Happy Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween from my Duck and my Ladybug.

 

Bell - the duck & Bean - the ladybug

the girls with Aunt Jill - the flapper :)

Aunt Jill with her very tough BEARS player :)

My nephew - the brave fireman

getting ready to go trick-or-treating

they're are just confused at this point :)

trick or treat!

"mommy, the smoke is going in my nose"

Bean, checking out her loot

Bell, going through her yummy candy

The girls really enjoyed trick-or-treating. They said "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" at every house. (sometimes even "happy halloween") Very cute!

My favorite quote of the night:
After visiting 3 houses, both girls are walking - looking into their baskets containing 3 pieces of candy - and both are exclaiming "a lot of candy!" "i have a lot of candy!"
I have a feeling their perception of "a lot" will change in Halloween celebrations of the future.

Happy Reformation Day

Here are a couple of pictures from our Reformation Day Celebration 

(which consisted of church and steak n shake - neither of which are actually in these pictures)

before the fun day really began 

Bailey and Bean

Bell

Bean

 

 

 

 

hats and scarfs and gloves - OH MY

Yesterday I got out the winter accessories tub. Who knew it would be so much fun!

 

Bean with mommy's hat and daddy's glove

Bell in mommy's hat

Bean with hat and scarves

Bell in daddy's hood

Bean with mommy's hat and daddy's glove

Bell with mommy's scarf

one small section of the aftermath

 That last picture is telling... i'm not sure if it says that i have 2 2year-olds, or way too many winter accessories.

playing with Jesus

Today, during dinner, the girls and I had a really amazing talk. At some point Darin was brought up and Bean said, "daddy in heaven playing with Jesus" I asked her what she said, and when she repeated it, she changed a word. She said, "Daddy in heaven, singing with Jesus". I went to get my video camera and asked her to repeat it. For some reason it was just a beautiful thing to hear.
We talked about how Daddy is in heaven with Jesus and how he's happy. We talked about how we miss Daddy, but that we're happy too, because Jesus loves us and promises to take care of us just like he's taking care of Daddy now.

They were actually participating in the discussion. At one point Bell asked me if we miss Jesus too. I ventured past the point of 2 year old understanding to explain how Jesus is everywhere, so we never have to miss Him. (i got blank stares on this part... but who can blame them, we adults don't get this either... i just got a little carried away)

I told them how when we pray it's like we're talking to Jesus and I asked them what they wanted to tell Jesus.
Bean: "I tell him I saw Grammy and Grampy & I go upstairs and go night night."
Bell: "Uncle Chris and Jennifer, he can talk to them. I eat some corn right now."
Bean: "I want to tell him that too" (that she was also eating corn)

As much as that made me laugh, inside of course, those little things ARE things Jesus cares about. He cares about those things because they matter to two of his most precious children. Just like he cares every time I tell him how much I miss Darin. He knows, better than anyone, how happy Darin is and how unnecessary it is for me to be anything but happy for him... but He cares that I hurt, that I miss him.

What an amazing Lord.

And on a lighter note...here are a few other "gems" from the girls today.

Bean: what you doing, mommy?
Me: putting on some music.
Bean: Oh! That a good idea, mommy.

Bean(while flushing) : go bye bye poopy, you stinky!

Bell was walking around with her eyes closed, running into things this afternoon. I asked her what she was doing. "Closing my eyes and walking"   oh. so glad i asked.

Bean (on her "cell phone") : Hi Grandad, how you doing today? pause This Bean, that Bell. pause. yeah, I hav'n good day. bye bye.

While telling the story of Zacchaeus (yet again), I pause at the "Zacchaeus, you come down" part where they usually fill in that phrase. Tonight, Bell said, "Zacchaeus, you come down. That's MY tree".  lol

WBW - Potty Training :Day 3.5

Way Back Wednesday:
again playing along with cheryl at www.twinfatuation.blogspot.com

halloween last year
salt (Bell)  and pepper (Bean)

 

Day 3.5 of potty training. It is 4:00 and we've had 0 accidents today!! Whooo hooo!!

we love triangles

We love triangles:
the instrument, not the shape

The following videos are of each of the girls doing their version of the ABC song while the other plays the triangle. 

Here's Bell's:

And Bean:

I was going to add two more with the girls each making up their own song., but blogger is taking forever to upload them, so I'll have to do it another time.
Bell's song was something about Cogan and two birds in the window.
Bean's 1st song was something about her name, her sister and their mommy named, Nikki.
Bean's 2nd song was about crawling into bed w/ daddy and then "we smack it". (i think she just wanted to hit the couch, so she worked it into the song)

**potty training update**
only three accidents total today! that's less than half of what we had yesterday. i consider that good progress. hopefully it goes well again tomorrow!

