Joy of the Lord is my strength

Today was a joy walk at our church. We have gone in the past, but the girls were too little to do more than ride and watch. This time Lillie got out of the wagon and helped pass out a few bottles. Gracie of course couldn't be out done, so she too helped pass out a few. It was a fun morning, with the highlight being of a woman literally acting as if I was a vampire! After we told her where we were from and invited her to our camp meeting services Gracie held out a bottle of Joy soap, she dropped her rake leaned back and gave me the cross saying very sternly, No. We graciously said God bless you and went on our way. It is kind of funny thinking that we were trying to pass out Joy soap (Joy of the Lord) and she acted like we were passing out poison.

I heard Lillie passing out pretend bottles of Joy to Gracie in the living room when we got home. It was really cute!

Lillie had a blast at Grandma's VBS this year. She made several crafts and learned about prayer. She already asked when the next VBS is. We also had Lillie's friend Jaelyn over on Thursday. Both the girls seemed to have a lot of fun. It was nice to have another girl over. The first 45 minutes they were all over the place. After getting settled in we played in the water sprinkler (I do plan on getting a bigger sprinkler :) and more water toys) and then on to the indoor toys. I was glad to go inside, because of the heat. Unfortunately we have little shade around our house to help keep us cool. Lillie really wants to invite several girls over for a game night, since the mommas have been having a game night for the past several months. Maybe I will get up the nerve one day : ) !

Gracie and I visited my Granny Beard Thursday while Lillie was at VBS. Gracie was not real thrilled at first about leaving Lillie, because she also thought she was big enough to stay. After we got milkshakes and fries she was good. Gracie enjoyed looking at all the pictures of family at my Granny's house. Once when she knocked a couple over, she jumped back and crossed her arms behind her back like nothing happened. We had to laugh.

Alex is off for the next few days and the girls have been looking forward to spending time with him. They miss him like crazy while he is working.

The girls and I may go to the zoo this week with my parents, brothers and maybe my sister and her boys. Otherwise I plan on staying cool (not hard for me though) inside.

Hope you have a great weekend!

I WON

I have been getting codes for the Huggies Enjoy the ride program from a great blog Freebies4Mom and have won a $25 gas card from Huggies. YAY!!!!! It is nice to win something once in awhile. : ) IF you go to her blog she has codes for over 60 points. If nothing more the video that plays after you enter the instant win game on Huggies is cute.

It is hot, hot, hot

This Lillie's favorite week of the summer. My parent's church has VBS. Lillie has gone for couple of years and she talks about it year-round. Last night she kept getting up and when I would take her back to bed she would tell me how excited she was that she was going to Bible school the next day. We had VBS at our church last year, but it started at Kindergarten and Lillie has a little while to reach that age.

Gracie is going to sleep better at night. She still cries a few minutes, but bedtime is much smoother. I also believe she is ready for full out potty training. I tried a few months back, but she was not at that point yet. She tells me if she is wet and often will take herself to the potty. I hope to have her using the potty within the next couple of weeks. : ) One of favorite things to do is chase us around singing: Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, be he alive or be he dead, I'm going to eat him with my bread. Maybe a little morbid, but with the expression on her face and how she deepens her voice makes it cute nonetheless.

The girls and I played in our water sprinkler on Saturday. I put sunscreen on both girls and a little on my arms, but I seemed to have not gotten my shoulders as they are both burnt. Gracie has learned that if she squeezes the hose in half she can stop the water, which she then proceeds to tell Lillie that it is broken. Lillie plays along and while taking a look Gracie will release the hose to soak Lillie. It is really funny.

Yesterday I met a few friends from high school at the park. I had a nice time and regret that it has been so long since we have gotten together. I loved seeing all their children and catching up a little on what is going on in our lives. As moms we tend to put off getting together with friends because we have laundry to do or errands to run, but we need to spend time nurturing our friendships too. I don't want to be busy to be a friend. I hope that we can get together again!

Does God have a swing set?

Lillie has been asking a lot of questions about death and dying here lately. She is completely serious about the questions and there are times when she asked that she looked a little upset. They are cute questions none the less.

