Big Girl!

I know my words from the other night were hard to read. They were hard to write, too. But as hard as it is to share the struggles you go through, I am a firm believer in community and reaching out to others. I think that's what Jesus would want us to do. Sometimes it's okay to admit that you can't do it on your own and you need a little encouragement or prayer or support. And that's where we are now, I guess. So thank you, so very much, for reaching out and offering your prayers and thoughts.
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On a lighter note....

 
Need I say more??

Samuel and Eliana worked to make a nice block chair last night and Eliana added the "ottoman" herself:) She is looking too grown-up these days! Her hair has grown long enough that she can easily tuck it behind her ear.

Such a silly girl!

Samuel and Zakkai are so good with Eliana. They both know how to distract her from tantrums and pull her out of her moods and make her laugh and smile. They are such good boys!

This morning, right after dropping the bros off at school, Eliana, Baby C and I raced over to a garage sale that I had seen listed on Craigslist because they had a twin bed for sale! We got a good deal on Miss E's new-to-her big girl bed and when the lady saw how much Eliana loved this little doll cradle, she threw it in for free!

Now Baby Anna finally has a place of her own to rest her weary head;) All the way to the sale, Eliana kept saying "Are we getting a bed for Baby Anna, too?" And I kept telling her no, it was just a bed for her but lo and behold, I was wrong! She was so happy to get home and tuck her little baby in:)

I will post pictures of E's new bed as soon as we find a mattress! Any ideas where to find a cheap one?

I am off to pick-up Samuel from school. Zakkai has a play-date that he is super excited about (and Samuel is super jealous about...) so it will be strange to just bring home one boy!

This weekend we are going to a marriage conference at our church and the boys are really excited to watch a movie and play at church tonight and tomorrow morning. Hopefully, it will be good and we will learn something new about each other and our marriage:)

And hopefully this weekend I will post some recent tasty recipes. Maybe even an apple one, if you're lucky. (Don't worry, not the secret pie recipe!)

Have a good Friday...

Matching!

 I am sitting here basking in the silence of my home, waiting to inhale the scent of baking brownies and feeling pretty good about how potty-training is going!

Miss Thang is doing awesome! Only one minor accident that she caught, tons of stickers on her chart and more M&Ms to fuel her addiction:) I am hoping to wean off the chocolates soon. We are still waiting for the big #2, which she will receive a "big" prize for (a necklace from the dollar section!). She tried today but no such luck.

Pretty much all week she has pottied and played with Baby Anna. She is nuts about this little doll! Lately, she thinks it's pretty cute to wedge Baby's thumb in her mouth and then walk her around in the stroller, stopping everytime she gets to me and saying, "Aw, isn't she cute? She's sucking her tum!"

Mugga brought a special surprise for Eliana this weekend!! Matching dresses!! About a month ago, we were in Target and for whatever reason, were talking about clothes for Baby Anna. I told her that her jammies couldn't come off but maybe we could ask Mugga to make her a dress. Mugga went a step further and made one for Eliana, too! Aren't they a cute pair??

The boys are sad that they are over halfway done with VBS already. I'm sure all the volunteers and staff will be exhausted when the week is done! They have done such a great job! The boys come home with a fun new craft each day, new songs they learned and a new verse.

Today Samuel had a rough day. He feels emotions so deeply and doesn't always know how to put them into words. He was really missing his Daddy, who has been working the past 2 days, which caused a lot of tears. Plus I think all of our family leaving and doing VBS has made him more tired and a little more emotional. It was hard to watch him be so sad today:( I really hope he has a better day tomorrow ~ especially after he gets his Daddy hug!

And my mom is doing really well! She came out of surgery well, was sick for a while but they were able to correct it and get this, has already been up walking! I think that is just crazy that they made her walk only hours after getting a full knee replacement but I think it helps with the healing or something. Hopefully, she will get released from the hospital on Friday and will get to heal in her own home. Prayers for her and my stepdad would still be appreciated! And also for Ben's grandma, who is recovering from her own ankle surgery. My, we know a lot of injured people!

I tucked everyone in bed and came down to tidy up the kitchen. I heard Eliana yelling and talking about things like how much she likes her baby and where are her brothers. And then I heard something different and I paused in my cleaning to listen. And this is what I heard...

"Heidi? Heidi, are you there?! I need you, Heidi! I need to ask you!"

There are no shortages of smiles around here!!

Recovering..

What a beautiful day out today! It started out with pouring rain and ended with short-sleeves and sun! Samuel's been working on a big project about the Rain Forest with Daddy so they headed off to the library to do research this afternoon and Z, E and I took a little walk and stayed outside while dinner was cooking. Eliana definitely has the outside bug these days!

