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Speechless

2012-01-26T18:53:00.001-05:00

You could call me Zechariah right now. Because I may not speak again until this baby is born.

We will be adding a baby BOY to this crazy household this summer.

We’ve had plenty of opportunities to see this little one. Here’s his journey so far…

Baby at 7 weeks. It’s the tiny dot to the left of the black “hole”

9 weeks. Bigger blob. Not sure where the head is…

13 weeks. This didn’t scan well. But it’s from the back with the babies head toward the left.

15 weeks. Finally looks like a baby. From the side. Head to the right and spine across the top.

17 weeks. Finally gave up the secret. What are we going to do with a BOY???

So I guess we’ll be accepting blue clothes :-) There’s not much in this house that poor baby boy can use!

January

2012-01-23T20:11:00.001-05:00

Do you ever go through weeks (or months) an realize you haven’t taken any pictures of the kids? This has been one of those months. Evie and I were outside last week with the water table and I figured I should try to catch up on Evie’s pictures. I’m sure she’s WAY behind on pictures compared to the other girls. Just wait for #4. I’ll be lucky to remember the name!

Evie spent quite a bit of time worrying about the ants. She kept saying “Those ants will hurt me”. I’ll tell you what… if one thing rules TX I’m pretty sure it’s ants. These suckers are everywhere, get everywhere, eat through your house, invade every flower garden. It’s a bit unnerving. I did get the broom and ant spray out and did a little ant massacre. I hate ants. Especially the kind that will eat the living daylights out of little legs.

We’re still counting down the days to *hopefully* the big reveal. I had a really weird dream about finding out last night but it was like having a dream on LSD so I don’t know how much stake to put in it…

Boy or girl???

2012-01-20T09:19:00.001-05:00

Thoughts? We **should** find out in 6 days. Baby 4 was not at all cooperative last week so there are no promises. Having a boy honestly freaks me out. Annie is certain it’s a boy. She said she could tell from the ultrasound. She even told the dentist on Wednesday that we were having a boy. Amelia says girl. Evie says boy…

Life

2012-01-18T22:24:00.001-05:00

Warning. When you have 3 kids in 4 years don’t have a big moment of “wow. they are so great”. Because, guess what??? I guarantee you they will turn into the most unstable monsters you’ve ever seen within 10 minutes. Phew. It wears me out!

I know how blessed I am, but honestly don’t have many positive things to say. The pictures are more positive than me tonight so that’s what I’ll post here…

We lived through it!

2012-01-03T22:01:00.001-05:00

It’s been a while, huh? I can’t imagine there are many waiting anxiously for new blogs from now end but we are back. We lived through two 1,000 mile drives with 3 kids (both trips involved throw up), multiple family Christmases, Phillip flying back and forth from KY to TX and everything else those last 2 weeks of December entails. Talk about needing a vacation from our vacation!

I’m not going to recap the last month (mostly because I can’t remember most of it! and because it would most likely be a long and boring post). We’re back at our home in Texas and everyone, sadly, is back to work and school.

I’ve hit the 14 week mark with baby #4. Had another ultrasound today and the little one actually looks like a little human. Annie said it looks like a girl since it appears to have a necklace on. Since necklace’s aren’t what one typically looks for to determine gender (in utero, that is!) we are still officially classified as “unknown”. Shouldn’t be too much longer though!

** Note- Although these pictures do not include Phillip he was around! Usually behind the camera!

4 daughters??? and counting…

2011-12-05T20:47:00.001-05:00

No. I don’t have any idea of the sex of this baby. I am tempted to do one of those gender tests that you can get at the drug store, but I just don’t think I would believe what it said! BUT… wouldn’t it be something if we added another girl to this picture. I went to sleep last night thinking of opening wedding accounts.

Life has been kind of tough lately. Phillip’s job has him working long hours and dead tired. Being 10 weeks pregnant has me tired and has brought the worst heartburn imaginable. And I’ve been taking the prescription heartburn meds. I am so thankful that I haven’t been too nauseous this time around though. It had me worried for a while, but I’ve seen the teeny tiny heartbeat at 7 weeks and 9 weeks. It never ceases to amaze me that such a tiny little being has a heart that pumps that teeny amount of blood.

Honestly that’s about all that is new in our lives. Phew. Maybe life will start to get less tiring and more interesting!

Thankful

2011-11-20T11:01:00.001-05:00

Sometimes it seems like the more people have, the harder it is for them to think of things to be thankful for. And I’m including myself in this group. I can literally sit in the middle of my fully furnished, pantry stocked, closets completely full, temperature controlled house and think… hmmmm… what DO I have to be thankful for?? It’s all a little out of control!

I do, however, have so much to be thankful for.

I am thankful for a wonderful husband who does so much for all his girls and works so hard.
I am thankful for my Annie who is one of the most thoughtful people I’ve ever met.
I am thankful for Amelia. She is so funny and is just a really fun person to be around.
I am thankful for Evie. We’re still figuring her out. She is not to be stepped on, she is our most girly girl, and she is very opinionated. And Annie and Amelia still love her like we just brought her home from the hospital.
I am thankful for all our family. We’ve been blessed with many visits over the last year and we’re looking forward to our Christmas visit.
I am thankful that God has blessed us with our precious baby #4. He/She is due to arrive around July 4. Right now the big question is: Boy or Girl??

I really could go on and on. We are very blessed.

May you have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Bug Infestation

2011-11-01T12:42:00.001-05:00

I had 3 giant bugs in and around my house. They are extremely hard to get rid of and they cost me an awful lot of money. But, they are really really cute…

The pictures kind of say it all :-)

More fun…

2011-10-28T13:12:00.001-05:00

We have been having a lot of fun lately (the above picture is Amelia at a birthday party. They all got their hair, makeup and nails done and dressed up for the runway), but we have also been VERY busy!

One of the major events is that I have been having chest pains. Pretty severe at times. I knew that my likelihood of having a heart attack at 29 was low, but it was still unnerving! The tests I’ve had so far point to the gallbladder. However, my surgeon thinks it may also be something else based on where my pain is. So I have MORE tests next Monday and another appt with the surgeon Wednesday. By the time I’m finished with all of this it will have cost as much as the surgery itself.

Here is a preview of our halloween costumes. Amelia is with her friend, Kennedy, at school. Kennedy was a leopard, but Amelia kept calling her a cheeto.

More fun to come this weekend! Sometimes I would like a little less fun!! :-)

Having too much fun to blog…

2011-10-27T12:07:00.003-05:00

Yikes. It’s been a while. We have had a fun filled few weeks!

Evie and I flew to KY a few weekends ago. We had a great time visiting with friends and family and celebrating Evie’s 2nd birthday!

Anyhow… 2 days after we returned my mom came to TX for 10 days. And we have gone non-stop since!

Evie is very into makeup. Whatever she can get into…

Amelia is so fun and loves her school. The other day they got to ride ponies and pet other farm animals at school. Seriously it is too much fun…

Annie is also doing great. And- she loves school. Let me just tell you how awesome her school days are… Phillip was lucky enough to receive an iPad for his birthday last week. I bring it home to wrap it and Annie says “Oooh… an iPad! I play with those at school!!”. Seriously?? Must be nice!

Amelia is into all things pretty. The more glittery and frilly the better. And pink is always a safe choice.

Amelia and Evie have really enjoyed their time together throughout the week. They are both fairly laid back so they get along really well (for now!!).

More fun at Amelia’s school. Western day. She makes quite the beautiful cowgirl!

Onto more fun… Evie’s 2nd birthday!!! We also had 3 other birthday parties to attend that weekend, so it got a little crazy. But Evie enjoyed her presents and blowing out her candles.

And… last but not least… Phillip and I have gotten a few date nights in with the last few mom visits. This was the night of Phillip’s work BBQ at the owners house. Texas BBQ is funny. They BBQ chicken, steak, sausage, turkey. Pretty much any meat product. Reminds me of Ron from Parks & Recreation.

Already working on the next blog…

A day off

2011-10-10T19:58:00.001-05:00

No school today. So we had to find SOMETHING to do! It was pleasantly cool this morning and I decided it was worth the risk to go to the zoo. (the risk was that it would be CROWDED. It was not!)

We have zoo passes which makes the trips much more enjoyable. We can stay for an hour and then leave without feeling like I’ve wasted a ton of money. And the Ft. Worth zoo is pretty big and would be difficult to do in a visit (with 3 kids).

Love seeing the girls enjoy things together. Here they are enjoying the King Cobra.

This zoo always has some kind of snake out for the kids to “pet”. They love to do it and it’s such a neat experience!

And there’s nothing like a ride on the bronze komodo dragon to end the visit.

All in all it was a good day! Evie and I will be flying to KY Thursday and we’re so excited! Hope she will SIT STILL for 2 hours. It will be a struggle for sure!

Savor the moment

2011-10-05T13:38:00.001-05:00

Savoring the moment would not be one of my gifts. I don’t have it in me. I am such a planner and always thinking about what would really be great in the future that I hardly even take a look around me.

I understand that this is a big “no no” when raising your kids. They grow so fast, they’ll be out of the house and then married!… but it’s so hard!! I am forever saying “if just… then I would be able to enjoy the moment” For instance:

If I just had more money…
If I just had a bigger house…
If I just had more furniture to fit in my big house…
If my girls could go to school…
If my girls could go to a school that isn’t full time…
If I could just have friends and get more involved…
If I just wasn’t SO busy…
If we could live somewhere warmer…
If we could just be closer to friends and family…

The list really goes on and on.

I’ve had a hard time finding the “me” that fits in Texas. New friends, new church, new neighborhood, new schools. New everything. Does this TX Abby have a job?? Does she have lots of friends or a few friends?? Does she volunteer like crazy or stay at home most of the time? WHO AM I????

‘

The answer… I really have no idea. About once a week I decide I’m going to get a job. Not full time, but enough to pay off some debt and buy me some furniture that I’ve been wanting for nearly a decade. And then I think how crazy that it because I have no time to do anything now.

Then I think that if we could only move back to KY all our problems would be solved. But I remember that TX has about 4-6 weeks of winter, the schools are fantastic, we live in a fairy tale neighborhood where kids really run around outside instead of playing video games, and we are making more and more friends every day.

What to do????? Still not sure. TRY to live today as fully as I can. TRY to search out what God has for us. TRY to enjoy the beautiful faces that give me kisses every day. What else could I want? ;-)

Wow

2011-09-20T14:53:00.001-05:00

This week has rocked my world! Last week Phillip was sick for a few days and right after that I was sick for a few days. And sandwiched in between was a birthday party for Annie and Amelia which consisted of 20 little girls coming over for cupcakes and crafts. My house will never be the same!

I really wanted to do some kind of party for the girls since we didn’t have family or KY friends around. I know they had a lot of fun, but it certainly wasn’t the same!!

Now I am living in the land of chaos. The house is a mess, laundry has taken over my living room (at least it is clean laundry!!!), and all of my extra-curricular activities have fallen way behind. (By extra-curricular I mean things like Bible study, leading high school girls at church, being a Kindergarten room mom, and my normal Team Expansion duties. I think I’ve gotten a little carried away).

So now I’m off to try to catch up. And pick Annie up. And try to remember any of my 26 appointments I have in the next month. I wish I could go back to bed!

Our days

2011-09-14T14:38:00.001-05:00

Amelia had a good 4th birthday. It’s not over yet since she’s having some friends over on Saturday for a “cupcakes & crafts” party, but she’s gotten to celebrate already. The only thing she asked for was a puppy and paint. We didn’t do the puppy, but she got a lot of good paint!

Evie and I have 2 mornings together now that Annie & Amelia are in school. She is super sweet for some of the time and then bored the rest. She did help wash my dishes though.

And then she got hungry on the job.

She’ll have to learn better work ethic later in life.

It has been nice having some of the girls in school. I find it much easier to keep the house clean and feel more on top of all of that stuff. But afternoons are a KILLER. Annie and Amelia are at each others throats from 3-6 each afternoon. I know some of it is because they are tired, but I don’t know what to do. And if you’re one that has a 2 & 4 year old that get along great don’t get too prideful. Because A&A got along great until the last year or so. GOOD GRIEF!! I’m just praying for lots of wisdom and patience to get through this time. Any suggestions??

I’ll close for now. Need to read the Bible before Annie comes home :-)

Rainbows and Unicorns

2011-09-07T13:18:00.001-05:00

The classic poem says that girls are made of sugar and spice. Amelia is made of rainbows and unicorns. Those are 2 of her passions. And the other is puppies. Since today is my sweet girl’s 4th birthday I’m going to list my favorite things about Miss Amelia Leigh.

