Getting Creative

(NOTE: I started this post prior to getting sick... so this all happened last weekend and Monday morning)

Steve started school last Thursday, but this week is his first FULL week of classes. Last Thursday, the first day of classes, Steve decided he could take 18 HOURS this semester. I think it's alot but he assures me that it is do-able. As you may (or may not) know, Steve has MANY books from his previous years of working as a youth minister. Now that he is taking 18 hours, he has acquired MORE books. Therefore, we needed more bookshelves.

Since Steve is such the Handy-man, he built a bookshelf for us. It turned out great!

Lauren was doing her laundry over at our house and just had to catch some pictures of us looking so beautiful painting our new furniture.

That's ok wabee! I got you back.

These last pictures are of Laura Beth hanging out with me in the morning before I went to work.

She got in all by herself.

AND she got out all by herself. ha!

SWEET HOME MS!

We came to MS for a few days (LITERALLY) to surprise Angie at a baby shower for her and Gage this past Saturday. It was so hard to keep such a big trip a secret, but Angie was so surprised to see us. I cannot believe I only got pictures when Laura Beth was waking from a nap or going to bed at night. I must have just gotten wrapped up in catching up with family and talking. ha! The pictures do not do this weekend justice. Not to mention, I forgot my camera during Angie's Baby shower. SO I am waiting on pictures for the shower from someone else (will post those soon). It was a great time with both sides of our family.

Uncle Bill and his two favorite people in the whole world. The girls are pretty tired in this photo and watching BARNERY. ha! BED TIME!

Uncle Lou and his FAVORITE NEICE! Ignore Laura Beth's hair do, she had pig tails before the nap and Daddy didn't get it back together previous to the pictures. ha!

There was a cute picture of my sister and Laura Beth that would be RIGHT HERE, but... I want to LIVE so...it'll be for my eyes only. Angie is pretty strict about me taking pictures of her pregnant, much less posting them on the internet. ha!

This next picture is of Laura Beth with her "sticks." Angie had some PVC pipe pieces left over from a church thing. Laura Beth LOVED them. Here she is "counting" them with Pa Paw.

Me and Hannah Claire posing with our clown noses. I brought them for Hannah Claire to play with as a souvenir from our trip to the circus.

Mammy, Bampa, and Zane just having fun. Zane's is getting a hair "trim" tomorrow. It sticks straight up ALWAYS. They tried blowing drying it straight, hair gel, EVERYTHING...It always sticks up. I love it!

There is nothing like coming home. :) We miss it!

OVAL!

Today after church, we went to Jason's Deli and as we drove into the parking lot Laura Beth started saying "oval." I am looking around for what she is talking about....and there it was in her view out the window... the Jason's Deli sign. She was smiling so big. She knew she was making me proud. ha!

Painting Pottery!

The girl in the pearls is Evonne Wheatley. She is moving this Tuesday. She is a huge friend of Lauren Kelly. She has been a friend to us since we moved here. This picture was taken at a "paint your on pottery" place called "Brush strokes." We all painted pottery for Evonne to take with her to her new home in Missouri. Most of the girls in this picture are from Seminary or previously attended seminary OR their husbands/boyfriends attend seminary. They are alot of fun!

We'll miss you Evonne!

Beach and Birthday with Wabee!

Happy Birthday Wabee!

Today was Wabee's (Lauren's) day. Her birthday is August 15th, but she will not be in town, so we celebrated today! She didn't know we were celebrating it today. We took her to the beach without her suspecting the party later.

Laura Beth under the umbrella. Wabee laying out with her.

Walking with Wabee (above). Chowing down on an apple (below).

These ducks attacked me. OK ok, they just ran after the apple in my hand. However, I screamed and the entire beach looked at me running for my life. SO EMBARASSING!

Hey Laura Beth!

Wabee and Laura Beth in their Ole Miss Apparel. Lauren bought this outfit for Laura Beth. In this picture Wabee still has NO IDEA that we are surprising her tonight.

We were "jumping" in this picture below. It's Laura Beth's new favorite thing. ONE DAY I will get video up on this blog. ha!

After surprising her with friends and dinner, we surprised her again with a "designer" cake. SHe loves cupcakes and "Ace of Cakes" so we bought this one and thought it "suited" her quite well. She was SHOCKED!

The Birthday Surprise Crew! These are Lauren's friends that are quickly becoming our friends too. These guys are GREAT! Always a fun time with them. :)

Overall, It was a GREAT night of friends, food, and fun surprises!

DAY 4 Daycare

Laura Beth did REMARKABLY well today at "school." It was MY first day to drop Laura Beth off. She hugged looked down and saw her friends. She said their names and then said, "up." WHICH she meant "down." ha! She got down to play and I said, "bye." She didn't even look back. She really likes school.

This afternoon Steve went to pick her up and she was washing her hands with the teacher saying, "bubbles" because the water hitting other water makes little bubbles on the surface. Steve said she looked so big washing her own hands on a "big kid" stool. She is growing up so fast!

