So Grateful

I've been feeling so grateful for lots of things lately. The last few months have been somewhat of a blur. But I feel like God has mercifully given me some moments to pause and reflect lately. One thing that I keep coming back to over and over again is how grateful I am that Isaac's fall ended as well as it did. I just keep thinking that God must have big plans for that little boy. He is proving to be quite the determined little boy and I'm praying already that God uses that for His glory throughout Isaac's life. I'm just so thankful that God not only protected Isaac but freed me from the anxiety and guilt that I thought might consume me in those first 48 hours after his fall. But my God is Faithful!

I have also been feeling so grateful for my little... okay big Eli. That kid can push me to the edge of sanity some days, I'll be honest. But he is such a joy. I'm so thankful that after just a couple of months of really hard work every single week with Eli's speech therapist, he is starting to make some really great progress. I'm so proud of how hard he works and how hard he tries to communicate. Just this morning, I went looking for him (because it was a little too quiet!) and found him in the bathroom watching himself sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in front of the mirror. So cute. :) He has also started doing the sign language to "Jesus Loves Me" as he sings. It's amazing to me how much better he is talking in just 3 months. Eli, I am SO proud to be your mama!

I'm so thankful for my Ryan. I'm thankful for how supportive he is and for doing things like staying up late the other night to do dishes and fold clothes because he knew I was overwhelmed. He sent me to bed at 9pm and did my chores for me. I'm so thankful to have him.

I'm thankful for my Eva girl. She has so many questions and I love every one. This week she was telling me about how some nights she has a hard time going to sleep because she keeps thinking about all the bad things she did that day. I told her that that is a great time to pray and ask Jesus to forgive her for doing all of those bad things. She said she would probably need a reminder and asked me to make her a note to help her remember to do that. So precious.

Jesus, thank you for all of these sweet blessings. You must love me a lot!

When life hands you lemons...

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!!!

In an effort to end all the "Debbie Downer" posts and thoughts, today I choose to be thankful.

1. I love how cuddly my Eli is. I'm typing this one-handed so that I can cuddle him while he gets his daily dose of Elmo... or "Elwo" as he calls him. :)

2. Thankful that I got to see Isaac take 2 steps on Wednesday afternoon!!! Of course, he hasn't done it again, but he is definitely thinking about it.

3. Thankful that Isaac is probably the happiest baby ever. I love his giggles and smiles.

4. Blessed to be raising kids who love reading/ books. Eva has to know 8 levels of sight words in order to pass Kindergarten. She will be reading level 7 for her teacher today and I have full confidence that she will come home with level 8 words in her bag. So proud of her! Eli loves for me to read books with him too. He brings me one book at a time and we often end up with a stack of 6-7 books. So fun! Isaac is also really starting to love flipping through board books and looking at the pictures.

(Still typing with one hand.) :)

5. We have the most beautiful red and yellow trees in our yard right now! Absolutely gorgeous!

6. So thankful to be loved and endlessly pursued by my Creator. His love is extravagant and I am humbled to be His.

7. My handsome husband. His thoughtfulness and love get me through the long days and short nights. Like last Friday when he called on his way home from work and told me that I was going to get a massage the next day.

8. For friends who bring dinner on tough days!

9. My second cup of coffee this morning.

10. Two little boys who fight for my lap. :) So with that I will close this computer and give a hand to each.

Be thankful today, friends.

A Kick in the Pants

I asked Ryan tonight after dinner, "Do you feel like our lives right now are just one kick in the pants after another?" He agreed. We just feel tired and beat down.

I had to bring the boys home early yesterday because Eli started running fever at Mother's Day Out. Ryan stayed home with him today and we made the decision to go ahead and take him to the doctor.

Side note: We have paid a LOT of money to our doctor this month. I asked Ryan about that today and he replied that she told him all about the lake house she's building. He was totally joking, but it feels not far from the truth.

So, Ryan took off work AGAIN to take care of big man. Eli's strep test came back negative and upon further inspection, it was determined that he has Hand, Foot, Mouth and an ear infection. Poor guy. This probably explains why he hasn't eaten much in the last few days.

Kind of sick of having sick kids. I keep thinking that surely we're going to catch a break.

I'm still waiting...

