Grammy & Gramps

Dominic and Caitlin are really enjoying their grandparents. Everyone is here (or will be soon) for Caitlin's baby dedication this Sabbath. Jon's parents got here on Wednesday afternoon and my parents will be here in the morning.

I just love this picture of Caitlin and her Gramps. She took a little bit to warm up to everyone and so she was pretty serious while she was checking her Gramps out.

Dominic, of course, didn't need any time warming up at all. He was very excited to have some more play mates. I guess the ambulance was broken and they were fixing it.

He also had two more people who would read to him. He's in heaven. =)

Caitlin was eyeing Grammy's glass. She loves to suck the condensation off the outside of the glass.

Got it!

Swim class

Dominic has been taking swim class for the past two weeks. Tomorrow is his last class. He has been having so much fun. Most of the parents sit by the side of the pool on these bleachers and watch the instructor. But Jon got in the water with Dominic and swam with him while the instructor was working with the other kids. I think Dominic enjoyed swim class a lot more. He has looked forward to it each evening.

He can't float and needs a bigger lung capacity before he'll be able to swim, but he has all the motions down and certainly isn't afraid of the water. He loves going off the diving board and splashing.

Hats

Dominic and Caitlin got hats from a friend and had so much fun trying them on. Today Dominic was playing with his hat and decided to put in on Caitlin and I. I was able to get one good shot of Caitlin before she took it off to look at it. Surprisingly she didn't put it in her mouth. She just kept staring at it.

Thankfully we were alone and so there aren't any pictures of me in the hat. =)

This wasn't the way the hat was supposed to fit, but they both thought it was pretty funny.

Her hat was so cute and she actually didn't mind wearing it. She's getting so used to having the camera in her face that she will now turn to me and smile when I bring it out.

I love the little flower on the top.

New Camera

We finally decided what camera we wanted. Here are a few of the pictures from it. It does take color photos. I was just playing with the settings and loved these pictures. I have some really cute kids! =)I love the way sepia adds to the photos. It seems that you pay more attention to the kids and less attention to the little details - like the slime on Caitlin's chest or the left over supper on Dominic's face. =) You also can't tell if Dominic dressed himself or not. He's into doing it himself and the results are often a rainbow of colors. I can find him easily at the park, but the clothes DON'T match. I told him today that he didn't match and he laughed at me. "I know, Mommy."

A couple of nights ago I could tell that Dominic was pretty tired. We were sitting on the couch having story time. We finished and Dominic turned to us and said "I need to get you guys to bed." Not sure if he said it because he wanted to go to bed or because it's what we say to him. But it sure was cute.

Sabbath School

Jill took some pictures in Sabbath school today and I had to post a couple of these. Dominic and Andy are the oldest in the class. Andy should be in kindergarten, but he's waiting on Dominic to turn 3 next month so they can graduate together.

Actually, I think this picture was taken last week when we were trying out their camera to see if we wanted that model or not.

Here is the new beginners class - minus Andy and Dominic. Oddly enough the two kids missing are little boys. They weren't here this week so it made for a very girlie picture.

I love this picture of Lily and Caitlin. They wouldn't both look at the camera at the same time, but it is still an adorable picture. Their dresses matched and so that is why we started taking the pictures, but Lily was giving Caitlin hugs and kisses and it was so cute.

Dainty girl

The picture quality isn't great, but I think you'll get the picture.

Caitlin is such a girly girl. Most of the time when she's sitting, she has her little feet crossed like this. She is always messing with her hair and loves to play with her dress when she's wearing one. Will be fun to see if she stays this way with her brother around.

Child Services

A little back ground before I begin the story.

Dominic has a brown teddy bear named Cuddles that he sleeps with every night. Caitlin has a matching one that is pink. She actually prefers another bear to sleep with and so Dominic has claimed the pink Cuddles. The brown one is his brother and the pink one is his sister. Their names vary by day.

A couple of days ago I took a friend to the lending library. It is a division of Child Care and Referral Services. Several of the people in charge of different child services for the county have their offices there. But in the front of the building is a library for preschoolers. It has toys, books, movies and games. There are large couches for the parents to sit and lots and lots of toys for the kids. You can check out the items or just come to play.

We got there just as they were opening and so a lot of the office personnel were sitting on the couches talking. Dominic walked right up to the lady in charge of child services and announced that I'd dropped his sister on her head and she'd gotten run over by a big truck. Thankfully I've talked with this lady several times and she knows (hopefully) that I not the sort to run over my children. =) Turns out he was talking about pink Cuddles. I HAD dropped her on the floor that morning. He had mixed it up with the story of a little girl at church who'd gotten hit by a car (she's fine now). Aaaauuugh! Of course the ladies got a great laugh out of it. So glad I could make someones day.

