Happy Thanksgiving!

It is hard to believe it, but another Thanksgiving has come and gone! This year was very fun!! We don't normally travel for Thanksgiving! We usually are the ones smoking the turkey and hosting at our place. This year we were invited to spend the holiday with Stephen's uncle, Jim and aunt, Susan in Bartlesville, Ok. We had so much fun! They have such a BEAUTIFUL home! We had good food and great company! Jesstine was a good traveler as well! She really liked Uncle Jim and Aunt Susan! There were times I thought she liked Aunt Susan more than she liked her mommy!!! We were having SUCH a good time, we failed to take many pictures! When I found a Kodak moment, all I had was my phone! Those don't always turn out the best! The day after Thanksgiving Day, we went to Stephen's brother's house to spend some time with them! Oh, and Jesstine and I were blessed to have Stephen home ALL week this week! Here is a little glimpse into our world in the days leading up to Thanksgiving and on the actual day itself!

Here is a little photo of Jesstine eating a sucker! She was upset when I wouldn't let her roam around with it. She ended up getting it taken away. Yes, I am a paranoid mom! I also didn't want to clean sticky off of her clothing, so she wore a bib as she hate it too!

Here she is reading the "paper." It is actually the church bulletin.

As I said before, we usually host Thanksgiving at our house. We still had to get some smoked turkey into our plans, so on Tuesday night, my family came over and enjoyed some wonderful smoked turkey and the traditional Thanksgiving fixins. Here Jesstine and Grandma (my mom) are enjoying a little RandR while we await the smoked turkey!

Here is Jesstine chillaxing with her Uncle Greg (my brother). Notice she is wearing her "pretties."

This is our favorite time every day! We get to cuddle as a family each morning! This particular morning, Jesstine woke up and I brought her to our bed as usual. She actually slept on my chest for another 15 mins. or so! She hasn't done that since she was an infant! Mommy didn't mind!!!

A couple of days later, we couldn't leave Daddy out!

This is Jesstine with Aunt Susan! Susan was so much fun to play with! She chased Jesstine, Noah, and Ian around the back yard. She took us all for a walk to the duck pond. She was just SO much fun! Jesstine LOVED giving her hugs!

Yes, they had a Wii! Yes, I HAD to play the Wii!! As you will notice, my little protege', Jesstine, had to join me!

(Photo work by SAH on this one)

Here are my WONDERFUL nephews, (RtoL) Ian, Connor (in the car), and Noah.

I was reminded many times this year that I am so thankful to have the life that I have! Even in times when I am not having the best day, I remind myself that these moments make it all worth while! I am SO thankful for such a wonderful family God gave me by birth and by marriage! God is GOOD! That is all that needs to be said!

We hope all of you had a terrific holiday! May God continue to bless you!

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

Misc.

This is kind of a hodge podge of pictures. I had to clear off some pictures from this week's visit to my sister's house and noticed I hadn't pulled off some really cute ones from a while back!

This is a picture from when my big brother came up to visit! Jesstine thought he was so cool! She even cuddled up to him for a picture or two! I put this one in black and white because it made it so precious! We miss you Uncle Billie!

This picture was taken on one of the few actual cold days that we have had this fall! Jesstine and I were on our way to her first parade! Daddy was in KC with Uncle Seth for a Cowboy's football game, so us girls had some fun of our own! I LOVE this picture! She looks so beautiful!

This is a picture of Jesstine at my mom's houst. She is so proud of herself! She is sitting in a rocking chair that my grandfather sat in when he was a little boy! She is getting to be such a big girl and it was so neat to see this heirloom being passed down and to think that my daughter is sitting in the same chair my grandpa, mom, and myself sat in as small children!

Now on to the next set of pictures. As I mentioned my mom, Jesstine and I took a road trip to see my older sister and family this week! My sister had just celebrated her birthday and we thought it would be good to go down and wish her a happy birthday in person! While we were there, her MOPS group was doing a fundraiser to support all of their functions for the rest of the year. They had a photographer come in and do "old timey" pictures. We thought it would be neat to get all of the girls together to do it! It was SO much fun! We had some waiting time after we got the three girls dressed and so I tried my own hand at the "old timey" photography with my camera phone. I got a couple of good shots! The other pictures are just from the playtime that the kids all had! These girls are going to be trouble someday! Charis and Jesstine are just starting to realize that they are the same height and age. They are really starting to notice each other and play more. There were several times when they would stand face to face and poke each other almost as if to see if the other was real or not! It was so sweet! I got a picture of them hugging as we were leaving, but it is so blurry, it doesn't do the moment justice! Without further adieu, here are the pictures!

