Wordless

Flutter by Butterfly

Yellow Bear of the Week

Each week in Eleanor's class at school they recognize a student to be the "Yellow Bear of the Week." Eleanor was the YBOTW the first week of May. They hang up scrapbook pages with pictures of your child and at the end of the week you get to take them home. E was so proud to be YBOTW. Here are pictures of the pages that were hung up in her classroom.

Dr. Cooley

It looks like we may have a doctor in the family and I am not talking about the PhD type of doctor. For months now Eleanor has loved playing doctor. She received a doctor kit from Christmas and can be found wearing a stethoscope around her neck numerous times a day. When we have playdates with our friends she always asks her friends to play doctor. Each Sunday night after our small group meets, Eleanor and her buddy Seth play doctor with Christine and Reiner, a young married couple from our group. She absolutely loves to play doctor and I am glad to know we may have a doctor in the family to take care of me in my old age!

Big Trucks

A couple of weekends ago we headed out with our friends to a Big Truck exhibit in a nearby village. Here are a few pictures of the fun we had.

Ethan taking Eleanor for a spin

E driving fire rescue truck
Checking out the ambulance
Driving a school bus

Favorites

Today in the car I was looking for something to keep Eleanor busy. I decided to "interview" her. I asked her about her favorite things. These are her responses:

Favorite......

Color: Blue, Red and Yellow like the flowers
Show: Shrek
Song: Old MacDonald
Food: Her first answer was "azert" (dessert) but then she said broccoli (truth is she LOVES broccoli)
Bible Story: Mary and Jofef (Joseph) and Snow White (I think that story was left out of my Bible)


I plan to ask her these questions periodically just to see how her answers change.

Praying for Daddy

I posted this on f@cebook a few days ago but wanted to also include it on our blog. Eleanor likes to pray and the other day she told me she wanted to pray for Daddy. This was her prayer:

I pray for Daddy. Thank you God for Daddy. Bless him. Help Daddy to obey my Mommy. Amen.

I just had to laugh!

Wordless Wednesday

Little Helper

E has recently decided that she really likes to help around the house. Here are a couple of "caught in the act" shots:

Helping daddy dry the dishes

Vacuuming for Mommy

Sweet Friends

We love our friends, John and Ryan! These two precious little boys are such good friends to E. They both fight for her attention and smother her with hugs and kisses every time we see them. We are so thankful for them and enjoy getting to see them every week at church and for playdates.

Springtime Fun

Spring is slowly creeping in to Northern IL. We are thankful for the extra daylight, the slightly warmer temperatures and the ever increasing sunshine. It is amazing how a little sunshine can totally change ones outlook on life.

We have been spending a little more time outside playing and look forward to the days of summer when we can be outside every day.

Trying hard to peddle

She did it!

Headed home!

Love this little girl to pieces!

What's on your SD Card?

Here are a few of the photos I found on our SD card today.

Playtime

E and her new friend Abigail

Dinner with a movie star

Still I Will Praise You

The past month has been one heck of a month. The passing of a dear friend, a health scare which resulted in a trip to the emergency room, a second trip to the emergency room followed by 2 consecutive days of surgery and 4 days in the hospital, disappointments, unmet expectations, deep hurt. We are spent, broken, poured out. We have pressed in hard to the Lord and today despite all this month has had to offer we can say, "still I will praise you!"

I want to remember how hard this month has been and I want to remember what we have learned about the Lord and His faithfulness. God's promise to Joshua, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" was ours to claim. He never lets go and because of that we can praise Him in all things.

Winds of Change

2011 has been the year of surprises for us. If you would have asked us on January 1, 2011 where this year would take us our answer would have been drastically different from our answer today.
The plan was for me to work full-time, Daniel to focus entirely on his school work and be home with Eleanor and for us to move back to Dallas mid-summer. As of today, Daniel is working full-time in an unexpected promotion, my last day of work will be April 1st and we are staying in IL at least another year but more likely two.

There are many transitions taking place in our lives but I am so thankful that we know and serve a God who does not change. Today, He is the same God who spoke the earth into creation and tomorrow He will remain.

No matter what the rest of this year holds we can walk forward in faith knowing that God is already there and that He will NOT change.

Neglected

Our blog has been severely neglected over the past few months. Overhaul and more frequent posting to come soon!

Blizzard 2011

It is not everyday a Floridian (that would be me) and 2 Texans (Daniel and Eleanor) get to experience a blizzard. Granted based on what we have heard, it is not everyday a Chicagoan gets to experience a blizzard either. In the past day and a half we have gotten somewhere between 20-23 inches of snow. This is the 3rd biggest snowstorm on record for Chicago and it's surrounding areas. It is amazing! We spent about 30 minutes outside and came in exhausted from walking in the knee deep snow and wind.

What do you do when it is 10 degrees outside?

We play in our tent
We practice making funny faces
We bake cookies

And we eat them

Nature

Not long ago, Daniel, Eleanor and I spent a day in the city with our friends Jordan and Jennifer. We had a wonderful time at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. We will definitely be making another trip back to the museum soon.

In the butterfly garden

Dancing with butterflies

School Fun

Eleanor goes to school two days at week at the YMCA in our town. She LOVES it! Every morning when she wakes up she asks, " I go to school today?". She spends her days playing in centers, dancing, reading books from the book mobile, learning her letters and numbers, playing outside when the weather permits and having a grand time with her friends. Just before Christmas her class had an open house and Daniel and I attended. She had a great time dancing with her friends. We are very thankful for her wonderful teachers, Ms. Carley and Ms. Charlene and are so glad she enjoys going to school.

E with Ms. Carley
Snowman Craft
Moving and Shaking

December in Review

It feels like December came and went and I barely had a chance to acknowledge it. The beginning part of the month was busy with preparations for Christmas and our trip to Dallas. We did not decorate at home because we would be gone for Christmas and I did not want to deal with having to clean it all up and put it away. We did buy a 3 ft. pre-lit tree for Eleanor and it has now become her everyday nightlight. It did not have any ornaments on it for Christmas but last week we bought some felt hearts and hung them on her tree.

Daniel and I bought E a nativity set for Christmas (even though we gave it to her on Dec 4th) and we loved watching her play with baby Jesus and act out the stories we had been reading with her. Baby Jesus was the source of much laughter in our home. Here are just a few of the baby Jesus funnies:

1. Mommy to Eleanor - "No, we don't lick baby Jesus."
2. Eleanor to Mommy - "Baby Jesus is in time out. He is just a little crabby."
3. Baby Jesus was born on a table (in a stable).

I loved hearing her talk about Mary, Jofef and Baby Jesus. She also liked to talk about King Herod and how he was a "mean and angry king."

Each night when we would read the story of the angel Gabriel coming to Mary to tell her she was with child, we would read the part of the story that said "the angel appeared and Mary was afraid," Eleanor would immediately say, "sometimes I am afraid." We would ask her what she was afraid of and she would say "whales." Not sure where that came from but it was so cute.

Every time we would ask Eleanor what she wanted for Christmas she would say, "a sheep." When we took her to see Santa she did not skip a beat when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, A SHEEP!" Oh, if only I could have captured the look on Santa's face. He looked at me and said, I have never heard that one before. Only our little E!

We spent 10 days in Dallas and had a good time visiting with family and a few friends. We ate at some of our favorite Dallas eateries, attend Christmas Eve service, celebrated Christmas with both sides of Daniel's family, ate some more, played with cousins, and ate some more.

Before we knew the clock struck 12 and January was ushered in. Here's to a fabulous 2011!