Ali Grace Faces

This girl! Oh this girl! She is a charmer, a schemer, a sweetie, a fireball, and a dare devil all in one. And she's very very very expressive! I love it all!

Goofy girl!

I can't decide if this is a sweet smile, or a mischevious one...I think it's mischevious! She's gonna be the mastermind of all of the mischeif I just know it.

That's soooo funny Mommy!!! You're soooo funny all the time!!!

I mean....just look at her. When she gets in trouble, this is the face she gives us. And then we melt onto the floor, and then she gets away with everything. No, not really, but she does get us! This face is followed by a stuck out lip and a beet-red face and big crocidile tears. It's funny too--but I turn away to laugh--as a good mother should.

Funny Face!

Can you tell she just woke up? Was it what I call the "crazy hair" or the sleepy eyes, or the adorable rosy cheeks? I could eat her!

Who me?

Jack Faces

Jelly with toast for breakfast. Yummy! He could eat his weight in this and scrambled eggs! It's his favorite brekfast...well and sausage, and pancakes, and yogurt, and fruit, and cereal...I guess he likes it all really. :)

Graham crackers and milk for a snack. He loves "digging" as he calls it, his crackers in milk like Mommy and Daddy.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture! He is so precious! And he looks so big! We went to the fishing camp last weekend with the Chisholms, and our big boy slept in a real big boy bed all by himself for the first time. Well, a couple hours after he'd been asleep Brian looked in on him and Jack was in the center of the bed fast asleep with his little booty in the air! UH I wanted to grab him and hug him and kiss him and never let go! Sometimes he seems like such a big boy that I forget how little he still is. He's getting so big, but he's still our little boy!

Brian took these pictures of Jack playing by the water at the fishing camp. I'll be posting more pics of the trip once I get some of a BIG event that took place. :)

Talking. And using his hands when he talks. So funny!

This is one of his many sassy looks. The boy can cut those eyes! And it is hilarious! There are many many times when Brian and I are struggling to hold back laughter as we discipline him for his sassiness.

Yesterday

Yesterday I , for some insane reason, decided to give the kids their first bath together without Brian's help. I now know that I seriously undersetimated our children and their potential slipperiness, hyper-ness, and funniness. It was hilarious--and I got a couple cute pics!

Clothes off of two squirmy kids......check.Display of attitude by both kids......check.

Diapers off both kids.....well I got them off, but it was interesting. I was able to get Jack's off with no probems, and let him stand in the bathroom while I got AG's off. Well, he peed on the floor, so I put him in the hall and cleaned the floor really quick. Then he peed on the carpet. No biggie, moved him back to the bathroom and cleaned it up. Took AG's diaper off (hoping it wasn't dirty , b/c I didn't have wipes handy--and it wasn't dirty! YAH!) Stood her up next to Jack and got a few pictures of their super-precious booties!!!! : ) Awwwwwwwwwwww!

Put Jack in tub.....check.

Put AG in tub....well when I turned to pick her up something--uhh--well--happened...she pooped on the floor...........A LOT! Right there! I was shocked! And she was.....about to be stepping in it!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH! So I finally cleaned her up and got her in the tub. After that everything went pretty well. And lots of splashing, squealing, trying to stand up in the tub, and water all over everything later they were clean and even though it was only 6:30 they went to bed--because Mommy was DONE!!!! hahahahaha.

Just look at those innocent faces! :)

Another couple fun things happened yesterday too--Jack poured rice all over the laptop's keyboard, and some of it got under the keys and has made it a little challenging to type. And when we got home from LR, in my distracted haste to unload kids and pottery and groceries I actually locked Jack inside the house alone along with my purse, keys, and cell phone. He was only in there about 15 minutes and sat by the front window the whole time watching as I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. Our kind neighbor got me in with his credit card (that's comforting) and we all laughed at my mommy-brain-ness! So that was our yesterday....what wi happen today I wonder???? :)

Girl Time

A couple of weekends ago my parents and sister came up to see us. On Saturday us girls and the kids went garage-saling and the guys went golfing, then we met up for lunch and the guys took the kids. So us girls got to have some girl time! We shopped a little, and then we went to a place called Firefly Studio in LR where you paint your own pottery. My sister had done this several times, but my Mom and I never had. It was SO much fun! We painted a bunch of stuff and really enjoyed it. Well, yesterday I went back to LR to pick up our fired and finished pieces. And here they are. This is a big platter I painted to be our official Birthday cake plate. It came out OK, I did feel a little rushed, but I think it's sweet, and hopefully it will be a fun and special tradition for our family. The bottom part says "We are so glad you were born"--a phrase borrowed from our dear friend Crystal who always tells us that on our birthdays! :)

These are actually two spare canister tops, but since I'm a junker at heart, I decided to paint them and hang them on the wall. The girl that works at the studio showed me this really cool process where you lay a piece of lace on top and then put this thick white gloop on top of it and when you pull the lace off, the pattern is left. ( I might try this on canvas with paint.)

Ali Grace's initials done to match her room.
My Mom had the HARDEST time deciding what piece of pottery to choose and then what to paint. I think she did FANTASTIC! She painted this the colors of her room, and I think it came out really good.

My sister did this pendant with another neat process the girl showed us. You mix paint, a little water, and soap (like Dawn) together and make bubbles, you apply the bubbles to the piece and let them pop, and it leaves behind a cool bubble design. Elizabeth did it with tiny bubbles, but you can use big bubbles too.

Elizabeth painted this one too. I LOVE it! These are some of my favorite colors! She did a great job!