I am feeling so much better today. I was a mess Friday, Saturday and Sunday! Hopefully this was our last big sickness from winter. Thankfully, aside from some colds and sinus infections, we have been pretty healthy this winter.
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Last night, Zakkai was getting ready for his shower and he put his leg up on the bed and said, "Mommy? Mommy, my leg hairs used to be clear and now they are turning gray and blond!" His outrageous descriptions are never-ending! I will miss his non-sensical ways when he gets older:)
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Eliana has figured out how to open doors now. Bathroom privacy went out the window for everyone! We often hear the door slam shut and find her inside the bathroom. So today, while I was having a long overdue chat with my cuz, she kept going inside the bathroom. I remembered the door knob covers I had leftover from the boys. I found one and snapped it on the downstairs bathroom and almost immediately cries of outrage ensued!

She was SOOOO mad at me! She cried for at least 10 minutes and then hit it until it broke apart and fell off! I snapped it back on and she kept crying. It was a little funny how mad she got. Later after we got back from a quick trip to the library, she saw it again and started to cry again and said, "I don't want it white door, Mama!!" (the cover is white.) Miss Independent Two-Year Old!
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Baby Anna continues to live a happy, mostly peaceful life with her 2 year old mama. She did get thrown to the floor in anger tonight (which earned a time-out!) but usually Eliana cares for her with gentleness and definite ideas!

Recently, I came across this sight:

Baby Anna in Eliana's (clean) potty seat on the stairs:) Smiles are never hard to find around here!!

Where Is Baby Anna?

 First, I'd like to say thanks for all your kind comments about Z's bday party! While I do find party planning a wee bit stressful, I also really enjoy planning something that will be fun and that will make my kiddo feel really special and loved.

I definitely know now that this cannot be a tri-annual event. Seriously, I'd be planning  a party like that every 4 months! We really are thinking every other year for each child, with special family activities on the off years and/or a special time with one friend. We'll see! For now, I am just breathing a sigh of relief that Zakkai is happy, that we kept our promise to him and that he's off to a great start for being 6!

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Baby Anna is like our 4th child here. She goes where E goes and where E goes, she goes. She gets strapped into the boys' booster seats in the car sometimes when they are in school per Eliana's request and we also find her in many different places in the house. Here are just a few places we've found her in the past few days....

Taking a nap on the chair. Eliana loves to cover her very carefully with this special blanket! Sometimes, Baby Anna will be snuggled beneath pillows but mostly with this pink blanket.

Sitting on the stairs. I'm not sure whether she was coming or going but this is clearly a good place to rest!

In time-out. Yes, even dolls get time-out, too! Eliana's had maybe a handful of time-outs and last week was one of them when she colored all over the couch with a pen (after being told to bring the pen to me!) Next thing we knew, Baby Anna was in deep doo-doo, too...

But Eliana couldn't leave her there along for long so she came to keep her company:)

And the most recent and now forbidden place where I've found Baby Anna is in the bathroom! Thankfully, it was freshly cleaned on this day so I wasn't too concerned about germs but still, you can never be too careful!

It's like Where's Waldo around here except with a pink baby who loves her pacifier:) Maybe we'll have a new edition of "Where's Baby Anna" coming your way soon:)

For now, this is Baby Anna's mother's mother signing off......Goodnight!

Clean Sweep Part 2!

 We have been busy bees over here the past few days! It's been really refreshing to be active and busy and accomplishing things with new energy. Before I reveal our hard work, I need to share pictures, of course, of 3 of the cutest kids ever! No bias here.

There has been no let-up in the adoration of Baby Anna:) Eliana insists that Baby Anna wants to eat with her so they share almost every meal in the highchair. It's a tight squeeze but apparently worth the spacial sacrifice! Baby Anna finally ran out of batteries today for the first time and when I opened up her head (yes, I know that sounds creepy and it was a little..), I discovered that the reason the batteries had endured constant daily use for 2 months was because they were not ordinary batteries. No, it costed $10 to buy replacements! Ouch. I found some cheaper back-ups on Amazon with a lot more for the price so I think I'll be getting those soon.

Yea for Missy! She has FINALLY adjusted to no paci and is back to sleeping like a champ, although I probably shouldn't say that out loud or she'll wake up! She's been a napping stinker for 3 weeks now and even spent over 2 hours crying in the middle of one night last week. We got firm with letting her cry 20 minutes, going in and tucking her in, giving her a kiss and walking right out and repeating. We were getting pretty desperate by the end of last week. She was moodier, tired and driving us crazy!

But finally we started to see improvements and now she is back to her great sleeping. yea!

The boys are so thrilled with all of our new clean space, thanks to our new cleaning routines, that they spent the longest time horsing around before dinner tonight. Literally.

See? You should have heard the giggling and silliness coming from these two! It was really fun to see that enjoying each other (and our clean floor:)

And last but not least, I give to you a video of 2 days of very hard work! Ben and I are genius when we put our heads together to solve a problem, if I don't say so myself:)

 

 

Ben had no idea I was taking a video and gave me the funniest look at the end;) We all LOVE our new spaces and are all excited to keep them organized and clean!