Paci Free

It is truly hard to believe, but our household is paci free!  Parker -- completely out of the blue -- chose to give up his pacis on Friday.  I wasn't sure I was ready for this big milestone, but he was...so we followed his lead.  He got to go to Kohls and pick out a Pillow Pet (like Sissy did when she gave hers up).  And he hasn't looked back!  Amazing! 

(I do find it somewhat amusing that both kids gave up their pacis in the same calendar year, in spite of the 2.9 years difference in ages!)  Ha!

Fun Times with New Friends

T-U-R-N-E-R

A couple of tidbits about my sweet firstborn:

Cute:
We had Thomas' boss to supper the other night, and Turner begged me to include "brown spotted beans" on the menu.  (aka black eyed peas!) 

Sweet:
We were talking about the story of Moses in the car on the way to school this morning.  I was saying, "Moses did some big things for God!  He even had to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let his people go."  I told her I'd probably be afraid to do that.  She quickly said, "I wouldn't.  Moses had God on his side.  He had nothing to be afraid of, Mom!" 

...if only I could remember that!!!

Innocent:
We have a VERY competitive soccer team here in SoCal.  It's driven by the parents and is quite frankly way over the top!  Thomas and I try to laugh about it, and since he's an assistant coach, he tries to influence the girls the best he can.  Anyway, their team -- The Pink Strikers -- is undefeated, and many of the parents know the exact scores of every game so far and can rattle them off.  I have no idea. 

What I DO know, is that this past Saturday, three neat things happened: 
1.  A little girl on the opposing team tripped and fell pretty hard.  Turner ran across the field to check on her and help her up! (we were more proud of that than Turner's goals!). 

2.  A little girl who was benched during the third quarter with Turner was complaining that their team was falling behind and that if she didn't get back in, they might lose.  Turner said, "Gabby, don't you know that it's not about winning, it's about having fun!  Don't worry." 

3.  When one of the girls asked Turner the score of the game, she turned the girl around and looked at her jersey (she was #9), and Turner said, "You're 9, and I'm 5!" 

Love it!  And her!!!

Show and Tell

Turner had her first "Show and Tell" on Friday.  In her class, Show and Tell works like this:  She has to find an object and place it in a brown paper bag.  On the bag, she has to write three clues.  Then, the class tries to guess what she brought.  It's fun! 

Here was her first one...can you guess what it was???

TA DA!

Cousin Fun!

We had so much fun visiting with our cousin, Lauren, this weekend!  She lives in L.A. and drove down to play and have supper.  It was nice to see some family and catch up on all the neat things she is doing.  The kids loved hanging out with her!!!

(And, yes, Parker IS in a princess dress, playing horses.  But, the spade in his right hand is a "scary weapon!!!"  So, there is hope! :) )

Concessions, Anyone?

#999 on the list of the fun things you can do with moving boxes:  Make a concession stand for daddy's football games!!!  Can we take your order???

Thank you, OC Fire Dept!

We took the kids to the Orange County FD unit that responded to our accident last Saturday.  The guys who came made all the difference to us and did an amazing job calming everyone down and making the accident a more positive experience for the kids. 

So...we wanted to express our gratitude.  We made thank you cards for them and took them Chick-fil-A!  The firemen were so happy to see us and gave the kids a big tour of the trucks, equipment, etc.  Turner even got to pretend to drive it!  

We are blessed to have such kind men and women who risk their lives on a daily basis for those they serve!