Longing for Miley....

So my sweet, second, baby girl has entered a new stage.  A hard stage.  Even though I beam with pride at Bella's, usually good behavior now, I remember very clearly when she entered this stage.  Whoever said its called the Terrible Twos was seriously misguided.  The "terrible twos" as its called really starts at about 16 to 18 months and goes until about 28 to 30 months.  Well my sweet Miley has entered this stage.  Just within the last couple of weeks her will has begun to grow strong.  If you touch her or even if her sister comes in her vicinity, she grunts or screams.  Wiping her face after a meal, arg!  Putting sun block on forget it!  Hug her just a little too long, and she'll let you know.  Or if she gets a toy stuck and can't get it out, she'll make you aware of it.  Anyone, but the Hubs or me (or sometimes including us), come near her results in an annoyed grunt or scream.  My only saving grace these days, besides the understanding and helpfulness of Bella, is Brynn's beautiful and shiny personality-on her terms of course!  Although she's usually shy around others, when we are at home alone she comes alive.  She's funny, she talks like crazy, she loves to dance, she admires her sister, she enjoys cleaning up.  And she has the biggest, most beautiful smile.  So although, these days there is some screaming and quite a lot of tears, all she has to do is flash me one of her Miley smiles and all of it melts away.

One of the things that cracked us up this week was when we were hanging out as a family on our back deck.  Bella was playing in our kiddie pool but Brynn was on the sidelines just watching her sister.  Until... She thought it would be fun to dip her blankie in the pool and get cooled off that way!





Ahh.  I can get through another day!

Enjoying every minute, every minute!

Spicy Chips...

I have no idea why, because I certainly don't, but the girls LOVE food that have strong flavors.  Bella, always calls things that have a strong flavor, spicy, even when that's not really the correct description.  There have been several occasions where we'll give them something hoping for a reaction just to find out they like it.  For example, we gave Bella a lemon as a baby to watch her funny reaction and she ate the whole thing, yuk!  They both like salsa.  They LOVE Sea salt and Vinegar chips.  They like Triscuits, oh but not the plain ones, the Fire Roasted Tomato & Olive Oil flavor.  So the other day when the Hubs came home from the grocery store with Blazin' Buffalo & Ranch Doritos, I tried very hard to keep them from the girls.  Well yesterday, while having lunch on the deck as a family, the hubs had the Doritos bag out and there was no keeping it from them!  So we bit the bullet and let them try it, knowing full well they'd be way too spicy.

Well apparently they were too spicy but not enough to deter them from eating them!  What do you do when it's hurting you but its just so darn good?  I know there's a lesson here......

Okay, here we go...

Tears are rolling down her cheeks and she is still asking for more!

Phew.  Need a quick milk break.

Or you could try sissy's method of plunging her hand in our kiddie pool.....

....to bring her tongue cool relief.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday's Blog Hop.....

So I decided to participate in this week's blog hop.  What this is, is several blogs have the same theme and then we use MckLinky to link up others' blogs, that way you can check new blogs out and hopefully new people will come visit yours!  This week's theme is:

Favorite Kid Pictures!

Love the theme but OH SO HARD to just pick a few.  But I attempted and here are my pics:

And these I just took today!

Oh how it pains me not to put up many many more!

NOT Not Me Monday...

  Instead of reading my fabulous, way entertaining, post will you do me a favor?  Take the few minutes you would have been using to read my post and send a prayer up for Stellan.  If you do not know Stellan I suggest you get to know him.  If you go to his MckMama's site there's a tab right under the header where you can get caught up on his story.  Stellan is struggling with SVT (a very rapid heartbeat) again and it is not looking good.  I have just about had a panic attack over the situation and the things happening over the last 24 hours and I don't even know this family.  You can not help but fall in love with them and their sweet baby Stellan.  Please pray for Stellan's healing or even just a way for the doctor's to get things under control. I will be tweeting updates from MckMama when I can. Just look on my left side bar. Latest is, he's heading for Boston!

Take The Plunge...

I don't usually post on the weekends but I've been trying to get this post up the last 3 days.  It has just been crazy around here!

Another great thing we have had the priviledge honor to be a part of, was a baptism service at our church.  The Hubs and I were asked to help plan a fun celebration around our usual baptism service and we, party planning lovers, jumped at the opportunity.  We were so thankful they valued our opinions and took and went with a lot of our ideas, for example our theme of "Take the Plunge."  So we, along with many other talented volunteers put together a fabulous time.  We had a tailgating party with fun games, face painting, bouncers, and a dunk tank for the kiddos.  Everyone brought their own food and grilled out and socialized.  The Hubs had the fabulous idea to have our own Red Bull Flugtag event.  Now since we obviously couldn't have things flying we decided to make devices and see how far they could float.  So while everyone was tailgating we provided the supplies for them to create their own FLOATENTAG devices, our spin on Flugtag.  At 4 the baptism service began in a pond near by.  One thing I love about our church's baptism service is that each participant (if they want) gets a chance to share their testimonies.  These men and women and even children have such inspiring stories and are just amazing reminders of how having God in our lives can change us, for the better!  Following the service we had our Floatentag event, and it was a hit!  There was some great and creative boats!  Here are some pics from the event (unfortunately I didn't get any of the tailgating-too busy registering baptizees and boaters): 

Bella and Avi hanging out in our Floatentag device...

Having a grand old time and practicing their moves for the race!

All the boaters lined up and ready to go!

We had made a boat for Bella but hadn't planned on participating, well when Bella heard her daddy announce to bring the boats down and line up, she apparently picked hers up and made her way to the lake (Jake and Shari were watching her though-what a good listener : ) ).  Here is where she parked her boat, waiting with the other racers.

Sissy joined in on the fun too!

Mr. Dion graciously offered to push Bella in the pond a bit since I didn't have the heart to tell her she couldn't race.

Her daddy asked, "Who's ready to start the race."  Sat there with her little hand in the air!

We had 17 boats in all, not including our wonderful addition though!

There she goes!

Look at them all go!

Bella showing off her medal.

What a wonderful event to be a part of, I look forward to our next!  Would you be interested in Taking the Plunge with us next time!? 

The Chapel of Grayslake