Such a Girly Girl

"I'll help you with the pumpkin pie but can I have a napkin? I don't want my hands to get messy."She was not convinced when I told her the best part about cleaning pumpkins was the messy hands and she cleaned that entire half with a napkin in her hand.

Saturday Fun

So no posts for a week; needless to say, its been a busy roller coaster of a week!But today was the highlight of the week, Avery's b-day party. Her actual b-day was last week, so she got a full week of birthday celebration! Fun times. For her birthday, she decided she wanted to bring cupcakes to school, a castle cake and to play Simon Says and Red Light, Green Light with her friends. So we...

took cupcakes to school on Monday

And then today at her b-day party, we played Red Light, Green Light

Simon Says

Rock, Rock, Be A Rock

Ate some castle cake

Opened some cool presentshit open a pinata full of candy

Ate some hotdogs and fruit

played a little Wii with our best friends who now live in Austin.

fell into bed exhausted

and then we ended the evening with a great dinner and a little ice cream for the two birthday girls! (Brent's mom's b-day is today as well!)Who could ask for a better 4th birthday =)

Reminds Me of the Cosby Show

Avery talking about how Connor and Bryce were going to come to her birthday party.

Me: "Do you remember that Connor and Bryce moved away? Its a long drive to come to our house. I'm not sure they can come."

A: she got sad for a minute and then said in her excited voice, "I know. Can't we just find 2 kids and call them Connor and Bryce and bring them to the party? They can just pretend to be my best friend and at least I'll have a Connor and Bryce at my party. "

I probably should have been a good mom and talked this through with her. But I couldn't help but picture Rudy from The Cosby Show telling Kenny his name was now Bud.

Anyone else remember that episode? How could you forget the line "my name's not Bud, its Kenny."

Okay, maybe its just me that loves that episode. But I bet everyone loves this one. Click here to see one of the greats =)

Sweet Moments

Its times like this where I'm so thankful I get to stay home with the kids so I can witness these moments.

She still makes me laugh

Avery: "Here mom, move back and I'll show you how to fix it."

Me: "Avery girl, you are getting a little too big for your britches."

Avery: " Which ones? These?" as she looked at the pants she was wearing.

I was trying to find a recipe online and Avery walked over to me and said

Avery: "Mom how about you come play with me in my room? Or you could just sit here and be boring. No one wants to be boring."

(Yes, she is already learning how to manipulate! She learned the word boring at camp and isn't afraid to use it often. I'm thinking it is soon to become a bad word in our house!)

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Said one afternoon as we were driving in the car:

A: "Mom look!!! Quick, look up there!!!! The clouds opened up and the light is coming through. Jesus is looking at us right now!"

Said one morning after I had made homemade cinnamon rolls.

A: "These are good, but when I finish mine can I have frozen vegetables instead?"
Me: "You don't want another cinnamon roll?"
A: "No. I want frozen broccoli and peas and corn."
(what 3 year old wants frozen veggies instead of cinnamon rolls?!)
Said while getting ready for church on Sunday:


A: "Who lives in Jesus' heart?"
Me: " What do you mean?"
A: "If Jesus lives in my heart, who lives in his heart?"

Top Three Things I will Hopefully Never Do Again

1. Fly by myself with all three kids on a 6am flight.

2. Fly by myself with all three kids on a 6am flight.

3. Fly by myself with all three kids on a 6am flight.

But at least we finally made it home and its almost naptime for the kids and for me. I'm praying they all sleep at the same time so I can sleep! I'm exhausted.

Highlight of the flight:

• Halfway down the tunnel to get onto the airplane, Avery says: "I have to go back and give Grandpa a hug and a kiss and tell him how much I love him. " I told her we couldn't go back, so she yelled at the top of her lungs "I LOVE YOU GRANDPA!!!" and continued to walk onto the plane.
  

Low point in the flight:

• Elliana stretched out on the floor of the plane yelling at the top of her lungs "I DON'T WANT TO BE ON THE GROUND. I WANT TO FLY." She alternated between screaming this and just screaming for the last 15 minutes of the flight. I guess when you wake a 2 year old up at 4am, there's only so much they can handle before they flip out =)

Sorry to all you passengers on flight 3570 this morning who thought you were going to sleep on your 6am flight. My kids had other plans for you.

Dance School

Ever since Avery's dance recital, the girls have been obsessed with dancing. The dance lessons were a Christmas present last year for Avery, so we weren't planning on signing her up again in the fall, but they are slowing wearing me out! All they want to do is play "dance school" and count down until summer is over so they can go to dance school again.

Below is the ending of a conversation I walked in on a few Sundays ago. Elliana and Avery were discussing what class they would be in and how they would dance. In case you can't understand Elliana, she is adamantly saying that Avery will stand outside and watch her dance this time. Elliana stood outside and watched Avery dance this past year and I guess she figures its her turn to dance while Avery has to watch!

This is their new game...one of them pretends to be Miss Macy, the teacher. The other one dresses up and is the student at dance school.

