Juliana Goes to School!

It doesn't seem quite possible,  but yesterday my baby started school! :(
It only seems like it was a few days ago that I held her in my arms, a helpless baby - but she's not a baby anymore.


Out the door...

For five and a half years, I have spent nearly every waking moment with her - and quite a few un-awake moments, too! I've fed her, dressed her, and along with her dad, we've protected her as well as we could. We couldn't protect her from every boo-boo along the way, but the ones we
couldn't protect her from, we kissed and made better. We've taught her almost everything she knows - from how to crawl and walk, to how to use the big-girl potty, to how to act like a lady (ok, maybe that one hasn't stuck too well, but we're trying!) among many other things.


Across the parking lot...

Yesterday, she set out on a new learning adventure. She'll have many new teachers on this journey, who will teach her many things. She'll have fun times, sad times, frustrating times, and she will feel pride at accomplishing some new thing.

Down the hall, to left...and we've arrived!
I can't protect her from everything any more. There is sure to come a day when she is hurt by one of her classmates, or a teacher who speaks carelessly or harshly...but she is learning. And each little hurt, each little joy, every moment along the way, will help her to grow and to become the woman she will be. 

The little brother wasn't very happy to leave his playmate.


No, I won't always be there to keep the hurts from happening, but I WILL be here to hold her when she hurts. I'll be here to listen when she doesn't understand. I may not always be her best friend - in fact, there'll probably be times when I'm downright unpopular in her eyes, but I will always be her biggest supporter.

Doing the first homework.

And when she needs more than I can give her, I'll be sure to point her the One who will be everything she ever needs. The One who loves her even more than I do, and knows more about her than I will ever know because He made her.



All finished!

And so, I'm sad. It will take a while to adjust to having one of my chicks missing for most of the day, but we'll survive. But this is life,  and it's a new learning experience for her.
So I'll be happy for her.

After I cry for a while.

Thanksgiving, Birthdays, Little people and more:

First of all:


HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

Hope you all had a great day, and are very thankful for all the wonderful things you have. :-)

Next,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JULIANA!

My little girl just turned four!!!! We had a princess party for her last Friday, while her grandparents were here, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Thank you, Beth for making her cakes!

I'm running out of time, so, quickly, here's a couple of pictures of the little monkey - thought you might like to see what he looks like these days! :-) He'll be one year old in just a couple of weeks it's hard to believe! Still, he has no teeth, and isn't overly interested in walking as of yet, so it doesn't seem as if he's trying to grow up too fast on me. He likes to talk to us, chase balls around the house, and push around his tractors and cars while making motor noises!

"Hi, Mom! What's that thing you're holding? Can I have it?"

'Who, me? I'm not doing anything - just sitting here hoilding my train. What makes you think I'm up to something?'

Conversations with a 3-year-old

Today, we were sitting on the back porch, watching the clouds go by, when Juliana all of a sudden says,
"I can't see God's face."
I explained to her that God lives in Heaven and we won't see His face until we get there.
Awhile later:
Ju: Where does God live?
Me: In Heaven.
Ju: How do we get to Heaven?
Me: Well, you either have to die, or wait until Jesus comes and gets us and takes us there.
Ju: I'm not ready to go to Heaven.
Me: The only way to be ready to go to Heaven is to ask Jesus to come live in your heart and help you to be a good girl.
Ju: But I AM a good girl!
Me: But you have to ask Jesus to live in your heart.
Ju: Ok. I will. (mumbles) heaven...Come live in my heart, Jesus. ok, I did it!
Later:
Ju: Who's that fella that lives in Heaven?
Me: God?
Ju: No, the other one.
Me: Jesus?
Ju: Um, yeah. No, Lord.
Me: The Lord?
Ju: Yeah, now we have wait for the Lord to come and get us!
:) Guess she's ready to go now!


**Update**
Not only was she ready to go, she went and found her favorite barbies, then came and told me it was time to go. I tried to explain to her that we can't take anything with us when we go, but she informed me that she 'just needs her dolls'. She also wated to know if God had a potty she could use when she got there, and where she was going to sleep, and if God had jammies, or did she need to take hers?
These are not questions that are answered in the Bible, folks. :)
Of course, she was very disappointed when I told her that we probably wouldn't go to Heaven today. Tomorrow, then?' she says.
'It might be tomorrow, but then it might not be until you grow up and get old.'
'Oh, then the next day.'
Then she came and informed me:
"I don't want to see my God today."
Why?
"I just want to go to MooMoo's and get my dolls. We'll go see God another day!"

Sounds like she's got it down - Lord, I want to see you, but wait until I do all the things I want to do first, and then you can come back!
Later on she decided that she wanted to go to Heaven today, after all.
How do I explain to her?
I tried to tell her that the only way you can get to Heaven is either to die, or wait until Jesus comes back; she doesn't want to die (she informed that 'boys die, girls don't'!?!), so she said she'd wait for Jesus, but she doesn't understand why He's not here yet!
But wait a minute- isn't that how we're all supposed to feel?

Ok, so I didn't go to bed after all.

Showing off her new shirt - it's believable until you get a closer look at the dirt on her face!

