State of the Family #44

Well, things have definitely not slowed down around here.  It seems like the last two week we (mainly mommy) has had something going on every night of the week.

Our highlight of it all was combine rides with G'pa G., getting to see our friends from Alaska and making some monster pudding cups on the one Saturday morning we had free.

I sadly forgot to take my camera when we went to see the Buckbees, so I don't have any pictures of that fun.  But here is the fun of the other events.

Mommy got to go out with the girls!

Other than that it has been play practice, AWANA, Kings Kids, Bible Studies, Pampered Chef and all the daily life in between.  Miss Thumb Sucker has good and not-so-good days with her potty training still, so we are still working on that. 

Noisy Man had Red Ribbon Week at his school this week, so he has had fun dressing up for their various days.  Monday he just had to wear red, and came home looking like a ladybug.  Tuesday he got to dress up as what he wanted to be when he grew up and today was pirate day.  (Pic to come, since this is his Halloween costume too).  Friday is favorite book character day and he plans to go as Peter Pan.

Miss Firecracker has started back to dance class.  She plans on being a ballerina for Halloween this year.

I'll have much to blog on next time as we will have Miss Thumb Sucker's 2nd birthday party and are headed to the pumpkin patch tomorrow (rain delay from last planned date).

I DO IT!

Oh Miss Thumb Sucker.  She has become quite the independent jabberbox as of late.

A melt your heart moment:  We decided to say our bedtime prayers in the car on a late school night drive home the other night so as to be able to brush teeth and jump in bed once we arrived at home.  From the back seat I hear, "Dear God, thank you for Jesus, Aaaaamen.  Dear God, thank you for da Bible, Aaaaaamen."  Yes, both of these complete statements and signature drawn out Amens came from my not-quite-two-year-old.  It was one of those, "Thank you, Lord that you are helping me do something right" moments!

Her other current thing is wanting to dress herself.  I get her clothes out in the morning or jammies out at bedtime and she instantly says, "I do it!" Well, if I lay her pants and undies down on the floor in front of her the correct way she can get them pulled on just right.  I must say it is quite commical to watch her do it, too, but she gets it done.  When it comes to the shirt though, it is another story.  She isn't quite up to this task and it makes her so mad. 

This picture is the little independent jabberbox saying to me, "I button it, mommy." (there are little buttons and loops at the bottom of these pants.)  After about 2 minutes of trying, an A for patience in her book, she looks at me and says, "I can't button it.  You help, pease, mommy?"  Plain as day.  Seriously.  Where did my baby go?

A Great Read

I love a good book...I might have mentioned that a time or two on here.

My last blogging for books book was one of those.  It was Karen Kingsbury's (I was so psyched that I got to review one of her books, she is one of my favorite authors) Waiting for Morning.

This is a great read to put you in place with where your heart truly is with Jesus.  In this book, Hannah Ryan unexpectedly loses her husband and eldest daughter in a car accident with a drunk driver.  When the metal hits the road, Hannah finds her faith doesn't stand the test and she loses her trust in God.  But thankfully, God doesn't give up on her. 

In the pursuit of sweet revenge, Hannah becomes obsessed and totally pushes her remaining daughter away, to a point where she might lose her as well.  Hannah's pursuit involves an in-depth trial with a Christian lawyer, cop and counselor with MADD on her side, against the drunk driver that killed her family.  Thankfully, God's plan prevails with putting these three people in her life to remind her of His plan and love for us even when things don't turn out as we want them to.

This book is a great tribute to fully trusting in God through thick and thin, and even more so one of forgiveness.  It was so easy to judge Hannah Ryan in this book.  Thinking, "How can she turn from God?  Look what she is doing to her daughter?  Why can't she see what is going on?"  But when it really comes down to it not a single one of us knows what we would do if placed in a situation of the same caliber unless we have been there.  Preparing our hearts and abiding with Him daily are the only ways we can hope to make the right decision.

I am so glad to have gotten to read this book for free for this review from Waterbrook/Multnomah publishers.  It was a great read and I didn't want to put it down until it was done.

State of the Family #43

Things are a busy as ever around here as the Christmas musical practices are in full swing which takes Mommy away from home 2 nights a week.  Then you add in Wednesday night Bible Study and Kings Kids and the whole week feels shot!

Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker are still loving school.  We had Parent/Teacher conferences for Noisy Man and got a great review.  His teacher reported that he is a very well behaved little boy and doing well with everything in school.  The only thing she had to report to us that wasn't completely positive, but not really negative either was that during reading time he seems to be self-distracting, making binoculars with his hands or playing with his chair.  But when she catches him and asks him a question about what she was just teaching, he still knows the answer.  Hmmm... the musings of a kindergartner.  Noisy Man also hit another milestone this past week with learning how to tie his shoes! 

The battle with Miss Firecracker and nap time seems to have subsided in the last week.  Thanks to an awesome MOPS mentor mom who discussed the 'special time' she and her husband used to do with their children before bed time, I decided to try and implement it with MF for nap time to see if the arguing would lessen.  Lo and behold, it worked!  She gets to pick out whatever book she wants and I lay down in her bed with her. Then we read the book together, just the two of us.  She loves the one on one time, which I think is essential for a middle child to get anyway, and I don't have to fight with her to get her to bed every afternoon!

We are diaper free at this house!  It is such a blessing!  Miss Thumb Sucker has figured out this potty stuff.  She still has a few accidents here and there and wears pull-ups whenever we are out of the house or she is in bed, but is even figuring out how to go on 'other' toilets as well!  I am so proud of her.  And she doesn't turn 2 for another month. 

Daddy has been quite the trooper over the past few weeks with mommy being gone quite a bit for practice, Pampered Chef shows and a few other things.  Get this, I even came home to some beautiful flowers from him the other day, and he had to take all three kids into the store to buy them!  He is still working on breaking some horses so the kids can ride a little bit more this summer, trying to get in a few last fishing trips (without much luck on catching anything) and started a men's Bible study as well. 

Last weekend we got to trek half way across the wonderful state of Nebraska to see some wonderful college friends of ours.  Julie and I have run many races together in Lincoln over the last few years, but then she moved out to beautiful Elsie.  The 5 hour car ride to see them was a bit 'iffy' at times with 3 kids in tow, but once we got there, it was nothing but fun.  Well, almost.  The trek was made so that Mommy and Julie could take part in the Autumn River Run 1/2 marathon in North Platte.  Did you know that North Platte and Eastern NE have almost 2,000 ft difference in elevation?  Did you know that this difference makes a huge difference on Mommy's ability to run well (notice I didn't say fast, just well, my running far from qualifies as fast no matter how well I do)?  More on the race in another post.

Our time with our friends was wonderful.  They have 2 kids ages 2 and 4.  You would never know that our kids had never played together before.  I don't think there was a fight all weekend and they all played like they had been best friends for life.  The parents had a great time as well, watching football and enjoying great conversation.  Learn more about their wonderful family here.  Julie and I lived in Love Memorial Hall together our first years of college and our hubbies were both Burr Hall boys those years as well!   They made a great cheering section for the race too!

Now onto more busy weeks, hopefully a trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend if the rain holds out, and tractor and combine rides with grandpa!