Conversations with Jayda

This might be my very favorite conversation I've had with Jayda yet:

She's watching me put on makeup...

Jayda: Mom, when I'm older, and my face is plain like yours, will I wear makeup too?

Me: Probably Jayda, do you want to wear makeup now?

Jayda: Nope, my face is still too fancy.

Updated, Finally!

What's this, it's not the same dang picture that you've been looking at since July! Hey, I know your frustration, I'm a blog stalker too. I do apologize for taking such a long break, I could go into all of my lame excuses for not having blogged for so long, but each is just as boring as the next. Long story short, I really wanted to have a book for 2009, seeing as I'm just finishing with my book for 2008, gosh I'm a slacker!

So, below this post are probably about three pages worth of slightly unorganized pictures and probably even more slightly unorganized explanations of said pictures. I'm sure you'll fill in the blanks. Don't feel in any way obligated to read it all, even I wanted to give up after the first five posts! Hope you enjoy, and hey, Happy Holidays!

Our Skyler

Skyler is pure curiosity and energy! He is such a fun little two year old with a great sense of humor. He loves to tease and surprise people, and is always pulling silly shenanigans. He is very attached to his sister Jayda and gets a bit sad when she's in preschool.

For a two year old, we've found Skyler to be quite a perfectionist and will work very hard and slow to get things just perfect, quite different from his big sister! His favorite thing in the world to play with right now are trains, and he has literally spent hours putting his tracks together and running his trains back and forth on them. He tends to get very upset when he can't get things set up exactly the way he likes.

Skyler is struggling a bit with his speech right now and is seeing a speech therapist to give him a little boost. The progress has been slow, but productive. He can put all the words together that he needs to, it's just not always easy to understand him. I think it's most frustrating to him, especially when he can't get his needs met right away.

Skyler loves to play at the gym and has been known to drag his mom there when she really didn't want to go (he's so good for my health!). He doesn't play much with other kids, but he does love to play and has become very content going just about anywhere to play. Skyler is a lot of fun and a total joy to have around. We love our Skyler!

Our Jayda

Turning four has really done wonders for Jayda. She's calmed down so much now that she's gained more independence and has outlets to express her energy and imagination. She is a great big sister and finds it very important to protect/terrorize/love her little brother. They are very cute when they play and Skyler is completely content to play along by her rules.

Jayda is such a girly girl and LOVES anything pink, sparkley and frilly. It's really funny to see her in primary in a sunbeam class made up entirely of boys, with little pink Jayda right in the middle. It doesn't stop her from sharing her love for all things princess, and the boys take it like good sports. She is convinced that her and her cousin Brannon are going to get married someday, but I'm working hard to teach her that they just don't allow that anymore.

She loves her preschool class with Miss Pat and Miss Joy. She's made some really good friends in there, one of whom she hugs every day when I pick her up. She is getting really good and learning her letters and numbers and has started spelling words. I can't wait to hear her read! She is very creative and is constantly coloring, drawing and writing "letters" to her friends. I never have envelopes!

Jayda has a big heart and is so sensitive to other peoples feelings as well as her own. She is always ready to entertain and impress, sometimes to a fault! We love our Jayda!

Ugly Sweater Party

A few weeks ago we went to an ugly sweater party hosted by the McGowans. It was so fun to pick out our sweaters and see what everyone else came in. We went for the old "church couple" look with ours, and Glenn was a (kind of, not really) good sport about wearing it. Games, good food, good company! A great time had by all, thanks McGowans!

Strausburg, PA

The day after Thanksgiving, we thought it would be a lot of fun to go to Strausburg, an old railroad town about an hour and a half away. Right now Sky is obsessed with trains and anything that goes "choo choo!" Originally we went with the mindset of riding the actual train, Santa was going to be on it that day, and it sounded so fun! But, at the last minute we decided not to, and that we would save it for another day, maybe in a year when Skyler is just a bit older to enjoy it more. We did get a glimpse of Santa though! We wandered the shops around the train station, listened to the carolers and ate some kettle corn, and then made our way to the museum. The train museum was so cool and the kids really loved it. I never thought I'd be so interested in trains, but they had models of trains throughout all the years and we got to peek into some of the luxurious diner cars and sleeper cars. It all hit me as very fun and romantic. The kids just thought it was dang cool. There was also a place for them to play with toy trains and look at models. We spent a lot of time there and definitely got our money's worth.

Afterward, we went to Cici's in Lancaster, our favorite pizza buffet in the world. It was so relaxing to sit there with the family and the kids were so good. It was a lovely day!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, hosted by the Matsons, along with our friends the Millers. There was so much delicious food, games, good company, pie, and gorging ourselves into oblivion. I think I might still be full from that meal! Thanks all for the wonderful and memorable turkey day!

Glenn is Twenty Eight, finally!

For the majority of the time, Glenn is younger than me. It's really not a big deal, but he loves to rib me about it. It is nice to be the same age, for a few months anyway. We had a nice quiet birthday with Glenn seeing as school occupied most of his time. The Friday before we enjoyed a lovely night out for dinner, and the night of his birthday had his requested dinner of meatloaf, baked potatoes and vegetables (he always complains that I make weird things for dinner, meat and potatoes for him!), and that night he got his favorite cake combo, black forest in trifle form. I sure don't know what I would do without this guy in my life, he's such a great husband and dad. Love you Glenn!

A Day in Jim Thorpe

Early in November, we were all feeling the desperate need to just get out of our house and do some exploring. I had been really wanting to go out to the Pocono's mountains since they were so close and check it out. My brother-in-law, who was staying with us at the time, suggested going to Jim Thorpe. So, we made a little itinerary and went to check it out. The town was very cute. We didn't get any pictures of the town itself, but it had all of the small, touristy shops that you'd expect to see, as well as a cool train station (Skyler heaven). We had lunch and got ice cream at a little ice cream shop. The best part of the day in my opinion though was going to a small lake park just outside the city. The kids honestly could have been content to just throw rocks in the lake all day, and the weather could not have been more beautiful. It was a very fun day, and the break we all really needed.





Jayda likes to pose for the camera, this is how she insisted I take her picture.

Oh how I love these two!

Halloween Weekend with the Simonsons

This year we spent our Halloween with our long time friends the Simonsons. It never ceases to blow my mind, Heather and I have been friends/sisters since we were twelve, and now we're taking our combined six kids trick-or-treating, insane!

In Catawissa, where they live, the big deal on Halloween is the parade, which means that trick-or-treating is done the night before. Kind of fun, two nights of festivities for the price of one. The kids had a lot of fun getting candy and looking at all the houses decorated really spooky.

The next day was spent lounging, watching the Tinkerbell movie, playing in the leaves, taking a walk along the river and watching the parade! We had a wonderful time and a very happy Halloween.

Preschool Halloween Party

Halloween is the holiday that just keeps on giving between school, church, friends and the actual holiday, it lasts forever! It's fun though, and it seems to get more fun the older my kids get. Jayda had a really cute Halloween party with her preschool class. They had a parade and sang some songs for us before they got to play games and eat lots of yummy foods. Isn't she a cute witch, I just can't believe how old she's getting!

Freddy Hill Farms

Now that we've lived here over a year, there are certain events over the year that I'm hoping remain traditions while we are living in Philly. Freddy Hill Farms is one of them. We went last year with Jayda's preschool, and had so much fun that I really wanted to make sure we went again. The weather could not have been more beautiful that day, and the company couldn't have been more fun. We got the perfect pumpkins, went through the maze and down the big slide, ate DELICIOUS ice cream and had a great time with friends. I can't wait to do it again next year!