Deep Thoughts...

Today was a day that I had to tell myself..."stop stressing about the fact that this time is precious and it's going fast and ENJOY it!!" I think I worry so much about how I am going to blink and this phase of my life is going to be over. I hear people say it everywhere I go--church, the grocery store, work...even within my own family. Everyone is always saying "soak it up, your kids are going to be old and grown before you know it!" I always smile and nod and wish I could explain to those people that when they say it, I get thrown into this weird depression-like, bummer mood!! I know these are the days with the kiddos---I know I am going to miss making Christmas cookies and faulty gingerbread houses. I know I am going to miss shopping with my mom at an insanely early hour on Black Friday. And I know life is so so so so SO much more impt. and significant than even those things. I have so much more to live for and so much more to make my life matter. So for that I'm thankful.

Today El said two things that got me:

1. When our family all dies we will all go to Heaven together and be with Jesus. And then we will be fixed.
**whoah- hugely intense. And where did she GET that? Yes, I told her---we will be in Heaven with Jesus. And yes El, He WILL fix us to be even better and more like Him than we could ever imagine. (I mean for real- what do you say in response to THAT?)

2. (after a hug and kiss goodnight). I love you mommy. I had so much fun with you. Don't EVER leave me. And BE SAFE.

That choked me up- to say the least.

Wow, the things that kids actually "get" at this young of an age. They know that sad things happen, they just don't know why (nor do we as grown-ups...so I can't imagine how confusing it must be for them!) My friends' house burnt down two weeks ago. It happened to be El's old tot time teacher- who goes to our church. El wondered if Julie, Ashley, and Colton had to sleep outside and said they could sleep in her bed with her. I just know she thinks about it all the time lately.

Well on a more upbeat note---here are a few pics of the weekend. We have had a great couple of days as a family. Love you all and I hope you are enjoying this time of year like we are.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love this day. It was fun to talk with El on our way to Nana and Papa's house this morning, too. Trying to explain to her why we are having a big meal today and that most homes in this country are doing the exact same thing as we are. It's kind of cool. It was the smallest Thanksgiving I've ever had (just 5 adults, and the girls)...but it was a sweet sweet day.

El got to proudly display her napkin rings. So that was pretty fun.

We also attempted to start a tradition today and make a ginger bread house after the big dinner, BUT I pretty much just wanted to throw the icing (I mean cement...did I say icing?) out the door. It just DID NOT WORK. And I followed the directions to a tee...the icing just wouldn't spread. So that was a bummer. I'm not giving up though. We will try this again later in the weekend. I'm determined!!

Ems is pretty much walking up a storm. She had so much fun today and was a little slap happy at times, too. She is just at the best age. She makes us laugh all the time and her personality is becoming more and more apparant. It's just so special. She is already not a baby anymore- MAN!

Well cheers to you all and Happy Thanksgiving. I hope your day was as blessed as ours. Goodnight!

Fun Tuesday

The day started with a really good cup of coffee. I actually made it myself, but I sucked it down! It was awesome.


An assembly schedule at school allowed me to have some extra time before I had to leave at 10:30, which meant I got a lot of work done for next week. I love feeling productive!! :)


I went right to watch miss El perform at her preschool Thanksgiving program. RD joined me...we were both all smiles the whole time. I just LOVE these things, which is totally why they do these silly programs. Parents and grandparents just eat up every facial expression, movement, and hand jive that their kiddos do. So yeah, RD and I fell into that category today. We were so proud of our "little turkey."


Then I went to pick up miss Ems and caught a few of her first steps on camera!! Today is about the 3rd day in a row that she has made attempts at walking and TODAY was a huge improvement! She is so adorable with that little baby waddle. She's crackin us up and will be off on her wheels in no time.


We ended the day with a great small group--a social evening. We had some great pizza. Some of us shared our engagement stories (took me down memory lane), and we ate some amazing chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. Doesn't get much better than a day like today!


Ok- gotta tune in to see who the finalists are for "Dancing with the Stars!!"


Goodnight!

Recoverin from the Pukes

Man, you don't really realize how good it is to feel WELL until you've been SICK. I was up a lot of Thurs. night puking. I thought I was tough enough to go into work on Friday and of course ended up sprinting down the hallway of a junior high and puking in the teacher's lounge. Whoops.