*Will we have to go potty in heaven?
*Will we all die together?
*How will be bust people out of our house when we fly with Jesus on a cloud?
*What will happen to our house/toys/movies when we die?
*Will Tallie (her puppy) come with us?
*How will we drink?
*We won't die for a long time, right?
*(insert anyone's name) loves Jesus so they'll die.
*When we get to heaven we'll meet Daddy's mom. She'll get to know us, since she doesn't know us now.
*My personal favorite from a four year old: Does God have a swing set?

I did answer all of them with the best of my ability and she seemed satisfied with my answers. I am not sure quite where this interest of death came from or if it is just with the age.

Please keep Gracie in prayer as she was up most of the night with a fever. Thanks.

Update

I thought I would update the bedtime issue with Gracie. It is getting better - NOT. Well, she did stop waking up every hour to hour and half crying for me to pick her up. I am being tough and sticking to my routine though. She is very strong willed and maybe that is why she is still fighting it. I do not know, but I do wish it would get better because I am having a really hard time with it. Last night she took 1 1/2 house to go to sleep and ended up crying herself out.


I shared the video of the kitchen cabinet and thought I would share this picture. She is in the compartment under Lillie's baby doll bed. She love to hide and get into small spots.

Lillie is starting to really want to learn letter sounds. We purchased the BOB book series 1 and have started the first or 12 books in this set. She is doing great. She can sound out most of the words. She told me she can't wait to read because then she can read to Gracie.

The girls are playing really well together. Both love to play house, school and vet with each other. I love that I am able to get more things done without breaking up fights.


I have been running for a week! I started running on our treadmill during Gracie's nap. Lillie either plays or watches a cartoon with me during that time. I feel good and am planning on not quiting. I do wish I could run outside occasionally, but that is more difficult with little ones. Hopefully when Alex is off I will be able to.


That is about all that is going on at my house thus far! Have a great day.

Blessed Assurance

When we got home from church today Gracie was eating her lunch and I asked her about her class (nursery). She went on for a couple of minutes then goes "Jesus in my heart." It was so cute. Whoever said that the nursery is just a "babysitter" during service, needs to rethink. Just one more reason why it is so important to have your family in church. :)

Swagbucks

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according to Lillie

Lillie was telling Gracie the story of Zaccheaus yesterday and when she got to the part of being in the tree she said, "And Jesus said, Zaccheaus you come down right now or I'm going to your house to give you a spanking!"
Ouch! I am glad that Jesus doesn't talk like that to me! Although I am sure that there were (and may still be) times where that just may be what I need to hear. I am also fairly sure I am not the only one. : )

Disclaimer: I do not advocate spanking your child if he or she climbs a tree. :)

Cabinets and Two Year olds

I was getting ready for dinner and looked over to see a massive pile of tupperware containers and no Gracie. I hollared for Gracie and she popped out of the cabinet. Now, don't think I lose my children on a regular basis :) I knew where she was, but was playing with her. I took this video. I also learned where all my tupperware disappears to - my trash can via my 2 year old. I looked over just in time to see her look at one container and then toss it in the trash. I guess she figured that we don't need that particular container.

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Hold me, Mommy!

Well, bedtime is still not easy. I have tweaked my routine a bit. Now after story and prayer, I will rock her for 10 minutes before laying her in bed. This is okay, but she usually spends the rocking time asking for me to rock her and not put her in bed. She is not sleeping good after she goes to sleep either. She wakes up almost every hour crying for mommy to hold her. She does end up with us in bed by 2 or 3 am because I have to have some sleep! I do want to thank all of you who have left encouraging comments and prayer for me. It is comforting to know that all of you have dealt with some part of this yourselves and survived it. I just don't remember it being this hard for me with Lillie.