1. She is very funny

2. She is an unbelievable artist

3. She is a puppy trapped in a little girls body

4. She is ridiculously accident prone

5. She is SWEET

Amelia- I love you so much. You bring me so much joy and much laughter. I know you want to grow up so much (she asked for a car for her birthday!) but I love you just how you are. What a blessed mommy I am!

My little fairy

2011-08-24T20:33:00.001-05:00

I have a little fairy that gets my mail for me. Yesterday my fairy was dressed in flannel pajamas at 3:00 in the afternoon in the 107 degree heat checking my mail. Today’s outfit seemed a little more appropriate.

This sweet little fairy also paints me little trinkets throughout the day.

I won’t go into the other things my little fairy does throughout the day :-)

First day of Kindergarten… 3rd time around

2011-08-22T14:29:00.001-05:00

Annie had her 3rd first day of kindergarten today. Hopefully this will also be her LAST first day of kindergarten!! If you are confused you can go back and read from August 2010. Fun times.

This time around was the most successful. Thank goodness!! A friend of hers is actually in her class and that always helps! Her teacher is probably in her 40’s which I was happy about. I’m sure she’s dealt with almost every Kindergarten issue in her career and won’t be learning how to teach with my kid!

Annie chose this outfit. We spent all day shopping on Saturday. She got the dress at Crazy 8 and was DYING to get “twinkle toe” shoes. I think they may be the most gaudy thing that has happened to girls’ shoes since high tops, but they are “the thing”. And let me add that shopping all day in 107 degree heat is pure torture. Every time we get in the car it’s 120 degrees. We drive around for 15 minutes trying to cool off (unsuccessfully). Then we’re at our destination. It starts all over every time. I was hot all afternoon.

Amelia and Evie haven’t seemed to have a hard time adjusting to Annie being at school. Amelia has a sing-a-long video from the library complete with Dalmatians in every scene. So Amelia is happy. Evie found other things to occupy her time…

It’s all my fault, actually. I was on the phone. And ironing. And I knew she was in my makeup. But I wanted to talk and iron. This is the result. I told her that any girl that still pooped in her diaper and used a paci has no business wearing mascara. Don’t know if that conversation was very effective.

Hoping my sweet girl has had a good day today! I’m sure she will be WORN out tonight!

Seasons

2011-08-19T19:43:00.001-05:00

I cannot put into words how good it was to see my dear dear friends in Kentucky. Nothing can replace friends that you’ve had for 15 years. It warms my soul.

Being away from my KY friends has been the hardest part of moving to Texas. We do miss our family, but nothing ever really changes with family. They are always your family. You catch up on day to day info. And family comes to visit (a lot :-). The day to day relationships with my friends in Kentucky has been very hard to leave. I miss our spur of the moment playdates. I miss our dinners and lunches out. I miss their kids. I miss the friendships that our kids have.

For now I cherish the time that I can be with these dear girls (and poor Henry :-)**. I do sometimes hope to end up back with my dearest friends, but know that this is a season that God has brought us to and I’m trying to do my best to thrive and not just survive.

School starts Monday which will bring another new season our way. I am not ready for Annie to be gone so much, but I am ready for my sweet girls to have SOMETHING to do! This 107 degree heat keeps us in the house and we’re getting cabin fever!

To all my KY friends… love you. miss you. come visit. :-)

**NOTE: I put Mr. Henry as the exception. Out of our group of 4 moms there are 11 daughters and 1 son (Henry). At least he has quite a group of girls to choose a future spouse :-)

Cupcakes

2011-08-18T13:46:00.001-05:00

We haven’t had much to do this week so I figured we would make some cupcakes this morning. Why does something so simple become so stressful when 3 little girls are involved??

This little munchkin has figured out how to drag chairs over to wherever she wants to be. This is especially awesome when gas stoves, sharp knives, and high counters are the climbing goal.

The girls’ job was to put the cupcake liners in. In true Annie fashion she stopped everything half way through so they could put the liners in a certain pattern. yellow-blue-yellow-blue.

After a quick trip in the 105 degree heat to pick up some icing we were back in business. It is STILL really hot here. The forecast says that the high may be 99 or below in 8 days. But until then we can “enjoy” 100+ every day.

So- now I’m going to eat one of these and rest. I am tired!!

Fall Reading List- Top 10

2011-08-15T11:04:00.001-05:00

Still hard to believe that school is starting. Wouldn’t know it here since the 10 day forecast is still full of 100+ days, but the calendar still says August 15.

I love to read a good book. I am super picky and don’t finish quite a few books that I pick up and start. Here are a few of my all time favorites. I know I’m missing at least 20 more, but I figured I’d get these down now. Get these from your library ASAP. You will be so glad you did!

Note: I am a memoir junkie, so quite a few of these are in that category.

The know-it-all by A. J. Jacobs

A. J. is one of my favorite authors ever. He is absolutely hysterical and I love all of his books. This specific book (also his first major book) is written about his quest to read through to whole encyclopedia Britannica. It is written brilliantly and you will find out many fascinating facts about all kinds of things.

2. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

A great fiction book. The movie based on this book just came out, but I haven’t had a chance to watch it. I have read a few of her other books and this one is my favorite. It delves into the Chinese culture in the 1800’s and is fascinating. However, save yourself and don’t read her “Peony in Love”. It’s awful.

3. The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs

I avoided this book for a long time since I figured it would be another person trying to make fun of the Bible. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that is not the approach he took in writing this book. A. J. is Jewish and he takes on the task of following all the “rules” in the Bible (old testament & new) with respect and, of course, a good dose of humor. It was so interesting to take a look into what the Jewish people were really called to do in the Old Testament and how difficult it would be to follow those rules in the 21st century.

4. Forever Lily by Beth Russell

The tag line for this book should have been “Holy Cow. People are CRAZY!!!”. I suppose the tag line they put on the front of this book is a bit more appropriate. It is another memoir and will absolutely blow your mind. It shows you what a blessing adoption can be, but when doing it outside of God’s calling can be a total disaster. There is quite a lot of new age stuff in this book, so if you skip over the ends of each chapter written in italics you will be much better off. But the story is unbelievable.

5. The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood

This is not a memoir, but is heavily influenced by the sudden loss of her own daughter. You’re not human if you can get through the first 10 pages without going through a box of Kleenexes. Goes through losing a daughter and what you do to survive and how in the world a marriage can survive something that horrible. Not light and funny but extremely moving.

6. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

One of the most popular memoirs of this decade, The Glass Castle is full of the most unbelievable stories you’ll ever read. Jeanette shares stories of growing up with 2 brilliant yet crazy parents and all of their adventures. Proves the truth is really stranger than fiction.

7. Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Jeanette’s 2nd book is written about her mother’s mother. It really helps you see why Jeanette’s mother was like she was and what caused her to make the decisions she made in “The Glass Castle”. It is absolutely amazing to see the lengths people went to in trying to survive and make a good living in the early 20th century. Another winner.

8. Honeymoon With My Brother By Franz Wisner

Great light summer (or fall) reading. Franz writes this memoir about honeymooning with his brother after his fiancé called off the wedding last minute. What was supposed to be a short honeymoon turned into a life changing year for both brothers. Makes me want to get on a plane. But I am glad I didn’t have to go on my honeymoon with my sisters :-)

9. This Life is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman

Yes. Another memoir. It is a bit similar to “The Glass Castle” so don’t read them one after the other. It is another fascinating story about families and figuring out where your calling is. I just realize when reading these books how thankful I am that I know the truth and when I follow that I won’t be nearly as lost as those searching fruitlessly throughout their lives.

10. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

I love Bill Bryson. He’s hysterical and is such a “normal” guy. This book is about his travels through Australia. I’ve always wanted to go to Australia, but after reading this I’m not sure I still want to go. Humongous spiders, extremely venomous snakes, and any kind of stinging insect makes me leery. Texas is bad enough!

SO… go read!! And I’d love to know some of your favorite books. I’m going to try to be better about posting great books as I come to find them. A good book is such a treat!!

KY

2011-08-14T18:38:00.001-05:00

We’re back from KY. It was such a good trip and we already miss all of our wonderful friends & family that are so far away. Here are a few pics of the girls from Mom & Dad’s 50th Anniversary Party. The theme was “fun with balloons”. Just kidding. That’s just how it ended up for the kids.

Take a break from the heat

2011-07-12T16:45:00.001-05:00

Phillip and I were so blessed with an opportunity to take a break from this crazy Texas heat. The M-I-L came down and we left this pretty face (seen here eating her new fave black bean and corn salsa)…

to go to the great city of San Francisco!

Took the obligatory drive across the golden gate bridge

Drove through the vineyards…

Took the ferry to to the charming town of…

Sausalito.

Then we came back across the bay and climbed every hill in San Francisco. I was absolutely certain I wouldn’t be able to walk again.

We had such a great time. The best part was going from 104 degrees to 64 degrees! When we got off our flight at 11:30pm it was still in the mid 90’s in Ft. Worth. It kind of makes a person want to tear up!! But, one nice thing about living in Dallas is we are 1 flight away from anywhere in the US, so it makes it possible to make a cool weather excursion.

We are home safe and sound and now I’m thinking about all we need to bring for our trek up to KY. We are looking forward to seeing all of our wonderful friends & family!!

The before

2011-06-29T20:12:00.001-05:00

The big girls had VBS last week. They had a great time and Evie and I enjoyed our mornings together. Then on Friday evening the church hosted a carnival for all the kids. It was a lot of fun and there was free face painting. We couldn’t pass that up! So- Annie was a butterfly and Amelia was, of course, a dog. It was so real looking it was kind of freaky!!

We had all of my siblings here over the weekend. We didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to do the “fun” Texas things, but we did have a great time together. Hopefully I’ll have pictures of that soon…

The other big thing was that Amelia had her front tooth pulled yesterday. She hit it really hard last October in KY and it finally needed to be pulled. Here are her “before” pictures. I’ll have the after pictures soon. She looks so different!! I already miss that perfect little smile. It will be a good 3 years before we see it again :-(

Pleasant surprises

2011-06-21T13:59:00.001-05:00

I love a good surprise (my birthday is in 2 days and our anniversary is in 7 days. Hint hint :-). As a mother of 3 little girls I am constantly surprised, but not often pleasantly surprised.

One pleasant surprise lately came from our back yard. There was a weed looking plant growing right outside our kitchen window. Then one day it turned into this…

Anyway… it is still hot here. Today a super cool front moved in and today’s high is around 93. The girls don’t mind it and play outside most of the day. I don’t mind it either, I just don’t want to be playing in the garage all afternoon in it. We keep the house temp at 79 or 80 so we don’t have to sell a kidney to pay the electric bill. I don’t mind it at all until I end up vacuuming the whole house. Then it gets a little warm.

We have a lot to look forward to in the next few months. ALL of my siblings will be here this weekend. It has to have been over 20 years since we’ve all slept under the same roof. It will be fun to have somebody to talk to besides Annie (who contradicts everything I say), Amelia (who acts like a dog half the time), and Evie (who just smiles at me and says “Nanie, Ya-ya, Daddy, Mama”).

Next week my lovely Miss Amelia will have her front tooth pulled. I am so sad because I know she will look so different and it will be a long time before it comes back in! But I am thankful that we live in a place that will do it safely, she won’t be in any pain, and that it will help protect those adult teeth. Those are the important ones! (She fell on this tooth last year and it has caused an abscess between the baby tooth and adult tooth).

In July my MIL comes in town for a few weeks and Phillip and I are going to celebrate our 8th anniversary in San Francisco!! I am so excited and looking forward to leaving a place where it’s 105 and going to a place where it’s 68. Then finally we’ll drive up to KY for a few weeks to spend the rest of the summer!

I’ll leave you with some pics of Evie enjoying her dinner. I usually can’t get her to eat much, but she made up for it this night. She even grabbed Amelia’s bowl when hers was empty to keep dinner going!

Summer

2011-06-07T20:08:00.001-05:00

It’s hot here. Hot and sunny. All the time. I’m not complaining. We’re all enjoying it.

I could definitely be a weather girl here from June-September. Pick a number between 96 & 104 for the high and a number between 75 and 80 for your low. Then pick sunny. And you’ll be pretty much right on for the forecast. Easy.

Anyhow, hot and sunny means the pool. And we are lucky enough to live just a few houses down from the pool. This produces happy, brown kids.

It does not produce kids that will sit still for pictures.

Annie bikes to the pool. This is her daily uniform. She does not swim in the helmet.

