I guess that is what happens when your children start school, they get invited to everyone’s birthday parties. All of a sudden it seems like we have at least one party every weekend, thank goodness one of my friends told me when Targets toys were 75% off. Rachel of course loves getting to attend all the fun parties and has had some fun dress up parties and fun places to visit because of them. Saturday was just the same as the week before but thank goodness this time I had Josh home to help out. Rachel had a party at ABQ jump (an inflatable playground) which was a lot of fun ( I wish I had pictures from there), then we were home for about an hour and had another birthday party for one of our family friends. My friend Yvette and I were pregnant at the same time, her little girl is exactly 2 weeks older than Sarah. So we ended our day with Ella’s party. Saturdays are exciting and fun (at least for Rachel) but we don’t seem to find time to get things done around the house.
Here is a picture of Sarah with her buddy, Ella!
Sarah and Ella
Rachel had the day off of school today for Parent Teacher Conferences so we decided we would try to do something fun as a family. Josh wanted to take the girls to do their favorite things the library, lunch and then the park. I get to do these things often with the girls but Josh rarely gets the opportunity so that was the plan for the day. After we all went to the library we went to Dion’s for lunch (because it is one of the few places we can find food that both girls will eat). They always play music over the PA system and today they played Faith Hill’s song ‘This Kiss’. I have her hits CD and play it occasionally in the car and Rachel just loves this song because it says something about Cinderella and Snow White and that is all you need for Rachel to like a song, mention her favorite princesses. So when the song came on Rachel is sitting in the booth singing it and enjoying herself which was very cute. Then I look over to Sarah and she keeps saying Kiss, Kiss, Kiss. The song repeats the words ‘this kiss’ several times and Sarah was trying to sing the song too. So there we were in Dion’s with both of my girls singing “this kiss” by Faith Hill. I am not sure if Josh thought it was cute or was embarrassed, I just loved it.
I just love the stage that Sarah is in, it is just so much fun. She makes me laugh everyday!! She has a baby stroller that she normally pushes her babies in or maybe Mickey or Minnie. This morning she was eating a graham cracker and put it into the stroller, buckled it in, and looked at me and said “I push it Cracker”. I just love the stage when they are exploring and learning to put words together all at the same time!!
Sarah with her cracker
We have had beautiful weather for the past three weeks!! So Josh decided to take advantage of the nice weather and was both our vehicles. He started with my car and was about to start the truck when Rachel realized what he was doing and had to go help. She loved helping wash the truck and did a fairly good job, she did threaten to spary Josh with the hose a lot but I don’t think she ever did. So this is Rachel rinsing off Dad’s tires!! She was a great help, now if I could only get her to clean her room!!
We have had beautiful above average weather for the last couple of weeks. This week it has been 70 degrees every day, there isn’t much better weather than that for playing at the park. This week I went to the park or stayed after school for the girls to play on the playground every single day and the girls just loved it!! We love being outside and it makes the girls so happy, there we even a couple of days were we went to the park more than once. 70 degrees in February….paradise!!
Sarah, Rachel, and Gina
Rachel climbing the wall
Sarah has started walking around with her arms folded. Most of the time Sarah is running to keep up with someone but, when ever she is walking she folds her arms and walks, which makes me nervous because I am just waiting for her to fall down. They must be teaching her in nursery how to be reverent, she has always done well with folding her arms and bowing her head at prayer but never any other time. It is just so priceless to see this little body walking with her arms folded and she has also started posing this way too.
Reverent Sarah
I also just love it when you get those angelic poses. I just love my little girl!!
So I am so excited that Sarah talks more and more each day and that she is able to correctly say words she couldn’t say even a month ago. I am also sad, I just loved how Sarah would call herself “Rarah” it was just so cute the way she would say Rarah’s coke (sarah’s coat). I just miss the Rarah!! The one word that I am grateful she finally learned to say is chip. I don’t know how she came up with her word for chip but it was not good. Sarah would call a chip a b**ch, or female dog. It was very embarrassing when we would be at the grocery store and go down the chip aisle and she would yell loudly “Momma, b**ch, Momma,b**ch” to let me know that she saw chips. We worked very hard on this for a while and would have her practice the “ch” sound. So instead she would say “chch-b**ch”. So you can imagine my joy when she started to actually say the word chip.
I do love this stage of development, it is just so fun. One of my new favorite things that Sarah says is “hi mommy, I Sarah” as if I didn’t know. She will just tell me that multiple times a day and she also likes to introduce herself to others as well “Hi, I Sarah” Just too cute!! Sarah just says more and more each day. Soon enough she will be out talking Rachel, ok that might not be possible!!
I love pictures like this!! Sarah didn’t want to be away from Josh after he came home from France and so they took a nap together on the couch (which was the only way Sarah was going to take one). Poor Josh, he was taking a nap at the time his body was use to going to bed so he didn’t feel refreshed afterwards like Sarah did!!
Before Josh left for his trip to France, Rachel told him that he better bring her something good back. Can you believe that at age 5 they already can demand so much!! Anyways, that put Josh on a quest to find good souvenirs for the girls. The girls really would have been happy with anything he brought them but it was just funny how she kept telling him to bring her home something good. Josh brought Rachel a really cool hot pink shirt, a fun supper long bendy pencil, and a little pink purse all of which say “Paris”. Sarah got a cute little shirt that has the Eiffel tower on it and a cute little stuffed cow in the shape of the Eiffel tower. And Josh bought me some beautiful earrings, he didn’t think he would earn too many brownie points if he came home with out something for me!! Most of all we were just so HAPPY to have him home again. I don’t know how some women deal with their husbands gone all the time.
Rachel's bendy pencil
Eiffel Tower Cow
Rachel's shirt and purse
Sarah's shirt and 'cow'
This is my first contribution to the blog. I don’t travel often for work, but I just got back from a week in France. I left the 15th because I knew I would be in the dog house if I flew to France on Valentine’s day without Jill. She claims I didn’t offer to take her this time because I was afraid she would accept and I’d have to pay for it. My side of the story is that she didn’t have a passport and didn’t have time to get one. I stayed in Reims, a town east of Paris (about a 40min train ride). I actually worked the whole week and didn’t have much time to go sightseeing, but plenty of time for eating. They fed me 4-course meals for lunch everyday and I wandered around town and found food on my own for dinner. The cathedral below is in the center of Reims and was built in the 13th century.
Cathedral in Reims, France
Like most of europe, people tend to live packed together in town and don’t spread out much. If you go a few hundred yards outside of town you are surrounded by farm land. You can also see what the weather is like in February: cold, cloudy, and rainy. I did see the sun one day.
Countryside near Reims
My last day in France I took a train back to Paris and had just a couple hours to wander around. The picture below was from the closest I went to the Eiffel tower. After wandering around a little I had to go look for souveneirs for Jill and the girls so they wouldn’t send me away when I got home.
in Paris
