Family Fun Days

Friday's are our family fun day. Because it is Brent's day off, we try to keep the day special and very rarely do we allow other engagements to fall on Friday. Not always do we go out and do big activities, but we always make the day revolve around just our family. Today we had a great family fun day! We started the morning by going to the mini train station in Fort Worth. Both Avery and Elliana love trains and we had never been, so we thought it would be a fun time.
This is Avery pointing out the bears she found in the forest while riding the train. Her and Brent were on a bear hunt for most of the train ride.
Here are the girls waiting at the train depot. Elliana was too busy looking around at all the birdies to pay attention to the camera.
Then tonight we went to our favorite restaurant, Babes, for dinner. Who can resist fried chicken and all you can eat mashed potatoes and corn?! The girls love it, and Avery even got down and danced for the restaurant tonight.
An attempted family photo to end the night. Fridays are my favorite day of the week!

Lizard Hunting

Who wouldn't want to wake up to a lizard hunt?

Last night when the girls and I were playing outside, Avery found a lizard in the rocks. She was so excited to show daddy.

Since we don't see Brent on Wednesdays (rehearsals and stuff up at church), Avery woke up and immediately wanted daddy to go catch the lizard. So Brent was woken up to the need for a lizard hunt this morning.

I'm sure the neighbors enjoyed us all in our PJs and ratted hair looking for lizards in the front yard!

Dilemma

So here's the dilemma. Three out of every 7 days, Avery does not sleep during her nap. She lays in her bed, in the dark, under the covers, with no toys or books, but she does not fall asleep. Its almost as if her mind is going to fast for her to relax and fall asleep. If you stand by the door and watch really close, you'll see her lips moving and an occasional finger twitching as she tells millions of stories in her head.

So instinct would tell you that she must not need to take naps every day right? Wrong. Because on the days she doesn't sleep, she cries all afternoon long and into the next day. She's overtired by bedtime and can't go to sleep. She throws fits every time I tell her no. She has a hard time sharing and tends to get a little bit of an attitude towards the rest of the family. These are all not normal characteristics of her on the days she sleeps.

So here's the question...has anyone else ever dealt with this and have a great solution other than allowing her to skip naps? Or do I just have to deal with it and chalk it up to another one of those not so fun mothering moments? Just curious =)

Date Night

Last night Avery and Brent went on a date. Avery couldn't have been happier to get to spend the evening with just daddy. Her smile throughout the afternoon was big enough to light up the whole house.
Brent took her to eat pizza, to the park to play and color with sidewalk chalk, and then to get ice cream. What little girl wouldn't feel like a princess after that?

Fun stuff

What could be more fun when you have 5 friends over to play than to jump and splash in the pool?

The Rangers

Saturday started out pretty rough. Both girls woke up crying and didn't stop for quite a few hours. I was pregnancy sick, and Brent had been out late with some college friends who were in town and so only got 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say, none of us were enjoying our Saturday. Then my parents called to say they were driving in and going to a Rangers Game. Suddenly a rough Saturday turned fun. Its amazing what a little perspective change can do to your outlook on life =) After an hour and a half rain delay, it turned out to be a great game. We left when the Rangers were winning 7-1. Of course they ended up losing though 8-7. I guess they were sad we left.

Surprise

We took the test on our anniversary....
And heard the heartbeat today! We're pregnant!!!!!! Our little peanut will be due March 31st, 2009.

Cleaning up Messes

In the last 45 minutes, this is what has happened.

3:00pm: Hear screams from Elliana's bedroom. Thought, that's weird. She should still be sleeping. Go in to investigate and discovered that she had taken her diaper off and pottied all over her bed and then laid in it. So not only was the bed soaking wet, but so was she. Fun times.

3:45pm: Hear screams from the bathroom and come running to see Avery standing in front of the potty crying. I ask what's wrong and her reply is, "I was sitting and going potty and then vroomp, I fell off and potty got all over the floor and me" Again, fun times.

They have both hit their limit on the amount of potty I'm willing to clean up in a single day!

More please

Their first fruit smoothie. Elliana downed hers in 4 seconds.
Can I have more please?????? Maybe if I shake the cup hard enough, more will appear.We love fruit smoothies!

