Home Sweet Home....

Well, the girls and I are off to my great home state of Arkansas. My parents came into town today and we are driving up to AR for my grandpa's 80th birthday party! We will see lots of family and Ellie is sure excited to see her cousins. I will get to see my good friends Marilyn and Catherine
on Thursday with all 5 of our kiddos. We were all super good friends in high school and I haven't seen Marilyn since shortly after our weddings almost 7 years ago. She just moved back to AR. I will also get to see the Hurley's and their new baby boy! We were good friends in Carolina and they also just moved to AR for work! I am really excited for this trip and I love AR. I know many people think it is just a rural state, but Fayetteville is such a great place. It is beautiful and where I spent the first 21 years of my life. We will miss Mike so much, but I know he has a busy week planned with lots of fun things going on. I will be back to the blog world next week!

Ellie Moments...

Ellie has said some funny things lately that I wanted to make sure I record on here. I think that someday as they get older I will print the blog out for them. They might get totally bored and humiliated by it, but oh well!
We are going to my grandpa's birthday party on Saturday in Arkansas. I'm actually leaving with my parents on Wednesday for it. Ellie is very into parties right now. I told her she would have to wear a party outfit and her cousins would be there which added to the excitement. Last night she kept taking off all her clothes to get dressed for the party. I think in the future if anything fun is coming up I won't mention it until the day before we leave.

I asked her this morning if she slept good and she said yes. I asked her what she dreamed about and she said "God" and then added that her and God "went to church". She says this every morning and it is a good reminder that these toddler days are short and one day I might wish she would dream about going to church!
Have a Happy Monday!

Highs and Lows

I am totally stealing this title from my friend Stephanie. She's like the best blog writer and I can never think of titles. I really liked her idea of telling her high's and lows of the week. We've had a pretty good week so far and I've tried to have more purpose to our days and also in my personal life.
Low's:
Tuesday was beyond crazy with the kiddos. It just started out bad and did not get much better. My patience was kind of short and Ellie was really struggling with the potty. She would want to go and would try, but not much success. I think we spent at least 2 hours in our little pink bathroom together while Anna was also needing much attention. Our afternoon got worse when I put Ellie down for her nap and she decided to "go" and then pull off her pull-up to then create a huge mess that I'll just let you imagine what her crib looked like. I could only laugh at that point and almost cry when I walked in her room and she goes "sorry mommy".

Tuesday night is a continuation of Tuesday afternoon. We have been really busy and I'm about to be out of town next week. We haven't been on a date in quite awhile. Mike called our sweet sitter and she could come over. We had plans to go to Pei Wei and then we've had free movie tickets that we really wanted to use. We go out to dinner and then to the mall where the movie is supposed to start at 8:45. Mike had his phone on silent and he looked down to see 3 missed calls from our sitter. He calls her back and finds out Anna had swallowed some AirWick liquid freshener that I had plugged in right by her changing table after the "afternoon surprise" that really stunk up the girls room. She maybe got a tiny drop, but our sitter had called her parents and then she called poison control who sent an ambulance. Anna was totally fine and our sitter did the right thing. However, one of us had to go home to sign the release that Anna did not need to go to the hospital etc...We still had a great time at dinner, but I don't want that kind of Tuesday for a long time.

I was so bummed that Carly got kicked off of AI. I really liked her voice and her sweet spirit. I really liked it when she wore her long-sleeve shirts!

Highs
Wednesday was so much better for Ellie. She's like a new girl and is telling me most of the time she needs to go before we have an accident. The whole reward thing was starting to click for
her. I normally just arrange the reward for what we are doing that day. I will tell her you will get to go to the library if you go potty or I will buy you a cookie at the mall.

Today, I met my playgroup at the mall playground. I am so thankful for these girls. It is really neat how God brought them into my life. They all have 2 year olds and some are pregnant with their second. Those first 6 months here were pretty lonely at times and I finally feel like I really connect well with these girls. We meet every Thursday and do something different with the kiddos. Ellie loves it so much to see friends.

I just started Beth Moore's David devotional. It takes you 90 days and it is her short form version. It is great and I always love anything Beth writes. I also just finished this incredible book that Mike's mom gave me called "The Glass Castle". It is a true story and you need to go check it out at the library. I am so bummed though cause I found out from a friend that she spoke at the high school that is a block from our house in October and I missed it. I think my next fun book will be "The Kite Runner".

I better go get some work done. Have a great day!

Fun time in the flowers....

We were at the library today and outside they have a courtyard area with a fountain. They had planted some beautiful wildflowers so I decided to take some pictures. Anna was to fast to get very many good pictures. I am so glad we did it!

Show Up!

