They're here!

"Lord, thank you for gracing us today with two new babies who will one day bring glory and honor to your name. Thank you for their parents, who are true servants to You!!"
Congratulations Drew and Kelly, welcome to the world Kayla and Braelyn!

where did the time go?

Marvelly turned 3 months old this past Monday-I know, it truly feels like yesterday that they yanked her from my belly.
So to pay tribute to her 3 month milestone I attached a video of her newest accomplishment of...rolling over!! Yay!!
Marvelly got the hang of this a whole month before her big sis did. So in addition to growing bigger by the minute, she's sleeping 12-13 hours every night (hallelujah!), and now she can add rolling over to her resume (at least from her tummy to her back). Sometimes it takes her a minute but by golly she gets there!

Epiphany

It's funny how the Lord speaks to you in the most unusual times...
...walking into the kitchen to prepare dinner, frustrated, I threw a pair of Sydaleigh's pee soaked training underwear on the floor, frustrated, as day #1 of potty training isn't going so well. I kept telling myself today, "you're not cut out for this", "how am I ever going to teach her and get through to her?".
Feeling defeated....after one lousy afternoon...
...getting water ready to boil I remember Pastor Jeff's words from Sunday...
"only one life, it will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last, Lord, today what should I do with my dash?"...
and He told me...it's just potty training. Don't be defeated. You get another chance every 30 minutes...it's not a big deal. Remember what's important...
..."training" my girls not to give up.
..."training" my girls to keep trying.
..."training" my girls to stay positive, even when frustrated.
..."training" my girls to speak and display kindness and love...
My girls are watching ME, they are learning from ME, if I don't want them to give up I can't be ready to throw in the towel after one day. I need to show them, by example how to persevere, be positive, kind and loving. After all, our Heavenly Father does the same for me everyday. And there is no better teacher than Him.
Thank you Lord, for reminding me of what's really important.

Potty Training day1, part 1

"AHHHHHHHHHH!", I'm ready to quit and its only been 4 hours!!! She hasn't had any accidents, she just flat out refuses to go pee. And I know there's pee in there, I've pumped her full of water, she just won't go. ERRRRR. Hopefully post-nap training will be more successful.

HEADS UP!

I've always wanted a trampoline, and thanks to this storm that just blew through I finally have one!

The metal legs flew off somewhere, but who needs em!

This sucker blew all the way over from Tera's house two doors down.

I don't know what the rest of the night has in store, but I could sure use some new patio furniture....

Spouses Spa Night

Last night was the 8th Annual Spouses Spa night, and never having been before I was really looking forward to a night of free massages, food, dessert, and whatever else the evening had to offer.

And then I got there and saw the 500 other women who had the same idea.

I don't want to complain, too much :), because it is nice to be recognized and given back to for a night, but I don't think I'll be participating in this event come next year.

It took a long time to shuffle 500 women through the food line, then the raffle line, the bag line, the massage line, the chocolate fountain line...everywhere there was a line!

Just slap the word "FREE" on something, and people, (myself included apparently) come running.

I waited in line for over 30 minutes for Free bread and green beans (there was meat available but seen as how I'm a vegetarian that doesn't apply to me)...what's the matter with me??

I then waited in line for 30 minutes, 30 minutes!!! for a 5 minute massage...because it was free.

Ahh, I can't let myself do that again next year, no way.

Below is half of the loooong line for food that I waited in. Nuts!

But on a high note, I did get to hang with my dear Tera!

early Christmas

On our last day in Florida Isaak's Aunt Lisa mentioned that she wanted to take Sydaleigh to her favorite store on earth, aka The Disney Store, seen as how going to
the happiness place on earth was out of the question for this visit.

Gulp.

This is Lisa we're talking about here. Miss Disney, has everything Disney, been to Disney more times than anyone else on the planet and would be buried their if she could be.

Not only did she take her, but informed us parents that it is not a true
"Disney experience" if Sydaleigh is not allowed free reign once inside the store...like she would have let me say no anyway!

I thought Sydaleigh's eyes were going to pop right out of her head!

It took all of, ohh, lets see, 2 seconds for Sydaleigh to dive in to EVERYTHING. And I just sat back ( I didn't have much other choice as I was already instructed not to spoil her fun as that would ruin the "Disney experience") and just took pictures and let Lisa do some spoiling.

Of course, afterwards, I recommended we save the gifts until Christmas time...yay, I got the evil eye. That wasn't about to happen, because, that would have ruined the Disney experience! I'll learn eventually. :)

So thank you Aunt Lisa, for all the spoiling, you are truly the best and Sydaleigh had a ball!!

highlights from Florida

Like I said, Florida was great. We got to see my family, see Isaak's family, see good friends, and have special hang out time with just us. We went to the beach, a wedding, our old church, the emergency room (for severe itching due to a severe sunburn( Isaak, not me)), the Zoo, friends houses, families house, the Spa for a pedicure, Botanical Gardens, malls, restaurants galore, the pool, and more of the beach. It was a great ten days, there was very little drama, and I wish we could go back and do it every year. Here are a few pictures from our trip...
beaching in Fort Lauderdale

pool time at our resort

me and Marvi chillin poolside

all the girls and two more on the way

taking in the Miami Zoo

eating breakfast on the balcany every morning

Me and my Mom at the wedding

Sydaleigh all dressed up

beaching at Fort Meyes on the Gulf

Syd having a grand time with her cousin whom she adores

up and down

I can't decide what kind of day this is today. It's like the day is stuck in limbo and can't make up its mind...
I got to sleep in this morning until 8:00...yay!
But when I woke up it was raining...boo. :(
Holly called this morning for an impromptu play date...yay!
I was then late for an appointment on base...boo. :(
Play date following appointment was much fun...yay!
Came home and Marvelly wouldn't lay down...boo. :(
Got some much needed cleaning out of the way...yay!
I now have a cold, all of a sudden, out of no where...boo. :(
I have a Spouses Spa Pampering thingy this evening with friends and no kids...yay!

