immediate family, my parents, in-laws, siblings, grandparents, nieces and nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles. I feel so blessed to have been born into such a wonderful family and then to have married into another one!

5. A steady small business. When almost 3 years ago we opened The Children's Playroom (www.thechildrensplayroom.net) with our dear friends Matt and Tiffany Gowler, little did we know that the economy would tank soon after we opened our doors. We are steadily growing each month and are learning a lot as we go. I am most grateful for the moments when moms and dads tell us that they don't know what they would do without us, explaining to us how we have helped their family through some tough times...all while bringing joy to their children in the midst of it!

6. My Christmas tree that has ornaments on the top half of the tree. Wilson has used our ornaments for footballs and drumsticks since we put them on the tree. We now have a tree that makes me smile every time I look at it because it reminds me of the phase of life I am in right now and it is just so much fun!

7. Christmas lights. Lillian loves spotting the Christmas lights when we are out! Wilson jumps into with his token grunt and point! This year has been such a blast.

8. Having a 3 year old and a 1 year old.  Lillian is so into everything. She loves to write, color, play pretend everything! Wilson loves to throw anything and everything he can get his hands on. They both love the drums. Both give amazing hugs and squeezes around the neck! And both of them love to dance! It's a party every day at our place. And even though the house gets turned upside down regularly, my heart is so full I don't know how I can contain it!

My list could go on for miles! Thanksgiving morning we sat with our kids at our table and talked about being thankful. Lillian took turns with us in sharing what we are grateful for. Wilson grunted out his thanks. We want to be people that are finding reasons to be thankful. If we're careful to look, we'll find no shortage of reasons.

(Here's a pic of our recent trip to Florida. We saw an alligator chillin' in the everglades. Don't mess with those guys. They're big!)

(Side note: I wrote this on Friday and I am just getting around to posting it).
Wow..what a week. Where to start, I guess with Sunday. Sunday we got together with Daniel's family for a few hours to take some big family pictures and eat dinner. Daniel's youngest sister and her new husband were in town visiting from Tulsa. That means there were 17 (seven of which are children 4 years old and under). As well as one of Daniel's sister's, in-laws. We had a great time all together. Well in less than 48 hours 14 of us had a violent stomach bug. I have never heard of a bug traveling that quickly (no it wasn't food poisoning). During Lillian's nap on Monday I started feeling a little queasy and while I was talking to my mom I told her that I was praying it wasn't a stomach bug. Back in May I had a violent bug that ended up with me in an urgent care office getting iv's of zofran on my 29th birthday. Well Lillian wakes up and then it all begins. She starts, I follow not too far behind.

Daniel so graciously took care of Lillian while she was sick. He took her down and slept in the basement with her while I battled the bug upstairs. Around 2am I wake up to hearing Daniel in the kitchen and he informs me that he is now sick. We quickly change the sheets in our room so he can sleep up there and I go down to finish the night with Lillian (I was feeling better). I wish I would have taken a picture of all of the laundry that I had to do the next few days. Thankfully Wilson avoided it. Daniel's parents saved him from the chaos and he slept there on Monday night. Although they later became victims of the bug themselves.

As we re-entered the world we heard of LOTs of people who experienced this bug in the same time frame. Crazy little virus. I wonder what Lillian thinks germs are. We keep talking about them and washing our hands and cleaning EVERYTHING! Maybe I need to have her draw a picture of what a germ is so I can get in her head. We spent lots of time at home making sure we were all well and not going to let that little bug get around any more. Thankfully that bug knows he is no longer welcome in our home.


On a totally different note a quick Lillianism:
Yesterday Lillian, Wilson and I were playing. Lillian started to have a little meltdown about who knows what now. I informed her that she was over reacting. She settled down and we continued to play. Before long she starts crying again and I look at her inquisitively trying to figure out why the alligator tears again? She explains to me "Mom, I just want to cry." I respond with, "Okay Lillian, but why are you crying?" To which she answers "I don't know." I just held her and tell her that we have all felt that way before. It won't be the last time that she will just feel like crying and not really know why! Oh to be a girl...

