Well, I'm Already Downstairs! You'd Better Keep Up!

I just had to share some recent Lydia tidbits so I won't forget them later on. I wish I could film her throughout the whole day...or at least take a picture of every little thing she does. She is hilarious! I'm so thankful for a outgoing little girl. I was so extremely shy when I was younger and I'm glad Lydia is the complete opposite. She's outgoing, social, and definitely has a sense of humor. Love it!

This morning it took me two minutes to wake up to my 8:00 alarm! I need to start going to bed earlier! When I got out of bed to check on Lydia (I no longer have her baby monitor on - go me!), she was standing in the hallway holding a large yellow sponge as if it were a baby. I asked her what she was doing. "This is my baby...you want to come play?" I still needed to go potty, brush my teeth and get ready for our morning walk, so I told her I wasn't ready to play yet. "Oh, come on," she says, "you can be the grandma!" Out of all the hundreds of dolls and stuffed animals Lydia has in her room...she chose a SPONGE to be her baby! This girl cracks me up!

Lydia's new thing is to drive in her toy car. It suddenly hit her the other day that she wanted to drive in her car everywhere, just like Mommy and Daddy. She almost didn't get into my car at the post office because she was looking for her car. She now drives her Little Tykes car from our house to my parent's new house down the street. She also likes to fill her car up with "gas" and wash it's "windows". Her baby doll sits in it's seat next to her. She takes the fake key out of the ignition and then puts it back in and turns it a few times. She watches out the side "mirror" as she backs up her car. She has to park her car in the driveway next to Daddy's car. Once again, this girl cracks me up!

Every day I am so thankful and amazed at how much Lydia has grown. God has given me a wonderful, perfect little girl. We may have our tough times, but when she gives me a hug or asks for one more kiss before bed time, I am filled with so much joy I can hardly stand it!

Lydia posing in my wedding dress.

How's Your Thirst for Adventure, Captain?

August has barely begun and it's already been a full month and is looking to get even full-er!

The annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio was last weekend (the 2nd, 3rd and 4th). Mom, Leah and I headed up to Ohio on Friday and arrived just in time for the last part of the Hot Dog dinner at the local high school. It was quite "chilly" in Ohio - being under 80 degrees most of the time - a big difference from over 100 degrees in Texas!

Saturday morning we got up extra early in order to get into our Daenerys Targaryn costumes and for Leah to do both our hair and makeup. The costumes turned out awesome and we were excited to wear them at the festival. We walked almost the whole length of the Double Take Parade, but no one even asked us who we were dressed up as! There were plenty of Disney characters and other clever ideas - but no Game of Thrones characters. After the parade, we headed to the Research Tents to see what we could do. We got $5 right away for filling out a survey, then $25 for doing a taste test survey, then a $10 gift card to Wal-Mart for getting our fingerprints and pictures taken. Sunday we got $10 in Wal-Mart gift cards for the same thing, plus $10 for filling out a lie-detecting survey. We love the Research Tents since there's usually some good money to be made!

We entered the Saturday Costume Contest, but we didn't place. There were several awesome costumes. 3rd place went to a group of four (two sets of twins) who dressed as Prince Charming and Cinderella. 2nd place went to....I can't remember. And 1st place went to twins dressed as the Grimm Brothers. We also entered the most look alike females ages 24-29, but didn't place, either. Oh well! It was still fun to participate in the contest tent - we had never done that before.

We watched the Talent Show, as usual. There's always issues with the sound system, which kind of ruins the experience of the talent show, but it's always fun watching twins show off their talents. We also caught Drew Murray, a magician, in the food court - he's always really fun to watch! We tried to figure out his magic tricks, but were stumped even though we watched them twice.

I bought a t-shirt for me and Brian and then a different one for Lydia. Now we all have Twins Days shirts! The weather was perfect for walking around the festival all day - it was never too hot or too cold. We watched the fire works Saturday night and then stayed up late watching Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, haha. Sunday, we left the festival around 3:00 and went shopping at Wal-Mart and a $5 and under store. Then we chilled at the hotel for awhile and then went out to eat at a local restaurant. We left Monday morning for Texas. It was a great trip!

Lydia had a great time at her Grandma and Grandpa Pfeiffer's house! She loves spending time with them, especially since they have a new puppy named Joey. Lydia was a great help with Joey and very sweet with him. She wanted to go back and visit again!

Brian has been very busy working with my dad over at the new Dunlap house (three houses down from ours!). The house is really coming along great. There is new carpet and the walls are freshly painted. The boys worked on the side yard this morning and it looks great. Mom and dad will be able to move into their new house soon.

Brian starts working on his classroom next week. The following week Brian will be at teacher training/meetings all week and I do CPR training and have our preschool teachers meeting. Parent Orientation for Preschool is on the 30th - and this time I get to be the parent and not the teacher!

I have been researching new preschool music ideas and piano teaching ideas. I start my full week of preschool, Bibleland, and piano lessons the second week of September - eek!

Sara's bachelorette party is the last day of August and I'm helping Tamara plan and get ready!

Wow, August is busy and will probably go by way too fast!