Saying Goodbye to Jodi

Well, today was your last day at Jodi's. I expected to cry the first day I dropped you off there, I did not expect to cry on the last day that I drop you off there! But I did! I had hoped that you would be close to your daycare provider, but I could have never imagined how close you would be!

You could whine the entire way to Garnett and as soon as we pulled in to Jodi's driveway you would stop, kind of tilt your head towards her house, point, and smile! You silly girl! It made me so happy that you were happy to go there! It made it so much easier to leave you!

Jodi taught you so many things! So many things and I can only think of a few!! She taught you how to wave! You guys would wave at the  vehicles that would pass by the front of the house! :) She taught you to pray before your meals! She taught you how to sleep on your own - I am so thankful you went to Jodi because you knew at Jodi's when she laid you in your bed to rest you would go to sleep on your own. At our house you would never do that - but slowly we were able to transfer that behavior to home too! She taught you how to go down the stairs!

I asked if we could take pictures on one of your last days. So here they are:

Jodi praying with you before breakfast :) I LOVED the fact that Jodi and her family are strong Christians! :)

Hehe! Look at how happy you are back there! YOU loved all the kids you went to daycare with. I mean, you may have pushed them away a time or two when we would first walk in. But in all reality you just wanted to go straight to Jodi when we walked in! So it was nothing against them! :)

Jodi has an awesome yard! Front and back! You LOVE to play outside and at Jodi's you were able to out a lot. She has a back deck that is enclosed so you can play out there if she was working in the kitchen. She has a big back yard with a huge swing set/slide/clubhouse type thing -you enjoyed eating the rocks that were there! :) She has a great front porch - so if rained a couple days and you all NEEDED to get outside you could go on the front porch!

Here you are eating grapes, I believe, with Marty...or as he likes to say - Mr. Handsome! :) You of course mostly called him dada. But that's okay - you call most men dada.....silly girl! :) Marty was always teasing you and playing with you! I know you enjoyed seeing him everyday - almost as much as you enjoyed seeing Jodi! :) I think everyday when I would pick you up if Marty was there you would be laughing at something he was doing! :)

Baby Paige!! This is Jodi's grandaughter! She actually lives in Alaska now but she came back to visit her grandma and grandpa! Luckily you got to play for a week too!! Paige used to live here when she was first born so you got to know her. You would steal her pacifier, take her toys away...and then return them of course! :) You loved little Paige - she is just adorable! :)

Jodi has a fish pond in her backyard! You LOVE to feed the fish! You can say fish now! I used to think it was becuase of the goldfish crackers...but about two weeks ago I realized that you know about fish because of Jodi's fish! You connected that Jodi's fish are like the cracker fish! I love these photos of you and Jodi feeding the fish!!

Playing with Baby Paige! You used to hang out in that walker! OH! That's another thing you learned at Jodi's. To walk in that walker! :) I remember the day I got there and Jodi told me you were all over the place in that walker! I had to put you in it so you could show me! And sure enough!!  I was such a proud momma! :)

Playing with a baby doll on Jodi's couch! :) You like to climb up and sit on the couch! :) And of course you love to play with dolls! Jodi actually gave you your first doll ever, for Christmas. She said you really liked to play with the dolls at her house that had the blinking eyes - so that was your Christmas gift! :) Which you didn't have any dolls at our house yet!!

When I went to pick you up this day you guys were outside playing with bubbles!! You are semi-interested at our house -but MAN did you light up when Jodi used that little hand bubble machine thing! There were so many bubbles and you just LOVED it! :)

Eliana, I know if you understood what was going on you would be so upset right now that we were leaving. You LOVE going to Jodi's! Luckily they don't live too far away and we can go visit from time to time! Two summers ago I remember writing a post about when I was looking for daycare when I was pregnant with you - and how stressful it was to find someone and know that they are going to care for you and love you! Well, God definetely lead us in the right direction! We could not have gotten luckier with our first daycare choice! Someone who we will keep in touch with forever!

I love you Eliana!

Mommy 

A Weekend At Home!!

