Nora is a budding artist

This has been another good week for the Sauder's! On Saturday, we decided last minute to go on a driving art tour in our area. It was neat because there was a map with 5+ artists and you could pick and choose where you wanted to go. We ended up seeing the local buffalo farm, a potter, Holly Heath (the photographer who did our family photos 2 years ago), and an artist from our church that does Impressionist paintings--beautiful. It was a nice shot of culture for our family--even if Nora (and certainly, Penny) didn't know what was going on. I want both of my girls to appreciate art (and music, of course) and try their hand at it too. Nora is already an artist, she loves using markers and paint :) I got to go on my own to the grocery store during naptime which is always nice. In the evening, Josh and I got to go on our Anniversary date. Many places were busy with prom-goers but we ended up at Logan's Steakhouse. We had a filling and yummy meal and got to go to Half-Price Books :) But then on the car ride home, Josh started feeling very feverish and sick. It sounded like the same thing that I'd come down with so quickly on Thursday night--yuck! But he still had to prepare for teaching Sunday School the next morning (which he was also looking forward to) so we stayed up a little bit to work on that together before he went to bed early (like one of 2 or so times Josh has gone to bed earlier than me!). Josh did feel a tiny bit better in the morning and did a great job of teaching and even went to church afterwards but then went home and crashed. I got to go to the potluck lunch for our Sunday School after church by myself. The rest of our week has been pretty quiet and wet :/

Nora has been really enjoying books lately--she has a gift bag that she's claimed that she will load up with books and carry around the house. Then she'll just find a nice place, sit down, and start reading to herself! She reminds me of a little Alissa :) Naps haven't been going well this week and potty-training continues to be so-so. One of her naps this week, Nora took off her pants, her diaper, then put her pants back on and then eventually went potty in her pants :/ We're still working on it! We're also working on finding the right form of discipline for our family. Nora has been acting up more lately and we are wanting to nip it in the bud!

Penny has been growing more and more these days. She's sleeping really well at night and is starting to get somewhat of a nap schedule. I'm so thankful for her finding her thumb!! This week I discovered that Penny likes to play airplane. I would lay on the floor on my back, put her against my legs and zoom her around. She smiled really big and then even laughed--which doesn't happen every day. Today Penny has started sticking out her tongue and doing raspberries--it's a drooly mess but so cute. She has officially moved to size 2 diapers and is quickly approaching wearing all 6 month clothes!