Back from my hiatus

Alright, I finally found some time to sit down and get caught up on the blog.  We’ve been keeping pretty busy these past couple of weeks.  Before I begin, I have to put this picture of Tommy in first.  Peyton wanted Tommy to play with her one day…

Princess Tommy

 So, I went for my weekend Walk To Emmaus!  I can’t really share too many details with you about what happened there.  It was definitely an awesome experience and I would do it again if I could.  I can’t wait to be able to sponsor somebody to go and to also serve on a Walk.  I will share a couple of things that I got from the walk.  The first thing that I realized was that I had never really forgiven myself and accepted God’s grace for the past.  That was a big thing for me, and I feel a ton lighter these days now that I’ve dealt with it   I also finally learned what true agape love is (since I was pretty clueless about it before my walk).  The last thing that I learned was that Josh is quite capable of handling both girls for a weekend  

Like I said, we’ve been keeping pretty busy.  Amanda’s daughter, Abbie, had her first tee ball game a couple of weeks ago.  Here are a couple of pictures that I got of the girls.

Hanging out

 

Playing Catch with Brent

We decided to celebrate Lily’s birthday with Amanda and Dan, the Sunday before it actually happened.  We didn’t do too much.  I made a cake and we went over to their house for dinner and had some cake and ice cream afterwards.  Here are some pictures.

The Birthday Girl

 

 

hmm...this isn't my cake

I’m not exactly sure when this one was taken… I think some people (Daddy) were being pretty sneaky with the frosting.

Being sneaky...

Here is a picture of the cake.

Here is the before picture:

Waiting patiently...

The strategic move:

The aftermath:

That was yummy!

Then on her real birthday, I made some cupcakes to have after dinner.

I know what to do with this

Here is Lily enjoying her birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa Bound:

I think that pretty much brings everybody up to speed on what we’ve been up to lately.  Now that things are getting back to normal around here, I should be updating the blog more regularly. 

Birthday Ideas

Okay, so I might be taking a little advantage of the blog here, but I thought it would be an easy way for me to give some ideas for birthday gifts for the girls.  Lily’s birthday is just around the corner, she will be turning 1 on May 7!  I can’t believe it’s already been a whole year.  Peyton’s birthday is a little ways away still, it is on June 29 and she will be turning 3. 

Josh and I are trying to get stuff together, so we can take the girls camping and hiking this summer on the weekends.  We think the girls will have a lot of fun exploring and playing outside.  With that said, both of the girls are in need of sleeping bags, and whatever else they would need to go camping.  We’ve been looking at Dick’s Sporting Goods and L.L. Bean’s for supplies, if you prefer to send a gift card.

Lily really isn’t in need of anything that I can think of.  She is inheriting all of Peyton’s clothes.  It is nice though, to be able to put a new outfit on her every now and then.  She is in 12-18 months clothes.  She will also be in need of some shoes to wear once she gets to walking, maybe even some water shoes if we go somewhere where there is a lake for her to walk in a little. 

Peyton will need a bathing suit for the summer.  I would go with a size 3T for that.  As for clothes, Peyton wears a 4T on top and 3T on the bottom.  She will also be in need of sandals or crocs for the summer, probably a size 9.  She may even need a pair of water shoes if we go somewhere where there is a lake.  Peyton can also always use bubbles, crayons, markers, paint, sidewalk chalk, stickers, and construction paper.  Josh and I are thinking about buying Peyton a bike for her birthday, we already have a helmet, but she may need knee and elbow pads (or a whole suit of armor). 

Any outdoor activity things would also be good.  Both girls enjoy playing with balls.

Anyway, these are just some ideas if anybody is stumped as to what the girls might need.  If I think of anything else, I will add it on here.

Easter 2009

Alright, so maybe not Easter 2009…but we pretended it was since the girls were sick a week ago on the real Easter.  Here are some pictures that we got of the girls in their dresses before church.

Lily and her Easter bonnet

 

Here is the best one we could get of the girls together.

Take a picture...quick!

 

Here is Peyton smiling pretty in her Easter dress.

 

Okay, I was determined to get the girls into their Easter sweaters.  It was a good thing it was a little chilly that morning   One thing I learned (among many things) is that you should always measure the person’s arm and not rely on the pattern…enough said.

 

Here is Lily in her’s…yes she fell asleep before we got her to church  

Happy Spring!

Woohoo!  Spring is finally here!  Yet here I am inside blogging   Oh well…in my defense it’s quiet time here   Last Saturday, Josh and I decided to take the girls to the Sciencenter in Ithaca.  We had heard it was a really neat place for kids and that it had a lot of hand-on things for the kids to play and experiment with.  It was pretty awesome.  We can’t wait to take the girls again when they get another year older or so.  Here are some pictures we got of the girls while we were there.  There were two sections to the Sciencenter.  The outside had a giant wooden ramp with a variety of things to play with.