I went to a thing yesterday at church called Building Blocks. It is once a month for moms of preschool age children. The lady who spoke was amazing. She based her talk on Deuteronomy 6 and really walked us through it with practical examples. Her main topic was that as mothers we must be walking with God daily and then everything will fall into place more easily as we try and raise our children. She encouraged us to "show up" daily and be prepared with Jesus to face the battles with our children. I have been thinking how on the days where I am up and ready for the day with plenty of sleep etc... how our day goes so much better. When we start our day with prayer for good attitudes, gratitude etc... how I can transform our day from constant fussiness and me getting frustrated. Anyways, I am so glad that I went and I think I can post a link of her message on the blog.
Well, I am so glad it is Friday. We had a very normal week where we were home more in the evenings and able to get the kids to bed on time. I love it when Mike is home and we can spend extended time together. We are going on a date tomorrow night. I think dinner and a movie. We've had these free movie passes for a long time and thought it would be good to use them. We worked in the yard this morning and it is something that I am enjoying more. I even offered to mow the backyard this morning. I did most of it, but I don't think I am very good. Mike mowed the front yard and it looks much better!
Ellie has been going on the potty since Wednesday. It has been challenging at times and easy at others. She basically runs around all day without a diaper and then at naptime or when we are going out I put a pull-up on her. She's not so great at telling me that she has to go so we have spent a lot of time putting her on it. She's such a sweet little girl who makes us laugh and smile so much during the day. Anna is now running it seems like and loves climbing up anything especially at the playground. She's eating so much more now that she's done with her bottle! She is very fond of her mommy and would love it if I carried her around all day. She is fine anywhere we take her, but if she sees me she immediately wants me to pick her up. I remember though telling Mike when she was in the womb that I felt really close to her. I think we had so much transition going on while I was pregnant that I just remember praying so much for her to be healthy etc....
Anyways, I hope you all have a great weekend and get to do something fun with friends or family!

Official P.T. starts tomorrow....

Well, tomorrow is the big day for Ellie. I have waited to start potty-training until now. She will be 3 in August and we have lots going on this summer so I knew I had to start this spring. We have 2 weeks before we have to travel and most of May we will be here. She is really starting to show readiness and excitement. I tried once before and she would just scream and protest against the potty and undies. She has gone 3 times already today, but tomorrow we are saying bye-bye to diapers. She has always been one on her own schedule and will tell us when she wants to try something. Anna is the complete opposite. She has no fear and loves to try new things. Anyways, I know it will take much longer than 2 weeks to really have it accomplished, but you have to start somewhere. Any advice? I hope you all are having a great week. My mom has been here for the past week while Mike was at a conference in Chicago and we had a great time. It was great to have extra help. I have lots of pictures to post soon!

The Chick-fil-A Project

A fun video project of Mike and Bode driving to get free Chick-Fil-A for a year. There will be more to come and he did get free chick-fil-a for a year. Can you believe it?!

Am I dreaming???

Did any of you catch the end of AI tonight where they are singing "Shout to the Lord". I must say they are doing a very good job of one of my all time favorite praise song. However, I sang it in 1996. I was a little disappointed that they said "My Shepherd, My Comfort" instead of "My Jesus, My Savior". Oh well, at least Hillsong and the Lord are now getting props on AI!

Pray

I found this link from someone's blog and I read there story today. A family who needs peace and has encouraged me greatly today.

www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com

And then there was ONE.....!

You can tell we've had a couple of exciting days. Mike said I could not blog about KU till it was over! We are so excited and shocked. There was much yelling, frustration, joy, nerves, etc... in our house tonight! We really did expect the Kansas "Choke", but it didn't happen! Maybe, cause the curse of Roy has been lifted. You can tell we were at the Final Four on Saturday. We saw KU destroy UNC. It was awesome and we had to go once we found out it was KU/UNC. It was only 4 hours from us so we had to go! More soon! Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

THE PAUL MITCHELL SCHOOL OF COSMETOLOGY...

So I went to get my haircut today and decided to try a little something new. I heard a rumor that I could go and pay way less than I normally pay (10 bucks) and have someone in training cut my hair. Sounded like a great idea, and it really worked out good. My coworker David Penuel tried to talk me out of it, but my hair student did a great job today (Thanks Maria) and I got a great deal...Here's a couple pictures of her and her instructor...Mike

KU VS UNC...

Enjoy...our trip to the Final Four! ROCK CHALK!

A quiet night....

Well, I'm just catching up on A.I. while Mike went to a late movie with a friend. I love it that he's watching whatever guy movie without me. He rarely gets to do this, but has somewhat of a slow day tomorrow. I can't say I have a total favorite this year on A.I., but I guess it would be Brooke White. I love her voice and she seems so normal. It has been a crazy past couple of days. The girls both have colds and just don't feel that great. We haven't been able to get out like we normally do which leads to Ellie being crazy. She tends to just walk around all day looking for something to knock over or pull down from a shelf etc....My patience has been stretched which leads me back to "I can't do this on my own". I have to rely on Christ all day. Tonight, we had our community group and it has been so encouraging to walk through life with one other couple. We are a "small" group and are thankful to meet with them twice a month. The other great thing is in a month or so they will live about 6 houses down from us. They are renovating a home in our neighborhood and we are so excited to have them so close!
Mimi and G-daddy (Mike's parents) came to visit us over the weekend. They had not been here since December so we were excited to see them. We had a great time watching basketball. It is now Mike's dream game. Can you believe both of his favorite teams are playing each other! He picked Kansas over UNC. He will always pull for the Jayhawks over the Tar Heels, but the great thing is we are for sure going to be cheering for one of our teams in the national championship game! We are so pumped for Saturday! We took the kids to the Dallas Zoo on Saturday. They loved it. We've been to the the Ft. Worth Zoo, but it is much further and the kids do not know a difference. I really liked the Dallas one. Mimi bought us a family membership so now we can go whenever we want! Yea! Our girls both love it and it is nice to be outside all day. We are so thankful for our parents/grandparents!
I will post some pictures soon from our weekend. I hope you all are having a great week!