Fruit Snacks Please

John left the cupboards open, and Emma obviously knows where to find the fruit snacks. She was reaching up at them, and when I came in she kept signing please and pointing. FYI - the answer was no.

"Wii" Had Fun

After dinner and the horse race, we headed to Grandpa VM's house and played the Wii for awhile.

Scott and Matt boxing

They knocked each other down at the same time...Jackie and I had done the same thing. That was pretty cool to watch on the replay.

Emma's giving Matt pointers on his golf game.

Peek-a-boo!

Our First Horse Race

After dinner at the Triple Crown Buffet (at Prairie Meadows), we went out to watch the horses. Our timing was good...we only had to wait a few minutes to see a race. Number 6 was the winner.

Aunt Jackie, Emma, Uncle Matt, John, Grandpa VM, Scott

Getting into the starting gates

Just about to the finish line

The winner

John's First Golf Outing

Grandpa Van Manen and Uncle Matt took John with them for their golf outing at Copper Creek. John had a lot of fun, even though it was a warm day. John took the last two pictures.

Front Yard Fun

Emma's watching John here. Her hands crack me up! John looked like he was conducting.

John's been getting the hang of riding his scooter.

When John's not looking, Emma starts to play with his car. (This is the 4th summer he's played with that car. He's VERY attached to it. I love when $1 garage sale finds turn into 4 summers of fun, but come on already!) Aunt Jackie wants Emma to get addicted to purses in addition to shoes. Here she is with my camera case.

John's been wanting to take pictures lately. He took this one of Emma and me...with Emma's hat on my head. I know...it's a good look. We're thinking of getting him a kids' digital camera for his birthday. Any suggestions on what kind?

Emma's been teething and MUCH fussier than usual. While playing outside, she decided to throw a fit. This is what it looked like.

Here's another picture John took as Grandma and Uncle Matt pulled up to visit.

Park Fun with the Gaskills

Alyssa had the day off, so she and Drew came to Pleasant Hill for fun at the park with us. Click here to see Alyssa's blog entry on our fun times. Here are a few of the pictures I took:

Drew and Emma had more fun climbing the stairs. Drew kept crawling, which shocked Alyssa. We think he wasn't too sure about seeing the ground through the flooring of the equipment. Emma held on VERY tightly to the rails as she walked/crawled up. Oh, and this picture HAD to be posted since it's the only one I had of Alyssa. Sorry babe!
Drew and Emma went in the baby swing together. It was a little tighter squeeze this year. Click here to see the pictures we took of them in a swing together last summer. Notice that this didn't require blankets between them this time.

Sesame Street Live

On Friday, John, Emma, and I went to Sesame Street Live with Jenni and Lauren Whitaker. John and Lauren definitely enjoyed it. Emma was clapping and smiling during the first few songs, but then she got really antsy. She hadn't had a morning nap, and the show started at 11. She enjoyed standing on the back of John's seat looking all around.

A Refreshing Change

Target is running a special this week on the cube storage unit that we have in our living room. I decided to buy another one, so that the kids could find their toys easier and the bigger ones currently scattered around the floor or shoved in a corner would have a home. So at 11 last night, I put together the new one and sorted through toys. I removed broken toys, stored unused baby toys, and put others in a pile for a garage sale. Now the toys, puzzles, and games look MUCH better.

Last week I discovered an AWESOME website. Simple Mom has great tips on spring cleaning, time management, kids, organizing, etc. At one point, she referenced another website called Keeper of the Home, specifically the entry on quiet time bins. This idea inspired me to make quiet time bins for John since he's often not taking a nap. At this point, I'm storing John's quiet bins on top of the new cube storage unit. He helped make the labels using letters I won at last year's Flip Flop Crop.

Here is a glimpse inside the bins. I have 3 books in every bins (1 Christian-based book, 2 others). For my own sanity (and to clear out the car bin), I also added 3 cars to every bin. This may change later...we'll see.
Monday - coloring books, notepad, colored pencils, crayons
Tuesday - dominoes and memory (He often plays with these by himself and they get scattered all over. This way, they're stored in one place and played once a week. If we want to play together, we can pull them out of the bin.)
Wednesday - train tracks and trains (I think I'll be changing this one since he kept getting upset today about putting the tracks together and the trains falling off.)
Thursday - felt pieces
Friday - puzzle
I'm going to be adding more to some of these and occasionally rotating what's in the bins, so if you have other ideas, let me know.

