Selah's Sayings 1.1

The girl just makes me laugh.  Here are a couple of things from this past week.

Mommy:  Selah, what should we do while Sofia is at school?

Selah:  (whispering into my ear)  Let's eat CANDY!!!

Selah playing with Isaiah's toes:

"One little piggy bank.  Two little piggy bank.  Three...."

First first day.

Today was Sofia's first day of Kindergarten.  And being that she has never attended school before, this was her first first day of school.  Sofia would notably point out when hearing a "Back to School" commercial that she wasn't going back to school, she was "just going to school".

Sofia has afternoon Kindergarten but this didn't stop her from getting up earlier than normal.  She was so excited to go to school.  We started the day with a breakfast of pancakes with whip cream and blueberries.

For lunch she had her favourite Mac n Cheese.  

And then it was time to get ready to go to the bus stop.

Ahhh....

...this is where mommy and daddy had the tears flowing.

Daddy prayed a special prayer over Sofia.  

The precious 5 pound baby we brought home from the hospital was going to school.  Yes, it's just for a couple of hours but she's our baby!

We wanted to take some pics of the girls together but as you can see, Selah wasn't all that thrilled that her favourite playmate, best friend, and big sister is going off to school without her.

Sofia, however, was thrilled as can be to begin her school career.

These three girls (Miranda, Sofia, and Simi) were pretty cute waiting for their first school bus ride to school.

Then they were off.  (I could not get this pic to turn for the life of me.)

Sofia has been waiting to ride a school bus since she was 2 years old.  Seriously, this has been a lifelong dream of hers.  We were so proud of her as she got on the bus with a smile and a desire to go to school.

And we knew she was going to be okay.  One of the reasons why is because yesterday we had a welcome meeting with her teacher, Mrs. Jones. Mrs. Jones is a reading specialist and has been teaching at this school for 20 years.  We think she will be able to challenge Sofia as well as continue to grow her love for learning.

Due to it being the first day of school and needing to triple check kids at each bus stop, along with an auto accident in front of the school,  the bus didn't arrive back home until 4:45 p.m. (school was out at 3:30 p.m.).  Sofia wasn't phased a bit.  She LOVED riding on the bus.  She LOVED her first first day of school.  She enjoyed reading, playing freeze tag, drawing, and telling stories. 

Then the day ended with a popsicle.    

There will never be another one of these days.  We know many of our family and friends were praying for her and for us today.  Thank you!!!  

Isaiah at 3 months.

Yesterday Isaiah celebrated turning 3 months old by doing the cabbage patch.  Oh yeah!  Oh yeah!

He is such a laid back baby who loves to smile and giggle.

But don't try to give him a pacifier.  He'll just spit it out and find his thumb.

 

Selah goes to the dentist.

Selah had her first dental check-up this past week.  She was a great patient.

Of course, it helped that big sister was right beside her letting her know that everything was just fine.

Sofia prepares for Kindergarten.

This past Saturday we attended the Sneak Preview at Sofia's school.  It was a time for us as a family to tour and become acquainted with her school.  She will be attending Woodland Primary.  It is a building purely for Kindergarten.  This year they have 28 Kindergarten classes.

One of the things we did on Saturday was attend school bus orientation.  This was very beneficial to both Sofia and mommy considering mommy never rode the bus to school.  The bus driver went over the rules, expectations, and safety information.  The cool thing about this orientation was that it was done while riding the bus around the neighbourhood.

We then took a tour of the school and located Sofia's classroom.  She will be in room 83 and her teacher's name is Mrs. Jones.  We will meet Mrs. Jones on Thursday for a family meeting.

 

After the Sneak Preview Sofia shared with me that she was feeling a little bit scared.  I let her know that she can always pray to Jesus to help her.  To that she said, "Can we pray right now?"  And we did.

And we will keep praying as Sofia begins her school career on Friday. 

Five years in Illinois

Five years ago yesterday we moved to Illinois.  Five years ago this is what our family looked like.

This was our apartment on campus at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield.  Sofia was 9 months old.  Kevin enrolled in the MDiv program and I worked on-campus in Graduate Admissions.

That first year was not an easy one.  Kevin became student and stay-at-home dad.  I became the main financial provider even though it wasn't much.  We were away from family and friends.  But God was our sustainer.  We trusted Him and He did not disappoint.

Here we are five years later.

