Garden Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Here is a really cute dress I like and can have a chance to win it for blogging about it! It would look so cute on Ruthie. I wish I could make one like it. Wouldn't it be a nice birthday present. Maybe someday I will learn to sew well enough to make this type of thing.

Check out the dress here:
Garden Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Oh please God...

GUESS WHO???

Here are some silly Ruthie antics:

• She found a stick out in the back yard and has been using it lately as a shepherds cane. She pretends that Tucker and Buddy are her lambs, and she shoos them where she wants them to go. Then she takes a hand full of sand and sprinkles it about saying she is feeding her hens. I was going to mow the lawn as she yells out "watch out for my hens!"

• Then today she was in her swimsuit cause she had been playing in our kiddie pool and was cold. She came in and told me she prayed and asked God to make the sunshine on her so she could get warm, and then it did, and she prayed that the "dogs would stop just drinking the pool water", and they did. A while later I was out there and she was standing just inside the shadow of our big maple tree when I heard her praying, "Oh please God, make the sunshine on me now, so I can be warm, oh please, God" then she stepped out into the sun. I didn't know how to respond so I went in the house and snickered quietly.

• Earlier I got to see her throw a little temper tantrum just like Mommy did the day before. I heard her yelling and banging something outside, so I went to see. She was throwing her swing around. I told her to cool it and to come here and have a seat. When I asked what was going on she said, (exactly the words I said) "I hate these dogs!" Woops, I knew then I had to explain how wrong I was and those were not good words to use. She continued telling me how mad they were making her for drinking the pool water, and how they were wasting it!

Oh my Ruthie, she is so sweet. She keeps me on my toes. I pray God would help me to teach her to be better than myself. These are some silly things that I just wanted to record so I can remember them for a long time and tell her later on.

I'm Back!

Lizzie loves the puppies, but she is NOT gentle. She was pulling flesh and hair the other day and to scold her I showed her how it feels and I pulled her hair a bit. This would have sent Ruthie bawling and upset that she hurt the puppy, but Lizzie is different, she had a funny little smirk the whole time and never felt any remorse, she has done it several times and each time I scold her I pull a little harder hoping for some reaction, but just a smirk, then I have to hide my face because I am laughing!

Matt was able to splice our cord and now I can use the computer again. I put a bunch of pictures on Flick r, some of the 4th of July Kiddie Parade in Coeur d' Alene. We went with Jean, Kathy, Asia, Maya, Josh and Jessica. We got to walk with our good friends Stephanie, Isaac and Havilah too. It was a fun day!
The girls got a little cold last week and it is still tagging on a tiny bit. Hopefully this will be all we get for the summer. Lizzie is getting better with her words. I can tell many of her words even if others have no idea. The funniest is "uh uh" like how we would say for "no" but hers means "yes." I think she is either trying to say "uh huh" or "yes please" like the same inflections and stuff. It is fine with me cause I understand it without even thinking about it, but when we visit other people it throws them for a loop that she is saying one thing and meaning something totally different. She also says "baby," "buh" for bottle, "puppy," "Buddy," "Tucker," "Te tee" for Ruthie, "Go!," "nyo nyo" is no no, "ni ni" -nigh night, "boom" when a car goes by, and I particularly like when she says "have some" which means hungry, or wants a particular food we have. She says "mmbuh" which I am not sure what this says but it is very randomly said but lately I am thinking it is Grandpa, because she says it on the toy phone and after talking about Daddy often. She say what sounds like "why" for slide, and "wee" for swing. She is a dare devil too, she climbs the ladder to the slide and sits there until I come to catch her coming down, sometimes yelling at the top of her lungs "Maaamaaaa."
Ruthie likes to tell stories, she has a very active imagination and is always talking to me, it wears me out sometimes. She likes to say scenarios, "if I ..." and they are so far fetched I don't even know what to say back but "hmmm."

Here is Ruthie at our friend Charis' birthday tea party, she made them each a tutu and it was very cute. All the little girls drinking tea and wearing tutu's, except Lizzie she squealed once when another girl's tutu touched her. Doesn't Ruthie look beautiful here, she is getting so big.

Farewell

I got a flickr account and so now I don't have as many pictures to share but here are a few that are not on flickr.

My Tree Peony

Some pretty cute girls reading an excellent book

tight squeeze

Ready for church in skirts and pigtails. Ruthie has a baby in a blanket and Lizzie's belly is showing, perfect.

a little splashing in the mud

a pike caught stuck and set in our sink to filet along with many of its friends!
Check out those teeth!

