Poker With Mimi

 

Harrison got a chance to play his first poker game with his great grandmother "Mimi".  It was an evening I will never forget.  I love them both so very much!

 

Don't Worry

During our kitchen dance party today, Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" came on Pandora.  I love this song, it speaks to me.  See, I am a worrier.  I know that is a weakness of mine.  And one of the beautiful things about my marriage is that my sweet husband is not and he helps talk me down from the ledge on the regular.  I worry a lot.  About things that are out of my control.  Here is what Mr. McFerrin has to say about worrying..... 

 

"Here is a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy......"

 

Even though I have always loved this song, it struck me today that this song is also biblical. Seriously! 

 

In an effort to battle my worries, I have been memorizing Matthew 6:25-34

 

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Sounds like ole Bobby was right!

 

And here is your daily dose of cuteness.....

Daddy Daughter Dance

For those of you who did not know, I have been the Children's Director at our church (www.loveshelbyville.com) since September.  I am loving this position so much, it has been a dream!  One exciting event we have going on at CCC is this....

 Let me know if you or someone you know would like to join us!!!

Back from the dead?

Well, actually, we have been far from dead. In fact, my reason for not blogging has been because sometimes life is a little to busy to stay caught up. And if I am honest, I have not felt caught up for about 6 months now.

I have been sad about my lack of blogging for a couple of months now. But it was not until an email this morning from my Daddy that I decided to log into Blogger and fill you in.

As if life were not busy enough as it was, Matt and I decided to put our house on the Market on January 2nd. We found a home that we fell in love with. It was the perfect fit our family and we had a feeling that this "was THE house". We have been dreaming of this day since we found out about baby #2. We love our home, it has been the perfect starter home. But with only 3 bedrooms, no basement, no garage, 2 kids and 2 dogs, we have seriously out grown our space. We made an offer on the home under construction and the builder accepted! The offer was contingent, which meant we had to sell our house, stat.

It took 3 days to get the house show ready (painted baseboards, cleaned out closets, touched up walls, made the outside as appealing as it can in January).  That was a lot of work with two busy little bodies, but I knew the worst was ahead of us....keeping the house "show ready", packing up the kids and the dogs with each showing, ugh.  I was feeling very overwhelmed and it sounded awful.  We got our first showing 4 days later.  We were told he was very interested but never heard back.  I was feeling a bit anxious to sell since our dream home was on the line.  11 days after listing was my birthday (holy cow I am now 29!).  My birthday is a seriously special day, and it never fails that something MAJOR happens on my birthday. 

Four years ago on my birthday I heard Harrison's heart beat for the very first time.  Two years ago on January 13th, I found out we were adding a little girl to our growing family.  On 1-13-12 I received the perfect part time work from home job I could have imagined.  And this year....WE SOLD OUR HOUSE.  Yup.  I could  not make that up.  Best. Day. Ever.

My last couple days have been consumed with paint colors, hard wood, carpet, appliances, cabinets, light fixtures, tile, wall paper, pinterest....  I am exhausted, only when I climb in bed I can't sleep because I am thinking about our new house.  It is a very exciting, overwhelming, exhausting, emotional and EXCITING time.

I will post pictures soon of the house, but for now I will leave you with some pictures of the walking tornadoes that live in my house.

**** Just an FYI so you can get a visual of my morning. As I have typed this, Harrison has sat in his bean bag chair and watched Power Rangers. In the same 15 minutes, Harper has knocked over the trash can (she came running screaming "trash fall down" with her head covered by her arms), taken all of the cushions off of the couch, flushed the toilette twice, shut herself in a closet, tried to drink a non lit candle and then dropped it yelling "HAWT" (it was not hot), hid behinds the blinds and said "Hi mommy", ran to me holding her diaper saying "I poop again", tried to poor a glass of water on to Molly saying "want a drink Lolly?" leaving Molly and my couch wet, and climbed on the kitchen table screaming "STUCK" at the top of her lungs. To say she wears me out is the understatement of the day. She is crazy, and funny, and busy, and I have never met a kid with more personality. She is awesome, but she leaves me very little time to blog.

Potty Trained!

Folks, it's official.  My boy is potty trained. 

We went on a family vacation to New Hampshire in the beginning of July.  The entire trip, Harrison was asking to use the potty.  I was fine with it at the hotel (I think that potty was clean), but at the public beach, I was not fine with it (I KNEW that potty as not clean).  We talked for a few days about how when we got home he was ready to be a big boy.  He literally told be he was ready.  I told him that if he learned to use the bathroom like a big boy, I would get him a fish....I mean, what is one more living thing around here :)

So, we got home and settled on a Sunday and Monday we hit the ground running.  Day one was tough.  Enough accidents that I questioned if this was a good idea.  But by Wednesday, Harrison was dry all day!  It was amazing how quickly he caught on.  By Friday, I was so proud of my boy that we packed up and made a trip to Feeders Supply.

