An Early Birthday Present

Heidi and Jonah's Birthdays are coming early this year.  Though they aren't actually until the 18th and 20th of September, we are going to have their party in Abilene this weekend.  But today Heidi got an even earlier birthday present!

The kids and I really enjoyed watching this past season of Dancing with the Stars {I think Nathan did too, he just won't admit it :) }.  We would eat in the living room on some of those nights and at almost every dance, the kids would take a break from eating and dance along with the celebrities.  It was great family time and we have a few super cute videos of the two of them "ballroom dancing".  One particular night, there was a guest dancer that did a ballet routine.  Ever since then, Heidi has been ABSOLUTELY enamored with ballet and she would want us to watch her latest ballet moves.  It has gotten worse and worse and she would give us a "dance recital" and then BEG her daddy for ballet lessons.  

With her having such beautiful looooong limbs, we thought this would actually be great for her and teach her coordination and a bit of..ahem..grace. :)  Well, lessons started tonight so we had to go ahead and give her her ballet shoes and leotard today.  We had been trying to keep it a secret for a while but she was almost too smart for her own good!  When we went to go try and buy her shoes, I knew she wouldn't really know what real ballet shoes look like so I wasn't too worried about her figuring it out.  I told her we were going to try on some shoes that maybe she could wear to church.  {Yes, that's a little white lie, but in my family, little white lies are allowed at birthdays and Christmas!! :) }  So we get to Payless, I find the shoes she is supposed to wear, and thinking I'm being so sneaky, we try some on.  

After a while, Heidi says to me, "Mama, are these ballet shoes?"

Uh-oh!! Busted!! But I try to play it cool, "Why do you think that?"

"Because the little girl on the shoe box is doing ballet."

Doh!! Great! Now I have to nonchalantly change gears!! "Well, they might be but we're just seeing if this is something that we want to do.  MAYBE you'll do ballet.  We'll just have to see....."

Thankfully Daddy was there and being the smart man that he is, immediately distracts her and gets her mind on another subject.

While he is doing that and she's not watching me, I go and buy the shoes and somehow between the two of us, we manage to get her to to completely forget about the ballet shoes.  Phew!!

It did actually come in handy that she knew they were ballet shoes because every once in a while I would ask her, remember those ballet shoes we tried on? Do you think that is really something you want to do?  Of course, I would get a very emphatic and excited yes!!  Just wanted to make sure she was serious and that it wasn't just a passing fad!

So fast forward to today...Daddy came home at lunch time and we presented her with her gift!

Little brother thought he needed to be part of the action, too!
Thankfully, he didn't seem to care that it wasn't for him!

Great packaging, huh? This was actually a last minute decision to give it to her. We were going to have her skip her first lesson and wait till her party but decided we wanted to get our money's worth!

The leotard!

She only learned this morning that ballerina's wear leotards so at this point she still didn't exactly know what was going on.

The shoe box with the ballerina girl on it!! Now she is figuring it out!

THE SHOES!!!

Now she is SOOOOO excited!!!

This was her face after we told her all this is for the ballet lessons that she gets to start...tonight!!

Trying on her ballet shoes!

She was so over-the-moon excited about the shoes and the lessons!  It was the great reaction we were hoping for and made us so excited for her.  We went out to lunch with Nathan right after this and she was squealing in the car all the way there.  Such a happy little girl!  This is what makes it so worth it!!

 Then off to lessons she went!!!

The parents have to wait in the waiting room so she had to go in by herself. She looked like such a big girl with her little bag following all the other girls into the room!!

This is when they first were starting.  They will also do tap and jazz so that's what the black shoes are for.

The teacher said they all did great! I got to peek through the curtains a few times and it was so cute watching her do the little steps!  After her hour was up, we were walking back to the car and I asked her how it went.  She said, and I quote, "It was AWE. SOME!!!!!"  When we got home she then showed all she had learned.  She was so proud and can't wait for her next lesson!!

I forgot to get one of her in her little ballerina shoes but I plan on getting one next time! I'm already looking forward to her little recital in May!!

Too Sweet Not To Share

Neither one of my children ever did pacifiers beyond their first week or so, and having them sleep with blankets made me too nervous. But I needed SOMETHING that they would bond with to help them learn to sleep on their own and, especially, sleep in an unfamiliar environment, since we travel a lot.  Heidi found and bonded with her Snuggle Bear and Jonah's lovey became a little brown rabbit named Hopalong that was a gift from his Uncle Delton.  It took a while to get him to bond with Hopalong but today Jonah and I learned just how bonded they now are.

Jonah's diaper overflowed last night as it sometimes does so this morning all the bedding went into the wash, including Hopalong.  We were out and about all morning until lunch time so I didn't have a chance to put it all into the dryer.  We got home for lunch late so nap time was right after they finished eating.  I knew Hopalong was still sitting in the wash but I was REALLY hoping Jonah wouldn't remember/mind/find something else to sleep with for his nap.  Jonah is usually the easiest and first to put down for a nap.  Heidi doesn't always sleep but as long as she stays in bed and doesn't make too much noise or disturb her brother I'm fine with it.