And here is the stinker that makes me say farewell. He is Buddy, the newest member of our family. Today he chewed the power cord to our laptop and it doesn't take a charge anymore so I probably won't be using this much more for a while until we can get a new cord.

Jesus is in Ruthie's Heart!

A few days ago Ruthie woke up with a bad attitude as she often does. I told her to go back upstairs and not to come down until she has a better one. I suggested that she pray and ask God to help her change her attitude and be happy. She went up and I didn't hear from her for awhile. She finally came down the stairs and smiled at me real big and said, "I asked Jesus into my heart!" I figured that was enough, and she was ready to come downstairs:)
I know she is young and may not even really understand what that means but she knows that she wants Jesus and that is awesome. I congratulated her and talked about it a little with her.
We love you Ruthie!

Lots of stuff!

There has been a little flooding up here in the Silver Valley! We took a drive a couple days before it had peaked , we went up the Little North Fork, and here are a couple of decent pictures I got. I saw pictures on the internet and could tell it had come up quite a bit from when I took these.
We finally got a little pool for the girls, if it ever gets warm enough they could go in it again. Ruthie was so freezing after she did this.
We went to Aunie Em's wedding to Paul, they had it at a Bible Camp. It was really fun. Matt could only get Ruthie to dance with him.
Lizzie loved dancing too.
Here's Lizzie in the wagon when we went for a walk to see some of the flooding. I don't know why but I love natural disasters. They are so cool to see.
Ruthie's turn while Lizzie pushes from behind, I think Daddy needed some help!
DON'T DO IT LIZZIE. You have your whole life ahead of you.
I captured a silly picture while Lizzie was sitting on the swing at TJ's house and playing with a toy gun that was laying around.
And with the warm weather Ruthie learned a new trick. To swing herself, thank goodness. We are so proud of Ruthie, she came in one day and told me she was swinging herself and to come watch and sure enough she had it down really well. Everyday for a few weeks she would go out first thing in the morning and start swining. They play outside whenever they can, and have great tans already.
We have been fishing several times and Ruthie caught this one at Bull Run!

I was trying to get some pictures of the girls together and I got about two pictures before Lizzie started crying and reaching for me.
At the Camp where the wedding was at they have a great big blue slide, it is awesome. We took the girls down, and Ruthie was a little nervous but liked it. Lizzie loved it because she has no comprehension of what could happen I think. Everyone started racing down it. Here is my nephews Preston and Nathan, I love the concentrated looks.
Nathan is a character, he is always getting people to laugh.
After a little while the big Jolley boys started playing; TJ, Matt, Joseph, Jordan, and Tyler. Oh my goodness, look out and stand back. They would wax the gunnysacks and get going so fast that at the bottom they couldn't hardly stop. Tyler would actually jump up and slow himself running, then he even hit the fence that swung open. He nearly took out Grandma Jolley one time. I got a few more pictures and have a flickr page now that I will try to put pictures on.

A Little Glimpse into a Kids Mind:
This morning Ruthie and Lizzie and I were laying in bed talking. Lizzie was saying "eye," so we asked where Ruthie's eye was, and she pointed to it. Then we asked her nose, mouth and ears, and she pointed to all of those too. Then Ruthie lifts her shirt and tells her "nipple," then "bellybutton." Then Ruthie asks me "Does God have a belly button?" I said I didn't know, but probably not. Anybody have a better answer, cause now I'm kinda curious.

And here is a video of Ruthie swinging while she sings.

Disciplining Children

http://64.13.218.251/shows/2006/05/raising_children_biblically.php

This is an interview on Crosstalk that a friend emailed me. It is excellent advise and I am going to order the seminar this lady does. I am at a point right now that I need to update my methods with Ruthie as she is growing and Lizzie is so different from Ruthie she needs something different altogether. Lizzie is taking to hitting every time she does not get what she wants. For some time now Lizzie would hit Ruthie for telling her no. My method with Ruthie that worked great was to give a spank on the hand and say not to do whatever it was she did wrong. Lizzie just hits more, which makes sense. Just this past week she is hitting the air when I don't go the direction she is pointing me, or hitting me when I tell her no milk. I started to hold her hand down after doing it and restrict her. Then she absolutely freaks out, screaming and crying. Then when she gets disciplined she always wants milk to comfort her, and I don't want to do that all the time, since I want to be weaning her soon. Any advice? I am excited to hear the seminar so I can learn some new tactics, and get a better perspective on raising the girls in a Godly way.