The Spokenagel Girls

Lately the girls have had a lot of time to do things together, which seems to have bonded them ever closer. Sarah is such a wonderful mother to these two - even when they don't deserve it (which I don't think really happens very often). Jamie has been on a steep learning curve lately, while Caitin has been on a steep growing curve. Jamie tries to do everything the big people in the house do. Caitin sometimes grows weary of this, but she is a wonderful big sister. Sometimes we grow weary of Caitin's habit of eating VERY SLOWLY, but with the growth spurt we're glad she's been completely cleaning her plate. We've had to buy new clothes again, even though we bought some for school just a month ago. Anyway, here's a few pictures to catch up for the slacking I've done lately:

Here with Sarah's close moderation the girls were able to work in the SAME activity book.


On a walk between conference sessions a couple of weeks ago we had to accept that the warm weather of summer was coming to a close. These pictures were taken at the Finch Arboretum.

We only go there once or twice a year, and every time we have to visit the big canopy tree, whose branches touch the ground all around it. So cool!

Cheeze! Caitin has little projects to bring home from school all the time. She seems to do really well. She has been singing new songs at the dinner table and teaching them to us...or at least trying. "You can sing the 'Slippery Fish' song, Dad, cause I taught you the words", she'll say. (I've heard it once through, and she expects me to remember?)

Jamie has graduated to the 'Big Girl Bed' now and has an occasional partner in sleep. She has always been easy to get to bed, and has not had much trouble with this transition. She's been saying lots of words lately. She catches on to new words every day, but seems to gravitate to repeating "Mom, mom, mom, Mom, MOM, MOM!!!" until she gets a response. Then does it again. Grandpa says she's just testing the word to see if it still works. I think he's right. She does it with Dad too.
I feel blessed to come home to these girls every day!

Aaaawwwwwww...

Happy Halloween!

Fireplace

Sarah is amazing! Here's the before picture of our fireplace:

First she painted the base coat of brown on the mantle.

Then used a darker brown to pho (fough, fo, fho?) the rest.

Finally another coat of glaze the color of the walls to tie it all together.

It never quite felt finished until the diapers were back up.

What's for Dinner?

Hey Jamie, what's for dinner? Are you ready?

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Big Happenings

Guess who's going to school now!? Holy-moly, Caitin is getting big. The local high school has a program where the students run a preschool for one of their college-credit courses. The kids will attend 3 to 4 times per week and will each be assigned a high-school buddy. That comes out to a 1:1 student:teacher ratio.
Caitin has been excited about this for a long time. She has several friends from church in her class, so she is completely comfortable. Her first week went very well, but she was very disappointed to find out that she doesn't get to go EVERY day!
In other news, a bed-time story character came to visit us last weekend. Star the horse has been a friend of ours for over a year now, and finally made an appearance...

...so we promptly shoved birthday candles in her belly and had a party!

Happy Birthday Caitin!