RAIN and other updates!

Some of you may or may not know that our area has been in a BADDDD drought all summer. I mean dirt-cracking-nothing-growing-hot-dry-air drought! Its been ugly. SOOOO....we have this fun, wonderful, nice cold front moving in and its just kinda hanging out to our West....dropping rain and sprinkles on us- on and off since last Friday! YEAH! And its supposed to last all the way through tomorrow and then its suppose to get COOLER!!!! Not, like jeans/sweatshirts real-fall-weather cooler, but low 80's cooler! WOO HOO!! Music to our hot, sweaty ears!


I have one new picture to share of Sarah. First a little background. She loves to take a bath. Each night when she hears me start the bath water, she comes FLYING into the bathroom and calmly waits for me to pick her up and undress her and plop her in the tub. She is so cooperative in getting her hair washed (more than I can say about her sister!), she loves to be scrubbed down head to toe, loves all the bath toys, splashing, etc. SOO, she's now big enough to get in the tub herself, unbeknown to me...until I found her one day....

Yeah - she climbed right in and started playing with the toys and washclothes that had been left in the tub from the previous night's bath. She was so proud of herself, as you can plainly see. She was also soaking wet from the wet pink washcloth. Oh well - she had a great time. I actually "caught" her playing in there about 5 minutes before I snapped this picture because she was so darn cute to sit and watch. Bob and I watched over the top of the shower curtain as she sat and happily played with the wet toys, sang her little songs and talked. The first time she even knew we were watching was when the camera beeped right before I snapped the picture! She is just a little sneaker!! Just ANOTHER reason why we now just keep both bathroom doors CLOSED at all times....can you guess the first reason? I'll give you a hint...she loves to play in water...that she can reach!

I also got down some "new" toys for Sarah. (Beth's old toys she has long outgrown) I got down the Little People Noah's Ark set and Sarah (and Beth, too!) just sat and played and played with it a LOT on Saturday. Unfortunately, I think she has outgrown several of the toys in her room and the den. I plan to keep a select few, but most will be go off to Kids' Closet. I guess I need to make a trip to the attic and pull down more of the 18 mo-2 years toy stash. I try not to keep a lot of toys around for each girl. In my experience with Beth, the more toys arouind, the less she PLAYS with them. So, if I only keep a few around, she plays with them all the time. I recycle them a lot, too. I'll take a toy that I notice she doesn't play with, put it the top of her closet and then pull it back down a month or so later and its NEW to her and she'll spend days playing with it again!

I think Beth is growing...she is eating and sleeping a lot! I think she's slept until 7:45-8:00 every morning since last Friday, which is ODD. She's usually up with Sarah around 7. She ate steak for the first time the other night - and not just one bite - probably 5 or more bites, which is awesome for her! (But then again, it WAS Charlie's Steakhouse steak!) She's already tall for her age (43") and in a size 5 clothing for this fall....I think I need to put a brick on her head.

Beth also started gymnastics last week and LOVED IT! I think she'd go every day if I'd let her. At this point, once a week is all I can handle! But she had a ball!

Relatively slow week coming up this week. I'll try to get pics of Beth at gymnastics this week! I'm also so excited about the upcoming "cooler" weather. I may have to break out a pumpkin bread recipe or chili or something fun like that!