2 1/2

Today, Logan is two and a half years old. In the last six months we've seen her grow, mature and develop an extraordinary amount. She is the sweetest little girl and we're so proud to get to call her our own.

Logan was so good with pictures today, but wanted a few with her own flare:

She insisted the rain gutter was a good place to pose:

It's hard to put down how much she knows/can do anymore because there's just so much. She's learning something new every day, now, and has such an expressive personality.

We love our little girl SO much and while it's hard to watch her grow up because we'd love for her to just stay little; we are so proud to be her parents and to get to love on her every single day of her life.

I thought it might be fun to do a little "interview" with Logan to mark 2 1/2 since I really can't write down everything that she's doing anymore. I also did another recording of Psalm 23. She's learning more and more of it and says this one along with about 4 other bible verses every night before she goes to bed. I love teaching her God's word and seeing her take it all in.

And then, for good measure, here are some comparison pictures. The first one is L at 1 year and again at 2 1/2 in the same spot and then the other compares her at several ages.

Last Swimming Lesson

This morning we headed off to our last swim lesson! Logan was SO SO SO excited because since daddy is closing the store tonight, he got to swim with her. I was very excited to get a break from the sub-zero temperatures of the indoor pool. :)

Love her little bathing suit. And her ponytail. And her wedges. Which we ONLY let her wear to the pool. Way, way too big girl for her.

I could only take pictures with the iphone while she was in the pool because the flash from the regular camera was far too distracting. Therefore, all of the pictures were dark and blurry, but this one came out ok.

I hung out with this little guy the whole time while he watched big sister:

Here she is proudly showing off her swim certificate! We were so excited we didn't even notice she'd gotten the wrong one until we were done taking pictures. But we fixed this as soon as we were done.

Next year she'll be in the independent preschool class. I can't believe how big my sweet little girl is getting!

Preschool in review: week 2

This week we learned:

The letter B(b)

About jungle animals.

The number 2

The shape triangle

The color yellow

And used the fruit banana to re-enforce our color, letter and number.

We finger painted for the first time this week! Logan LOVED it. She seriously spent 30 solid minutes on the floor doing it and did not want to stop...but was forced to since she had painted a hole through the bottom of the paper. :)

The next day we worked on finger painting triangles together.

Did you notice our new "hart" work display? (Logan will tell anyone that walks in to come look at her "hart work.") I wanted a way to display some of the things she learns but the fridge was quickly running out of room. I'm also getting the two year itch--either need to move or redecorate, so this gave me a great opportunity to remedy both problems! I bought several cheap, chunky frames:

Brushed them with an aqua color, only one coat so as to give it a nice, antiqued look:

Smiled up at this sweet face several times:

Laid them out on the floor the way I wanted them on the wall:

Used these giant claw like office clips (I plan on getting smaller ones to do the job, but this is what Wal-Mart had yesterday):

And hung L's hart work in it! I love how easy it is to change it out and will be adding a few more frames in the near future...wanted to make sure everything fit well before investing in too many frames. I think the massive white wall needs a little more.

Notice our FOURTH seat filled at the table, now? We found that great space-saver highchair almost new on craigslist (was at someone's grandma's house and not used frequently) and now big boy gets to sit with us at meals. It converts from an infant like high chair to a baby high chair to a toddler booster. Fantastic. I keep telling him to stop growing up but he's already not listening to me. I'm sure that all to soon, we'll be displaying HIS artwork in these frames.

Eyes

Both of my children have some of the most piercing blue eyes I've ever seen. When they look at you, you can't help but stare back into them. I love that while they both inherited the baby blues, they also both inherited very different shades. Logan's eyes are very light and airy, they're the color of the shallow waters of the Caribbean ocean.

Brody's eyes are much darker than Logan's are. They've got almost a haunting quality sometimes, because of how deeply they seem to penetrate when he stares. They're more like the color of the Pacific.

Both are strikingly beautiful, though, and I'm so glad I get to stare into them day after day.

Here's Your Brody Fix

While we were in Miami, someone gave us a full tuxedo for B. He's the right size to wear it now, but we have absolutely nowhere for him to wear it to. So, we pulled it apart yesterday and used the shirt and tie for church. He looked quite dapper with it and his little faux hawk.

Brody is also starting to roll over a little more without any prompting! It's fun to watch him when he gets really determined and then to see how excited he gets when he finally makes it back to his back.

One more, can't help it:

Conversations With My 2 Year Old

L: Mommy, I want to be a pirate so I can say argh!

Mike: Logan, help mommy pick your books up.

L: No, thank you, sir dad.

Logan, while looking at nursing bras in Motherhood: You need some new boobs, mom? (um, let me die please)

After the kids go to bed, I usually treat myself to a bowl of ice cream. It's my glass of red wine, if you will. I was eating one the other night and Logan came in the room...

L: You eating ice cream in your bowl, mom?

Me: umm...no.

L: What is it?

Me: Water?

L: You're eating water? Out of a bowl? That's strange.

That'll teach me to lie to a 2 year old.

L: I probably can't watch that Harry Potter stuff. It will probably scare me. (I must say probably a lot)

Logan, while carrying a large pack of pull-ups to her room: I'm going to put my pull-ups in my room. I'll probably need them when I pee in this one tonight, ok?

All of Logan's stories begin: "One Pup Time" also known as, once upon a time.

And as Logan was going to bed the other night, I heard her talking on the "phone": Hi, somebody. Yeah, I doing great. Yeah. You want to go to Target tomorrow? No? Kohl's? No? Walmart? Mebe (maybe)? Ok, great. Target. Doodbye.

Me: Logan, please don't grow up, stay little forever.

Logan, 5 minutes later: Mommy, I don't want to grow up. I want to be your baby.

Logan has a bandaid on her thigh and when you ask why it's there, she replies: umm...I watched Brody get a shot in his leg so I needed a bandaid.

Saying Goodbye

Yesterday, we drove over to Ft. Bragg to spend the day with Uncle John before he deploys next week for 8 months. It was so bittersweet because we always have a great time with him but we just didn't want to have to say goodbye.

Two peas in a pod:

Logan just adores Uncle John, though, it took her all day to warm up to him.

Logan has learned how to "cheese" and it's starting to make it really hard to get a good, natural smile from her.

Playing.

Hanging out.

Brother and sister holding brother and sister:

Saying goodbye for a while.

We're so proud of you, John!

It hits a lot closer to home when it's your own family heading over there. Made it all the more real that we'll probably be doing this when school is over. Keep our family, especially Lindsey, in your prayers in the coming months as we anxiously count down to his safe return.