Interview with a princess

What is your favorite food?
Peanut Butter and Jelly!

What is your favorite thing to do with mommy?
Play with Thea

What is your favorite thing to do with daddy?
when he tickles me


What is the most fun thing you have ever done?
Go on PopPop's boat.  If I go on the front of the boat, I am very brave!

What is your favorite day of the week?
Mommy days (Wednesday and Friday), because I get to play

What do you like about Thea?
I like to say boo to her, she laughs

Do you like being a big sister?
Yes, because I like to chew on toys

What is your favorite animal?
Elephants because they have a long trunk and floppy ears.

Who is your best friend?
You are

What do you want for Christmas?
A balloon.

Do you have anything else you want to share?
I don't know how to ride a bike.
I love to go to a hotel and see the pool.
I love to go on the boat and I love to stay with my daddy
I want to play a game on your computer.

8 Months!

Yes, very late...Thea turned 8 months old on Friday the 13th!  Look at my big girl! I had to give up on the paper signs this month.  She was not allowing it to sit by her, she wanted to eat it.

And this is what happened about one half of a second after took that picture

Neglect, of a different kind

Yesterday I decided to spend my lunch time at Old Navy in search for red Christmas tights for Leila.  As I was walking around the store BY MYSELF I was reminded of what it is like to be out of the house, not at work and also without someone attached to you.  As I roamed the store looking at all of the adorable winter clothes for girls I thought about my own girls and how fast they were growing out of their own clothes. Leila is very close to being too big to shop for in the baby girls section of the store, and to me, that feels very premature.

My kids are so cute, and interesting and funny.  I should know this, I spend a lot of time with them, as it should be.  But if I am completely honest about it, maybe just a little bit too much.  It is the classic mommy guilt conundrum.  I love my kids, I feel like I should be the one that is with them whenever possible...but that 30 minutes alone in Old Navy felt a little bit too foreign to me, if you know what I mean.  I am uncomfortable even typing this, because it doesn't seem right to me, but in the last 8 months I have attended a football game with my husband and friends and spent about 2 hours at a party with work friends, without Cory.  I am not complaining, but I guess I kind of am...can you feel my guilt seeping through the screen? :)

I miss my husband, I miss myself.  I miss a full nights sleep, and eating without having to hold anyone down or beg anyone to try their dinner.

It is not for a lack of baby sitters or opportunity that I find myself in this predicament.  I have had offers, and I almost always turn them down.  I think it is my competitive nature that keeps me running this marathon without a break...I know other mom and dads have date nights, time for each other and time for themselves, but I get some kind of sick satisfaction in going on doing everything without a break.  Kind of like the baby nursing...I don't enjoy nursing, I would adore the ability to go out and not worry about pumping, but this is what is best for my kid, and I will stick it out if it means I pump at home between feedings to make sure there is enough milk to get us through the week.

Why do I do this?  I claim competitive nature, but part of me thinks that now I have an excuse for being short with my 3 year old, or letting her watch too many cartoons.  Not reading and interacting with my 8 month old as much as I probably should.  If I took better care of myself, I might have to admit that I am just naturally not a good mother, and that thought scares me.  Even if I did get away, I would spend the whole time missing them.  One of the torturous realities of motherhood.

I wish I could be one of those fun witty bloggers with a huge following who can stay at home and collect advertiser money to pay for my life, but then I read over the gloomy crap I write and I realize, I had better keep my day job.

Bella!

Much to my dad's chagrin, mom brought home a new baby kitten from Grandpa Warren's farm.  When she called from the road to tell us to put Zoey outside, I knew right away why.  Zoey would eat a kitten if given the opportunity.  Little Bella is quite cute, and this coming from a not cat person.  Leila loves her.

 

Party Time!

Last weekend we all traveled to Lincoln, NE for my cousin Brandon's wedding reception.  The kids were very excited to have a party to go to, and they had a great time.  Leila was totally enthralled by Polly in her wedding dress.  She has this wonderful enchanted look in her eyes when you talk about weddings.  She loves to get to go to princess parties, and nothing says princess like a wedding dress!  I recently pulled my dress out of the closet and tried it on for her, she was very excited! Thea got to meet her Grandma Lorna for the first time!

Leila enjoyed dancing...Dancing with the bride, dancing with her cousin Andrew, Dancing with Momma, Dancing with Daddy...you get the picture.  She had a busy night!