:(

It's been far too long

Hi, my name is Haley. And word on the street is that I used to write some stuff on this blog. Or so I have heard. I honestly can't remember. To be quite honest, friends, the last two months have been an absolute blur. Life has been going at lightning speed since Isaac's fall. There have been so many factors, but the short story is that me going back to work has been a bigger adjustment than I'd anticipated. Mostly because someone has been sick in this house almost every week since school started. Eva has now had strep throat twice and has missed 8 or 9 days of school already. Despite that, she is kicking kindergarten's tail! So proud of that little girl and all that she is learning and the bright light she is being in her classroom. Eli had the stomach virus from you-know-where that resulted in him vomiting for five days straight. That was super fun. Then we have Isaac. Oh Isaac. I do love that boy... but he is about to wear me out. Every ounce of progress we'd made with him sleeping was all lost when he bonked his head. He is now officially the worst sleeper of the three, and that is pretty bad. He is so stinkin' cute though, ya'll. I could eat him for supper. :) Those dimples get me.

On top of the sickness, we are just in a difficult stage of disciplining and training up some children in the way they should go. And that is taxing work! I have a certain child that is proving to be a bit of the strong-willed variety. This child, who shall remain nameless, keeps me on my toes. We have to have lots of outside playtime and some good structured activities to keep "the child" out of trouble. This one is so cute, too, and melts my heart on a daily basis.

Let's see, all of that plus Ryan having a busy/stressful workload lately has left us feeling worn out. I can often be found passed out on the couch shortly after 8 pm. I'm a barrel of fun, you see.

In brighter news, I will be running my first 5K in just a week and a half. In all honesty, I'm not ready for it and probably won't be able to run the full 5K, but I should be able to do about 2 1/2 miles of it. I feel pretty good about that considering the way the last 2 months have gone.

And how sad is it that I don't have a single new picture added to the computer from my camera?! I need to remedy that soon.

My new goal will be to update the ole' blog at least once a week. Be excited! :)

Our Month in Review

Man, it's been the fastest month ever! And boy are we glad that this little guy is doing better than he was when I last posted!!! It took him a good 3-4 days I think (those days are a little fuzzy) before he started to seem like his normal self. And of course it took him falling a couple of times and bonking his head again for us to calm down and know that he is a little boy and head bonks cannot be prevented. Through all of that God just kept reminding me that Isaac belongs to Him alone. I will never be able to fully protect my children from all the potential risks in life. That's a hard pill to swallow.

On to happier things. Isaac turned 9 months old on August 27th... so that means it's almost time for his 10 month old picture/post. But just for my sake . This month he has mastered pulling up and is starting to let go. He is babbling up a storm! My personal favorite is when he says "mama". Sweetest sound ever! He started out with bababa, but sometimes it sounded like he was saying "blah, blah,". It makes us laugh. A few times he has actually said, "mama" when he wants something or is upset. First word?!? I'm going with yes. :)

Let's see... this month I also worked like a mad woman for about 10 days to get my preschool room ready. It was a completely blank canvas and using the theme of polka dots I turned it into a super cute little place, along with some help from my wonderful cousin Emilie. She is a super talented graphic design artist and you should definitely check out her work! (Shameless plug.) :) I had GROSSLY underestimated how much work goes into preparing a classroom. Hats off to all my teacher friends. I was seriously working until the last possible second before our Open House.

Then I started teaching two weeks ago and I am really enjoying it. I'm still adjusting to the stress of the new schedule but I'm hoping that will sort itself out soon and I won't feel the need to go to bed at 8:30 every night. I absolutely have some of the cutest 4 yr olds in my class. They say the funniest things to me every day. One little girl yesterday said, "Mrs. Frederick! I love you." How sweet is that?!

I think those might be the high points from our month. We've been super busy and I've been too exhausted to write sentences.

What kind of title can I really give this story?

We all have moments that we wish we could go back and do over. To say that I wish I could go back and redo Friday morning is the understatement of my lifetime.

I had agreed to help out with some childcare for a couple of hours at our church Friday morning. To be honest, I was doing it out of completely selfish reasons. Eli has been having a hard time being left in the nursery on Sunday mornings and I was hoping that a couple of hours of playtime with me in the room would help ease his mind. So we took Eva to school Friday morning and ran home so I could feed Isaac and then we hopped back in the car and went to church.

About an hour later, I realized that it was probably about time for diaper changes. I started with Eli, changed his diaper, put him down and grabbed Isaac. Eli stayed right by my feet and started playing with a toy. Another little boy who was about Eli's age toddled over and wanted to play with the same toy. I had just attached Isaac's clean diaper when I noticed that Eli was about to hit the other little boy.

And I reacted. I didn't think. I just reacted. I did not think!!!

