Madeline's Kindergarten Photo

Madeline, all dolled up!

Funny, story... on picture day at Madeline's school, I received a phone call from her teacher who sweetly let me know that my little girl's picture day dress was in violation of dress code! Woops!! She was allowed to take her pictures but Hannah and I had to take her a change of clothes. And I received my union public schools handbook that evening...in the future, all of Madeline's dresses and tanks will be sure to have straps at least 3 fingers wide!

We love you sweetie!!! You're gorgeous inside and out!!!

Hannah Elyse Giles

Our cutie girl Hannah turned TWO years old on June 15th!!!

We have had such a busy summer and time has completely spun away from me. But I haven't forgotten to create a post for our sweet second daughter. Hannah is a bright shining spot in our lives. She is a hilarious, outgoing, daring little girl who loves to make her family laugh. She had a rough start to her life but I believe that the trial only served to make her a tough girl and we are so proud of her resilience. Here are a few of the things that Hannah is doing these days...things that completely warm our hearts.

1) Hannah self initiated potty training! She has been incredible and so responsible.

2) She loves her "sissy" and wants to imitate everything Madeline does. Even down to complaining about her own body hurting when Madeline has an injury. She also would prefer to hold Madeline's hand while crossing the street.

3) Hannah loves to be thrown in the air and caught by her dad. In our new house, the living room ceiling is as high as the ceiling of the 2nd floor. Chris throws Hannah high enough to take my breath away and she just giggles and yells "again again"

4) Hannah is a very social girl, as long as she knows that we are going to stay with her. The other day, Chris was at the store with Hannah and a woman near them was talking to them. As they turned to leave, Hannah looked at the woman and said "Have a nice day!".

5) Hannah is very verbal. She speaks in full clear sentences and she is very careful with the words she chooses. If she says a word incorrectly, she'll stop herself, shake her head and say "no, no" and then try again.

6) Our little girl loves gum. She will chew gum until she's through and then throw it away in the trash. Good thing we all like the sugar free variety!

7) Hannah loves to brush her teeth. She brushes them at least 3 times a day now.

8) Hannah's favorite song is Amazing Grace and she still loves to sing it around the house. She also is able to sing her ABCs and count.

9) In spite of her constant energy, Hannah is also a very cuddly girl. She loves to snuggle and hold hands and recently she has enjoyed playing with my hair (which I love too!!)

10) Hannah has a very forgiving heart. She is willing to apologize when she does something to hurt her sister. And she is quick to say "I forgive you" when Madeline has to apologize to her. The girls argue and bicker often, but they also love each other very much.

6 MONTHS

ONE YEAR

18 MONTHS

2 YEARS

We love you so incredibly much, Hannah Boo, and we truly thank God daily for allowing us to be your parents. We pray that you will grow to be a girl of great maturity, strength, joy and wisdom. Thank you for blessing our lives with such joy and laughter!!!

Joy, Mick and Ritz

A few weeks ago, we were pleased to have Chris' sister Joy, brother in law Mick and "nephew" Ritz visit our new home! They stayed the night on their way from Arkansas back to their home in Texas. We had a great time with them. We always love spending time with these guys! My pictures were really blurry for some strange reason. But they are precious anyway.

Cutie Quote

Madeline is an amazing learner. She has a very sharp memory and she pays close attention to detail. She is doing a great job of learning to read. So the other day, we were all in the car and Madeline said

"I was drinking chocolate milk today and it said 'fat' on it. I think I'll get regular milk from now on.".

I love the way her little mind works!!!

Madeline's first day of school...

Madeline started Kindergarten a few weeks ago. In the past, she has tended to have a difficult time adjusting to new situations. So I was concerned that with all of the excitement of summer - dad's surgery, having him live with us for 3 weeks, moving to the new house and then starting school 2 weeks later - that we were setting her up for an especially hard beginning of school. I am pleased to say that I was SO wrong. She's doing beautifully. Here are some pictures from her first day in school:

She was very proud of her Hannah Montana lunch box, so HM joined her in all of the pictures.