Highlight video

Can you tell I'm enjoying my new video camera =)

(oh, and some of you have said the video keeps jumping when you try to watch it. Try hitting pause until the video has completed buffing and then hit play and the video should play without interruption)

First Dance Recital

Avery's first dance recital was tonight. I think she had a lot of fun. I have to admit, I was a little teary eyed through most of it. She suddenly went from my little Avery that I needed to watch over and take care of to this big girl who was able to go onto that big stage all by herself and do what she needed to do.
For some reason, as I was editing and combining the video, the order of the clips got switched. I'm too lazy to redo it, so if you're interested in watching, you'll watch her tap routine followed by the finale and then her ballet routine. The video was shot last night during dress rehearsal as well so it wasn't today's performance, but close enough =)


Here is a picture of us after the recital.
Elliana and Justus were rockstars through the whole recital. Justus just nursed and slept and Elliana was mesmerized by the dancers. I've never seen the girl sit so still for so long! She loved it so much it makes me want to sign her up for dance lessons tomorrow =)
Nana, Pappa, Great Grandma, and Aunt Deanna came down for the weekend, so after the recital we all went back home and grilled and then Avery got her special desert for working so hard on her routine.As I put Avery in her bed tonight, she sat up and said "mommy, what are we going to do on Mondays now?" I answered, "I'm not sure because dance is all over now." She replied, "but do you think maybe dance is still going and I could go to dance school again sometime?" I'm pretty sure that means she had a good time.

Great Moments

We were having a conversation about the hospital and when Justus was born...

Avery "He came out because I prayed that he would come out quick and so God made him come out?"

Me: "That's right."

Avery: "So if I pray that he'll go back into your tummy, he will?"


This was said on an afternoon walk. I was singing as I was pushing the stroller.
Elliana: "Mommy, no please."
Me: "No please to what?"

Elliana: "No sing please mommy. It doesn't sound right."
(I guess she's already figured out her mommy can't sing!)


Avery ran into her room this morning and said this to me

Avery: I know my real name is Avery, but I like Avesy better so you can just call me Avesy from now on alright?


Elliana was in tears on the way home from the park this morning. I couldn't get her to stop crying while I was driving. She was a bit hysterical. Finally, this was our conversation.

Me: "Elliana, why are you crying? What happened?

Elliana: "Avery said I'm not Ana!"

I guess she thought that since Avery said she wasn't Ana anymore that she couldn't be Ana anymore. The sister teasing has begun =)

Precious Moments

Walking around the corner to see your 3 year old on her knees, Bible open in her hands, eyes closed, and singing

"holy, holy, holy,
Lord, God, Almighty
Early in the Morning
My song shall rise to thee

Only thou art holy,
merciful and mighty
God in three persons
Blessed Trinity"

Its the Hard-Knock Life For Us

Scary bugs

Avery's been in tears and hysterical fits the past week over all the bugs in our yard. Here was tonights conversation.

Brent: "What are you scared the bugs will do?:

Avery: "I'm scared of the ones with the big teeth and they'll eat me!"

Brent: "We don't have those kinds of bugs in our yard."

Avery: "Just Connor has those bugs?"

We were totally confused, but she was determined that Connor had those bugs at his house. So Brent asked her to draw a picture of the bug she was scared of. Enter this picture. Suddenly it clicked! Those weren't bugs. They were dinosaurs. At Connor's last week, he was showing off his dinosaurs to her. I guess we forgot to tell her the part about them not existing anymore!

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"

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?

The Girls' First Impression

So far, Justus is still a novelty to the girls. Here are some pictures of their first time meeting their baby brother!He didn't sleep at all his first night home, so we'll see how tonight goes! There's nothing worse than a dark house and a screaming baby =) And after the 2nd time trying to get in and out of our bed, I quickly remembered why I didn't want a C-section and why I love pain pills! But praise the Lord for a mom who loves to take care of the girls and me so I can rest some during the day! Thanks for coming and helping out mom. I love you!

To see the rest of the pics from his birth and homecoming, click here

Is it Time Yet?

Avery: (standing with one hand on my tummy, her face towards the sky, and yelling at the top of her voice) "GOD, LET MY BABY BROTHER COME OUT TODAY SO MY MOMMY QUITS HURTING!"Elliana: (kissing my tummy gently and whispering) "I love you baby brother. Come out soon and play"

I think both girls have covered my own range of emotions quite well =)

Sisters

What could be better on a rainy and cold day then reading books with your sister.

Feel like a bad mom?

Ever have those bad mom feelings? You know the ones where you take your kids to the doctor and preface the visit by saying you're pretty sure the kids aren't sick but need to make sure before the baby comes. And then the doctor comes back and says the words "significant ear infection and sinus infection". Oops!! Totally missed those symptoms! Maybe that's why they've been so whiny the last few days =)I have to admit though, I do love sick days. Its such a great excuse to eat breakfast for every meal and lay around and watch cartoons. Something this very pregnant mommy dreams of frequently!
Both girls are now on antibiotics, and I'm sure will be back to normal energy levels by tomorrow afternoon so I'm going to enjoy laying on the couch with my feet up while I can =)
What do you do when you're sick?