Monday, April 26, 2010

3 under 4....

I still can't believe sometimes that we have 3 little girls under 4 years old. 3 little hearts to mold and love. It scares me lots of times on how I want to teach, love, share, mold, and serve these girls with all of my heart. I think like Paul in Romans 7 that I know what I want to do, but I don't often do it. It is a struggle and I fail many times during the day. However, I think of the verse that His mercies are new every morning! Amen! I can say that parenting is the most difficult thing I've ever done. I feel like I am learning everyday and no matter what we will never figure it out. I am glad that I can't figure it out cause it constantly reminds me to rely on Christ.
We have 3 very different little girls that each need different love and attention. Here's a little glimpse into their current personalities and how we are trying to mold them!
Ellie (4 1/2 yr. old) is the happy, friendly little girl. She loves life, people, family, school, church and playing outside. She has never struggled with being in new places or around new people. She's always loved going to church and I can never remember her getting upset when left anywhere. She is a problem solver and always has a new idea! She wants to know what we are doing each day and tries to arrange our schedule for me. She will come up to me with something like this "Hey, mom I really think it might be a good idea if we call someone's mom and see if they can meet us at the park". She will follow it up with "don't you think that is a good idea mom"! She will be our child who will go to kanakuk for 2 weeks and never miss us once. She really does not like to sleep especially during the day, but I can still get 2-3 good naps each week from her. She tells me often that "naps are weird and hard". She is so like her daddy in that she has lots of energy. She is a great eater and will try almost anything for which I am so thankful. She loves the color blue and prefers superheroes over princesses. She loves for babysitters to come over and asks for them frequently. Ellie loves her daddy and spending time with him. She loves his stories and the way he makes her laugh.
We are currently working on focusing on the tasks that I give her in a timely manner and doing them the first time. She is learning more about not worrying about her little sister or friends and taking care of her behavior. She is a leader and rule follower so it is difficult for her not to tell on others.
Anna: ( 3 yr. old) Anna is such a fun little girl. She loves to play and laugh. She is always on the move and scares me often with her climbing/running skills. She is determined and awesome at completing a task when she puts her mind to it. She is into doing everything on her own. I often here "I do it by myself" and she normally can do it by herself. She can get herself dressed and put her shoes on the right feet. She loves all things pink and princess. She loves makeup and nail polish. The nail polish is currently hidden cause of her sneaky skills of finding it and polishing her nails. We often think she will be a cosmetologist. She is very observant and will tell my friends or me that she loves my sparkles on my eyes (eye shadow). My dad was here recently and he was wearing a pink striped polo. Anna said right away to him "Papa, I really like your pink shirt". She loves it when I wear a dress or skirt and notices when Mike looks nice as well. She loves animals and our dog, shadow. Anna is obedient at school and church. She gets along well with other children and loves to play with her friends.
We are currently working on lots of things. We are struggling with not throwing tantrums when things don't go our way. These are normally related to clothing battles ( sparkle shoes or flip flops), dresses when playing at the park, etc.. I am trying to be more creative with laying out things the night before with her help. We are working on how we respond with our words and actions. I am so excited to see what God has in store with Anna. She has so much determination and will. She will be amazing at whatever she puts her mind into which is awesome!
Mary (11 months): Mary is so sweet and I don't know what her personality will be like as he gets older. I know that Mike and I often say that all she has brought is joy. She is a great baby and sleeps like great. I think it is so true that third kid has to be flexible. She can sleep with the girls running around like crazy kids and wherever we put her down. I think she is just happy to get a nap cause I am always having to wake her up or she has to skip her nap. I think the big thing so far is that she is on a sippy cup with whole milk! It was a long 11 months with no bottles. I loved nursing her and it makes me a little sad that it is over. She was so particular about it all that I knew it had to come to an end somehow. I was running out of milk and I didn't know what to wean her to since she would not do formula. I found this one sippy cup that she loves and warm up the whole milk. She loves it and I love it as well!
I think she is going to be a daddy's girls. She lights up when she sees Mike and her first word was da-da which she says on command. It is so cute and makes us all smile. We love our Mary!