She even ate ALL of her lunch today (green beans, rice, bbq chicken). They said she ate it ALL. We were shocked. We couldn't believe it. She didn't eat much at all yesterday and today she is eating things that we have been "MAKING" her eat with much resistance. I guess it is all in her timing.

She slept well again today. We are so proud of her! She is doing much better than I could have ever imagined. Hopefully I will get a video of her saying, "Bible" soon...it's really cute. :)

Day 3 Day care

Laura Beth did "ok" today at daycare. The assistant director (whom I REALLY like) said that she heard Laura Beth about 30 minutes after Steve left from down the hall (crying, obviously). She didn't cry when Steve dropped her off...she really didn't even care that he left. However, at around 10:30 she DESPERATELY needed her Lee Lee (pink bear, if you aren't familiar). Then, at lunch she didn't eat or want to even sit at the table. I'm sure the other kids were looking at her thinking, "Seriously? They're bringing FOOD." Although on Laura Beth's behalf, they were having chef salad (who eats lettuce at this age? ok ok, I'm sure many do.) They also had tomato and cheese (?). Then, they had crackers and green beans. Yeah, Laura Beth needs to start liking some of those things. ha! I'm not going to make her eat cheese tomatos. ha!

Other than that, she had a couple drops of juice on her shirt from the "regular" cup drinking she has been doing (which is better than yesterday, which was grape juice on a white shirt). When it was nap time, they put her on her cot wide awake, and she went to sleep for an hour all on her own with no problem. Actually, tonight at about 7:45, she layed on the couch face down and looked at me and said, "Sleepy." ha! I said, "Ok, let's get your Lee Lee and go to bed."

Tomorrow is MY first day to take her to "school." I'll let ya'll know how it goes when "mommy" drops her off. I hope she looks at me, says, "bye mommy" with a big smile, and turns to play. Who thinks that will happen? ha!

Over the TOP!

Last weekend we went to the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Brothers circus. Laura Beth loved it so much! This is me wearing a clown nose and Laura Beth NOT looking at the camera. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get her to look at the camera in the middle of the circus. ha!

We got to the circus an hour early for Laura Beth to meet the animals. This next picture is us looking at the animals of the picture after it. Look at her big smile!

On daddy's shoulder.

She liked the "e-fants" (elephants) the most.

This is Laura Beth in the middle of saying "e-fant."

Overall, the circus was great! We were tired afterward.

Daycare Day 2

Laura Beth had a great day again. She ate her lunch today. She slept an hour and a half. She didn't cry when Steve dropped her off. AND she WASN'T in a hurry to leave when he came to pick her up. ha!

She is getting more and more used to "school." We are happy that God is making this transition good for Laura Beth and US. :)

Day 1 Daycare

So, I've decided to blog without pictures of Laura Beth's first week at Daycare for our family to know how she is doing.

Today, Monday, was Laura Beth's first day of daycare. She did well. Steve had to take her by himself because I had to work. She didn't cry when Steve left. Steve said he tried to tell her "bye" but she wasn't even interested in saying "bye" to him. She was WAAAY to interested in what was going on in the class.

She didn't eat her lunch (of course) BUT they said she ate her snack very well. ha! She isn't used to much variety of food (our fault, I'm sure). She is learning to drink from a regular cup (no sippy cups in her class). She can drink from a regular cup, but she spills more than she drinks. ha! So they changed her clothes because she had a little (literally a little) juice on her shirt.

They said she slept and hour on her little cot. She needed someone to sit with her, but she eventually went to sleep with not much hassle (they said). ha! I was surprised at that because she has always slept in a crib. Apparently, she adjusted well to the new sleeping style. However, she usually takes a 2 hours nap, so she was REALLY tired tonight. When she woke up from her daycare nap, she wanted to play with this animal puzzle that she was obsessed with all day. They said they couldn't believe she knew all the animals and was saying all of the animal names. She even amazed them that she differentiated the lion and tiger.

She made a friend with a girl named, "Joanna." Everyone calls her "Jo Jo." Laura Beth already says the names of 2 of the kids in her class and claps her hands (Maybe they did a "name song" or something).

Steve said that when he picked her up, Laura Beth's hairdo looked better than when he dropped her off (Steve "re-did" Laura Beth's hair after I had done it much earlier that morning and he said it took him forever and it still looked "ok." ha!). The daycare must have done a "re-do" to Laura Beth's hair during the day at some point.

Overall, I think the parents (us) were more stressed and worried about Laura Beth going to "School" than she was. Her class is very culturally and equally diverse. The daycare is located at a Lutheran Church. She is in a small class size of about 6 kids at this point with 2 teachers. So far, so good with "school." We'll keep you posted on the rest of the "FIRST WEEK."

More Beach!

We kinda like the beach! So we went again on Friday. We also have circus pictures to come soon. :)

Laura Beth ate her first popsicle. She ate it so fast. It was all over her, but we just put her in the fountains at the beach and washed her off.

I think there was a mist on the camera lens.