Fun times

This morning I looked over to where Justus was playing on the floor and Elliana was leaning over the top of him. I asked her what she was doing and she replied:

"Justus want to eat from me too."

It was then that I noticed her shirt was down, and she was trying to nurse her brother.

My Spiritual Journey

Today's entry will be short and sweet...I think I have about 5 minutes before a kid starts crying again =)

One word that describes my past week would be...failure. Here are my two excuses:

• Quiet times while 3 kids three and under are awake are not very effective for me. I am too busy watching the kids to ever truly focus on Christ. Quiet times became something to get through instead of meeting with my Savior to allow Him to get me through the day.

• Justus went through a growth spurt last week and was up every 2 hours to eat. Because of his acid reflux and needing to stay upright after eating, it usually takes an hour to an hour and a half to get through a feeding at night so I was getting about 30 min. of sleep at a time. Praise the Lord for weekends when I can pass him off to Brent in the middle of the night!!!

Both of those combined have meant I have spent very little quality time before our Father this past week. I was sitting in church Sunday morning complaining to God about how I desire time but there just seems to be none or when there is time, I'm too tired and just want to sleep. Suddenly all those excuses I was ready to lay out before the Lord stared me straight in the face, and I realized I was making a choice. I could let the excuses, even though they were good ones, consume my life and keep me stagnate in my walk with the Lord. Or I could trust that the Lord was sufficient and make a plan to meet with Him REGARDLESS of the circumstances that happen during the night or day. I choose the 2nd option.

So here's the plan:

I will set my alarm at 6:30am every morning. I wake Justus up and start his day at 7am and the girls get up around then, so this will give me at least 30 min. of quiet to spend with the Lord before the day starts. Once Justus goes to waking up just once instead of twice, I will get up earlier, but I think for now, 30 min. is a manageable goal for me.

Man this whole 3 kids three and under is more of a circus than I imagined =) I think spending the beginning of my day with the Lord is going to make me a much better mother during the day though! I'll keep you posted =)

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Elliana!

When you were born, you were the most low maintenance baby ever. You just did your own thing and were so laid back as a baby.

By your first birthday, we were convinced that you were going to be a quiet and shy little girl. You didn't enjoy your birthday party. You hid in the background and wanted to play by yourself or with me and were a little overwhelmed by all the excitement. You were definitely a momma's little girl and loved to cuddle with me and read books. You could also sit on the floor for hours with just one or two toys and entertain yourself. Your daddy and I would just sit and marvel at your determination as you struggled to figure out any new toy or problem that was put in front of you. Now, at age 2, your father and I realize your going to keep us on our toes! You are our little musician who loves life. There is always a song on your lips and a smile on your face as you dance the day away and enter your own world of pretend. You adore your sister, and it brings joy to my heart to watch the two of you create your own world of make believe. You are also our little athletic girl. Physical coordination seems to come easy to you and you aren't scared to try anything! You are still determined to teach yourself new things and intensly study those around you as you learn. I hope you are always this independent and sweet spirited, and I can't wait to see how the Lord grows you this next year. Happy Birthday Els our Bells!

Friday Fun Day

The makings of a great Family Fun Day:

It must begin with a big family breakfast. Breakfast tacos were on the menu for this week.

Throw in good times with old friendsA little bit of outdoor fun

And cuddle up with a movie to end the day.

Its great to be a family!

Quotes of the Day

Avery: "Man, there sure are a lot of rules in this house. I bet there aren't any rules like this at Grandma's."This conversation took place after Elliana got her dinner taken away b/c she was playing with it. I took her to the bedroom and asked:

Me: "Why did your dinner get thrown away?"

Elliana: "I disobeyin. I playing London Bridge is Falling Down with my food"

The Little Man

Meet the little guy himself showing off the one talent he has mastered at 4 weeks. He shows it off right at the end of the video...enjoy =)

Date Night with Daddy

Eyes downcast, solemn expression, extremely quiet. That was Avery all morning. Finally at 11:00am I asked,

"Avery, are you sad or just quiet today? Can you talk to me about what you're feeling?"

Avery replied: "I just wish daddy didn't have to be at work today. I miss him."

Solution to her missing her daddy:

Can you tell she loves her daddy?

My Spiritual Journey

"We are too often occupied with outward things, and as a result we often become very hard of hearing spiritually"

This is my quote for the week. Its my reminder to not get so caught up in little things of life that I miss what's important.

What that means:
I don't need to focus so much on my life, my schedule, my lack of sleep, that I miss what God is doing in our family and those who surround us. God is continually using my circumstances to refine me, teach me, and glorify Himself. I want to always be aware of His presence, what He is saying to me, and what He is doing in the world around me.