And if it wasn't for my mama and my sister, I probably wouldn't have recovered as quick as I did. I came home from work and went right to bed--for almost 3 hours! My mom and sis took care of the girlies, fed 'em lunch, folded my laundry, vacuumed the house, and let me sleep! Ahhh...

Then to recoup by a nice fire at the family cottage on Devil's Lake. Not too bad. Although I couldn't indulge in my mom's feast on Friday night, I still enjoyed the company of my family. It sure is great to have that.

Sarah took some fun pics of the 4 of us---here's 1 of 'em. The rest are actually going to be sent out on our Christmas card. :)

Well---to those of you healthy: ENJOY!
To those of you sick: I feel ya. Get lots of rest and indulge in, well..... chicken noodle soup and saltines, I guess. Hang in there!

Enjoy this Thanksgiving week. Want a fun project to do with your toddlers? El and I made napkin rings today for our Thanksgiving meal. Just cut rings out of an empty toilet paper roll. Cover it with foil. Then let the lil' tyke decorate it with stickers and markers. It kept miss El busy for at least 30-40 min. and she specialized each napkin ring for those of us who will be eating together on Thursday. Quite a treat. :)

Stay warm and goodnight!

Some hearty laughs

So El had a temper tantrum last night. Mainly b/c Daddy walked into the room and told her she couldn't eat all of the M & Ms in her hand...when she was just organizing them and supposedly wasn't going to eat all of them. Well it turned into her having a breakdown b/c she was misunderstood. It snow balled and before we knew it she was in the green chair (timeout). We always tell her that when she's ready to apologize and she is calmed down, then she can come back in whatever room we're in. Well 10 min. later she was still not coming into the kitchen---very unusual. I went in and snuggled up next to her and asked her if she was ready to apologize to daddy. She looked at me and said, and I quote, "Ugh. I don't want to say sorry. I don't want to do all this work, I just wanna eat candy ALL DAY LONG!"

She was so serious about this statement and all I could do was laugh. But we worked it out and she did apologize to Daddy, so that's good!

Then the girls went up for a bath. In a silent moment, Ems stood up, held onto the edge and just tooted SO loud. The best part of all was that the two girls looked at each other and just started belly laughing. It was such a moment...we all loved it. Made me laugh pretty hard, too. Oh why baby farts are so funny, I dunno! But they ARE!

Sarah Beth Photography

I mentioned that I would post Sarah's "blog" once she got it setup.
Here it is...
She is officially doing photo shoots of many people around town. Although there are not a ton of pictures on there yet, she promises there will be more to come.
Enjoy! (And if you need someone to take a Holiday Christmas photo for you...ANYTHING...Sarah is your woman.)

http://photo.net/photos/Sarabethphoto

Be Near

New song on the Seeqpod...New kids was getting old. :) Although, for some reason the "play button" on that pod thing is drifting off the side of my blog...I'm working on figuring it out. You can still press play though---it's the one to the far right. This song is awesome.
I pray that you would feel the nearness of God with you today/tonight. And if not- ask Him for it.
Have a great night!

P.S. I posted a pic of El- it's pretty great. Aunt Sarah took it back in September and just showed me yesterday - pretty awesome, huh? She also came over for a "photo shoot" of the girls yesterday...she's working on building a portfolio for her new photography business. As soon as her website is up and running, I'll post the link for sure. SHE ROCKS! (And of course I'll share some of the cute pics she took once I get them!!)

Well I guess I've been tagged

Ok, so this is a new thing to me. My dear friend Lindsay Guard "tagged" me out in the blog world to share 7 things about myself. Both girls are in bed, my workout is done, I am all showered up...but I'm SO tired! I could seriously go to bed everynight at 9:00! But I'll do my best. Regardless, thanks for thinkin of me Linds!

1. I love to be organized

That might be a quirky thing, but I do. When I am organized, I feel productive. I also feel like I can do "fun" things when the "mess" isn't a mess...and my house, my laundry, my TIME is more organized. This typically involves me leaving lists for RD and lists for myself. It ALWAYS involves making coffee and picking my work clothes out the night before. HeHe. :) And it (sadly) means that I start packing up to TWO weeks before a vacation....especially now that I pack for a family of 4!

2. I love to ask people questions

I guess it's my thing, I dunno... that's what people tell me. But I think the best way to get to know people and to get people to not only talk about their lives, but REALLY think about things...is to ASK QUESTIONS! When there's something tough to bring up or when simply talking about Jesus with people---the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to get people to think and to process and to then (after a question is asked)...respond!!

