Ava-isms

Some days Ava gives me a run for my money. Other days she is such a character! I LOVE the things she comes up with these days. She can be so funny and witty. And the matter of fact way she talks kills me.

Every once in a while I like to document things she’s said/done just so I can remember.

• Have you seen the Big Bang Theory flash mob? We watched it the other night and the Call me, maybe song came on. Ava started singing and then said “I know this song!” and she was belting out the lyrics, only instead of Call me, maybe she sang “Call the navy!” I still giggle thinking of it.
• She got a new toy over the weekend that Reed liked and he had been holding one of the pieces right before we left. We didn’t remember him having it walking down to the car but Ava just remembered him holding it. She was really upset and was going on and on and then said “Reed had it and he left it at the mall, I just know he did.” We found it upon our return. :)
• Zach told her to do something the other day and she looked at him for a minute and said “SERIOUSLY?” haha.
• Every night when we sit down to eat dinner she says, “Mama, how was your great day at work?” I love that every day is great! She likes to ask me if I had projects to work on.
• Her new toy was a Doc McStuffins toy and every time she went to do a “checkup” she had to sing the Doc song. (I’ve now had the line “it’s okay if you giggle, it will only tickle a little” in my head for days).
• She has started referring to people by their relations to us, instead of by their name. For example, if she is talking about my sister, instead of saying Stephanie she says “your sister” to me.
• We have reached the age where if she hears Zach and I talking about something/someone, she wants to know who and what we are talking about.
• She LOVES drawing right now. Her pictures have gotten so much more elaborate and I’m impressed with things she can draw.
• She STILL comes up with every excuse in the book to avoid bedtime. The girl does not like to sleep. Most of the time it’s because her belly is bery, bery, bery, bery hungry or thirsty. :)
• Someone we know is having a baby and she told me the other day that “they will have to burp that baby when it’s born, you know.” I made sure to pass that information along!
• We made something for dinner one night with flank steak and Ava thought it was chicken. She told us the chicken beef was good and we didn’t correct her. Hey, whatever works.
• We definitely have hard moments with this girl right now, too. She’s so opinionated and strong willed. I know some day that will be benefit her, but, right now? it’s hard. She was whining at me yesterday morning while I was fixing her hair and after several whines and jerks, I put the brush down and told her to fix it herself. And she did. And I let her go to school like this.

This spunky little girl is so full of life and bring us so much joy and laughter. While there are TRYING, TRYING days, I’m so grateful to be her mom!!!!

{PS – There is some EXCITING NEWS on my SIL’s blog!!!!! GO READ!!!!!!!}

Spring Break

Last week feels like it screamed by in a blur. It was a good week, and a productive week. I took a vacation day on Friday and we headed out of town for a couple days.

In our perfect plans, we had intended to spend a day at the zoo because we knew the kids would love it. In reality, the last days of spring break were incredibly cold and miserable outside so we ended up having some low key days away and just enjoyed some down time. We still managed to have fun!

Before we headed out, Ava got a hair cut. She looked so grown up afterward. And am I the only mom who is over those baby hairs growing in? Just when it looks good, she starts getting more. Blech. 

On our way out of town, both kids fell asleep and I thought it was funny that they were sleeping the same way. 

One of the days we were there, we got to meet up with my sweet friend, Sarah. She used to live very close to me and moved away a year and a half ago and I hadn’t seen her since! It was so fun catching up!

Our older kids were playing while we chatted and I got Reed a cup of ice cream to occupy him so we could visit longer. He felt like holding it in his lap was the best option!

Ava and I were excited to have a day just having fun!

I had also heard about this bakery with amazing cookies so we checked it out. These cookies were AH-MAZING! They were SO good!I’m already dreaming of having another one. Mmmmmmm!!!!

Honestly, we didn’t do much else. I love documenting things with photos but have been trying to live more moments. I’ve enjoyed taking a step back and just being. The whole time we were away, Reed wasn’t feeling great because his allergies have made him terribly congested. He was pretty miserable one evening and we all suffered at night due to his coughing. I was incredibly thankful when we got home and were all able to sleep in our own rooms! We ended up taking him to the doctor yesterday and were told once again, it’s just allergy induced congestion. He did have the beginnings of an ear infection so he will be on an antibiotic for a few days. This winter has not been kind to him. Hopefully we will see spring come to stay very soon!