This is Evie’s daily uniform (one of a few). She gets to ride in wagon luxury to the pool. Life is sweet for Evie.

Why don’t I have a picture of Amelia in her “uniform”? Because the moment we get to the pool she is in the pool. She is so fast it’s almost superhuman. I guess I could take a picture of her in the pool…

In other news, I got to take this crazy person (aka Savannah, my niece)…

Here.

Phillip’s company gave us a couple of their season tickets to a Texas Rangers game. We had a great time and great seats. And if the news made it 1,000 miles northeast, this was also the night of the hail storms/tornados that delayed this game between the 4th and 5th inning. Luckily Savannah and I had a pretty good feeling this game was in jeopardy (after seeing the giant black clouds rolling in) and left right before the hail hit. So we got a good look at the tornado in Irving, got in the car and drove home in the hail storm. Savannah got a good taste of Texas life :-) She was born in Texas after all, so it was just coming back home for her.

Who knew?

2011-05-21T19:57:00.001-05:00

I love cows. I don’t know why, but I do. And since we moved here I’ve loved longhorn cows. We live close to a few herds and when I see them I always want to pull the car over and pet them (weird urge I know).

So when the girls had an opportunity to ride a saddled longhorn I couldn’t resist.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

New products. New site.

2011-05-18T21:19:00.001-05:00

I’ve changed a few things about my memory verse kits. First of all I was concerned about the laminating and changed the way I did that. Secondly, I added a few products! One of my favorite things is the New Mom’s Scrapbook. Since I don’t have any friends who really scrapbook I figured that there was a need for a super quick and super easy to use book. You can easily keep track of the major milestones in a cute binder. Makes a great gift :-) Buy it HERE.

And another big change was the website. I’ve decided to go with Etsy. I have that it only says I have 1 available product at a time, but it will end up saving me a lot of money!!

Another fun thing are these super cute flower clips I found that come with each new purchase. Easy to keep track of your place and super fun!

As always, let me know if you have any questions. Miss all my Kentucky friends!! Looking forward to our trip this summer!

Encouragement

2011-05-15T14:19:00.001-05:00

I was hugely influenced by Elisabeth Elliot in college. God really blessed me through her writings and it truly changed my life. I was putting something together for my nieces the last few weeks and was opening up “Keep a Quiet Heart” again by Elisabeth. It is something every Christian woman needs, but is especially encouraging to me while I am in this strange world of being a stay at home mom.

So- if you need some encouragement/wisdom/peace pick this book up or order it here.

“Once we give ourselves up to God, shall we attempt to get hold of what can never belong to us- tomorrow? Our lives are His, our times in His hand, He is LORD over what will happen, never mind what may happen.”

-Elisabeth Elliot

Where is God?

2011-05-11T14:49:00.001-05:00

I’ve asked myself that a few times over the last year. There’s been lots of good times, and quite a lot uncertain times. Lots of changes. And a lot of times where there’s just plain waiting (my least favorite!!).

This last week has been CRAZY!! All my girls had staph infections. I administer 7 doses of antibiotics daily. But, praise God, they are ALL better!!! Annie’s infection was by far the worst and I was sure that we’d be at the ER Saturday morning for some kind of surgery, but that medicine worked it’s magic!

We also got an e-mail last week that rocked our world. There’s a chance that we won’t be able to stay at our rental house very much longer. That is a HUGE stressor to me. Not only will there be 1000 more boxes to pack (and unpack!), but it will be taking the girls from their home –again-. It will be taking them from their friends –again-. It will be moving Annie’s school –again-. All those things are such big deals and I’m quite sure I wouldn’t survive all those transitions!! So we’re living day by day for now. There’s no telling what may come of this. I’m really hoping and praying that we can at least stay through the next school year. Especially for Annie. We’d love your prayers on that situation too!!

Other than that we’ve been enjoying April & May in Texas. Summer is here and the pool is open! I have given birth to mermaids it seems. They could be in the water for HOURS a day. It’s certainly a challenge this year however. Annie is a really great swimmer and spends most of the time in the deep end, Amelia is a good swimmer, but spends most of her time between the shallow and the deep, and Evie spends her time in the shallow (but I can tell she’s itching to get in the deeper waters). So the whole time I’m going 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3. Making sure their heads are above water.

So- back to the “Where’s God” question…

Annie and Amelia were in the back seat of the van yesterday. They were not fighting, hitting, screaming. It was a miracle. But then I heard this conversation:

Annie: Guess what Amelia?? Did you know God is sitting right here in the middle, between you & me!?

Amelia: Yeah. And He’s in my seat too!

Annie: And guess what?? You will never guess what God can do. He can walk on water.

Amelia: Whoa.

If I thought about God like these little girls think about God I wouldn’t worry nearly as much as I do. As a mother of young children I am starting to understand why God asked us to have faith like them. They believe anything about Jesus. They love Jesus. They believe that Jesus can to anything. So- next time I need to know where God is I can remember that he’s sitting right there in the chair next to me. :-)

Never Alone

2011-04-26T13:45:00.001-05:00

When I was pregnant with Annie I was excited that once that precious little baby was born I would never be alone again. I was practically an only child growing up and would much rather be around people than be alone. It turns out I may have overcompensated by having 3 children in 4 years. Now I’m NEVER ALONE!!

As it turns out children aren’t always who I want to be with!! And when the 3 of them together for 100 hours a week it is like an extremely dangerous chemical reaction occurs. Anger, frustrations, nastiness, hitting, yelling… I could go on and on and on…

It’s been rough! My girls are used to having school, play dates, time with both grandparents and a mom who has had more than an hour to herself in a month (which also happens to make for a much nicer mom!). Now it’s just hanging around the house with nothing much to do and having a mom who is completely drained emotionally, physically, mentally (and again I could go on!!).

I try to remind myself how lucky I am. I was able to have kids. My kids are healthy. I don’t have to work 40-50 hours a week & drop the kids off. I have a great husband and a wonderful home. I have so many awesome things! But it is amazing that all those things aren’t nearly as enjoyable when there’s nobody to share them and yourself with all day long.

I sometimes feel like I have so many more abilities than I’m able to use now. I feel like I could run a business and instead I’m raising these hooligans of children that goes around pet stores licking the animal toys (seriously, that’s no joke. You can guess who that is! Unfortunately for this creationist family, I’m afraid we have the missing evolutionary link between animals and humans. It is named Amelia.) It is often like a bad joke. A bad joke that I have a very hard time finding the humor in.

I’m sad that I spend so much of these days counting down the minutes until Phillip is home. I know that 10 years from now I will long for these days, but for now they are brutal.

I’m sure I’m learning something through this!! Sometimes I worry about God is preparing me for because I’m not really interested in do anything that would require more patience than what I already do!

So- now I DVR Dino Dan. I administer suppositories. I clean toilets. I take temperatures. I crush pills. I make doctor appointments. I sweep the kitchen floor. I make beds. I give baths. I sweep the kitchen floor again. I vacuum up spaghetti noodles from the foyer (just did this today. How did that get there??). I record bowel movements. I yell out “did you wipe??” and “flush the potty!” and “if you hit your sister one more time…”. And I call poison control (still not sure how many times I can call them without them calling CPS).

Now that I write all that maybe I won’t long for these days in 10 years :-)

Sweet Girls

2011-04-04T20:59:00.001-05:00

FREE!

2011-03-31T11:18:00.001-05:00

Giving away a free item of your choice to anyone who blogs about our new product before 6pm eastern tomorrow (Friday, April 1- and NO, this is not an April fools joke!).

Must include:

Web site link http://outoftheheart.myshopify.com/pages/welcome
Picture of a product (you should be able to save a copy off of this site or the website)
Why you like the product.

If you do these things just leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog and your e-mail address. Once I view your post I will send you a coupon code to include on your order.

Thanks!

Our new venture

2011-03-29T20:23:00.004-05:00

I have nothing but extra time on my hands :-). So, naturally, I thought it was a good time to start my own business. Nothing fancy, but I’m excited!

I’ve wanted to get a “pack” of memory verses together for my girls for a while now. And I’ve always thought about how neat it would be if I compiled a list of verses from Genesis through Revelation. But as I was putting it together I thought about how many of my wonderful friends would like something like this. So, this is what it became!

Phillip and I have started a new web site outoftheheart.myshopify.com/pages/welcome.

So far we have “Kids’ Genesis through Revelation Memory verse Packs” (which you can personalize!) and “Journal Packs”. The memory verse packs include a verse from every book in the Bible. Everything comes in a super cute binder.

Hope you find some things that your family can use!

Some Positives :-)

2011-03-17T19:04:00.001-05:00

Yesterdays post was a little ~~depressingly~~ brutally honest. There are some good things around here too!

I have been working on decorating the house. The walls are HUGE and it makes it hard to find things to put on the wall without making it look ridiculous. I am slowly finding some good options and I am really happy with some of my latest additions (and finally just broke out our old camera since I STILL don’t have a new memory card for the nice camera).

I needed something for the front door. I didn’t find anything that I LOVED, but this cheers the house up a bit.

This wall is enormous (around 14 feet by 20 feet) and I was afraid there would be nothing under $300 that would suit the space. I have been really happy with this (for $32!). I still need to add some picture of my family to substitute the random family in some of the frames, but I figured $32 was a great deal to cover 50” by 50”.

I’ve also found a place to use some frames & pictures I already had. Nice when I don’t have to spend any money and search through pictures to print.

We have a very sunny open kitchen which is very nice. I need to find a way to keep those pictures from shifting every time the doors open & close. They are never level!

Here’s my little ladybug. It is a very warm week here and we bought a new little swimming pool to keep us busy until the neighborhood pool opens in May. Is she not the cutest thing you’ve EVER seen!!

The big girls would spend 12 hours a day outside if I would let them. I think Amelia got a little too much sun today!

And I don’t think it’s possible for Annie to get too much sun.

All the neighborhood kids love to come to our garage and play. We still have a lot of toys and junk in our garage that haven’t found a place inside. There is always something to find and there is often one of the many neighborhood girls in the garage to pull out a bike, stroller, wagon, toy, or art supply. It is a mess!!

So we do have a pretty great life. I would still enjoy a little kid free time though :-)

The last 6 months…

2011-03-16T21:29:00.001-05:00

It has definitely been the craziest 6 months of my life. And that is saying a lot.

6 months ago Phillip was traveling to Texas for the first time to interview for a job. A week later he got a job offer and a few weeks after that he had moved to Texas leaving the 4 of us girls to pack the house up, sell the house, and try to survive without him around!

It’s amazing what you can live through. We survived the 2 months of living without a husband. I honestly don’t know how those women do it when their husbands are deployed for many months at a time. That is rough!

Then the day after Christmas we packed all the rest of our stuff into the van and began the trip to our new home in Texas! I had gotten my husband back, but the craziness was just beginning!

I knew that moving 1000 miles away from everything we really knew would be full of challenges. I was glad that we were moving to Texas and not New Jersey or Maine. The weather was definitely going to be my friend down here. And it really has made the transition a lot easier. It helps that many days a week we can be outside and the girls have such a great neighborhood to play in.

One thing I wasn’t really thinking about was having all my girls at home with me ALL THE TIME. It has been rough!! Annie has been in school since she was 15 months old and Amelia started when she was 23 months old. It’s good for them and it’s good for me. Now there is absolutely nowhere for them to be. Ever. It has been a huge challenge for me. There’s never a moment when I am without my children. Phillip works very long hours and by the time he gets home in the evening the last thing I feel like doing is going out by myself (not to mention that he is absolutely exhausted!).

Phillip’s job is very busy and very stressful. He was quickly promoted once he moved down here, which is a great thing. But he inherited many problems. It hasn’t helped that he never gets a break at his work and that they move from one crisis to another. (One interesting side note is that his team is testing a batch of potassium iodide tomorrow to ship out to Japan. We joke about giving some to Evie to protect her thyroid. You may not think it’s funny, but you’ve got to find something to laugh about!)

So- it’s been hard!! The being away from friends and family doesn’t actually bother me a ton. I don’t like it and love being able to see all of my dear friends and family whenever I can, but it is something I can live with. It has just been the fact that I am truly a 100% stay at home mom these days and I honestly don’t like it.

I love my children and have absolutely no desire to go out and get a 40 hour a week job and drop my kids off at day care every day. It would break my heart and I am so thankful that God has blessed us to a point where that isn’t something I have to do. But the other end of the spectrum is also a huge challenge for me. I feel like the more time I spend with my kids the less patient I am and the less I like them! My house just gets dirtier and dirtier. I work harder and harder. And everyone just gets more frustrated. I feel like I have so many talents and abilities and acting like a kindergarten teacher all day is not one of them.

