First Word for Angelina

Last night at dinner Angelina said her first word - "hot." David had just put some more food on her tray, straight from the pan. She picked it up, put it down and did the sign for hot. I said the word a few times while doing the sign too, and she said the word hot, twice, clear as a bell. (while still signing hot)

Also, I picked up a second toddler bed off of craigslist yesterday. We got the bed, a mattress, and a comforter sheet set for $35...not a bad deal at all. So Miss Angelina slept in the toddler bed last night. We gave the new one to Trinity, who is very excited about having a new bed. Miss Angelina is just excited to be in a bed. She has been climbing up in Trinity's all week and is very adept at getting in and out. But we did take the mattress out of the crib and slid it under the bed so if she were to roll out at night, she will go onto the mattress instead of the wood floor. I think Trinity fell out of bed once when we switched her over, so we are just being prepared. :)

Sigh, our babies are growing up.


 Angelina Update

I keep forgetting to tell about the latest with Angelina. She can answer yes and no questions now by shaking or nodding her head. We have been watching signing times and using signs when talking with her and she is starting to use a few. She uses signs for eat, more, drink, and milk. She still hates to be told no and will start to cry - too funny!

Grace and peace be with you!

 A Major Move

Well, we moved again this weekend. No, not from our house, but within our house. I decided that it just wasn't working having the girls room be upstairs. So I switched our rooms over the weekend. Now David and I have a nice "suite" upstairs, and the girls are in the orange bedroom downstairs. It is working out so much better. The upstairs was an add-on at some point, so the steps are not standard size. I have lost my balance more than once trying to carry Angelina down the stairs and have been worried about falling with her. No more worries. Now we don't have to carry the girls up to bed if they fall asleep downstairs, and no more carrying Angelina up and down. It is also nice being able to put the girls clothes away while they happily play in their room. I was finding that being upstairs with no way to keep Angelina from the stairwell, we just did not spend much time up there at all.



We put one of our recliners and the second tv in the first smaller area upstairs. This is now David's game room for his playstation. Our bed fits nicely in the larger room and I no longer have to squeeze around furniture to try and get into bed at night. It just feels nice at the end of the day to be able to go upstairs to our adult retreat area and hang out in a kid free zone.



And with the recliner moved upstairs, our downstairs living room is so much more open. This is going to be a great plus with the impending winter weather and the kids playing more inside. Tonight the girls were chasing each other around, giggling their heads off, playing tag.



Speaking of the girls, here are the two little cuties sharing the recliner.



Grace and peace be with you!

 Great news!

David got his requested raise! This is awesome news since he asked for $5/hour more! No guts, no glory comes to mind. ;) I guess his boss realizes what a great worker he has in David and doesn't want to lose him. It also means I won't have to get a second job. (mom being my first job) Hooray!

Grace and peace be with you!

 Not Loving Daylight Saving Time

Okay, I've read up on the history of why most of our nation changes the clocks twice a year, so I understand the concept of having long summer nights to enjoy the weather and saving energy and reducing car accidents. I grew up changing the clocks, and it really never bothered me. If anything, I loved getting an extra hour to sleep in the fall guilt free.


Then I had kids.


But I lived in Arizona where, in my opinion, they have the sane practice of NOT changing the clocks. So part of the year they are on Mountain time and part of the year they are on Pacific time. I never felt like not having the longer light in the evening inhibited going out and enjoying the evening hours. In fact, being Arizona, it actually was still VERY warm when the sun went down and evening activities like a rousing game of night volleyball was much preferred to sweating in the sunlight.


Now that we have moved to Iowa, we had to change our clocks. But guess what...the kids still get up at the same time. And it's not like you can blame them. They have always been pretty consistent about what time they wake up regardless of what time they go to bed. We could put them to bed at 6pm or 11pm and they still wake up between 6 - 6:30 in the morning. So now we have the joy of getting up at 5 - 5:30 in the morning. They normally go to bed at 7 (once the sun started going down earlier again) so the first night they made it til 6:30 and last night it was 7 again. But poor Trinity was about asleep on her feet by the time we took her up to bed. I am hoping though that it will help them adjust to the time change by trying to be consistent.


That brings up the other annoying fact. It's hard enough to get the kids to go to bed at a reasonable hour with longer summer days anyway - throw in the extra hour you get with daylight saving time and it just adds to the frustration of trying to convince a toddler it really is time for bed.


All of this to say, I am decidedly against the concept now, to the point that I may look into trying to go the political route of getting our state to eliminate it.


On to other news in our life. Here are some headlines of the latest news in our home:


LUCKY THE DOG FINDS NEW HOME

You heard it right folks. Lucky now resides with a single woman who has a doberman named Jack that needed a friend. He has a yard with a 7' high fence, so no escaping, and he gets to sleep in bed with his new owner. He is a happy dog and our neighbors are happy they don't have Lucky showing up at their homes all the time.


TRINITY HAS A DRY NIGHT

Sunday night was Trinity's first night not to wet her pull-up over night. Congratulations, sweetie! May there be many more to come very soon. :)


CALVARY CHAPEL WINS IN THE LONG RUN

We have decided to make Heartland Christian Fellowship our new church home. They are in transition with the current pastor leaving next Spring for New Mexico. The incoming pastor has just started co-teaching. We really like him and the people we have met there. Trinity seems to really like it too. Coming home from church on Sunday, she was singing all the way home about Jesus "knock, knock, knocking" on her heart.


BUS DRIVING ON HOLD

We made the decision to hold off on driving the school bus for now. As much as we need the money, we couldn't figure out an easy way to secure Angelina in the school bus and also thought it would be a good idea to get one winter under our belt before being obligated to drag the kids out twice a day no matter the weather.


COLD WEATHER IS HERE

It was in the 20's overnight not including the windchill...and it was very windy. We loved hearing the wind howling through the trees as we were snuggled in our warm home. We actually broke out the comforter for our bed last night. :) David is loving the weather and is actually putting on a jacket now. I'll let you know when he gets cold enough to wear his winter coat!


PRAYER REQUESTS

David has asked for a raise from his boss. He has also applied for a job with the city of Des Moines and has a couple other potential job leads. If he doesn't get a raise, then I am going to try and get a job at the mall for the Christmas retail season, working nights and weekends. - please pray for God to provide the right opportunity for both of us


My mom is getting close to the end of her chemotherapy. - please pray that the chemo has done its job of killing off the cancer


PICTURE OF THE GIRLS

This is a picture we took for my step-sister Katy who celebrated her birthday on November 1st.



That's all the news for now.
Grace and peace be with you!


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