Free Entertainment-Who Knew?

We had a break this afternoon in Hurricane Hannah's torrential downpours so we all piled in the car to an unknown destination. Everyone was getting a little stir crazy in the house. It was necessary to get out and about. We didn't have to go far though. Target is not even a mile down the road from us and we needed to get Jocelyn more diapers so it worked out that this was our "unknown destination." We got into the store and roamed around a bit. John has a love to walk down the movie section to scope out anything new out on the shelf. On the way to that department, we strolled past a new toy out on the market that was on display. 27 inches tall stood the new Fisher Price Ultra Dinosaur named Spike. With a remote control???



We didn't realize how fascinated Jocelyn would get with this pricey object but she was giggling and begging for the button to be pushed a couple of times before moving on. Those couple of times didn't satisfy her though. She kept saying "dinosaur...roar!" over and over until we walked past it one last time and watched it roar along with other passersby. Not that I even considered buying this toy (no offence, just not our thing!) but I glanced down at the price. $140!!! Good thing this toy offered free entertainment for both Jocelyn and Aubrey because it was not making it into our basket for a ride home with us. :)

Love For Baby Brother & Other Discoveries

It was Jocelyn's bed time so I was doing my usual--read a story and rock her for a few minutes and sing her a few songs. To get her familiar with having her baby brother around in the next couple of months, I have her say good night to him. She kissed my belly (those are meant to be HIS kisses) and then she layed her head on my belly and sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to him. It was the cutest thing ever! What an angel. Along with Aubrey, she's going to be a great big sister!


There are some things that have happened recently with Jocelyn's growth that I wanted to be sure to take the time to record. One is that she is becoming more and more independent and head-strong as the days go by. Her favorite & new "word at the moment" this week is nope. It's very funny and cute how she says it too. Just plain old nope! And if we don't get the hint, she'll say it repeatedly until we understand. Some others have been:

1. Being a little more interested in using the potty. Nothing usually results in this sitting process but hey, atleast she's trying right?!

2. Sometimes tries to bite when things don't go her way-this is NOT fun on our part. She's getting better at not doing it thankfully.

3. I was changing her diaper this morning after waking up and she was babbling away just happy as can be. Not much of it could I understand except for the last part: "Daddy is a boy." LOL I had to call John at work to tell him the news and we both chuckled. But this is a great accomplishment as we've been teaching her the difference between a boy and a girl. Well, not in THAT way. Just the basic "this is a picture of a boy and this is a picture of a girl" in her story books.

4. Pointed to my tummy tonight and said "uh oh!" I looked down at my shirt half expecting that I dropped some food on myself at dinner but no. Better yet, she was pointing at the ever expanding outline of my belly button becoming more and more stretched. I too laughed at this wonderful discovery of hers but I was sighing inside. I don't know what it is. I love that I'm getting bigger for the baby's sake and health and all but that doesn't mean that I have to love all the weight gain that comes with it. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed her innocence in my belly button.
5. This girl has finally and I mean FINALLY started to get back into eating vegetables again. To my dismay, over the past year since she got off pureed baby foods, we haven't been able to get her to eat the vegetables on her plate. She of course amuzes us (or better yet gives us false hope) and pickes them up and SMELLS them and then puts them back down on her plate or smashes them between her fingers to smitherines. But this week it all changed. She had a small amount of peas and carrots on her plate next to other items and I was able to coax her into eating "just 2" here and there. This really is a big step for her and I'm proud that I have one less mommy worry to worry about. :)

6. Not too long ago, I went to get her up from her nap and as I walked in I instantly knew something was wrong. Could it have been the diaper she was holding out over her bed to me? Yikes! I didn't think she'd be able to undo her diaper with her onesie on but why am I underestimating her strength and power? There thankfully was no messes to clean while that diaper was off duty. Good thing too because I wouldn't have laughed otherwise. I suppose looking back on it as I am now it would be funny but some moments you can't find the humor. I'm doing better at it though.

***Some more words she can say now:

please, thank you, blankie, more, all done, cracker, juice, color, book, soccer, boy, girl, bye-bye, love you, morning, night night, brother, puzzle, movie, elmo, nemo, water, get up, back up----and many, many more. There are actually very few words now that we don't understand and in those circumstances, we have her SHOW us what she's talking about. Our baby is no longer. She is turning into quite the little girl.

They WON!