Learning Opportunities

Growing up, I never liked getting in trouble or disappointing my parents. When I’d get in trouble, I’d hate the punishment, but would really dislike knowing that I’d betrayed my parents’ trust or let them down.

I don’t like to fail people. I’m a people pleaser and I try to do the right thing by people. Am I perfect? Nope. But I do strive to be my best. When I know I’ve messed up, I’m usually like a dog with my tail between my legs. I hide out and feel shameful  and I disappoint myself when I’ve erred and feel as though it could have been prevented. And that is such a cruddy feeling.

And then there’s the other side. The being disappointed side. It’s different from being mad or angry. It’s more than that… it just makes me feel really deflated.

Just this week, I’ve had to deal with disappointment. I discovered that someone I considered a friend had gone behind my back and done something. The action itself wasn’t terrible, but just the fact that they did it was so surprising. And it hurts. I feel so betrayed. I’ve tried reconciling all this in my mind and wondered what would even possess them to do this. What was gained from it? Absolutely nothing.

I don’t want to dwell on this and don’t want to be angry about it. I need to make my peace with it, forgive and move on. Unfortunately I must still deal with this person on a regular basis and need to be civil toward them. But it definitely makes me stop and think about who I can trust. I tend to be open and have learned that I need to be more guarded, which makes me sad.

I don’t know that there’s really a point to this post, except that sometimes it’s therapeutic to write about stuff that is bothering me. I believe everything happens for a reason and this experience is going to be a learning opportunity for me. The Lord had a lesson I needed to learn, and learn I did! I’m grateful for the chance to take negative situations and make something positive out of them!

Another weekend gone

I think our weekends are lived in fast forward. They are seriously over before they start!

We had a busy Saturday and a quiet Sunday.

But’ let’s back up first to Friday. I took a picture of me and Reed on our way into school and it looks like he’s saying, “Ok, mom. Seriously? Enough.”

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to an early birthday party. I took Reed and Ava and Zach stayed behind to get a few things done and have everything ready for when we got home, because we had to turn right around and go to a wedding. The kids had a ball at the party and they played SO hard!

My cousin got married yesterday and it was a beautiful wedding. The theme was very southern and many of the decorations included mason jars and it was just so cute. Reed was insistent that his “bay-bee” go to the wedding with us.

When we got to the reception, we found a table set up especially for kids. SUCH a good idea!!!! There were several giant coloring books, crayons, straws, pinwheels. Ava immediately sat down here and had fun while we sat at a table close to her.

And what’s a wedding without having wedding cake? duh.

They had a photo booth set up to go in and take photos and once that started, the excitement of the coloring table was gone, and we didn’t see Ava again until it was time to leave. She would stand in line for like 10 minutes to have a 2 minute stint inside the booth. She seriously was in there about 10 times. It was hilarious!

The bottom right is pretty much real life? We had 10 seconds between shots and i was working hard to get a good pic, and well you can see what happened. ha!!!

After the wedding we had two TIRED kids and they both crashed early. Sunday morning we woke up and went to church early and then went to eat breakfast. After breakfast, it started raining and did that pretty much all day. The kids were still tired from the day before, and they both went down for naps as soon as we got home around 10:30. Zach and I took that opportunity to rest too.

Zach and Ava are on Spring Break this week so I’m sure there’ll be lots more fun to come! I’m taking off on Friday and cannot wait to have a day off! C’mon Friday!!!!

Letting it out: confession style

Let’s confess, shall we? I’m linking up with my faaaaaaaaaaaaab-ulous SIL Leslie for Confessional Friday!

I confess that I’m READY FOR THE WEEKEND!!! Who’s with me?!

I confess that Monday evening when we found Ava in her bed reading to her Mickey Mouse, my momma heart about exploded!

I confess that Reed is a funny kid. He likes to say “cheeeee” when I pull out a camera. Too bad this morning he was still working on some of his breakfast!

