Different Girls

I just love this egg and nest picture, hooray, spring is in the air.

Today I heard two different things from my children that I think describes their personalities quite well. First Ruthie, she is very intelligent and listens to every word we say. She is a philosophic thinker and loves the Lord, thankfully. Today we were talking about ticks, I was telling her how they poke their heads inside us and drink our blood. She asked me, "Why did God create ticks to drink blood?" We wrote the question down to ask Daddy when he got home!
Lizzie on the other hand, is a wild one. She was caught a few days ago squatting down next to our slider door and licking her way up to as high as she could reach, about a two foot streak! Today she walked in holding her shorts up way too high (she was not wearing a diaper at the time so they weren't staying up the same as normal) and she said to me, "I not licking the window, Mom".
Both girls were praised, Lizzie for being sooo good at that moment, and Ruthie for coming up with such a good question.

Ruthie a couple days ago was making shapes with her hands and saying, "look an 'A'!" She continued and then a minute later she shows us her hands and says, "This is an A-hole!!!" Matt and I tried not to make a deal out of it but couldn't help chuckling at her innocence.
Ruthie is riding a bike now (with training wheels). She is getting very good at it, we are so proud of her.
Sometimes I call Lizzie "Piggie" not meanly but in an endearing way because she can eat a lot and she is cute. But a couple days ago when I cuddled her and called her that she very offendedly said, "I noh a pig, mom" cause all her sentences end in either "mom," "though," or "too." I guess I can't call her that anymore.

Our Winter

Here is Ruthie getting some Idaho sunshine.

Matt and I went to Calvary Chapel's Youth Workers Conference in California during January, with another couple from church. It was fun. We went to the beach before the conference and enjoyed the warmth. The conference was awesome too, many things learned.

California sunset

The girl's new bedding and pillows and valance they got for Christmas looks beautiful, and they are ecstatic about it!

Jolley school of balance

Some of you may wonder how Ruthie and Elizabeth get such wonderful balance. Well here it is a sneak peek at the intense training they go through.



I love watching them do this, they have so much fun and they never get hurt when Matt is there for some reason. If I tried to do this alone, they would both fall off the bed and smash into each other on the way down and cry for an hour. Matt can play wild with them, and I will stick to coloring and painting and pulling them in the wagon.

here they are on their new bedding, a christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa. Lots of pretty pillows and a beautiful blanket.

Today I heard Ruthie cry out, and it sounded serious. When I came to check on her I saw Ruthie on the floor and Lizzie holding her hair and it looked like she was pulling hard. I yelled at Lizzie and she let go. Then I saw Ruthie's hair was actually tangled in a button on the front of Lizzie's jumper. It was tangled bad and Lizzie wanted loose, too, so she was trying to pull it off of her. They were both crying and when I got it untangled finally Ruthie had lost a pretty good chunk of hair. I don't know how it happened but it was a little humorous.

having a bit of tea with their bear.

trying out the new PS2, Ruthie was doing good at car racing, Lizzie thought she was too(her controller is backwards)!

A couple of days ago, I sent Lizzie to her room to get her panties and bring them to me. We are just letting her wear them a little at a time now, she is by no means potty trained. She was gone a couple minutes when I heard her call out to me in her deep matter of fact voice, "mom, uh poop on uh for." Sure enough I went in and she had pooped on the floor, carpet, right next to her panties. I think I will be a little more careful from now on!

Ruthie loves this band called Mission6, we got a free video from the conference we went to, they wanted to dance to it so they got all their dancing clothes on.

trying to take a hike in the sunshine, we never make it very far in the cold and snow though.

Take care of your feet.

This is a little overdue:
Back in December we (the girls and I) got to go to Seattle to visit my sister. We went to the beach and collected some seashells and saved some sea life. We got to go to the Aquarium, I had never been to one and it was pretty cool. And we got to just hang out and spend time with Aunt Jenny, and cousins Jacob and Brennen. We didn't see Uncle Eric much cause he was working on power outages a lot.

Here is a cute picture of the boys together.

And one of the girls together.

This is Lizzie with one hand caught in the candy cane box. While sitting right next to the tempting fish bowl. She kept going in there and touching it and would then come and tell us she touched the fish with her hand even though she knew she wasn't supposed to. The little Rascal.
And my kids are so weird they take after their Daddy. Ruthie and he always clean out the toe jam in between their toes and insist that it is good to do. Ruthie condemns me for not wanting to do it too. And here I caught Lizzie for the first time following in their footsteps! What weirdo's. I like my socks on, they all take theirs off first chance they get.

Thanks for having us over Jenny. We had lots of fun, we'll have to come again sometime when it is warm.

In the Garden

Entrance to my mom's Rose garden where I always imagine walking when we sing this hymn. My Dad is a welder and he built this awesome arbor and gate.

