Family pictures...an attempt at family pictures

We attempted to get a family picture a few weeks ago. Jon and I prefer the "natural" family picture and we don't like the "posed" pictures. I don't think we are the "wear the same outfit, and pose for the picture kind of family. But it would be nice to have one picture where we don't have a silly face, a tongue sticking out, a screaming baby, a crying baby or a screaming adult. Oh well, there is always next time. The last picture shows me grabing Savannah from the ledge of the pond. She was chasing a duck and I had to chase her...in heels! It was a funny scene.

Change can be good...

It has been way to long since I have posted. Life just gets crazy and I can't seem to keep up these days. I don't want to use that as an excuse anymore so I will make a great effort to post once every two weeks. Let's see if I can do it.

Well, we have faced many changes in the Crowell household. It would take all day to list all the changes we've been through so I'll just stick to a few. We put our house on the market in February and sold it in two days.  Jon and I didn't expect to sell our house so quickly so we had to hustle and find a place to live. Our top priority was to find an area with good public schools. We want Gabi and Savannah to attend public school instead of private.   Gabi has been going to Good Shepherd since Pre-K. We love Good Shepherd and the people are wonderful, but momma (that's me) could have a beach house by now with the amount of tuition of a private school. Well, almost a beach house.

I want Gabi to grow up in a neighborhood where kids ride their bikes to school, play outside all day until dinner, play outside when they get home from school and where all (or most) the kids in the neighborhood go to the same school. Yes, I guess I want utopia. I want for Gabi and Savannah what I had growing up. I know we live in Dallas and not Destin, Florida but I was confident I could find the place. We only had four weeks until we needed to be out of our house. So...I got very busy. I looked at so many schools, neighborhoods and houses. The brand new and beautiful homes in the burbs were extremely tempting, but we decided to stay in the city. I didn't want Jon to have a long commute. I wanted to stay close to friends, our church and city living. With the help of our realtor, we found a wonderful neighborhood with great schools (Brentfield, Parkhill and JJ Pierce). We decided to rent for a year and take our time finding a house to buy in the same area. The house we're renting is very nice, updated (for the most part) and also has a pool for the kids. We have amazing trees, parks, bike paths and....drum roll please....KIDS everywhere! Our neighbors have two girls and Gabi is outside all the time playing with them. I know, I know, we are only renting this house for a year, BUT the entire neighborhood is like our street. We have already met most of the people on our street. AND... a girl and her mom walked up to our house while we're playing outside with the kids and introduced themselves. They live a few houses down from us and the daughter babysits. YES!

The whole moving process was emotional and stressful but we're looking forward to our new adventure.

Now, an update on Gabi (6 years) and Savannah (18 months).
Gabi has a few more weeks left of Kindergarten at Good Shepherd. I can't believe she will be a first grader soon. She loves school and her favorite subject is science right now. Art comes in a close second though. Gabi is still playing soccer and is taking gymnastics. She loves reading and making up jokes that are sometimes funny and sometimes not. I think she takes after Jon with the joke telling.

Savannah is our bull in a China shop. She is not delicate in any way. She seems so different from Gabi right now. Savvy eats anything and everything. She fears nothing. Climbs on everything and is trying to climb out of her crib already. She wants to do everything Gabi does. Savvy can climb up our slide ladder to the pool and slide down it. Of course we assist with the "sliding down into the pool" part. She is really fast too. I always have my running shoes on. She is only saying "momma" and "yum-yum" right now which is very different from Gabi at this age. Savvy understands everything I say to her and follows directions (when she wants to).

We are truly blessed with our girls. They are exhausting but I wouldn't have it any other way.

What Gabi heard in the stethescope

Gabi woke up at 2 am on Monday with the croup. She seems to get this every January/February but it is getting better. The croup is caused by a virus and it’s when the airway gets swollen/infected. So she has a barky cough now but is running around like nothing happened.

So, we went to see Dr. Neely yesterday to make sure she didn’t have congestion in her chest. She does not. She told Dr. Neely that she has a stethoscope at home and uses it. He asked her if she wanted to use his to listen to her heartbeat. She said yes of course. She was very focused and listened to her heart. She thought it was the coolest thing. Then she said, “I can hear Jesus, the Lord, and God in my heart.”

Dr. Neely loved this comment and just laughed. Then she asked Dr. Neely to explain “germs” to her and what they do. Then she told him that she wants to be a kid doctor to help other kids in the world that don’t have food.

Today was Gabi's last day of her swim lessons.
She and her buddy Brady did great this summer and
can swim on their own now.

Gabi received a green ribbon and purple swim shirt.

It's no fun staying in the lines

Lisa sent me a note with a few of Gabi's quotes. She was on a roll today:

“Mommy, you need to go to time-out for not listening to me.” Then she followed it with “you need to pay attention to me”.

We were coloring and trying to practice our “stay in the lines and color” …. Gabi said “but it’s no fun staying in the lines and coloring. It’s not pretty.”

She turned off her cartoon/show this morning and I asked her why.
She said “I’ve had enough of it and the commercials are awful.”

Gabi is a Fish

Gabi can swim! She is a little fish in our pool. She is taking lessons and loves it.
She can swim under water for about 5 to 8 seconds. She uses her legs mostly and is learning to use her arms. She jumps in from the side of the pool and will swim to the other side. She says she does a "cannonball" when she jumps in.

The movie attached shows her singing in the pool. Of course when I have the camera rolling she decides to NOT swim for me. So typical...

A day at the park

We had fun at the park today.
Gabi stayed on the swing for a LONG time.

Gabi was singing the entire time - Frosty the Snowman (yes, still a favorite), and "swinging while you're singing, helps you keep your rhythm (a song from Miss Sunny Patch Friends cartoon).