Wild and Wonderful Wednesdays

Every third Wednesday of the month, Gamma and Gampa Hein come to our house for dinner and wacky fun with the girls! We absolutely love these nights! This week, we also had our niece Sydney with us and boy did it get wild around here with Gampa!

I apologize ahead of time for the abundance of pictures.....I just liked too many!



Love this picture, even though Cayleigh is out of focus.

Girls ATTACK!!!!!

Riding on the choo-choo train (blanket)

B's First Dentist Visit

Brooklyn had her first dentist appointment today. Oh wow....she is growing up too fast!! We discussed the dentist visit beforehand and what would happen during her check-up. She had lots of questions about it; "What does the dentist have to check my teeth for? Does the dentist have Belle toothpaste? What does the dentist use to check my teeth?" And she actually did ask Dr. Preece if they had Belle toothpaste, hehe! It was a fabulous visit!

Brooklyn was calm and very happy throughout the entire thing. Dr. Preece (a local pediatric dentist and new to us) far exceeded my expectations. He spoke to Brooklyn about his glasses/tools as he was putting them on and what he was doing, he asked her questions, told her jokes and sang to her as he brushed her teeth. It was brief and painless....the kind of dentist appointment everyone wants.

She has no cavities (not that I expected any) and her teeth and gums look excellent, he said. We got scolded for only brushing at night, but I knew I was a slacker on that one. Oops!!

It was a proud time for this Mommy, watching our big girl act so mature during the visit. She never once was scared and she shook the doctor's hand when he introduced himself to her. She asked questions all by herself and responded clearly when spoken to. It was really neat to watch her. But at the same time, it brought a sharp pain to my heart and a lump in my throat. Brooklyn truly is growing up before our eyes and it's a bittersweet feeling.

Brooklyn prior to seeing the dentist. She had just picked out her toothbrush they would use to clean her teeth! She was very excited!

Getting lowered in the chair

Checking everything

"This is the way we brush our teeth every single day."

Chunk

We love our little "chunk-a-monk" as Mommy likes to call her! Cayleigh girl has really gained some good weight and looks nothing like her underweight old self. She's now even bigger than (I think) Brooklyn was at this point, which means some of the clothes that were too big for B's skinny waist....fit our Cayleigh chunk!! Hehe!

She is a playful, sitting-up, chatty, squirmy thing nowadays.

F for Fish

During the latter part of this crazy week, we managed to squeeze in the letter Ff. Obviously 'fish' begins with the letter F (among other things that we placed in our letter basket), so we read The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. Brooklyn has loved this book for a while now because she has the bathtub book from when she was just a baby. B made her own rainbow fish with a shiny scale; loving every minute of it, she demanded to make one for her Daddy as well!

I only wish she knew how to smile like a normal person! Oh my!

I am truly amazed at the things she knows and remembers!  She spouted out her bible verse from last week and her one for this week like it was nothing.

I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

Star Sisters

As for the 'stars of our life'

4th Of July Fun

We headed over to a local town center to enjoy some 4th of July festivities, food and fireworks yesterday. We had a really good time. And then we came to this......

Honestly, Aaron and I were shocked Brooklyn actually went through with going on this huge slide. We both thought I would end up climbing to the top to bring her back down, but she went for it! I don't think she realized just how scary it was going to be until afterwards! When we asked her if she wanted to go again with her friend Ryland, she firmly said "NO!!" several times!! Hehe!

Way to go Big Girl!!!

Newest Hein Girl

Claire Marie was born at 2:49am this morning on July 4th!! This little firecracker arrived nearly 2 weeks after she was due!
6 lbs, 13oz
19.75 inches

Mommy and baby are healthy and doing well. She looks just like her daddy, Nick. We absolutely love her already.

Happy big sister, Sydney

The girls are slowly gaining ground on these Hein boys! Gampa and his granddaughters!

Proud Mommy Amanda with sweet baby Claire

Proud Daddy Nick

Sponge

Now that I am home with the girls, we have been pretty busy with trips to the museum, swimming, library, parks, etc. We also get our learning on around here! Brooklyn is such a sponge right now and it makes teaching fun all over again for me! We have been working on letter sounds now that she knows all the letters of the alphabet and we have a letter basket where we place items and books that begin with the letter we are working on. It is a lot of fun with a child who simply loves doing it. She is soaking it all in. We also have started working on a weekly short bible verse to remember. Since we have been suffering from a bit of the 'terrible two's' here lately (not being exactly compliant and cooperative all the time), Mommy decided to start with this one:

Children, obey your parents in all things. This pleases the Lord. Colossians 3:20