Well.

Let me just tell you that Jonah most definitely felt the absence of one little brown rabbit.  He also sleeps with a pillow, a Buzz Lightyear doll, and a little dog named Copper.

(side note: if you are hoping to slim down the collection of stuffed animals your children accumulate, DON'T give names or allow the kids to give names to any more animals than are absolutely necessary!! Do you know how hard it is to give away stuffed animals that you can call by name???  I mean its hard for ME to do it even if the kids aren't there telling me who they want to keep!! Just FYI...)

Moving on...

After I left the room, I could hear Jonah bellyaching and carrying on and he was not happy about something.  I walked back in there after a while and told him to hush and go to sleep.  While in there, I noticed that the pillow, the dog and Buzz had all been chucked out of bed to the middle of the room.  Jonah was making his displeasure known!  I took pity on him and found a little bear that Nathan had given him that he loves to sleep with (alongside Hopalong) and tried to explain to him that I knew he wanted Hopalong but that Hopalong was taking a "bath" and wasn't dry yet.  But that mommy would make sure he was dry by bedtime.  He accepted my talk and the bear at first but was still carrying on and the next time I peeked into the room, the bear was chucked to the middle of the room, too.  After about an hour of fussing and being upset he finally fell asleep but didn't take a very long nap and was VERY grumpy when he woke up.

Fast forward to after church, Jonah and Heidi were getting ready to head upstairs when I presented him with a now dry Hopalong!  You've never seen a little boy be happier!!!

A BIG and VERY vocal hug! And look at that big smile!!

And some kisses!!

Bedtime was no problem, now that Hopalong is right where he belongs!

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (and it made this mama cry!)

Last week, the kids went to Mamaw and O'Pa's (my parents) for a week of VBS.  Laurie and her kids were there and I was supposed to be there, too, but at the semi-last minute, I agreed to help out at the vet clinic where I used to work.  Up till last week, a weekend is the longest I'd ever been apart from my babies.  I really wasn't sure how this would go (for me, I knew they would have tons of fun!) but I tried to have a long list of things to do while they were gone.

I should have known better.

Working + heat + pregnancy + a too quiet house = one unproductive and unmotivated mama!  If I wasn't sleeping, I was wondering around the house in a mopey state.  I would say that it was kind of nice to take a nap whenever, for however long.  But I missed them oh so much! Hearing their sweet little voices and getting pictures from my sister and mom seemed to make it worse! On Tuesday, Nathan and I had decided to go on a little date.  We only have one movie theater so our only option after our dinner was to watch Harry Potter. Right when the movie ended, I looked at my phone and saw a bunch of pictures of my sweeties that Laurie had sent me during the movie and I just started crying! Then my thought was, "I have GOT to stop this before we walk out or people will think I'm an over-the-top Harry Potter fan who is crying because the series is over!!".  ...oh well...  I ended up only making it to Thursday before I'd had enough and it was so nice to have my babies back in my arms!!

They, of course, had a wonderful time and seemed to only marginally miss me. :)  They all got to participate in VBS and from what I've heard and seen from pictures, this year was a really good one!!

Day 1: Ezekiel and the Valley of the Dry Bones

Day 2: Balaam's Talking Donkey

They also had a petting zoo that night and while Jonah did NOT want to ride the donkey, he LOVED feeding and petting the other animals.  Apparently, there was a minor incident with one of the donkeys.  Jonah was feeding it and as my mom tried to lead Jonah away to the next one, this donkey got a little over eager to get the food and nipped Jonah's fingers.  He was fine but it was kind of funny that anytime after that (and still to this day, actually) if you ask him if he got to feed the donkey at VBS, he'll get this wounded look on his face and will try to show you his poor little fingers!

This little black goat was his favorite

She LOVED the petting zoo and loves to talk about it

Day 3: Jonah and the Big Fish

As I said, Laurie and her kids were there and it is always so fun to watch mine and hers interact.  Alyssa and Jonah are only 5 months apart so they play and play and play!  Of course, being so close together, they also tend to fight more. But they make up fairly quick so for now its fine. We were at the play place in the mall when they discovered their new love for wrestling and pushing each other. They were hilarious!

And of course, no visit would be complete without O'Pa's famous pancakes!

Heidi and Mamaw's picture

Picnic with Mamaw

Bringing these girls up right with...

...CHOCOLATE!!! ;)

Some random cousin fun:

This little dude is quite possibly the best baby ever!  He's so easy going, sleeps despite all the noise the other kids make and just loves to snuggle!

Baby Clark

She loves babies! I know she is going to be so good with her new baby sibling.

I have been blown away with how "into" baby Clark Jonah has been.  While I expected it of Heidi, I never would have thought Jonah would have cared much about a baby.  Boy, was I wrong! He LOVES holding him and asks to a lot.  He is so sweet and gentle with Clark and he'll sing to Clark when he's crying. It is so precious to watch!