(Thank you, Marilyn!)


Watching...something?? I found her all curled up like this - doesn't she look sweet?


AHA! I always knew she was part monkey!

Um, Ju? I don't think that's really meant to be worn on your head. And it doesn't exactly match your dress.


Isn't she gifted? Only 2 years old and already playing checkers.



You might not want to look right now, Kenny, but I think someone is cheating!



And, last but not least, her new favoritest thing to do. She's "simmin'". This evening she came and brought me one of her swimming diapers, then said, "Mom, where's my swimmin' poot?"

I'm not sure, but I think she might have gotten 'pool' and 'suit' a little mixed up! :-)

Mommy is thoroughly and completely (and painfully) burnt.

Juju does not care.

She says, "don't worry. Mommy, it doesn't hurt!"

Really? For some reason, I thought it did!

Ho Hum.

Yes, I know it's been over a month. I'll try to post pictures and stuff before too long, but I've just had a lot going on. (excuses, excuses...)
We were supposed to be heading to Missouri Thursday for Jessica's wedding (one of Brad's cousins), but his great-grandma, Frances Davis, is in the hospital and not expected to make it much longer, so it looks like we might have to stay here; that's a bummer - especially since I'm supposed to play for the wedding! :-0 Juju's been looking forward to seeing MoMo and Bapaw - I hate it, if only for that reason, because she's been so excited. She's always asking "We going to see MoMo n Bapaw to-monow?" Oh well, I guess there'll be other times.
I'll have post pictures of my garden, the cat, and other stuff.
About that cat...y'know how I told about Ju dragging it around, and otherwize terrorizing it? Well. One day the cat got tired of it. And he told her he was tired of it. It was just a little scratch (he's just a little cat), but it was enough for her! Now, the cat isn't allowed within 10 feet of her without her screeching LOUDLY " 'at cat's gonna GIT Juju!"!!!! :-) But it's funny when the cat 'gits' Mama - at least SHE thinks so!
Kids! What would we do without them? :-)

Happy Easter!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

We had a Program Sunday morning with singing and scripture readings, and so on; it turned out really nice - at least from the piano bench it seemed nice! :-) We even had a few visitors show up, including a new family that had never been before!

Sunday afternoon we had a church potluck, and Bro. and Sis. Miller graciously invited us all to their house. They have a beautiful home and all the food was wonderful (or 'berry delicious' as Juju would say!)

I couldn't get any really good pics of Juliana before she managed to go and get strawberries on her pretty new dress. (But the good news is that I washed it and it all came out!)

Here she is with our friends Kenny and Heather Adamson. (she matched them, too!)

Of course she sat and smiled prettily with them...we try to get her picture with us and she wiggles and wriggles, and pulls her dress up, etc.

Just some random pictures:

Terrorizing the cat
Gardening (which soon became a form of terrorizing the cat, when she started whacking him with her gardening tools!)

Her first skinned knee - received from running too fast in the driveway. (please ignore the tragically yucky pants her father is wearing. Pants make wonderful things to wipe your painty or tarry hands on!)

What Shall We Name The Baby?

It's a Boy!

He weighs around 1 pound, and is about 8 inches long.

He came to join us about 6 p.m. yesterday.

Although we knew he'd be coming sooner or later, we hadn't expected him quite this early, so we didn't have any names picked out. Any ideas?

Juju is thrilled. Every spare minute today has been spent admiring the new baby. He cries a lot, but that is to be expected from one so small.

And did I mention?

It's a cat. :-)

Now for a little math.

This:

Plus this:

Equals Trouble.

They're eating together. (And I did what any good mommy would do - I got the camera and took a picture, and THEN she got in trouble for eating with the cat!)

The poor little kitty didn't know what he was getting into when he came to live with us! So far, today he has been hit, poked, chased, yelled at, hung from a leash (his "tail" as Ju calls it), had his (real) tail pulled, swung around in his carrier, and had food thrown at him - and this was just the first day! Hopefully she'll get the hang of things before they kill each other. She loves to feed him, and if I have him in his cage, she is glued in front of it talking to him, asking if he wants out, sticking her fingers inside, etc. I have to put him up so he can get some rest!

And did I mention that I'm allergic to cats?

Oh, the things that we do for our children!

It Takes Courage!

Juliana likes slides. However, she's always been just a little too scared to go down them by herself!
Not anymore!
We'd been out mowing the yard the other day, and I decided to set up her yard toys - house and thing-a-ma-jig (you know, the thing with the slide that you climb on?). Well, I'd turned around to do something else, and from behind me, I heard "Wheeee!!!" (splat), and then "Mommy, lookee!". She'd finally gotten the courage to go down all by herself.
So for the next hour that's what she did:





She climbed up,

Sat at the top and hollered at me to watch her,

Slid down,












And giggled when she got to the bottom.

The slide has been conquered. What's next?

We met the new neighbor....

He's pretty nice.

I think that she was really meant to be a boy -

Here she's poking at one of the many anthills in

the yard with her stick. She thought it was

funny to make the ants mad.

She loves sticks, rocks and dirt.

What do you do when your little girl turns into a tomboy?