20 Months Old

It's hard to believe that in four short months Emily and Kyle will be two years old! They are growing up WAY to fast!

In the past month, Emily and Kyle's vocabulary has greatly increases. They are learning new words and phrases every day. They know too many words to keep track of them all. They are becoming very effective at communicating what they want or need. They have also learned lots of animal sounds. They know a duck says "quack", a cow says "moo", a loin says "roar", a snake says "ssssssss", a sheep says "baa" and many more. 

Emily and Kyle have started to grab someone's hand when they want that person to move and guide them to where ever they want them to go. Kyle tries often to pull me up when I am sitting on the floor and he wants me to sit somewhere else. They also will try to move your legs in they want to sit in your lap but can't with the way you're sitting.

Not sure why the picture is sideways... it won't let me change it :(

Schedule wise, we have eliminated morning naps for the most part. Every once in a while, they will lay down and "rest" for an hour or so in the morning, but most days Emily and Kyle are up around 7:00 or 7:30 am and down go down for naps until 1:00 pm. They sleep anywhere from two hours to four hours, and then go to bed most days around 7:00 pm. We are still eating meals at 8:00 am, Noon, and 5:30 pm, which snacks in between.

Some meals Emily and Kyle are amazing eaters... other meals, they don't seem interested in eating at all. It doesn't really seem to matter what the food it, they just pick and choose what meals they want to eat. Normally two meals a day they are great eaters, and then one meal they just pick at their food. They are always wanting "more"... even if they still have more on their plate, especially Kyle!

Emily and Kyle are seeming to love our new apartment. We have been keeping all of their toys in their bedroom now that we don't have to go up and down stairs to get to their bedroom. They love to fill their shopping carts with toys and push them out to the living room and play with them. They still do a good job most of the time helping pick up toys, and I am loving the fact that most nights all of the toys and picked up and put away in Emily and Kyle's room! They love to run up and down the hall way and explore independently. Because of the set up, we don't have a way to keep the kids out of the kitchen with a gate, so we are working on teaching them to stay out of the kitchen... sometimes they do a good job... and other times... not so much! Emily and Kyle have done a great job of learning where things are and where things go in our new apartment. They know which door is ours in the hallway. They know which bedroom is theirs, which is Mommy and Daddy's, and which is Colby's. They know where our shoes and coats go. They know where their dirty clothes go. They know where their dirty diapers go. They know where they take a bath. And most importantly, they know where the food is!

Emily and Kyle are doing way better with the nursery at church. Since we started leaving them in the nursery, we've had issues with tears. The past few months, they normally cry when we leave them but are fine after a few minutes. This past Sunday and Wednesday, we didn't have any tears at all when Mommy and Daddy left them in the nursery at church! They seem to like our new church and love to run around the church whenever we let them.

We have been letting Emily and Kyle watch some TV. They LOVE Curious George, Cat in the Hat, and Sid the Science Kid. They also love to watch "ball" with Daddy on the weekends. We try to limit their screen time to no more than an hour a day.

As you can see from the pictures, Emily and Kyle love each other. It's fun to watch them care for each other and show each other love. They have started holding hands often and love to give each other cuddles and kisses.

Emily

• Wearing mostly 12 month clothes
• Wearing size 4 shoes
• Emily is starting to loose some of the curls in her hair. It's very curly after bath time still, but when she wakes up in the morning, most of the curls are gone.
• Emily still only has her four front teeth that are all the way in. She has two more on top in the front trying to break through, along with her 18 month molars.

Kyle

• Wearing mostly 18 month clothes
• Wearing size 5 shoes
• Kyle says "beep beep" when someone or something is in his way. He also says "beep beep" when he wants someone's attention.
• Kyle has twelve teeth; eight in front and his 18 month molars.

Adventures in Moving

Emily and Kyle weren't too sure about everything being packed up... but they did enjoy playing in the TV stand while it was empty!

The kiddos were very confused about what was going on. It was the worst the last night we spent in Mason when the apartment was pretty much empty. Poor Emily just wanted to be held. Kyle thought it was fun to run around and play in all the open space, but was confused about where everything went.

After we started unloading and unpacking boxes in Ionia, they seemed to make sense of the whole moving thing. They are loving all the extra room and the fact that we don't have any stairs (Mommy is loving the no stairs too!). We are on the second floor, so we do still have to go up and down stairs, but not nearly as often. The kids love that they can run back and forth from their room to the living room and play with all their toys!

Emily and Kyle's room

The hallway backroom

The living room

The dinning room

The laundry room

Mommy and Daddy's bedroom

The kitchen

Colby's bedroom... right now it's storage for random stuff as I figure out what to do with it. Hopefully by Christmas it will be set up for Colby!

The LONG hallway that Emily and Kyle LOVE to run up and down!

And some pictures of my kids being cute :)

Legos!

Grandma and Grandpa made Emily and Kyle Lego costumes for Halloween. Grandpa also made one for himself! The kids aren't too sure about them. They really weren't cooperating for pictures... if we get some better ones later, I'll post some more!

We're Moving!

We are taking a step of faith and moving to Ionia next week! We really feel the need to be closer to our church so that we can be more involved in the church and the teens lives without having to drive so far. We are signing our new lease for Nov 1st and trusting that God will provide a new tenant for our current apartment by Dec 1st so that we will only have one rent to pay.

We have been working with our landlord to get out of our lease... the only way to terminate our lease is to find someone else to re-rent our apartment. Because we living a low-income tax credit apartment complex, we can not sublet; a new tenant has to go through our landlord and be approved and sign their own lease. We asked about a month ago that our landlord start looking for someone to re-rent our apartment too, but it didn't really seem like anything was happening. So Brent posted an ad online himself last week and we've had several interested people. We have told them all to get into contact with our landlord and have passed all of their info on to our landlord as well. From what we hear on our end, there are two people that are pretty serious... one that wants to move ASAP and the other the middle of November. Hopefully our landlord will work with one of these two to get them approved so that they can sign a lease for our apartment.

Brent is going to keep working his job here in Holt for the time being. Driving the Focus back and forth three times a week is cheaper than driving the van back and forth, like we are doing now. But he has started to look for another part time job in the Ionia area. He is in the process of apply to be a substitute teacher in some of the area schools, and seeking whatever other opportunities might be available.

Please pray with us during this transition. There is a lot to pack up and do in a short period of time. Please pray that we will have the time and energy to get everything done that needs to be done to make this a sooth transition. Emily and Kyle are already concerned and confused as to why we are packing up boxes again. Please pray that God will provide a new tenant for our apartment in Mason as we are trusting Him too. Also, please pray for the financial aspect of the situation as we will have two rents to pay for the month of November, along with moving expenses and all that other fun stuff. Pray with us that Brent will be able to find another job in Ionia so that we can pay our bills. We are trusting that God will provide us with everything that we need; just as He has been doing the past two years since we left our old church in Delaware (and WAY before that too!). 

If you need our new address for whatever reason, send me an email and I'll give it to you.