Here are a few new pictures:

Playing with  Zoobs. If you have never played with them they would make a great Christmas gift.

Kind of like legos but they move around and they have no small pieces.

Bath time fun

My sweet girl 

Happy Days

Daniel's been traveling a lot lately. I am glad this is his last trip for awhile. Its hard on both of us. When he returns he is tired from traveling, playing drums and an intense schedule. I am tired from two kids, running a small business (with over 1000 families registered!), a dog, and just all that goes along with all of that. We are so thankful for the opportunities for our family to earn a little extra cash but it does make things a little more challenging. I don't know about you but when Daniel is gone I don't sleep near as well. I take a long time to unwind and then I wake up in the night. Typically its not a scared thing, just an aware thing.

Last night when it was time for bed Wilson was letting me hear about it when I laid him down...upon re-entry into his room and I picked him up Wilson clapped. I am not sure if it was for me or I think the more likely option was that he was clapping for himself for succeeding in his ploy to get out of bed. I think he won that battle. He has never had any problems telling us what he thinks.

Lillian has ballet today. She is one of the youngest in her class (if not the youngest). She has class with her cousin Taylor which is so special to me! My little ballerina.

Here's to Friday and a "normal" weekend ahead of us. We have not had two weekends at home in a row with a "normal" schedule since early May! I am looking forward to playing with my family, watching some football, drinking some chai, and snuggling under my new amazing blanket!

Our Boy is One!

I am trying hard to not give in to the idea that Wilson is already experiencing the life of a second child. I feel bad because he turned one over a month ago and I still have not written anything about what he's doing in this new phase of life! Oh well, I know I just need to take the pressure off :)

Wilson has been such a joy. He is ALL boy! It has been so fun to see him do the boy thing. Here are some things I want to remember about the first year (and even a few I would be fine to forget):

* His favorite toy to play with is a ball or anything he can pretend is a ball (aka an orange, apple, etc). He will throw it and chase after it himself.
*We have a doggy door (see picture below) and Wilson crawls through it daily. No telling what our neighbors must think watching our one year old go in and out like a little pup. We used to try to fight it. Now we just sit back and laugh...that is until he starts eating our dog's food from the bowl. We'll let you decide whether or not you think that has happened a couple of times already.
* He loves music. He loves drums. When he is dancing and he really gets going he puts his hands down behind his back and just bounces up and down.
* He loves to tease. He teases his sister (to which she responds appropriately half the time). He will pretend he is going to take something, throw something, or even hit something until he gets a reaction out of whomever he is teasing.
*He is walking now. He is still a bit wobbly but right around his first birthday he started taking steps.
*When you ask him for a kiss he leans his forehead into your lips so you can give him a kiss.
* If he is having troubles sleeping he still loves to cuddle.
* He adores Lillian and she adores him. I love watching their relationship develop. She is learning how to include him in what she is doing but she is also understanding that he just wants to follow her around.
* He says "Dad" and "ball" pretty well but he still is not too interested in saying much more (at least in a language we can understand. But he likes to talk!).
* He loves to sing songs (and do the motions). Anytime he is fussy I will hear Lillian start to sing him a song, always starting with her ABC's.
* He took a long time to sleep through the night...really not until he was close to a year did it happen consistently. After we set his surgery for tubes and the doctor told me he had basically had fluid in his ears since his first ear infection (at 4 months!), I found some compassion for his lack of sleep.
*Though he doesn't always want to go to sleep, whenever he's really tired he'll just grab his blanket and lay flat on the wood floor. Its seems to be his way of raising the white flag and saying "take me to bed."

We thank God every day for the joy of being Wilson's parents! He is such a delight to us.

Lisa and Daniel

Beginnings and Ends

This last week has been full of firsts and lasts. So often we commemorate the firsts of life but often times we forget to note the lasts. Here are a few first and a few lasts from recent days.