I confess that Reed has learned to say the word “mine”. And I confess that he says it three hundred times a day. I also confess that the thought of taping his mouth shut crossed my mind. But I would never do that!

I confess that even though I’m not off next week, I’m excited for spring break because that means I get to sleep a little later and that Zach will be home to do stuff around the house, leaving the evenings free for fun stuff!

I confess that I bought a chore chart from the dollar spot at Target to see if that would help us in making Ava do some chores without a fight. She found it last night and I explained to her how it works. I couldn’t find her and yelled for her and she yelled back that she was in her room picking up so she could get a sticker. I confess that if I’d known it would make it that easy, I would’ve gotten a chore chart years ago!

I confess that Reed fell and got his first major scrape/bruise. He fell the other night and has a night little mark on his forehead!

I confess that if Reed doesn’t start sleeping all night again, I may lose my shiz. I’m seriously over it. I’ve been just going in to comfort him and then leave, and he gets so excited to see one of us that he does a little giggle and then erupts into screaming when he realizes we aren’t getting him out. This has been going on for months and I just want him to sleep again.

I confess that I found Wednesday to be very fascinating watching and waiting to see if a new Pope had been chosen. I almost missed the puff of white smoke but saw it and it was just so cool to witness. I’m excited to see what Pope Francis I does for the Church!

I confess that Ava got mad at me yesterday morning b/c I let Reed push the button to open the garage door. She stomped through the garage, flung open her car door, pushed it a few times and was very vocal. I got on to her and told her to settle down and stop acting that way. As we started driving and I said it was time to start our prayers, she said “Please Jesus, help Mama’s attitude to be better.” Oh yeah, sis? Pot calling the kettle black? I confess that I had to keep myself from laughing out loud!

Thanks for reading my confessions! Anything you need to get off your chest? Feel free to leave in the comments! Happy Friday!!!!

What’s that you say?

{I wrote and scheduled this post for today, not realizing that the series hosted by Blue Eyed Bride, Life in the Green House, Kelly’s Korner and Lil Light O' Mine started today. However, when I saw their posts, I realized this fit in with the theme so I decided to link up.}

I started working on this post over the weekend and minutes after I’d finished most of what I wanted to say, I came across this on facebook that perfectly articulates what I was saying in this post.Last week Ava and I were on our way to gymnastics and she was just jabbering and all of a sudden she said, “Mom, you said the word idiot. that’s not very nice.” And I thought for a minute and then asked her when I’d said that, and she replied, “That one day, when that car did that not nice thing.”

Hello, ton of bricks. She was right. We’d been at a stop light and our light turned green and I proceeded to drive into the intersection when a car came flying through their red stop light, making me stop suddenly. And I did in fact call them an idiot. But this had been two weeks prior.

In that moment, I realized how much those little ears hang on EVERY word that comes out of our mouths. I mean, yeah, I know they listen, but for that situation to cause her impact two weeks later? It was pretty convicting to have her call me out on that. I told her I was sorry I had said that and I would try really hard not to do that again.

Not only do they dwell on my words, but i realized that others do, too. Do I build people up with my words or am I hurtful? It’s so easy to forget that sometimes the smallest words can do so much damage. It’s important to weigh the choice of our words in regards to how they impact someone.

The exchange with Ava made me stop and think, though. Every thing, every LITTLE thing we say or do around our kids is food for thought. We are “performing” 24/7 and their minds are capable of remembering SO much. I’m certainly not perfect, and would never claim to be, but I need to be a better example for my kids. I’d be so upset if Ava had gone to school and called one of her classmates (or worse, her teacher) an idiot.

I want my kids to grow up to be good, loving people. I want them to know right from wrong, to treat others with kindness and love, and to be examples of Christ’s love. In the mornings on our way to school, we pray and part of our daily prayer is that others can see Jesus in our words and actions. I want my kids to be the ones who stand up for those who are being teased, are there for someone in a time of need, and are kind and encouraging to everyone they meet. I’m trying to teach them to bring their faith to life.

And they have to learn that from me.

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

Since the last time..

Another weekend, come and gone. This week will be BUSY so I have no doubt it will fly by like the others.

