Emily - 3 years, 11 mo. - July 16

Here's our growin' little girl.  One minute she's talkin' baby talk to Ben and the next minute she's acting like a 4 year old going on 13.  Her recent nickname is Cat Lady.  She had seen these Beenie Baby cats over at my Mom and Dad's house and asked if she could take one home with her.  Well now she has quite the collection, 7 in total and I believe she's named 5 of them so far.  We mentioned Stripy back in May, and we've added Lilly, Bucket, Brown and Bubble. 

Emily loves to have sleep-overs at my parents house.  This last sleep-over gave us another Emily-ism.  She and my Mom were in their basement and Emily had been sitting on the floor playing on the computer for quite a while.  When she stood up she said "Mommo, my leg is sparkling.  Do you see the sparkles?"   Yes, her leg had fallen asleep and that's how she put things together.  She was convinced you could see the sparkles.  

Emily's recent food combination was blueberries dipped in ranch dressing.  I have to write this for the blog because when she's older she probably won't believe it.

Emily is enjoying having Ben around a lot more now.  It's neat to watch them play together.

Sunday School fellowship

We hosted our Sunday School fellowship a while back.  We had hamburgers, hotdogs and other fixins'.  After stuffing our faces we had a friendly cornhole tournament to which Mr. H and Charlie won. 

Here's Ben's reaction once he found out his Dad won.

Here was Emily's fun with her friend sending bubble bottles down the slide. 

Family Reunion

I love family reunions.  I have fond memories of sitting around with the older folks and hearing stories of what times were like "back then".  I haven't had an opportunity to go to my family's reunion, but I did get the chance to go to Charlie's.  There was great food, great fellowship, and tons of fun.  Emily swam and played on the playground and also had her first dog bite - actually it was just a nip and she was the one that provoked the dog even after Charlie told her the dog was already upset.  Ben enjoyed the scenery, napped, ate and attempted to crawl around, but I'm sure he mostly enjoyed being passed around from one family member to another.  The adults enjoyed catching up with everyone, the games and the auction.  They are already planning where next year's reunion will be. 

I have more pictures, but I seemed to have misplaced our camera so thanks to one of Charlie's family members we have this picture.

Benjamin at 8 months

Ben has a lot to say these days. His most recent sounds are da-da, ba-ba and just yesterday ma-ma.  He loves to make his presence known by slapping his hands on his legs and this usually occurs when he's left in the room alone for a brief time.

Crawling I believe is on the horizon.  Ben now can scooch himself around on his behind and is actually moving some when he ends up on all fours.

Ben loves pretty much all the food he's given, but does seem to really enjoy the flavored puffs and strangely enough, veggie chips.  They actually dissolve pretty quickly.

Summer fun

We found a great deal last Fall on a small pool and finally had a chance to get it set up. Emily loves it and this past weekend was Ben's first pool experience. Unfortunately for Ben the only flotation device I had was quite girly looking. These pictures will be enjoyed by his future wife.

Happy 6 year Anniversary

A couple years later and many fun adventures together.  Thank you Lord for bringing us together.  We are truly blessed.

Emily - 3 years, 10 mo. - June 16

Almost 4 years old - I can't believe it.  This picture cracks me up - skinned up knees and a frilly pony tail which you can't see very well.  Emily is quite the little tom-boy with a little bit of girly in her.  She is a ball of energy, but is and always has been my good sleeper both for nap time and night time.

The recent Emily-ism happened when she and Charlie were watching tv together.  The show was about characters trying to catch shapes.  One character was trying to catch a triangle on a fish's tale.  Charlie teased Emily saying "what if the fish swam away and they couldn't get the triangle?".  Emily gave Charlie a serious look and said "Dad, it's pretend, drawn on a storyboard".  Charlie looked at her in disbelief and asked "What?".  Emily proceeded to repeat herself word for word. Then Charlie asked Emily where she heard that and misunderstanding his question proceeded to explain to Charlie what a storyboard was.  Quite interesting the things that stick in a child's brain.

Emily thoroughly enjoyed Vacation Bible School recently at our church.  I had the privilege of being one of her teachers again this year.  It was a joy to hear her singing the songs and saying the Bible verses.

What a difference soil makes

Here are some updated flowerbed pictures. I know we've received a LOT of rain, but I truly believe the difference is based on the soil.

Benjamin at 7 months

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?  It's amazing how fast Ben is growing.  Thankfully we are blessed to have an abundance of 12 month size clothes.