How I Did On Last Week's Goal:
I was in the word almost every day. I missed Sunday and learned a valuable lesson...don't try to spend quality time in the word while letting a one year old and a 3 year old sit on your lap. They were both running fevers so I thought they would just sit quietly and cuddle while I read. My mistake =)

Next Week's Goal:

• Continue daily quality time in the word
• Start memorizing Matthew 5 again. I've taken a break from memorizing since Justus was born and I'm ready to get back into it.

Its a Perfect Day

For a picnic!

She's almost 2!

We had a little b-day party for Elliana this past weekend. We just did a really small family celebration, but it was a lot of fun.The theme for the party was everything Mickey Mouse...she's obsessed with him.
Elliana isn't a fan of big crowds or being the center of attention. In fact, if you put a lot of kids around her, she'll go off and play by herself. Those of you who have only seen her in a crowd don't really know our fun loving, energetic, off the wall Elliana =) So this little family party was exactly what she needed to celebrate her big day!

Fun Fridays

This Friday was a bit chaotic! We picked up Grandpa from the airport, ate some doughnuts, I had a haircut, ate lunch, and got everyone down for nap. Then it was time for the big appointment for Justus...his kidney reflux test.
We spent the whole afternoon at Cook Children's Hospital for the test. It went pretty well...only had to endure a couple hours of crying. And this time all the crying came from the baby so I'm improving at least =) We got home just in time to change clothes and run out the door to an absolutely fabulous wedding of some of our friends! It was such a blessing to watch the two of them get married!Now I'm ready for a low key, no events planned week! I love my down time =)

Photo Shoot

So I ventured to Portrait Innovations yesterday for their wonderful $9.99 picture package. I wanted some pictures of Elliana for her 2nd birthday and then I wanted some 1 month pictures of Justus. The nice men took pity on Avery who was feeling left out and took some of her as well. Here are some of my favorites =)(sorry its facing its side. It takes a bunch of steps to get blogger to flip pictures and I don't remember what they are right now!)

To see the rest of the photo shoot, click here

In the Last 24 hours...

Elliana stuck a pea up her nose. Good thing tweezers are long and skinny and can fit up a 2 year old's nose!

And our oven broke and will remain broken until at least next Tuesday...we need to wait on a part to come in.



Maybe God is telling us to quit cooking so my daughter will quit putting food up her nose

My Spiritual Journey

This is the week of setting goals.
I've been floating along since Justus was born and have been slowly and surely sinking into my tiredness. The girls are out of control, Brent hasn't been home in a week because of Easter stuff, Justus has acid reflux but I'm trying to control it with my diet instead of medicine so I'm starving because I can't eat anything or else he will scream all night in pain and yet he still screams all night in pain, and I just have continued to sink lower and lower into myself.

Until last night.

Brent looked at me and asked, "how long has it been since you've spent good quality time with the Father?"

I just cried. Quality time? Early morning is out because most of the time I'm just crawling into bed at our normal wake up time. Afternoon nap is out because they don't always nap at the same time. Its going to be 12 weeks before everyone's schedule is how I want it and I can find some quality time.

Brent wasn't satisfied. Neither was I. So this morning I'm back to making goals, structuring my time as best as I can, and am determined to find quality time during my day to sit with my Savior.

How it looked today:
I sat on my lap top and did an Examen on www.examen.me while the girls sat on the PC and played Mickey Mouse on Playhouse Disney and Justus sat in his chair. Not a silent moment with Jesus but definitely a quality time with Jesus.

What are my goals:
I only have one: To be in the Word every day at least once but preferably more than once. I was reading through Psalm 103 this morning and God was so faithful to remind me that he alone satisfies and redeems me. I need to be in His presence in order to survive this transition. I'll let you know how I do on my one goal next week =)

Grandma was Stranded in Texas

Here are a few reasons why I'm grateful my mom was stranded in Texas for a few extra weeks!

1. This week, Brent had to work until 10 or 11pm 3 nights in a row. Without Grandma here, the kids would not have gotten baths, probably would have gotten a miserable dinner, and may have still been up waiting for me to get them to bed when Brent walked in the door =) Plus, 3 days and nights in a row by myself with a 2 week old, a 23 month old, and a 3 year old may have pushed me over the edge!!
2. We had doctor's appointments on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of this past week. Grandma was able to stay home with at least one of the kids each time so I didn't have to lug all 3 of them to every doctor's appointment!
3. Those nights when I was up all night with Justus and just couldn't stand to hold him for one more second, Grandma was there to step in and take over so I could shower. Sorry Brent. Without Grandma around, I may not get that shower for awhile. Elliana likes to "tickle" Justus too much when I'm not watching! =)4. I have a bachelorette party Tuesday night, a wedding rehearsal on Thursday, Justus' kidney test on Friday, and a wedding Friday night. The girls can't go to any of those with us so it would have been a week full of babysitters if Grandma wasn't around!

