Supper!

At least someone likes the food I prepare. Miya is STILL sitting at the table eating and Jayden finished about half an hour ago. Jayden ate more than Miya and licked her plate clean (minus the food in her hair and on her face). Miya... has about the same amount of food left on her plate as when she started (minus one bite she sneaked to Jayden).

Memorial Day Part 2

To answer the question, yes, Jayden went right back to the water for more. Her feet even turned red from being cold, but she didn't care.
Here are some pictures from yesterday. Sorry for the quality of pictures, something seems to be on the lens and making the pictures fuzzy. I'll work on fixing that.
Jayden eating her sucker by Papa.
Miya waiting for the next round of candy.
Thank you secret pal for the buckets, they came in very useful today (so did the flip-flops)!
Wow! What a ton of candy for a small-town parade. Can you tell there weren't any other kids sitting close to us? Notice the amount of candy is not CLOSE to even? Hmmmmmmm!!


Jayden loved to splash herself with the water from the bucket; she even tried to put her head in it a couple of times.
Jayden cooling herself off and Miya worrying over a broken toy.
It was a race to see who could destroy Mom's sand castle first.
While Jayden played in the water, Miya let the water come to her...from a very safe distance.

Memorial Day

Today was a fun-filled day. We started the morning out at the Hamilton Memorial Day Parade with Grandpa and Grandma Berens, Aunt Wendi and Aunt Alyssa. Miya loved running and getting the candy, Jayden enjoyed eating the suckers and watching the horses. After the parade we went home for naps before heading off to the beach. When we left our house it was very, very, windy and cool. So I changed the girls out of capries and put them into jeans and packed along warmer clothes since its usually cooler by the lake. We were in for a surprise. It was very warm sitting by the channel. I stripped the girls down; Jayden to her onesie and Miya to her shirt and underwear...thankfully she had a longer shirt on. Next time I think i'll take the whole dresser with, you never know! After the beach we went to the Havemans open house for their 64th wedding anniversary! It really is hard to comprehend 64 years of marriage. After that it was back home for another nap for Jayden. We woke her up to go get ice cream with Dad and Miya. Miya is starting to become a little of a neat-freak and ate her ice cream cone over a napkin for when she dripped! Now...the girls are getting ready for bed with dad, I predict an early bed-time for the entire Westra house! I'll post more pictures tomorrow (I better go help Jeff). We hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day and remembered those that fought for our freedom!

Jayden LOVES the water and we can't keep her away from it. It was 48 degrees today and I think she would have played in it all day if let her. We are excited for SUMMER!!

Mother's Day

You may have noticed I just started a new book....The Strong Willed Child by Dr. Dobson. You now have some insight as to why I haven't been posting as often...

On another note, here is a picture taken on Mother's Day. We have been blessed with two girls that are beautiful on the inside and out. I can not wait to see what God has in store for their lives. Although, I could wait a little while longer as they seem to be growing-up way too quickly, but I know that is not how it goes.

I have two favorite things Miya is currently doing. One is that she's learning to say the Lord's Prayer. I tried teaching it to her a while ago and she didn't pick up on it, now she's doing it more on her own. The other is that she LOVES to sing praise songs. If we are in the car there has to be a "little girl CD" on (she calls it that because there are kids singing on the cd). Her favorite Cd has switched from kids songs (Only a Boy Named David, The B-i-b-l-e, etc.) to praise songs(including Awesome God, and All in All). It is amazing to hear such a sweat little voice singing. The best part is when she's singing the songs around the house without even thinking about it. Jayden is also trying to sing...she has a way to go yet.

My favorite thing Jayden is now doing is carrying her blanket around EVERYWHERE. She has become attached to the blanket Mrs. Kleyn made for her which is white...well, it used to be white. When she's walking around she drags it through her legs. When she's tired she'll put it on the ground and lay on it (it's more of a squat-something you have to see). While in bed she puts it on her face, and in the car she holds it in her lap and rubs her finger on the edges. While in a cart she puts it over the handle and lays her head on it (or throws it on the ground...depends on the mood).

