Belated Birthday

Happy Belated Birthday Natalie!!!!! It's been a little crazy and I've been lacking time to get a few pictures posted from our fun birthday celebration. The girls got to go to their first trivia night - at one of our new favorite pizza places. The girls were NO help with the trivia. But they sure did help polish off the pizza. I think Megan had 2 pizzas and that little Nicole wasn't far behind - I think she ate at least 1 1/2 pieces. geez!

But here are 2 of my favorite pictures from the night...

Oh yeah - we make good cupcakes - at least she thinks so!

And Nicole ate her cake too!

Nicole has been pretty grumpy lately -- she's been nursing these 4 teeth for a month or two. Finally the first of them has fully broken through! So tooth #13 is IN and teeth #14 and #15 are starting to poke through. #16 is just a big swollen mess... ugh - that means the grumpiness will continue on for a bit. OH well, thus is the season of life!

Being Sick and Being a Big Girl

There is something about Sunday nights that I don't like... perhaps it's that 2 out of the last 3 Sunday nights, Megan has come down with a mystery illness. 3 weeks ago (the night of the big snow) Megan got sick at dinner... It'll be a LONG time before we go back to that Applebees. Then last night she seemed fine - until about 1:30 when I woke up to her crying in her room. She'd gotton sick - and stayed sick all night. 3 loads of laundry later she's now napping in her room.

Thank goodness she had such a great day yesterday that she earned tv time. Cause we've had a LOT of that today.

Early this afternoon I put Nicole down for a nap and came out to go put Megan down for a nap. She said she wanted to play for a few minutes while I was putting Nicole down. I came out and found this... She's curled up and put herself to sleep on Daddy's chair.

Poor thing....

I moved her to her bed and I took a nap too! A short one..... Nicole didn't cooperate with my plans.

You know it's hard when your babies are sick - and sometimes it just breaks your heart. Last night I was up at 1:30 to Megan crying and standing in the middle of the room. Got her cleaned up, her bed stripped and remade and a load of laundry going - finally got back in bed about 2:20.... only to lie there and pray that she'd have a calm rest of the night. 2:45 the bathroom light came on. I jumped up and there was Megan trying to clean herself up because she'd gotton sick again. It was "mild" and we were on the last matress cover so I got it all cleaned up (anyone who knows that I'm a reactionary vommiter knows that I grew a LOT last night) and we put down a couple of towels over the small problem area (got rid of the pillow that took the big hit) and she went straight back to sleep. I write all that as a prelude to the next part....

At this point it's 3am and I'm beyond exhausted. I fall into bed and hear nothing until 6am. Well evidently at some point at least once, if not twice during those 3 hours of deep sleep, Megan gets sick again and she gets up and cleans herself up and puts more towels down and goes back to sleep. When I realized all this this morning - I felt horrible. One of those huge mommy guilt moments!!!!

This past week we had a very rough behavior week with Megan. She poured her hair detangler down the drain so she could play with the bottle, ran through the house with the end of the toilet paper roll and then put all the tp into Nicoles bath water. Then to really cap the week off on Friday night she got into some of my special craft glue/shellack and spilt it all over her bed, night stand and herself and basically shellacked her leg... she limped for 2 days until we were finally able to get it all off because he leg was covered in a huge crust (talk about living with consequences). We'd already spent some of her christmas money to replace the TP and hair detangler (she went to target and had to pay for it herself - she told the cashier she was learning to not be wasteful). The reality is - most of the things she's gotten in trouble for this past week were because she's trying to act bigger than she is.... and then last night she really was a big girl and took care of cleaning herself up.... I asked her why she didn't come get me or call to me and she said, "But momma, I wanted you to get a good nights sleep." aaaawwww.

So far today she's lethargic but no fever, no coughing, no other symptoms and she's not throwing up... but she's also not eating. Hopefully tonight we can get something in her.

God Gave Us So Much - Book Review

God Gave Us So Much is a limited edition three-book treasure of stories by Lisa Tawn Bergren, illustrated by Laura J. Bryant. The book contains 3 stories through the eyes of curious little polar bear and his family. Each story helps to answer children's questions about God. The first story, God Gave Us The World, introduces that God is a master creator and loves that His creation is all different - just like different bears living in different environments around the world. The second story, God Gave Us Love, introduces the idea that God wants us to show His love to everyone. I love that this story includes that God loved us so much that He gave His Son for us. The third story, God Gave Us Heaven, brings the idea that heaven is God's home, down to a child's level of understanding. I applaud Laura Bryant on this story because she didn't stop at the idea that heaven is God's home, but she "finished" it by including how we get to heaven - that Jesus is our bridge from this world to the next.


