Oh my darling, Clementine

This holiday season, Ellie Kate has been absolutely obsessed with Clementines. I don't know what it is about them, but she cannot get enough! Maybe it is that they are easy to peel, so she can do that herself. Or maybe its because they are super sweet. Or maybe its because they are "mini" oranges, and she can throw them around the house. No matter what the reason, she loves them.

Often times I will come into the kitchen, with this bouncing little girl, standing at the open refrigerator on her tippy toes, trying her very hardest to reach that clementine drawer. I just had to snap that picture. When she is older, she may not believe me.


Mission accomplished. She always comes and asks me to help her start the peel, and then she runs to "her" drawer to get a bowl. She carefully takes each peeled piece to the trash - one at a time. She hurries back and places each individual peeled clementine slice into her bowl. It takes her about 10 minutes to get ready to eat her clementine, and about 45 seconds to eat it.

When I say she is obsessed with them, I mean it. She eats like 7 or 8 a day! She asks for more ("mo owange, mommy?"), but I am not sure about the protocol on too much Vitamin C in your system.

Ben has decided to keep the few seeds that we found in the clementines to grow our own clementine tree. I think he is afraid she might eat us out of house and home someday. I suppose its possible.

Our Christmas vacation, a preview

We had such a great time with family and friends in Oklahoma this holiday season. I found myself continually thinking, "oh man, i have to blog about that..." So in the next few weeks, I hope to blog about all our fun times and adventures over Christmas. For now, I thought I would leave you with this darling new picture of our girls (above). Arent they precious???



My sweet sister-in-law made these sweet outfits for EK and Peyton. She did a fabulous job and does a fabulous job with all the things she makes. These outfits had detail on the front shirt and on the cuffs of the sleeve. The pants are even cuter and it is a shame you can't see them in the picture. They are the same fabric as the detailing on the front, and they had skirt-like bottoms. So darling. Even though I didnt tell her I was going to do this, I am going to let you in on a little secret. Her blog is www.xanga.com/krishua and you can easily talk her into making some for you and your little princesses. She wont be rediculously priced like all those specialty shops out there (would you believe I paid 80 bucks for an outfit like this last year for Christmas!!!! 80 bucks!!!). So for all you moms of daughters out there, go to her blog and tell her I sent ya, she will surely be nice to you then, hehe.



Ben and I love this picture so much it is going to be our New Years Greeting picture (we are too lazy to send out Christmas greeting cards this year). Can't wait!

Christmas cookies

On of the great things about having a "girly" girl is her strong inner sense for domesticity - aka, my kid loves to bake! I took this notion and decided to let her bake Christmas cookies for her and Peyton's Sunday school teachers. We had such a great time. She doesn't quite grasp the whole Christmas idea yet (which is fine with me), but she sure loved making tree, sock, and bear cookies - Christmas trees, stockings, and gingerbread men. Here are a few pics of our grand time together.
I wish you could see her face. She was so proud of herself.

I know she shouldn't be sitting on the counter, but sometimes you have to break the rules to make some memories.

I gave her some dough to play with while I rolled and flattened the rest. By the time I looked up at her, it was all gone, with just a tiny remnant left on her fingers.

The finished project. I let her put the sprinkles and candy on as decorations. She did surprisingly well.

Notice the fingerprint in this one :-)

Her teachers loved it. Being a type A personality, I had to force myself to let her create them, even if they didn't look perfect. They really did look like a two year old made them, and I think that is what her teachers appreciated most about it. She was so proud to take her little bag up to each of her teachers as she said, "may kissmus."

Happy Anniversary To Me...

December 17, 2005 was a glorious day in history. Three years ago today, I married my best friend. While I have a hard time remembering everything about that day, I do remember walking down that long aisle and seeing the man of my dreams waiting for me. He is the most incredible man I know and I want to take this post to let the world know why I am thankful for my husband.

