Twirls 'n Curls

For my birthday (July 4) this year, I threw myself a party- at least, that's what Tom says. That's right! I was tired of throwing myself a pity-party because no one was over for my birthday, and my husband does not believe national holidays that are also his wife's birthday are any reason to have time off, so he always works a full day. (That sounds much more sarcastic than my original intent, but moving on...) Anyway, after my pity-party last year, I asked him if we could have a cookout this year, like we always had growing up. He said sure, as long as I did the inviting, so we had a couple of church families over for a cookout. One of them didn't even know it was my birthday, and THAT WAS GREAT! I just didn't want to be alone again...er...the only person over 4 in my house all day on my birthday. This is a picture of Linsey with Jordan, the 2 1/2 year old who came over for my non-birthday party. They have been in the nursery together since Jordan was born...

  When Tom comes out of the shower, he usually sits down and reads for a few minutes before breakfast. That's the girls' cue to jump on his lap and "read" with him...it usually finishes with Linsey saying something like, "Daddy, put that book down so we can snuggle!" Some guys have all the luck :)

  This was taken on Father's Day right before the morning service, I couldn't get them all to smile at once so finally we just settled for a less-than-perfect picture for memory's sake. Linsey is wearing a dress Aunt Jane bought for my niece Bekah, and Hannah has the matching one on that used to be Linsey's. Gotta love hand-me-downs!!

  Chan took this picture, it's one of the few I have where both girls are actually looking at the camera!! They're starting to play together a lot more, which means more time to get things done around the house for Mommy - yea! The Corders left today, we had a great time and miss them already. Have a good week!

    Kristin Homer and I took the kids to the park a couple of weeks ago, before the seats started to melt in the sun...Hannah and Caleb both loved the swings, it's a good thing there were two! And Linsey is officially a big girl, she can pump all by herself. How old are they when that starts working for more than like 10 seconds?

Linsey has undertaken the challenging task of helping me keep our flowers alive in the 100+ weather this summer. We call the lavender plants we bought at 2 inches high our "babies" - so far three have died, not such a good track record but I seem to do better with live babies! Phew...oh, and here's Sheilah, our goose, and Shelly-Chan, our turtle.

After a VERY long day at church, Hannah couldn't even keep her eyes open long enough to finish her lunch. Later, I was praying at bedtime with Linsey, and she started talking in gibberish. I told her how praying is very important and we need to use real words when we talk to God. She replied very seriously, "I know Mommy, I speak angel ."