iXy says

Ilane talks a lot now.  Well, at least to people she knows, and as long as no one else is watching or waiting expectantly to overhear what she has to say.

She is a southern baby though, and talks pretty cute. 

Whey-ah = where

Hee-yah = here

Whyee = why

 

Pretty much add 1 syllable to most words and that's her dialect. 

Most of the time now I can understand her...but not always. And it's even harder for others, so Xaris has become her sister's translator. In fact, she is so used to telling others (and even me, historically) what her sister is saying that she still does it even when not necessary. 

And while we are on the topic, Xaris has her language peculiarities as well.  

If she has a nightmare, she won't say she had a bad dream.  She'll say she is "dreaming badly". 

She is maybe one week away from reading--so so close. And--she has gained 2 pounds since May (which is a LOT in Xarisology, the last two pounds she had gained took her over a year). She now weighs in at 33 lbs, with Ilane following close at 29.8 lbs.  One shoe size separates these sisters, and I was thinking that this might be the year when iX passes up X. But, now maybe not, considering Xaris's recent "spurt" 

Just Keep Swimming

Another summer of swim lessons

Xaris is swimming solo, except for her nervousness about not being able to hold herself up long enough to breathe.  She'll get it, I'm hopeful for the rest of the summer.

iXy is in a big kid class for the first time.  Technically she is supposed to be 3, but I asked the swim lesson coordinator if she could try it out.  She's already done 2 years of the parent-child class, and I really didn't want to get back in the water with her.  Particularly with a class full of new parents with their 8 month old babies...she knows she's not a baby, and she thinks she's as big as her sister (because she pretty much is). 

She has done fine with it, and hopefully she'll be brave enough to try swimming on her own too.

If a Tree Falls...

If a tree falls on the house when mama's not home, is it still her fault?  

Just kidding.  Nothing about this was my fault or even attributed or accused.

But yes, we did have a tree fall on our house last night.  

It was not stormy, was not even windy, there were no circumstances that caused it to fall, other than it was apparently rotted out in the root system and it fell!

I was just leaving Youth group on Wednesday night, when I got a text message from Ricardo with a photo attached: A tree fell on our house.  He was already on the phone with insurance, and when I got home, I texted our neighbor who provides our lawn/yard service to find out if he had any tree removal contacts.  

Jose the Tree Guy (that is really his title, according to my neighbor's contact list) came the next morning to take a look, gave us an estimate and then left to get his truck, trailer, tools, and pick up a few guys to work with him.  

Insurance adjuster came out today to inspect the roof, and he was shocked at how little damage was done for a tree that size.  It was twice as tall as our house, so there is widespread shingle damage (several little pockets of destroyed shingles that will have to be replaced, but they are all over--not just in one section). But it didn't break any wood, any windows, and didn't smash up our AC unit which was directly in the path! Thank you Jesus!

It took 2 trailer loads to the dump...

Big old trunk....

But most of the roof is still okay! 

Bappy Hirthday!

We had the girls' birthday party on July 20th.
Before you look up in your calendar which girl has a July birthday to know who's we celebrated, the answer is neither.  Xaris is May 2nd, which is always a really busy time (in fact, there are typically 2 big fundraisers at church on the weekend closest to her birthday) and one of her little friends has a birthday 2 days prior to hers.  iXy is September 14th.
July just happens to be right in the middle of the two, and not quite so busy.
They both love the movie Frozen (2 sisters, both get to be princesses...it just kind of works), so we had a Frozen party.  It was loads of fun, ended up being the most successful party we've had so far.  Xaris has only ever had 1 or 2 kids (but several adults) show up at her prior birthday parties--because it's just a bad time!  This was a fun evening with lots of friends!
And, did I mention?  I GOT AWAY WITH HAVING ONE BIRTHDAY PARTY INSTEAD OF TWO.
I believe I will be doing this for as long as I can get away with it.

The girls birthday gift from Ric and I: their new dresses.  

Elsa and Anna hair

Even boys (we had more boys than girls at the party) jumped in on the crafts

Presents

And thank you's

Cupcakes and singing

Beverage station

Frosted or regular pretzels

Mix n match sandwiches (because we finish each other's)

Frozen grapes.  Best.Snack.Ever.

This project was fun, amazing, and just pretty cool.  

I should have started making snowflakes 2 weeks prior.  I forgot how long they take.

Mission Trip 2014

Mission Trip this year was to Petal, Mississippi.

It was fantastic as always, not too many bugs/problems/difficulties to have to sort out.  The girls came with us again, (it's getting kind of fun to explain that this was my 5 year old's 6th Annual Mission Trip).  

Gramama and Tayta both came this year, and I was so excited to have my dad along (I had been bugging him for quite awhile about how much we needed him to come).

We take everyone's picture, upon arrival, so we can attach a face with a name on each encouragement bag. This year we had 6 churches, with a total of 92 people in our living center.  It helps to have a photo.  The girls needed no prompting when it came time for their turn in the big blue velvet chair--they automatically struck their silly pose and moved on.

Our mission trip week consists of visiting all the work teams we can each day and delivering cookies, and ice pops, and frozen grapes.  And cheering up, encouraging, motivating, doing whatever we can to help out.

My dad's job was to help the worksite coordinator, and visit all the teams and supply tools & materials, help problem solve, and instruct when needed about how to do the work.  Good job for him. 

My nephew Haziel was able to come with us for the first time this year!!  That's him on the right in the gray.

This was our week.

And lots of hugs

Ricardo serves as a work team adult, which means he's out at one site all day helping the youth do the work.  We visited his site every day.  

HAZI!!!  Cousins...

Girls in one of their air mattress beds, playing with their toy phone.  One of the casualties of spending a week with the youth each summer--here they are pretending to take a "selfie"

Giant fans are amazing toys

Did I mention Haziel came with us?  He got to celebrate his 14th birthday during mission trip week too, which means his team got a surprise delivery of Snickers ice cream bars.

We play every evening too--we had a swim night

radioactive ice pops

Tayta and Jason working on the tools

Papa dressed up for our Christmas theme night.  

Next summer is Louisiana!