FALL THUS FAR

And of course, it has been another long while since I have posted pictures, so here are a couple of pics of what has been going on. I am going tomorrow to see my new niece, so once I am back from the trip I will have more to post!

The beginning of fall started off warm, but now it is starting to get cooler, which is good for me beacause I am ready to pull out my sweaters!

Here was Monmouth Battlefield Park. Joe and I took Molly and Sophia. It is a beautiful park - you actually forget that you are in NJ! There are a ton of apple, and peach orchards as well as pumpkins and strawberries. It was a beautiful day and I can't wait to go back to get our pumpkins for this year!

See how pretty! Then Molly, NaNa and I went to visit in NY my mom's side of the family, which was great for me because I had not been there for years! Aunt Donna took us to a rescue farm and Molly got to chase all the goats and lambs around and pet them. We also went antiquing. It was a lot of fun to have a weekend with just the girls - even Molly said that she liked antiquing!

Brushing our teeth. We had our first dentist's visit a couple of weeks ago. Molly had some grey marks on her teeth, and I freaked out. But they were only stains and the dentist was great! She was so good with Molly and gave me rules that I had to follow when we were in the room... I even got a report card for how well I was brushing her teeth - which I got a C on - yes I do brush my daughter's teeth every night, but sometimes it is hard to get a moving target. But the doctors was great and showed me some moves to help get those back teeth!

Ahhh, baby... Molly is obsessed with her baby dolls. With feeding them, dressing them, giving them milk, taking them on trips in her stroller, giving them time outs, whatever it is, baby is along for the ride. Joe got her this new baby doll that is for the bath, so she takes it into the bath with her every night and washes her hair - it is so cute. She sings the baby rock-a-bye baby... it really is funny because she thinks she knows all the words....

And our first in grown toe nail...... ugh!

except that she likes to soak her toes, but she wont let me look at them afterwards....

Thank heavens it is all better now.

Molly is also wearing one of the nightgowns that Grandma Fran made for her too! My Grandma made Molly liek 5 fall jumpers, 3 nightgowns, 2 fleece jackets, a bunch of hats and a beautiful dressy winter coat (she looks like mary tyler moore!)

I wish I had Granny Fran's sewing abilities. Everything she made was absolutely beautiful!!!!

Good-bye to Summer

So, we are back from our trip to Myrtle Beach, which means only one thing - summer is coming to a close! I wait all winter long for hot summer days, but by the end of my vacation I am finally looking forward to brisk fall weather and I am ready to pull out my sweaters again!

The trip was fun, not as relaxing as it used to be when I was a kid, but it was great to see Molly enjoy herself. Here are a couple of pictures of the week.

In the Woodsy Pool. It starts off at 0 feet and then slopes deeper. Molly, of course has no fear of water and would keep on walking until the water would get to her eyes. I would try to pick her up, and she would tell me "Back up Mommy. I can swim" - She loved this pool though. She would crawl and dunk her head under the water. She finally started to realize to close her mouth and hold her breath.

Running like a wild woman!

On some rides. It was funny. 2 nites that we were at Broadway at the beach around the kiddy rides, I saw 2 different people from Lynchburg. It was so good to see their familiar faces, although it made me wish I was back in Lynchburg right now. But the Lord gave me a nice gift by allowing us to run in to warm faces from VA.

This was the kiddie version of the pirate ship. Molly LOVED this ride. She was sitting next to a little girl her age and the 2 of them kept looking at each other and giggled the whole time. It was really very cute.

And of course, Mommy got to ride the teacups with Molly. I was so dizzy at the end of this ride. Molly kept spinning and spinning the wheel. She thought it was great - I was car sick for the rest of the night!

At the alligator farm. We watched the people feed them. When you see one alligator, you've seen them all. It was a hot sticky muggy smelly place.

At the beach. Daddy and Pop took her into the ocean and she of course had so much fun in the waves. She got knocked down one time with NaNa, which gave her a healthy fear of the ocean.

She had fun digging in the dirt, and she met a little girl her age on the beach that she played in the sand with throughout the week.

2 year birthday pictures

Here are some pictures of Molly for her birthday. We go to Sears and I really can't believe how reasonable the price is and more importantly how good they are with Molly. This time, she was really well behaved (until I had to choose what pictures I wanted; then she had enough!) and warmed up the photographer quickly.

I am having such a hard time with the fact that she is actually 2 years old now. She seems like such a big girl wanting to do everything on her own. She is talking in 3 or 4 word sentences and remembers things/stories really well now. She is even prompting us to go on the potty! It's funny, because I keep saying how exciting it was for me when she turned 1, because it was like - wow, Molly is 1 and we survived the first year, and how fun it is to see her grow! Now it's like, wow, Molly is 2 and where did that year go, and she is growing like a weed and I wish I could slow it down a little!