Another TV Update

We're almost half-way through the month and we're doing great! Brian and I watched a little bit of TV last night--I caught up on Design Star, and he got his golf fix--but other than that there has been NO TV viewing at all. I am actually very proud of us, because these last two weeks have been challenging! First I got a cold, then Jack got it, then Ali Grace, and now Brian has the BAD mutant form of it. So at a time when we would normally turn on the TV and veg out, we've been forced to find other ways to get through it, and though it has been a challenge at times, it hasn't been that hard. We've all been reading a lot of books, and been playing things like pretend with the kids more, which has been great. Brian and I have gooten to work on some projects that we never really had time for before, and my favorite thing has been that we have both lunch and supper together at the table, instead of sometimes in front of the TV. I LOVE THAT! It just feels good to be more engaged in eachother's lives.

Of course, now that I said all that, since this weekend my parents and sister are coming for a visit, TV will be allowed. We don't want to torture them! (Plus, Brian wants to watch a golf tournament) so......I'm determined to not watch much TV at all, and once the weekend is over, it's back OFF!!!!!!!!!! And, yes, my husband does call me the TV Nazi. Really, he does. :)

Our Big Boy

This month Jack will be 2 1/2--and again, where has time gone? I know that he's he same little bitty boy that we brought home from the hospital, but he's just getting sooo big that it's hard to believe that! Is that just a Mommy thing, or what? Jack loves to play outside, loves to play with his "play-no" (play-doh), loves to play with cars, trucks, tractors, tools, blocks, and so much more. He's starting to imagine and pretend more, which I LOVE to watch. Today his belt was a snake that was playing on the floor, sleeping, crying, sick, taking medicine, and who knows what else. He loves his sister, and though she sometimes drives his crazy (already!!!) he's still so sweet with her! He's our big boy! and WE LOVE HIM!

We went walking on our street the other day after it had rained and Jack had a blast running through the puddles.

Last weekend we took the crib rail down and put this temporary rial up on Jack's bed. He has done so well with it. He loves that he can climb in his bed by himself. And we love that he hasn't figured out how to climb out yet. So it's great!


Brother and Sister playing! So cute!
Jack likes to glue and so I cut out all kinds of shapes for him. I cut out a trian, car, truck, and plane the other day and instead of gluing them, he just played with them. There were lots of "shraaaash"es (crashes) and he had fun.
We went for a walk this afternoon and Jack HAD to take his gun. He had a good time shooting everything in sight. He looks so intense in this picture! All we need is some cowby showdown music and we'll be set.

Go ahead punk, make my day.

And then after a hard thirty minutes shooting he was tired of his gun, so this was my solution. You might be a redneck...if you have a gun rack on your baby stroller! :)

Our Sweet Girl

Ali Grace will be ELEVEN months old on Monday! This past year has flown! I can't believe that this time last year we didn't even know if she was going to be a girl or a boy! She is such a blessing to us! She loves to snuggle, loves to smile, loves to eat! She has such a funny little personality that is coming out so much lately. She's curious and silly, but also serious and sensitive, and boy does she have a temper! Ooooo weeee! We love love love her to pieces and can't imagine our lives without her!

She's growing so fast and to prove it she passed another milestone today and took her first THREE steps! It was sooo great! Brian, me, Jack, and Ali Grace were all playing in Jack's room and Brian started teasing Ali with a toy to get her to walk--and then she did it! We laughed and cheered and clapped. We're so proud of our little girl! YEAH ALI GRACE!

Happy girl.
Curious girl.

Still curious girl. :)

Hungry girl.
Makes Mommy's heart melt girl. :)

TV update

Thanks so much for your encouragement and suggestions! We're doing really good. We watched our Food Network/Design Star episodes Sunday night, but since then we haven't turned the TV on. I has been difficult at times though. I actually called Brian this morning to ask permission to turn it on. :) I have a cold, and it's so easy to just sit and rest while the kids watvh TV, and I confess that is what I wanted to do. Brian laughed at me and said that I could do it, if my conscience would let me. Well, I didn't turn it on! Instead Jack and I sat at the front window and watched as a storn came in. He loved the lightning and the trees whipping around in the wind. I think God is teaching me a lesson about taking the easy way out. If I would have/could have turned on the TV I would have missed out on watching Jack have a blast just watching a storm, and telling him about how God made it. Why would I want to trade the priceless for the meaningless and worthless? I do this in other parts of my life too. I'll watch TV, or get online instead of reading God's word, or sitting and talking with Brian. Trading the priceless things in life, for the easier and worthless things. Thank you Lord for showing me my sin and giving me the way out of it!

No TV??????

As I have shared here before, I (and we) love some TV, and it gets really ridiculous at times, so....after some talking and thinking and sweating, we decided to go the entire month of August with NO TV! And since today is August 1st it was our very first day without it. And though it was good, it was HARD too--and I'm so ashamed to admit that.

It has become way too easy to just turn it on for a minute while I'm folding clothes, or nursing, or breathing. :) Plus, we've been letting the kids watch way too much too. So, sadly, there was a little bit of withdrawl going on. But Jack only asked maybe twice to watch TV, so that was HUGE!!! I was definitely nervous about him getting whiney about it. So that just confirms that it is really Brian and I--not Jack--he doesn't need/want it as much as we think he does.

Though it may be hard at times, I'm really excited about using our time more wisely and about getting creative when it comes to entertaining the kids and myself. Plus, we've already been doing more reading together which is so great!

{All that said, there will be a couple of exceptions to the no TV rule--tomorrow night we will watch Next Food Network Star Finale, and Thursday night we will watch Burn Notice Finale...we've also been toying with having a "TV night" ONE night a week after the kids go to bed...but as I'm typing this I'm feeling very guilty/uncommited/waffley about that...so we'll see.}

I"ll try to keep ya'll updated. For now, it's ONE day down, THIRTY to go.

Pray for us! :)