Wilson took his first steps this last week. They were so wobbling and unsure but he was so excited. His sister was sooooo excited for him. She is so proud of her little brother.
He also nursed for the last time. I don't know that he has cared a bit and although I am excited with my new found freedom I am reminded that my little man is growing up.

We spoke our last words to our dear friend Bart Phillips on Tuesday as he passed away Thursday night. Daniel did his funeral service yesterday and it was lovely. It was so honoring and God's presence just rested in that room. Bart left behind his 3 boys (12 and under) and his amazing wife Suzi. We had planned to have dinner with Bart and Suzi on Sunday night. Suzi's strength in the last few days has been so inspiring to me as well as challenging me and my faith in my Lord.

Wilson had surgery this morning to put tubes in his ears. It was a first for Daniel and I to have to hand our child over to a medical team and trust them to take care of our baby. Although the procedure was quick and uncomplicated anytime a person has anesthesia there is a faith that we must put in professionals and ultimately our Lord.

For the first time this week Lillian talked about not wanting to be apart from her brother because she would miss him. I pray that continues all her life. I was getting ready to leave her at The Playroom and I considered taking Wilson with me but she was not having it because she knew that she would miss him if he was not there with her. I love that!

This week has sure been an emotional one. We've ridden the roller coaster of emotions way up high this week and way down low as well. I thank God that He knows my thoughts and my feelings even before I do! He is not surprised by anything.

It really is the small things

 I am looking out my window watching the trees in my backyard bend from the breeze. These large organisms giving way to something bigger than themselves but yet is unseen. Often in the evening after the kids are in bed Daniel and I love to lay in our hammock. Even though we live in the middle of a neighborhood the trees in our backyard sort of shelter us from the neighbors and it kind of feels like we are in our own world. We dream about what is "out there" in the world around us and remind ourselves of how big our God is and yet how much He cares about each one of us!

There are certain times in life that leave us more reflective and this is one of those times. I want to cherish life, drink it up, love my kids, my family, and my friends. I want to talk to people, get to know their story, have conversations, talk to my kids, I mean really talk to my kids, I also want to listen a lot. I want to serve our God with all I have. I am thankful that I serve a big God. One that holds the world in His hands. Life truly is made up of the small moments.

Here are a few of my favorite moments of late:

Lillianisms

Lillian is at it again saying the sweetest and most hilarious things. Wilson continues to prove himself to be a boy by grunting, barking, breaking and sliding down things (like stairs!). I'm the luckiest dad in the world. Here are a couple recent Lillianisms from our three year old that I hope you'll find entertaining:

1. Yesterday Lisa put Lillian to work in the kitchen shucking fresh peas for a salad. As she stood atop her step-stool she wore her pink, sparkling princess dress and high heels. Lillian gave a running commentary about each individual pea. One of them Lillian described as "huge". And then she said, "Mommy, 'huge' is another word for 'big.'" Lisa asked her if she could think of another word for big. Lillian fired off "massive." When asked if she knew yet another synonym for big, she said "gargantuan. Daddy says that word." What Lillian doesn't know is that I didn't know what gargantuan was until I was 18.

2. This morning, I was sitting at the kitchen table with Lillian and Wilson feeding them breakfast. I was thanking God out loud for having a job that I love, and in a time like this, for just having a job. I could tell Lillian was taking it all in, her dad talking out loud to God. She's learning that this is prayer. And so I said, "Lillian, do you know that I love my job?" She nodded and then said as energetically as she could, "Daddy, I love my job, too. I get to stay at home all day and play!" Priceless.

3. We then left the breakfast table and Lillian followed me up to my bathroom to watch me shave. She and her pink stuffed bunny took up their front row seats on the closed toilet lid. As I applied the shaving cream, Lillian asked, "Daddy, why do you use shaving cream?" I told her it keeps my skin from getting irritated. She followed up with an appropriate question: "You use shaving cream because you don't want to cut your face off?"I responded in the affirmative.