1. He loves me unconditionally.
2. He honored and respected me as we dated for five years. (he is a pic of us in our early years)

3. He is so quick to forgive, even though I am not.
4. He always kisses me goodnight and brings me a glass of water before I fall asleep.
5. He comes home to eat lunch with his family every day.
6. He loves and respects my parents and my brothers a sisters.
7. He loves to mop the floor and mow the lawn ( I am serious, he really does).
8. He notices when I clean the house.
9. He is the most patient man I know.
10. He is the world's most wonderful father.

11. When I get up to nurse the baby (with both girls), he sits up and talks to me so i won't get lonely.

12. When EK had her screaming fits at night, he would walk her round and round our house for hours, and never complain.

13. He gets on the floor and wrestles with the girls.

14. Even though he suffers with dyslexia, he reads to the girls everyday, so that they will love to read.

15. He was my biggest supporter during labor, emotionally and physically (as I yanked on his neck the whole time).

16. He always makes sure his girl's needs are met before his own (when his mom asked what he wanted for Christmas, he replied, "I just want my girls to be happy" - tear.

17. He loves to see the lives of students changed.

18. He has his "quiet time" with my everyday.

19. He is a wonderful head of our household and provider

20. He loves God more than he loves me.

I love him more than the day I married him. These twenty reason I am thankful for him are just the beginning. We have been through so much these past three years. We moved away from our family, experienced living in the "big city," bought our first house, changed jobs, had two babies, and did it all while still growing more deeply in love with Jesus and eachother.

I love you, Ben, and I hope I do a good job showing you how much everyday. Can't wait for the next fifty years. XOXO.

The fab fitted diaper

So, is it like so sick and twisted that I get psyched when I get new cloth diapers? Its true, I do. Buying them is almost addicting. They are so cute on my kiddos, not to mention, with each addition to my stack, its more time I can go without having to do a diaper load of laundry.

Those of you who are fellow cloth diapering mamas, I hope you understand. I was reading this girl's blog the other day and she mentioned that when she has a bad day or things just aren't going her way, instead of feeling the urge to go buy a new pair of stilettos, she has to fight the urge to go buy her kids some new cloth diapers. I have to admit that I felt a sense of relief when I read this. Maybe I am not the only crazy one.

I have been a lover of the thirsties covers since the beginning of my cloth diapering, but have never purchased their diapers. I don't know what was holding me back. If they were anything like their covers, I would love them. So after doing some research on-line and reading fab reviews, I ordered some of these....

The fab fitted thirties cloth diapers. They are wonderful. No snapping, no pulling tight. You just Velcro and go. I love em! Ellie Kate seems to love them too. When I pulled them out of the box, she exclaimed, "ewww..cute." I think she is more in love with the color, and who can blame her? I am convinced the Peyton loves them too because her plumbing has worked like a charm these past few days. I ordered them in raspberry pink and melon purple. I am in a heap of trouble if I ever have a boy.

Dontchya just love em though. I can't believe I am saying that about a cloth diaper.

I dream of graco...

You know you have officially arrived as a mom when your wish list sounds more like a second-round baby shower registry. I mean seriously, all I want for MYSELF this year for Christmas is things for the girls. Let me give you a little peek into the craziness. This is my Christmas list, that was distributed to my family this year:

1. A sleepy-wrap baby sling - any color
2. More Safe Sippy sippy cups
3. The Magnetic calendar for my refrigerator from John & Kate plus 8
4. Nursing tank tops from Motherhood (yikes, i know)
5. And MOST MOST MOST of all, I want the graco quatro duo stroller.

I even surprised myself as I wrote this list a few months ago. And please don't be confused, I dont just think these would be practical gifts, I would jump for joy at the arrival of any of these gifts of Christmas morning. I can just hear myself screaming at the top of my lungs, "Oh, my nursing tops, Just what I always wanted!" And I would be serious.

