Thursday, May 21, 2009

From the Oldest City in the USA

We recently returned from a 10-day vacation to America's oldest city, St. Augustine, which was founded in 1565! (Can you tell that Greg is writing this?) Among our many activities were biking on the beach (with children securely fastened), building sandcastles, running away from ocean waves in terror (Lydah), swimming with dolphins (Courtney -- for her 27th birthday), eating seafood, reading books, watching movies ("Frost/Nixon" is really good!), watching it "hurricane" outside for three days straight, walking through historical sites, not believing some of the things presented by Ripley, buying fudge and coffee, reading the Bible, sleeping in, playing on playgrounds, coloring, sitting in a hot tub, collecting seashells and burying them (Lydah again), and much, much more! So below are some pictures from before and during our trip.


Time with Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandmother Beard








Swimming with Grandpa and Grandma Coates at their hotel.





Below this point are pictures of the trip.







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Courtney's swimming partner


You'd think she has a 50-50 chance, but she never got them right without help.


Greg breaking some sort of law by holding a turtle inside a state park.






















Behind us is Florida's oldest lighthouse situated on Anastasia Island.


Lydah made a friend on the beach named Kaitlyn.





And a good time was had by all!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Long-Overdue Update

We've noticed that many of you check our blog frequently, so we thought we'd give you a quick update on the lives of our little girls.

Lydah is constantly cracking us up with her made-up stories and songs. She sings or talks herself to sleep most nights and even wakes up singing. It's a great thing to wake up to, especially when we hear both of them babbling in their rooms in the morning (Eve has a temporary sleeping arrangement in the guest bedroom).

The biggest news for our 2 1/2 year old is her recently being potty-trained! We are loving the fact that we no longer need two sizes of diapers in the diaper bag, and Lydah is very proud of the fact that she is now a "big girl".

Lydah's cleverness often catches us by surprise. This morning I (Courtney) had to do some quick-thinking when I realized we'd run out of cereal, which is the breakfast staple around here. So when Lydah wasn't looking, I crushed up a granola bar into a bowl of milk, hoping she wouldn't know the difference. She took a bite, cocked her head to the side, and said, "Is this granola bar cereal?" I knew I'd been caught. She just shook her head and sighed.

Easter was a lot of fun for the girls, with several Easter egg hunts and a nursery full of kids on Sunday. The following morning I asked Lydah what had happened on Easter, to see if she'd retained any of that good Sunday School curriculum despite all the candy. She was holding onto a stuffed puppy when I asked, "Lydah, do you remember what happened to Jesus on Easter? We say, 'Jesus is ...'" I was hoping she'd respond with the word "alive." Instead, she excitedly held up her toy and said, "a dog!"

As far as health goes, we believe we have endured, once again, our fair share of colds this season for both girls, but things are looking up. (Though, even as I write this, Lydah is suffering with a cold and a fever, an illness I believe she caught from Eve last week.) We took Lydah to have a pulmonary function test last month to make sure she wasn't suffering from any chronic illnesses, since she has had so many colds over the last two years. All was fine and the test showed no major problems. As a plus, Greg and I got to enjoy a 2-year-old on anesthesia for a few hours, which turned out to quite hilarious. Lydah would stumble around our living room, laughing and saying "whoa, whoa" as she bumped into things and fell over. We hate to compare our innocent little girl with a drunk person, but that's the best comparison I can think of. The nurses couldn't stop laughing as they sent us away with our goofy toddler.

Speaking of goofy kids, Eve is riot as well. She is a smiling, laughing, cooing addict. It doesn't matter who's holding her or where mommy and daddy are; as long as someone's smiling and giving her a little attention, she's happy as a clam. Lydah likes to get down on the floor with her and have little conversations, then announce, "Baby Eve talked to me!" We like to say Eve's our easy baby, not to say that Lydah was difficult... just different.

We've tried baby food and cereal with Eve, but she seems to enjoy the good life of having Mommy feed her and rock her instead. She's up to 13.5 lbs. now -- a small baby, but then, so was Lydah.

Pics to come soon...

Sunday, February 8, 2009

"That Was Amazing!"

Today Lydah was being suspiciously quiet while playing on her own. Courtney walked into the bathroom and saw her washing her hands in the sink. Lydah was just standing there, mesmerized as the water ran through her little fingers. Finally, she turned off the sink and looked up at Courtney with a satisfied look on her face. "That was amazing!" she announced proudly. Amazing how good the water felt on her hands? Amazing that she'd mastered yet another new word? Amazing that two hydrogens plus one oxygen equals water? We're not sure, but we do think that that little girl is one amazing kid with a pretty amazing vocabulary for just two and half years.

As for our other amazing daughter: Eve has recently discovered how nice it feels to have an entire fist in her mouth, so she spends a lot of her free time this way. She is sleeping VERY well for a 3-month-old -- sometimes 11 hours at a time. Both girls have basically the same sleep schedule, which is NOT something we plan to take for granted (these things can change very quickly as all parents know, but we are SO thankful for the time being.) Eve is also cooing a lot, and she will give a great big smile to anyone no matter the time of the day. Her ears stick out a bit like Lydah's -- in fact, those two could be twins if not for the two-year gap!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

A Collection of Short Stories

Lydah is starting to say funny/cute things so we're determined to write them down on our blog lest we forget them someday.

This morning after breakfast, I asked Lydah if she's like to watch some TV. She replied, "Yeah! Ok. We can watch Elmo 'cause it's your favorite." "It is?" I asked. She said with increasing excitement, "Yeah, it is! And it's my favorite too!"

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Mom: Lydah, who is the Bible about?
Lydah: Jophes. (Her backwards way of saying "Joseph.")

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Lydah and Daddy were playing in the church nursery when Lydah grabbed a book from the bottom of a stack of old books. One by one, books began to spill off of the shelf onto the floor. As this happened, Lydah cried, "Ahh! They're dripping!"

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One night Lydah was sick with a cough so Daddy laid down next to her for the night. After about half an hour of rolling around, coughing, and half-sleep, Lydah suddenly looks over at me and says loudly with excitement: "I'm not a baby anymore; I'm a big girl!"







Monday, December 22, 2008