Eliana, we have been SO busy! This was the first weekend we were at home since the beginning of May!! That is just crazy! So, this weekend the ONLY thing we had on the schedule was taking Jenna and Joe to the airport for their honeymoon. Good thing it was your nap time so the 2 hours were good sleep time for you! :) Then the rest of the weekend we spent at home doing what WE wanted to do!! :)

Uncle Andrew stopped by the previous Sunday! As he was driving through Ottawa! It was so nice to see him! And you were so excited to see him and give him some love!! :) (and you loved the Jayhawk on his shorts!! :))

So this weekend started with Mimi and Papa coming to visit us! They were going to Topeka on Saturday, so they thought they would come to Ottawa and spend Friday night with you! :)

You enjoyed playing with Papa and Mimi, they sat on the floor most the night! :)  

You gave Papa our Father's Day Card. I love his expression in this first photo and yours in the next!! Too Cute!!

Papa made you a doo-rag! You LOVED it! Seriously, LOVED IT!

You guys are so cute! :)

Daddy put this pool toy on your head! You thought it was so funny, and now you try to put them on your head all the time!!! Silly girl! :)

Once we got back from taking Jenna and Joe to the airport on Saturday we just hung out around the house! You love hanging out on the 3 steps we allow you to be on! :) You decided you needed to have a snack and you needed to sit on your stairs to eat it! :)

Of course Dolly needed a snack too!! :)

Saturday we also did our first baking together! :) We made chocolate chip cookies. I pre-measured everything in small bowls, so all you had to do was dump them in! You did great though! You even used the mixer!! :) We both REALLY enjoyed it! You enjoyed eating the chocolate chips!! :)

I love this photo of us in our aprons!! So cute! :)

Saturday night we went to Applebees to use the giftcard the Covey's had given us! You had some yogurt while we waited on our food. You of course enjoyed feeding your daddy! And you're getting so good at feeding yourself!! You love to be little Miss Independent! :)

Sunday was Father's Day! Grandpa and Grandma came up to visit and go to church with us!

Sunday night we didn't have Bible Study because it was Father's Day. We really enjoyed spending our evening just hanging out. We watched CARS, which is one of your daddy's favorite movies! :) You didn't watch it completely, but we still enjoyed playing while we watched the movie!

We really loved our weekend at home!! It will be the last weekend at home for a while.... :( But that's alright, we'll be spending lots of time with family in the coming weekends and weeks!! It's sure to be a lot of fun!!

Love you,

Mommy

Happy Father's Day!

Dada, dada, dada, dada, dada!! That's what we hear all day! Because you love your Dada so much! You get SO excited whenever he walks in the house! You RUN to him and you laugh and laugh!

You have the best daddy ever! He works SO hard to provide for us! He really enjoys spending tme with you and me! We are one very blessed and lucky family!

For Father's Day we finger painted your daddy a picture! You had SO much fun!! You LOVED painting and tasting the paint! :)

You had to stop painting to wave hi to some walkers! :)

Your daddy loved your finished products! I need to take a picture of them! You painted it, and then I peeled the tape off that I had put on the sheets before you painted. It spelled out "I love you" and "#1 Dad" -- You did a PERFECT job taking your daddy your paintings! You RAN the painting to him first thing when he got up on Father's Day!! It was so cute! :)

Happy Father's Day to the most wonderful, amazing, loving, supportive, playful daddy in the world!!

We love you Daddy!!

New Job

Well, Little Girl, we're moving locations! The principal of Garfield Elementary in Ottawa called me on Wednesday, May 23rd; but I never got the message! BECAUSE you broke my phone! You were playing with it and then, as I say, it went beserk and I couldn't do anything! So we took it in to Verizon and they fixed it...but my voicemail never registered. So then Thursday morning she e-mailed me AND called me again! She clearly wanted to set up an interview! Luckily I called her right back and set up the interview for Friday morning. And luckily we already had it planned for you to go to Grandma and Grandpa's Thursday night until Friday because Daddy and I were celebrating my birthday.

So, I went in on Friday and I was pretty relaxed. I really didn't want to leave my Garnett family and I wanted to teach in the new school - yet, I really want to work in Ottawa and teach 5th grade. So either way you sliced it I was going to be happy! So I just sat back and interviewed. It was okay....I really didn't feel confident when I was done. I TOTALLY bombed one question....but it was okay. When they asked me why they should hire me I said, because I'm Amazing! They all laughed. That's the way my interview went - I just kept it light and relaxed.

Well, they called me at 2:30 that afternoon. I was driving to Buhler from Iola. I had come through Iola to pick you up and then we were going to Buhler for Memorial day weekend. They offered me the job, she said she wanted to call me before the weekend because she didn't know if I was interviewing at other places and they wanted to snatch me up before someone else did! You were asleep in the backseat so I couldn't scream when I got off the phone! :)

I called your daddy and your Mimi and told them right away! Then I had the hard task of telling Jenna, Vickie, Catie, and Katlin....Oh that was hard! I had knots in my stomach. But we survived...