Geesh, I rarely have days like this...they are generally either on the good side...or generally on the not so good side...today I'm stuck in the middle. I blame it on the rain.

woops!

So the vacation was awesome...I just wish the getting home part would have gone as smoothly as out trip did.

This was us, Monday morning, 5:00am, standing in front of the Northwestern desk wondering where everyone was??? "Hmmm, this is odd," I thought.

Fortunately someone came by, obviously just as confused by us being there as we were that no one was.., " y'all are early! Northwestern doesn't open till 7:30."...

"hmmmm," I thought again, "it's 5:00am, and we have a 6:20am flight, she MUST be wrong!"

Of course that wasn't the case.

Turned out we had a 4:20pm flight.

I take care of the kids, the packing, all that...Isaak is in charge of the traveling itinerary.

His name was pretty much mud...and he knew it.

So we turned around and headed back to his families, caught up as best we could on our sleep, and tried again 8 hours later.

Sydaleigh did great, all things considered. She got her 5th wind of the day during our second flight from Memphis to Omaha, and made sure that EVERYONE on that plane knew just how good she was at singing her ABC's.

Ahh, it was good to get home...just wish we hasn't seen that ticket waiting for us on Isaak's car.

almost home

Just one more night and then we're heading back to good ole Nebraska! I had the rare chance to jump online for the second time on our trip, but as soon as life settles back down at home I am going to blog my little heart out about our best vacation to date!

he's starting young

Isaak is downright determined to make a hockey player out of Sydaleigh, by golly, or a professional figure skater if plan A fails.

And of course, Isaak being the hockey enthusiast that he is, is determined to start young.

So this was her 2nd "lesson" which consisted of Isaak holding her under her arm pits and making three laps around the ice. He has to hold her under her arms because the store bought skates are too big and she can't stand on the ice. However, after three laps Sydaleigh is no longer interested and just wants to run and play behind the boards.

Isaak wonders why I won't fork over the money to buy custom fitted boots. Gee I wonder?!

Um, hello, she's two! She's just as happy running back and forth watching Daddy skate as she is to be out there doing it herself. Buy custom skates...sure...can I find those at a yard sale???????

Eella's castle

Sydaleigh is VERY into Cinderella right now, or Eella as she pronounces it. And every time we hop on the highway we drive by these old mills, and Sydaleigh calls them Cinderella's castle...sometimes they are Aurora's castle or Ariel's castle...but what a cute imagination. Leave it to a two year old to look at some ugly old building and see it their own special way. I love the eyes of children, they see things in a completely different way than adults do. So yes, this is Cinderella's castle.

brag a bit

Yeah, I need to do a little bit of bragging, my husband deserves it...

He has been so helpful around the house the past two days while I got things ready for my Mom's visit; grocery shopping, vaccuming, planting, helping with the girls...but today was the icing on the cake...he sent me and my Mom to get surprise massages for an early Mother's Day gift.

AHHHHH.

So-good.

I have such terrible tension build up in my shoulders and neck after pregnancy, for the first few months while my body adjusts to holding a new baby for forever and a day, so getting this massage was really a nice treat.

So just wanted to say my hubby is the bomb! He is so thoughtful and it was a great surprise.

hmmm, that can't be good...

Yup, that's pretty much what I was thinking when I got into the car this afternoon to find all the change that had been sitting in the front of the car had been relocated to the CD player slot.
That's never a good thing. Apparently two year olds think it's fun to stuff things into places that they don't belong! AHHH. I have to admit though, I semi deserve it for letting Sydaleigh sit in the car and "play" while I did some yard work. I should have known she was up to something sneaky for no other reason than she's two, and thinks it's great fun to do crazy things.
Isaak is still in the car, after nearly 30 minutes, with the face plate off trying to retrieve all the money.

so loved...

Despite the two year age difference between my girls, Sydaleigh really likes spending time with Marvelly, even though all Marvelly can do with her at this point is smile pretty much. So this morning as all us girls sat in Syd's bedroom, Sydaleigh took the "baby" towel hanging on her dresser and laid it on the floor for Marvelly. Sydaleigh then precedes to look at me and say, "Mommy, Marvelly (more like Mwavlly) down!" and pats the floor. Not quite sure what she has in store I lay Marvelly down on the towel, and then Sydaleigh starts folding her up in it, lays her own blanket on top of her and folds her in that too, and puts her Mickey Mouse doll next to her so she can go "nigh-night". Marvelly got a kick out of it and I had to take a picture. She is so thoughtful to her baby sister, even if it's in a strange kind of way.