I think I can...

 

 I can with Daddy’s help!

Thank you Daddy!

 

 For those of you that are aware of Family Game Night that we have on the weekends with Dan with Amanda, we use to be “addicted” to Clue.  However, we have evolved…and now we are into Rock Band 2 with wii.  We have our own band!  It’s very exciting.  I should take some pictures of us all.  There is nothing better than a bunch of 30 year olds getting together to rock on!  Amanda is our singer, Dan plays the lead guitar, Josh plays bass, and that leaves me to be the awesome drummer!  Why am I telling you this?  I decided to take the opportunity while at the Sciencenter to train Peyton to be my lil drummer.

I look like Mommy!

 

Here is good picture of Daddy having some fun.

 

Poor Lily   Next time we come you’ll be able to get out and play the drums also.

When do I get a turn?

 

 Here are Daddy and Peyton playing the xylophones.

 

Then we went inside and did some exploring.  Here is Peyton learning about dams and what the result would be if she launches that big ball into the pool of water…

 

Our next stop was the vacuums.  They had a bunch of different vacuums that the kids could play around with and experiment with picking up styrofoam pieces.  So, I may have a little too excited about teaching Peyton how to vacuum…

 

Here is Peyton playing with the vacuums.

 

Sunday was Easter!  I was able to finish both of the girl’s sweaters in time for the big day!  Peyton had other plans for the day though   She woke up with the stomach flu.  Josh ended up staying home with both girls while I went in and braved our early 2 year old class solo.  I’m going to put the girls in their outfits this coming Sunday, so you can look forward to those pictures in the future.  We still had a little fun though, even though Peyton wasn’t feeling too well.  It was the first Easter that she was able to look for an Easter basket.  She found her basket and then went and helped Lily find hers

I found my Easter basket!

 

Here is a picture I snagged of one of those rare moments:

zzz...

This last picture is of Lily at church in the nursery.  She has become the “poster child”, and a bit spoiled by everyone.  Everytime we go into the nursery or walk by, somebody is playing with her   They took this picture of her and hung it up in the hall.

Catching Up

We’ve been keeping pretty busy the past couple of weeks here.  Josh has been successful at keeping Emmaus a secret.  I am looking forward to going in a couple of weeks, but at the same time, I’m a little hesitant.  I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to handle being away from the girls.  We are still trying to figure out what is going on with the laptop and why it isn’t recognizing the disk drive   I think I just have to bite the bullet and install the software onto the desktop, so I can upload the videos.  I’ve taken a lot of pictures of things that we’ve been doing lately.

Doing our yeast experiment.

Our edible bird nests

Last weekend, we went up to Rochester to spend the day with Chris, Tiff, and Claire (who is now 2 years old).  We walked to the park that is near their house and let the kids play at the playground for a bit.  Here are some pics of them:

Wheee!!!

 Here is Peyton:

I want to go Super High!

 Here is a cute picture of Claire with her mommy

Say Cheese Claire and Tiff!

After playtime in the park, we headed back to Chris and Tiff’s house.  We let the girls play outside for a bit and we got some really cute pictures of the girls   Aww…I wish we lived closer.

Hold my hand

 Peyton is talking up storm:

You know what I mean?

 What do you hear?

Claire! I think I can hear them growing!

 Let’s go this way:

 

 It was a fun day together.  We were blessed with nice weather too   I wish we were able to get together more often.  The girls had a blast. 

This past Saturday, we were invited to go to an Easter egg hunt at the local Methodist church.  The girls had a lot of fun.  They had a band that played some music for the kids and put together a little children’s sermon before the hunt began.  The lady that is holding Lily is Mrs. Hurd.  Her husband, Dick,  is the pastor at this church.  He married Josh and me, and Mrs. Hurd (who was my department chair back in the day) walked me down the aisle.  I’m not sure who enjoyed the Easter egg hunt more…Mrs. Hurd or the girls.  I do know she loved spoiling the girls and introducing Lily to the wonderful world of Jello jigglers!  Now all of us girls here are addicted to jigglers!

Okay Lily, we're going to show you how to go Easter egg hunting!

 Here’s another one of Lily:

Go ahead and pick it up Lily!

 Here are Peyton and Daddy looking for some eggs also:

Let's put the egg in your bag Peyton.

Yesterday afternoon, we were able to get the girls outside in the back yard to go on the swing set while Daddy did some yardwork.  Here is a picture of Daddy pushing Peyton before I was able to get Lily outside also.  But, both girls had a blast on the swings yesterday.  