5. I made it to church ON TIME the past two weeks.

6. She's done many grocery runs, snack runs, and dinner runs so that there is always food to eat. My girls aren't going to know what hit them once she leaves and the pantry is bare again!
7. Finally, I just love her to death. I'm so glad she got stranded here! Thanks for living with us and putting up with us for a few weeks mom. We're going to miss you!!!

Happy Easter!

How did you celebrate?

Family Fun Day was spent with Gramps and Grammy this week! They came loaded with Easter goodies for the girls and lots of hugs for Justus. We had a great time! Thanks for coming to visit.

My Spiritual Journey

The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind. They've focused completely on having a baby which means My Spiritual Journey is all about what I've learned through this birth.

God seems to teach me something different with each child. Avery's pregnancy and birth was a process of God stripping me of my selfishness. Elliana's pregnancy and birth was a process of me allowing God to open my eyes to His plan for my life instead of me focusing on my own plan. Justus' pregnancy and birth has been a lesson in learning to pray without a solution in mind. A lesson in praying, pouring out my heart, and then trusting God to come up with the best solution to my prayer.

The whole pregnancy was a teaching process. The labor and birth was the testing ground. It was my opportunity to actually live out what I was learning.

After 4 days of labor contractions but no progression in labor. After my water broke, but still no progression of labor. After 7 hours of walking through the hospital, and still no progression of labor. After 14 hours in the hospital trying everything possible but still having labor not progress, I was given my opportunity to put what I learned into practice.

My nurse looked at Brent and I and said, "how do you want me to advocate for you? Do you want me to press the doctor to give you more time or do you want me to step back and let the doctor make the call as to whether you will have to C-section?" As tears rolled down my face, I was able to look at our nurse with a smile and tell her my story. I was able to be completely at peace and let her know how I had specifically prayed that God would not allow labor to advance if it was not safe for this baby to be born vaginally. We were able to share our story about God's goodness with the doctor and with every nurse in the OR. I was able to accept the C-section verdict with a peace that only comes when you wholeheartedly trust God.

I have to admit, sharing my faith is not always the easiest thing for me. But that day, there was no option for me but to express the faithfulness of God to everyone I met. He was the one in control so I couldn't help but share that with others.

So My Spiritual Journey is now on the next bump. Babies are hard work. Or maybe juggling the family, little sleep, kids that get out of control b/c their mom is nursing all day long, and hormones is the hard part. But since arriving home from the hospital, the Lord has been whispering in my ear about rejoicing in all things. Not just trusting Him with the solution, but truly rejoicing in the Lord in the midst of life's circumstances. So that seems to be my next step as I adjust to 3 kids. Rejoice when the cry comes after I've just fallen back to sleep. Rejoice in the Lord when the girls start to get out of control. Rejoice in the Lord when I'm too tired to cook but am too hungry not to. Rejoice in the Lord in ALL things, regardless of if they're pleasant things or not.

I love the journey =)

Avery's Observation of the Week

Avery: "I think Justus liked it better when he was in mommy's tummy"

Family Fun Day

I had high hopes for Family Fun Day this week. My hip is finally starting to feel better, Justus is on a good schedule, and we were all needing some time away from the house. Here was the breakdown of our day.We spent the morning with Justus at the doctor. We got home in time to take the girls outside, and I sat in the driveway while they rode bikes with Brent and checked out all the garage sales up the street.Then early naps for everyone because we had fun activities planned for the afternoon! Notice the word "had". The best made plans often fail I guess =) Unfortunately, I'm still not used to the whole 3 hours schedule again so by the time the girls got up, I fed Justus, then the girls needed a snack, then we got clothes on everyone, then found shoes, cleaned up the mess of toys, took everyone potty, and got ready to go, it was 30 minutes until Justus needed to eat again. He still takes 45 min. to eat so by the time he was done, Friday evening traffic on the interstate would have been horrible. I guess I need to work on getting the girls clothes, shoes, and snacks ready before I nurse so we can walk out the door as soon as Justus is done eating!
So we settled for more bike riding, Brent fixed the garage door, I played beauty parlor with Elliana, and we went on a family trip to Wal mart to pick out some new shoes for Avery. We were going to go out to eat because the girls have been cooped up in the house so much, but my hip isn't doing as well as I thought and ended up coming back home for dinner.I guess the point is that we spent the day as a family even if we didn't do any of what we had planned! I am itching to get back to normal though!

1st Test

Last night I had my first test as a mother of three...What to do when ALL 3 of them start crying in their bed at the same time? Who do you go to first? How do you comfort all three at the same time?Yes, my first big test to see if I could get all of them comforted and quiet at the same time...I think I failed =) Oh well, I'm sure they'll be many nights to come where I can work on this skill!!!