I reached down to grab Eli's hand and to tell him not to hit. And when I turned back around, Isaac was on the ground. He had fallen about 3 feet and landed essentially on concrete covered by thin carpet. (It makes my stomach hurt just to write that.) He landed flat on his back. I scooped him up as he started to cry and just held him to my chest. I could tell, though that his cry was unlike his normal cry. I was shaking and didn't know what to do.

Then someone said he was bleeding. I pulled my hand back from his head and it was covered in blood. Then I really freaked out. I was shaking so bad that I couldn't dial my phone. The preschool director came down and said he would take us to the hospital. His wife said she would take care of Eli. I tried to call Ryan twice and finally sent him a text message telling him to meet me at the hospital asap.

We got to the hospital and of course they made us wait. Isaac was just lethargic and then he vomited. And still we waited. To say we were furious would be an understatement. Honestly, I think I was in shock. I just kept rocking him.

We finally got back to see the doctor, who was really nice and we felt like he better understood the intensity of Isaac's situation. After observing Isaac, he quickly ordered a CT scan, which came back showing that Isaac had a small skull fracture. By the time they came to tell me that, they had already started the transport process to get him to Children's Mercy Hospital in downtown Kansas City. They glued up his head wound and within minutes the transport team was there. They had decided to take him by helicopter because they didn't want to risk getting stuck in traffic on a Friday afternoon.

Watching them put him on the stretcher and take my baby boy away to the helicopter where I couldn't go, was by far the worst feeling I have ever had as a mom. I completely lost it. I felt completely out of control. As Ryan and I stood there and cried, the ER doctor came over and put his hand on my shoulder and said, "You did NOTHING wrong. He is going to be okay. You didn't do anything wrong." He will never know how much that meant to me.

During all of this chaos, one of my friends who just could not be more precious, came to pick Eli up and said she would go get Eva from school. One of life's greatest blessings is to have friends who are more like family. It was such a great feeling to know that we didn't even have to worry about our other two kids.

We left the hospital to go to the children's hospital and were both starving and dying of thirst. Not knowing what the rest of the night would hold, we decided to grab something to eat in the car on the way. As we were sitting in the drive-through at Chick-fil-a, we saw the helicopter fly over, carrying our son. Such a weird feeling.

We made it to the hospital in like 20 minutes and found our way back to where Isaac was. He was all hooked up to monitors, but was being rocked by a very sweet nurse. When Isaac saw us, he turned and smiled and tried to wave. It was such a great feeling. We joked that his helicopter ride perked him up a little. They were also dipping his paci in sugar water, too, which probably helped. :) For the first time all day he was finally acting like he wanted to eat... but they wouldn't let me yet. It was awful. They just needed to monitor him and get clearance from the neurologist that Isaac could eat. (They were being cautious on the off chance that he would need surgery.) I was finally able to feed him and he started to act more and more like himself, just still tired and in obvious pain at certain times. The decision was made to keep us overnight so that they could continue to monitor him. We didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but we didn't care. Isaac only wanted his mommy, so with the exception of about an hour when Ryan got him to sleep on his chest and a few trips to the bathroom, I held that little boy all night long. Wouldn't have had it any other way. I just kept thanking Jesus all night long that Isaac was okay.

His official diagnosis was skull fracture with a concussion. He is still very tired and a little weak. He is having a hard time pulling up to standing, which he had mastered. The doctors said to not be worried about any of that right now, unless he began to regress. So far, he seems to be doing as well as could be expected.

So many of you were praying for us through this and I cannot say thank you enough. Jesus heard every prayer and Ryan and I felt every prayer. We give God all praise and honor for protecting our little guy.

Saturday morning we waited to get clearance from the neurologist to head home and Ryan's parents (who drove in from Tulsa to help out) called to tell us that Eli woke up with a fever of 103. When it rains it pours, right? Eli is fine now. Just ran fever all day yesterday, so weird. Thankfully he has bounced right back.

On top of all of that, I broke my little toe about 10 minutes before Isaac fell on Friday morning. I was going to fast and kicked a table leg. I felt it crack. I'm just so graceful. That has put a damper on my running for now, but hopefully I will heal quickly.

If anyone needs us, Isaac and I will be in a padded room for the next few weeks.

And so it begins

Today was the day! The first day of kindergarten. Overall it was a successful day.

I knew that she was feeling sad about missing us all day, so this weekend I made her a little photo album with pictures of us inside along with a verse to help her remember to be brave. I must say that this album helped her tremendously today!

