how we roll on a Thursday...in photos

I've posted before about how slow most Thursdays are.  I've just worked 4 days in a row.  My kids have been up and ready early and haven't had a lot of time with mom and dad.  Wednesday nights we are at church.  

So Thursday mornings are bliss.  We don't have to get dressed, well except for Miss Rose going to school (although this is her last full week!).  If it's my week to drive, usually the rest of us are still in jammies in the minivan.  I try to not schedule things early, if anything at all.

Do you know that even kids of two-working-parents get tired during the work-week?  I can tell on Thursdays, my kids are tired. They are ready to be in their own home all day and play with their own toys. Sometimes they resist getting dressed at all during the day.  I let them lounge on the couch and watch a little extra TV.  They love to play, so if they are actually still, watching a show, I know they need the downtime.

Not a lot of housework gets done in the early part of the week.  Sometimes I get an urge to do deep cleaning or organization on Thursdays.  Today was one of those days.  It was gloomy all day--typical June for us--but it made me want to hunker down in the house, and the girls didn't mind either.

A few weeks ago I moved Miss Rose into Lily's room and moved Lily in with Maleah.  Miss Rose actually was the only one who had a hard time the first night, but it's been great.  However, the little girls' room still needed a lot of attention.  So I decided to tackle it today.

I love the cubbies.  But they get crammed full of random stuff so easily.  And stuffed animals.  We have so many.  But Gracie knows each and every one.  I don't have the heart to get rid of them because she truly cycles through them all.

So I organized, cleaned, and threw stuff away while the girls played.  Gracie loves weddings and requested to wear a wedding dress.  So it was flower girl dress day for a few hours.  Gracie played with her figurines.  She has such a wonderful imagination.  Even if a lot of the talk is about boyfriends, girlfriends and Justin Beiber.

Lily was a little mama, singing Jesus Loves Me to her baby over and over again.  Melt my heart!  She has the melody of the song down really well, but you can only make out every few words.  I recorded her singing it on my iPhone.  Sometime I'll figure out how to get the clip on her for you to hear it.  Absolutely precious.

I rolled in my pajamas.  All.Day.  It was yoga pants and a tshirt.  But still, I did sleep in them last night.  Sometimes though, that's how you roll.  Once I made it past lunch, what was the point of changing?  And my neighbor was able to pick Miss Rose up from school, so no need to get dressed for pick-up (which requires walking into the school).  I didn't get in the van once today.  If I had a picture, I'd share.  But, oh shame, I don't.

We did walk about half a mile to sign Gracie up for soccer, and half a mile back.  I just threw on a sweatshirt and we went.  Gracie rode her Coaster Car the whole way.  This is what happens when she rides her coaster car.  She flies on that thing.  And propels herself with her toes.

Thankfully, we have a lot of hand me down shoes from friends and Miss Rose.  She's gone through about 4 pairs already.  I need to invent shoes that have thick rubber soles on the toes.  I try to limit the shoes she wears to ride her car, but inevitably she gets out there without me noticing what shoes she is wearing, or it's when a babysitter is here, and once the damage begins, might as well make them play shoes.  These were super cute shoes though and I'm sad they met this fate.

Gracie is excited about soccer.  She will either be the girl picking flowers from the grass, or she will be up in the mix.  It's really hard to say.  She wanted to wear her practice shirt to bed, although she didn't want a picture taken.  She has normal eyes.  I promise.

In the midst of cleaning and playing, Lily wanted to climb into a wooden cradle.  This cradle is older than I am.  There are photos of me laying in it as a newborn (for fun, not for function).  Then, Lily was taking pictures while in the cradle.  I love these chubby feet.

When we got home from soccer sign-ups, I had to change into fresh pajamas.  After 24 hours in those ones, I couldn't bear another 12.  

Oh, and Miss Rose's haircut?  Here it is in the salon, blown dry.  She wasn't a fan of the flip at the bottom.

The other day I told her she should do extra chores and earn money to buy me a super nice birthday present.  She said, "I know what I'll give you.  A...big...chunk...of...love."  Sweet.  And sassy.  Doesn't want to spend her money on mama.  That's ok.  I'd rather have her love anyday.

Most days her hair is crazy as ever.  Just like her.

And, that's how we roll.

(oh, I do have somewhat of a conclusion to the saga of Lily's illness this week.  She is doing much better.  I'll post about it tomorrow)

Motherhood

I love this photo.

Surrounded by my girls.  A mother to three children. 
The "minimum" number of children I wanted.  I finally had them. 

A sweet, sleeping newborn on my chest.
A five-year-old; my first baby.
An almost two-year-old; still very much a baby.

So far, motherhood to me has meant babies. 

Making babies, growing babies, birthing babies, raising babies. 

