Off the table

Before I dive in, I have to show off my handy work. I was playing with Evan's hair, and I attempted my first french braid on her. Of course it was only one side, the other side was still a wild curly mess, but hey, not terrible!

I'm gonna have to start practicing on this little girl's hair. So different than having a boy. ;)

And Ashley brought the kids back Mickey hats from Disney World a couple of weeks ago, and last Saturday Evan had fun with hers. Bracelet as calf jewelry, diaper, and veil princess hat. What more does a girl need.

Apparently she needs a table.  I CAN. NOT. keep this girl off the table. I wish I was exaggerating when I say she ends every meal sitting on top of the table. Every single one. All you have to do is turn your head for three seconds and there she goes. 

Friday night I made eggplant parmesan for dinner, and it actually was pretty good. Of course the kids wouldn't touch it. They picked at the pasta part and that was it.

I was putting some left overs in a tupperware when I turned around to Evan on the table, all three plates surrounding her, pounding down all the pasta. What in the world.

I, smartly, had removed her shirt to avoid spaghetti sauce stains, but I'm not sure where the shoe went. Or when it came off. Or why just one and not both. (the stuff on her left cheek is sauce. Not a giant wound.)

Saturday was more of the same. I just didn't get pictures of it because, you only need so many.

Sunday she woke up with a yuck nose, so we stayed home from church. After breakfast Luke wanted to start on his science project he got for Christmas. It's a hydroponics experiment where you grow seeds in baskets of water and can watch the roots grow down.

He was all excited, we got it all set up, and then I realized that it didn't include the actual seeds to grow.  MOM FAIL. Luckily a close friend saved the day and brought us some radish seeds. In the mean time, Luke had fetched his tools to fix the kitchen table.  Again.  See how her sweet little feet are sitting so nicely in a chair?

The seeds arrived, and to get them going you have to put them in a ziploc with a wet paper towel taped to the window.  That only to a mere minute to fix. After that mere minute....

REALLY?! One child on the table, one child under the table.

And then...AND THEN... later that day she found a new table to climb on.

I guess she finally saw something up there worth risking it for.

Daily Devotional

So last week I didn't touch the blog once. Didn't even read anyone else's blog. Just had no motivation.

But this morning I got to thinking. (Yes, it still happens on occasion.)

I've committed myself to reading Jesus Calling this year. So far I've just a terrible time keeping up. How sad is it that I am having trouble finding the 3 minutes it takes to do the daily reading?! Last week I finally just brought it to work and have left it in my desk. Before I let myself get sucked in for the rest of the day, I take a few minutes to read the devotional and just reflect. And while today's lesson was good, what I got to thinking about were all the days to come.

The book is numbered by each day, so I casually flipped through and would stop on a day.  August 18th.  October 10th. What will I be doing on those days? What will life be like then? What will I be wearing? Where will the kids be? How is my life going to turn out? The year is still fresh and new enough for the whole rest of it to hold promises. Promises I've tried not to think about because my baggage got kinda heavy this week.

You know those weeks when everything you've worked so hard to unpack just comes rushing back? All the hurt and the damage done to you by someone who was supposed to love you? The trust. The security. The self worth.

Ah baggage. We've all got it, and no one likes to talk about it. All you can do is focus on the One you CAN trust. The One who does give you security. The One who whispers truth into your self worth. The One who died with me in mind and won't ever give up. This is why I need that one page a day. To keep Him fresh in my mind, because I'm always fresh in His.

More than one type of mess

 It's only Thursday.

Blah.

The last 4 weeks, for various reasons, I've only worked 3 or 4 days out of the week. This is making for a long week at the moment. We haven't done too much over the past few days.  Friday night I got Evan's breathing treatment meds refilled, and CVS just happens to be next to a Sonic. The kids had eaten a pretty good dinner, so I surprised them with a treat.  Sonic ice cream for everyone- including Sister this time.

This was her very first time to get her own ice cream. I don' know what I was thinking letting a 19 month old have free reign in the car like that.

Thank goodness the mess was mostly contained to her face and paci.

Believe it or not, I've made worse parenting decisions than that one.

Saturday morning found us eating breakfast at the table.  All of us. Evan decided she was done with the high chair and climbed up into a regular kitchen chair to eat her breakfast. She did really well, until I turned around and found her in the fruit bowl.

One day I'll tell her that tomatoes aren't usually eaten for breakfast. Put the high chair in the garage on Sunday. As nice as it is to gain the chair and the space back in my kitchen, I can't BELIEVE my baby is grown out of it. Just another milestone down in the books.  :(

After breakfast we got out in the rain to go to Hobby Lobby and Target.  During errands, everyone found a treat.  Evan, loving her hats so much, got a new beanie and didn't take it off all day. We were at Hobby Lobby to get stamp pads for Luke's alphabet stamps when he spotted a train stamp. How could I say no to that sweet boy that was being so well behaved? And not to feel left out, we stopped back by Sonic for a drink for me.

