More prayers

Please keep both Emilia and Grace in your prayers as they are both very sick little girls.
Emilia was in the hospital Friday through late, late Saturday night with what we have finally been told was pneumonia.
Grace has much the same breathing issues that little Emilia has.
We had quite the go around with the hospital also (I will not go into it) but please pray for guidance and patience for Paul and I as we deal with this also.

Thoughts & prayers

Please keep my Grandma (Darlene) Linn in your prayers for the next week. She will be having major back surgery in Iowa City tomorrow (Friday). I believe she has a bone that is pressing against her spinal cord causing major pain issues for her. Following a long surgery, she will be in the hospital for five days barring any complications.

I don't like quiet!

I am in Kentucky currently for work meetings. This means two full travel days and today - one very long day of meetings (most of which doesn't pertain to us so THANK GOODNESS for wireless internet!)

But at te hotel last night I realized how much I now don't like the quiet. I could have gone to bed at 7 p.m. in a bed all by myself. I could have watched tv - something other than cartoons or the Disney channel. I could have done many, many things that I am not able to do with two little ones running around.

Instead I found myself wondering what Paul and the girls were doing.

It was too quiet to get a good night's sleep (is that actually possible?) and of course the laptop for some reason wouldn't connect to the hotel's wireless internet so I was unable to get any work done. It was just too quiet to do anything!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I will be SO glad to get home to a messy house with loud children!!

Go Hawks!

These pictures are a week late (and more pics will be added at the end of the day when I have access to the camera again) but GO HAWKEYES!

Grace's first nutty bar

Last weekend we visited the Clay County Fair. Nana (Ann) came with us. We had lots of fun even despite the cold, drizzly weather.
Grace ate her first nutty bar at the fair and also enjoyed the Tom Thumb Donuts. Daddy had a corn dog so it was an OFFICIAL visit to the fair as we enjoyed all of the yummy (but not good for you) fair food.





(Thanks to Aunt Kristi for these pictures!)

Princess Grace

Grace has decided that her name is no longer "Grace." In fact she is quite firm in telling us that her name is now "Princess Grace" and that that is the only name she will answer to.

This morning she told me that "Princess Grace" did not want to go to day care. She wanted to "play at King Pop-pop's house." (aka. Grandpa)

This maybe an interesting 16 years to come!!!

Photos.....finally!

I apologize that it has been so long since photos have been posted. We have been VERY busy. The first week of classes came and went last week. Hopefully now things on campus will calm down for Paul. But for me, things on campus are just getting crazy. We finally got our funding from Washington DC so we start funding classes and trainings starting tomorrow. It's going to be nuts! Grace and Emilia are having a blast at our new day care. Grace even has new friends and has decided she wants to ditch the diapers. We'll see how it works. Right now she just has fun sitting on the potty. But of course with day care comes illness. We just finished battling ear infections when we have now been hit with colds and wheezing coughs. I'll be happy when the frost hits to kill off a lot of these bugs - but not any time soon as I'm told we still have growing time on crops!

Grace helps Daddy to sweep out the garage.


Emilia's very first Elmo - courtesy of our friends Thomas and Lisa.

Potty time!

Well wish us luck!

Grace told Lori and Vicki at day care today that she doesnt want to wear diapers anymore, she wants "big girl undies."

I think the fact that M&Ms are a motivator is a push for her too.

Cookie or cracker?

Have you tried the new crackers that are pretzel on one side and cracker on the other? They are fantastic! My grandma Linn accidently left a box of them at my parents. Grace and I tried them and are now hooked. Now anytime that Grace asks for a cookie she gets one of the pretzel crackers instead and she is just tickled pink about it. Grace loves them so much in fact that she used her step stool to reach them on the countertop yesterday afternoon. Before I knew it she had gobbled down a quarter of a newly opened box!

Curious George

It has been a busy few weeks and I haven't had a chance to post. We've been either on the run trying to get things done before classes at the college started or else we were all home sick with colds and allergies. Talk about two ends of the spectrum!!
I do have pictures to post, but am writing this from the office and my camera is at home. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I will get some photos up.
We attended the Dayton Rodeo parade on Monday. Grace LOVED it! There so many horses and everytime that one walked by, Grace yelled "HORSIE! NEH! NEH!!" At the beginning of the parade, one horse even stopped by her and it "neh-ed" for Grace and she thought that that was hysterical. Grace even loved the old cars and tractors - both grandpa's would be so proud!!
Last night Grace had quite the revelation about Curious George - which happens to be her new favorite show. She could care less about Sesame Street these days. EVERYTHING is about Georgie. Well I took the girls for a walk around the block last night. Just down the street this really nice older couple, the Renkens, always have beautiful flower gardens. (For those of you that don't know, a "ma and pa" farming couple in the Curious George cartoon are named Mr. & Mrs. Renken.) As we walked past I told Grace, "Look at Mrs. Renken's pretty flowers." Well immediately Grace recognized the name Mrs. Renken and now she is just CONVINCED that Curious George lives down the street from us. I can't wait to see Mel and Marian at church to tell them that they are unknowingly housing a little monkey!!