My 3 1/2 year old loved the stories, but I must admit they were not "easy" bedtime stories. Each story was a stepping stone for her to ask so many questions. I loved that it provided us with some great teaching moments and we were able to use verses that she knows to support the book. Originally I had planned on reading a story a night and finishing the book in 3 days. Well, in our house it got pretty deep when I introduced the book and she wanted to reread each story multiple times before moving on. I was thrilled it kept her attention, she loves the polar bear family. Her favorite aspect of the book is that the little polar bear cub is a big brother with twin siblings. She could relate to having a younger sibling. This is definitely a keeper at our house. If anyone is dealing with the death of a friend or family member, God Gave Us Heaven is a wonderful resource to help take away the fear of death or separation.


I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing for this review. I was under no obligation to write a positive review. These opinions are my own.

Book Review - Love On Assignment

I recently read Love On Assignment by Cara Lynn James. I must admit that this is not my normal genre of literature. I tend to approach Christian romance with a bit of hesitation, but for some reason this book captured my attention. The story is set in Newport, Rhode Island in the early 1900's and focuses on the life of a young woman, Charlotte Hale, as she seeks to become a reporter. Charlotte begins working her way up in a local newspaper and is offered an opportunity to go undercover as a governess to break a big scandalous story. However, as she seeks the truth for her story, she learns about his religion - which is the source of the scandal. As the Truth comes out, she is faced with a decision to continue to spy on a family she comes to care about, or risk losing her own job and her only means of supporting her own family.

I actually found Love On Assignment to be an easy and enjoyable book. With small children around, finding time to read is rare. However, this book was easy to pick up and dive right into. The plot was predictable, but the characters were endearing. This is actually the second book in the Ladies of Summerhill series and I am now interested in reading the first book. Obviously each book can stand on it's own. I think the historical setting is what I enjoyed the most. I walked away from this book with a greater appreciation of the religious tensions that existed in the early 1900's as big business and factories were booming and workers dealt with deplorable conditions.

If you are looking for a casual and enjoyable book, this is a great option!

I received this book without charge from Thomas Nelson Publishing for review. I was under no obligation to write a positive review. These are my own opinions.

We just call her Sprout

Nicole's hair is growing..... and she LOVES it in her eyes. When ever we put a little bow in her hair she takes it out and shakes her head to get her hair back over her eyes, and then she smiles and giggles. It just cracks me up! But I also hate that I can't see her pretty little eyes (not to mention keeping food out of her hair when it's hanging down). So now, she's out little sprout!

OK, normally I put a bow in also and it lays down - but she certainly is a cute with a little sprout!

Oh, and it's soooo exhausting to be so cute!

Apples

One thing our girls have in common is a love of apples!
Not apple slices - but apples.
If you need a few minutes to finish up your own meal, or I don't know maybe sweep the floor or load the dishwasher --- give the little one and apple and let her go to town (closely supervised of course). Megan loved apples too! This was her first apple when she was about Nicole's current age (Nicole is 14 months 1 week and in these pictures Megan was 14 months and 3 weeks).

For both girls - those apples started out as either Mommy or Daddy's apples and somehow it looked sooooo appealing that the girls decided they wanted to try a bite.

Those little apple lovers - just got to love them!

More Frigid Fun

Finally, today the temps will rise above freezing and start melting our winter wonderland. So yesterday we too advantage of the last below freezing day and got in some final playtime on the sleds.

I just love this shot of Tom walking Megan up the hill... what a great Daddy!

Nicole only lasts a little bit outside, and then we retreat to the warm inside to watch all the action. Shadow stayed with us yesterday and he was keeping a vigilent eye on Nicole.

Well it has been one of those bizarre Ga winters.... a few weeks in and we've already had 2 snows - one that shut us down for a week. It's just so rare that I can't be frustrated by it -it is what it is. And we've tried to milk it for all its worth... but it's also a reminder why I am glad I live in Ga instead of in the frozen tundra up North somewhere. I like my snow "days" and snow "week" but beyond that - No Thank You. I'm ready to get back to the 50's and be able to play outside - on bikes and trikes and swings - not sleds.