Later that night as we were just hanging out before bath/bed time, I looked over and Evan was hanging out a little more than I anticipated.

*sigh* This girl. She's gonna get me.

And then I pulled a stunt that I used to do as a little girl.

As the story goes,  when I was little I would find any large piece of material- blanket, towel, sheet, etc.- wrap it around my head like a shawl and walk around proclaiming "I'm Maaaay-ree.  I'm Maaaay-ree!"  As in, Mary, mother of Jesus.  I'm passing down the tradition.

 She's Maaaaay-ree!  She's Maaaaay-ree!

Sunday was church as usual, with lunch and a nap.  After nap I was making some baked fried pickles to take to the Zook's going away party that night. Amdist the battering and baking and general mess making, I found a certain little girl sitting on the table DRINKING the jar of bubbles Luke had left there. Good grief.

Tuesday we woke up to a snow that I'm pretty sure not anyone saw coming.  I was shocked when the garage door went up and everything was white.  And it was still coming down.  It snowed till about mid morning, and has been bitterly cold ever since.  Which is odd, because Friday it was in the 70's.

Break from Christmas part 2

So yesterday's photo dump was leading up to New Year's. Now you get everything after it.  Whoo hoo!

New Year's day Mom wanted to have a family dinner at the house. She made chicken and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and of course black eyed peas for good luck.  

Here's the deal. I hate black eyed peas. I never eat them on New Year's. I don't believe in superstitions and I don't believe in luck. BUT. After the super sucky last two years I figured I'd give it a whirl.

 

Proof that I ate some. See them on the left? It's the little part on the left under the salsa. Hey, I am Texan after all.

After dinner the party got a little crazy. Evan became THAT GIRL with the bucket on her head.  I promise it was just milk in her sippy cup.

The next Saturday Mom and Dad took Luke to a train show that was in Ft. Worth. Being the seasoned mother that I am, I waited until that morning, mere minutes before they were due to show up, to let him in on the plans.  

That was his excited face. And he had a right to be excited. He got to ride on a little train, have a beloved cheeseburger for lunch, and have Nana and Papa all to himself while Sister stayed home with Momma.

Yes, I stayed home with a sister that still doesn't always remember that pillows are for sleeping ON. Not to be avoided totally. But, she is getting better about it. I'm thinking maybe March I'll switch it to a toddler bed.

Unfortunately this last Monday (today is Friday) Evan got sick. I mean PITIFUL. When the kids' grandmother brought them home on Monday night I had to hold back the tears when I saw her. I have never seen a person's nose so red and raw from blowing it too much.  I mean, on Tuesday it was bleeding from being raw. It was awful.  She was wheezing and digging at her ear, so I made the executive decision to take her to Acute Kids that night.

It's a good thing I did, too, because it turns out she was only breathing at 94% and had an ear infection. Two hours and two prescriptions later (antibiotic and an oral steroid), she was home dead asleep. Tuesday I took off from work to keep her home, and it happen to be Luke's first day back to school.

 There was a little girl that really wanted to go with Bubba, but had to stay home with Momma.  Mom got that "pack pack" for her for Christmas, and although you can't really see, it's got her name embroidered on the flap and that's an owl on the sack part.

Wednesday she was better enough to go on to Cindy's, but that night I kept them home from bible class, just to make sure. I tried my hand at sausage gravy with busciuts for dinner, and I had no idea it was that easy to make! The sweet sweet part was when Evan saw what I was doing, she ran off to get her own pan and sausage from her kitchen to cook with me.

This was after she raided the cabinet of all my tupperware and took them back to her kitchen.

Congratulations! You made it through two days of photo dumps!

Break from Christmas

Okay. I promise I'll get pictures of Christmas day up eventually (there are only a handful anyway). I just realized I had a month's worth of pictures piled up on my phone, and I better start tossing them up here lest they get forgotten. This year has not gotten off to the best start, but at leas the kids are cute. And as a warning, it's all mostly Evan. (Luke- when you read this in years to come, I promise promise PROMISE that I love you just as much as your sister.  You are just going through a phase right now where you HATE to get your picture taken. This leads to very few of you. But I love you. And I'm really going to pretend that it's just a short phase, not a probable life long phase.)

I've told you that Evan has a thing for hats. She loves wearing hats. She knows where they are, how to say the word, and even what it takes to pull them on.

She found the drawer in Luke's room that holds his stash.  The funny thing is, it isn't just limited to hats.  She loves to wear hair bows too.

Often I find most of her bows on the floor after she's pulled them all off, and will want 3 or 4 in her hair at a time.

The day of the hats, it was the day after Christmas, because I found this picture of her stuffing her face with cookies. Cookies with red icing.

 

One more thing she likes to wear? (after hats, hair bows, and food, I know you're thinking "Dear God. There's more?!" Answer: yes.)  My shoes.  Remember these gems?