Dreaming of motherhood always meant dreaming of babies.

Although it was often pure chaos, I loved having two babies for the past year.

I loved being that mom with two kids born in two years. 

That mom people looked at in the store like I was crazy. 

It was something I always kind of wanted, but was too afraid to plan.

But Gracie-girl isn't so much a baby anymore. 

And every day Lily is growing and changing. Too fast for my taste.

Too soon, I won't have a baby. It's bittersweet.

I need to start re-defining my motherhood soon. I'm not ready yet though.

I'm still drinking in the baby-ness of my now 15-month-old.

I hold her chubby cheek to my face. I cherish her grip on the back of my arm. I memorize the heaviness of her head on my shoulder before I lay her in the crib.

Motherhood.

It's everything I hoped it would be, and more.

**This post is part of a giveaway on We Are THAT Family.**

cyber baby book

I'm terrible these days at keeping track of things in baby books.  In fact, I've yet to start Lily's baby book.  I do have a "First Year" calendar that I tracked milestones on.  Well, at least some of the milestones.

So for now, I'm relying on my blog for record of my kids development.

Miss Rose is maturing so much these days.  The last month or so we haven't had any major discipline problems with her.  A few months ago, we had some huge knock-down drag outs.  But we stuck to our guns and kept our expectations high, and she's rising to meet them.  She's been very sweet and loving, not only to her sisters but even us!  Miss Rose is also doing wonderful in school.  She had her first spelling test today and scored 100%.  That's my girl! 

For the first time in her life, Miss Rose hasn't gained weight, but she has continued to grow in height.  She's still very solid, but has grown leaner.  Her legs go forever!  She's loving T-ball and is definitely showing talent.  Bean and I aren't parents to push our kids much, but we just want to give them opportunity.  We're excited to see what sports she continues to like and want to play.

Gracie, has been three for almost two weeks now, and it's starting to show.  The age of three is my least favorite so far.  My kids don't seem to have terrible 2's (in my opinion) but the whining and complaining and asserting of their will and desires at three is quite challenging.  Gracie is doing a lot of whining and is quite impatient.  She's still so sweet though!  She randomly will hug us and say "I love you" and it just melts your heart!

Gracie has always been better at independant play than Miss Rose.  She loves her "friends" and her favorite toys are small stuffed animals and small plastic animals.  She usually picks an item that is her "favorite" for a few days and then moves on to something else.   I love watching her play.  She's started to sing and make songs up, which is precious.  She was singing at the top of her lungs before dinner tonight.  She LOVES her baby sister and her big sister too.

Oh Miss Lily, she's growing and changing too fast.  Most of the time she still has a "baby" look to her.  Especially since she still doesn't walk.  But her communication grows by leaps and bounds, reminding me that she's coming up on 15 months.  Her first word was definitely "hi."  She loves waving and saying hi and making friends.  Whenever we walk around the house to my parent's door, or next door to the neighbors, she gets all excited and starts waving and saying "hi" before we even see anyone.  This also means she's a fan of talking on the phone and saying hi!

Lily has a new fascination with babies.  Real ones and baby dolls.  She says "bebe" when she sees another baby (even if they are close in age to her) and about dolls and stuffed animals.  She even tries to feed baby dolls with a baby bottle.  Because we have so many "big kid" toys around, she usually picks random toys to play with and doesn't play with a lot of "baby" toys even though we have them. 

Both girls love crawling around and having Lily follow them.  She still has her "special crawl", although she does crawl normally from time to time.  Lily loves seeing the girls after she wakes up in the morning or after a nap.  She gets excited and flaps her arms and legs as we leave her room and looks to the living room for her sisters.  Watching their relationships grow is so fun.  Lily already asserts herself when they have a toy she wants.

I try to take photos and video frequently, but I worry that I don't get enough.

These moments are so special.  I read something somewhere in the cyberworld recently that said when your children are young "the days are long, but the years pass so quickly."  There is so much truth to that.  I don't want to miss any moments that I don't have to.  These are the best days of my life {so far}.

Inside and out

If I'm being completely honest, raising children is more difficult that I expected it would be.  The care and feeding of children I'm really good at.  I got plenty of practice with my siblings, babysitting in high school and nannying during college.  In my opinion, that is easy, and very fulfilling.

But raising children is so much more than caring for their physical needs.  I want to raise children who embody Matthew 22:36-40; who love God, love themselve and love others.  It can kinda be boiled down to that, can't it? 

This.  Is hard.  The balance of discipline and grace.  Of tough love and compassion.  Determining what is childish and what is disobedience.  Letting kids be kids but also teaching them to obey and be respectful.  For instance, what do you do when an adult is purposefully egging on your intense child?  When that child responds in like manner to that adult, where's the line between respect and standing up for themselves? 