Because they know that parents will never leave, the school has all the Kindergarten teachers receive their kiddos in the gym for the first day. So we took Eva into the gym and she got in line with the rest of her classmates, while all the parents stood around not quite knowing what to do with ourselves. That's when she started to get the pouty face. So Ryan and I went over to her to encourage her. It was a precious time for us. She told me that she wanted to hold her pictures, so we got them out of her backpack. She opened up to the verse I had written out and she asked me, "Mommy, what is that word again?"

"Courageous," I tell her. "Be strong and courageous! God is with you! Joshua 1:9."

She had told me while we were walking into the school a few minutes earlier that she was going to be brave like Esther. It's her favorite Bible story, as well as David and Goliath. We've talked a lot about being brave and doing things that seem scary to us.

"You are going to do awesome today and you are brave. Because why?"

"Because God is with me," she says.

I love that girl. Her heart is as beautiful as she is.

She had a good first day, even though I don't think she loved it quite as much as she loved preschool. She said her favorite part of the day was recess. :) She is ready to go back tomorrow, so I would say that makes the day a success!

Eva, we are so incredibly proud of you!

Big day

Isaac decided that he wanted to start cruising along the couch today. Um... he is only 8 months old. Crazy kid. He is growing up too fast and he needs to STOP IT!

Tonight we had "Meet the Teacher" at Eva's school. In the stack of papers the teacher gave us, there was a little piece of paper with a tissue stapled to it. It was a poem. Of which I read approximately two lines before realizing that unless I wanted to have a complete emotional breakdown right there in Mrs. Platania's kindergarten room, then I needed to put it down! I waited until I got home and then read it. I was right. It definitely made me cry. It is all starting to hit me.

And that's enough about that for today.

*Sniff*

Another blessing

This kid! He is the life of every party. I love him.

For about six months now, we've been worried that Eli's speech isn't developing the way it should. Sweet boy. He tries SO hard! Sometimes... many times he breaks my heart because he tries so hard to tell me something and I just cannot understand him. I kept going back and forth in my head on whether or not I should make a referral to have his speech evaluated. Finally, after talking to a few friends, the pediatrician, and Ryan's sister (who just got her Master's in speech therapy). We decided that we would go ahead and have him tested and if he didn't qualify for therapy, then no big deal.

They told me up front that he would have to have a pretty significant delay in order to qualify for their services. I wasn't very hopeful that he would qualify because he does have a lot of words...they're just really hard to understand. I am typically his interpreter.

Last Saturday, the speech therapist came out and evaluated him. After talking to me for a bit and listening to Eli, she agreed that he definitely needed some speech therapy, so in doing the evaluation, she did not count the words that other people can't understand. She said that she would try to tweak his scores if he were close to qualifying in order to help him out. When the speech therapist left our house I felt like he had a 50/50 shot at getting services. But she left with some exercises for us to try with him to help strengthen his mouth and tongue and train them to do the right things.

To make a long story, long. They called me on Monday and said that they were able to qualify him! We are thrilled! Eli is so incredibly smart and it is frustrating for all of us that he isn't able to communicate all that he wants. The program he'll be getting services through is the same program that I worked for in Texas. It's kind of weird that I'm now on the other side of the program. It definitely provides a new perspective.

I will keep you posted on Eli's progress. One of the first things we are going to do is have his hearing tested with an ENT. He has had fluid on his ears at just about every doctor's visit since he was 6 months old. I'm pretty sure that with that much fluid on his ears, he isn't hearing everything the way he should. If that is the case, he will likely get tubes placed to get all that fluid out of there.

I am so extremely thankful for this blessing!

Although, if I'm being completely honest, I sure am going to miss the way he says certain things. :-/

He Provides!

I have been thinking lately about writing down all of the ways that God has provided for us in the last few months, because there have been so many! He has continued to remind me that He cares... and not just about the "big" things, but about the "little" things as well. In the last few months, I have prayed for very specific things and He has provided, often through means that I didn't expect.

Some examples: We had planned a short trip to Dallas at the beginning of June to see my family, but about a week or so before the trip, we realized that we just didn't have the money to pay for gas to get there. I prayed that God would somehow make a way. A few days later, I was telling a sweet friend that I didn't think we were going to be able to go anymore. And a couple of days later, I received a check in the mail for the amount we needed in order to make the trip work! Thank you Jesus!!!

This summer, a friend of ours from church who is a personal trainer wanted to do a summer bootcamp. After having 3 babies in 4 1/2 years, I was REALLY wanting to do the class, to help get me back on track and back into my clothes. I tried selling something to cover the cost of the class, but wasn't having any luck. About 2 weeks before the class started, I prayed that somehow God would allow me to do the class and that afternoon another friend called and said that she really wanted to do the class too and wanted to have a friend with her and said that I was coming with her. He provides!

