Erilyn is two!

We love Erilyn's sweet smile and her easy ability to make anyone who sees her smile as well. She brings joy wherever she goes! She loves to color, copy Anthon, play chase and tickle, play with her baby, play with Shadow, jump on beds, and swim. We love our Erilyn!


Erilyn 2006

Erilyn 2007


Erilyn 2008 and at her party!


We tried to keep Erilyn's birthday this year minimal simply because we learned with Anthon that two year olds don't really care or remember all that much. So, we just invited our neighbors over to share cake and ice cream with us. It was great fun and both Erilyn and Anthon LOVE the play kitchen that we got her (a great internet steal!). The only drama came when Erilyn fell backwards off our couch, screamed, and then promptly fell asleep. We couldn't wake her for anything, so we were off to the ER. She ended up snapping out of it and is fine, but she was a bit sad and clingy all night. I had some nasty flashbacks of ER trips with Anthon--concussions etc., so we were glad she's okay!

Shadow

This is our beautiful cat, Shadow. We love him and he is perfect for our little family. He has, however, inadvertantly cost us a pretty good chunk of change! Admittedly, I am at least partially responsible. It if weren't for my love of animals, we may not have had to pay quite so much to care for this particular one. We love you Shadow!

So, here's the story. I first noticed that something was wrong with Shadow last Friday when I told Anthon to make sure and feed the cat and Anthon told me he didn't need any food. This is odd because our lovely little Shadow is also a bit of a piggy and Anthon has to feed him at least twice a day. That he didn't need any food that morning was my first red flag. As I started to pay closer attention, I realized that Shadow had not moved from his curled up spot on the couch in quite some time. Then, when he finally did move, he wasn't walking on his right front leg at all. Long story short, we took him to the vet once his hot, swollen, leg started oozing yucky stuff everywhere. After a steriod shot (to help with his 107 degree fever), sedation, IV fluids (he wouldn't eat or drink), antiobiotics, pain medication, and bandages, we brought poor little Shadow home! Kirk has to help me change the bandages, which is quite a process because the wound is pretty big and yucky (we still don't know what happened), but he's getting better every day. He even walks on it now! We love you Shadow!

Summer Swimming

We've had tons of fun swimming at our little neighborhood pool. Erilyn is getting braver and braver every time, although I'm still torn about the use of a flotation thinger. It helps with my panic levels, but it gives her a false sense of security so that when I take it off, she really causes me panic! We have fun, regardless!

Catch up!

I'm back! Thanks to all of you who keep checking my blog even though it's been totally MIA for quite some time. Now, to play catch up...a lot has happened!

Kirk's birthday...

Anthon getting into the bandaids...if you look closely, he's got one wrapped around every single finger!

Best friend birthdays, and park days, and reward trips to Chuck E Cheese!

(I love Erilyn's faces!)

Anthon finally learned how to swing on his own (did you catch the "finally?!")...

...and we drove to Memphis! Here are some pictures of us going for walks around Uncle Daryl's beautiful neighborhood, to the Zoo, to the Children's Museum, fishing, to the Mississippi river, and a few random ones.

This is Anthon sitting like a giant panda to eat his snack!

(Erilyn too sleepy to even lay her head down, Anthon in heaven on Uncle Daryl's farm, and Erilyn getting loves from BJ!)

We went to Ranch Days with friends...

...and the rest of the time has been filled with swimming, park days, hair cuts (I cut a good two inches off Erilyn's), reading stories, trips to the Science Spectrum, Memorial Day BBQs with friends, making cookies, playdates, celebrating Mother's and Father's Days, grown-up dates, babysitting for friends who had babies, and, oh yeah! We moved! We're still in Lubbock--Kirk has one more year left--but we just moved to a place that wasn't quite as expensive and we like it a lot. It's newer and bigger, and cheaper! And we're two doors down from good friends.

(Anthon is on the diving board in this picture...once he started, I couldn't get him to stop! He's a diving board fanatic!)

Erilyn is finally talking where I can pretty much understand her all the time and she's even using phrases, which is a big step for her. She's quite coordinated, and I think she's more likely to be the athletic child in our family. She loves jumping, and copying Anthon, and following me around trying to do her make up or brush her hair. It's fun that she's very girly about shoes and makeup and pretty things in her hair. We have fun.

I was noticing that many of the pictures of Anthon are blurry, and I just have to say that it's not my fault! I challenge anyone to take pictures of Anthon that aren't blurry. That's just how Anthon goes through life. Always in a hurry about something. He runs everywhere, even just from his bedroom to the bathroom which is about five steps away. My challenge in life is to try to teach him to slow down long enough to see the sunset, and smell the flowers. At least on occasion!

I'll post pictures of our new house once we're a bit more organized.

Fun, busy summer days!