This was the original shot that I took of Jesstine in her "old timey" dress. Grace bought a set of pearls that magnetically clasp in the back. Jesstine thought they were so much fun! She wore them for the entire time we were doing photos. It worked because it fit the setting well.

Here is the shot in a sepia tone and zoomed in. The blurriness almost makes it more "old timey!" It is now the wallpaper on my phone! She reminds me of my mom in this picture!

Here she is strutting her stuff and showing she can walk! She had a good time just walking from place to place just showing she could do it! It also made for a cute picture albeit blurry!

Uncle Murray thought it would be fun to put a cheesehead on Jesstine and rub it in Daddy's face! The Cowboy's (Stephen's favorite NFL team) and the Packers (Murray's favorite) play on Sunday this week! Notice Jesstine is trying really hard to push it off of her head!!!!

Here are just a few pictures of the girls (Alexis 3, Jesstine 15 months, and Charis 13.5 months) playing! This vehicle didn't have a working battery, so it didn't move. They had fun climbing in it together though!

As always we pray that all is well and thank you for stopping by to see what Jesstine is up to!

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

Girl after Daddy's own heart!

The pictures say it all!!!

Goodbye Shadow!

Last week was a terrible week for us as far as mechanical things went! On Tuesday, I started the dishwasher and it didn't do anything! It has been really loud for a while now. I guess we now know why! So, we had to buy a new dishwasher. The bad thing was that I had planned to go out that same day to get a Wii so I could get WiiFitPlus to lose a little more weight before having surgery in December. Needless to say, I didn't get my Wii! We did some research and couldn't find anything that would last a long time without spending a LOT of money. We went with a Bosch by the recommendation of the repair guy. We went to look at dishwashers on Tuesday and ordered it on Wednesday. Then Thursday when I was picking up Jesstine after I worked, I got a call from Stephen saying that his car wouldn't start. So, Jesstine and I went to pick him up. It was really cold the next day, so we decided to let it sit for a day and see if it would start when it warmed up on Saturday. No luck. We left it over the weekend and Stephen tried to start it again on Monday. Still no luck, so he had it towed. Just after lunch, he phoned to tell me that it was bad news. It turns out the fuel pump was going out. We then started our car search. We had talked about it all weekend and decided that we would either get a cheep car for him to take to work, a nicer car that would last him a while to take him to work but would double as a family car if needed, or just go all out and get a bigger family car that I would drive and he would drive my current car. After doing research and discussing it, we decided upon the third option. The search began. On Tuesday we stopped by CarMax and checked out a few possibilities narrowing it down to two. We had also seen a used minivan at another dealership with very little miles. We decided to go and check that out as well. We LOVED it! We decided to go talk to our bank to get some financing. After doing so, we went on Thursday to haggle. They wouldn't budge past $450 on the van! We walked out to look at the other two options at CarMax. We started walking toward the one we had in mind to test drive and beside it was a similar van that had just come in. We decided to look at it first because we liked the color better! Little did we know, we had hit the jackpot! It turned out to be what we were looking for and more! Just to make sure, we test drove it and the other car we had in mind (which was identical to the car we tried to haggle on at the other dealership). So, we came home with this:

Already has the Cowboys tag and a WSU decal!

It is a Chrysler Town and Country Touring Special Edition. It has a dark blue exterior color and a gray interior. The seats are all leather with the front seats being electric and heated. It has a DVD player with a 6 disc changer. It has power sliding doors and tailgate. It essentially has all of the bells and whistles. We were willing to give up all of the bells and whistles on our first choice if the price were right. For the same price we were willing to pay for that one, we got this one WITH the bells and whistles! We unfortunately have already had our first mishap. Just bad luck I guess. On the way home from the dealership, it was hit by a large rock and the windshield was damaged.

Stephen's car, affectionately named Shadow, was able to give us one last little benefit though. CarMax was able to give us $500 to trade Shadow in.

This post is dedicated to the memory of a car that had a good long life! Stephen will miss you Shadow! Welcome to the family Blue!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

P.S. If you are ever in need of a used car, check out CarMax! We had great service there! They are honest, efficient and easy to work with! It was a very smooth car buying experience. They even take care of the registration for you!!!! If you live in Wichita, Neal is a good salesman to work with! He is also a childhood friend. It isn't very often that you can walk into a dealership and hug your car salesman! It isn't very often that I don't have to spell my name out for someone! I still think it would have been a pleasant experience with out knowing him. Check out CarMax!

Trick-or-Treat!