So there’s the brutal honest update in our lives. I have so much to be thankful for, like the wonderful day we had today with a friend of mine from high school (yes, from Louisville). We were joking today that God certainly has a sense of humor! I would never have guessed that 11 years after high school she and I would be taking our 6 kids out to a park together in Texas, but what a blessing it is. She is one of the kindest people I’ve ever met and I am so glad that God chose her to help us in this crazy transition.

I’ll leave you with my crazy Amelia. It doesn’t matter if we’re in Kentucky or Texas. The girl has a mind of her own!

Challenges

2011-02-23T14:54:00.001-05:00

I got on the computer about a week ago to post pictures of a VERY clean kitchen & living room. And the memory card broke. And the kitchen and living room will probably never be as clean again. And there is no proof. So that post won’t happen. If you want to see my first floor just come visit. (which you should do)

Since the memory card is broken there haven’t been any new pictures. I feel so busy all the time that pulling out the camera is something I usually think of AFTER something happened.

It has been a challenging week!! The girls have been testing me every minute of every day. Phillip’s job has been very stressful and busy and I’m left completely drained ~~by noon~~ at the end of every day. It has been a sanctifying experience.

I am thankful for many of the good things we have here! We are extremely blessed to live in a house on a street with at least 10 little girls under 5. Many afternoons you will find them running all over the street and riding bikes and pulling each other in wagons. It is truly a wonderful life for these girls. And it is nice for me to have other moms to talk to (and all this is topped off with weather that is often in the 70’s and sometimes 80’s). So there are some breaks.

I am in an awesome Bible Study at our church. We are doing Beth Moore’s “David”. I’ll leave you with a quote that has really touched me and has spoken to me through this week.

“Basing our faith on who God is rather than what He appears to be doing is crucial to our spiritual health.”

Rodeo!

2011-02-13T20:51:00.001-05:00

I am way behind!!

A few weekends ago Phillip’s mom came down to spend the weekend with us. It was beautiful all weekend and we enjoyed every bit of it!

Every year Ft. Worth has a stock show and rodeo. So, we figured we’d act like Texans and go see us some horses and cows. I’m glad we did!

We enjoyed the shopping. Annie ended up with a pink cowgirl hat and Amelia ended up with a purple cowboy hat (which Evie loves to wear). Annie often wears her out. She wears it to Target, out to eat, pretty much anywhere.

And there was even a midway with those crazy scary “are these safe??” rides. We spent over $40 on ride tickets and went on our way.

And with Stock show admission you get free admission to the children's museum which is right next door to the stock yards. It was great. We had already been gone a LONG time and Evie had not napped, but she was a trooper. We got to see a real dinosaur skeleton and spent some time looking at a few other exhibits. Here Evie was hanging out while Annie & Amelia were digging for dinosaur bones.

And then finally, around 4:00, we loaded up and Miss Evie fell fast asleep.

After this weekend we had a huge ice storm that practically shut down the city for a week. We’re finally warming up to Texas like weather and it’s wonderful! Hopefully we’ll get in some good outside time this week.

The house is still pending. We received their “fix list” today and trying to figure out what we’ll do. It’s pretty discouraging because this sell of the house is costing us WAY more than we originally thought, but this housing market is a beast. It will be so nice to be out of it though!!!

I was wrong!

2011-02-04T12:10:00.001-05:00

When I found out for sure that we were moving to Texas I was a little sad for the girls. I was just sure they wouldn’t see any snow this winter. It rarely snows in December in KY and hardly ever snows in TX. Was I wrong!!

It hardly stopped snowing in December in Kentucky. It was AWFUL. And now we’ve had a once in a decade winter storm this week in Texas. Phillip has even been home 3 out of the last 5 work days.

So I’m using this time to blog again!

We’re really enjoying our house. It is laid out well and has plenty of space.

The master suite is great. I’m still looking for a new headboard for our bed, but that will probably wait for a while. And I need to hang some pictures. It’s hard on these big walls because little pictures look ridiculous.

Evie likes her room and will go up to play and find all her paci’s.

We also have a little space next to the girls rooms that is great for the extra toys.

The big girls have a great room with their own bathroom.

And look what we have outside our window!

When the 1st floor is clean I’ll post pictures of that. But it never seems to be clean, so we’ll see how it goes!

January

2011-02-03T10:58:00.001-05:00

As it turns out, most of my pictures are on my phone, and I’m not sure of the easiest way to get them off. So, for now, we’ll just have to use these!

January was a good month. We had a cold week, but other than that it was sunny, and most days it was warm enough to spend some time outside.

We’re getting to know the area. I can get most places without a GPS, but it’s nice having the GPS just in case I get a little too brave and creative in my routes.

Miss Evie is FINALLY walking. And this is a very new thing. I thought she was going to do it a month ago because she would take quite a few steps, but then she stopped. But as of this week she walks more than she crawls. Hopefully she’ll keep it up! She’s had a rough few months health wise and, praise the Lord, we finally have insurance again, so we’ll be going to the doctor today to figure this all out.

The big girls are doing well. They do have WAY too much together time, so I’m trying to figure out what to do with that! I am glad we’re not doing preschool this spring since that would have been rushing into it, but they need something to do –separately-. Any ideas?? It’s hard because even lessons of some sort would only mean 30 minutes to an hour of apart time. That's better than nothing, but that’s an expensive 30 minutes apart!

We’ve been so blessed to have visitors. My mom was able to come for a week and my mother-in-law was just here last weekend. Evie was pretty sick the whole time my mom was here, which was kind of a bummer, but at least I had an extra set of hands during that time!!

God has really blessed us with a wonderful neighborhood. There are a ton of kids on our street that run around all the time. There are lots of little girls and they all play together in the afternoons in the front yards.

It has been one COLD week this week! We enjoyed a BEAUTIFUL weekend last weekend (which will get it’s own post!) and then we had quite the ice storm on Tuesday morning. And, guess what?? They don’t know what to do to clear these roads!! They use a sand mixture instead of a salt mixture on the roads, and it is probably better than nothing, but it’s pretty useless. And with the super bowl here on Sunday all of their attention has been to clear around the stadium and NOT around where most people live! On top of that it’s been FREEZING here since Tuesday morning. It hasn’t even gotten above freezing yet! So, we got to enjoy 2 days home with Phillip since his work had closed up! They’ve even been doing rolling blackouts to keep the power grid from failing. If you can’t tell, these people don’t have any idea what to do about cold weather. And I’m ok with that because cold weather stinks and everyone around here just counts down the days until another 60 degree day.

Lastly, we have an accepted offer on our house in Louisville! The home inspection is next week which is my biggest concern. But God brought us a buyer in February and I’m thankful for that! So pray that we’ll be able to work everything out and sign it over in a month or less!!

Our Texas adventure… cont.

2011-01-06T22:18:00.001-05:00

I must admit… I like Texas. I like the sunny skies, the warmer temps. I like that “the coldest day in years” still has a 40 degree high. I like that we pass by longhorn cattle everyday and if we’re lucky, some buffalo. I like that I found a move store that rents out brand new movies to new customers for $0.50 for 5 days (and after my first month it’s only $1 for 5 days). There are some peculiarities about the place (like a guy a few miles down from us parks his helicopter in his front yard), but the good outweighs the bad.

Here are some pictures of us enjoying the beautiful day today.

One downfall. The grass will tear up your feet. Ft. Worth gets about 25% less rainfall per year than Louisville and the summers are brutal. I guess this kind of grass (aka super tough weed) will survive. We won’t be forgetting our shoes outside!

Goodnight from Texas.

Our Texas Adventure…

2010-12-29T16:49:00.001-05:00

Hello! We’re officially residents of Ft. Worth, TX. And today is 70 and sunny, which brings a smile to my face. This weekend is going to be in the 50’s and the local weather said “chilly” for those days. That’s my kind of meteorologist.

This post is definitely a “keeping it real” kind of post. We are very blessed to have a very nice, sizeable home in a nice neighborhood, but it is currently a disaster!! BUT… some have asked for pictures. So here goes nothing! Maybe in a week or so I will have “after” pictures :-)

Our living room:

Master Bathroom (one of my favorite parts of the house!)

Dining room. Will be used as an office for now.

Kitchen:

Playroom:

Annie & Amelia’s room

Evie’s room:

We had a successful trip to Target today. I’m trying to figure out which stores are closest to us. And then I try to figure out how long it will take to actually get there!!

Here’s a good Amelia story…

Today, on the way home from Target, I told the girls to look to the right. There were going to be some cows with horns on their heads (yes, I am a moron when it comes to official animal species). I wasn’t sure what they were really called, but keep their eyes out. Then Amelia said “I think maybe they’re unicorn cows”. Yep. Probably. Gotta love 3 year olds!

Holy Cow

2010-12-20T14:54:00.001-05:00

So- if I’ve ever said that life was crazy before it was a lie.

The girls and I have been out of our house and living at my parents house for 2 weeks now. The first week went fine. And then there was last week. Whoa. What a disaster!! The girls were off of school for 3 days due to ice and snow and we were stuck inside almost all week. It was miserable! And the girls missed their Christmas parties, Christmas program, and saying goodbye to all their school friends. It was just a big bummer all around.

BUT… today has been great so far! We’ve already had 2 play dates with incredible friends, the big girls are watching the Polar Express at a family friends home theatre, and then we head off to my sisters for dinner tonight. Being busy is a GOOD thing! Especially after last week!

This whole fall has been a wild ride. And I must say I’m glad it’s almost over! Trying to pack a house, show a house, and take care of 3 girls all by yourself is quite a challenge! I won’t know what to do with myself with a husband around!

And what an adventure we have in store. We head on down to the Lone Star State in 6 days. I have many emotions about it. I am ready to be a family again and looking forward to meeting new people. I’m excited about living in a state where any day from Nov-April can be 77 degrees.

But I will miss SO many people from home. God has blessed me so much with wonderful friends and family. Now I will have wonderful friends from KY and, God willing, wonderful friends in Texas! That’s not so bad, right??

Floating

2010-11-28T22:14:00.001-05:00

Floating. It’s the only word to describe how I feel these days. Our “to do” list is too humongous and overwhelming and all the soon-to-be changes are so all encompassing I hardly feel like I’m living in this universe now.

BUT… we are still here. We loved having Phillip home for the weekend and I can’t believe it’s time for him to get back on the plane!! Only4 more weeks of this crazy schedule!

So- I’ll leave you with these pictures while my head keeps spinning! I can do this. I can do this. I can do this… :-)

Christmas Cards.

2010-11-24T08:41:00.001-05:00

I have a thing for Christmas cards. I love to give them and I love to receive them. Looking at everyone’s kids getting so big and seeing all the new additions throughout the year.

There are always so many choices for Christmas cards. This year I’m trying to figure out which of the super cute Shutterfly cards I will choose! The selection is so great! And then to figure out which pictures of the crazy girls to use!

Take a look at these links for ideas for your Christmas cards. Remember I LOVE to receive them! (Ooh… and don’t forget birth announcements. I love those too!)

Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards
holiday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
birth announcements to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements

Our Christmas card will also include our NEW ADDRESS in Texas! Pretty crazy.

If you are interested in 50 free Christmas cards join this promotion following this link… http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

Happy Choosing! Looking forward to lots of super cute Christmas cards this year!

Ft. Worth

2010-11-09T22:11:00.001-05:00

I just spent the last few days in our new hometown, Ft. Worth, TX. Here are a few of my observations (which may prove untrue, but just saying what I think today…)

It is the land of endless roads and concrete.
It is the land of tiny lots. Think of a small lot size and divide it in 2. You may be close. I think this is funny. Like there’s not enough land in Texas.
Nobody speeds in Ft. Worth or goes through red stoplights. Cops are everywhere (and they have the cameras on the stop lights).
People in Ft. Worth seem to be friendlier than people in Dallas.
Their road system seems to be designed to filter out anyone with an IQ of less than 140. It can be very confusing and it didn’t seem like they were very fond of road signs. Even the helpful ones like “Lane Ending in 100 ft”.
Traffic. Lots of it.
Gas is less expensive than KY.
The endless blue skies are one of my favorite things about this place. We will get plenty of our vitamin D!
You have to water your lawn. The specifics are even laid out in our lease.
It is more expensive to rent than to buy. Bummer for us.
They could use more commercial developers. There has been so many new residents in the last decade and the shopping centers haven’t caught up yet.

We did find a place to live! We are renting for the first year while our house up here sells and so we can get a better feel for the area. It is a nice house that I think the girls (and us) will really enjoy. It is very nice to know that we have somewhere to live!