I love this hymn we sing at church, I looked up the lyrics at Hymnlyrics.org

In The Garden

---

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

Refrain

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Refrain


Words: Charles Austin Miles (1912)


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Story: I read…the story of the greatest morn in history: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet very dark, unto the sepulcher.” Instantly, completely, there unfolded in my mind the scenes of the garden of Joseph….Out of the mists of the garden comes a form, halting, hesitating, tearful, seeking, turning from side to side in bewildering amazement. Falteringly, bearing grief in every accent, with tear-dimmed eyes, she whispers, “If thou hast borne him hence”… “He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” Just one word from his lips, and forgotten the heartaches, the long dreary hours….all the past blotted out in the presence of the Living Present and the Eternal Future. (Thanks to cyberhymnal.org)

Rose in my mom's garden

Growing bigger

I haven't gotten any pictures off my camera in a while so I have old ones out.
This is one of an old Chrysler my dad has:

My little girls are pretty busy lately. Lizzie is talking a lot and is very busy. She wakes up in the morning and is very adamant that it is time to eat immediately. She says "EAT, EAT" or occasionally "uhhh cook", or maybe even "ungee" (hungry). She is quite passionate about food sometimes. Actually she is passionate about everything, she is not a mellow person.
Ruthie is working on her letters. Sometimes she is focused and really gets it and is sounding out simple words other times she has a harder time and needs lots of coaching. It is rewarding to see her learning and picking it up though. She enjoys writing cards to people. Ruthie really likes numbers though and does addition with her fingers.
They are getting better at playing together for longer times but when they fight or argue they race to get to me and tattle on the other one as if the first one to make their case will win. I often hear screaming and pounding feet running to get here first. Usually Lizzie is screaming cause she gets passed up. Eventually they will learn that is not how it works.
We have two dogs Buddy is still a puppy and so when inside he has to stay in the kennel since they don't get the run of the house, Tucker though is being taught to stay on the rug at the back door. This is a new thing and today Ruthie discovered that he had got her acorns and chewed them up. She was very sad and insists we will need to get more. Last time we collected acorns at the church, Ruthie, Lizzie and I had pockets filled up. They often collect rocks and things too, like mommy. So I am hoping to win one of these skirt outfits with a big pocket for bird seed, I am sure it would work for acorns and rocks too though. Here is the link they are very cute:
GrosgrainStore.com Grand Opening & Giftcard Giveaway!!!!!!!!: "GROSGRAINSTORE.COM"
She sells them too at her new store GROSGRAINSTORE.COM
Today I heard Ruthie banging around in the dishes in the kitchen, I was hoping it was in her little kitchen set, but let her carry on without checking. After a few minutes I came in and she was cooking! She had my big mixing bowl out with some water and was adding sugar in it. She said she was going to put some butter and milk in it and cook it in the oven. I figured I would let her since she was so enthusiastic about what she was doing. After the milk and butter she wanted salt and pepper and then she broke some pieces of leftover toast into it. She wanted to cook it and I said, "in the microwave?" so she decided that sounded fun so she microwaved it for 55 seconds then she still wanted to put it in the oven so we put it in a different pan and baked it at 350 for a few minutes we took it out and she didn't even want to try it. I had to reinforce what I had taught her a long time ago that only I can put things in and take things out of the oven because she was already getting the oven mitts out to try and do it herself!!! Her concoction kinda looked like soup so we doctored up some top ramen for lunch.
For Girls only:
Lizzie got into a little mischief herself today. I asked her to go and throw away a plastic bag that was lying around while we were picking up. She went into the bathroom to throw it away and eventually she came out and I noticed what she had in her hands. Read on only if you are not too squeamish, (this is a little embarrassing) she had a used tampon applicator and wrapper putting it in and taking it out of the wrapper! So we had to reinforce that lesson too, don't touch things in the trash, yucky, no touch!

Busy House

I know I haven't been blogging much lately, but I am doing crafts for the coming church bazaar. I pale in comparison to the stuff found on Grosgrain's blog though. I want so many of the things she makes so here is another give away that I would like to win for Ruthie.
GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!
I love the bird prints and the pocket to keep seed in. We are all into birds, in one way or another (it is duck and goose hunting season right now, we ate Matt's goose last night!)

So there is crafting to do, hunting for Elk, and Water Foul, and Matt has begun wrestling season. He is the local junior high coach and will be high school assistant coach to his brother. This is all on top of him working at the church, doing a couple bible college classes there and teaching jr high bible study. With all these things we actually will get to see more of Daddy, since he leaves work early to get to practice and then gets home about an hour before usual. Some day I will start putting up more pictures again. I still need to figure out what the girls will be for Harvest!