Trunk trips

It's been ages since I've posted anything. And now I'm kicking myself in the pants for missing all the funny things I should have written down. One funny thing happened today. I signed Anthon up to go to Vacation Bible School this week at the church where he goes to preschool. So far he's loved it. He's learned about be-attitudes, and how to forgive, and the whole thing has a beach party theme. Yesterday he came home with a whole CD of beach themed christian music and one of the songs has a line that goes something like this: "I will believe with my whole soul; I will believe wherever I go." We popped it in and were listening to it on one of our many trips to the new house with a trunkload of stuff when Anthon asked me to stop it so he could tell me something. He said, "Mom, I believe wherever I go, I just don't always tell you." So cute!

This week has been a little crazy trying to get moved one trunk load at a time. It'll be nice when Kirk gets all our big stuff moved on Friday and we can actually start putting things away. Our good friends live two doors down and we walked over there tonight after a load and had homemade ice cream. So fun to have friends so close! I haven't seen many of my friends much lately because they have all had or are having babies within the past couple of weeks. I'm starting to feel left out!

A Circus and a Birthday Daddy

(Just a note: I'm pretty sure that if you click on that empty space just above, it'll take you to a web album of pictures related to the following post. I'll check back in a couple of days and see if it's working properly. Okay...on with the show!)

I'm starting to freak out a bit! It turns out, we may not be able to take Shadow with us to our new place and I'm getting really worried about him! Not to mention my kids, who are very attached. We'll see...

This was a fun week. Anthon had a circus at Preschool, and we celebrated Kirk's birthday, which isn't for another two days, but he's going to be swamped this week, so we did it early. It's nice that he'll be the same age as me again. I never would have thought that I would marry someone younger than me. Having always been the youngest among my friends, it never really entered my thought process. It's turned out okay, though. He'll do. :)

I am really loving my kiddos lately. I feel like I try to always appreciate them and the time I have with them, but sometimes I just feel really super attached! They are my favorite kids in the world, and I adore them. They make me laugh, and cry, and bring so much joy to my life!

Tonight while we were reading Go Dog, Go!, Erilyn's choice for storytime, she spent the whole time either jumping on the couch, pumping her arms in the air, and shouting, "Dah! Dah! Dah!" (Which means dog.), or running around the living room in circles, laughing. How adorable?! And I finally got her curls right. We've tried again and again to curl her hair, and today it finally worked perfectly. It was adorable. I wish I would have taken a picture. And Anthon looked so handsome today for Church! I remember looking into the back seat on the way to Church and thinking, my children are so beautiful--inside and out!

And Anthon has been getting good reports both from his Primary teachers as well as from his Preschool teachers and I am so relieved. For a while, I really wondered if he'd ever settle down enough to make it through either church or school. He's still my silly little smarty pants, but he's learning to control his body better. Finally! I remember talking to Steve about it a year or so ago and being really worried, and he did such a good job of giving me hope! I'm so thankful for great brothers and sisters! And I'm so glad that Anthon and Erilyn love each other, and, perhaps even better, they like each other. They're really falling into roles that complement each other. Anthon is anxious to help Erilyn and humors her when she wants to chase him, and Erilyn continues to adore Anthon and follow him around everywhere. I just love watching their relationship grow. It's great.

We're excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Schramm this week! And Uncle Daryl and Carla! Although, I have to say, I'm a little apprehensive about making the 13 hour drive to Memphis alone with the kids. Part of me is dreading it, and part of me is gearing up for the challenge. Fortunately, my kids are really starting to be road warriors, so I think we'll make it all in one piece! I should have some good pics to post after the trip! Til then...

Park Days and Conference Crafts

One of the things we tried to do with the kids to keep them busy, but still within earshot of Conference was set up a table on our back porch with painting crafts for them to do. It worked for about an hour. They both happily painted the salt dough shapes we made a few days ago, the table, the chairs, the cement, and their faces. I think I'll call it a tie: the solid hour was great to be able to pay attention to the talks, but then we had quite a mess to clean up. They were sure cute, though!



Erilyn has also learned how to climb up to the slides herself and she loves it! She's a great park player now and loved following Anthon around the park. She very literally copies almost everything he does. It's cute...for now!

Kindergarten Tears

I attended an orientation today at the school where Anthon will be attending kindergarten. For most of the time, all the kindergarten aged kids went with the teachers to see their classrooms, etc, and as I watched Anthon line up and follow his teacher out, my heart just sank, and I started tearing up. He's my little boy! I know he's ready for kindergarten, but I'm not ready for him to go. Then the principal started talking about how children who have been taught to be independent usually excel better at school and can be self-learners and so it's important for us as parents to start getting ready to cut the apron strings a little. And that did NOT help me feel better. It just makes me so sad to think he won't be home with me anymore, and that I won't be the only adult voice he hears (along with Kirk), and that I won't have so much influence over him anymore. I'm just not ready for him to grow up! Once he starts kindergarten, it'll never be the same again. For him and me, or for our family. This chapter is really hard for me to close. Fortunately, I have a few more months to get ready to open the next chapter. Hopefully that'll be enough time.