Recent Life

Here's another catch-up post. :)

So... for all of you who live in harsher climates than we (which, I'm guessing, is about 97% of you :) ), here's a glimpse of winter in Texas. In the picture below, Alexa was helping me hang up the laundry outside. I've been hanging our laundry outside pretty much all winter (thanks to my parents, who got us an umbrella clothesline for Christmas). There are days when it rains, but most of the time it's beautiful!!

So... if any of you have a hankering for nicer weather, come visit us!! We're feeling a bit lonely and would enjoy company, you know. Our most recent visitors left last Sunday, so it's just the five of us again. There have been only a few company-free weeks since October, and we've enjoyed having people around! Our guestroom is waiting... :)

This is what goes on most of the time. Lucia is now a fluent reader (of most children's books; I wouldn't quite challenge her with the daily paper or, as she would say, a "grown-up book"), and it really is quite amazing to listen to her devour library book after library book with very little stumbling over words. She enjoys reading to Rhea, and I love the fact that they can now occupy themselves in yet another way. :) I would estimate that Lucia reads to herself or Rhea about two hours a day. And it's almost impossible to get her to do anything in the middle of her book! (Thankfully, they are currently not all that long, so I'm usually ok with her finishing the story before coming to lunch, brushing her teeth, getting dressed, whatever. :) )

This picture captures Alexa in a nutshell. She LOVES to be upright, facing someone, and smile and chat. And she loves her Papa! He doesn't get to see her all that much since he's working some long hours these days and frequently she's in bed for the night before he gets home from work. But they love to hang out when the opportunity arises. :)

Papa and his three girlies. :) What more is there to say?

Story time on the couch. This man is in high demand, let me tell you. If it's not his boss requiring his attention, then one of the girls most certainly will take the opportunity to rope him into their play, have him read a story, or accompany him to wherever he's going next. He's a wonderful Papa to them, and I'm so fortunate to have a man like this in my life. :)

Alexa admiring her big big sister. Lucia is very good with her (as she was with Rhea two years ago, too), and Alexa is usually all smiles when Lucia pays attention to her. :)

Another beautiful "winter" day! It was 76 degrees, so I decided to take the girls to the park for a picnic lunch. It was Alexa's first picnic and she enjoyed herself too! This was yesterday's lunch... outside. Because yesterday was even nicer than the day before. I love that the girls can just go outside and play for hours. The garage looks accordingly, but hey! They are entertained and having a blast with chalk, squirt bottles, buckets and watering cans, pieces of wood, sticks, bungee cords, whatever they find. :)

And the last two pictures are of Lucia during her newest gymnastics class that started last week. It's just a six-week session for 3-5 year-olds at the local Activity Center, but she seems to enjoy it. Since only two kids signed up for it total, the instructor invited Rhea to join beginning next week. (She waited with me outside, and kept saying: "Mama, when I big, can I go inside, when I big?" And when the class was over, she thought it was her turn (since other kids arrived for the next session), and when I had to tell her after a few minutes of going in the gym that we had to leave, you could see the disappointment on her little face). So she'll be excited next week when I tell her that now, she's BIG! :)