That's it for now. Come see us...but only if you want to laugh!

Much love,

Daniel, Lisa, Lillian and Wilson

Chicago, Wedding, Home, Tulsa, Wedding

Well we are home after doing some traveling for weddings! It has been a fun few weeks but I must admit I am glad to be home and getting back in to a "normal" routine!

The morning of July 7th we flew to Chicago. We had the 6am flight out of Denver! We debated on getting a hotel in Denver that night but then I decided that the hour or so of sleep we would save in the morning we would probably loose the night before trying to get the kids to sleep in a different place. So at the last minute we opted to sleep in our own beds for our short night. We got to Chicago and got our rental car without any problems! It went really well. We spent Thursday with my best friend Kristin as well as seeing my dear friend and roommate from college Alissa and her two boys (one of which is a day younger than Wilson). We also got to see one of my WVHS basketball buddies Dani Becker. It was fun to walk around downtown Naperville although it was hot and crowded! :) It meant a lot to me to have friends take time out of their days and get to hang!

We spent the night at the Ostergaards and loved it. The next morning we were able to take a walk to the park Kristin and I grew up playing at and let our kids play! I must admit it was somewhat surreal to have our kids playing there together.

Friday night we headed into the city for my cousin's wedding rehearsal dinner. I so loved being in the city. I really miss Chicago. It was fun because my parents where there as well as my brother Kevin and his family. The remaining nights of our trip we spent at our friends the Beatties. They were our families best friends during our time in Naperville. They were our "family" in Naperville.  Saturday was the first birthday for my niece Chloe! We got to have some cake and then we headed to the city for the wedding.

The wedding was at a lovely church downtown and the reception was at the Willis Tower (formally the Sears Tower). That was exciting. We got to stand on the Sky Ledge (Daniel was not happy about that) and enjoy seeing the city. My dad worked at the Sears Tower during our time in the Chicago area so it was fun for him to be there. Sunday Daniel and the kids and I spent our day downtown walking around and ended it with some Chicago Pizza!

Wilson leaning on the glass on the sky deck. Daniel was not happy!

Mom and her siblings and mother

Lillian and Cooper

After arriving back in Denver early on Monday morning the kids and I began to pack for our trip to Tulsa. We left on Friday morning. Daniel's sister Anna was married in Tulsa on July 23rd! It was lovely. We had a great 10 days in Tulsa with my family as well as his family. The kids as well as Daniel and I were  a part of Anna and Stephen's special day. We drove to Tulsa and I must admit it is a little more relaxing to drive with two kids rather than flying with two kids! We can stop and get out whenever we need too.

Unfortunately I hardly got any pictures during the wedding day, but here are a few others from the week.

Bridal Luncheon

The "Grothe" Ladies

Eating cupcakes to celebrate Taylor's birthday 

My boys

It was great to hang with Nana and Pops...and boy did we need their help!

Cousins

Things at home are back in full swing. Church, work, The Children's Playroom, doctors appointments, dentist appointments...welcome back to real life!

Catch Up

We are WAY behind on updating our blog. I always get frustrated when that happens. I actually keep putting it off because I am so far behind, which just puts me further behind. There has been a lot going on in our home and we've had a busy and fun 2 months.

The end of May we celebrated my birthday and Lillian's birthday. Thankfully we celebrated Lillian's birthday the weekend before our birthdays (mine is May 27th and hers is the 28th) because I ended up with the worst case of the stomach flu I've ever had. I ended up in the Urgent Care topping the morning of my birthday and got some IVs administered. I don't think I have ever felt so terrible as I did during those several days.  Thankfully once I got the IVs, I started to feel better but it definitely was not the way I wanted to spend my 29th birthday!

