Ponytails, Playdates and more new toys! That's what THIS little girl is made of!

I know I just posted a week ago, but we have had a terrific week of photo opportunities to share with our friends and family! Jesstine is such a joy. I know that the saying is "sugar and spice and everything nice," but to fit our week the title above is more appropriate! See the pictures for further details!

Okay, so I know it looks like she has no hair most of the time. This is my proof that she has a tail in the back! It isn't too long, but it is certainly progress. Yes, that is an Elmo toy beside her!
We have recently been playing with a little girl that we met through a friend at church. Meet Vivi. As you can tell, her and Jesstine look NOTHING alike! They are very close in age though and LOVE each other's toys!

After they played, it seemed like a great day for a walk. So we loaded them up in Jesstine's chariot! It gave me a chance to see what it would be like to have two kids in the bike trailer at once! Vivi wasn't quite sure about this. The book in her lap helped though! No, we didn't do that to her eye. She fell a week ago! Still getting the hang of walking!

Now on to our toys! Jesstine has had this since her birthday, but never showed much interest in it. Lately, I showed her that it converted into a car. Now she LOVES it! She feels a sense of accomplishment by being able to climb onto ride on toys and then back off of them again!

I think she got stuck and is trying to figure out how to get away from the TV. She has mastered the art of going backwards, but forward is yet to come!

She decided that Dumpty would be a great passenger! It is a good thing she is a pillow and used to being squished! That does NOT look comfortable!

And last but not least. This is our latest addition to our toys. Jesstine LOVES to swing! I have tried to take advantage of this great weather and walk to the park almost daily. It is hard to do when I work on my feet all day sometimes. Mom comes over and watches Jesstine on Wednesday mornings while I work. I thought it would be nice for her to enjoy the great weather with Jesstine as well. I also thought it may be too cold to walk all the way to the park and swing this winter. But, if we had a swing of our own, we could enjoy it here at home for those days that we can't make it to the park. I had seen these in the store, but wasn't trilled about the color. It is okay for a girl to ride in a blue swing, but a boy in a pink swing (if we have a boy in the future if we even have another child someday). Also, if you know me, I really didn't even tolerate pink until my first child was born! I decided it didn't matter! So, here it is! Stephen kindly installed some hooks for us in two places so we have the option to change the scenery. Jesstine also thought it would be nice to invite her favorite neighbor boys over to show it to them. (Jesstine has fallen in love with our new neighbor boys Brandon, 11, and Ryan, 8, and LOVES to have them go to the park with us! They really are such sweet boys! There aren't a lot of those around anymore, especially on our cul-de-sac!

God bless all of you!

Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

Latest in Jesstine's World

I was looking back at my blog and noticed it has been a while since I posted pictures of Jesstine! She IS 13 months old now! It is hard to believe! She is still not walking, but she loves pushing stuff around. She can crawl up and down the stairs. She has also recently taken an in video games! Although she only seems to want to play the controller that Mommy has! She is such a beautiful smart girl and I am reminded everyday how blessed I am to have her in my life. She laughs like Elmo on purpose! She grunts like me when she hears me grunt out of frustration (I noticed that my sister and my mom do this too). She is using inflection in her voice even if it is nonsense sounds. She is really excited about dogs and lots of other animals. It is just so fun to see what new things she does each day! Here are a few pictures that we have taken in the last month!

In case you didn't click the link to Stephen's NFL preview, here are the pictures of the beautiful girl that he included! These were actually difficult pictures to get!

This little outfit was a hand-me-down from Jesstine's cousin Lexi! It is SO cute. This picture doesn't do it justice! Thanks Grace for loaning it to us!

She still LOVES Sesame Street. Here she is watching Sesame Street in her Elmo chair!

As you can see, she is a MESS when she eats (much like most kids her age I am sure). I have started to introduce silverware to her in hopes she will soon learn how to use it. She sometimes tries it and other times she sticks the spoon or fork on the food and picks the food up with her fingers to put it in her mouth! It will come sooner or later! Oh, and notice that her utensil is in her left hand. We are really thinking she may be left sided. She seems to lead with her left foot and hand in everything she does! I know some people say that time will tell, and it will. I am excited to see if that will stay true! Stephen's got a left handed grandparent or great grandparent. I have a left handed sister and an uncle who was left handed but was forced to switch when he became school aged.

