Helping Daddy

When I was a little girl, I loved helping my Daddy. I have so many special memories of the time I spent with him. I remember many trips to the feed store and hardware store, helping him with the animals at the barn, hauling hay, cutting down trees, handing him screws or nails while doing projects, and so many more sweet memories. I look back and wonder if I was more in the way than helping, but I never remember my Daddy acting like I was.

It warms my heart to see Lily so in love with her Daddy. No matter what he is doing, she wants to be in the middle of it, "helping" him. She goes with him whenever he runs to Lowes, or the post office, or the bank. It's so sweet!

Break time - "It's awfully hard work pushing the broom." Ha!

I pray that she is always a Daddy's Girl!

19 months

Happy 19 months Lily!

• She talks up a storm with new words/phrases everyday. It amazes me how she just talks and talks and we can understand what she is saying!
• She is a climber - recently we found her stuck at the top of Levi's crib, she was almost in, her leg just got stuck! Also, we found her sitting on the tray of the high chair while Levi was in it playing. We have to get our bookshelves and corner cabinet attached to the wall ASAP!
• She weighs about 21lbs and is wearing mostly 18 month clothes, but still some 12 month stuff. She's gotten taller recently and 18 month dresses are really short on her, but 24 month/2T dresses are way too big in the shoulders/chest. So for now, she runs around in mini-skirts/dresses with ruffle bloomers underneath. :)
• She's doing great learning her letters, numbers, shapes, and colors. 

• She sleeps from about 7:30pm to 8am and takes 1 or 2 naps each day. 
• She is successfully potty trained (of her own choosing), although we still put a diaper on her at night. Sometimes she wakes up dry and sometimes she wakes up wet. 
• She still loves reading, playing with Levi, cooking with Mama, helping Daddy, playing outside, going to the park, and visiting family. 
• She eats great! Rarely is there anything she won't eat. Her new favorite thing is dark chocolate - um, yes, only because that's her mama's favorite thing!
• One sweet thing I don't want to forget: everytime she hears a siren from an emergency vehicle she folds her hands and wants to pray. It's the sweetest thing! We live nearby a hospital, so we stop to pray many times each day. 

We thank the Lord everyday for this little girl!

7 months

Happy 7 months, Levi!!

• This little man is finally growing like a weed! He weighs around 14 1/2 pounds and I'm not sure how many inches he is. He's nearly into 3-6 month clothes! 
• He scoots everywhere using the big toe of his right foot to push himself. Poor guy got a blister on that toe from our wood floors.
• He's sitting for long periods of time and he can ease himself down to his belly from the sitting position. 
• He adores his big sister and just smiles and smiles at her!
• He is very much a mama's boy! I love it because I know it will pass all too soon.

• He loves to explore - I find him in the funniest places, under furniture, under my craft table, and he got stuck under a chair the other day.
• He is teething. I can feel the two center teeth on the bottom about to pop through. 
• He sleeps from about 8:30pm - 7:00am and takes 3 naps (2 long and 1 short) each day.
• He loves to eat! So far he's had avocado, banana, apples, peaches, pear, rice and oatmeal, carrots, green beans, and pastured egg yolk. He hasn't been too picky or shown favorites to anything, except last week he wouldn't eat anything except banana. I think it had to do with teething issues because now he's back to eating everything!

We are so thankful for this little guy and for the blessing he is to our family! God has used him in huge ways to grow us in our walk with Him!

Brotherly Love

Miss Lily just loves her brother! She plays with him, worries when he's sad, is always going to "check" on him, and shares her toys with him (most of the time). Of course there are times when she is not-so-gentle to him and ends up whacking him or dropping a toy on him or something of that nature. 

The other day I found them both playing on the saucer and couldn't resist the urge to capture the moment.

Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love.

Romans 12:10

What a Weekend!

This past weekend was just crazy busy! It felt like we ran non-stop all weekend. This morning I was just beat! 

Friday - Jacob taught all day, had a wedding rehearsal in the evening. The kids and I ran some errands in the morning and then played at home the rest of the day.

Saturday - Jacob had the prayer breakfast at church and then he was going to go help a family in our church move. The plans got changed and he didn't actually help them move until the afternoon. I loaded up the kids around 9 and headed to get groceries. 

The only picture I got all weekend - Sweet Levi fell asleep half way through shopping. I love how he's holding his toe! Ha.

Since the moving plans changed, we decided to go out for lunch with my sister and her family. We got bar-b-que! It was delicious!

After lunch the guys headed to help unload the moving truck and I got the kids down for naps. Both Lily and Levi are teething and haven't been taking very good naps - so I didn't get much accomplished while they were down. Jacob had the wedding in the evening and the kids and I just played at home.

Sunday - If you read my last post, you know how Sundays go around here. . .well this one started out no differently. Levi, who normally sleeps until 6:30 or 7 in the morning, woke up at 4am and didn't go back to sleep until 6:15. Ugh! As if that wasn't bad enough, I get him down, then go to get a shower. I'm rinsing out my hair and happen to glance up and see a large spider crawling down the shower curtain! Ack! Thankfully my flipflop was within reach, and I killed it, but it took three hard hits to get that tough guy dead! At that point I was just ready to go back to bed and forget that it was Sunday. . .but I didn't.

Even with the rough start, we made it out the door to church with time to spare, lots of time actually, like we got to church 40 minutes early! Miraculous, I tell you!

The rest of Sunday was spent at Jacob's parent's for lunch, home for naps, back to church, then to my parent's for supper.

Despite the busyness, I was thankful to be in the House of the Lord, thankful to fellowship with church family, and thankful for the refreshment for my weary soul.

For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; 

and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psalm 100:5

Confessions of a Tired Mama

So, when you have two (or one or ten) little children, an 18 month old and a 6 month old in my case, you are pretty much perpetually tired. Very tired. You are constantly busy, constantly needed. Sometimes in your completely exhausted state, you do some interesting things that make you think, "If my children make it to adulthood unscarred, it will be a miracle!" Ha! 

Thought I'd share a few of mine . .  .

• This happened not once, but twice in one day! Both times I didn't notice until we were walking out the door.
• You forget one child's paci and end up washing the other's and sharing it.
• You start talking baby talk to everyone - like saying "bye-bye" to a student (my hubs did this)
• Spit up and snot are your accessories.
• You make salted chocolate chip cookies and forget to add the salt.
• You leave the house to head to the store only to return 2 minutes later for your list, and then 2 minutes later for your wallet.

• Naptime rolls around for your 6 month old and you realize his sheets are still in the washer, so you put him in his sister's crib . . . with her pink lovey and all.
• You can't remember when you took a shower last (not that it's been too terribly long . . . your memory is just failing.)
• You start putting on lip gloss only to realize that it's teething gel.
• You make horrible spelling mistakes, but can't figure out why the word looks so funny.
• No matter how early you get up on Sunday mornings, or how much you prepare the night before, you're always rushing out the door frazzled and saying how much you hate Sundays - yes, I pretty much say that every Sunday and then I repent and realize that Sundays will get easier . . . one day.
• You have to re-wash the same load of clothes 3 times because you forgot about them and they soured in the washer twice.
• You dress you and your kids in matching clothes (green and white stripes) and don't even realize it until you're out and someone mentions it. Ha!

Yes, all of these have happened to me in, oh, the last 3 months or so. Some of them numerous times! Do things like this ever happen to you?

Please note - I am not complaining about having two little ones, or being very tired. I love my life and my children. The purpose of this post to record some funny things I've experienced in this adventure called motherhood. 

Video: Levi Sitting

Please excuse the poor video quality. I guess it didn't upload properly. Boo!