Starting in June we had a lot of company, which is one thing we LOVE! My best friend from Naperville and her family came. We had 4 kids in our home and Lillian was the oldest (at barely 3). It was a blast and they all did really well together. Kristin's husband Scott hiked Pikes Peak the first full day they were here! What an accomplishment. It was so fun to get to spend some quality time with Kristin and her amazing family.

Next came my brother Kevin and his family--Julie, Cooper and Chloe. Cooper just turned 5 and Chloe is 6 weeks older than Wilson. We had a lot of fun and the kids all played so well together. We went to the zoo, went on a great hike, ate some good food and enjoyed some great time together. It was so special to our family to have them come.

While my brother was here, Daniel's long time friend Gyle Smith and his family arrived. They didn't stay with us but we got to spend some quality time together. We road the Cog train up to the top of Pikes Peak, we put together a trampoline (thanks Smiths), ate lots of good food and went to the pool. I have never spent an extended amount of time with the Smiths, so I really enjoyed the chance to get to know them better.

Between all the company Daniel has been to San Antonio and Nashville playing drums as well as laying new sod and rock in our yard! We had 15 tons of river rock brought in and the guys wheel-barrowed it all over our yard. This last Saturday was our first real day off together in a long while. It has been such a fun month!

In the last month it sure feels like our kids have grown a TON! Lillian is now 3. She is so much fun!
Here are a few things that we want to remember about Lillian at 3:
*She loves to imagine...play imaginary games. These games include playing doctor, pretending to drive places, and "reading" books
*Lillian loves to look at letters and talk about the sounds and figure out how to spell a word. She does well when we help her sound it out.
*Numbers: she counts to 40 without any help and can go higher when we help with the prefix (fifty __)
*She also loves to add and subtract when we help her visualize and talk through the problem
*At her 3 year old appoint she weighed 30 lbs and was just under 38inches tall.
* She does NOT like car washes, smoke alarms, or the lawn mower. Basically any loud noises are not among her favorites.
*She is an amazing big sister. She insists on giving Wilson kisses before naps or bedtime and really enjoys being around him (except when he is after one of her toys).

Wilson is now 10 months:
*He started crawling at 8 months and is totally on the go! He loves to get places.
*Right at 10 months he conquered going up the stairs. I am now awaiting him figuring out how to go down. He fell down the stairs the Sunday morning after he started crawling and it was all my fault. He fell all the way down the steps on to the wood floor. He recovered in about 4 minutes and I have yet to recover. :)
*With his newfound freedom he gets into EVERYTHING! He pulls all sorts of treasures out of the cabinets. He also chases Lillian around and she used to hide on the stairs so that he couldn't get to her but now that he can do the stairs she's had to resort to going on the bed or the table. ;
:)
*He pulls up on everything and in the last day he has started letting go of things and trying to stand. The first time I saw him do this was when he was playing on Lillian's drum set.
*He is making lots of sounds and I am pretty sure he has learned the word "ball". He LOVES to play with any kind of ball. He throws to you if you are near and if you aren't, he will throw it to himself and chase after it.
*He will do the sign for "more" and "all done" and if you say "how big is Wilson?", he will throw his hands up in the air as if to say "so big".

We are loving life and are so grateful to God for our precious kids and our family and friends!

Lisa

Lillianisms

Lisa and I are blessed parents. Lillian Carol and Wilson James keep us laughing. This blog is our attempt to capture--to preserve--the memories we're making and the precious things are children are saying and doing as they grow.

Here are the fan favorite Lillianisms for the last couple weeks:

1. Lillian is not yet three, but she's very punctilious when it comes to using language/grammar. Wilson, who is 8 months, doesn't always enjoy getting dressed. He doesn't want to stay in one place very long. So the other day as Lisa was dressing Wilson, he was protesting by rolling around and being difficult to corral. To console him as she restrained him, Lisa was using baby language and talking in that voice that every parent acquires to try to let their babies know that the torture of getting dressed will be over with soon. She said in a baby's voice, "I sorry, Wilson. I sorry." Lillian jumped all over it. "Mommy, it's 'I'm sorry', not 'I sorry.'" Come on, Lisa. What were you thinking?