I’m sure there will be a lot more discoveries in our near future.

My 3 princesses

2010-11-08T11:31:00.001-05:00

This isn’t an easy thing to do without dad around!!

Evie’s birthday

2010-11-08T11:23:00.001-05:00

I have SO much to catch up on. Here is part 1 of many…

Evie turned one a few weeks ago. Poor girl was sick as a dog with an ear infection (yes, she has tubes) and tonsillitis. And Phillip was moving to Texas the next day. SO… we had a very small celebration. She was precious and wore the birthday dress that all my girls have worn.

Evie- you are such a blessing from God. You brighten everyone’s day. You are sweet, smiley, and stubborn. I love you so much!

Does this next picture look like a strange cake? Yep. It was a cake that was left over from Phillip’s birthday. Poor Evie didn’t even get her own cake. I’m telling you. It’s been crazy around here!

She ate her cake for about a minute before she was reduced to tears. Being sick on your birthday is no fun!

Walking??? Nope. Not yet. It’s just to drive me crazy I think!

Evie is 1!

2010-10-22T20:50:00.001-05:00

November- 1 Month

December- 2 Months

January- 3 Months

February- 4 Months

March- 5 Months

April- 6 Months

May- 7 Months

June- 8 Months

July- 9 Months. The fangs. I never got around to blogging about this, but it still cracks me up. She didn’t get her 2 front teeth for a few more weeks.

August- 10 Months

September- 11 Months

October- 1 YEAR!!! I figured it deserved a senior picture-esque pose :-)

Unfortunately, she’s super sick today! Lots of ear problems. Very sad girl today!!

Personality

2010-10-19T22:06:00.001-05:00

My girls are not always patient, obedient, kind, or generous. But they are certainly never boring. Sometimes I wish that they were slightly boring. But, alas, it never seems to happen. Here’s my very unboring, full of personality girls…

Yet again, the photo shoot goes to pieces when Evie enters the picture!

Old Friends

2010-10-18T20:07:00.001-05:00

God has blessed me with so many unbelievable friends. I am so thankful for all of them! But, sometimes there’s nothing like the friends that have been around for a long time! One of my best “old” friends got married this weekend. It was an absolutely beautiful day and everything was perfect. Congratulations Lauren & Lance!

The Photo Shoot

2010-10-14T09:38:00.001-05:00

Why is it so hard to take a picture of all the girls at once? It is completely exhausting and never ends up working well.

Evie by herself was a success…

Annie was a success…

Annie and Amelia together was fine (although Amelia by herself would not be labeled a success. That girl is just all over the place!).

And then finally… the 3 of them together. Are you kidding me?

I may have to photoshop them in a picture together for our Christmas card!

I suppose…

2010-10-11T18:31:00.001-05:00

I suppose I will need to be blogging a bit more soon. There will be lots of changes and hopefully I will find blog worthy things in life.

We are moving to Texas! It still seems to be too crazy to be true, but it’s all coming together. Phillip leaves in 12 days and the girls and I plan to move down the day after Christmas. I am not sure how I will survive without Phillip for 2 months (apart from a few weekend/holiday visits), but hopefully we will all survive!

We are in full “selling house” mode. This isn’t the best season or economy to be selling our house, but hopefully that 4% interest rate will get people out. My prayer is that is sells quickly, but we shall see!

Things we know so far… we plan on living in northern Ft. Worth. I plan on keeping the girls in their current school through December and then I will homeschool Annie for the rest of Kindergarten. And that may be all we know! We are still in the rent vs. buy discussion, we have no idea where we will end up church wise, we really don’t know anyone in the city, and I have about 10 new doctors I need to search for.

So that is our big news. I’ll come up with an update on the girls soon and Evie will get her own post next week because she turns 1 in 11 days!

Changes…

2010-09-30T20:49:00.001-05:00

September is coming to a close. My big girls are 5 & 3. That makes me so sad!! Why is it that when they are asleep I just want to squeeze them and cherish them and when they’re awake I just want them to be asleep? ;-)

It’s been busy busy busy! I know I say that ALL the time! And I guess it’s always true, just to different degrees. We have a probable move in our future, which brings out many emotions in everyone. I just tell the girls that what is so great about being a family is that we all get to move together no matter where it is!! And it makes me so thankful for friends of ours with little children who move to literally the other side of the world to follow Jesus. What an incredible sacrifice they are making. It makes our 800 mile move seem like nothing.

Here are some pictures of my absolutely unbelievable (and currently sleeping) children…

Does Amelia’s face look a little dirty here? Yes? Well, it’s ALWAYS dirty. ALWAYS.

Evie looks a little crazy in this picture, but it makes them all look so sweet!

Why can’t everyone just be happy at the same time? This is what happens when you’ve been at chuck-e-cheese for too long!

Annie’s class needed a picture of all the families in the class. This was our attempt at a family picture. And I’m pretty sure it’s the first picture of all 5 of us. Why did it take us 11 months????

More details to come when we know it. By the way… the move is to Texas. Better than Maine!!!

5 years…

2010-09-23T14:25:00.001-05:00

Sept. 23, 2005 was a crazy day!! I was 6 days overdue with my first baby and had been in labor for a week. I was finally induced only to end up with a c-section and a mad and hungry baby.

And so it started. Annie’s always had a way of changing my plans to make them more what SHE was thinking. But look at this face. How could you say no?? :-)

It makes me so sad to see her look so big! I love you Miss Annie!!

Amelia is 3!

2010-09-11T12:02:00.001-05:00

We continued the Amelia celebration through labor day. Since her birthday is always so close to labor day we usually just celebrate it on that day.

I had been wanting to get the girls new beds. Annie had a full bed and Amelia was in a toddler bed. We were finally able to get 2 twin beds for the girls. It was a surprise to them and they didn’t realize that it was going to be set up for them on Amelia’s birthday. They were very excited.

Amelia is so funny. She doesn’t even seem like she realizes that the cake, presents, or people are here for her. I’m not sure she cares all that much. She loves Little Bear (the books and the TV show), so she got a Little Bear cake.

Annie loves to give gifts, so we took a little bit of her money to buy Amelia a gift. Annie chose yet another puppy that was actually named Annie per the tag. This may be Amelia’s 14th puppy. And she sleeps with them all.

She is such a crazy, wonderful girl. She really doesn’t seem like she just turned 3. I guess since she’s always playing with Annie and bigger kids she seems a little older to me. But I’ll keep them little for as long as possible (most of the time!).

Meanwhile, Evie is enjoying the fruits of birthdays past. We are absolutely loaded up with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd birthday presents. All we have to do now is go to the garage and pull stuff out for our sweet girl. As you can tell from this picture she is definitely related to her sisters. Why sit on a chair when you can stand on it? She is 10 1/2 months old and not walking. She does climb stairs and does pretty much everything else.

August/September

2010-09-03T13:06:00.001-05:00

September is here! It’s a big month around here. There are 2 very special birthday girls.

They both started school this Monday. Annie is doing great and Amelia loves her class. And I love Monday/Wednesday/Friday! It has had it’s rough moments, but everyone is doing so well. What a relief!

We had a very laid back birthday party for Amelia at the pool yesterday. It was a beautiful day and swimming is Amelia’s favorite thing, so it was great. She’s a super swimmer!

Getting ready to jump…

Into the pool…

And swimming over to the stairs. She has gotten quite a lot of attention at the pool this summer. Especially when people found out that she’s not yet 3. Then people start asking who her swim instructor is. I just tell them that at the beginning of the summer I put her in the pool and told her to swim. And then she swam.

We are very blessed with lots of wonderful friends. Aren’t they cute. Got to love summertime!

Amelia had her birthday celebration at school today. Since she was the first birthday of the year she had absolutely no idea what they were going to do. She was a bit confused when they put this fake cake in front of her to blow out her candles. I think she’s still a bit disappointed that she couldn’t eat it. Does anyone remember her birthday at school last year?

After much prodding she finally told me that she wanted ice cream sandwiches (actually, I think Annie finally made the decision for her).

The birthday kids get to choose a little birthday treat out of the bag. What does Amelia choose? The creepy spider finger puppet. She is crazy for animals and bugs.

Got to love such a crazy girl!

Kindergarten- Take 2

2010-08-27T13:46:00.001-05:00

This has been a whirlwind of a week. Well, 2 weeks. Actually it goes back further than that! In short, I could write a book in “How NOT to send your child for Kindergarten”.

It has been unbelievably challenging emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. I have felt so confused, sad, frustrated and abandoned during this whole process. Who would have known that Kindergarten could be so crazy!

This story actually begins way back in the spring. We fully intended to send Annie to the Highlands Latin School. It is a fantastic school and I love the way they do so many things. Best of all (for Annie), the Kindergarten program is only 2 (full) days a week. I love that those little kids still have so much time at home during those young years. Well, we were placed on the waiting list in March because of her birthday (Sept. 23). Everyone told us that since we were #1 on the waiting list we would have no problem getting in. Unfortunately for us this was a “very unusual year” –per the admissions director-, and as of last week no spots had become available. So we had spent the last 6 months waiting for a spot that would never open up.

If only I could have seen into the future…

So 11 days ago I come to the breaking point and decide that we could not wait any longer. Our choices were now VERY slim. Many schools in our area had already started. So Tuesday (the day before school started) we signed her up at another local private Christian school. We have many ties to the school and it was going to be practically free for us (which was another huge concern for us) and seemed like it may be what God was directing us to do. Unfortunately, it was an all day every day program. I had huge reservations about such a program, but choices were slim and desperation was setting in. The school itself had no problems. The teacher was great. But I have never been able to let go of the full day part. However, we sent Annie packing on the first day, to a day that was really too long for her with absolutely NO emotional prep. And this is for a girl who does not like change. I knew better than that!

Every day got worse and worse. We prayed that Annie would be able to get through the stress of the situation and just be able to make relationships with the kids. But when Annie gets very stressed she shuts down and that’s exactly what happened this Tuesday. Even now I look back and realize that if I had done certain things differently it would have helped her though this change, although I also realize that it may not have gotten her through it.

I have prayed so much over the last 6 months that God would send Annie to the perfect Kindergarten for her. It just seems like we’ve not ever been given a clear answer to that prayer. It has been very hard for us. I didn’t see any way to keep her in the full day program and now she will be starting a new program Monday, which I know she will do great in, but wonder if that’s what God was leading us to.

Now I just feel like I have more questions than answers. I don’t understand the “why’s” of this situation. And I’m questioning whether or not our last decision was necessarily the “right thing”. I do know that I’m doing the best that I can and I’m trying to keep everyone out of a mental institute!

For now we are going to attempt to have a great weekend and a great start to Kindergarten #2. We shall see!

Kindergarten

2010-08-23T08:07:00.001-05:00

It’s been quite the week. As of last Monday we still did not have a Kindergarten plan nailed down. A few things happened very quickly and Annie started school Wednesday.

I’ve always known that a full day program would be hard for her. And I was right. Every day seems to get harder and harder for her. Dealing with change is certainly not Annie’s gift and when she’s exhausted it makes it even worse.

It doesn’t seem like very long ago that she was excited about her first day at school. This was 3 years ago!!

And here she is now…

Please pray for my sweet Annie. I left her in tears again today. It’s hard for everyone!

A&E

2010-08-11T09:41:00.001-05:00

Annie & Evie are huge fans of each other. Poor Amelia loves Evie to death but bugs her to pieces. Evie gets more mad at Amelia than at anyone else. Evie pulls Amelia’s hair and can be flat out mean to her. I am already having to tell Evie to be nice to Amelia. However, Annie can do no wrong in Evie’s eyes.

I have joked that Evie is the “missing link” between Annie & Amelia. She is about 1/2 Annie and 1/2 Amelia (looks-wise). She looks quite a bit like me as a baby. Evie’s eyes are almost identical to Annie’s.

I am looking forward to school starting so each girl has more of their own thing going on. Sometimes there is too much togetherness!!

EVIE

2010-08-06T09:02:00.001-05:00

And my #3. Evelyn Grace.

What a precious baby I have!

Evie also put me through the ringer early in life, but she has done remarkably well since we began her meds. She’s even bigger than her sisters at this age, which seems impossible.

She is the sweetest baby ever. She is not terribly laid back. Ok- not really laid back at all. But she is super friendly and easy to get along with. She is always looking for someone to talk to and something to play with. She freaks out if she’s left alone in a room. She is such a people person.