Yes, that is a Nintendo 64 controller you see in my hands. We are playing Mario Kart 64. It is so exciting!

I have been searching for a girly, cute Cowboys outfit for Jesstine since she recently outgrew her last one. I have really had a lot of trouble! Either I can't find one in her size or they are not seasonally appropriate. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but I hopped on etsy and was able to find one very quickly! It is SO cute and I love it! I have recently asked the seller if she would be able to make a long sleeved shirt so I can continue to let her wear it in the winter. We will have to see how that goes!

We were wondering when the music gene would hit. It seemed to hit her sister in the womb, but not Jesstine. As of late, she is fascinated with the piano and LOVES to dance and clap to music! I am so excited! We will see where that takes her!

Oh, and she (like her cousin Noah before her, see below) likes to try new and exciting ways to play the keyboard as well.

Wow, notice the uncanny resemblance in the profile of these two cousins too!!!!

As always, we hope you are all doing well!

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

Esther-It's Tough Being a Woman

Well, I have been in need of some spiritual food for quite some time. It has been almost a year since I actually got to attend a class on Wednesday nights at church. We have tried to goose Jesstine a long to get her to stay up that late and it always ends up being such a fight! So for the most part, we eat dinner at church then Jesstine and I would come home and commence the bath time/bedtime routine. Well, last night was the beginning of the Beth Moore series for the women at church. I made it very clear to Stephen that I will be taking this class one way or another. The nice thing is that the format is such that they discuss first and show the video last. It also starts WAY earlier than the other classes. It starts at 6:30. Now, we will have to make sure we are there in enough time to eat, but I think that is manageable. My plan is to come and eat, discuss things in the discussion part and then head home. Then later in the week I will borrow the video to view at home! We will see how that works! Regardless, it is nice to finally do something for myself! I am not saying that I haven't had times when I have been able to do things for myself. I just haven't had much of an opportunity to do something for my SPIRITUAL self!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

NFL 2009

Well, it is that time of year again. Time for another football season. I kind of like this time of year and kind of don't. I like it because since I met Stephen, I actually began to understand football and enjoy it....a little. I will certainly root for the right team. If you don't know who that is, shame on you! I kind of don't like it because that means that my husband has always got fantasy football and his team on his mind!!! It is better since we now have DVR. We used to rush home from church each week to watch the game. If it wasn't on TV, we would camp out at the nearest sports bar just to see it! That was when the hadn't passed the smoking ban in public places!!!! Now, we not only have DVR, we also have the NFL network. 99% of the time his team is on.

You are probably wondering why I keep referring to them as "his team." Well, I am about to post a link for you to look at. I am keeping with his theme of appearing to have an objective opinion by not mentioning the team that we truly support! So, on to the real reason behind this post! For the last 20 years, my wonderful husband has loved football so much, he has written his own football preview. It has become increasingly difficult over the past few years to get it accomplished. It has also evolved from what I understand. If you don't know what a football preview is, it is a preview of projections that someone (or several people in the case of the magazine versions) puts out each year for the upcoming football season. Most have a rundown of each team and even some of the players. It is a big job to say the least! Most of them also include cheesy pictures of the collaborators in some form and of course pretty girls. I was featured in one a couple of years ago. My place has been taken by an even prettier girl for the last two years!

So, you may be thinking, "I don't even LIKE football!" or "Why do I care what Steve thinks about how my team will do this year?!" (Sorry honey, they might be thinking that.) If you don't get anything out of the content itself, you will at least be able to see a few cute pictures of Jesstine and some cheesy ones of Stephen. So click HERE and take a look! If that doesn't work, copy and paste this into your address bar: http://home.swbell.net/captsah/nflpreview.

Oh, and in case you can't see, the new background on this blog is supposed to have Elmo on it. If you don't see Elmo, sorry! It will probably just have a blue background! Maybe try it on another computer to see if that works!

As always, we hope you are doing well!

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine