stressed out

The last couple of weeks have been tough ones for our family.  Here's a brief synopsis: we start renovating the sanctuary at church and it isn't being done on the schedule Kevin thought it would be.  Mattie Leigh starts running a fever that is higher than 102 (for the first time ever) out of nowhere and I spend hours with her in the after hours clinic waiting to be seen...turns out she had a bad sinus infection that hit hard and fast.  Allie Grace is teething and fighting with allergies and has not been sleeping well AT ALL.  My computer also died this week...which if kind of funny because I had just told Kevin that I thought I needed a new one as soon as we could get it because several things had stopped working on mine.  Those things on their own aren't even that bad...very manageable. But then out of the blue, Kevin has some pretty big unpleasant events happen with both of his jobs.  I can't go into details, but we'd appreciate prayer for both situations.

 It almost feels like someone is praying for patience for us!  However, I know this is just a growing and learning season for us.  If nothing else comes out of it, I've learned how to operate on very little sleep! Well, I've learned more than that, and I'm sure Kevin has too.  I've learned how to rely more on those around me when crises (big or small) come up.  I've learned how to better control my temper and to keep my mouth shut when what I want to say will not be beneficial, even if it needs to be said.  I'm pretty sure my amazing hubby has learned how to better exercise his authority in both of his jobs and how to speak his mind in a way that isn't destructive to others.

Our whole family is looking forward to some down time next week to celebrate Thanksgiving and to get to spend time together as a family and with our families.  We need the rest!

This Is the Day

Kevin and I noticed the other day that I was humming the song, "This Is the Day (that the Lord has made)" to Allie Grace to help calm her down and get her to sleep. I started doing it a while back without realizing what I was humming...I just knew that it helped calm her down. Since then I've been thinking about the song and how I usually felt when she was really fussy. It turns out that it has a calming effect on me too. I'm still not sure how my humming changed from my version of "Rock-a-by" that I sing to the girls, but I'm so glad that it did. I'm reminded every time I hum it now that each day is God's creation and that, while things may be a little hectic and I may have a million things to do and a baby that wants to be held, He knows what is in each day and is there to help me through them.

A Monkey Kind of Day

I'm really late with this post because I always forget to upload pictures from my camera or phone to the computer.

We had Mattie Leigh's 3rd birthday on October 2. She asked months ago if she could have a Curious George party. This was the first year that she really knew what all was going on and she was super excited. I think she asked me 5 times before 9:30 that morning if it was her party day and who all was coming to see her. The kid is super blessed and got lots of great gifts from lots of great family and friends.

Here are a few pictures to document the day.

who knew?

Who knew I'd be dealing with teenager attitude from a toddler? "I'm mad at you!" "I don't like you anymore." "You're mean!" "You're not my friend." I hear these comments and many like them from Mattie Leigh at least once a day lately. I knew I'd be dealing with the terrible twos during the toddler years, but I had no clue that I'd hear comments like these from a not quite 3 year old.

I'm hoping that she's just getting the attitude out of the way early and that she'll be sweet as a teenager...if the attitude only gets worse, she may not come out of her room until she's 20.

readjusting to the 'real' world and life with a 2 3/4 year old and a 5 month old

This week marks back to school time for Kevin. It's going to be a hard (and interesting) transition. We've all gotten so used to him being home for the summer and the girls really don't want him leaving in the mornings. So far, he's only been gone part of the day for meetings, but next week, he'll be back full-time. I have to come up with fun (not to mention free or really inexpensive) activities to keep the girls entertained until they get readjusted.

Mattie Leigh has become quite a funny kid. I really need to start writing down the things that she says. For instance, she was in her room getting ready for a nap the other day and told Kevin that she wanted to sell her toys in the upcoming church garage sale. I asked her about it later and she basically admitted that she wanted to get rid of all her old ones just so she could get new ones. She's started telling us, "I love you so much!" lately and also frequently says, "I need ________ so much." Somehow, 'so much' is supposed to make it a necessity and not just a want.

Today, she asked to go to Bop's to get ice cream. We decided to eat it in the car and not torture ourselves in the miserable heat. I looked back to check on the girls and saw Mattie Leigh giving Allie Grace a bite of her chocolate custard. I really hoped that Allie Grace hadn't gotten any, but when I got her out of the car, I noticed that she had a chocolate mustache.

I realized that I never mentioned that she has had me planning her birthday party for almost 2 months. Her birthday is in OCTOBER! I don't know if she thinks I'm going to forget or if I have an excessive planner on my hands.

She's also become very interested in school. She really wanted to go this year, but we really didn't want her having to go to K3 for 2 years. Since her birthday is after the September 1 deadline, she really isn't supposed to start until she is almost 4. She was very disappointed. I'm thinking about trying to come up with little school activities that will help her see what school will be like. I'd also like her to get to visit the classroom occasionally so that she can see what is expected out of students.

Allie Grace has hit some sort of amazing growth spurt. In the last 3 weeks, it seems like she went from wearing mostly 0-3 month clothes to wearing some 6-9 month sizes. I even put her in a 12 month outfit the other day...the length on it was great, but the waist was a little big. Part of this astonishing growth may have come from the fact that she is really enjoying her baby food now. I'm starting to add more...she gets rice cereal in every bottle because of the reflux so I only give her oatmeal every few days but she gets at least half a container of a fruit and half a container of a veggie every day. I'm trying to be better about letting her have at least 2 meals...our daily schedule is so varied that it's sometimes a struggle to try to fit it in, but my plan is to start giving her breakfast after she gets up and a meal in the middle of the day. We can throw in a third meal as needed now and then add in a before bed feeding when the time comes. (I'm not too worried about it right now because it isn't exactly necessary for her to be eating as much baby food as she is right now anyway...she's just a little piggy and loves her food.)

Our little weed has also developed her own little personality more and more lately. She knows what she wants and has figured out a number of ways of expressing it. She is still generally happy all the time (her fussy spells come when she is overly tired, very hungry, or is having trouble with reflux) and is interested in everything. Her hands, eyes, and mouth are constantly exploring her surroundings. She reaches for who and what she wants and gets upset if she doesn't get her way. She's also a little cuddle bug and I love getting to snuggle with her.

Hopefully, I'll start posting a little more regularly. I'm trying to get us back into a routine again and maybe that'll help. If nothing else, it should give me plenty of things to post about.

future artist?

I was painting a canvas last night to put in the girls' room. Mattie Leigh asked to paint too. After we were both done, I realized how much my painting hers was. Here are pictures.

She spent a lot of time thinking about where to put each brush stroke and looked at it for a while before she said, "I'm finished!"

I did it!

So, as I typed the title for this post, the song that Dora and Boots sing at the end of every episode popped into my head...and I laughed out loud about it.

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that I now have my diploma...proof that hard work and determination, along with lots of tears and prayer, really does pay off in the end.

The diploma is HUGE! I told Kevin that it is about twice the size as our diplomas from MC...and those are about twice the size as my high school diploma. So, my question is, if I ever decide to get my doctorate, will that diploma be even bigger?