Preschool decisions

We're in the middle of a difficult decision regarding Hannah's preschool for next year ('07-'08). Due to the lovely road construction and freeway closure thrust upon us by the lovely state of Missouri, what was a 25-30 minute drive has become a 40-50 minute drive (one way). So all-told, it takes me at least an hour and a half in the morning and almost two hours in the afternoon to do the whole trip. This quarter, Don has Tuesday afternoons off, so he does the Tuesday pick up. This is a huge blessing to me - in fact, he's gone right now picking her up. Elizabeth is sleeping, and I'm blogging. Nice.

Next year when she is at school three days a week, I think it would just drive me absolutely crazy to be in the car that often for that long. So we are looking at about 5 LCMS preschools that are anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes away. I'll go visit a couple this week and a couple others are having open houses in February. We're praying that God leads us to a school that will be perfect for her spiritually, academically, and socially; that will be closer to our home; and affordable with the help of financial aid. So for all you prayer warriors out there, we'd love to have you praying right along with us.

The girls and I saw the new Veggie Tales movie last weekend. It was Hannah's first movie in a theater and she did pretty well. I could tell she got kind of restless and spent some time standing up rather than sitting on the hard booster seat, but overall she enjoyed it. I thought it was great. It had such a wonderful message for the Christian life. Without giving too much away, it was a reminder that Jesus is coming back someday and we a) have to be ready and b) have work to do. It's not enough just to sit around and while the days away. God intends for us to put Christ's love into action: helping people, doing God's will, spreading the Gospel, and being in the Word. So the Pirates learn that by doing the right thing (i.e. God's will), they become the heroes they never thought they could be. I highly recommend it.

Let's see...what else? Elizabeth is scootching all around the house. She's just barely getting up on her toes and elbows and doing pushups or sometimes getting up onto her knees and doing that classic baby rock. But she's not actually crawling yet. Oh - our friends next door were given some toys from someone at their field work church. Their daughter is a little too old for the toys, so Hannah was the blessed recipient of tons of new Dora the Explorer toys. She got Dora's talking house and lots of dolls and accessories. If you have any idea how much Hannah loves Dora, you'll know that she's in heaven. It's so fun to see her having a ball with her new toys. And a total blessing that these toys (that we can't afford) were a gift from God. What a cool reminder that He loves each of us so much that even a 3-year-old's Dora obsession does not go unnoticed.

And finally, here's a Christmas picture of both of them. Those of you who are parents of 2 or more kids know the frustration I have recently discovered trying to get a decent picture of both of them at the same time! And remarkably, most of the "good" photos are of Elizabeth. Hannah is the one who is usually making faces, fidgeting, showing her underwear, looking at her sister, getting up and running away, etc. I get so frustrated trying to get the "perfect" picture and Don ends up reminding me that the "perfect" picture is near impossible and to just let it go. So I guess I'll either learn to do that or else learn how to PhotoShop two photos together...