Just Lion Around

Joe's gift to the girls this past Christmas is the stepstool, I mean lion, in the above picture. This lion has a steel frame inside and can hold up to 140 pounds. When he's not acting as a stepstool, the girls drag him, rather awkwardly, from one end of the house to the other and play doctor with him, too.

Last week as we were leaving the house Xandra asked if she could bring a toy in the car. I told her that was fine and to pick it out while I got sisters in the van. When I reentered the house after getting Theia and Liyah situated, Xandra was at the doorway attempting to wrestle the lion out the door. I asked her what she was doing and she informed me that this was the toy she wanted to bring in the van. Once I recovered from my laughter, I informed her that the lion was not coming in the car. Her disappointment was great, but I think she somehow knew she was not going to get away with the lion in the car. After that, the lion sat in the entryway for two days, as if at any moment someone would carry him to the car for a ride.

Kiss That Block Goodbye

A few weeks ago while poking around at a garage sale, I found a few more blocks for our collection. This set of blocks came complete with a wagon that was immediately turned into a bear/dolly bed. Only in a house full of girls would a wagon for blocks be used in this unthinkable way.

Because of the new blocks, the girls have found renewed interest in building towers and stairs. Here is one of their best creations to date (with the help of daddy, of course). Notice the two flowers? They're from the new set.

Liyah has also been enjoying the blocks, but she tends to get more excited at picking them up than putting them together.

We'll Leave the Light On For You

June has been a month filled with visitors. We've loved it! Before Joe's parent's arrived, our friends Jeffrey and Keri (who used to live here) came for a weekend visit. They didn't stay with us, but we did attend their baby shower (Keri is due just two weeks before me with their first baby) and they stopped by for an afternoon to visit and to see the girls.

Keri has had a magical influence on our children's walking abilities. She was present the night Xandra took her first steps, (Joe and Jeffrey had left to pick up fried chicken) and she was here to see Aliyah taking some of her first steps. Unfortunately, Aliyah has stalled at taking just a few steps every other day for the last several weeks, but we're hopeful that before the age of 10 she'll be walking.

Our friend, Mr. Dan, as the girls like to call him (who lives locally), stopped by that day, too.

Amidst Joe's parents' stay, our good friend, Jim stopped by for a visit. He was on a cross country tour to visit friends and supporters (his wife, Marianna and he are campus ministers with a ministry in Boone, NC).

The girls enjoyed his company immensely and so did the rest of us. Unfortunately, he was headed back home after a short visit to our home (we were his first stop on the journey). He hurt his knee weedwacking the day before and things weren't looking good for his knee. I'm sure his wife was glad to see him two weeks early, after all, living with Jim is like living with Simon Cowell (in looks only)! Who wouldn't be happy about that?

Photo and editing credit: Joe Pull

Just a few days after we said goodbye to Grandma, Grandpa and Jim, we welcomed five boys into our home. They were here for a national communications (think speech and debate) conference. They worked for the organization hosting the event. We didn't see much of them as they left early and came home late, but we did enjoy having them around. They were polite, pleasant, and pretty tidy. Xandra's first question every morning was, "Where are the boys?"

Our home will enjoy a lull in the next few weeks while we wait for our final visitors of the summer, a group of students from the Czech Republic visiting on a missions trip. If anyone else is interested in stopping for a visit, we'd love to have you! We're like Motel 6, we'll leave the light on for you.

A Day for Daddy

Father's Day 2010 began with daddy waking early to go for a run. Most dads I know want to sleep in, but Joe wants to run. While Joe was running Xandra and Theia helped me quietly (we had houseguests sleeping in our living room) mix up two batches of baked oatmeal for breakfast. When daddy returned from his run and showered, the girls gave him their presents. They had each answered a series of questions and then colored the paper, too.

He seemed to enjoy reading their answers and commented that he wasn't surprised to see Theia worked poop into one of the answers. The girls are in a stage right now where they are obsessed with talking about fecal matter.

Joe enjoyed his baked oatmeal and fresh strawberries on our Special Day plate.

After church we stopped for subs at Subway and headed to a local garden with the rest of our lunch to enjoy a picnic.

Against our better judgment, we bypassed the bathrooms on our way into the gardens. As soon as we were settled and getting lunch out, Theia announced she had to go potty. Thankfully, Joe made the long walk back to the bathrooms with her.

After lunch we explored the pond. Xandra was desparate to see the geese which usually hang out near the pond. The geese were absent but we saw frogs, turtles, and lots of plant life.

At Joe's request, we slowly hiked all the way around the pond.

On our adventure we found this cave-like tree,

enjoyed this porch that looked out over the water,

climbed some big rocks,

and then took the long path back to the car.

After naptime, Joe and the girls enjoyed sometime in our swimming pool.

A lazy, summer day with three little girls. Is there a better kind of day for a dad?

A Visit from the North

Grandpa Tim and Grandma Mary came for a week long visit this month. The girls were ecstatic to have them at our house for so long.

As always, there was lots of book reading (I'm pretty sure they read every book in the house, twice),

a fair bit of lounging and napping,

a carpet picnic with Pizza Hut pizza,

a lot of playing doctor with a new doctor kit Grandma brought,

and, of course, lots of snuggling and hugging.

Xandra cried halfway home after we dropped them at the airport. For nearly a week she announced at least once a day that she didn't want Grandma and Grandpa to go bye-bye. Thankfully, she's come to terms with the fact that we live in Maryland and they live in North Dakota (either that, or she's given up asking because it gets her nowhere). Now the questions about how long until we visit the grandparents (both sets) at their houses have begun. I'm glad our girls love their grandparents! We do too. And we especially love when they visit!

Water Works

While there is a pool about three blocks from our home, we've never visited it. Grandpa Tim, however, broke our dry spell and took Xandra, Theia and Joe to swim for an afternoon while he was visiting.

The girls enjoyed the water and even got their hair wet.

The big excitement for the afternoon was when someone pooped in the baby pool. Fortunately, it wasn't one of our kids. It did shut the baby pool down for the remainder of the afternoon, but our girls didn't mind swimming in the big kid pool one bit.

The crew came home pink from an afternoon in the sun, happy, and ready for dinner.

Tree Hugger

Much to our delight, Tim usually tackles one home improvement project whenever he visits. He has restless legs and likes defying death, so on this visit, he single handedly cut down large portions of cedar trees in our front yard. The trees were hit hard by our snow storms this winter and never recovered.

He spent much of a day perched in the tree with a chainsaw like this. I generally avoided watching after these pictures were taken as I was near a heart attack. Mary calmly informed me that this is not unusual activity for Tim and that she stopped worrying about him long ago. It just seems like a bad idea to climb that high in a tree, with a chainsaw, and then proceed to cut the branch on which you are leaning. Call me crazy, but it seems dangerous.

Tim survived the day unscathed, but our damaged tree branches did not. We estimate his services saved us nearly $500 (this is how much a neighbor paid a tree service to remove her affected tree branches earlier this spring). We repaid his generous, hard work by allowing him to sleep on our couch for a week, feeding him somewhat edible food, and forcing him to be awoken by small children early each morning. Come to think of it, I think he got the short end of the stick!

We are now in the market for a gently-used, 10hp wood chipper to turn the piles and piles of branches into much-needed mulch for our yard.