She is an incredible sleeper and has always been easy to get on a schedule. She is the first of my girls to take a pacifier, but I actually like it quite a bit. She only takes it in bed. I am certain it will be easier to break than Amelia’s thumb sucking!

She is a great eater and would eat 10 biter biscuits a day if I gave them to her. She is a bottle baby now, which was a hard adjustment (for me) when she was just a few weeks old, but I’m sure it was the best for her. At least it got that bilirubin level down!!

It is because of Evie that there will probably be a #4. I just hope I luck out and get another Evie. My other girls are wonderful and extraordinary, but those first few months were more challenging with them than they were with Evie. After her diagnosis she was the easiest thing possible.

She is a bit shy around new people. She says mama and bye bye. She plays games with her sisters and loves to laugh. She gets really mad at Amelia which is funny to see, because she hardly ever gets mad any other time.

She is incredibly fast and has already made her way to the bathroom and played in the toilet before I even knew she was out of the room. Perhaps she takes after Amelia in that way.

She has very brown eyes and I think she’ll tan pretty well too (not quite as dark as Annie though…). Her hair color seems to change daily, but it looks like it may be a lot like Phillip’s as a baby. Kind of blonde/strawberry/light brown. We shall see!

I was wondering if she would walk at 9 months, but I’m pretty sure not. Amelia was 10 month and 3 days when she walked and I would be surprised if Evie broke that record. But she shouldn’t be too far behind that!

I am so thankful for my sweet baby girl!

AMELIA

2010-08-05T08:40:00.001-05:00

My #2. Amelia Leigh.

Wow. This could be quite the post :-). Amelia has always been special!

Before she was born I worried about her. Annie had been such an advanced, precocious girl and I was concerned that Amelia would get left behind. Ha. No worries there! She walked earlier, talked earlier, and got into all kinds of trouble earlier than Annie ever did. Some of this was due to the fact that she had Annie as an example, but anyhow, I had nothing to worry about after all!

Amelia really toughened me up. We’ve been through some hard things together. If it wasn’t passing out it was cleaning out boils. And then it was checking on her multiple times through the night to make sure that it wasn’t time to rush to the hospital. She’s become a pretty tough little girl through this too.

She’s a super deep thinker and is often asking about God, did God actually die?, how in the world did God come back from the dead?? What is glory?? Things with no answer suitable for an almost 3 year old.

She often calls me out on silly things I say. For instance, at the beginning of the summer we dropped my niece, Savannah, off at the airport. When we were leaving the airport Annie asked how we would know when it was time to pick Savannah back up (in a few weeks). I said that I had a piece of paper that told me when Savannah was going to come home. The answer suited Annie just fine. But then a few seconds later Amelia started laughing. Then she said “Ha. Papers don’t talk! Paper can’t talk!”.

Amelia is like Annie in some ways too. She is very tall and is a great swimmer. At 2 1/2 she started to swim without any aides. Not bad!

The blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin. Sometimes she is just absolutely stunning. Stunning and wild. The boys are going to love her!

If I can live through the next 20 years I’m sure I will see an unbelievable, accomplished, beautiful woman. At least there’s no passing out these days!

ANNIE

2010-07-30T15:32:00.001-05:00

I have been less than inspired to blog lately. Not very many “blog worthy” things have happened this summer, thus, no blogs.

So, I’ll do blogs on my dear girls (thanks Catherine ;-). And I’ll start with my #1, Anna Catherine Mullins.

My dear Annie is almost 5. She’s very tall for her age. She’s SO ready to start kindergarten. And, guess what??? We still don’t know where she’s going to school in August!!!! Does that make you want to throw up? It makes me want to throw up! After our original plan seemed less than a sure thing we put her in for public. For all of you that are not familiar with Louisville’s public schools let me just tell ya… holy cow. Some of the schools here are fantastic. The chance of you getting into a fantastic school in Jefferson County is about the same chances of you landing a $100k job right out of college. With a communications degree :-). OK- that may be exaggerating, but it’s an unbelievably complex and frustrating system. All that said, Annie got put into a downtown school. I knew that was probable and was not a bit surprised when it happened. So, obviously, we are not doing public schools this year. Now we are praying that God will lead us into the perfect school for her!!

She’s always been super smart and loves learning and anything “school”. She has wanted to be a doctor up until recently and right now she wants to be a mom. She has the most unbelievable tan and super dark eyes. And if that weren’t enough her hair highlights perfectly in the sun. She was meant to live in the Caribbean. I never dreamed that I could have a daughter this dark. Seriously. I still look at her and wonder where she came from.

Annie is a great helper. She is very capable as long as she is willing, but it is extremely hard to get her to do something she doesn’t want to do. I need to work on that!

She has just started getting into dress-up. I never thought she would because she was SO uninterested for so long. But she is all about accessorizing now!

She is super silly, but only if you get to know her first. She is more of a rule follower than Amelia, but also harder to handle sometimes. Amelia is more physically draining and Annie more emotionally draining. The next 15 years should be interesting!

She’s a great swimmer and I have a feeling that might be “her sport”. She would love to dive off the diving board all day long, but I can’t let her due to her tubes. It’s a big bummer, but I’m really trying to avoid 5 sets of tubes. 4 sets seems like plenty.

She is a joy to me and so many others. I’m so thankful for my Annie.

For Liv

2010-07-23T07:51:00.001-05:00

We’re here. Nothing new. Maybe I will be inspired to write more soon!!

7 years

2010-06-27T14:10:00.001-05:00

2003: First comes love. Then comes marriage.

Then honeymoon:

2004: Vacationed in Hawaii. We should have gone 4 times this year!

Then babies…

2005: We became a family of 3. Welcome Annie!

2006: Figuring out how to be a mom & dad.

2007: We became a family of 4. Welcome Amelia!

2008: Figured out how to raise an Amelia (anyone else remember the fainting spells??) and one of the smartest 3 year olds in the world.

2009: We became a family of 5 (and also a family that is too busy with their kids to get a family picture!). Welcome baby Evie!!

2010: Loving these amazing girls!

There’s no turning back now ;-). Phillip, I love our life together and I’m so thankful for the husband you are to me and the father you are to our girls. Happy Anniversary!

June

2010-06-23T13:56:00.001-05:00

June is my favorite month for a many reasons. It’s my birthday month, our anniversary month, and it’s the month farthest away from Christmas. I love the first few weeks at the pool when the kids are still excited about swimming and the feeling that I’m not ghost white anymore.

We soak up summer around here. This is the 2nd year in a row that I’ve been given a summer pool membership for my birthday. It is a huge blessing for all of us and we use it a ton. One of the best parts is that it includes 2 hours of free babysitting every day and I am definitely using it this summer! They love to be in the nursery and I can either workout or sit by the pool all by myself!

Evie likes the water, but I don’t like her in the sun too much, so I try to keep her in the stroller as much as possible. She’s a trooper.

The girls are awesome swimmers and love the pool. Annie is jumping off the diving board and Amelia is swimming 6 or 7 feet at a time. It’s been fun seeing them really “get” swimming.

Annie had her 4th set of tubes Monday. It went really well and the recovery was great. She did this for her recovery.

My lovely Evie. She is such a big girl and still amazingly sweet. Ugh. I could just eat her up!

Amelia is still a constant source of entertainment around here. She does the craziest things, but she is super sweet. She’ll drive her teachers crazy!

I have the best nieces in the world. BethAnn and Savannah live close by and are so good to my girls. The only thing we need is for Olivia to be close again!

Summer

2010-06-02T21:03:00.001-05:00

Time flies

2010-05-25T21:48:00.001-05:00

It is in my nature to not live in the moment and focus only on what the future may hold. I’ve been this way forever. For the first time in my life I’m actually sad to be moving on. I miss my sweet teeny tiny baby Evie. Even the first week when she wouldn’t eat and she was the color of a carrot. I’m seeing how quickly my girls are growing up. I’m shopping in the girls department at Target. Not the girls department you’re thinking about. The girls 7-12 size section. The section that’s flooded with tweeny (and occasionally slutty) dresses and Hannah Montana t-shirts. Not to mention that most of the moms shopping in that section are at least a decade older than me.

My sweet teeny tiny baby now weighs nearly 19 pounds (the synthroid is working!). She crawls everywhere. She pulls to stand. She sits herself up. She has opinions. She’s slightly scared of Amelia (for good reason). But she’s still absolutely precious.

Little Ladies

2010-05-17T19:49:00.001-05:00

What a joy these little ladies are in my life. They keep me very busy and very tired, but the good times make up for all of that!

This week is turning out to be insanely busy for us. It’s the kind of calendar that makes my head spin whenever I look at it. Hopefully no other days will be as crazy as today!

Miss Evie had a long day today. I drug her all around town (quite literally) from home to home and hospital to doctor, getting most of her sleeping done in the car. The morning was spent at my sisters and then we went to Kosair. Right when I got down to registration I realized that I had forgotten the orders for the labs at home. Ugh. So we got to drive all the way home, pick up the orders, and drive back to have her blood drawn (for her regular thyroid screening). Then it was time for a quick nap and grandmommys before a trip to the pediatrician. She had her 3rd ear infection about 2 weeks ago and I was really feeling like it had either not gone away with antibiotics or it had returned. I’m glad I went because I was right. It’s back and actually worse. We are going to make our 2nd trip to the ENT in a week on Wednesday. Both Annie and Evie will be getting tubes in June. This will be the 5th & 6th set of tubes for the Mullins family in less than 4 years.

I’m pretty sure when I sat down to write this blog I had 10 other things that I was going to mention, but my brain is pretty fried and the week has only begun!!!

Big girls. Little space.

2010-05-07T18:48:00.001-05:00

I love my house. Most of the time. The 1950’s closet space is the biggest downside. And with 3 girls that are growing at an absolutely astounding rate it sometimes seems like their stuff takes on a life of its own. The three girls share the 2 bedrooms in the 2nd floor of our cape cod. It’s a pretty tight space for 3 people. Around 300 square feet, I believe.

Here are some things that I’ve done to make our space work…

I got tired of having to pick out clothes for 4 people every morning, so now I choose a full weeks worth of clothes for Annie and Amelia sometime on the weekend and put them in their organizer. Then they just grab that days clothes and put them on. It’s been fantastic.

Since there’s no room for a dresser in Annie & Amelia’s room right now we use these for underwear and socks, tights, etc. My nephew’s wonderful wife, Sarah, made one for Annie and one for Amelia a few Christmases ago and it has been great for this purpose. Annie’s is on one side of the door and Amelia’s hangs on the other side of the closet door. And the best part is they are MUCH cheaper than a dresser!

To keep all their shoes in a fairly organized manner I just throw them in these baskets.

After all, I have to have somewhere to put all of these…

So that is the way I try to raise 3 girls in a very small space. Good thing they all love each other!

6 months…

2010-05-05T20:46:00.002-05:00

It is so neat to see the similarities & differences between kids. My girls have developed very similarly. They follow this pattern: rolling around 2-3 months, sitting at about 5 1/2. Crawling by 6. Pulling to stand around 6 1/2. Annie walked at 11 months, Amelia at 10 months, so maybe Evie will by 9 months :-)

They all teethed differently. Annie was 9 months, Amelia was 7, and Evie was 5. But they have all been ideal teethers. I usually have no idea when my babies are getting teeth. It’s a beautiful thing.

The similarities don’t carry on with their personalities. They have very different personalities. Annie was born hungry and bored. Amelia was born unbelievably strong-willed, and Evie was born trying to make it as easy as possible for everyone involved.

I’m so thankful for all my girls and all their personalities. What entertainment they have brought me!

Hide it in your (children's) heart

2010-04-21T14:13:00.001-05:00

A few months ago I decided that my girls should learn a memory verse. I chose I Corinthians 10:31 “Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”. I figured it was short and sweet and pretty much summed up our purpose in life. I was blown away how easy it was for them to learn it.

I waited too long, but chose another verse for them to learn. After I had written it down I began to think that it was too long and complicated and maybe I made a poor choice. Nope. Even Amelia has it down.

Joshua 22:5 “to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul."

I’m reading through the old testament (slowly but surely) and the above concept is repeated over and over. Pretty much God said if you do this there’s nothing else you need to know, or do for that matter. So hopefully these words will find a permanent home in their little hearts.

Another great resource that we just got is this:

The verses are great for any age. They are short and easy to remember. The stories may be too much for very small children to understand, but Annie can follow them just fine. It is around $10 on Amazon and such a great book to have.

It’s finished!

2010-04-15T19:55:00.001-05:00

We completed our project on Sunday. With lots of help from my mom, Phillip’s mom, and my niece, Savannah, who kept the girls occupied for HOURS.