I doubt I will actually get my most coveted gift, the double stroller, seeing that it is a whopping 239 bucks, and I have no rich relatives or friends (at least that I know of ;-)) But there have actually been times that I have dreamed of this stroller. No lie. I have awoken with a smile on my face as I was just dreaming of walking down the wings of the mall, with two darling daughters in tow, acting as angels inthis glorious stroller. Ahhhhh...

So gone are the days of dreaming of clothes, shoes, make-up, i-pods, and gameboys. No, now I only dream of this.....

Be still my heart.

There is hope....

Our first born, Ellie Kate was born an easy-going, beautiful little girl. She slept wonderful, pooped wonderful (only a mother would say that), ate wonderful, etc. Then came day ten! It seemed at this week and a half mile marker - she woke up. She became the most high maintenance baby in the history of babies!

It began with what Ben and I have termed, "the six weeks of doom." For six straight week, Ellie Kate would start screaming at 9:00 pm, on the dot, and scream and scream and scream until 2:00am. Ben and I would take turns walking the house round and round and round. She wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep, wouldn't ______ (insert whatever you want, because we tried it!). We read every book, asked every parent we knew, and visited every website, and nothing helped. We eventually joined Netflix and would pop in a movie at 9:30 because we figured out if we could trick ourselves into thinking it was day time, the screaming was more bearable. Not to mention that if we had to endure one more episode of the LATE LATE show, we were going to be institutionalized.

Besides the screaming episodes, Ellie Kate remained high maintenance about life. She suffered from what termed as "altitude sickness." If you were holding her, the minute you sat down, she would scream. We suffered just about every breastfeeding problem ever. She would only poop every 9-12 days, which my doctor kept insisting was normal, although I am still not sure I believer her. She hated her car seat and would scream until she got out of it. The list could go on and on....

All that to say, all my lovely first time-moms, we had our share of issues, but WE LIVED!!! I also want to offer some hope. Our darling Peyton, now four months old, is the most delightful child there ever was. After Ellie Kate, I was sure that it was something in our DNA and all of our children would put us through three months of craziness. Not so. Peyton nurses like a champ, poops great, is content wherever we put her, loves her car seat, pacifies herself to sleep with her thumb, and has slept through the night since three weeks old. No need to make that demanding first born and only child - endure - for who knows, your next one may surprise you.

Each of my girls have wonderful traits. While Ellie Kate continues to keep us on our toes in life, Peyton remains loyal and true. It takes all kinds to make up a family, and we are certainly doing our part to keep that statement true.

Here is a picture of my chill second born, Peyton, falling asleep on her back mat, thumb in her mouth, while her sister dances and sings around her....

The preacher's wife

There are so many misconceptions about being marrried to a minister. I remember being a little girl and always saying, "I want to be a youth pastor's wife when I grow up." Boy, I had no idea what I was asking for. All I saw was the fun side - hanging out with teenagers, going to summer camps every year, and being married to a man who's passion was seeing lives changed. Don't get me wrong, I still love all these things aboug being married to a pastor, specifically a youth pastor, but like any job, it has its setbacks.

For instance, we can never just pick up and go somewhere for the weekend, because we have to be back at church, ready to go Sunday morning. My refrigerator is never fully stocked because teenagers are constantly raiding it. My husband's phone rings at midnight on a regular basis, two hours after we have all been sound asleep, with a shy eigth grader on the other end asking what time we are leaving for Incredible Pizza tomorrow night. And worst of all, I am given the daunting task of waking, changing, feeding, dressing, buckling, and driving both my darling daughters to church on Sunday all by myself, because Ben has been gone since before the sun was up (we rarely make it on time, but we get closer and closer every week!).

I tell ya, being a youth ministier is definitely a calling, but being his wife is a calling as well. I am blessed beyond measure and I thank God for our job everyday - the good and the bad.

This is the aftermath of this past Sunday morning. Poor kiddo, couldnt even make it through lunch. Maybe being a youth minister's child is a calling as well.