I know that both girls will quickly out-grow both of these stages and move on to the next. So for now, I will treasure every minute I can of singing in the car and dragging around a blanket, thanking God for blessing us with these girls!

Some Pictures

Here are some attempts at pictures from last week. You'll notice the girls don't like taking pictures very much (and that I have a very slow camera).

Here is what's going through their heads....

"Mom, how come she gets to touch the Tulips?"



"I get to touch them if Miya gets to touch them!"


"MOM, Jayden's touching the tulips!"


"I sure am glad Miya taught me how to do this!"


"Do we really have to do this Mom? We kinda look ridiculous"


"I wonder why those kids get to play and I have to sit here in these FLOWERS and smile...."


"Hurry, Hurry, take the picture mom, I can't hold this pose forever."

Living Life

I came across another quote in the book I'm reading "Simon Says" by Chuck Goetschel that really made me think. I'll share it with you.

"Money should never direct your life. Don' let it get a grip on you. Don't let it define you....Consider what your life would be like if you followed your passion first over the pursuit of money... Are you doing one thing to make money and squeezing in another because you love it?...."

What a great thought to ponder! I know this economy is tough right now, but does that mean we are going to change the order of our priorities so we feel more secure, or so we can keep up with the "Jones'"? My priorities are first my faith, then my husband, then my children, then my extended family and friends and then comes the finances. So that means I will (with the help and grace of God) live my life in that order. I'm sure many of you have priorities that look exactly like that. So the question that really made me think was....

"What if you only had 18 months to live? Would you change anything about your life? If so what would it be and why would you wait?! What if you never get your "warning?""

There are some things I would like to change, and I'm currently putting together a plan to change those. I do know however, that I have been truly blessed with an amazing husband that is striving every day to live out his priorities...he is currently doing the 'action' part of his plan so he won't have to miss the precious minutes of our family growing up. He has also allowed me to be able to stay at home with our girls every single day. We have made so many memories together already in the (almost) three short years I have been able to stay home with them. And most of all we thank God for we know all of these blessings are from Him.

Mark Twain said "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do...."

So look back at what you did in this week and ask yourself 'Did my week reflect my priorities or my obligations? Do I have any regrets?'

Pictures

Tulip Time is here. We went downtown yesterday for our annual pictures in the park and parade (Miya calls the parade a hair braid). We tried to take Jayden's one year pictures, I'll write more on that when I don't have her crawling all over me....bye for now.



Madison, we didn't forget your birthday. We hope you had a good day, your gift is on the way. We miss you so much and love you to pieces!

Update

Here is an updated picture on how our garden is coming along. The beans are looking to have a promising crop, the flowers should fare okay. The peppers on the other hand probably are not going to make it. There appears to be one sprout that may (or may not) break ground. We'll see! Miya last night informed me that have leaves growing in our house and they can't do that. We have to put them outside!

As for our week, we have been busy going to garage sales. Miya thinks they are the BEST!! She never asks for anything and if I do buy her something she doesn't even notice. I'll give it to her at home and she'll ask where I got it. She loves to play with all of the different toys at the different garage sales. When it's time to leave I say okay Miya lets go the another garage sale and she'll get off from whatever toy she's sitting on and say "Bye ______ (mirror, desk, horsey, etc.) I'll play with you next week!" and off we go. She is so much fun to garage sale with this year. Jayden does well too. So far she has been content to sit in her stroller and watch Miya play with the toys (I'm such a mean mom). So for now, we will continue to enjoy this time of garage sales; maybe the weather will warm up a little so we can begin our "great adventures" to the park! (Miya has been saying "that sounds like a great adventure" and 'that doesn't sounds like a great adventure'....thanks Dora). I'll try to take more pictures and post them.