I feel like I'm winging it a lot of the time.  I worry about not being consistent and the effect it has on my children.  There are so many things I would like to do on a regular basis to help in shaping their soul.  But life usually gets in the way, and those planned things don't often happen.  Of course I often hear wonderful reports about my children and their behavior when they are away from home.  But at home, we deal with the brunt of their human nature.  And it ain't pretty.

Then there are days like yesterday.  When I get a glimpse of who my children are becoming and I breath a small sigh of relief.

I realize I am 100% biased, but my daughters are beautiful.  They truly are.  And when I get the opportunity to enhance their natural beauty, the result is stunning.

So. Adorable.

They were beautiful in a special wedding yesterday.  A good friend from church got married, who has been babysitting for us since Miss Rose was one year old.  In fact, she stayed with our girls last year when I went in early for my c-section.  She was probably the first non-relative person we left both Gracie and Lily with.  She adores my girls and they adore her.

Here's the true beauty of the day though.

It was a long day.  I tried putting Gracie down early for a short nap, but she just played.  We arrived at the church and got dressed.  And as it is with all weddings, lots of waiting for photographs before and after the ceremony, and waiting for the bride and groom to arrive at the reception.

But my girls, behaved so beautifully.  Sure, they were kids.  They were running around after the ceremony, so they probably have the sheen of sweat on their brow and very flushed cheeks.  I told them more than once to stop running.  Gracie even ran into a pew, cried for a while, then returned to running.  They spent a lot of time at the reception under the tables.  What better fun is going under a table with a floor-length tablecloth?

And if you've read my blog for long, you know that Miss Rose is as "tomboy" as they come.  Wearing a formal dress with her hair up in a clip, tights and dress shoes, is not her idea of fun.  (Gracie on the other hand, was in seventh heaven again.  She was quite disappointed to walk into church this morning and see all the wedding fan-fare gone.)  But Miss Rose had a wonderful attitude and seemed to understand how special this was.  Although she couldn't wait to get her tights off after their entrance at the reception!

They walked down the isle perfectly.  They smiled beautifully in every photo.  They received compliments with grace. 

Even though they were tired and often hungry, they listened and obeyed.  There was minimal complaining and no whining.  They were polite and respectful.  I only had to give one time out.  

The beauty inside of them shone through yesterday.  Their outer beauty was just icing on the cake.

And for the first time in a while, I thought, maybe we are doing some of this right.

28:: babywearing Bible Mama (with photos this time!)

On my last Sunday, as a babywearing Bible mama, I got a photo! Which in itself, is pretty miraculous, given the whirlwind that Sundays have been. Are you tired yet of me recounting the craziness of my Sundays? As I was driving home this afternoon, I was thinking about how God certainly has called me to the ministry because he gets me through these crazy days and although I'm exhausted, I'm fulfilled in my ministry and thankful that my kids are experiencing ministry too.

I was out of the door at 7:10am with the older girls. I had a bunch of printing to do for promoting a new ministry. I have more hours of week these days, then I do time in the office, which means for last minute stuff like today. After sending the girls for their Sunday morning donuts, Miss Rose came back and said she had an accident. Just lovely. Thankfully Bean was still home, so he was able to get clean clothes. That's what happens when you're daughter is determined to come early with you--but is still tired and neglects using the bathroom when she first wakes up.

At 8am I had to rush to get my stage makeup done. Grab my costume, then back to meet Bean for Miss Rose's clean clothes and to get the baby and costume her. Once my part in the production was done...quick change into a dress and out to do sign-ups for our new classes. Then, lather, rinse, repeat for the 2nd service.

I wish I had taken a picture of my office after the whirlwind was over. Candy wrappers, sunday school papers, pee-laden clothes, toys strewn about, half-eaten applesauce, empty raisin box, my own papers and clothes, empty water bottles and general craziness.

It's been fun, but I'm looking forward to just focusing on ministry next weekend (although our trilogy has one more part) and Bean said he's ready to not be Mr. Mom and stage dad.

Me & the babe, sporting the Sakura Bloom!   I don't know that the average townperson following Jesus would have had such a lush sling, but I thought it fit with the costume pretty well.  Can you tell Lily missed her morning nap?

Babywearing Bible mama and her modern children!  (Notice how tall Miss Rose is getting?  STOP GROWING!)

There have been about a gazillion people snapping photos the last few weeks.  If I get any good "action" shots, I'll be sure to share them!

Now that my part is over, I'm excited to paint my toenails and wear earrings again!  

girls, girls, girls

Girls, all I really want is girls.
And the morning it's girls
Cause in the evening it's girls

(who can name that artist?)

That was a fun song we loved to belt out in high school.  I'm not sure why, but we did.  (No, that wasn't an artist I listened to regularly.  It was mostly just that one song.)

