Nicole's Nightly Prayer

"Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, thank you for my family, and for my daughter [her baby Sophie doll], thank you for the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, thank you for Jesus and Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
Nolan's nightly retort:
“Nicole! Don't say thank you for Heavenly Father, that's who you're talking to!”

Every night.

A few pictures

This was the day after the pictures in the last post: But then she went a WHOLE week without conking out, until yesterday:
Nolan's favorite time of day is when I let him play the Wii. He asked me to take this picture so he can see what he looks like when he plays.
I found Nikki walking around the house looking like this the other day:
That's our cute little one-eyed-girl!

To Nap or Not to Nap...That is the Question

Nicole is in the stage where when she takes an afternoon nap, she's up until midnight. But as you can see from these pictures...she can't quite make it all day without a nap, either. These were two days in a row (Sunday and Monday). Things just got quiet in the house, so I went to look for her and found her in the exact same spot, behind the couch, both days.

School's Out!

On Nicole's last day of school they had a Luau program. These are her teachers, Ms. Kari and Ms. DeDe. She LOVED both of her teachers this year.

Nicole was supposed to walk behind the arch and stop on the X for a picture, but she just kept right on walking!

Hooray for Nicole! She finished her 1st year of preschool with flying colors! We are so proud of her and all that she has been able to accomplish in her life. She has overcome many obstacles with the help of many doctors, teachers, and therapists, and she's growing into such a remarkable young lady! She'll go to preschool again next year, but 3 days a week instead of 2.

On Nolan's last day of Kindergarten, they held a reception to show off all they've learned. Here Nolan is reading us a story he wrote and illustrated by himself.

This is Nolan and his teacher, Ms. Vlasich. Isn't she so cute? It was her 1st year teaching, and Nolan loved her. She prepared a slide show of pictures of the kids throughout the year. In one segment she had individual shots of each student with a little caption with it...something she heard a lot from that child throughout the year. Some of them were funny--one girl's said, "Geez, Ms. Vlasich, I already told you that!" And another's said, "I have to go to the bathroom." Nolan's said, "Why does it do that? How? What makes it do that? Why?"

That's our boy!

Congratulations to Nolan for graduating from Kindergarten! He can't wait to be a 1st-grader so he can "eat school lunch, go to P.E., and have three recesses every day!" Life just doesn't get any better than that for a 6-year-old.

We've spent a lot of our summer days at the pool so far. The kids are little fish!

It's a Girl!

I had my 20 week ultrasound today, and it looks like we're having a baby girl!

The arrow is pointing to three little lines, which somehow means girl parts.

Here's a cute profile shot. I like how her hand is reaching out to the side.

Here's the best 3d shot we got of her face.

The kids loved watching the ultrasound, and they're excited to be getting a new baby sister. Nicole has said all along that it was going to be a sister. Nolan is worried about the girls outnumbering the boys in our family, but he's glad that the baby will be sharing a room with Nicole instead of him so he "doesn't have to hear her crying".

Disney Cruise

A limo picked us up on Saturday morning to drive us to the airport (Kelli took those pics so I'll add them when I get them from her later). We had the greatest time! Everything was even better than we expected. It was truly a magical experience for all four of us. We are so thankful for this whole Make-a-Wish experience...it couldn't have been any better.

Click on the slide show to see all the captions:

5 More Days!!!

We started the Make-a-Wish process over six months ago, and at that time we didn't think we'd ever make it to May. But now it's May and we're leaving for our Disney Cruise in 5 days! We are getting really excited...the kids can't stop talking about it. Yesterday Nikki told me that we'll be seeing "Nikki Mouse" and "Donald Goose" on the boat. I'll post lots of pictures when we get home!