I really think I will never have all the answers on how to parent each child with what they need, but I am thankful that God created each of them in His unique way. Thank you, for our sweet girls!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

For the record....

I don't want to forget these stats:
Ellie scored her first goal of the season in soccer and she was so excited! It happened that Luis a teammate of Ellie's kicked the ball down the field and Ellie followed him. When they got closer to the goal Ellie got the ball and kicked it in for the goal! She was so excited and has been talking about it all day. After, the game she said "mommy, I did not sit down or pick flowers during the game"! She wanted to tell daddy all about it. Mike was away for the weekend so I got to coach. It was quite the experience and it is a good thing I was a P.E. major in college!

Mary's 10 month stats:
Weight: 15lb. 6 oz. (-5%)
Height: 25 1/2 in. (5%)

She also started to sit up this month and is starting to crawl. She's not to fast yet, but I'm sure she will be everywhere soon! She's still taking a sippy cup and I feel like a new woman!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

What's been happening in TX!

Easter Sunday was wonderful. We had an awesome service at Watermark. We attended the 9:30 service and there were 3 on Sunday morning. The one on Saturday night was completely full and so was the 9:30. It was really awesome to see the hope we have in the Resurrection and to celebrate with our church family. We celebrated with 3 Easter Egg hunts as well. We had one with our preschool ministry at Watermark, our preschool party, and while Mike was away fishing I took the girls to one at a local church. They love the thrill of the hunt and opening the eggs. They don't love candy, but do love to open it. We had some crazy messes and all eggs have been thrown away. Anna was funny cause she would only pick up the pink eggs so her basket was full of pink! Here are some pictures from our church hunt:




Anna and her best bud Grayson. They are 3 weeks apart and together a lot!
Anna and Grace. She is our neighbor and classmate at school!
Ava Morrison (Julia's for all my NC readers)... she cracks me up and she will be a big sis to another little girl. 18 months apart is so fun!

Ellie loves to hunt eggs and likes them to be difficult to find!

Mike's fishing trip




Mike got to go on a fishing trip to Port Aransas, TX. I have no idea where it is, but that they flew into corpus christi. I am guessing it is a long ways from Dallas and is on the gulf of mexico. We've only traveled to San Antonio once since we've lived here so we don't know much about Texas besides Dallas. He loved it and so enjoyed his time with Jake and his dad. Jake is in our student ministry and we love his family. We got to go over to their house on Easter Sunday night to enjoy some yummy fish that they caught.

Ellie got to go on a wonderful trip to Kansas to visit her Mimi and Granddaddy. Her Mimi flew to Dallas to pick her up and flew back with her. It was so sweet of her and Ellie loved it! She will for sure be the kid who will go to summer camp (Kanakuk!) and never miss us at all. She loves new adventures and is not shy at all. She cried cause she did not want to leave Kansas. She got to do so many fun things like swimming at the indoor pool, museums, grocery shop, Easter Egg Hunt, meet new friends at the park, play with Uncle Dave and Leeanna, eat yummy food and drink chocolate milk. She loves to inform me that I need to go to the store to get her real chocolate milk and that I do not make it very good. She was there for 5 days and loved every minute. Anna, Mary, and I had a great time as well with some extra bonding time. It is sooo interesting to see how they behave differently when they are not together. Mike and I really enjoyed our time with Anna and getting to love on her extra special.

Mary is doing great and I will do a separate post on her soon. I am trying to wean her cause my milk is running out and she has 4 teeth etc... It is time and I am a little sad, but know that our 10 months of no bottles was quite the journey. I was not sure what to wean her to since she has only had b-milk for 10 months and has refused everything else especially a bottle. I read online about trying vanilla pediasure cause it has more calories than whole milk and is sweet tasting unlike formula which she gags on every time. I also bought a special nuk sippy cup that was for 6 month olds and she took to it great! I was really praying cause we have a trip to Disney coming up and I really did not want to take her. I love her lots, but she would not enjoy it cause she loves her sleep! My mom has offered to watch her if I can get her weaned! I think I can do it in a month. She eats food great so that is really helpful. She is still a really happy, laid back baby and I am so glad. She is so sweet and you can't help, but smile at her all day!