2. Last week I took Lillian to a stage production of Alice in Wonderland. It was a great daddy/daughter date together. The weather wasn't that great when we went in to see the show, and as we walked out Lillian commented that "it's quite windy out here, dad." Every once in a while with Lillian it sounds like a 30 year old adult is talking to me. I never expect to hear the word "quite" coming from my two year old.

3. When it comes to clothing, Lillian is pretty opinionated. Not picky in the sense that she wants brand-name clothes, but just very definite on the texture of the clothing and how it makes her feel. She has grown to disdain tags that rub up against her skin. She let Lisa know, "Mommy, I like to play tag, but I don't like tags." We laughed.

4. The other day we were getting ready for dinner and I couldn't find Lillian anywhere in the house. I called out. I went upstairs and down to the basement. To where in the world did she disappear? Until I opened up a coat closet. There she was. And she was holding something--a pair of scissors in each hand.

Hmm. This was unusual. Like a lamb before the slaughter, she didn't say a word. She just looked at me with her wide, irretrievably guilty eyes. And then, I saw it. One gorgeous, curly, blond lock of hair lay on the wood floor. It was Lillian's first--and surely last!--attempt at cutting her own hair.

5. Lillian understands the concept of Lisa and I being married. She gets that it's just the two of us for the rest of our lives. No others. We talk about that from time to time with her. She just smiles, looks to the ceiling and gets this slightly embarrassed look, as if to say, "Oh, that's so cute. I like that about you Mommy and Daddy."

And then one day Lillian went for the jugular. She walked up to me and said, unsolicited: "Daddy, I'm going to marry you one day."

That's all for now. I'm going to go cry now.

Love.
Daniel, Lisa, Lillian and Wilson Grothe

Wilson James

Wilson James Grothe is 8 months today. That is so hard to believe! We woke up to snow all over the ground and it has been snowing all day since. You never know what you are going to get around here. It will probably be 70 degrees tomorrow.

Back to Wilson. Some memories I want to keep locked away of my darling little man:
* How loves to dance to any type of music. If he is sitting, his torso, arms and head are all bouncing around. If you are holding him his entire body is moving in a syncopated flail. It is really funny to watch
* He bangs his hands on the highchair causing any of his food that remains on the tray to flop around like fish out of water
* He lets you feed him food, but he always wants something on his tray that he can feed himself too.
* The noises he makes are so "boyish." I am not sure how else to describe it, but I feel like there is a significant difference in the noises he creates at this age compared to the ones Lillian made at this age.
*He rolls around all over the place to get where he wants. He leans over and gets in the crawling position only to land on his tummy and move his arms and legs like he is trying to swim.
* He loves his jumper that hangs in the door. He gets excited as soon as he sees me hang it up.
* He ADORES his big sister and she adores him! They are so excited to see each other in the morning and after naps.
* He basically skipped right over baby food. He doesn't like it. For weeks Daniel and I tried to get him to eat it only to have all of us become frustrated. Since he started eating "big people" food, he pounds it and he is the last one to be done at meal time! I have kind of felt bad, thinking my sweet boy has been starving.
* He is now sleeping through the night!!
*Socks are constantly being pulled off. I am glad the weather is getting warm enough that people will not think I am bad mom if my son is out of the house with no socks.
* He is sooo content and smiley! I love him so much. Daniel and I are so blessed to have our darling little guy as a gift from God.

Thats it for now. Daniel may have more he wants to add later.

"I'm big now..."

So a couple of stories I have been trying to keep in my brain so that I would not forget.

1. Lillian and I are practicing appropriate responses to requests made by other people. The other day I asked Lillian to do something and I gently reminded her that she could respond with "Yes ma'm or Yes Mommy." Lillian thought for a few moments and said "I am going to say Yes Ma'mmy, like yes mom and yes ma'm." Clever I thought, and agreed that would be okay too.