I didn't think that I would be doing much for Halloween this year. Jesstine is only 14 months old and can't really eat much of the candy given out. I tried hard to find a simple costume that didn't cost too much. Stephen is not a big fan of Halloween, so I didn't feel right spending a lot of money on a costume for her especially since she is too young to really care....or so I THOUGHT! This kid (like most) LOVES candy! It quickly became apparent that she really liked getting dressed up and getting candy from people so she could put it in her bucket. It also quickly became apparent that I wasn't going to get many good pictures of her because she is SO wiggly! Here is what we came up with. She was as cute as a bug!

This was right before our first Trick-or-Treat event. When I was a kid, we went trick-or-treating ON Halloween. Not several times the week of Halloween! Well, I guess it is kind of a good thing that we had more than one opportunity since her costume was so cute! She decided to read a little before we left.

More reading.

Our first activity was with the Maize Parents As Teachers (PAT) group. We went to a local (3 mins. from our house) nursing home for some storytime, singing, and of course candy! The residents handed out candy after the stories and singing. This is her friend Remi. I think she is 2. We see her in music class each week.

Listening to a story.

My mom graciously watched Jesstine a LOT this week while we were trying to find a vehicle to replace Stephen's car (see later post). Jesstine picked out a thank you balloon for her. I think Jesstine liked it so much that Mom left it for Jesstine. We found a fun way to put it on her push toy. She wouldn't stand still in the Ladybug costume, but she is a ham in this picture.

She has really improved on her walking. It looks so effortless behind this toy! She had so much fun with that balloon!

This was taken at our church's trunk-or-treat. She had recently finished some chocolate. The necklace was a treat from one of the trunks that was decorated as a treasure chest. Can you tell she liked all of the hubbub?

Yes, that is a roll of toilet paper in my dad's hands! My folks had a fake outhouse in the back of their truck. The kids had to throw a roll of toilet paper (do a trick) to get their treats. No doubt one of the best pictures of the evening!

That is until we got this one. It would look pretty common place if Jesstine were a REAL ladybug! Such a cute picture! A good conversation piece for when boys try to date her!

After the church event, we decided to hit a few houses on the cul-de-sac. The next day was daylight savings time, so we tried to stretch her bedtime to try and adjust it to take care of the time change. This is one of our beloved neighbors! They have made it to Jesstine's birthday and have been SO supportive and loving to Jesstine. The little boy is a little guy that they adopted and has autism. He is so sweet! This was right before he asked Jesstine, "Do you know my name?" It was so cute!

This was the last house we went to. Just a really cute photo opportunity! I had to call out to Stephen to get a picture.

Overall it was a fun holiday for a girl who really could care less about Halloween! She was such a trooper all week while Mommy and Daddy were car shopping. I think she was just so happy to be spending time with us for a while without interruptions.

Be looking for the car post next!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

Walking Tall!

Well, we reached a milestone at the end of last week. Jesstine now walks on a daily basis. Several times a day in fact! She still prefers crawling as her main mode of transportation, but she will at least try to walk first. She can take at least 8 steps at one time. She is just growing so fast! Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks and some captions to go with them!

So, before it got REALLY cold out, Jesstine and I spent a lot of time using her chariot (otherwise known as the bike trailer). We were getting ready to go out for a ride one day and she decided that she needed to look pretty. She tried as hard as she could to put her bracelet on, so I helped her. Then she tried to put her hat on. I helped her with that too! This was her bike riding attire for that day!

Humm, I don't remember leaving the bathroom like this. I usually don't have to worry about letting her loose in the bathroom. This day was different. When Daddy went to get her bath ready, this is what he found.

She confessed rather quickly! People keep saying that I don't REALLY want her to walk because she will be into everything! HA! She is so tall and was so mobile before she started walking. It didn't matter. She was STILL into everything! It is fun though!

Her new favorite game! She is tall enough and has learned to climb enough that she has discovered every child's favorite toy: a laundry basket!!! This one is on wheels.

Here she is with yet ANOTHER laundry basket (or in this case two). Hike that leg up there!

She made it!

And of course, there is the toy basket too! She discovered toys that she hadn't played with in a long time. They are now ALL on the floor waiting for Mommy to pick them up!

My sister gave me the idea to get bells for Jesstine's shoes since she has started walking now. When my niece started walking, my sister got some and she was proficient at walking not to much later. So, I thought I would give it a try! She loves them! She still can't figure out what makes the sound. She tries to pull them off, but luckily they are constructed so that she hasn't been successful yet! I don't even have to untie her shoes to put them on. They are great! We will see how long it takes her to be proficient now!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

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