On top of that, God has blessed us with people giving us clothes that we've needed. We have received gift cards to go out to eat (that's something we've had to almost give up completely during this season of life). We've had friends volunteer to babysit so Ryan and I could have dates. God has just continually shown us that He cares and He provides.

Through all of those amazing gifts, there were still some things that we have needed financially. We have continued to pray that God would provide to meet those needs. Our church has been reading through the first five books of the Bible in the last 3 months and we have been discussing it weekly with our life group. It's been so great to read through the story of the Israelites.

Well a couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, there was a job listing in our church bulletin for a teacher at our church's preschool. Ryan pointed it out to me, but I brushed it off. I knew that all the other teachers there were actual education majors and were more qualified than me. Ryan kept asking me all day to just call and talk to the preschool director about it. I begrudgingly said I would call him the next day, but told Ryan not to get his hopes up.

That same Sunday evening at life group, we were discussing portions of Numbers and talking about how God always provides for His children. Then we talked about how sometimes God provides for us in ways we don't expect and sometimes in ways we don't even want. We talked about how disrespectful it is to complain about how God chooses to provide.

So the next day, I kept trying to talk myself out of calling about the preschool job. You're not a teacher. You're not qualified. They are going to be annoyed that you are even calling. Everyone else has more teaching experience. They probably already have someone in mind. Those are the thoughts that kept running through my mind.

And then, out of nowhere, I heard God speak quietly to my heart. He said, "What if this is how I am choosing to provide for your family during this season? Do not complain about how I choose to provide."

I immediately picked up the phone and called my future boss.

Fast forward a week, I interviewed for the job and it went really well. Fast forward another week, which brings us to this past Thursday, I got a phone call officially offering me a job to teach 4 year olds at our preschool this year!

I have gone from very apprehensive about it to being very excited about this year. I feel very blessed that if I have to work, I can work in the same building as my little boys.

Thank you Jesus for your provision! We could not be more grateful! We give you all the glory!

All about Isaac

This handsome boy turned 8 months yesterday!

These have been the fastest, most sleep-deprived months of my life. But how could you not love that face?!?

He is officially pulling up to his knees consistently and is sometimes pulling up to stand already, too.

He likes to crawl under the table and see what kind of treasures Eli has left for him to find.

Although this picture doesn't show it, Isaac absolutely loves Eva. He gets so happy when she comes to play with him, which she does all the time. They have a sweet relationship.

Our baby whose name means "laughter" was named appropriately. He is a giggly little thing!

He still just commando crawls, which makes me realize that I should probably mop my floors every single day. (Let's just be honest, that isn't happening!)

At 8 months, Isaac loves: his pacifier, his mommy (He wakes up 2-4 times a night just to check on me and makes sure that he doesn't nap for too long so that I don't miss him too much. He's so thoughtful!), being tickled, eating big boy food, army crawling as fast as he can, finding every choking hazard in the house, wrestling with Eli (this is new and is the cutest thing ever), and getting very excited when daddy comes home.

Isaac, you are pure joy baby boy. We love every second of you. Now if you could stop growing up so quickly, that would be great. Thank you and we love you.

Sseko Sandals

Have any of you heard about this company? It was started by some girls (or one girl? can't remember exactly) who love Jesus and couldn't stomach the poverty that they saw women in Uganda experience while on a mission trip. So by golly, they did something about it!

So, now these Ugandan women make some cute sandals and people like you and me get to buy them. And when we buy these sandals, we can help these women earn money to further their education and rise above the poverty that has such a grip on that corner of the world.

I love it! Might be buying some of these for Christmas gifts this year.

Who stole my bacon?

Sure. He looks innocent, but don't let the unassuming looks fool you. This kid is full of mischief!

Last night we decided to have breakfast for dinner. We had pancakes and bacon. (Let's not judge the nutritional value of this meal. Please and thank you!) Well, as it normally is, dinner time was chaotic last night. Ryan had to stop at the store for me on his way home and so everyone was a little out of sorts by the time he got home. Isaac was crying... and long story short, it was just chaotic. So Eva, Eli, and Ryan were eating dinner while I was feeing Isaac and then we switched, so I could eat dinner. It's just the way things usually go around here.