The last picture is one of Madeline sitting in class on the first day. She walked right in, put her backpack in her locker and sat at the table with her name tag. She immediately got to work coloring the picture that was laid out for her. And there was not a tear shed when we said good bye. Hannah, on the other hand, cried "I want my Sissy" for about 10 mins every day for the first 1-2 weeks when we would drop Madeline off. She didn't know how to function without Madeline being part of her day. I think she's gotten used to it now, she's enjoying some special time with mommy. But she is always quick to jump out of bed at naptime to get her sister from school.

I feel fortunate that positive character traits are an important part of Madeline's school curriculum. Her teacher, Mrs Metzler, has a great positive behavior plan for all of the children and Madeline has been rewarded once as the "kid with character" for helping some other kids in her class by reading color words to them. Madeline is a great kid and she gets motivated by positive recognition so she works hard to be sure that she's displaying great character. Now we just need to implement this plan at home!! Drama rules in our house between Madeline and Hannah these days. I've got some great stories, but we'll save those for another day...

Some cute new videos of the girls...

Chris took some videos of the girls the other night so I'll post them and you can see Madeline and Hannah "in person".

Hannah loves singing amazing grace. So I tried to catch her singing it at dinner the other night. Unfortunately she also thinks it's fun to whisper the words (which actually turns out to be an exagerated mouthing of the words with absolutely no sound) so you can only hear her singing the first half, but I was cracking up. Here are the words, in case you want to follow along...

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
was blind but now I see




And here is Hannah singing "I love you, a bushel and a peck".

lyrics:
I love you
a bushel and a peck (a bushel and a peck)
and a hug around the neck (a hug around the neck)
and a barrel and a heap (a barrel and a heap)
and I'm talking in my sleep about you, about you...

Hannah enjoyed making that last line her own :) so sweet!




And one more - this is something we heard some little ones saying a few years ago and we thought it was so cute, so we've passed it on to our girls... I'll post the words in case they are hard to understand...



What ya doin?
Eatin' chocolate
Where'd ya get it?
The doggy dropped it
Where'd he drop it?
In the sewer
What's it taste like?
Cow Manure

Woefully Behind...let's catch up...

First of all, thank you so much for reading through my LONG posts while my dad was sick. Writing is therapeutic for me and I appreciate so much the prayers and encouragment we received!

Update on my Dad:
My dad lived with us from my last post until August 7th, I think it was about 2 weeks. He's gotten much stronger. He says that his infection is healing up nicely. He was anxious to be in his own home and with his dogs. He still has some lifting restrictions but he can drive. My dad will need to come back to Tulsa around the beginning of Sept for a CT scan to measure his abdominal anneurism and Dr Parmley will determine whether surgery is needed on that. If so, they'll want to schedule the surgery really soon. My dad is facing some really difficult financial situations so if you're continuing to pray, please focus your prayers on that concern.

We moved into our new home without a single problem! We enjoyed taking walks around our new neighborhood while my dad was with us. Madeline has a new best friend, Aly. Aly is 6 years old, in 1st grade at Madeline's school, and she lives right across the street from us. The girls argue like sisters but really love to be together. And every time the doorbell rings, Hannah shouts "Aly's here!!!" and runs to the door. We were served dinner by some other neighbors across the street and the neighbors on either side of us are wonderful and kind as well. We are so grateful for this new home and safe neighborhood to raise our girls!! Unfortunately we've been so busy doing daily life that we haven't taken pics of the new house but we'll do that soon :)

Madeline completed her treatment for Erlichiosis. She had blood drawn last week to make sure that her liver function has returned to normal and we're still waiting on the results. Madeline also started KINDERGARTEN last Wednesday! I think I want a whole post devoted to her first days in big school so I'll save that post for later.


I have SO many pictures to post now, it's hard to decide where to start! Here are some pics of the girls in front of our new fireplace. I'll create some slideshows for the events we've attended later.