Rachel's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Rachel's 2nd birthday (her first with us) today! She had a great time opening gifts and eating cake and ice cream. She had her very first birthday cake today. We celebrated with a lot of family and everyone had a great time.

The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

~ Psalm 103:13

Our Little Blender

A two-year-old is kind of like having a blender...but you don't have a top for it.

*Jerry Seinfeld

We have started referring to Rachel as our little blender. She is very active and into everything. She definitely keeps us on our toes. She is all smiles and very happy but she is also full of energy and wants to do things that she shouldn't be doing. We can't relax for a minute with her. The other day I was going through the mail and she wanted to look at it so I gave her the Kohl's ad while I looked at the mail. She started patting my leg and saying Momma so I looked to see what she was pointing at. She was pointing at a picture of a blender and after looking at it closer we saw that it was called a "Ninja blender". This really made us laugh because it was just so appropriate for her so I guess from now on we will just call her our little Ninja blender.

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?

~ Isaiah 43:19

First Day of School

Leah started kindergarten yesterday. We decided to go ahead and put her in kindergarten since they have an English language teacher there that can help her with her English. We weren't sure how she would do. We took her a couple of times before school started to meet her teacher and to see the school. She didn't look happy about the idea and even saw a few tears while we were looking at the school. We showed her everything so that she would understand what she needed to do and the English language teacher said she would spend the first couple of days with her to help her out. She talked about school and her teacher for several days before school and seemed very excited about it. When the day finally came she happily skipped to the car and was all smiles but when the time came for the teacher to take her to her room the tears came back. The last I saw of her she was walking down the hall with tears in her eyes. After going all day without a phone call we figured she must be doing okay. When she finally came home she was full of smiles and was telling us about her day. She was very excited and had a lot to say. Up until this point she would only say a word at a time and do a lot of pointing. When telling us about school she starting use more sentences and saying a lot more words. When I asked her if she liked her pizza she said yes and then told me she had a cookie and it was yummy. I asked her if it was chocolate and she told me about her drink. We realized that she had chocolate milk and was very excited about it since she had never had it before. She has told me many times about her chocolate milk when talking about school. When she came home from school today the teacher said she had a great day and she was laughing. She has been talking nonstop since she got home today. School has definitely opened her up and helped her a great deal even after two days. We think she will be talking in full sentences very soon. It was a very good decision.

You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done.

~ Psalm 92:4

Vacation

We had a really great time on vacation in Colorado Springs last week. Leah and Rachel did really well on the trip. We visited Focus on the Family, Compassion International, Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge and drove to the top of Pike's Peak. That resulted in new brakes for our truck but that's okay we needed them anyway. We had a wonderful time seeing the beauty of God's creation. It was a great break before everyone heads back to school. Leah will be starting kindergarten next week. Hopefully that will go well. She has been talking a lot about her school. They will have a teacher helping her to learn English so that is an added benefit. Leah has been doing really well that last 2 or 3 weeks so we are hopeful that this will go well.

Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy.

~ Psalm 100:2