2. This morning as I was getting Wilson dressed for church I hear Lillian hollering up the stairs "Lisa, Lisa, LISA, lisa...." After she arrived in Wilson's room I looked at her and replied "who am I to you?" and she said  "Mommy, but I am big now so I can call you Lisa." I chuckled and explained that I got to be "Lisa" to hundreds of people but I only got to be "Mommy" to her and Wilson, thankfully she obliged.

Wilson has gone several nights now sleeping through the night! It has been glorious. I feel so relieved and just so much more patient. I know I was surviving those long nights of waking up several times a night but I am confident that I was not being the best wife, mommy, friend, etc. that I could be. Glad there is grace.

Daniel spent two nights with Eugene Peterson last week at his home in Montana. Eugene translated the Message Bible and has written forty-one books, and many of them have really challenged and encouraged Daniel. Some of you have asked about his time--I am sure Daniel will write about it in the near future after he has been able to digest his experience. For now I will share a picture with you. Eugene informed Daniel that several years ago after he concluded his time teaching at Regent University in Vancouver he made a vow to be done with posing for pictures. We are glad he decided to break his vow.  :)

Well I am one happy mama! My 7 month old little (big) man has slept through the night for the past few nights!! This is a major deal in my house considering it has been over 7 months since I have gone to bed and not had to get back up out of bed multiple times in the night. Hopefully now I will have a little more energy to keep up with a few other things in life, such as a blog :) Lord please let this be the new normal!

Daniel is up at theMILL tonight. They meet on Friday nights. We (the kids and I) have made it a fairly regular routine to go up and visit Daniel for part of the evening. I wish I could be up there the whole time but it is just a little bit challenging to make it the whole night. I am sure we could do it but then we pay for on Saturday with tired kiddos.

Lillian has been saying some fun things lately. She cracks me up.  She has turned into my grammatical coach the last few days. A few days ago I was putting her sock on when she informed me that there was something bothering her in the sock. So we pulled the sock off and found a thread in the sock. I pulled it out and we started over again. She then asked me what was in there. I told her "there was a thread in your socks." She stopped for a second and said "No mommy, its sock, it was in just ONE sock." Yesterday I was getting Wilson dressed. When I did this he started fussing at me and I was just rubbing on him and kissing on him and I said "I sorry, I am all done" Lillian looked at me and said "Mommy you are supposed to say I'm sorry not I sorry." Okay then, you are right.

Often times in my journal I right a "Favorite Moment" from my day. Lately my favorite moments have involved Lillian and Wilson just giggling away at each other. Lillian loves to make Wilson laugh and Wilson loves his big sister so they will just be laughing out loud. It is music to my ears!

A Few Fun Lillianisms

I am trying to do a better job of writing down the funny happenings in our house a little quicker or else by the time a "quiet" moment rolls around I have already forgotten. So here goes a few of my latest laughable moments:

1. A couple of days ago Lillian was looking at my Anthropologie catalog. She was enjoying looking at all the pictures and then when she looked at one of the models she said "mommy, she looks like you." I took that as a compliment and it felt nice that she had that thought...until the next day when she was looking at our ESPN magazine and as she was looking at the cover full of pictures of Shaun White she stated, "He looks like you mommy." For those of you who don't know who Shaun White is, let me explain. First he is a MAN! He is the Olympic snowboarder with wild, red, curly hair. So much for soaking up the compliments from my 2 year old! I will remember to take those with a grain of salt.

2. As Lillian sat down to go to the bathroom today she wanted to pull the seat up. I told her that it probably was not a good idea. She continued to inquire about why it wouldn't be such a good idea.  I explained that she might fall in if she sat there with the seat up. She then said that I was right because she "might get flushed down the toilet and then her brother wouldn't have a sister anymore." I couldn't help but nod and smile. 

Anyway, thats it for now.