Playdate with Devon

John and his friend Devon have been wanting to get together outside of church for some time now, so Erica and I finally set a date for me to take them to the park. Fortunately, it turned out to be a beautiful day despite the wind, and the boys had a blast. Oh, and Emma did too! They played, ate lunch, and played some more. As you'll see in these pictures, they were constantly on the go.

Like brother, like sister...

Devon and John had a blast spinning on the swings. Probably because I wouldn't give "underdogs."


Emma totally biffed it. Then she stayed down on the ground to examine the dirt and wood chips...until she started eating the dirt...again.

Proof that I was there too...

Picking dandelions in the soccer fields

Devon and John driving the plane.

Silent "t"

Scott and John were out running errands today, and this was one of their conversations:

John: (pointing at an Old Country Buffet sign) That says buffet.

Scott: (slightly shocked and amazed) Yes, it is.

John: That has a silent t.

It's amazing how God has blessed John with a love for words. I have never forced him to learn his letters or read books. He constantly asks questions...and I answer them.

When he turned 2, he already knew 5 uppercase letters.

By the time he was 3, he knew all his uppercase and lowercase letters and their sounds.

Now that he's 3 1/2 (that 1/2 is VERY important in his eyes), he is reading words (i.e. John, Emma, Mommy, Daddy, God, Jesus, and most CVC words), spelling words, and writing his name and attempting others.

I wonder what God has in store for him. Today our youth pastor preached on destiny and helping kids realize God's purpose for their lives. Whatever God's purpose for John's life, I hope and pray that John loves the Lord his God and follows God's plan.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

Although this morning started off crazy, I was blessed to have Scott get the kids dressed and ready for church. John rode to church with Scott since the choir was practicing before the service, and he did a great job sitting and listening.

I was running around like a mad woman before church trying to finish getting all the Mother's Day crafts ready for the Sunday School teachers. Suddenly the kids were being dismissed to the nursery and Sunday School, so I rushed to get to the 3s/4s classroom where I was teaching. John decided at that point to throw a fit. Scott helped and got John to come to class.

However, John decided he wasn't going to participate and crawled under the table saying, "I think someone's missing." In other words, he was sad that his friend Tommy was not at church. Scott, bless his heart, ended up taking John out so that I could focus on the rest of the kids and their Bible lesson. I noticed them out in the parking lot, but I didn't really think much of it.

Then after second service (and yes, I really did get to attend service!), Scott asked me to head out to his car. It turns out that they had gone to Hy-Vee during first service. John was so excited as he started to hand me things:

1. card (MOM turned upside down spells WOW!) =)
2. plant (daisies) from John and Emma
3. tulips from Scott
4. receipt (which Scott quickly grabbed away)

We then enjoyed a delicious meal at the Triple Crown Buffet. God was looking out for me again today because John fell asleep on the way home. Therefore, we all got a short nap. YEAH!

After playing outside for awhile, Scott and John headed out to run errands. I fed Emma, and then she was ready for bed. Ahhh...a quiet household. Until Scott and John arrived home...

Mother's Day in Audubon

It's hard for us to make plans for Sunday afternoons with our busy mornings at church. Therefore, we decided to honor Scott's mom on Saturday instead. We headed out to the Wiederstein farm, and Scott and I made dinner for them.

Charles, Kristi, Parker, and Bella came out too. The boys had a lot of fun playing outside with Kristi while Grandpa, Charles, and Scott worked on a wheelchair lift for their truck. Grandma and I had a nice visit while I supervised the girls. I even worked on the Mother's Day crafts for church since the girls both fell asleep for awhile.

It was a great day...wish I had remembered to take some pictures.

Mother/Daughter Banquet

Emma and I took Grandma Van Manen to the Mother/Daughter Banquet at our church. I surprised Mom by dressing Emma in one of the dresses that I wore as a little girl. I didn't realize that Mom had hemmed it up about 2 inches, so it was a little short. Still adorable though. I'm going to have Emma's one-year-pictures taken with the dress on (after Mom redoes the hem and I get the chocolate stain out from the chocolate chip cookie). And don't scold me for not having those taken yet! It was a great evening with my mom and daughter.

I obviously wasn't getting Emma's food cut up fast enough. She reached over and went for the cookie. A girl after her momma's own heart.

During the speaker, Emma was walking all around. This is when she walked to the back to see Noel and Julie Johnson's granddaughters (Malia in the pink and Hannah in blue). It's hard to tell in this picture, but Emma was laughing REALLY hard.

This was as good of a group shot as we were going to get since Emma was TIRED.