Just Trust Me

"Don't bite my finger, just trust me." - Bell to Bean as she was feeding her.


mommy, bailey needs some of her ???? - Bell
what? - Me
Bailey needs some of her ???? - Bell
Bailey needs what? - Me
her ???? - Bell
her what? - Me

a pause

her medicine. - Bell
OH! Her pills? - Me
yeah - Bell (very relieved)

I thought that was pretty smart. She found a different word to use so I would understand.


Bell

We started potty training today. Luckily, Grandma is here to help. This morning was a little rough. I had to change pants twice, grandma once, and the girls about 4 times each. (yes, they were on our laps...we're pretty good at the whole pee pee in the potty thing ourselves) Yesterday afternoon and this afternoon went really well, so tomorrow is a new day.

hoping for the best

Before falling asleep at nap time and tonight we heard this over and over from Bell:

"say MOMMY! if you have pee pee, mommy will take you. okaaaay? you put pee pee in the potty. Okaaaaay?" I guess that's a good sign.



Bean's Explanation

"I didn't mean to go upstairs. I was pretending." - Bean (while being escorted down the stairs)

Bean

song writing - bean style

So, here are some lyrics created and sung by my Bean. She was on the potty while creating. ( it's true, some people do their best work there)
And yes, I ran and got a pen while she was on the potty singing, in order to make sure to capture every word of her fabulous songs, which were sung with intense emotion.

"Oh my goodness
oh baby
what do
what do"

that was song number one and number two follows:

"my baby is
clappin
clappin
oh boom"

She may have a future as a songwriter. If so, i'll make sure to keep this so I can read it on her VH1 "Behind the Music" special.

Side note, "we" made cookies this morning. The pictures make it look like a great time. Let me assure you, while it started off happy enough, it ended with 2 - almost 3 - of us in tears. (mostly because the girls kept getting kicked out of the kitchen for throwing flour, hitting each other, or trying to open the oven.) YIKES, it'll be awhile before i attempt that again!

Bell

Bean with flour on her nose.

Bean playing in the flour...again

Bell - yay the cookies are all done! (can you tell she's been crying? 1/2 because she had to leave the kitchen a few minutes before for hitting her sister and 1/2 because she couldn't have a cookie right that second. oh boy :( )

Way Back Wednesday

Playing along with Cheryl at www.twinfatuation.blogspot.com 
Way-Back-Wednesday is reserved for special pictures from, well, way-back-when. :)

A flash back from October 2008. The girls on their first "walk"

Bell

Bean

 

They were just over 2 months old and were finally both home from the NIC-U.:)

"nap" time

i didn't give up though - they are both sleeping now

Happy 5th Birthday Bailey

I didn't want the day to go by without acknowledging Bailey's special day.

She is the sweetest and we love her very much!

This was taken just a few days ago... she was fast asleep.

The majority of my pictures of Bailey are some version of this one.
lots of love between these two

I think this was at Christmas a couple of years ago.



The girls first day home together.
Bailey's life has never been the same and although she takes a backseat to those girls, we love her dearly!

You Come Down!

Can you tell what our current favorite Bible story is?

In case you missed it, the jist of this video is "Zacchaeus, you come down!!!!"

Bell is on the left and Bean on the right.

Oktoberfest 2010

A huge thank you to St. Paul, who hosted the Oktoberfest and are donating the proceeds to the trust fund for the girls. St. John canceled their Oktoberfest so that they could be there to support us as well. What a blessing. What a wonderful Lutheran family we have. God has truly blessed our family and Darin certainly made an impression on this world and continues to do so.
We had a wonderful time, but I didn't take my camera. Here are a few pictures of the girls from last night before we left.

Bean on the left and Bell on the right:

Thanks to Grandma Susie for these adorable outfits! They loved the purses!

Pumpkin Farm 2010

We had a wonderful morning out at the pumpkin farm! The girls enjoyed being outside and seeing the animals. I enjoyed time with friends.
Here are a few pictures. (I took about 100, but here a are a few)

Hooray for Dora!

Bean is saying to Bell, "does she really expect us to believe this is elmo?"

thanks for all your help, kim

hey look, i made it onto my own blog!

holy pumpkins, batman!

 Favorite quote:
me: So girls, what did you do today at the pumpkin farm (asked in the car as we're pulling out of the parking lot of the pumpkin farm)
Both girls: we drink JUICE!!
 they got little juice boxes of "undiluted juice"... they're so deprived... the juice over-shadowed the entire experience. lol. next time when i want to give them a memorable experience, we'll just hang out in the back yard and drink juice. :)

Bell

Bean

my girls were eaten by a two-tooth pumpkin. they enjoyed this as much as anything. they just kept running in and out.

yep, camels... at a pumpkin farm. who knew?

Anyone know about the whole camels and number of humps thing? One of the camels had two humps and the others had one. I remembering hearing something significant about the number of humps a camel has, but I don't remember what it is.


Another post about the wonderful Oktoberfest at St.Paul will be coming shortly. Maybe tomorrow.