Accidents

We had a pretty eventful evening last night. It started out very relaxing and quiet. We played outside after dinner, then went for a bike ride. Lillie is really loving to ride her bike and go on "family bike rides". This really is just Alex with Gracie on his bike, and Lillie riding hers because occasionally Lillie gets stuck and needs a little shove. She also stops if there is a car, which is good, but that may be in the middle of road so I walk with her. We are still working on the safety topics. Anyways, I took Gracie in to get her pajamas on and Alex was going to get Lillie who was pretending to be driving his truck. As I was washing Gracie off, Alex comes in carrying Lillie. She was trying to get away from him by jumping side to side in the truck and she fell out the passenger side door. She was crying, and scrapped up on her knees, hands, chin, and right cheek. Thankfully she was not hurt any worse, but she was pretty shaken by the fall as was Alex. He was upset with himself because he had left the door open, but it was just an accident. She seems fine this morning.

Lillie had went to her friend Josiah's house on Tuesday, and came home with a bee sting on her foot. I hadn't noticed in until a couple of days later when it was swollen and red. We have been watching it since the last time she was stung sent us to the doctor's for antibiotics.

Now on to Gracie! Last night was the worst by far for bedtime. She cried from the time I took her in her room saying, "Rock me, Mommy, don't leave me." I stuck to my plan on singing a couple of minutes, then telling her I had to change to my pj's and then come back. This usually makes her cry for a minute or two, then she will wait until I come back. However last night, she cried the whole time. To make matters worse I looked up something about crying it out and the article said - that it is not a good thing to do. I don't actually let her cry herself to sleep, but I leave for 10 minute increments and then come back to check on her. Anyways she did finally go to sleep.

On a cute note, the night before I had to call my Grandma and when I left Gracie the first time that is what I told her. Yesterday during the day Gracie put her Mickey Mouse down for a nap and she told in, "I back in minute, I call Mamaw Jackson." : )

Have a great weekend.

night number 2

I thought I would let you know that last night was not much easier on Gracie or me. Actually when we got home from church last night (which was past bedtime) and did our bedtime routine quickly, she got a death grip on me and cried, "Hold me, Mommy, hold me." This of course made it hard to lay her down, but I did only to come back ten minutes later to a stinky room and a full diaper. She is always full of surprises! : ) After she was changed and back to bed, it was just a matter of minutes and she was out. I know that as with Lillie, all will come together, but those nights listening to her cry for me is not very easy.

We went shoe shopping for Lillie. It was not what I would consisder a fun trip! She wanted purple, sparkly, light up, Princess Aurora shoes. There was no moving her decision. I did find a pink sparkly princess slip on shoes. She liked those until she saw a gaudy pink glittery pair. Thank goodness those were not in her size! We did end up with the pair I picked out, but she was not happy. Gracie also got a pair of the same, B1G1 half off!

Have a good day!

Cribs

We have put Gracie's bed back into a crib. For those of you who don't know, I was still rocking Gracie to sleep (Our babies are only going to want to cuddle for a short time, before they think they don't need us.) and would of continued to do so if she would cooperate, but she doesn't. So, last night I put the front rail back on her bed and put her to bed. She cried and threw a pretty good fit. After 10 minutes I went in and calmed her down for a few minutes and then said to lay down like a big girl and try to go to sleep. This time she cried, but only for a couple of minutes then would be quiet for a few minutes and she did this about 10 more minutes. After she was quiet for a couple of minutes, I went in and held her hand. She was asleep after just a minute. I plan on sticking with this plan and when she goes to sleep without the fit, I will switch her bed back.

Pictures

We made it back from my brothers house yesterday afternoon. The girls did pretty good, although on the way home they were a bit cranky. They had a lot of fun and Lillie did say she wanted to stay down there longer.

Here are a few pictures from Lillie's program and Gracie's bday Party.

Singing Bringing home a baby bumblebee.

Gracie's favorite song, A Heart that Beats for You. Lillie sang a little unplanned solo in this song, it was very cute.

Blowing her candle out.

Pushing her wagon full of blocks.

Gracie didn't mind if Lillie sat by her, but occasionally she got too close to the presents for Gracie. Here Gracie is telling her to back off.

Happy Birthday, Gracie!

I have more pictures that I may post later. Have a great day.