As I was fixing my plate, Isaac found a piece of paper on the floor that Eli dropped for him. (How sweet.) Isaac is definitely in the "put-everything-in-the-mouth" stage, so in the mouth the paper went. Ryan was trying to fish it out and was able to get part of it. But then Isaac started gagging and projectile vomited on the floor. I ran into the living room to try to help corral kids and clean Isaac up.

Chaos.

In the midst of it all, I had set down my plate on our ottoman in the living room. Once things were calmer again, I went to find my plate. I picked it up and thought to myself, "I thought I had put a piece of bacon on my plate already." But there wasn't one there. I went back into the kitchen to get one. I knew that before I fixed my plate there had been 2 pieces of bacon left, but there was only one piece left now. I knew I had put a piece of bacon on my plate! But it wasn't there.

I went back into the living room to make sure it hadn't fallen on the floor or anything. That's when I realized that along with my missing bacon, a certain 2 yr old had also disappeared.

Hmmm....

"Ryan? Have you seen Eli?"

He hadn't. So I went to find him.

I found him sitting in the rocking chair in Isaac's room, bacon in hand, and mouth as full as a chipmunk. When I found him, I couldn't help but die laughing. I told Ryan to come see the sight. (I'm hitting myself for not getting a picture!!!)

We asked, "Well, Eli, is it yummy?"

He smiled and said, "Mmmm!"

Glad you liked it big boy.

Isaac is sleepy

We were playing outside and someone was getting very, very sleepy.

with just enough curiosity left

to try to investigate my camera. :)

I love this sweet, sleepy face.

The difference in boys and girls

Girls bring their mamas flowers.

Boys bring their mamas rocks. :)

And mamas think each gift is equally as precious!

(I saved both.) :)

Sum, sum, summer time!

I've been asking God to make time freeze this summer, but it hasn't happened yet. So we have been trying to soak up every ounce of fun that we can with the wee ones.

The sun is hot...but this water is still cold!

Sister stays out of the water and Eli likes to be sopping wet. She fills the bucket with the hose and he dumps it on himself. It works out well for all!

She was "planting" something.

Nothing says summer like shoeless pink toenails.

It's fun to watch a two year old learn that putting your fingers in front of the hose creates quite the spray!

Happy boy feet.

Watering some flowers:

Watering the mulch: :)

Since it seems like time will not be freezing anytime soon, I will continue to be sparse around here. These little ones are just growing up too fast for my liking.

Only 4 more weeks until someone starts kindergarten... but I can't talk about it, so just don't ask. :)

Happy birthday Eli!!!

This was yesterday. Or at least it feels like it was yesterday.

I can hardly believe that it has been two years since this big ole boy bounded into our lives. All 9 lbs and 9 ounces of him. It was, without a doubt, one of the happiest days of my life!

I'm so thankful that I've been getting to give this sweet child kisses for two whole years now.

And I plan to continue giving him kisses for the rest of his life. And when he is a teenager, he can just get over it because it's gonna happen!

Eli is sometimes pensive...

...sometimes grumpy (in fact, we get this face a lot!)...


...always handsome...

...and always the love of my life (although he has to share that title with 3 other people).

At age 2, Eli loves/hates the following:

-HATES macaroni and cheese. Hates it. Don't even put it on his plate.

-still love most other foods. Your favorites being: blueberries, bananas, sauteed green beans, pizza (or "zizza" as you call it), anything you can dip into ketchup, waffles (i.e. "wapple"), and cookies/keekees of course.

-you love to cuddle, especially with your mama :)

-love to swing

-love to be tickled and to wrestle with whoever is around

-LOVE Elmo and the whole Sesame Street crew.

-love VeggieTales

-love Eva...most of the time. But sometimes she wants to play when you are grumpy and you definitely let her know.

-love naming letters. We realized about 2 months ago that you could recognize all of the alphabet by sight. Because you aren't talking all that great we had no idea that you knew so much. We knew you were smart, but man! you sure surprise us sometimes. Tonight, you counted to 10 for us for the first time, too. So proud of you!

-LOVE digging in the dirt. So we got you a shovel/rake set for your birthday. You were raking the wrapping paper up after you opened presents today. It was so cute.

-Hate having your nails cut... or your hair cut. It makes for some challenging moments throughout the week.

-hate when mommy leaves... or when we leave you in the nursery at church. :( It makes us so sad.

-still love to sing and to be sung to.

-love your sleep, although you've been waking up at 6 am and we can't figure out exactly why. So please stop it!

Dear Eli,

I never knew I could love a little boy so much, until the instant the doctor put you in my arms. We were bonded instantly and I fell fast and hard for my blue-eyed boy. You are so much fun and I'm so thankful that God surprised us with you. My prayer for you continues to be that you will fall in love with Jesus at an early age and that you will be strong and courageous for Him (Josh. 1:9). Happy second birthday buddy!

