Another baby play date

Last night, we got the babies together again. I can't believe how much they've grown!!! Kayla, Debbie, and I walked to the park with the kids while Tim and Nathan threw a softball around. Caleb played on the slide and watched us laugh at the babies.

Our cute little munchkins!

(Levi, Sonya, and Jonathan)

Cute little bums... :-)

I love hanging out with my mom friends. It's so nice that our kids are close in age because we are constantly comparing what the other is doing or where our kids are at developmentally. Even though each kid has their own uniqueness, we're all in the same boat and can totally relate to each other. I'm constantly amazed by how quickly our little babies have become more alert and can hold their heads up. Soon, they'll ALL be rolling around. Watch out, moms! Here we come!

Father's Day!

I wish I had pictures to go along with this post...sorry! :-(

Father's Day started off with me trying to get a little more sleep. Sonya woke up 4 times the night before and boy was I exhausted. Caleb and I had gone to the store a few days before and I let him pick out something special for daddy. Wanna know what he decided on getting Tim? At first, he said "candy." Then he narrowed it down to gum. Now, my little boy loves gum. He'd rather have sugar-free gum for a treat than cookies or candy. It's probably better for him those those other sweets anyway. So, we ended up getting some strawberry flavored Trident gum for daddy. I really wanted to find one of those T-shirts that the kids could do their hand prints and things on ... or at least find a Father's Day sort of shirt. Apparently they don't carry those at Target. I looked everywhere. I finally decided on a Casting Crowns CD since the main song "Until the Whole World Hears" was the one they sang at the last concert we were at before they officially released the CD. It turned out that Tim already had that song downloaded. Darn!

I didn't make a special breakfast or anything and kind of felt bad that my gift wasn't as great as I thought it would be. :-( So, we went to church like we normally do on Sundays. After Sonya and I took a nap, we went swimming. It was Sonya's first time in the pool! :-) She loved it! Then we made homemade pizza for dinner. Caleb had gone on a field trip with daycare to Palermo's pizza factory and brought home some pizza dough. It was fun to roll out the dough and have Caleb help me add the sauce, shredded cheese, and the toppings. :-) (Did I tell you that Tim helped chaperone the field trip? lol... He told me some pretty funny stories about all the little kids. Apparently they thought Tim was a riot).

Once we were done eating supper, we decided to return a few items to Target (including the Casting Crowns CD) and then we were going to head to Lime Kiln Park. I decided to take a little detour and stopped at Pick 'N' Save first. Caleb and I picked out a Turtle Danish Coffee Cake (I brought some paper plates and plastic utensils along from home). Then we ate our tasty treat at the park and played for about an hour. Caleb made it across the monkey bars all by himself! Plus, he showed off his muscles while rotating the bar and pushing a little girl across that one apparatus that moves from one platform to the other. (Not sure what it's called, but hopefully you know exactly what I mean).

Even though the gifts didn't turn out exactly as I had planned, the day turned out to be a special, very memorable Father's Day anyway. Thank you Tim, for being a wonderful father to our kids!! I love you, honey!!! Muah!

Play Date!

Last week Wednesday, the Steele's and the Nikolai's got together to play tennis. We played doubles for a little bit, but I was still feeling a bit under the weather so was more than happy to let the husbands play each other. Meanwhile, Deb and I caught up on the latest baby news and "gossip" while forcing our babies to pose together while Debbie took pictures. They are so darned cute!!!

Sonya was pretty happy about something!

Holding hands...

Wanna go steady?

Sonya loves playing with Daddy!

Grace Like Rain

Over the weekend, I created a new blog, "Grace Like Rain" where I plan to continue my personal story. I already moved the previous entries from "Like a Sunflower" to there so it all flows together easier. Since it's starting to get closer to the part of my life that is a lot more private, I've decided to make that blog invite only. Don't worry, there's not a new post out yet for it. I haven't had much time to really think the next one through, but have lots of notes and little disconnected paragraphs started. So once things are up and running, I'll set up the invites. If you're interested in continuing to read about my journey, let me know so I can add your email to the list. (I'll still post entries like normal in "Like a Sunflower," but save the most personal bits for the new blog.)

I chose "Grace Like Rain" as a title because God's grace has covered me so many times especially when I've gone down the wrong paths. I'm a sinner just like anyone else out there. My life is far from perfect. Sometimes I feel like I hold these deep dark secrets that I'm just bursting to tell the world, but am afraid that people will think of me differently. Maybe the secrets aren't as "dark" as I might think they are, but I feel that by sharing more about myself, you'll understand me a little more. Here's to "The Journey ..."

Thanks to all of you that have been reading thus far!

A Moldy Mistake

We were visiting my parents on Saturday to grill out and just enjoy the beautiful Memorial Day weekend. The weather was perfect so after lunch, we went for a walk to go put flowers on my Grandma Henke and Grandpa Pauly's graves.

During the walk, my sister was trying to get my brother, Robert, to tell me what happened to him at school recently. I was intrigued. Apparently the drug dogs were at the high school, like they are every year. Robert is just finishing up his junior year at New Holstein. Anyway, I know that my brother does not do drugs at all and was seriously surprised when he said that the dogs stopped at his locker and he was called to the office. It turned out that there was something fishy in his backpack..... MOLD! Robert had let some sort of food go bad and never smelled it to even realize there was something nasty growing in there. You want to know how long it had been in his backpack? If it was there since 8th grade like he said.... that puts it at around 3, maybe 4 years. DISGUSTING!!!

The office did call my parents about the situation. I don't know if it was before or after they realized it was only mold in the backpack. I think it's kind of funny, but am relieved that my brother didn't have anything else hiding in his locker.  THE END.

I love my hubby :-)

Tim had off on Friday as a mandatory furlough day so he decided to keep the kids home from daycare too. I was a little skeptical because he hasn't really watched both kids for an extended period of time. Also, outside of daycare, I don't know that I've left Sonya alone with him for more than 2.5 hours. Well... they survived. :-) Tim was able to get a few things done around the house too which was nice. I didn't even call him during my breaks which I thought I might need to do. haha! Before I left the house that morning, I asked Tim to take a picture of Sonya and email it to me at work. I was mostly just joking and didn't expect him to do it... but he did! Below is a pic of Sonya enjoying tummy time .... and the beginnings of a musical prodigy!

 Love my baby girl!