Daddy's Vacation

Daddy's on vacation this week, so what do you think we have done? Well, we went to his work and worked for an hour and a half! Well, Jesstine mostly played with a nice girl who was there! Here are a few pictures from that day. Jesstine was in most of the pictures that Stephen had access to off of his work drive! LOL! She was (is) so darn cute!!

Getting our volunteer gear.

Getting suited up!

Getting instructions and listening intently.

"Humm, whatcha guys doin'?"

I could barely get away from her! She wanted to be in the thick of the action (or just be with Mommy).

Can you tell that she enjoyed the attention?

She found a buddy to play with!

"Go away! I'm busy!"

We have had a lot of fun with Daddy home this week. We have done a lot and we have done a lot of nothing. Daddy has been watching a LOT of soccer! None of us have been getting much sleep! We have had VBS at church from Sunday through Wednesday. Jesstine was very happy about her "pink pupcakes" at VBS. She has requested them for her birthday, "pink pincess pupcakes!!" Any of you who know me well enough know that until I had two girls, this would NEVER have been in my vocabulary! Not a fan of pink....unless it is on my girl! We have also done some swimming. Tomorrow will be Date Day!!!! WOO HOO!! Jesstine gets to spend some time with Grandmom while we enjoy a grown up movie, Toy Story 3!!!

Hope all you are doing well! We will be (hopefully) enjoying the rest of Stephen's vacation by allowing him to grill at some point!

In Him,

Lacie

"I Wok Een Mamma's Sooze!!"

Water Play!

Today our plans to meet up with our friends after nap were foiled. So instead, I got Jesstine's pool out and let her play in it. We also got a sprinkler last fall from our good friends Kara and Johnna. I hooked that up too thinking that Stephen wouldn't mind me watering the grass a little being that it was starting to look a little brown! When he got home, he joined in on the fun! It also gave me a chance to prune the already over grown tree in the front and weed the flowerbeds. Here are some pictures of our water play fun! Below them are pictures from last year!

No water play time would be complete without Elmo!!!

And I thought this mat was small last year!!!

Daddy even came home and ran in the sprinkler with me.

Circa June of last year (Jesstine 10 months):

One of my FAVORITE Jesstine pictures! Thus my reason for adding it to the top of this blog!

In Him,

Lacie

Fish

Normally I don't care for fish, but once again I find my heart warming to fish now that I have one of my own.

In Him,

Lacie

Letters and Colors

At just 20.5 months of age, we have a smart girl on our hands! She has really been absorbing a lot of information lately! She forms her own sentences using words and phrases she has learned from us. Perhaps the most astonishing thing to me is that a 20.5 month-old can learn letters and sounds of letters!!! Our little girl knows 13+ letters and of those she knows the sounds for 8 of them (I added the + because I am sure she knows the others, but she is not really forthcoming when I quiz her on them unless I do it at random times and even then I am not so sure). Here is a list of the letters our girl knows, the * marks the letters she knows the sounds for: B,E,G,I*,J*,L,M*,N*,O,P*,S*,T*,X*. (Note that all of the letters in her first name are included in this list!) No, this was not done by "brainwashing." I was given a DVD called LeapFrog: Letter Factory as a shower gift for Jesstine just after she was born. It is SO cool! She LOVES it! She asks for it on a daily basis and often more than one time a day! If you are trying to teach your son/daughter letters and/or sounds of letters, this is the way to go! She has only been watching it for a little over a week! She did know maybe 4-5 letters to begin with, but that is beside the point!

I am also proud to say that she knows at least 4-5 colors!

Next stop: Shapes!!!! Followed closely by complex Algebraic Equations!!! (Grandmom, Daddy or Uncle Seth, I may need your help on this one!!!)

So proud of my girl! I am SO amazed at what God has blessed me with in such a beautiful, fun, smart and sweet little girl. I guess this is somewhat a silver lining to the loss of Babe B. Jesstine can NEVER replace her and often times I grieve at what I get to experience with Jesstine that I didn't with Babe B. But I am SO thankful for Jesstine! She is such a joy!

In Him,
Lacie Hutchins

Conversations with a 21 month-old Who Thinks She is 4

Tonight I put Jesstine in bed just before 8. At around 8:20, she started to whimper (after a LOT of talking). I went in at about 8:25 and here is the conversation that followed:

Me: "What's the matter?"
J: "Hi Mama!!!! Bonked head."
Me: "Maybe if you were trying to go to sleep instead of playing you wouldn't have bonked your head. Lay down. It's time to go to sleep."
J: "Time to get up!!!!"
Me: "No, it is time to sleep."
J: "Already nap."
Me: "I know, but it is bedtime now. It is nighttime. I bet if you looked outside you would see the moon."
J: "Outside."
Me: "No, time to go to sleep."
J: "Gi up dogs! Time to get up! Go docks, go!"
Me: "No. Now it is night! Night is time for sleep. All the dogs go to sleep."
J: "Hi Mama!!!!"

At this point I quickly put her in bed, said goodnight and relayed the conversation to my husband and laughed a LOT!! Then I called my mother-in-love and told her about it!

It still amazes me how much Jesstine knows at this point! She is learning more letters and sounds of letters as well as her colors! She surprises me everyday! Is this normal or is she really almost 2 going on 4????

In Him,
Lacie

World Cup Ready

We are all officially ready for the World Cup to start in June! Stephen has purchased a jersey each year since he has been able to purchase one himself. So, when I came along, he bought me one too! This was the second time I was able to get one. I like this one a LOT! Unfortunately, they don't have them for kids smaller than a size 6. So, Jesstine only being a size 2T made things a little difficult. So, I made her one myself! The colors don't quite work because the transfer/iron-on paper was yellow. But here is what it looks like!

Oh and the 1 is because she is 1 and she can tell you/show you that now!

In Him,

Lacie