It’ was perfect timing. The weather has been absolutely incredible and Annie has learned to swing all by herself; so that makes it fun for everyone!

We’ve been able to share the new swingset with friends (which always makes it more fun!). Annie has a new friend, Marlowe, who is a joy to have around. After Marlowe left the other day Annie started tearing up at the dinner table. She said that “The backyard just doesn’t look the same without Marlowe”. Goodness! A bit dramatic?

Evie just gets bigger and bigger and sweeter and sweeter. She weighed in at 17 pounds 14 ounces at the endocrinologist the other day. That’s quite the chunk! I don’t know how she can hold all that weight up to sit, but maybe most of the weight is muscle :-)

She’s officially a crawler. She doesn’t have it completely down, but she will get anywhere she really wants to be. She is especially attracted to anything that’s not a toy. Why is that always the case?

Really?

2010-04-15T19:38:00.001-05:00

Some warnings and instructions crack me up. Like the instructions on a pop tart box.

This is the new favorite toy around here.

With this warning…

Hmmm…

For Mothers with girls…

2010-04-14T10:38:00.001-05:00

OK- so if you’re a man or someone who doesn’t know me very well you may not want to read this :-) But I thought it was important information for all of my friends with girls (which is A LOT!), so read on if you so desire.

Evie goes to see my old pediatric endocrinologist. He is a wonderful physician and highly respected in the medical community. She sees him for her congenital hypothyroidism. I saw him for precocious puberty some 20 years ago (yikes!) – I told you that you may not want to read this!!-. I had a chance to talk to him today about the chances of my girls and precocious puberty. I was very young and my mother-in-law was also very young, so my girls have those genes on both sides. He said that my girls had a very high chance of developing too early, but there are some things you can do.

Contrary to popular belief he said that hormones in milks, cheeses, and meats are no longer an issue. When we were kids those hormones were quite higher, but with new FDA regulations those hormones are no longer a main contributory factor to girls precocious puberty (boy do we know a lot about the FDA and animals in this house!!). He did say that the main issue now seem to be chemical. He told me that with our family history I should be particularly careful with plastics. Especially heating things up in plastic containers. So I guess I will be buying more Pyrex containers. :-) The secondary issue seems to be herbicides and pesticides. So if you can afford to fork out the extra money for organic produce it looks like it may be worth it for pre-pubescent girls. I’ll definitely be changing to glass containers, but it may take me a little longer to go organic.

So, hope this was interesting to you. If your daughters begin to form breasts before age 8 you should probably get some blood work done. And, of course, if they begin to spot you should take them to see an endocrinologist ASAP. Early puberty is not only a hassle for young girls it can stunt their growth long term. It can also cause psychological and social problems for girls so young. So look out for it!

Coming along...

2010-04-10T19:16:00.002-05:00

Here's we have today...

The instructions say that it takes from 6-12 hours. I would say it's closer to 18 or 20. About an hour or so tomorrow and it will be done!! Yay!!!!

Quite the project

2010-04-09T09:13:00.001-05:00

This weekend we are going to try to turn this….

Into this…

Wish us luck!

YARD SALE

2010-04-02T14:22:00.001-05:00

Yard sale tomorrow at my house. We have kids toys, furniture, house goods, kitchen stuff, and much more. Quite a lot of it is very nice and hardly used (and priced to sell!).

8:30- ???

If you need the address e-mail me at abigailleigh623@yahoo.com

And you may get to see this face…

What a day!

2010-04-01T21:36:00.001-05:00

Some days seem to have a curse. I woke up and everything in my life was in crazy mode. My kids, my house, my laundry. Name it and it was out of control. I’m glad it’s over!

After 4 in the afternoon things always go down hill. The kitchen usually looks something like this…

And my children are usually looking like this…

To make a crazy day even crazier our hot water heater is acting up. It’s been doing funny things for over a month now, but today was a particularly bad day. There wasn’t a drop of hot water for cooking, dishes, or baths.

Annie and Amelia have always loved cold baths, and since it was 80 degrees outside they didn’t seem to mind too much.

I’m counting on tomorrow to bring a better day! And maybe some hot water!

How should I take this?

2010-03-28T19:38:00.001-05:00

Annie has bath crayons. She likes to write various things on the wall. The other day it was this. Annie, Amelia, Dad & Abby. Apparently she thinks my real name is ‘Mommy Abby Mullins’. Since she has a friend at school named Abby she knows how to spell it, and she doesn’t know how to spell Mommy.

I love love love my girls. And, thankfully, my girls love each other. Especially these two. Annie loves being the big sister. She would really like to be able to carry Evie around all over the place. I tell her that by the time the next baby comes she will be old enough to carry around a baby, but not yet. And, no, I’m not pregnant.

Yay for warmer weather! We jump on any chance to be outside. Even Evie has been getting some time in!

And look what I found on the side of the road… Yes, I was actually that person hauling a giant slide into my mini-van. Ugh. But, Amelia couldn’t have enjoyed it more. I had been wanting to buy a slide like this but they were close to $100. There was no way I was going to spend that! So, we ended up with this for free. Not a bad deal!

Perhaps there will be more consistent blogging in the near future. We’ll see!

Did you forgot?

2010-03-17T09:38:00.001-05:00

I bought my first Hooked on Phonics product when Annie was 26 months old. I love their products and my girls do too. Annie learned all of her letter through the first program, and did a lot of it by herself (not bad for a 2 year old!).

Recently, I bought the Kindergarten version for Annie so she could get a head start on reading. The new program is DVD run and they have supplemental materials on-line.

Hopefully the same people that designed the program don’t also design their website because this is on the front page…

So far all of Annie’s words have been correct. But we’re still on cat, hat, sad, mad, top, etc. I’ll keep my eye on it though!

My future Olympians

2010-03-16T15:32:00.001-05:00

So- next Christmas ask the grandparents for gymnastics lessons to keep you sane through the winter. My in-laws got Annie & Amelia 10 weeks of gymnastics lessons January-March and it was really such a blessing. It gives them a way to get that crazy energy out. The title of this post, however, is not really accurate. My girls are beautiful, smart, and freakishly strong, but not so sure that gymnastics is their gift. But they sure enjoyed it!

The last lesson of the term they get ribbons. They stand up on the #1 and they are supposed to strike some sort of gymnast pose. This is what Annie did. Poor girl. She’ll hate me for this in 10 years.

What have I been doing all winter? This. I could do about a load of laundry a day. I think this picture was after I had sorted 6 loads. I’m ready for summer to come! It raises my serotonin AND cuts way back on the laundry.

Ya-Ya

2010-03-08T21:54:00.001-05:00

We made it! Amelia did such a fantastic job taking her medicine. Her bottom healed up and we got through it. There is no doubt in my mind that God brought Amelia through this and gave her the ability to take the medicine all by herself!

For anyone who doesn’t know Amelia… she’s absolutely crazy. It will be only by God’s grace that I will have enough wisdom to raise this child.

You know how every parent has the 3 really funny stories about the crazy thing their kid did. I am afraid I won’t remember any of these stories with Amelia because she does something really crazy every day. It is a constant montage of ridiculousness.

One thing she does have on her side is LUCK. We went bowling last month. After bowling we went to their arcade where they have games/ ski ball/ etc. They have one of those games that you put a token in and push the button. If you push the button at the exact second that the light is in the “jackpot” slot you win a ton of tickets. I knew Amelia would win this. So I brought her over to the game. The first time she did it she won 1 ticket. I told her to do it one more time. She won. 150+ tickets. She doesn’t get this from me. I never win anything.

What a nut.

Hello!

2010-03-01T16:21:00.001-05:00

I think I’ve worn out the “we’ve been SO busy” excuse for my blogging absence. So I won’t even go there. We’ve had a very eventful few weeks.

Evie is growing like a weed. She weighed in at 15 lbs. 3 oz at her 4 month check. She’s sitting up well with support, more than doubled her birth weight, and is watching us while we eat, so I decided it was time to try solid foods (she was also eating at least 32 ounces of milk every day and that is just about the max they are supposed to have daily).

So- I strapped her in

And gave oatmeal a shot. She didn’t love it. It was closer to a hate relationship.

So I tried peas. Still no love. My other girls loved peas. Maybe Evie will grow into this one!

But guess who did end up enjoying some baby food? The big girls. Well, actually Amelia only ate a few bites and passed it along to Annie. Annie would still have 4 jars of baby food a day if I allowed it. And it is quite tempting at times because it is certainly better for her than any other snack we have around. Maybe I’ll start cooking things and putting them in baby food jars.

Evie did eventually eat squash this weekend and seemed to like it more. So I guess we’ll start from there (and yes I know about the baby food rules. Only 1 new food a week. Well, I’ve never followed it and don’t really intend to now. There are absolutely no food allergies in our immediate family and I’m not too concerned about it. Now that I type this I’m sure we will develop something :-)

What’s really been“eventful” lately is the newest medical ‘crisis’ in our home. Amelia got another boil and so she went on a new med for it. She’s now allergic to all but one medication for her ‘illness’ and the remaining one is like liquid death. Seriously, it smells like gangrene. I have admittedly not been around someone with a green limb, but I’m pretty sure I know what it smells like after giving this medicine out 3 times a day for the last week. It was going so badly the first day that I took her back to the doctor the second day to figure out a new plan. So we tried this medicine in suppository form (thanks to a compound pharmacy). It was easier to get it in, but it turned out that it was easy for Amelia to get it out. I think the longest she kept one in was maybe 3 minutes. So I called back the next day. Our only options was to make the oral meds work, make the suppositories work, or spend 10 days admitted at Kosair. We picked the oral.

I made a 12 day list of all the meds the girls needed so I wouldn’t forget anything vital. And we got going.

Thanks to a BUNCH of candy and some creativity we’ve gotten every dose in her. She even takes it herself now. What a champ!

But if all that isn’t enough she has to spend quite a bit of time here…

The medicine also happens to make her bottom bleed. It creates open sores on her bottom (due to the toxic stuff that happens in her bowels). So the best place for her most of the time is in the bath. It can also cause kidney failure, liver failure, or colitis. Hopefully Miss Amelia will be able to avoid those side effects. Prescription medicines are not her friend.

4 Months!

2010-02-22T09:40:00.001-05:00

My sweet Evie is 4 months old today! I already miss the tiny little baby that we all fell in love with, but I certainly love my older, plumper Evie. She loves to eat. Loves people. Loves talking. And really values her nighttime sleep. She sounds a lot like her mama (except she’s friendlier) :-).

We love you more than words can say. What a blessing you are to us! Your sisters have so much to teach you! Watch out for Amelia though :-) She’ll try to get you to eat 18 vitamins or something (not like that happened last night or anything…)

She sits!

2010-02-21T12:45:00.001-05:00

When my girls are around 4 months old I think “Oh yeah… they’ll be sitting soon!”. This happened to me this week (Evie is 4 months tomorrow!). So I tried it out, and guess what!? The girl can sit! She’s certainly not having a 20 minute play session on the floor, but she does remarkably well. It completely blows me away that 3 1/2 months ago she still weighed in under 7 pounds and I couldn’t get her to eat or stay awake for anything! Now look at her. Eating is no problem anymore :-)

It does help to have the basket, because she can kind of keep her balance hanging on and looking into all her fun toys (and please notice that new blonde hair coming in! Her mohawk is returning!!).

But basket or not the sitting up inevitably ends like this…

followed by this…

and then…

Groupon

2010-02-15T12:55:00.002-05:00

I joined a site a few months ago called groupon.com. There weren't any deals in Louisville until the last week. Now there is a deal almost 5 days a week. I just bought a coupon for $10 that will get me $20 worth of food/drink at Butterfly Garden Cafe. Last week there was a coupon for a $60 gift card to Seviche for only $25.

Click here to join. It's free to join and you only buy the coupons that you are interested in. http://www.groupon.com/r/uu1058113

Valentines curse

2010-02-14T22:12:00.001-05:00

Turns out I’m not only cursed at Christmas. Valentines has always been pretty consistently bad for me. Even though I’ve had “someone” to spend Valentine’s with for the last 10+ years something always seems to go wrong. Here’s my Valentines history with Phillip:

2003: ER visit with Phillip

2004: Made a reservation at Mortons because we had a gift certificate. I left it at home. That was an expensive mistake.

2005: On the way to dinner when we had to turn around ASAP. I was SO sick (I was pregnant with Annie). I ended up in the hospital a few days later.

2006: Phillip’s grandfather was dying so he spent the evening at his bedside.