 Look at that mess! Obviously this was right after all the presents were opened at Mom's

So does she.

 That's actually the face of pride, and she's clapping for herself.

Another thing that was right after Christmas was Jacob's birthday.

Yep, that was my man friend. Boyfriend. Boy I was dating. Whatever you want to call him. And just as an update to that whole situation, apparently I suck at breaking up with people, because two days later he didn't realize what had happened. Which forced me to rehash the whole thing. LOVELY. But, on the plus side, we might be working things out. Only time will tell. 

One last picture for my pre New Years photo dump... the kids finally playing nice for 5 minutes

Oi. These two. Do they know how to pick and fight and irritate. And we are only 19 months in to this sibling thing.  I'm tempted to ask "it gets better, right?", but I'm pretty sure I'd get a resounding NOPE.  If memory serves, it's not going to get better for a long, long time.

Christmas #2

Okay. So, Christmas morning will be the NEXT post. I didn't forget about this Christmas. But when I went to upload the pictures, it was messing up and I couldn't figure out why (turns out, blogger doesn't play well with IE anymore and likes Chrome better). So, when I went to post Christmas Eve, I'd forgotten that I hadn't published this one first. And now my OCD is a little bugged because it's out of chronological order.

Oh, and the skirt Evan is wearing in all of the pictures? I made that. Maybe one day I'll get better shots of it.

The weekend before Christmas we went out to my grandfather's house for Christmas with Mom's side of the family. Luke has been begging to go see Grandy, and he was thrilled he finally did. 

My sister, momma, and me

And me and my babies! Luke really didn't want to smile, and was really working at holding it in.

Finally got to start in on the presents...first up, stockings. Evan's new Pup. (which, is actually what she calls her cup too. Not confusing at all.)

Okay. I just like this picture. Man my hair looks dark here.

Grandy's present for Luke (and my cousin's boy, Haden) was a helicopter. It was a HUGE hit.

And his monster truck that he was thrilled about. Boys.

My other cousin decided that we, as a family, should play our own version of Minute to Win It. It was pretty funny. As are all of the pictures that I got on my camera. BUT, in the interest of my family inviting me back to family gatherings, I'll only post this picture of Luke "playing" the get-your-cookie-from-your-forhead-to-your-mouth-without-using-your-hands game.

Sister's first full on pony! Gah!

My aunt and my Evie girl. She had no problem finding a multitude of willing "up"s.

And now a couple of awesome ones from my phone....

This was late, on our way to the country. The kids did really well on the 4 hour trip (not gonna lie, Mary Poppins on the DVD player helped), but they weren't thrilled about the flash from Mom's phone for this picture.  Their faces.  Bahahaha.

Saturday afternoon we went to feed the ducks at the park.  I think this is one of my new favorites of the kids!

 

And finally, all the second cousins. The new generation.

Christmas Eve

The tradition in my family is that we always have Christmas with my parents on Christmas Eve. We get dressed up (the kid's in their Christmas outfits) and go to Macaroni Grill for dinner, then back to Mom and Dad's house for presents and dessert. 

First things first. Evan's new chair was obvious and difficult to wrap, so we went ahead and let her "open" it before stockings.  She LOVES Luke's chair, and I knew she would be so excited to have one in her room. 

Next came the stockings

Among other things, she got chapstick. Girlfriend loves her chapstick.

I promise Luke got a giant stocking too, with lots of things he loved, but I guess all his pictures got on Mom's camera and all of her pictures got on mine. That's the risk you run when you pass your camera duty off to some one else!

Now for this picture... About 3 months ago (10 weeks to be exact, per Instagram) Evan pulled out my crock pot of the cabinet and shattered the inside of it. I joked that she could ask for a new one for Christmas, since she really wouldn't care what was inside the wrapping paper, as long as she got to unwrap it. So one of the first presents she unwrapped was this tiny little crock pot.  We laughed and laughed at how small it was, the perfect "Evan" size. But really, I was disappointing because I kinda did want a new big one.  Turns out at the very end of Christmas a big box came out and I got my (Evan's) wish.

After so. many. pairs. of Converse for the kids, I finally got my first pair! It was just a coincidence that they kinda matched my dress. 

 See? I big boy was there after all. This was one of his bigger presents. It was a construction set complete with a big crane, and he couldn't WAIT to get it home to pull out all the pieces.

One of Evan's other big presents was this kitchen set. She LOVES it. Actually, both kids do. Mom also got her some play food and I got her some play pots and pans, and the two of them have had so much fun.

 Soon it was time to get home and get ready for Santa! They got in their new Christmas jammies...

wrote Santa a letter...

 and someone got pen happy once Bubba got down...

put out cookies and milk for Santa...

and got a little silly on the floor on our way to bed.

I got the girl in bed, and then the boy and I read our traditional "Twas the Night Before Christmas", and I tucked him. The manfriend was over, so by the time we got everyone settled in and down and had played Santa, we watched a movie. Next up...Christmas day!