 

 

 

Thea was tired just thinking about it

Faith

I was recently reminded of a time a couple of years ago when I went to visit with my pastor.  I was having what I might consider to be a crisis of faith. 
The following Sunday I went to church by myself.  Which I normally do not like to do, but I really wanted to and needed to hear God's word that day. My pastor, who nearly always seems to be speaking right to me literally did that Sunday when he sang this song during worship.  I wish I could find a recording of it to share here, because it was so powerful to hear. 

I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

(A Clayton, D Evans, P Hewson, L Mullen / Universal Music)

 

I have climbed highest mountains

I have run through these fields

Only to be with you

Only to be with you

 

I have run, I have crawled

I have scaled these city walls

These city walls

And, yes, I'm still running

 

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

No I still haven't found what I'm looking for

 

And I believe in the kingdom come

Where all the colors bleed into one

Bleed into one

Oh yes I believe

 

You took my cross

Took my pain

Carried my sin

And my shame

And my shame, oh yes I believe

 

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

No I still haven't found what I'm looking for

 

So open the eyes of my heart Lord

Open the eyes of my heart

I want to see you, I want to see you

 

So open the eyes of my heart Lord

Open the eyes of my heart

I want to see you, I want to see you

 

'Cause I still haven't found what I'm looking for

No I still haven't found what I'm looking for

 

Three Cups of Tea

I asked the moms on my message board for some book recommendations a while back.  I requested something that was spiritually uplifting and so when the book Three Cups Of Tea was recommended, I assumed it didn't fit my criteria.  I put it off to read the Fearless book that I posted about a couple of weeks ago and just finished Three Cups of Tea last week, and it has been occupying my mind ever since.
One of my favorite quotes about religion is this one: "Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words." - St. Francis of Assisi

Greg Mortensen, the author of Three Cups of Tea is not a devout Christian, but he preaches the gospel through his actions every day.   To me, this book was a demonstration of what the human spirit and the accepting love of God can accomplish.

My perceptions of Pakistan and Afghanistan and of Islam have been changed and enlightened.  What really blew me away about this book was the implications of education (particularly for girls) and not only a more peaceful world, where terrorist organizations can't use ignorance as a tool to their recruitment, but for increased hygiene and reduced infant mortality rates in developing countries.  If you are looking for a book to read that will make you think, and renew your faith in humanity all at the same time...give this one a chance.    I have to say that I am disapointed that Mr. Mortensen did not win the Nobel Peace Prize that he was nominated for this year.

Leila and I like to make trips to the library, I plan on picking up this book for Leila on our next trip.

I am hoping to convince Leila to start our own "Pennies for Peace" collection and save coins to donate to schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Baby Attack!

 

 

Neglect

So I guess I have been neglecting my blog.  Sometimes I have so much to share that I feel like I blog too much, and other times I have too much swimming around in my brain to make enough sense to post.  Lately I have been obsessing about vaccinations, and whether or not to get them for my girls (they are getting the H1N1 vaccines tomorrow).  Food, and what I should be eating and feeding my children (Most certainly not the things that we are actually eating). Discipline, and if I am doing it right (probably not, some days I feel like Leila really runs the show around here, and I think she would agree).

We have been busy not sleeping, and again thinking about selling the house.  I spent this weekend power washing the deck and front steps, re-staining  the freshly washed wood (Cory  helped :)) and painting the front door.  Only a few more projects left...we are hoping to list in February...we shall see.

Thea is doing really well, she is getting so big and mobile.  She is also teething again.  She has six teeth and two more on the cusp of joining them, you would never guess that she was getting teeth though, she is really the easiest going baby I know.  I am actually starting to believe that she may one day use those teeth, as she is starting to show some interest in solid food.  She does not like to be fed, but I can give her table food on her tray and she will give it a try...some things more successfully than others.

Leila impresses me more all the time.  Lately when we go for car rides we spend the whole time spelling with Leila.  She can sound out a word and then spell it phonetically.  I am amazed...my 3 year old can spell, how crazy is that?  She also has a great memory.  Case in point, for the last couple of weeks Leila will randomly break out with, "I want 3 things for my birthday, I want a real horse, a bean bag chair, and a trampoline!"
On Sunday Leila, Thea and I went shopping with Papa Carey.  Walking though a store Leila spied a unicorn and suggested that we get that for Grandma for her birthday.  Now Leila's list has been modified.  When I asked her just now what she wanted for her birthday she said, "I want LOTS of things! I want a horse, a bean bag chair, a trampoline and a unicorn." When asked what she wants for Christmas, the list is shorter.  "I want DOMINOES!"  I will be curious to see how many sets of dominoes she ends up with for Christmas.

