100

Today was a big day for you, Lucy. You did something that you have been practicing for a long time. You counted to 100 all by yourself. You would practice while driving in the car and say, Mama, what comes after 39... I'd say, 40 and you would say oh, right, and continue to 49 and then ask again. We are so proud of you because we can see how proud of yourself you are. We'd even hear you practicing in bed during rest time or sometimes before you fell asleep at night. You've got perseverance and we pray that you always will!

2 Peter 1:5-8 "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

We love you little girl!!

Lucy Loves Her Daddy

On most days, Lucy will wake up and ask if Daddy has to go to work today. Usually, she handles the yes pretty well and I tell her how many days until Saturday. She understands that Daddy needs to work so that we have a house to live in and food to eat, etc... Well, the other day, when I told her that yes, Daddy has to work, she got very upset and she said "We have a lot of money, Daddy doesn't need to go to work." I told her that we would run out of money if Daddy wasn't working. So she told me "Well, I have A LOT of money in my piggy bank." I just laughed and hugged her because this sweet little girl was ready to hand over her piggy bank in order to keep Daddy home. She is going to be one happy girl these next 2 months because he has like 4 weeks of vacation to use up plus holidays... woohoo!!!

What's new

Brandt started crawling on September 13th while we were staying with my parents at their time share. He started out crawling like a little sweet pea, but has found his speed in the last month. Sometimes he tries to crawl so fast that his legs are going faster than his arms and he falls on his face. Whenever he gets to a hard surface, he pulls one leg up and scoots himself so he looks like he is riding a scooter. Last week, he started pulling himself up on everything and pulls everything down that he can reach. He especially loves remotes, or merotes, as Lucy calls them. Mike even gave him his very own, but he knows his doesn't work and wants nothing to do with the one he is allowed to have. Brandt has 5 teeth and I can see 3 more teeth trying to come in. In just a little over a month he will turn 1, it's hard to believe it.

Lucy made a new friend. My best friend from college came to visit and she has a daughter who is 4, and Lucy and her just had a great week playing together. They put on ballet recycles (recital) wearing their tutu's and reotards (leotard). They loved rides on Cracker's (Mike), the horse. They played house, colored, we went for walks, shopping, to the pumpkin patch, and just had a great time together. The girls only got in little "not sharing" arguments, otherwise they did great for being together for a week. It's good they love one another because they really don't have any other choice.

Big Cedar Lodge

My cousin was gracious enough to take us with them to Big Cedar Lodge. We had a great time on the lazy river, trying every pool, going on pony rides, getting canoes and hanging out. We didn't have a good time on the paddle boat. I thought all 4 of us could go on 1... didn't work so well because Lucy was on my lap so I couldn't paddle very well and we didn't have anywhere to put our bag, so I was balancing it between us. To top it off, Brandt was hot and in a life jacket... he was crying. So we didn't even make it past the marina before turning around and getting a canoe instead. That was much better, plus we took Brandt's shirt off from under his life jacket and I held him... he was a happy camper. We were planning on going to Silver Dollar City, but unfortunately the day we planned to go, was the first day all summer that they were closed. So we shopped and rode the Ducks. Lucy got to be captain of the duck for a while out on the water. Then she fell asleep on Daddy's lap.




This is Mr. Tankers driving in the car... cracks me up to turn around seeing him starring up at me! Such a cutie.

Things I learned in August

Mr. Tankers learned some new things in August. He learned to wave bye-bye... it's funny because Lucy used to wave like a princess and Brandt does it his own way, not like a princess. He learned to do "SO BIG" and to sign all done. He will do the milk pump sometimes for milk, but we are still working on that and drink. What a joy to teach and watch him learn how to communicate.

Mr. Tankers also learned that he likes food... ALL food! Doesn't matter what it is, he wants it. I am so thankful that I don't have picky eaters. It may change, but for now I am going to enjoy it.

Lucy learned that any number + zero = that number, and is learning how to write her numbers. We have "school" a few times a week during Brandt's morning nap. She loves to learn and mommy is usually the one who says it is time to quit, otherwise she would keep going. One day, she was learning to write her 3 and she could not get it and she kept working on it, and all of a sudden she did it. She even showed Daddy her workbook when he got home.

Darby

We were gone for a weekend, and when we came home we were surprised to see that Darby, our caterpillar, was now Darby, our butterfly. She was beautiful! Lucy was just so excited and amazed by the whole thing. She just kept starring at her and smiling. So, of course, we needed to let Darby go. So we took her outside, said good-bye to her and asked her to come visit, and Lucy set her free. We were hoping that she would settle on some of our flowers, but she had been trapped for too long and just wanted to fly, so she took off over the fence and was gone. Lucy would ask me every day after that if Darby was going to come and visit, and I would just say we could watch for her but I don't know. Well, the other day, we took a 5 mile walk with the kids, and I can't even tell you how many "Darby's" we saw. We just kept telling Lucy, "look, there's Darby," and she would yell "hi, Darby." She was so happy to see her Darby. We even saw Darby flying with a yellow butterfly and Lucy said, that's Darby's friend and gave her some name too. I was just thanking Jesus for sending all those "Darby's" on our walks because it made a 3 year old little girl so happy. He cares for our smallest needs... so cool!

2000 miles

My sister and I drove the kids up to Wisconsin for a week earlier this month. My Grandma had flown in earlier that day from Florida and she didn't know we were coming. My parents kept her up late playing skip-bo so we could surprise her. She was so confused when my Mom came walking in the kitchen carrying my nephew, Preston, at 11:30 at night. She said, who is that, is that Preston, where did you get Preston.... and then the rest of us came in. We had a great week. We went to the Farmer's Market and Lucy had cotton candy for the first time... what a mess!! We went to the Milwaukee County Zoo... I had forgotten what a great zoo it is and so beautiful!!! Two peacocks opened it's feathers for us, which was fun to see. We rode the train and saw a lot of animals that we don't have at our zoo. The kids wanted to go back the next day.

We also went up to our cottage in northern Wisconsin for a few days, and we all have so much fun up there. We fished, caught frogs, ran around in the woods and just enjoyed the solitude. My Grandma, who is almost 90, got in our boat and went fishing with my brother and nephew, Riley. I think it added a few years to her life because she was so excited about doing that. Once again, Lucy loved the frogs... she wanted to hold them all. She also surprised us by trying to take her own fish off the hook. The girl is brave... I don't even like to do that.

Lucy also went to her first bouncy house place. She had a ball! She headed to the huge slide first, which scared her so badly that it took a lot of convincing that it was okay to go down some of the other slides. My nephew, Preston, who is the same age as her, would be at the bottom of the slide yelling, "I'll catch you, Lucy." So she would come flying down the slide, knock him over and then they would laugh. So fun!

So, we drove 2000 miles that week. I am so thankful for great travelers. It might take us a few hours longer to get somewhere, but at least the kids love to travel, and look forward to the playgrounds at the rest stops. As for Brandt, he could care less about the playgrounds, but he is a great little sport in his car seat. It does help, that my nephews think he is just the greatest and they all wanted turns to sit next to him in the car. I love my family.