Ben is not really interested in crawling yet, but loves to sit and soak in his surroundings.  He is our people-watcher and will usually smile at anyone who talks to him. 

Ben has definitely discovered he has a voice and sometimes likes to see just how loud he can get which of course drives his Sister nuts.  Along with talking, we can tell that Ben is a listener.  He loves to listen to music and gives a belly laugh whenever he hears the horn on our van. 

Here's Emily's 7 month picture.

More flowerbed pics.

I am reminded of Matthew 13:5-6 when dealing with our flowerbeds.  Year after year Mom and I would plant new flowers in the beds as our Mother's Day tradition and each year the flowers would look like they were thriving, but soon after being planted they would stop growing.  This year we had the idea to uproot the old soil, add new and the flowers are definitely doing much better.  Thank you Mom for all your help!!!

"Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away."

Emily - 3 years, 9 mo. - May 16

Oh, where to begin.  Let's just say Emily keeps Mommy on her toes at all times.  I am more thankful than Emily, I'm sure, when rest time rolls around so I can turn my brain off for a little while.  I do get a chuckle quite often though with some of the things that comes out of her mouth.  These days she has not been dealing well with her brother since he recently found out he has a voice and likes to use it.  She is constantly saying "I can't hear" even if there is nothing on to be listening to.  However, she is so sweet...the second she finds out he's asleep in the van, she wants the world to be quiet so he can rest.

Emily really enjoyed playing in the dirt recently when my Mom graciously came over and helped me "rebuild" our flower beds.  We're hoping to incorporate her help more with our garden this year.

You'll notice a stuffed cat in the picture this time.  This is her newest "pet" Stripy.  Yes, this stuffed animal actually has a name rather than just Kitty.  She now has quite the collection and all of them usually go with her everywhere, but Stripy is notably her favorite.

Benjamin at 6 months

Wow, it's amazing what a difference one month makes.  To everyone else Ben probably doesn't look bigger, but to me he looks huge.  He will get weighed at the doctor this week, and if he is anything like his Dad was at this age, he will be close to 25lbs.  He basically loves any kind of food as you can tell.....he even loves my homemade green bean baby food.  It's really funny to watch him get excited the second after I put him in his feeding chair.  His arms wave up and down, he gets a big oval shape to his mouth and starts making a sound like a fake cough.

As most babies do, Ben has begun pulling my hair when I get ready to put him down for nap and bedtime.  It's not too bad until he grabs a hold of that little superfluous hair at the base of my neck.  OUCH!!!!  Yes, we will be breaking him of that habit very soon.

Ben is very ticklish.  Practically everywhere you touch makes him wiggle.  He also cracks up when Emily plays peek-a-boo with him.

Emily - 3 years, 8 mo. - Apr. 16

I call Emily my little "Mommy" these days. She is doing such a great job helping me and seems to really enjoy it.  We have the opportunity this month to watch our niece while her sitter is on maturnity leave.  Emily will sit and entertain the babies during their wake times and loves to "help" me put them down for naps.

I've been enjoying seeing Emily's imagination in full bloom recently.  She is now very interested in her dress-up clothes she received a couple of years ago.  Usually during our morning routine she will go from wearing pjs to one dress then to actual clothes then on to a different dress then back to actual clothes all within a matter of minutes.  All I can say is I am glad she can dress herself with ease now.   Along with dress-up clothes, she can be found at times sitting with a book "reading" and of course making up her own plot.

Emily was very excited to have Mommo and Pappaw back.  Now we don't have to listen to her sit in a corner and cry while looking at my Mom and Dad's Christmas picture and listening to a voice recorded card Mom sent.

Emily is doing very well with potty training and I believe we are almost 100% trained minus night time.  We told Emily when she completed her sticker page she could get a special pet.  Stayed tuned for a future post to find out what pet is now a part of the Groff household.  Anyone want to venture a guess as to what we bought??  Folks at church won't have to wait long because I'm sure by this Sunday all will know.

Slate Run Farm

We had the opportunity to go visit Slate Run Historical Farm a week and a half ago with our good friends.  This is a free park with animals and it's operated as farms were in the 1880's.  We had a blast and will definitely have to go back.  There's so much to see and do, but we mainly went to see the shearing of the sheep since we missed the opportunity before Easter.  Emily now tells me she wants to be a farmer.

Thank you Val for planning this visit.  I've lived in Ohio now for almost 20 years and never been to Slate Run Farm.

Spring is here

Ready for bike rides

Easter in PA

Happy Easter