3. I feed off of being busy but somehow it's become my greatest enemy

Yeah, I'm learning this the hard way in life right now. Although I love to pack my schedule tight... and I love to have a million ideas of fun things to do with my kids...and I love PEOPLE and surrounding myself with people...I also have a people pleasing disease (and yes it's seriously a disease). I am learning that, to quote RD, "I need to slow my metronome down." So I'm working on that and trying to seriously make that a lifestyle change.

4. I love soup!!

My family always makes fun of me because on winter days (especially on a Saturday or Sunday) there is not much else I LOVE to gather people around other than some homemade soup and some yummy bread to dip in it. It literally has become the family joke. But you see, I love ambiance...it's all about the setting, the atmosphere for me. So on winter days---I wanna make you some soup. In the Fall, I want hot cider and pumpkin desserts to give you when you come over. If we are having company---I love to have appetizers and a nice table setup for you when you arrive. And always---no matter what season it is---I have candles. Oh I love candles! So whether it actually is the soup or maybe it's just plain "atmosphere," I guess I just love making things warm and cozy.

5. RD and I are officially known to people in Toledo as "health nuts."

I didn't think we'd ever get to THAT point, but we did. I've always been into eating well and exercising. When we got married, we became lackadaisical in that department for a year or so. Realizing that, we flung into hyper mode and I guess that landed us on the planet we currently living on. I mean I'm married to a man that has bantransfats.com on his top 10 favorite websites. HeHe. We both shy away from McDonalds french fries for El. And we get excited when baked kettle chips go on sale at Costco. Oh well!! On the other hand...despite wanting to be healthy and keeping exercise a part of our routine...we are not CRAZY. We have at least 3 cartons of ice cream in our freezer right now. When RD's mom makes her Christmas baked goods---there's no stopping us. And truthfully, there is nothing we love more than eating out!!

6. I picture weird scenarios in my mind a lot

That might sound creepy. But if I hear a siren down the street, I play this little mental video in my head as to what could have happened. And it is crazy detailed!! Sometimes while I'm driving I imagine someone calling me and telling me something, and then I just let my mind go wild with all these (oftentimes) sad things that could potentially result in that. I might not be explaining this well, but the bottom line is this: I think I worry a lot. And because I tend to be a worrier, I play out things in my head that I fear or dread or am scared of. It's something I've done all my life and I don't know why!!

7. I really don't know what else to say

I think I don't know what else to say. Anyone who knows me (or reads this silly blog I guess) knows that the most impt. things in my life are my faith in Jesus, my family, and my friends. I love love love being with people and my biggest struggle in life is that there are too many people I love and care about that I just can't get time with like I want. It's a battle for me a LOT. Sooo...as long as I continue to start my days pre-6 A.M. with my Bible and cup of coffee, I will just continue to trust God and who he brings in my life that day. Amen? Amen!

So now I need to pick some people to tag, huh?! Ok, here we go...

Lindsay Freeman, Christy Mitchell, Stacie Orahood, Bethany Gasperini, Amy Seiffert, Kim Fighter, Elizabeth Wilkerson ...your turn!

Oh the good ol' days

So as I was thinking about what song to put on the seeqpod, RD and I started dying laughing at a band that yes...we BOTH were obsessed with one day long ago. I probably went a little farther than him given that I had all the posters even OUT there of "the first boy band EVER!"
So...just to make you laugh for a day or two...check out the new song I put on there. Anyone remember jamming to this one in 7th grade? Ha! hilarious...

Halloween!!

El the Princess and Ems the lamb had a wonderful Halloween. Em needed to get out of her stroller for some "action" every once in awhile, and El didn't miss a beat. Her excitement and manners made her a TRUE princess. As cheesy as that sounds, it's true---RD and I were so proud of her. Especially when we came back home and handed out our candy...she was thrilled to share! And anyone here in T-town knows it was a perfect night to be outside. Almost 60 degrees...so coats and hats didn't even make it out of the closet this year. Ahhhh. We soooo enjoyed having Aunt Kiki and E-Marty join us for trick-or-treating as well. :) What a blessing to have people close by that love our kids!!

El and her neighbor friend, Jocelyn, have gone trick or treating together

every year since they were born. It's tradition!!