2007: Neither of us can remember anything about this valentines day. I was very sick (pregnant with Amelia this time) I’m sure. I want to say we all have the stomach flu, but I don’t know for sure.

2008: Pretty good until the evening. Ah. Got to love a good Valentines day argument. It was my fault :-)

2009: 1 good valentines day. I was excited because it wasn’t the time of the month that I would get pregnant. Turns out I was already pregnant. Oh, and we actually used the Mortons gift card this time.

2010: I have the stomach flu. Poor Phillip had to deal with 3 girls all by himself. 2 of which had a severe case of cabin fever!

Good thing is there are 363 other days of the year which are usually great! And I have the most fantastic man to be with all year long. I love you, Phillip!

I would rather…

2010-02-10T19:37:00.001-05:00

… be here

than here:

Poor me

2010-02-08T10:35:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I start thinking about how rough my days are. Ha. I live in a giant house compared to most peoples standards around the world, I have cabinets full of food, closets full of clothes, and despite what our health insurance may think I am very healthy.

I’ve mentioned Katherine’s blog before. We went to Samford together and she had her first little boy just a few weeks after Amelia was born. Then a few months later she suffered from an AVM in her brain which changed everything. God did miraculously save her, but the road has been unimaginably hard. For all the moms who think you’re having a rough day please read this from her blog… http://www.katherinewolf.info/?p=636

Priorities

2010-02-07T21:24:00.001-05:00

One thing I’ve really tried to do in 2010 is get my priorities lined up. The period right before and right after having a baby screws everything up so much that sometimes it’s hard to get back to a functional life. I’ve learned that to get everything done for our wonderful family of 5 I’ve had to decide what my priorities were. Unfortunately, that has put blogging way down on the list.

Going from 2 kids to 3 was not too hard of a transition, but the more time goes by the more I realize that it is quite a bit more work. Before Evie came it seemed that there was plenty of time to sit on the couch and watch TV in the evening. Now it seems that time is much harder to come by!

Here’s what we have been up to lately…

Evie has been such a blessing to us. I’m so thankful that she is so healthy and happy. God has taught me so many lessons through Evie the last few months. One of the biggest things was having to give up nursing her when she was just a few weeks old. It’s very humbling to truly not be able to nurse your own baby. She was literally getting sicker and sicker when I was nursing her. But I have been so thankful that I have been able to pump as much and as long as I have. I would be fooling myself if I thought that it made her sad at all. I think one of the reasons that she is so happy is because she is filled up to the brim every few hours and never has to deal with low milk supply. She would have been a very sick little girl without the bottle!

We’ve already put a big dent in our health deductible for the year. At around January 25th I was thinking about how we hadn’t spent ANY money yet! Well, since then I’ve probably spent $700 in medical expenses (including doctors, prescriptions, etc). Evie has her 2nd ear infection (although we did think it was RSV. I will take an ear infection over RSV any day!). And poor Annie has had a really rough time with her ears. Ever since Christmas her right ear has been draining and we haven’t been able to clear it up. She was up one night last week screaming all night. Turns out her left ear is also very infected. We’re now going to see if allergy shots will help clear all this stuff up once and for all. Neither our allergist nor our ENT seems to think we’ll be avoiding a 4th set of tubes, but I’m hopeful!

I am lucky enough to spend lots of time with my wonderful family! My sister Beth and I try to get together once a week or so for lunch (all her boys are in school). I love spending time with her and so do my girls. I’m looking forward to the summer when Becky (my other sister) can spend the days at the pool with us!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful week! I’ll leave you with a picture of the happiest baby in the world to brighten your day :-)

Party of 5- Results

2010-02-03T11:13:00.001-05:00

So- I guess this wasn’t too tough! Kate, Susie, Melissa, & JT got it right. There will be an official winner soon with the disclosure of the gift.

Happy Thursday!

Annie

Abby

Evie

Amelia

Phillip

Quiet Nights

2010-01-28T20:38:00.001-05:00

After the big girls go to bed we get to spend some nice time with Miss Evie. I wake her up about 8 and she eats her last bottle of the day. Then she’s up for a few minutes happy as a lark. It’s such a nice time to spend talking to our precious girl without the usual distractions! Then to wrap it all up she goes back down without a peep. What a blessing she is to us!

God has blessed us so much lately. There are times where you feel like you’re walking around without any direction, but Phillip and I are really seeing God work in our lives and has given us new, exciting opportunities. I’m thankful to have these times of seeing God work in our lives!

3 Months!

2010-01-25T14:31:00.001-05:00

Sweet baby Evie turned 3 months old on Friday. What a blessing she has been to us! It did start out a bit rough with the swine flu, jaundice, failure to thrive, and no thyroid deal, but we’ve come a long way since then!

I’ve spend close to 300 hours with my pump over the last 3 months and it’s about time to give it (and more importantly, me ) a rest. I almost have all my bags filled with milk and when that happens (in about 8 days) I’ll be DONE!!! I will have 471 ounces of milk in the freezer. Enough to give her 2 bottles a day through April 1. My original goal was to give her only breast milk until April 1, but my name is not superwoman and I may have ended up in a padded cell had I tried to do that. So- she’ll live on half formula/ half breast milk until then.

Evie is such an awesome baby. She is rolling over a ton (from stomach to back), loving her exersaucer (she actually plays with her toys and turns the seat around), trying like crazy to find her thumb, and sleeping through the night like it’s her job (which I guess it kind of is :-).

I am so thankful to God that she is doing so well after such a rough start in life. I was sure those days in the light bed were going to ruin her for life (because they have to be in the bed ALL THE TIME. You’re hardly allowed to hold them at all). Turns out, babies don’t usually remember what happens to them when they are 4 days old. Thank goodness!

Here’s my precious baby:

Soul Mates

2010-01-23T19:48:00.002-05:00

Everyone needs a soul mate. I’m not necessarily talking romantically, but a person who just completely gets you. Annie has found hers… fortunately she didn’t have to look far. Savannah, my niece, and Annie have clicked since day one. They have such a great mutual love, respect, and appreciation for each other that is hard to find. Savannah has been home for the last 6 weeks and we’ve LOVED having her around.

Here’s some great pictures over the years…

Savannah- I couldn't find anything in 2006. What were you doing? (Besides watching high school musical and growing 8 inches :-)???

Savannah- I love you and I'm SO proud of you. We’ll miss you this semester! Finish out high school/college strong :-)

Life

2010-01-17T20:00:00.001-05:00

Life has been keeping us busy!

Evie has been growing up TOO fast!! She is certainly not a teeny little infant anymore. She’s gotten to the phase where she’s getting distracted when she eats. There is just too much going on! So there’s a lot of this…

Evie has been rolling over from her stomach to her back for almost a month now. YES, it is completely crazy. But she does it all the time now. She was fairly pleased with herself here. I am still not quite sure why I birth such crazily strong children. Maybe it’s all the chocolate I eat when I nurse??

We did start exersaucer time too. All my girls started it within a few days of turning 3 months old, so I figured she was ready. She doesn’t really reach out and play with things yet, but she does enjoy looking at all those brightly colored toys all around.

Amelia has been busy being Amelia. She is really starting to want to play the games and puzzles that Annie plays. It does get frustrating for her sometimes. But she can usually figure out how to “play” those games in an Amelia friendly way.

Annie is loving school and her gymnastics class. She’s even starting to read a bit, which is exciting. It’s hard for her though because she doesn’t understand why it takes more than one day to learn how to read everything. Hopefully she’ll learn a bit of patience before she starts Kindergarten this fall.

Here’s a picture of the damage done Christmas Eve… I finally got a good shot. I’m over it.

It is absolutely amazing how quickly everyone's family is “multiplying”. We had some friends over this week. 3 years ago there were just 2 kids out of our 3 families and now there’s 8. And I know it’s not the end for anyone. It gets a little crazy. OK- WAY crazy. Someone in our circle needs to win the lottery and buy a house with a giant playroom (and I mean GIANT). Nobody has a house big enough for all these kids anymore. What a blessing it is to have wonderful friends who are amazing mothers to their children and faithful wives to their husbands. Sometimes I can’t believe how greatly God has blessed me in this area. I am very thankful. It makes the winter a little more bearable!

Sweet girl!

2010-01-08T15:40:00.002-05:00

I may have the sweetest baby ever born. God blessed me with such a wonderful baby girl! Sometimes it makes me sad that she’s so easy because it really cuts down on the time I have with her. But with all the craziness of the last year it’s probably a good thing that I don’t have to carry around a baby all day long! Especially since I have to spend such an ungodly amount of time with the breast pump.

She’s so patient with her sisters. She smiles at their crazy faces and tolerates it when they mother her.

They even took their first bath together. A pretty tight squeeze!! When she can sit up it will work a bit better!

She eats 5 times a day and sleeps from about 9 pm to 8 am. Pretty much, she’s either smiling or sleeping.

In fact, she NEVER cries…

OK, well… hardly ever :-)

AND... PLEASE NOTE that there were NOT cameras in the camera packages that were found in the snow suit. I would definitely be taking them back if the cameras were still in there. And, they are real cameras, not disposable. I have a few people that offered to take the packages back for me, so if anyone goes to jail it's not me :-) I may take them up on it!

Sometimes it’s just to cold…

2010-01-07T20:11:00.001-05:00

…to play in the snow!!

The girls couldn’t wait to get out in the snow this morning.

All ready to go!

And they’re off…

Annie immediately ran and made a snow angel (I’m sure she learned this from PBS too)

More fun was had

Until hands literally started to freeze (I’m not exactly sure when the tricycle entered the picture)

We warmed up with some hot chocolate

And then got down to our usual business

Thief!

2010-01-06T21:33:00.001-05:00

What would you do if you found these:

Inside the brand new snowsuit that you PAID for and already brought home?

It's actually very funny. Annie was admiring her new snow suit when she felt something in the leg. I said "are you sure it's not just cardboard?". She said "No, it's not... there's a surprise in my pants!!!". I started laughing because that was so funny, and then she pulls our the camera packages. Someone had stolen the cameras and put the packages inside the snowsuit. Nice. Do I throw them away or take them back to the store? I'm afraid if I take it back they will think I stole it!

Moving on... I finished my first book of the year, The Guinea Pig Diaries. It's a book by A. J. Jacobs, my favorite author. I recommend all his books. In this book he was talking about different cliché's about women. He touched on the cliché that women are more sentimental/emotional than men. he says:

"Sort of true. I repress my anger, especially since Project Rationality. But so does Julie (his wife). We both believe venting just makes us angrier. Don't go to sleep angry? Are you kidding? That's the best thing we ever figured out to do. It's like hitting a reset button. Julie wakes us fresh, I wake up calm, and we can talk about the argument. Or not talk about it. That works, too."

I couldn't agree more. I think there's no worse time to talk about stressful things than at midnight, 1, or 2 in the morning. Everything seems WAY worse than it is and then there's just a bunch of apologizing to do in the morning.

Sorry about the 2 very random stories… maybe there will be fun snow pictures tomorrow!

Darn PBS

2010-01-03T19:50:00.001-05:00

We don’t have cable. Therefore, the girls watch a lot of PBS. It has turned Annie into a recycling junkie (she checks for the recycling symbol on the bottom of everything) and has taught my girls all kinds of crazy experiments that , naturally, they want to recreate. The latest experiment was off of Curious George. It was teaching them that water can freeze. So you put cheerios and water in a container and put it in the freezer. That’s fine, but Annie was SURE she would want it that afternoon for her “treat”. I assured her she would want nothing to do with it, but she was determined. Needless to say, it took about one bite (if you can call it that) to prove me right.

2010 is treating us well so far. Why is it that a new number after the month & date gives you a sense of “newness”? It does seem like a fresh start. And it hasn’t hurt that Phillip had a 4 day weekend! We haven’t done anything too exciting. Mainly cleaning up from the toy explosion that occurs every Christmas! Phillip and I have also found lots of time to read. Evie is sleeping through the night like a champ, so we’ve been blessed with some quiet time. We’re both reading the Bible through the year (go here for the blog) and we’re both trying to get through a book a week this year. We’ll see how it goes!

Goodbye 2009

2009-12-31T17:03:00.001-05:00

Evie is excited for 2010. She’ll learn all kinds of things. She is super excited about exersaucer time (or is that just me?…).

Annie is ready for 2010 because she gets to start gymnastics lessons. As she calls it, she will be doing “gymnasticing”.

Amelia is ready for 2010 because it will bring another SUMMER! She asks every day if it is time to go swimming and if we can get her swimmies out.

Tomorrow is another new start! I’ve started another blog following my 2nd pursuit through the Bible in a year. You can follow me here.