May 12, 2009

A couple of fun things have happened since our last post, so it's time to update!

Every night at bedtime, we read stories with Aubrey and Ethan, pray, and sing songs. One of the usual requests is "Jesus, Shepherd of the Sheep":

Jesus, Shepherd of the sheep,
Who your Father's flock does keep
Safe we wake and safe we sleep,
Guarded still by you.

For those of you who haven't heard Ethan talk lately, it would be good for you to know that he has a tendency to say his /l/ sound like a /w/ sound. Aubrey has been helping him with this particular issue (and doing a great job with it, too!), and through her tutelage, Ethan has become increasingly aware of it. Whenever we sing the hymn above, though, Ethan feels the need to correct us. "No, Mom and Dad. It's 'safe-llly'!"
We crack up every time, and there is no telling him otherwise.

Aubrey was really funny tonight, too. We had lasagna with salad on the side for supper tonight. In Aubrey's case, though, it was more like salad with a side of lasagna! She had a plate full of raw lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and carrots with a tiny piece of lasagna. When we asked her why she wanted so many vegetables, she said, "I'm a calerpitar!" We thought that Aubrey wouldn't be able to finish all the veggies she had on her plate, but she proved us wrong - then she asked for dessert!
Also during bedtime tonight, we had a surprise visit from Pastor Uncle Steve. He came by with a crib mattress for Lily. While Heidi was carrying the mattress into Aubrey and Lily's room, Aubrey exclaimed, "Lily, your cradle days are over!"

There is more to share, but I think I'll save that for another time. If you are interested, I have started another blog that will serve as my reflections on classes that I take for my master's. I'm hoping to keep that up as long as I'm in school, but we'll see how well that keeps up.

Before I go, though, I have decided to do Lily's update simply with a picture.

Slide Show

May 6, 2009

It's been a little while since I've written anything in our blog, but tonight I finally am taking the time to give a little update.

Things are still going very well here in Omaha. We are surrounded by wonderful friends (and a couple of family members) who are very supportive of us. We are also very fortunate to be blessed with a healthy baby, and two older children who absolutely love their new little sister!

Allow me to explain a little bit for the delay in postings, though.

As many of our Lutheran elementary school teachers would agree, April and May are busy months. This year has been no exception. On April 30th and May 1st, our school performed our school musical - The Granny Awards. The kids worked really hard and did a great job with the performances. Both evenings were great successes!

We also had a track meet today in Geneva (about 2 hours away). At the track meet, I was given the opportunity to make my debut as an announcer. It was a lot of fun, though I was told that maybe next time I should 'tone it down'. You know me - I really throw myself into this kind of stuff!

Finally for me, next week I start my master's program at UNO. I am taking a class called 'Teaching Multiple Intelligences" on Mondays and Wednesdays for the rest of the month of May and all of the month of June. I'm really excited for the opportunities this program will give me to improve as a teacher.

As for the rest of the family, Heidi was just telling me the other day that she doesn't think she could be much happier than she is right now. Lily and the kids have been such a blessing in her life, and she is very thankful to have the opportunity to stay home with the kids.

Aubrey's school year is winding down. Her last day of kindergarten will be on May 20th. After that, it'll be off to big, scary first grade with Mrs. Nunez! Aubrey is very excited to grow up, though. Lately, Aubrey's big thing has been to write books. Currently, she is working on a princess book where all the Disney princesses are locked in towers and someone needs to save them. Aubrey is also very proud of her new pet, Red. He is a betta.

Ethan is learning to enjoy the finer things in life - playing Superman, digging for worms in the dirt, running around on the playground, and, of course, old Tom and Jerry cartoons from the library. Ethan is always very sweet around Lily, and very generous in sharing Fuzzy (his Minnesota Gramma afghan) with her when she is upset.

Lily...what can I say...she's adorable. Her sleep patterns have become somewhat predictable (you'd have to talk to Heidi about that one for sure, since I'm pretty sure I sleep through about 80% of it all!), if not completely through the night.

We are certainly very blessed here in Omaha. Every day, we thank God for our school, our congregation, and the people that he has brought into our lives by calling us here.

Finally, I'm using our blog as a laboratory. I found a neat new resource at Animoto and I am just dying to try it out. I pulled some pictures off of Facebook and was able to put them into a slide show (in about 5 minutes!). I'm pretty pumped - thanks for bearing with me!