Let's try this again.

Clearly I'm having a hard time keeping up with blogging these days. It has just felt a little overwhelming with everything else going on in our lives. But I don't want to forget a single second of this summer... this precious time in our lives. I've been asking God just about daily if He could please freeze time. I really need my little people to not grow up any more. Unfortunately, things don't work that way. Preschoolers don't stay preschoolers forever, they start kindergarten. Little boys turn two. And babies start crawling.

And now I've done it to myself again. The tears.

I handle change really well. Why do you ask? {smile}

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And now I will try to lighten my mood. Not sure if it will work since next up on the blogging catch-up list is talking about how my big girl turned 5.

Wasn't it just last year that she turned one?!

It feels like she should still be that little...

but she is growing so tall.

... though she is still our little peanut. Measuring just 40 inches tall and weighing a mere 38 lbs.






Sweet Eva girl,

We love you so much. You constantly amaze us with your wit, your intelligence, and your love. It is so fun and awe-inspiring to see how your heart is already being drawn to your Savior. You have asked us questions that would stump some of the wisest theologians. You are amazing. I am so honored to be your mommy. (Daddy is pretty proud, too.)

As much as I am a little sad about how quickly you are growing up, we are so excited to watch you grow into the girl/woman that God has created you to be.

Happy 5th birthday sweet girl!

oops

I had a whole blog almost finished dedicated entirely to my girl who turned 5... but a certain little almost 2 yr old deleted it. I'll have to try again tomorrow. He loves to push buttons, both the literal and the figurative kind.

It's a good thing he's so cute and he melts my heart every time he starts looking for me, "Mama? Mama?..." Love.

And now, I offer you the world's longest catch-up post...

PART ONE:

This little/big guy turned 6 months old on May 27th. I can hardly believe it. Time is flying too quickly and I find myself staying longer than necessary when he wakes up at night just so I can rock him longer. I know my night time cuddling opportunities will not last much longer and it makes this mommy's heart cringe.

He is so cute! I could just eat him up!

Hanging out in the moby wrap.

Asleep in daddy's arms. I love that he still looks like a little baby in this picture.

At 6 months, our little guy is weighing in at 17 lbs 3 oz.

He is sitting and trying to crawl. After having two "late" crawlers, this little one has shocked us by getting on his hands and knees before he was even 6 mos. old. He is a determined little squirt, for sure.

He is just now starting to eat some baby food. He just wasn't interested in it until recently. But then we started noticing that he was grunting at us as we ate. It was super funny. Every time we brought food to our lips, he started grunting. We tried cereal and after about 3 bites, he had a full-body shake and kinda gagged a little. Needless to say he wasn't a huge fan. Since then he has tried peaches, bananas, and squash with much better success. Tonight he had squash for the first time and he was literally grabbing the spoon from me and putting it in his mouth. So cute!

Yesterday we had a very sweet "brother" moment when Isaac was having his check-up. I, of course, had all three kids with me and it was going surprisingly well. (Last time it did not go quite as well. Ha!) Eva had asked me when Isaac would be getting shots and I told her not until the very end. She was very concerned about him because she hates to hear him cry. Well, at the end, the nurse comes in carrying the shots on the little silver tray. Eli must have remembered what was about to happen because he starts saying, "No, no! No, no!". I assured him that he wasn't getting shots and he quit telling everyone "No" but was still acting like he wanted to leave. Then the nurse brought the tray over to where Isaac was and Eli must have realized that Isaac was about to get the shots because he started saying, "No,no!" all over again. It was the first time I've ever seen Eli be protective of his little brother. Isaac cried for all of about 15 seconds after his shots and has been fine ever since.

Because I've talked so much about it in the past, I feel that I should update on Isaac's sleep stuff. He has finally, FINALLY gotten the hang of it, it seems. He's not sleeping through the night, but that's not a huge deal for me at this point. I know he will soon enough and I'm really enjoying those late night cuddles with my sleepy baby boy. But he has finally learned to fall asleep without screaming for 45 minutes. It is a welcomed change for all involved.

Oh, and the other Isaac news is that he cut his first tooth last week. This is another fete that is about 3 months ahead of Eli and Isaac. I would never have guessed that he'd have a tooth already. I have been so sad about it. I'm trying to get a million pictures of that toothless gummy smile before it's gone.