Ava and Reed have days where the LOVE each other like here:Other times, like ALL DAY yesterday, they go at it all day long. Le sigh. Who knew the fighting would be soooooooooo prevalent soooooooooo early?

When we make it to school with a few minutes to spare, Ava likes to take pictures with me. 

Wednesday morning Reed woke up feeling crummy. He has allergies that bother him, but he also had a cold and is cutting teeth. He wasn’t too whiny or anything, but you could just tell he didn’t feel like himself. 

On Thursday, Reed turned 17 months old. Here he was exactly one year ago that day.

When dropping off the kids, we usually go to Reed’s class first, but every once in a while, Ava asks to go first, which we did on Friday. Reed felt like a big kid walking in next to Ava.

Reed shared some of his cold germs with me. I got pretty run down just being tired and fighting that but thankfully didn’t feel bad too long, even though some of the cold symptoms have lingered.

Saturday we got Reed some new shoes. He was SO proud of them. In fact, he wouldn’t put his old one back on after I tried the new ones on him. He kept pushing it away and shaking his head so he wore the new ones out of the store. :)

Yesterday Ava woke up VERY early and didn’t take a nap. She sat down on the couch at 6:30 and it wasn’t long until this was happening. She has the cold too so she is a little stuffy and was snoring like mad. It was pretty funny.

Both kids were in bed asleep by 6:45. Which was really like 5:45. Oy.

Zach and Ava have this week left and next week is Spring Break. They are excited and have a few fun things planned! I’m taking one day off to spend with everyone and I’m looking forward to that as well!

Happy Monday to you all! hard to believe it’s already here again!

Sleep interrupted – advice needed!

I’m just wondering if anyone else has had a kid who does this…

Reed has been a great sleeper from early on. He was sleeping through the months at a very young age. (Before you go cursing me and throwing things at me, let me just say that Ava STILL doesn’t always sleep through the night. Where we had a fairly easy time with Reed, we had just as awful a time with Ava. I vividly remember one night where I saw 5:30 am and had not been to sleep yet). In fact, Sunday night, they were BOTH up and down so much we slept like MAYBE 4 hours. Anyway.

Back around November, he started waking up. We thought that it might be related to getting his molars. He also had a couple ear infections in there that we thought were the culprit, but this is still happening. He is cutting his eye teeth so it might be related to that still, but it just seems to be more than pain.

He doesn’t wake up every single night, but I’d say he does about 4-5 nights per week, sometimes several times per night. The thing is, he wakes up SCREAMING hysterically. It almost seems as if he’s had a nightmare and is terrified. Some nights we are able to go in there and make sure he’s got a paci and he’ll calm down. Other nights, the ONLY way to get him to stop screaming is to get him out and hold him.

I don’t think he’s having night terrors because he is fully awake when doing this. Have any of you ever had kids who had nightmares this young??? Were you able to do anything for them? I’m thinking this is probably just something that will need to run its course, but MAN. I miss my good sleeping kid!!

Any thoughts, tips, suggestions?!?!?!?!?!

I’m having a party!

A Scentsy party!!

Are you familiar with Scentsy? It’s a company that sells wax burners that burn the wax with a light bulb. So basically it’s a candle without a flame!

They have some REALLY cute warmers that you put the wax in and it makes your whole house smell SO good! I think the March Warmer of the Month is ADORABLE!

I’m also in LOVE with this Spring Easter Egg and own this!! How CUTE is this?!

They are also offering a great deal on their deal on their line of collegiate warmers! 

You purchase bars of wax and break off a couple of squares to burn at a time. It’s so easy to change out the scents and no matter your preference, you’re guaranteed to find a scent you like! You can check out the different scents RIGHT HERE! A few of my favorite scents are Satin Sheets, Sugar Cookie, and while you can’t get it right now, I LOVE the scent Silver Bells! There are lots of new spring/summer scents that just became available and I’m excited to try some new ones!

Scentsy also has personal care products like lotions, hand soaps, perfumes, shower gels, and even stuff for your laundry! I own the Washer Whiffs as well as the Dryer Disks and they make your laundry smell SO good!!!!