Little did I know how it would resemble my life.  When I imagined having children, I guess because I come from a family with 3 girls and 1 boy, I just assumed I'd have children of both genders also.  But apparently, Bean is good at making girls (it is his call, you know).  We like to say we have just one recipe, with a few variations.

It seems like the majority of my friends with two or more children, have all the same gender.  Whether it's two, three or four, its all girls or boys.  I don't think any of them continued having children to get that boy or that girl, that's just the family size they chose (or God chose for them).  People often joke with us (especially Bean) about trying for a boy.  But we are so happy with our three daughters and neither of us could imagine it differently.

Having multiple children of the same gender is pretty convienent.  Lots of hand me downs and getting multiple uses out of the same items.  It does mean lots of bins in my garage to save for the next girl--and it seems no matter how many times I organize them, they still are all jumbled.  Although I would have been just as thrilled to have a son (I still wish I could have used our boy name), I was somewhat relieved that our third child was another girl, seeing that we had just moved and her arrival was supposed to be 10 days later.

It's been fun that one of my longtime friends also has three girls!  Her girls are each about a year older than mine.  It's been especially nice this last year as I've navigated having children just 21 months apart as her last two were 24 months apart.  We also share clothes and baby items.  We live about 45min from each other, so when we do get to meet up, we always have things to exchange.  Bean gets annoyed because he always has to bring stuff in to them, and then re-load the van with new stuff!  But it's a huge blessing!  (She also made my new header and took two of the photos in it!)

We like to meet up at Sea World sometimes.  It's moments like these, we realize wow--together, we have a lot of kids, and a lot of girls!

It's a bit blurry, but mamas with their girls!  (The security guard who took our photo did a great job of getting the killer whale in the shot!)

I know our poor husbands!  Especially in about 10 years when all the girls will be in pre-puberty or puberty!

All I know is, I love my girls!!

The Summer of the Dress

I've never been a "girly-girl." My brother was just 18 months younger than me and we played together a ton growing up. I was very into my baby dolls, but most of my time was spent outside playing pioneer, Davey Crockett, cowboys and Indians and the like.

However, I always enjoyed getting dressed up for church on Sundays. Most of my dresses were hand me downs, but I loved them. I remember during my fifth grade year I was really into carrying a purse, especially to church. I think all I had in it was a few one dollar bills and some lip gloss. For some reason, the feminist in me reared her head and I refused to carry a purse for many years after. I much preferred large wallets or purse backpacks. And when I think about some of the dresses and outfits I put together for church over the years...I was in great need of fashion help!

I fear that even though I'm more balanced now, Miss Rose has picked up a little too much of my tomboy-independent-girls rock attitude. She is extremely opposed to wearing dresses or even skirts. She wants to wear jeans, old tshirts and her beat up shoes to church on Sundays. She wants to wear that all of the time.

About 50% of the time I don't want to fight and let her choose her own clothes for school. The other 50% I risk the argument and put my foot down on her clothing. When she is much older I know she'll look back at photos and ask me why I let her dress that way. I figure if I try to downplay it, she'll eventually grow out of it.

When it comes to my own everyday clothing, I am definately about comfort and function. I really only dress up--complete with hair and full makeup--for work and church on Sundays. Even some of those days are more casual or thrown together--depending on how much time I had. Of course, I've dressed Miss Rose with that same attitude--function and comfort.

Perhaps that was a mistake. Perhaps I should have embraced her girly side more earlier in her life. I'm sure she'll find it--just like I did. I'm all about a great purse and good shoes now. When the occasion calls for it of course. Not just to grocery shop.

Gracie however, is still young and impressionable. She has quite an opinion on her clothes--which Miss Rose didn't have at two. Gracie has her favorite jackets (jack-jacks or jacky as she calls it). If I choose the wrong one, she'll go to the closet and say "no, this one." She LOVES to stay in her jammies. Shoes are also a big thing. Last week it was the new white sandels I bought her for Easter. This week it's black little ballet flats (which she wore with too big of socks and jeans a few days ago).

So I've decided for Gracie, this is the summer of the dress. I'm going to put her in cute summer dresses as much as posssible! The right ones are just as cool as shorts and a tank top. Makes diaper changes (and potty training soon) easier too.

Who knows, in another year Miss Rose will probably be all about dressing up and I won't be able to get Gracie out of her tennis shoes. Good think Lily is coming up behind them. I'll have another girl to dress for a few more years before she can make up her own mind.

A friend gave me a whole bunch of clothes her daughter had outgrown for Gracie--and what do you know---there were several casual dresses. It's meant to be!

Frankly, I'm on the hunt for some cute dresses myself. They can be much more flattering than shorts, especially for a body still recovering from two pregnancies in two years.