Happy Birthday to...

They started out cute . . .



This picture was the only way that I could get them to stand still together. I had to go outside the side door of the house so they would both look out the door at the same time. They made the most of their birthday. Jenny ate an entire roll of paper towels while I ran errands this afternoon . . . I'm glad we didn't spend money on a fancy bone or anything!

*Totally unrelated* Check out these purses that you can have custom made with your own photo! (Not my photo, of course, but maybe one of Noelle!) Then check out the price!! I emailed this link to my Dad and he is interested in checking them out for his photo business . . . wouldn't it be sad if I had to carry one around as advertising for him / his business. Sigh. The things one has to do for family . . . :-)

Something else I learned today . . . Noelle does not do well with too much caffiene. Chalk this one up to Mama not paying attention. We met my Mom and sister at J*ck in the B*x for lunch today. Mom ordered Noelle a kid's meal and got her her very own Diet Coke. I was holding this precious bundle and not really paying attention to Noelle - my sister was taking care of giving her some chicken strips and fries, etc. By about 5 p.m. tonight, I still couldn't get Noelle down for a nap. I had taken her temperature, checked her diaper, let her play, rocked her . . . she was like the Tazmanian Devil! Running around non-stop, crying, then laughing. It was nuts. When my Mom called as she was driving home from work, she commented on how much fun Noelle was having drinking out of the straw in her drink like a big girl when it hit me how much caffiene she had consumed. Duh!

Speaking of Noelle, she is getting so big! She now has about a 1/2 dozen words that she says consistently: "Dada", "Jeeeeeeennnnn" (Jenny), "Baaaa" (her lamb), "Saaaaahhhh" (Sam), "FruuuFruuuuFruuuu" (juice), "Bye", "Hi." Still no Mama yet. She will move her mouth with me when I am saying it, but no sound comes out. She's doing it just to annoy me I'm sure. :-) She has discovered the game of chase and giggles like crazy when we follow her around the room. She gets so tickled when the dogs chase her - of course, she has usually taken away their bone or toy and they are just trying to get it back, but bless her heart, she thinks they are playing with her. She is so much fun (not including today's caffiene induced hysteria). What a privilege it is to have her!

Tomorrow is our last women's Bible study before the holidays. The group decided not to meet between tomorrow and the first of the year. I'm kinda bummed, because it really keeps me in my Bible to have a study to keep up with. I'm thinking of going through A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy, which is about the attributes and nature of God. In this area I need accountability to keep going.

It's late and I need to wrap it up for the evening . . . I will close with a picture for Beth - I never did post a photo of my car as she requested in the the great photo blog of '04. So here 'tis! A '93 Honda Civic - and it actually looks deceptively clean in this photo!