If you are interested in anything from Scentsy, you can shop my online party HERE!! If you have any questions, please ask and I’m sure myself or my consultant can help you!! Happy shopping!!!

Catching up!

Well, I guess I fell off the blogging face of the earth last week. I just wasn’t motivated to blog and didn’t feel like I had anything to blog about. So, now I’m going to catch up on our week last week and our weekend. (And after writing this post, I should’ve blogged b/c this post is LONG!)!

Reed has a little best friend at school and they are happy to see each other in the mornings! It’s so cute to hear them say each other’s names when they see one another!

Ava had a doctor appointment Monday to get her ears re-checked and they are finally ALL clear. We were one of the first appointments and since it was after a weekend, I didn’t mind letting her have a ride on the airplane!

There has been a recipe I’ve seen floating around blogland/twitter and I finally made it last week. It’s Spicy Sausage Pasta and it was DELICIOUS! We will definitely have this again, and I think next time I may try it with chicken, or even without meat and maybe some added veggies. SO good!!

We have started making Reed leave his pacis in his bed because they are now only for bed/nap time. He is not so fond of this new rule and we found him trying to climb in his bed to get one out! I’ve started locking his door in fear of him trying to do this while I’m not around and possibly pulling the crib over.

Reed eats breakfast at school each day but when Ava is eating her breakfast he often begs for a bite of something because he is apparently starving. One morning this past week, Ava had set down her pancakes and I came in the room to find Reed with them in his hands shoveling them in his mouth. This was his “Oops you caught me!” face!

I couldn’t take the kids to school one morning last week and Zach took a picture when I was telling them goodbye. I love this photo even though Ava isn’t looking!

Little Miss Ava likes to play learning games (and others) on the iPad. She is getting to be such a big kid!

Friday morning Reed did some chores before heading to school!     

We also got a photo of Reed and his buddies sitting like big kids at the table to eat! When did he grow up!?!?!

He was also a happy little camper with dessert after dinner on Friday night! 

Saturday we spent the morning deep cleaning Reed’s room. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been working on one room per weekend, when the weekend allows it. We’ve done the garage, utility room, master bedroom and bathroom, kids bathroom, hall closet and both kids’ rooms. We still have the kitchen, living room and master closet to go. We’ve also finished the garage. Here was Reed’s room in the midst of the chaos! It feels so good to empty out the closets, purge what we no longer need, and get things in good order, as well as cleaning things really well. I HATE the process of doing it, but LOVE how my house feels afterwards!

It was also my lucky weekend! See the box of diapers in the picture above? We use Amazon’s subscribe and save program to have diapers sent. I was supposed to receive on box of diapers, but on Friday, two came. I was only charged for one, though. I got on the site and used the chat function to talk to a customer service rep and this is the convo we had: 

Saturday night, Reed fell asleep in my lap just like he used to when he was an itty bitty baby! Oh, how sweet it was to have a glimpse back into his baby days!

I’m having a pampered chef booth at a women’s conference this week and made some cake balls to entice people to my booth! It’s a lot, but they are always a hit!

The weather Sunday afternoon was REALLY nice so we decided to take a family walk and let Ava ride her bike for a while! It was fun!!

When we got back, Reed felt like he needed a turn on the bike!

After we came in, we let Ava get out a big puzzle she’d been wanting to do for a long time. The box said it was a giant floor puzzle – and it wasn’t lying!

We had a great weekend. Time FLIES by any more. I don’t know how it passes so quickly. March is a busy month for us so I have no doubt time will slow down any time soon. I’m thankful, though, that as fast as it goes, it’s filled with so many memories!!!!

PS – Through Twitter, I met Lindsey. She has two of the cutest babies you’ve ever seen, Kate and Will. And they both sadly have a very rare genetic bone marrow disorder. Kate has successfully undergone a bone marrow transplant and is a happy, healthy, vibrant 2 year old. Sweet little Will is not even one and will have his first surgery tomorrow to begin the process of getting a bone marrow transplant. I can’t imagine watching my little baby go through this, yet having to do it time two. Please take a minute and lift this family up as they begin this process with Will and if you’d like, you can follow their journey here and see updates to know how to pray for them.