peak a boo

i love when the girls learn new things...kinley figured how out to play a new game...

love her!

tonight kya had "skippers", a bible school class at church. when she got home she was so excited about all she had learned and was just glowing!~ i had to take a picture of her to capture this innocent joy! i love her energy and her twinkle in her eyes. it is so crazy to me how quick time goes by. i cannot believe she is 3 years old! i remember all too clearly that first year of trials we had with her health. at times i remember being so scared. God is so faithful! i have a beautiful little girl, unique in so many ways and a complete light in my life~

matching

kya is in the phase of wanting to dress the same. everyday she wants to dress like kinley, and now when maci comes over she wants them to match as well. this last weds maci showed up in a dress that auntie dana had bought her. kya has the same dress from auntie dana...it was a no brainer kya was up the stairs on a mission to get they same dress as soon as maci walked in the door :)

lessons :)

it is amazing the life lessons i am having to teach kya already. the other day in the car she decided she wanted to go to target and buy a toy...no big deal :) mark and i told her it took a lot of money to buy toys and i told her mommy didn't have any money in her wallet. the concept was so hard for her to understand...

that next morning she came up to me and said "here mommy...now you can have money to buy my a toy"... she handed me about $1.25 in change she had found around the house. i laughed then tried to tell her that was not enough to buy a toy..she said " its okay we will find more" and off she went on her treasure hunt. all this talk about money made me think i need to start teaching her about the value of money. we were at target today and she wanted to go look at a toy she had seen on tv. i explained we would look but we could not buy it. well we looked and we started to walk away and she said " stop mommy i will buy it with my money" out of her pocket spilled a handful of coins. so there we sat in the middle of target and had a conversation about that to buy the toy we needed a lot of pennies :) she said " okay we will ask daddy when he comes home tonight"....she was not going to give up on this :)

so i talked to mark about maybe starting a calendar and helping her "earn" a surprise or toy. so this afternoon kya and i pulled out a calendar just for her and talked about how she needs 30 happy faces to get a toy. in order to get a happy face for each day she needs to listen to mommy and daddy, help make her bed, pick up her toys, bring her plate to the sink after meals and do her reading everyday. she was all for the challenge.... "mommy i can do this" she said with a big smile on her face. It is probably going to be a long time before we get 30 happy faces...but here we go...

my talking baby :)

kinley is starting to really "talk" ! i love my moments sitting and have a "conversation" with her! what fun~! enjoy :)

kinley's baptism

what a great weekend! we had such a great time with family! here are some pictures from the weekend! the girls loved all the swimming and the quality time with grandpa and grandma! we had a wonderful day on sunday. we had a bunch of friends and family over for lunch. we feel so blessed with all the amazing people god has placed in our lives. we could not have a better family or group of friends!

Grandparents Reading Dora

You have to love Grandparents. Dad and Jan were out to visit for Kinley's baptism this past weekend. We had lots of fun driving to the mountains, swimming at the hotel pool, and enjoying the hospitality offered by Embassy Suites. Before heading out this morning, Kya requested that Grandpa and Grandma read a book for her before going to bed last night. And just to make things interesting, she chose a Dora book. One of the great things about Dora is that she mixes a little Spanish in with the mostly English writing to encourage kids reading the books to learn Spanish. Great for young kids whose minds are sponges and no one really cares how they say the words. Also great for Brooke and I as we listened to Grandpa try to pronounce words like "Gracias" (pronounced Grashiass) and "Hola" (pronounced Hola like you would say Holy). Lots of good laughter for us, and for Kya. But one thing is certain, while the Spanish pronunciation may be lacking at times, Kya loved having her grandparents from Michigan here for a few days and they love her. Looking forward to the next visit...