The girls enjoying some snuggle time The past month has just flown by! Lem was busy wrapping up all the finalities of tennis season, including Regions, State and the end of the year banquet. He's also back on the ice playing for our church hockey team.
Us girls have been keeping plenty busy with check-ups, playdates, Mom's Club at church and all our other usual daily activities. Lem and I have been trying to squeeze in some dates (including one Saturday when we both were planning covert op surprise dates for each other-poor Nanny and Papa were in such a spot!)
Ella's 3 month picture
We've been really loving our new earlier church time. Getting done with church at 11:30 gives us enough time before all the kiddos have to be home for naps to enjoy fellowshipping with our friends. Most Sundays we get to enjoy lunch with our friends and their kids after church. Lem and I have started doing a Bible Study on Monday evenings together. It's been such a refreshing, meaningful time of study, discussion and prayer for us. We're both really excited to see what God has in store for our family as we continue to make Him a priority in the different areas of our lives. Sycely has been warming our hearts with her joyous spirit. She's started praying on her own now, "just talkin' to God" as she tells us., especially when she's feeling afraid of something. She's started memorizing and reciting scripture too as well as mastering some Bible stories.
Sycely and her best friend, Scarlett
Ella is developing quite the little personality. I'm continually told by people that she has the most expressive eyebrows. She's so quick to smile and is cooing and babbling a lot these days. She's even started to give us a little giggle here and there. She got to go to her first Aces game this month- Second Annual Aces Paint the Rink Pink night, which is doubly fun for Mommy cause everything-including the ice-is pink! And I find her completely irritated that she has rolled over back to front in her crib some nights. She starts out at the bottom of her bed but ends up face planting into the top left corner a few hours later-she just "frogs" her way up there. She's on a pretty regular schedule as far as eating and sleeping and she's really starting to enjoy "playing toys" and talking to anything that has eyeballs-and some things that don't :) She's weighing in at around 12 pounds now-still tiny compared with most of her friends, including some born 2 month after her!
I'm still plugging away with my work-out routine-spending an hour a day on the stationary bike (though I have been taking Fridays and Sundays off). I got back to coaching skating this month. I'm only working with two of my Special Olympics students right now. Our special O season will start in November and will add another day to my coaching schedule, so for now, I'm just doing a little so that I can stay close to Ella as much as possible. I also did a couple of trainings on Project Approach for a couple of schools this month. Ella went a long; the flexibility is so nice for our family (and since this is baby number 2, I think I've officially mastered nursing while presenting a PowerPoint presentation) :) I've been enjoying baking, trying out some new dinner recipes and experimenting with my new bread maker. I've also been shooting lots of photos for friends of all these new little babies we have around church. I'm no Betty Crocker or Anne Geddes, but I sure am enjoying developing those talents a little more!
Another sample of my "home made photography"