Elliana

I am a new fan of Cooks Children's Hospital in Fort Worth! Today was Elliana's annual VCUG test. In the past we've taken both girls to a clinic to get the test done. It was 45 minutes of holding them still while they had a cath in and the nurses attempted to get X-rays of everything they needed. Today was so much better!

The hospital had newer equipment that allowed them to get the results they needed in 15 minutes with no X-rays! I stayed out in the waiting area with Avery and Brent took Elliana back. He said Els kepts saying "owie, owie, all done, all done" over and over again, so he was very thankful that he only had to hold her down for 15 minutes this time. And Avery is very protective of her little sister so is very curious why God doesn't hurry up and finish making Elliana's tummy =) I think the cutest part with Avery was when she heard Elliana crying through the door and she started said, "where's my sister? What are they doing to my sister? Why is my sister crying?!" I thought she was going to march down the hall until she found who was responsible for Elliana's crying.

Elliana has a little pain when she goes to the bathroom, but other than that, I think she's already forgotten about the whole thing. Thank you to good nurses and good equipment that can make unpleasant procedures so much better!

Six Things I Hate

1. I hate potty training. I hate cleaning up accidents, not leaving the house for quite a few days, and never being able to turn your back on the kid so you're always aware of when she needs to go. But I do love not having to buy diapers and the freedom of not carrying a diaper bag everywhere you go.

2. I hate running. I hate the feeling of your lungs about to burst, of your legs burning, and of just getting all sweaty so you have to get cleaned up again. But that feeling after you're done running when you have energy and you feel good about yourself and all your clothes fit is such a great feeling.

3. I hate cleaning the house. I hate scrubbing toilets, mopping floors, organizing closets, vacuuming carpets, and picking up toys. But I do love the feeling of walking into a clean house. There's nothing better than sitting on the couch at night with your husband knowing there is no laundry to be done and no mess to be cleaned before you go to bed.

4. I hate losing baby weight. After 9 months of having an incredible appetite, feeling sick to my stomach if my stomach ever got empty, and not being able to work out hard, very bad habits are formed. I hate finding the will power to break those bad habits! But I do like being able to fit in my clothes and feel healthy, and I love having the energy to chase after my kids and play hard with them all day long.

5. I hate confrontation. I hate that feeling of knowing you need to talk to someone and that the conversation may get uncomfortable. But there's nothing better than clearing the air. Than talking through an issue, apologizing, understanding and at least knowing you did everything you needed to do to reconcile. Sleep is so much more peaceful.

6. I hate waking up while its still dark outside. There's nothing worse than the alarm going off before the sun comes up. But I do love sitting on the couch, drinking a cup of coffee, and reading my Bible before the kids get up. I love the quiet of the house and the intimate time that can be had with our Father before the distraction of life and being a mommy gets in the way. There's nothing better than that!

It seems like there are a lot of things I hate to do in life. However, the effect of those things are some of my favorite things in life. As I sit and watch the Olympics, I bet the athletes feel the same way at times. I'm sure grueling workouts aren't all that fun, but the end results of those workouts bring them their dream. I guess I just need to remember that as I pick up a broom to sweep the kitchen floor after breakfast. The mundane and hard things in life are never fun. Its the end results that bring us pleasure.

Dora

We saw Dora and Boots today at the Water park today. Avery could hardly contain her excitement. She was jumping up and down all morning with a huge smile on her face saying, "this is going to be a fun day!" The funny thing is, we don't have cable so she never watches Dora, and we don't own or rent any Dora videos for her to see. She saw Dora once at Grandma and Grandpa's house 4 months ago, and she does have one Dora book, but still you would have thought she was an avid fan with all her excitement!
So we wait in line to get our chance to see Dora. Of course Dora is 15 min late and in the 15 minutes, Elliana has to go potty twice and Avery goes once. I put that little fact in there because any of you with kids can sympathize with how annoying it is to take kids potty at the pool. Wet swim suits and wet swim diapers and gross, wet bathrooms...yuck =) I hope if we ever have another kid its a boy so Brent can experience the joy of taking kids to the restroom! Dora finally arrives, and we wait for another 35 minutes until we get to the front of the line, and then right as I'm getting the kids ready to go sit next to Dora, Dora gets hot and needs to take a break. Grrrrrrr, so close!