Beach Day

Sabbath was a beautiful day so we had planned to eat lunch at the church and head to the aquarium. We went with friends and after they left Dominic lost interest pretty quickly. He started begging us to go to the beach. I hadn't prepared as well as I would have liked, but we smeared on the sunscreen and headed over. Jon and I took turns taking pictures and holding Caitlin. She loved the water, but since neither of us were getting in she had to settle for just getting her feet wet. Dominic on the other hand, was having the time of his life.

This hat was a bit big, but all I had in the car with me. It worked for a while, then she pulled it off.

Amen

Dominic told Caitlin and I to be "the church" and had us sit on the living room floor. He then grabbed his plastic wrench and proceeded to sing a made up song. Half way through he stopped and told me "Say Amen, mom." I did and he finished the song. "Okay, now say Amen and clap." I did and he sat down and told us it was our turn.

Dominic is growing again and needed new underwear. I let him pick out what he wanted. So today he had to show several of our friends his new underwear. Just wished he hadn't mooned everyone in the process because he pulled his underwear down with his shorts. =)

These pictures are from our video camera. We can't decide which camera we want. A friend has a camera with several cool features that I'd love to have. But there's another camera that has a newer processor and we tried it at the store and it takes amazingly fast photos, which is great with kids. Oh, the dilemma!

Dominic loves goggles and is always begging to get some. So Jon finally took him to the store and let him pick out a pair. They stopped at Food Lion after ward and Dominic wore them into the store. He'll wear them all over the house and the whole time at the pool.

Dominic and I had been building a house and when we were finished we put all the tools back into the case. But I didn't latch it and Caitlin rolled over and opened it. She loved all the different colors and shapes. She played for about an hour before she started getting tired and ready for a nap.Playing with Thomas!

Mysterious ways!

There are things that happen in my life that seem very frustrating at the time and I get upset or disappointed. But then as I look back I can see where God is working everything out. If I could just remember that while the situation is happening I'd be in better shape. =)

I was supposed to go to Nashville to visit a friend and also see my family. Several things happened and I just wasn't able to go. I was bummed, but am now also glad that I made the hard decision to stay.

Our brakes need new brake pads. No problem for Jon to change them, but I would have been a little freaked out if I'd gotten half way there and they started squealing on me like they are doing now.

Dominic will get to see Jon fly this week and he would have missed that. Jon has also said several times how glad he is that we are here with him. I think he loves us! =)

Also I had met two girls earlier this summer and was able to spend quite a bit of time with them this week and I would have missed that opportunity to make some awesome new friends if I hadn't been here. So while I am really disappointed that I missed out on seeing some people I really feel like it was God who helped me make the decision to stay home.

Now let's see if I can remember this next time. =)

Dirt & Imagination

Dominic has a wild imagination. He's also to that stage of unreasonable fears. So even the vacuum cleaner freaks him out while Caitlin thinks it's great and laughs. Yesterday he was outside by himself while I watched from the window because Caitlin was sleeping. He was standing in the middle of the yard twisting and jumping and falling. I had a pretty good idea what he was doing but asked anyway.

"I'm in Mexico with my skateboard and I'm skateboarding with people and we're falling a lot and getting hurt, but there's no blood so we don't need band-aides. Cool, huh?"

Just then a truck went by and with a very cautious look on his face he came running inside. He's okay with leaving me to go skate boarding in Mexico, but not with a truck. =)

I had just put him down for quiet time and was sweeping the floor. I have to sweep often because Caitlin is rolling every where. Caitlin was on one end of the house and I had swept everything into a pile on the other end when Dominic called me. Seems we forgot to pray the monsters away before he got in bed. I wasn't gone a minute and when I returned Caitlin had rolled across the house and was playing in my dirt. Eew!

Rolling

Caitlin is rolling every where. We only have the one rug in the living room so the floor is mostly smooth for her to roll. She's great at rolling, but not so great at getting unstuck. She'll start to squeal and Dominic will run over to move her so she can keep rolling. It doesn't matter how many times I tell him to let her figure it out herself next time, he always rescues her. "But mommy, she's crying." It's cute, but it might take a while for her to learn things at this rate. =)

Onions

Yesterday at Taco Bell Dominic kept asking what that loud noise was. Jon and I didn't hear anything unusual. Finally he started spitting his bean burrito out and said it tasted bad and was loud. We always get his burritos with out onions and they had made a mistake. Turns out that I'm not the only one who doesn't like onions because of the "squeaky" noise that they make when chewing them. We got him another burrito and the "noise" quit. The burrito tasted fine and he was happy again.