She is just a sweet precious little girl who just enjoys life and honestly is one of the funniest little girls I have ever met (I know that I am her mom and I am supposed to think that, but I really do mean that she is stinking hilarious)

Molly, Mommy and Daddy love you with all of our heart, and cannot wait to see where the Lord will lead you in life, and we pray that you will follow and serve him without reservations!

July Update

It's been a bit a while awhile, yet again.... I wont post many pictures because there was a lot that I took, but here are a few. Molly with NaNa and PopPop Winkels when they were out to visit. We went to Allaire and Molly got to ride the train out there. Of course all trains are Thomas the Train, but she had fun. It was such a great visit with NaNa and PopPop - we wish they were close to us so we could see them all of the time!
Molly in her Flintstone car she got for her birthday - I can't believe my baby girl is 2 years old!!!

Eating icecream at the boardwalk with NaNa and PopPop Winkels.

Having her birthday cupcakes for the Sperling family party....

4th of July Weekend

Eating a plumb from the plumb tree. Molly only ate like 2 mini bites, but insisted that she liked it. It was good - it was very sweet. This was the first year that the plumb trees have had plumbs on it that were actually good enough to pick and eat! I go outside everyday and look at all the fruit trees, grapevines and veggie garden to see what I can pick and eat - Joe told me that farming is a hobby of a patient man.... ha! that I am not, but it is so neat to see the whole process of how something grows.... day before 4th of July

Atlantic Farms...

Where you go to look and feed that animals. Molly loves this place and its only about 10 minutes or so from the house. We had fun!

This is a picture of a horse that was only 1 day old!

Feeding the goats

wearing her hat

More Goats

The ugliest looking tongue I have ever seen in my life! It is was so long and it felt like sand paper!! It scared Molly, so she wasn't into feeding the cows...

On our way home... poor girl was whooped!

Junglegym

NaNa and Pop gave Molly a really neat jumglegym for her 2nd birthday. I was a little nervous that she would still be too little for it, but as always, my daughter proves me wrong, and got all into it! It has a slide, a picnic table, sandbox, swings, towers to play in and a rock climbing wall (she wont play on that yet). Thank you NaNa and Pop for the great present! We love you!

Joe and Dad putting it together.

Molly in the tower looking for birds or planes or bugs...

on the swings...

climbing up...

sliding down with Uncle. Molly made everyone climb up and slide down the slide at least once... even NaNa!

A LONG TIME

So it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted. I guess I have been kinda busy- I don't really know with what, but I have been busy. What I should be doing now while Molly takes a nap, is my project for the Stroke Consortium that is a month overdue, but I just cannot motivate myself to have it done - which is a problem! So even though it may sound silly, if you remember, can you pray for motivation for me to get this thing done by the 9th of July???

Anyways here a some random shots of the past couple of weeks... Enjoy!

I just had to show these because I have realized that I kinda may have a green thumb. This is our garden in the front of the house. Last year Joe did it, but with him being in school and me not a very patient person, I tried to do most of it myself. The mulching isn't the best job (I was told it was clumpy), but I am proud of myself!

My Uncle Smitty had this rock made for Joe and I for our wedding gift. It's one of my most favorite things I have!


This was a HOT day, but the pool was still being opened and it was ICE cold. So Molly got to play in the sprinkler in her "kini." She actually had a lot of fun - of course the next week when we went outside to play in the sprinkler, she wanted nothing to do with it, except to turn the water on and off. Silly girl...

This is a picture of a baby bird that Pop saved from the dogs. Molly and I were looking at the plumb and apple trees in the feild, and we were trying to find the plums, when we saw this little baby bird on a bottom branch. He was so cute! Except that he jumped off the branch and started to hop around because he didn't know how to fly yet. Lola and Sophia saw him and Lola almost had him in her mouth, but Pop saved the day while all us girls screamed! Pop let Molly touched the bird on the head before he put it back in a tree with a nest in it. Now all Molly talks about is the bird that Lola ate and then Pop put it in the nest for his Mommy. Ha ha - she literally tells everyone she sees this story.... :)
So NaNa and I went yard sale hunting and this is what we found. It's a Little Tykes slide - we got it for $20 and it's a perfect size for her. Now Pop and Joe have put together her big swing set with the slide, but this will help boost her confidence for the big slide.

We also found this easel that we got for $3! What a steal! It was in perfect condition. One side you can post the paper and the other side is a chalk board. You can fold it up too so it's not always in the way. This is perfect for Molly because she is my little artist!