 

I need to get a video of Lily on the swings so you all can hear her giggle up a storm.  She really really likes swings

I finally was able to finish Lily’s Easter sweater!  Yay!!!  I’ve already begun to work on Peyton’s sweater.  Peyton’s sweater will look the same, only it will be a pistachio color.  I have no worries about being able to finish hers on time.  Here is a picture of Lily’s sweater.  The arms are suppose to be big.  It looks really cute on her in a dopey kind of way   I can’t wait to get pictures of the girls in their Easter outfits with matching sweaters. 

Lily's Easter sweater

I’m thinking of trying to teach myself how to knit.  I found a lot of really nice patterns that are free online:  http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/kategori_oversikt.php.  These look like something you would find in a store!  It would be really neat if I got good enough to knit my own clothes

Well, I think I’ve covered everything that we’ve been up to for the past 2 weeks.  This Tuesday night, we are suppose to go over to Dan and Amanda’s to continue the Knaisch-Jamison tradition of coloring eggs!

The Results Are In…

Alright, so I just got the phone call…Josh is still employed!  Yay!!!  Thank you all for the prayers

I’m running into some technical difficulties with uploading Lily’s video though.  Apparently, the software got deleted…do you know anything about that Josh?  Now, for some reason, the laptop isn’t allowing me to download the software….so, it could be a bit before I get the video uploaded.  I guess that just means you all will have to keep checking back

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jog

What happened to the nice, warm weather we were having?  We went from one week in the 50’s and 60’s to freezing cold temperatures!  I even saw some snow flakes yesterday afternoon!!!  I made it through the long weekend without Josh successfully!!!  Yay!!  No anxiety attacks this time around   Peyton had a rather difficult time with Josh not being home this weekend though.  It was the first time that he had to leave and she was actually old enough to notice     She required a lot of extra love this weekend, which I was more than happy to give   I was able to spend the evenings working on Lily’s sweater, which was nice   I am finishing up the last sleeve, and then I have figure out how to sew everything together.

Josh returned from his Walk To Emmaus late last night   After we disinfected his clothes and threw his sandals downstairs (I offered to get a burn barrel going), I sent him to the shower!  Peeeeeeeeewwwwww!!!  You only get to take one shower, which I already knew about since I listened to our sponsor back in November as he briefly explained some things to us (and the one shower thing is a major issue for me, it’s ranked #2 after coffee, for things I need in order to function).  Apparently, Josh was using his selective hearing at that time   From what Josh was “allowed” to tell me, he had an awesome experience and learned/grew alot this past weekend.  Now comes the hard part…he isn’t allowed to tell me anything!!!  I have to wait an entire month, since I go for my walk at the end of April, before I can find out anything!  Okay…so we all know Josh…who wants to start taking bets on how long he can hold all the info out on me?

Before Josh left for his Walk, today was suppose to be the big day at work.  But, apparently it moved to tomorrow.  He got his packet this afternoon that told him he had a meeting at 9am.  Keep us in your prayers tomorrow morning

Guess what?  Lily is walking!!!  Can you believe it?  She’s like a little old lady though, she still needs to use a walker.  She stands herself up and pushes it around the living room, looking all proud of her big accomplishment   Yes, I do have some video footage of this.  Stay tuned for it!!!  I will try to get it uploaded sometime tonight, so you can check it out later.

I had to take Lily to the doctor’s this morning though   She’s had a cold that won’t go away, it’s just congestion and runny nose.  But yesterday afternoon, she started to run a little fever and started to tug at her left ear again.  She didn’t sleep at all last night.  So we took her in to the doctor.  She has a double ear infection in both ears!  Poor little Lily.  The doctor was concerned since she had just had the one bad ear infection a couple of weeks ago.  He put her on a stronger antibiotic (Augmentin Es-600).  I have to call him in two days to give him an update on her.  She has to go back in two weeks for him to check her out again.  Hopefully, this antibiotic will take care of her and she’ll be done with ear infections.

Keep your eyes peeled for the video of Lily walking, and I’ll update when I get word on Josh’s job tomorrow

The Latest

Finally, my favorite part of the day…quiet time!  It’s when I finally get a little break in the day to sit down and take some time out for me   We’ve been pretty busy the past couple of days here.  I began working on Lily’s Easter sweater…I’m very excited to see how it turns out, but so far it seems to be coming out okay.  We heard exciting news about Zoe and her decision to be baptized on Easter Sunday!!!  Yay Zoe! 