Here are some pictures of you helping me move my stuff from Garnett to Garfield in Ottawa!

Then, on June 7th I got to Jenna's to work on wedding stuff. And she told me that Topeka called her that morning! They offered her a 5th grade job as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was SO excited for her!! We'll both still be teaching 5th grade! Sadly, we won't be together! But I'm very happy for her and me! This is what our family needed and what Joe and Jenna needed. God is truly amazing! Everything happens for a reason! I know he didn't give Jenna or I a job earlier in the year because he needed Catie and Katlin to move to 5th. Then he could give us both a job in our permanent location! I hope to teach at Garfield for MANY, MANY years!

Now, on to the next task of finding you daycare! We have a meeting with a lady named Sherry on Monday. I have a good feeling about her. Hopefully she will work out for you and hopefully you'll love her as much as you do Jodi!!

I love you little girl!

Mommy 

Week at Grandma and Grandpa's

WOW! This is my 100th post!! Wow...I just can't believe I've written that much...crazy!

Well, while mommy was busy with Jenna's Wedding, and daddy was busy working - you got to spend an entire WEEK and then some at your Grandma and Grandpa's! I don't have a lot of stories, or pictures from your time there. But I know you had lots of fun! I do think though that you missed me and missed your bed! I guess you weren't sleeping very good towards the end of your stay, and when you got home, the first night you struggled - but then you slept though the night again! :)

Your Grandma also said it was one of the best weeks for your Great Grandma Kelly. You would go out the back door of Grandma's house and RUN across the yard, climb up the stairs, and knock on Great Grandma's back door. She would actually get up and let you in too! What a joy you are to have around!

For the week Grandma took you to Vacation Bible School! You and Miles Richie played together in the nursery. We unfortunately didn't get any photos of you and Miles together (see what happens when I'm not around! ;) )

Here you are in the nursery with Grandpa!

Here you are dancing to the songs!!

The last Sunday you were there, before you and your daddy came home, you went to visit Great Grandpa Jimmie! Here are some great photos of you all! Great Grandpa is fighting lung cancer. Your daddy and Grandpa shaved his head that day actually, because his hair was falling out. We pray daily for God to heal and perform a miracle on Great Grandpa's lungs. I'm so glad you got to go spend some time with him!!

Here is your 4 generation photo.

And of course some pictures of Great Grandpa making you giggle!

Little Girl, I missed you SO much while you were away! It's so nice to have you back and for us to be back into a normal routine!!

LOVE YOU,

Mommy

Jenna's Wedding

We started out the wedding festivities with a bachelorette party weekend. So we headed to Table Rock Lake on Friday June 1st. We had LOTS of fun! :) I enjoyed getting to know Jenna's friends throughout the weekend. We went on the lake Saturday afternoon. It was a lot of fun! There was a HUGE slide and a trampoline along with the boat. We enjoyed our time! I did get COMPLETELY burnt!! I don't know the last time I was that burnt.....whoops!! I should have used more sunscreen!  

We went out to eat Saturday night at a Mexican Restaurant.

Oh, here's another lake picture I guess they got out of order. After dinner Saturday night we went to a dueling piano bar. It was SO fun! I had never been to a piano bar. We had pretty awful seats at first, then one of the girls spotted a table front and center! So we snagged it! We had a blast!

I enjoyed helping Jenna get ready for her wedding. We made the bridesmaid's bouquets, got our nails done, and set up for the wedding! I know Jenna was a bit stressed through the whole wedding planning, but I hope she had some fun -- because I had lots of fun! :) hehe!

Here I am at Rehearsal.

Jenna and I at Rehearsal Dinner!

Joe and Jenna with their sign! They are so Cute and Adorable!!

The Bridesmaids and The Bride!!! :)

Jenna and I with our hair and make up done for the big day!! :)

The BEAUTIFUL BRIDE AND GROOM!!!!!!! They were absolutely Radiant!

The Best Man, Groom, Bride, and Maid of Honor

I had so much fun at this wedding!

I am so happy for Jenna and Joe! What a fabulous day it was! So much prep and time went into this wedding! Jenna (and Joe) planned such a beautiful day! I think when it all came together it was  Beautiful and Wonderful day!

CONGRATS TO JENNA AND JOE!