Harrison got to pick out his fish all by himself.  He picked a blue Beta fish and named him "Orange".  And yes, my son does know his colors.  Here is his reasoning....Elmo has a fish named Dorthy and Dorthy is orange.  Therefore, he wanted to name his fish "Orange".  I could never tell you how much I love this kid and all of his crazy genius little thoughts.

I think we are both pretty proud!

One Year Comparison

Here it is, the big "one year comparison".

Here is Harrison (literally) demolishing his first cupcake!

Harper was a bit more ladylike....

Happy Birthday Harper

I mean, it's only been three months, but what the heck.

My sweet girl turned a year old in May.  It was not the picture perfect party I had planned because I got sick.  Really sick.  So sick that I canceled her first birthday party.  To say I was bummed is the year's biggest understatement. I mean, I had been collecting and making pinwheels for three months!  I know Harper will never know the difference, and if I am honest, the only one I felt I was letting down was Pinterest.

Harper is just as awesome as she is beautiful.  She is spunky, snuggly, sassy, smart, social, silly, and sweet.  She is tough to keep up with, so adorable that discipline is difficult, a hugger, mommy's shadow, a daddy's girl, she mimics her big brother and loves on her baby dolls.  She has a smile that will melt you, a precious rat tail (this deserves a post all in its self), the most adorable button nose, and the most awesome eyes that will serve as one of her most valuable accessories. 

At this point she was still one of the easiest going babies anyone had ever seen.  A constantly happy, easy going, love on everyone kind of girl.  I mean, she is perfect.  My little Harper Love. 

I love you so much, my sweet girl.

A picture is worth.....

A thousand words does not even begin to cut it.  Kendra (our precious babysitter) took some amazing pictures of our family yesterday at a local park.  She is an incredible young lady that is just as gorgeous on the inside as she is on the outside.  She loves Jesus, her family, photography, and my babies.  I mean, what else could I ask for in a babysitter?!?  Kendra may still be in high school, but she has a natural tallent when it comes to photography.  She captured some pretty awesome moments with my sweet bambinos.  Take a look!

Cup o' Joe?

Don't worry.  His recipe for coffee is a bit different than mine.  His is approximately 50% water, 40% milk and 10% coffee.  He really does love the taste of coffee though.  But with his special morning blend, he can feel like he is sharing a moment with Mommy, with out me hyping him up on caffeine!

What's up with Harrison?

Why, I am so glad you asked!  I tell you what, this kid gets even more awesome with every passing day.  He is at such an incredible age.  He is talking/questioning up a storm.  His imagination is uncontainable.  His sense of humor is never dull.  And he amazes me with his memory.  This kid forgets NOTHING!  Everyday he uses a  new word or phrase that either leaves me with my jaw dropped or doubled over laughing.  I can not even tell you how much I am loving this age!

Here are some of his loves right now:

• Baseball.  Man oh man, does this kid love baseball.  He loves to watch it on TV (wearing a hat and glove, holding a ball and bat of course).  He loves playing it (he is always the batter, mommy is always the pitcher, daddy is always the catcher).  He loves running the bases at the fields in the park.  And he just plain loves to talk about it.  It makes me smile....Daddy too, but I think he is still secretly hoping Harrison's first love will be soccer :)
• Bambi.  He LOVES Bambi....Well, Bambi the movie.  Thumper is his favorite character.  He has given up his afternoon naps, but he loves quiet time in his room and sometimes gets to watch Bambi in his "fort".  Random Bambi story:  One night we were driving home from my parent's home and Harper fell asleep in her car seat.  When we pulled into our driveway, Harrison yelled "Wake up Flower, Wake up!!".  I looked at Matt and said "How precious is it that he calls her flower!".  About 10 minutes later, it hit me that that is a line from Thumper in Bambi.  It still made me smile.
• Getting the mail.  He loves to listen for the mail lady every day and walk to the mailbox to get the mail all by himself. 
• His sister.  Yes, he is rough with her.  And yes, he does not appreciate his train tracks being destroyed.  But he loves his sister.  He loves to "read" her books.  He loves to hand her her baby dolls (he will even poor them tea from Harper's tea set).  He loves to be the one to greet her when she wakes up from her nap (in fact, he makes me stand in the hallway).  He knows how to make her laugh the hardest.  If you ask him what his job is, he will respond: To protect Harper. (I've been working with him on that for a while, but I think he believes it now :)
• Toast.  He. Loves. Toast.
• His Daddy.  Yes, it is pathetic...he cries every morning as Daddy leaves for work.  He asks all day long to "Go see Daddy at his house" (I tell him everyday, it is not his house, it is his work).
• Outside.  He lives outside.  I swear, he would sleep outside if we let him.  He will spend hours exploring our back yard, jumping through the sprinkler, conquering his swing set, and tending to my flowers.

Do you see the heart they shaped?!?  Love it!