We had a gorgeous day yesterday.  It was 60 degrees!  We took the girls for a walk and ended up at one of the parks.  Peyton had a lot of fun going on the swings and down the slide.  I also had to admit to Peyton, and myself, that she was too big for the baby swing this year   This year, Lily will be old enough to ride in the baby swing instead of just sitting in her stroller and watching Peyton have all of the fun. 

Peyton and I are going to be studying birds for the next couple of weeks, so we went out this morning and bought a bird feeder and some bird food.  She is very excited about being able to feed and watch the birds.  Daddy and Peyton are going to put it up this afternoon when he gets home from work   (umm…Josh can you put the bird feeder up with Peyton today?) 

This Thursday, Josh is going away for his Walk To Emmaus.  He is excited about going, although I think he is a little unsure of what to expect.  I think he will get a lot out of it and grow closer to God.  He’ll be gone all weekend though, which will be a little hard for me and the girls, but we’ll manage.  Anybody want to come to New York for the weekend??? 

We went over to Dan and Amanda’s house this past Friday night and finally watched the movie “Fireproof”.  If you are able to look past the acting and corny lines, it’s a really good movie.  It hit a little too close to home for Josh and myself, but we were able to take some good things back from the movie.  We went out and bought The Love Dare book and we are currently on day 3.  I’ve really struggled with refraining from the negative comments, but each day it gets a little easier.  I strongly recommend EVERYBODY to go out and buy this book, you can get for $10 on Amazon, and do it with your spouse if you can, or try it by yourself on your spouse like they do in the movie.  I guarantee you’ll get results with it, no matter where you are in your relationship.  We’re only on day 3, and we’ve learned a lot already…and we still have 37 days to go!

I’m still asking you all to keep us in your prayers.  Josh found out that the big day at work is one week from today (also the day after he gets back from his Walk To Emmaus).  Who knows…the Jamison’s may be coming to a town near you!

The Newest Video

I finally got a new video uploaded of Lily crawling   You can find it here http://www.vimeo.com/3548098 .  As you can see, she is able to get around pretty good now.  She is still getting over her ear infection, but is improving every day. 

Peyton is doing well also.  We are continuing our baking unit through this week   We got a little behind last week and had to take a couple of days off to help Amanda prepare for Abbie’s birthday party.  But, that is one of the nice things about homeschooling, it is very flexible.  This past Saturday, Abbie (Amanda’s daughter) celebrated turning 5.  She decided on going with a Tinkerbell theme.  Instead of getting Abbie a present, I thought it would be neat to make the girls flower crowns and the boys – Peter Pan hats.  Thursday night, Josh and I sat down in the living room and we made the crowns for the girls   I wish I had gotten a picture of Josh making his crowns.  Friday night, we went over to Dan and Amanda’s so I could help her go to the store and pick up everything else that she would need and also, so she could teach me how to sew…so I would be able to make the Peter Pan hats.  (I know…I may have been a little over ambitious here…taking on a project that required sewing).  Amanda taught me, and we figured out how to make the hats.  Saturday morning came, and I still had a lot of work to do before the party started that afternoon.  I got up and decided to get right to work on the Peter Pan hats.  Well, part of this project requires you to sew a feather onto the side of the hat.  I took the scissors and tried to poke a hole throught the fabric for the feather…something you should never ever do…and I almost cut my finger off!  Seriously!  Of course…chaos results…Josh made a homemade gauze thing for me to wrap around my finger to try to get it to stop bleeding…since we didn’t have a firstaid kit (we do now though!)  It took us over an hour to get the bleeding to slow down enough so we could put a bandage on it.  During that time, Josh ran to the store and picked up a first aid kit.  Unfortunately, I lost quite a bit of time that morning with my injury.  I know you’re all thinking…what about the hats!?  Not to worry, Josh came to the rescue.  He picked up the needle and thread and he finished all of the hats by himself!  They came out pretty good also.  Here are some pictures of the kids wearing the crowns and hats.

I see you!

This morning, Josh has a meeting at work which will hopefully shed some light on when the meetings are going to be later this month.

I’ve finally decided what my next project is going to be, now that I’m not working crazy hours tutoring.  I had already picked up the girl’s matching Easter outfits last year when everything went on clearance.  They are just little jumpers, nothing poofy this year.  I’ve decided I would try to crochet them matching pink sweaters to wear over them…it should be interesting to see how they turn out…if they turn out at all…  Anyway, I hope everybody is enjoying the beginning of March and staying dry

Cuddle Time in the Jamison Household

How can you not love Tommy???  Who says he isn’t capable of being a calm and loving puppy dog?

Cuddle Time with Tommy

We also had a good day yesterday in the potty training world…it was Peyton’s first whole day of no accidents!!!  Woohoo!!!  It was also her first day of discovering how easy it is to flush a toilet