Tie-dyed twinkies

One day, Laurie and Mamaw took all the kids to the zoo.  I guess at one point, Heidi asked Laurie to take this picture of her and send to me so I could see her.  I know she knew I was missing her and its little things like her thinking of me that just make me so proud and thankful that she's my little sweetheart. :)

THANK YOU, AUNTIE LAURIE, MAMAW AND O'PA FOR TAKING GREAT CARE OF MY SWEET BABIES ALL WEEK!!!!

And a HUGE shout-out to Laurie: she had the three of them all organized and in a routine at naps and bedtime, with no fussing.  I was very impressed but as soon as I got into the mix, my kids had complete meltdowns and wouldn't cooperate at all.  So finally, I would just take baby Clark and let her deal with the others and of course they settled right back down.  Mom and Laurie kept reassuring me they hadn't been like that at all that week (thank goodness, or else I would REALLY owe them!), I guess they were just saving it all for when mama finally got there!!

Where to Begin...

Welcome to our new blog!! If you've been reading the old blog, you know that I had to start this new one since I filled the other one up with pictures that were too ginormous {{lesson learned}} and now I can't load any more.  You would also know that, besides the daily blog, I haven't post any pictures since, um, December!! So sad.  So very, very sad.  This is my version of scrapbooking my kids' lives and I've already missed half a year! We will definitely be doing a ton of catching-up!!

The first thing we want to catch you up on is the news of Baby #3!! Also known as "Lovebug", this sweet little blessing is due to arrive sometime around the beginning of October.  Which means I'm already almost 8 months pregnant.  Which means poor poor Lovebug has not been documented much at all.  But! I'm going to try my best to fix that. First, here are some pictures of our littlest one:

Baby at 12 weeks

Baby at 26 weeks

Baby at 26 weeks

And for those frequently asked questions:

• No, we are not going to find out if Lovebug is a boy or girl.  We found out with both Heidi {its a girl! so fun picking out baby girl stuff!} and Jonah {its a boy! so fun picking out baby boy stuff!}.  So now that we have everything pink and blue that we need, we thought this time it would be fun to wait until little Lovebug is born!  I admit, its been really hard waiting.  At our last ultrasound, the tech actually took a gender picture and put it into a sealed envelope for us to take home for the baby book.  Its a padded envelope so I can't even cheat by holding it up to the light!! =D 
• The kids are as excited as their ages can understand.  Heidi wants it to be a girl so badly so we've been talking to her and preparing her for the chance that it might be a baby brother.  She seems to be ok with that possibility but I think she is still holding out hope that it is a baby sister.  Heidi is actually the one whocame up with the name Lovebug.  My sister just had a baby and they called it Doodlebug while she was pregnant so I'm pretty sure Heidi got the idea from that.  Jonah is too young to know what is going on other than he knows he has to be gentle with mommy's tummy.  He does like to give kisses to my belly and if you ask him where mommy's baby is he points to it.  And if he sees Heidi talking to and loving on my belly than he wants to do that too.  But I think that's mainly him wanting to do everything big sister does. :)
• We do not have names picked out yet.  I'm getting a little stressed about that.  We had a hard time picking out Jonah's name, too, and now instead of just one name, we have to come up with two!! 
• This will more than likely be our last baby.  My body hasn't had as easy a time with this pregnancy as my other two, so I think considering I'm pregnant every other year, its time to give my body a break. ;)  Plus, we've always said we wanted three, and this time, unlike with Heidi or Jonah, I have a sense of "done-ness".  Its a good, satisfied feeling.  Of course, God may have other plans and that would be just fine too!

So that's it for now.  Hopefully I can get back into the habit of blogging regularly again but until my next post, you can visit our daily blog at Third Time's the Charm.

Magic in the Ordinary

If you watched this season's "The Bachelorette", the title of this post may sound vaguely familiar.  One of the guys mentioned this to the Bachelorette and even though he was next to be eliminated, I thought this was pretty sweet.  I don't remember his exact words but he was saying something along the lines of, even though through the show they have gotten to go to some pretty amazing and exotic, and romantic destinations, he believed that there was magic in the ordinary of every day.  Its the little things that can be romantic.  It doesn't always have to be a big production to mean something.

I like this because this is how I feel about motherhood.  I absolutely love being a mother and of course I absolutely adore my children.  Even though we may not always go and do incredible, fantastic things all the time, there are still moments in our everyday lives that completely melt my heart and make me feel so incredibly blessed to have the children that I have.  Moments that make me appreciate so much the fact that I am able to stay home with them and watch them bloom and grow and learn.  There are stretches of days that I realize we haven't left the house at all except to go to church.  And yet, we are still having tons of fun and making great memories.

I'm sure somedays the title will seem kind of cheesy, but on the days that things are chaotic or we're stuck in a rut, maybe it will serve to remind me that there is magic in the ordinary, everyday moments of each day that make the days special if we take the time to find them and cherish them!!

Nothing like some impromptu love between siblings