As you can see, Elliana is not an avid fan of Dora. I think her scream was loud enough to communicate that fact very clearly to everyone who happened to be swimming today.

After all the pictures were through and we were walking away, Avery stopped me and said, "wait, why we leaving already. I wanted to play with Boots." She wasn't buying this whole waiting in line for an hour just to sit next to Dora and Boots for 3 seconds! So she ran back to touch Boots and say hi one more time and then blew them kisses as she walked away. The things you do for your kiddos =)

Childhood fun

Playing in the sprinkler on a hot summer day. Life doesn't get much better.

You Know You're Old When...

You know you're old when you're asleep by 9:30pm on your 5th wedding anniversary. As of August 2nd, we have been married 5 years, lived in 3 places, and have had 2 kids. Thursday night we went out for the night and had our great friend, Susan, stay with the girls. Then Saturday we went out to eat, but we were both so exhausted that we were home by 9:15pm. You know its bad when your babysitter looks at you when you walk in the door and asks if you got bored or something =) But it doesn't matter how late or how exciting the date was, I love Brent more today than I did 5 years ago, or even 1 year ago. This whole marriage thing is the best decision I ever made! Happy Anniversary babe.

Panties...

My 15 month old is wearing panties today. Crazy huh?!!! 1 accident, but it was totally my fault, and the rest of the day she's gone in the potty. YEAHHHHHH Elliana. For those of you who think I'm crazy to put my 15 month old in panties, you're probably right, but I'm an all or nothing kind of gal. She's interested so we're going all out. Maybe we'll be diaper free by her 18 month birthday =)

New quote

Last night was the first night of Sports Camp at church, and I'm coaching the 1st-6th graders in soccer. As I sat down with the 1st graders for a snack break, I started asking them questions about the skit they had seen earlier that night about Saul on the road to Damascus. This was the resulting conversation.

1st grade girl: "I think that God was up in His house, you know like in that song "In My Father's House". He sits up in His house and then when you pray he goes zoooooom down here to hear your prayer and then goes zooooooom back up to His house."

My response: Do you know God can be everywhere at the same time?

1st grade boy: No way Coach! Do you have any idea how big the earth is? (as he looked at me with the look that said he thought I was not very bright)

And so ensued a great impromptu discussion which made our 5 minute snack break turn into 15 minutes. Don't you love how kids' brains work?!! Can't wait to hear what they have to say tonight

Sometimes...

Sometimes I tend to give in to my fleshly side and start to feel tired. This happened again about 3 weeks ago. I walked into a babyshower at a perfectly decorated home with plenty of bedrooms for all children and an additional playroom for all their toys. I listened to women talk about meeting at the gym, buying new clothes, and going out for lunch, and that fleshly side of me started to feel sorry for myself. I started to whine about having to work 2 jobs. I started to whine about not having enough space for anything in our house. I started to whine about cutting coupons and shopping sales. I started to feel sorry for myself, if just for a brief moment. I came home from the shower, fell on our bed, and turned to Brent and said, "I'm really struggling with envy. You're going to have to snap me out of this." It may sound stupid and petty, and it is, but it was a real struggle, almost a bitterness as my eyes could only see what I did not have and would not focus on all that we did have. Its funny how God doesn't allow you to stay in those moments for long though because at church that Sunday, Brent seemed to have picked every song to sing that convicted me of my selfishness and then Bob did an impromptu call to the alter to lay down everything we were not giving to God. We'll just say my eyes were definitely not dry, but I stood up completely free of the stronghold that had attempted to steal my joy from me. I left church that Sunday with different eyes. Which brings us to today. Today was parent orientation at school.

As I got ready and realized that in 3 weeks, I'll only have Tuesdays with just me and the girls, I'll admit I was a little sad. But at the same time, very thankful. I went to school today with a different attitude. This was a job that God placed in my lap so that I could earn money, do something with my brain, and still only be out of the house 1 day a week. Plus, I love the kids, I love the environment, and I love the people I work with. God has a funny way of bringing you through something tough in order to open your eyes to the blessings of life. And I am very blessed.