We are still in Illinois.  And our family has grown.  Sofia is 5 3/4 yrs old and will begin Kindergarten next week.  Selah will turn 3 yrs. old next month and Isaiah is almost 3 months old.  Kevin is on staff as the Children's Minister at Crossroads.  Crossroads was the very first church we visited.  We knew it was going to be our home church as soon as we walked in the door and saw the map on the wall (behind us in the picture above).  Singing "Be Still My Soul" and having the pastor preach a solid theological sermon helped as well.:)  And me, I am being stay-at-home mommy.  The best job I've ever had.

We don't know what the next five years have in store for us but what we do know is that we will continue to trust our Lord.  

Destination...who cares?

Monday night after dinner we loaded the family in the car and took off on a drive.  A drive that we weren't quite sure where it would end.  But we really didn't care.  It was a gorgeous, cool summer evening so we decided to head east to the lakeshore of Lake Michigan.  The bummer part about being on the west side of the lake is that the sun does not set over the water.  But that is okay.  Because after heading east we then headed north and ended up on the waterfront in Kenosha, WI. 

This was the view.  So peaceful and relaxing.

We found a lovely park that had a flower garden.  Here the girls are enjoying the bench swing.

 Mommy and the girls enjoyed the beautiful colours of the flowers while cuddling on the benchswing.

Daddy and Isaiah enjoyed walking around the flower garden (Isaiah slept the entire trip).

Daddy and mommy enjoyed some time on the benchswing.  

Then of course the girls couldn't just look at the flowers but needed to smell them as well.

Our Creator has made such a beautiful world.  We enjoy getting out and enjoying His creations.

Thank you, Lord, for the beauty of Lake Michigan and it waterfront.

Our family by Sofia.

Our header is a picture that Sofia drew of our family a couple of weeks ago.  I love the details she adds to her pictures.

Daddy and Selah have blue eyes while mommy and Sofia have brown(ish) eyes.  Selah is wearing a dress in her favourite colour of yellow, and Sofia is wearing her favourite colour, pink.  Mommy, wearing a dress, is holding baby brother who has brown hair and brown eyes (pretty accurate so far).  Next to mommy is daddy with his blue pants and his blue and green shirt (daddy's favourite colours).

I also love the beautiful day she has us enjoying.  Sunshine, a bird, a butterfly, and a caterpillar in the grass.   The clouds are brown but Sofia told me she drew them that way so we could see them.

Thank you, Sofia for such a great picture of our family!

Bears Family Pass

(Pictures at end)
This past Spring our friends, the Erlandsons, had a Bears player live with them while he was working out at Spring Training.  Richmond McGee is a punter.   Sorry USC fans but he played college ball at University of Texas and was on the championship team that beat you in the Rose Bowl.

We were able to get to know Richmond a bit while hanging out at the Erlandsons and then Kevin took him to the airport a a couple of times when he flew back to Texas for a weekend here and there.  Before Richmond left for the summer, he invited us to come down to Bears camp with the Erlandsons.  So yesterday was the day.

It was a very, very hot and humid day.  Thankfully Richmond hooked us all up with family passes that allowed for us to have great parking, reserved bleacher seating, and access to Weber Hall.  Weber Hall is the place the Bears are using as their headquarters on the Olivet Nazarene University campus.  The Hall was nice and air conditioned, clean bathrooms, a place for me to nurse Isaiah, and free drinks for us all.

Practice began at Noon and ended at 2 p.m.  Did I say that it was very, very hot and humid?

After practice Richmond met up with us along with a couple other players the Erlandsons have gotten to know.  From there Richmond joined us for an early dinner and DQ ice cream.  It's fun and interesting to ask Richmond questions about football players, what takes place off the field and the pranks that are being pulled on the rookies.

Although is was a very, very hot and humid day (I know, I've said this a couple of times but it was) we had a GREAT day.  It was kinda of fun walking around with FAMILY PASS badges, having special access to places the public was not allowed, and seeing Richmond in action.  Not to mention Jay Cutler, Devon Hester, Brian Urlach and all the other Bears players.

Richmond preparing for a kick-off.

The Erlandson Family

Richmond with Sofia, Isaiah and Selah.

GO BEARS!!!

Bike ridin' Selah

We were able to give Selah this bicycle for Christmas thanks to a dear lady in our church.  Of course, the weather never allowed for bike riding until this summer.  

At first I wasn't sure Selah was going to want to try to ride the bike.  But what was I thinking?  This is my 'no-fear' child.  The first few days of being on the bike were a bit difficult.  She would pedal forward but then pedal backward which made the bike brake.  Beginning again was very hard.  But alas, after about a week, this girl is off and riding! 

Oops!  I just realized that you can't see her training wheels in the picture.  Believe me, they are there.  Maybe when she turns three we'll take off the wheels.