Trick or Treat!

Notice how the big kids are a bit blurry?  Leila and Sawyer were very excited...Leila about the candy, Sawyer about the horse (made by Papa Carey!)
Papa Carey, Aunt Cassie and Cory took Leila and Sawyer around trick or treating while Thea helped mom and I hand out candy.  Fun was had by all! 

crawling

She is crawling for real now, on hands and knees, and she recently was able to pull herself up to stand at the couch. She will be cruising in no time, but so far she just pulls herself up and looks at you with this look of glee and accomplishment.
This one:

Farm Living

I grew up on a farm in Southwest Iowa, and we moved across the state and into town living the summer before I turned 13. My life now is so differently, and the childhood experiences that my kids are getting is so different than how things were for me. I am so engrossed in their lives and building experiences for them, that I rarely spend much time thinking about my own experiences. I am so far removed from my time on the farm, but luckily I have a good memory. I can still see my way around the farm and outbuildings in my mind and remember the great adventures that Andrea and I had, starting as soon as we stepped outside of our back door. We didn't have a lot of money when I was kid, I know that now, but at the time I often felt like I had the whole world to myself out on our farm. We had our own play house, a really house (who cares if it was meant for chickens?) with windows and a roof and a door, complete with a homemade wooden play kitchen (awesome!). How many kids can say that? There were so many places to explore and I remember my sister and I creating elaborate pretend games. I hope that my kids will have lots of fun pretending and exploring, but it just isn't the same when you live on a quarter acre lot in the burbs with only a 40'x 70' fenced in back yard to call your playground. My kids have a lot of crap, but they don't have the wide open space and outbuildings filled with potential imaginary worlds that I had. But alas, we are a suburban family. The upside? We have some amazing friends who we love to hang out with, who have kids close in age to our kids, and who are giving their kids the kind of childhood that I had, and they had too, as they are both grown up farm kids. This past weekend we spent the day at the Weber farm in Mechanicsville and we had a really great time. I can tell you that this farm visit beats the heck out of any pumpkin farm I have ever seen! :)
We had lunch, steaks on the grill. Of course they didn't come from Hy Vee, but were home grown and delicious! The weather was perfect even though the grown was kind of wet so we took the kids out to play. Bryce will be 4 in just a couple of weeks and he is such a proud farm boy! He LOVED showing us around. The kids started off by picking up fallen apples out of the back yard and filling their wagons so we could feed them to the cows. It was at this point that we realized that we had left our camera inside and that such cuteness was going on with Bryce, Eli (just turned 2) and Leila, that we would have to run in for it. Let me take you on the photo tour, led by Bryce:

Come on guys, lets pick some corn!

We better load up this corn for the cows...

Leila, check out my truck!

That's a long way up there...I think I'll stay on the ground!

Time to feed the cows!

What a nice cow!

Chores are done!

Leila ran through mud puddles, and fed cows. climbed on tractors and had a generally great time getting dirty. Good thing I had extra pants in the car!

It was right about now that we started talking about going home, and Leila started to get upset. Her response was, "but Bryce is my very best friend!" It was about the cutest thing I had ever seen. Bryce was busy feeding cows so Leila walked up to him and said, "Thank you Bryce, I had so much fun with you." He responded by reaching over and pulling Leila into a hug. Cory and I were talking on the way home about how happy we are that we had kids when Matt and Cindy were having kids. This friendship is so adorable. Who knows what the future may hold, but I hope they always get along. It will be interesting, but I am sure that they will grow up with lots of contact with one another. Matt and Cindy are great friends of ours and rank right up there with the "real" aunts and uncles, so it is inevitable. It sure looks to me like Bryce and Leila are great friends too.

Before we can go we have to have one last picture, Bryce wanted everyone in it, but of course we had to have a photographer so Cory isn't pictured.

Halloween Preview

We attended a Halloween party last weekend. I am normally really not into Halloween, but we agreed that Leila would really get a kick out of the whole family dressing up, so we did. I have never actually seen Sleeping Beauty, but since that was Leila's costume, I did some google investigating and made myself into a fairy godmother Character to coordinate with her.

Cory and Thea also coordinated as a bee and bee keeper. Very cute stuff here!