Isaac loves playing peek-a-boo. He will cover his face with his burp cloth and smile so big when you ask, "Where's Isaac?". It's so cute. Sometimes he doesn't completely cover his face so he will just look down until you ask where he is. So much fun! Love him!

I think those are the major milestones for my little smiley Isaac this month. Love that little booger more and more every day!

(okay, part one took me all day to write... so parts 2,3,& maybe 4 will have to come later)

I'm not ready

I found out today that the first day of school in our district is August 17th.

That means my BABY GIRL starts school in 3 months and one week.

I may have gotten all teary eyed when I realized the above information.

I'm not ready. I need about 10 more years before I'm ready to send her out into the world.

...or maybe 20.

I'm a glutton for punishment.

This weekend my father-in-law and I started re-painting my kitchen. The previous homeowners were colorful people, to put it mildly. They had everything from bright pink to kelly green in this house. Their kitchen was a really awful shade of red. I know lots of people have red kitchens and it usually looks great. However, this was a shade of red that was not quite red, not quite rust, not quite burgundy. It was not my favorite. So, I stole some color inspiration from The Nester and started painting the kitchen. (I'll add pictures soon... once I get it all put back together.) It looks so much brighter and cleaner. I love it!

Since I already have all the painting supplies out, I decided to go ahead and paint our master bathroom, which is currently a lovely shade of eggplant purple. When we were looking at the house, I was thinking, "Well, I don't love that purple, but I can live with it for a little while." WRONG! After about two days in this house, I hated going in there because the purple is so awful. So a few weeks after being here, I found a gallon of paint on the clearance rack at Sherwin Williams for $4! It's not the exact shade of taupe I would have picked out on my own, but for $4 we are going to go with it. I'll add pictures of that soon, too.

So, as if I don't have enough going on with the 3 wee ones, one of whom still doesn't like to sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time during the day, I have taken on painting. Not sure what I was thinking. Sometimes sleep-deprived-Haley doesn't make the best choices in the world.

It reminds me of how I'm always apologizing to my hairstylist after I have a baby. I usually walk in and tell her, "I may or may not have, but definitely did cut this part of my hair the other day in a fit of post-partum rage because it was driving me crazy! I'm so sorry." And then she laughs at me and tells me to hide all the scissors in our house so that I'm not tempted to take matters into my own hands.

Maybe someone needs to hide my paint color wheel because I just can't help myself!!!

Five Months Old!

Yesterday, this little cutie turned 5 months old. I cannot even believe that is possible!

That is some serious cuteness up there!

At 5 months old, Isaac is learning to sit. He does pretty well as long as he doesn't try to turn and look at someone or try to pick up a toy. Then he topples right over. It's very cute.

He loves, loves, loves to get kisses from his mommy. He will just giggle and giggle! It melts my heart a smidge. :)

And although he is terribly cute, he is still a pretty awful sleeper. Notice the dark circles under my eyes. Last night, he cried for an hour before we finally gave up and quit trying to help him. It then took him another 25-30 minutes to fall asleep. It is downright miserable. It's so frustrating to not be able to do anything for him. Believe me, if it can be tried we've done it. It's like the more we try, the madder he gets. Very frustrating. He is making some improvements and we are hoping that last night was a fluke.

I love the look on his face in this picture. As if he knows I'm telling all his secrets. :)

He is a monkey and we love him to pieces!

Other notable things:

-He is rolling all over the place.

-Trying awfully hard to push up on his hands and knees... and I am NOT ready for that phase to begin.

-Reaching for all sorts of toys that he can hold and chew on.

-LOVING his sister. He watches her and coos at her and just loves it when she pays him attention.

-Tolerating Eli. We are working on teaching Eli how to be gentle, but occasionally he hurts Isaac without trying to. Therefore, Isaac always watches Eli very carefully when he gets too close. It is really hysterical.

-Eating typically every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day and like every 4-5 hrs at night. The 4-5 hour thing just started last week after a really, really rough night with the little guy. I actually took him to the doctor the next day because I thought SURELY something was wrong with him. Nope. He was perfectly fine. But he must have gotten something out of his system because he's done a little better since then.

-Not ready for big boy food yet. Going to give it a while longer. He's doing just fine with his mommy milk for now. When I took him to the dr. last week, he had gained a full pound in 3 weeks! I'd say he's doing just fine. :)

-Those thighs are getting chunkier by the day and I LOVE them. I could eat them with a spoon.

Isaac, you have put us through the ringer! And yet, we just love you to pieces! We cannot imagine life without you. Though we are praying that your fifth month brings us all a little more rest.