DuPage Children's Museum

Last Saturday, we  had some showings booked during the late morning and afternoon, so we decided to make the most of it and check out the Children's Museum in Downer's Grove.  It did not disappoint and the girls keep asking when we can go back!

Eliana update

Eliana is continuing to be an independent little soul.  She is in that phase where she wants to do everything all by herself, call all the shots, and won't take no for an answer.

Because we have our house on the market, potty training has been placed on the back burner, but we're trying to squeeze in preschool every once in a while.  It's fun watching her little mind figure things out, and she's even realizing here and there that it's okay for Mom and Dad to make some decisions around here!

Eliana writing her name for the first time.

Last weekend, the girls wanted to put curlers in their hair Saturday night.  Eliana actually kept her curlers in (usually she pulls them out while laying in bed) and was so excited to sport a fancy 'do!  When I was done with her hair, I told her she looked like Cinderella.  When Geoff came over to see her, he exclaimed, "Hi Cinderella!" and she replied, "Dad, I'm not really Cinderella, I'm Eliana!"

Hylie's Progress

Hylie is turning into an ambitious little student.  Her reading skills have sky-rocketed these past few weeks and she loves reading books on her own!

She's also constantly writing her own stories, complete with illustrations.  Here are some she brought home from school:

 "I'm at my neighbor's house.  I like coloring and pretending that we are married."

"How to love someone"

"You see someone you fall in love."

"You will marry it."

"You will have kids."

"You play with them."

For our Monday Family Nights, we rotate the different responsibilities (picking a song, activity, teaching a gospel lesson, having a treat).  Hylie is always excited when she has the lesson and usually tries to prepare the entire lesson on her own.  Here are some illustrations she made for a lesson a little while back:

 

Jesus being baptized

 Jesus Loves Me

 Jesus teaching the people

Big Changes...

We have recently made the very difficult decision to move closer to Geoff's work in Downer's Grove.  Currently, it's a 45 minute commute (without traffic).  Sentinel Technologies has been very good to Geoff and Geoff has been very good for the company, so we feel this will be a positive change for us all.  The homes, neighborhoods, and schools are all wonderful in the Downer's Grove area.  However, we have put a lot of work into our home, made some amazing friends, and have some wonderful memories here--so this entire adventure is very hard.

Our home was listed for sale on February 17th.  We had a well attended open house and continue to have lots of showings.  So far no offers, but hopefully something will come through soon.  Keeping a meticulous house with three young children isn't a walk in the park!

You can see the listing here:

Woodhouse Home

So far, our most adventurous moments have been people arriving TWO HOURS early for a showing!  (Who does that?!) And a skunk decided it wanted to move in under our porch during the second weekend of showings.  Ugh!  What is it about our property that skunks love so much?  Luckily, Geoff and I were able to skunk proof the porch and that little critter hasn't been able to move back in.

February Snow

We had quite a bit of snow in February.  Unfortunately, it wasn't snowman snow--but the girls still had some fun playing outside for a bit!

Lillian Lately

This little girl's personality continues to blossom and melt our hearts.  She's becoming more and more verbal--her first official word was 'uh-oh' and now she'll also accurately use the words: Daddy, Mommy, Hylie (Hy-ee), Eliana (Ah-na), Cracker, Bath, Please, Baby, Up, and No, No, No (complete with a little finger being shook in your direction, ha ha!)  She makes the animal sounds for a cow, duck, and monkey consistently and is adding to the list every day!

She cruises around furniture like it's nobody's business and if you leave a bowl or plate near the table's edge, consider it gone if Lillian notices!  She's an expert crawler, loves climbing the steps, and will walk around with assistance.  Every once in a while we'll catch her trying out these moves:

Eating with a spoon has recently become one of her specialties!

Lillian is also a magnet for any writing utensil.  This little stinker has written on more floors, walls, and other various objects in her lifetime than Hylie and Eliana combined!  She literally becomes giddy if she gets to write on something, so I'll be shocked if her future doesn't involve creating something with pen and paper.

I put her in a box with a crayon and she was thrilled!

Currently she's also obsessed with wet wipes.  If you're changing her diaper and want her to lay still, you hand her a wipe and she is good to go!  If you need two hands to get something done, just simply hand Lillian a wipe and she will be all over the place wiping everything down--it's a riot!

She can pretty much understand everything we say and even responds to things like 'go get your coat', 'it's time to eat at the table', or 'Hylie's coming home'.

Lillian is also proving to be a dancing fool--with or without music and we absolutely adore her.

Today was also a sweet little moment, she folded her arms for the first time while we were having family prayer.

We sure love watching Lillian grow--we just wish it didn't happen so extremely fast!

Quiet Book

Sitting down to blog is quite an accomplishment for me, so when I was able to actually finish a quiet book to give to Lillian for Christmas--I was ecstatic!  I started this project 4 years ago and got 4 pages done...and then it got shelved for all these years.  I truly and thoroughly enjoyed designing and creating each page and if I ever get some motivation (and time!) again, I hope to add to this book.

 This particular page shows what little brain power I had by the end.  Notice the last column of beads?  When Hylie was playing with the page, she turned to me and asked why there wasn't a number 15 to place with those beads...I honestly thought I had strung on 12 and didn't print any higher numbers!  Ha ha!