Just trying to catch up

I have not been so good about updating the blog. Daniel has actually written the last few updates, but here goes. I am trying to catch up. I try to journal as well and often times I find myself wanting to write down the last month's worth of activities. I am not going to try to do that today, but rather just start off where I am now.

I have two kids sleeping. That is a glorious thing. Wilson is still getting up multiple times in the night. Although each night when I lay him down I have hope that this night will be different. He is making improvements, so I have no doubt it will get better. It all started with him getting sick and then the pattern kind of stuck...uugh. He's not mad or screaming just wants mommy to get settled back down. I don't know how people do it when they have like 9 kids. They must have spent a decades of their life getting up with children.

Wilson turned 6 months this week. He is rolling all over the place to get around. He is sitting up now and he cut his first two teeth. He is so peaceful and I feel so blessed to have such an amazing son.

Lillian is an amazing big sister! She loves on her brother all the time. She is sad when he lays down for a nap and thrilled when she hears him stirring and ready to get up. She now has "quiet time" each day. Don't you dare call it a nap, although thankfully most days she still ends up asleep. She loves to play drums, sing, and "play" her guitar. She belts out songs at the top of her lungs and often times I don't have a clue what she is saying. The tune will be to a familiar song and then she is making up all her own words.  It is a hoot to watch, although sometime if she realizes you are watching she gets embarrassed and stops.

Baby dolls are also a favorite of Lillian's. She has the dolls doing all sorts of events with her and she is constantly having us pretend with her. It is a lot of fun to see the little lady she is becoming.

Often times I have to take a step back and just take in the moments of "oh my goodness, I have two kids." Daniel and I now have a family of four! Wow...hard to believe.  I am doing my best to enjoy it all. This is such a special time in our lives and I want to soak it all up!

The Apple of Doom

Greetings from lovely Colorado Springs!

I might have made a very bad decision last week. I bought a  21.5 inch Apple (iMac) home computer. Not a bad decision because it doesn't work well. Rather, it works too well. And though I'll never be a "Mac snob", the guy that makes everyone else feel stupid if they don't have one, I don't think our family will be going back to a PC any time soon.

One of the features we've enjoyed is the built-in webcam. It has turned Lillian into a Skype fanatic. So if you're on Skype, look us up. Lillian would love to see you.

And now for the part of our blog that gets requested the most on a recurring basis: Lillianisms!

1. Lisa and I have set some boundaries on Lillian watching television. She gets to watch one small portion of a show per day. She customarily asks to watch her show in the morning. We always say something like, "You can watch your show now if you like but that'll be it for the day. Do you still want to watch it right now?" It's our first opportunity to teach her about budgeting: are you sure you want to spend it all so soon?

The other day she watched her show in the morning and later that afternoon asked if she could watch another. Lisa declined. A couple minutes later Lillian brought her doll named Alice to Lisa and said, "Mommy, Alice told me she really wants to watch a show." Clever!

2. Lillian likes that I am a drummer and she spends a lot of time on the two drum sets we have. She's getting quite good, actually. To encourage the love of music with our kids, we play a lot of music in our home. She has started asking "Daddy, whose playing drums on this song?" whenever we listen. So I tell her. And when she asked the other day during a Faith Hill song, I explained to her that my favorite drummer in the world, Vinnie Colaiuta, was playing. I could tell that meant something to her because it meant something to me.

When the same song came on during another listening session, Lillian piped up: "Daddy, Vinnie is playing drums on this song." I could have fainted. I did cry.   :)

3. One morning earlier this week Lisa and I were laying in bed with our precious kids. I was holding our five month old son, Wilson, and Lisa was holding Lillian who suddenly let a flatulent slip. We all chuckled a bit. But then Lillian starting doing some odd motion with her arms. Lisa asked her what she was doing. Lillian shot back, "I'm just swooshing it away."

That's all for now. Much love.

Daniel, Lisa, Lillian and Wilson