Aubrey had her first soccer game of the season tonight and they won 4-1. WooHoo! She did awesome out on the field and her coach had her playing for a good majority of the game. You can definitely tell she's been working hard on improving her speed since the last season or two. One of the player's parents on the team that sat close to us said "Wow...that #30 sure is a fast little thing!" (They didn't know we were the parents of #30.) All of the girls soaked the coach at the end of the game. Very funny to watch a male coach running as fast as possible across the field away from 10-15 girls with water canisters in hand. I'm sure he didn't mind. It was 90 degrees today and he's made a promise that if they ever loose a game, it'll be his turn to dunk them with water right back. It was a great night. Jocelyn was ever so tired but she endured. Especially after daddy got there after his softball game. Best buds forever those two are I tell you. It's so cute to see how much he's loved by his daughters and how much they're loved in return! My little family is the greatest. xoxo

{Aubrey is #30 running in the middle.}

{Smiling at sideline fans...US!}

{Jocelyn sitting next to her mama watching big sis play.}

{I snapped this photo half-way through Aubrey's game. Jocelyn was so tired she clung to her daddy until the game was over. What a trooper!}

Reminders

I think sometimes everyone needs a reminder of how fragile and precious life really is. It's so easy to get caught up in our own daily events that we can loose sight of the bigger picture. I was reading today over at one of my favorite and often visited blog sites (Life) and discovered that a family is in real need of our prayers and support right now. This was written on their family's recovery website:

"On Saturday, August 16, 2008, Stephanie Nielson was in a plane crash with her husband, Christian Nielson, and his flight instructor, Doug Kinnear, near St. Johns, Arizona. Doug Kinnear passed away soon after arriving at the Maricopa County Hospital.

Christian & Stephanie remain in critical condition at Maricopa Burn Center. Christian has sustained burns on over 30% of his body. His wife Stephanie’s body was burned over 80%.

For the past four years, Stephanie has welcomed us into her charming abode through the NieNie Dialogues. Far from being a product of creative editing, the Nielson’s don’t just shine through the selective lens of a blog. They are ingenuous examples of family devotion, eternal romance, and Christ centered faith. This site is dedicated to their welfare & recovery."

{Picture taken from NieNie's blog}

After reading their story, I have been embracing and cherishing each moment with my sweet little ones. It's sad to know that this young couple has 4 children at home waiting for their parents to recover and be with them again. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. If you want to do more, I've added their recovery button on the right of our blog that will provide you with ways to help them out. I hope that this unfortunate event will inspire you to spend as much time with your children/ loved ones as possible like it has done for me and to realize what an amazing and eternal gift families really are!

LOVE This Quote...

I ran across this amazing quote the other day and just had to share it. It has actually given me quite a lot of encouragement when it comes to facing some important decisions in my life right now. I hope it helps you to have a better outlook and attitude on life also and leaves a lasting impression on your "attitude on life."

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

~ Charles R. Swindoll

{Flowers given to me by my sweet husband to brighten my long and exhausting day with the kids while he was out playing softball into the late night hours. What a great hubby I have! Okay...the snickers bar was good too! :) Shhhh....}

Aubrey's 1st Day Back To School

It's that time of year again. SCHOOL STARTS! And the 3rd grade??? Where has the time gone. It seems like she was just in preschool. Aubrey has been extremely excited for weeks now that school is finally starting. She'd be seriously happy with all year round school if they had it or had the choice. It was bitter sweet sending her off to school on the bus. I enjoy having my girls home during the summer days! But I also love knowing that when school starts, she's happy learning and making new friends (and I admit, a few moments of quiet time to myself to clean or read a little when Jocelyn naps isn't so bad either). I knew it'd be harder for 'lil sis' than it would be for me though. These two sisters are the best of buds and watching Aubrey step onto the school bus (as Jocelyn pronounces it 'scuba') and drive off down the street was heartrenching to see the pain on Jocelyn's face and in her voice. "Bobby (Aubrey)......Nooooooooooooo!!" Needless to say, 8 hours later when she hoped off the bus was a good reunion for us all.

Aubrey's New Smile

SURPRISE!!! Aubrey now wears BRACES! She had some top teeth pulled in June that had the adult teeth growing behind so her orthodontist felt that it was best to correct her cross-bite now instead of later. Her treatment will be done in the spring so she won't be wearing them too long. She's very excited that she can pick and choose her bracket band colors and holidays will be fun colors I'm sure!