Learning new things...

Learning new things isn't always easy.

But no one said it couldn't be fun!

These are a few pictures I've taken since I got my new camera.

I'm still learning and trying to figure out all the settings and such, but I'm learning a lot and enjoying it!

50 , 50 , 50

Look what came in the mail this week!

It's a Canon 50 mm prime f/1.8 lens woo hooo and I'm already loving it!

and here are just a few pictures I took using it the night I got it.

These are of a sweet little boy of a sweet friend (who's pregnant again! yay!)

Meet Robbie.

What is a decade?

What is a decade?  

10 years.

520 weeks.

3,652 days.

87,648 hours.

5,258,880 minutes.

315,532,800 seconds.

Is there something special about a decade? 

Well, not always. But today. There is.

Today marks ONE DECADE since the day Derek and I met. 

*insert sweet "awww" from the peanut gallery here*

Ten years that I've known my best friend and life partner.

Ten years that I've confided in him and shared with him my life.

Ten years.

Last year, I wrote this post on this particular day.

It's worth reading.

I love you Derky. I'm so grateful to have been blessed with your unconditional love and friendship over the past ten years. 

Kyley... sweet Kyley...

Tonight we are hanging out with Uncle Jared. yay for Uncle Jared being home for a bit!

On the way to meet him at Arby's, Kyley was telling us a story.

It began with her explaining details of how our house was.

"Remember that one time, when I was sick. The couch wasn't where it is now. It was over by the door and the window, like where daddy's computer is now. And daddy's computer wasn't where it is now, it was in the kitchen. And remember I was puking and Nana brought me Gatorade."

That was her whole story. lol

Anyways, mesmerized by her memory of details, I exclaimed: "Kyley, you're so smart!"

Kyley's response...

"I was born to be smart!"

oh really Kyley?

And before we knew it the conversation grew even funnier.

"AND I was born to be rich!"

You were ???

"Yes, I'm rich because I have so many shoes!!!"

Spoken like a true woman.


What am I going to do with that child? haha

My valentine ( a little late I know)

I feel like I'm so behind on blogging about the kids- I've been SO busy I haven't had time to sit down and breathe a blog post out... oh well...  So... here are a few pictures of my little valentine :) I didn't get any of the littlest valentine, he was asleep, and then afterwards wouldn't cooperate, but thats ok! 

*Compliments to Laura Craig on the idea for the frog picture :)

Beauty Queens...

Beauty Queens wear lots of lipgloss... didn't you know?

and even MORE lipgloss...

And they often pose for a camera like this...

BUT, I have one beauty queen...

who'd rather pick their nose...

a new toy...

Last week I got this...






and inside of it...


was....



this.....




wooo hoooo!!!!!!!

Kyley-ism.

Oh my child. She cracks me up.

This week we were talking to her about not running to the door and opening it without knowing who it is. Because she's been known to do that in the past (thankfully it was only my daddy at the door)

And she responds...


I know mommy, daddy told me I should look out the window to make sure if it's a criminal.


*sigh* what a goober.

my heart...

i need no words... this song says it all... Lord lead me on and I will run after you.

Potty Training

I got such great advice from a lot of you on how to get Ky to help out with her room before, that I wanted to ask another question.

This one: Potty Training.

I got really spoiled with Kyley. She trained herself at 17 months and we never looked back. *sigh*

But this isn't about her. This is Elijah. a boy. a stubborn boy at that. LOL

Ok so here's the scoop. E doesn't like diapers. He rips them off any chance he gets.  He LOVES to wear big boy undies. However, he doesn't so much love to sit on the potty and use it.

I know that he is capable of knowing what going to the potty is. Just this week one night he pooped and when I asked him if he did he said yes and grabbed a new diaper, and another night he pooped and then took his diaper off and got a new diaper and brought it to me.

Then yesterday at Dr. Trumbull's office when Kyley had to give a urine sample he was in the bathroom with us. As soon as he was done he started pointing to the potty then grabbing his diaper and showing me he wanted to sit on the potty. (we're still working on the word potty)

So I know he's beginning to get the concept. But he will NOT sit on the potty. He just won't do it. No matter what I do.

So, I'm tired of washing dirty undies, or having to basically duct tape diapers on him so he can't get them off. We've tried pullups once and he soaked it within minutes and its not worth it to me to buy them if he's going to wet them and soak through so quickly. (this was a trial one or two that i had) 

So, I have 3 small packs of diapers left. I'd like to make up my mind how to proceed before I have to buy more.

So help me. what have you done to potty train your child/children?
What worked?
What didnt?
Did you teach standing or sitting?

Brave.

If I had to describe Kyley in one word today, it would be BRAVE.

She has been such a trooper all week long.

Monday at her magnet school eval, we could tell she was a bit nervous, but she bounced on in there and did her thing like it didn't even phase her.

Today was her 5 year checkup.

She walked in KNOWING what was going to happen, yet she still walked right on in and didn't complain even once.

They called her back to the lab area. She gave a urine sample without complaining. They pricked her finger. No tears, no whining. Just a big girl.

Then we went and had her vision test. She did amazing. Her vision is perfect.

Then we saw Dr. Trumbull. She did great, she answered all his questions and did whatever it was he asked.

And then came the nurse to give her shots.

And Kyley sat up and watched. 

She held my hand but didn't budge. 

She was so brave.

Not a tear. Not a wimper.

Later when we got in the car, she said mommy, the first shot hurt just a little, but the second one was sooo painful, but I didn't cry.

(Yes, she actually used the word painful!)

I'm so proud of her, she's faced so many things this week that a year ago would've made her scream and cry and flail around. She has grown up so much. 

AND while sitting in the office waiting on the dr to come in, we picked up the book Green Eggs & Ham.

She read ALL of the simple words in the book. I can't wait to get the book for her so she can learn them all and begin to read it on her own!

So at 5 yrs 2 mnths (yes we were a bit late on the appt)

Kyley is...

41 lbs 

42 1/2 inches

her BP was 92/64 which is great

she has perfect vision

and she's ready for SCHOOL! 

she is so stoked that Dr. Trumbull told her she was finally a big girl and could go to Kindergarten next year LOL 

And what would a post like this be, without pictures.  Here are a few of the kids playing together in the exam room waiting on the Dr. to come in.

Thanks for all the ideas... and a few updates.

Warning: I'm about to write an entire post and not have any pictures... I know, such a tragedy.

First up on the agenda, I want to thank all of you wonderful readers who have left me a comment on my last post with ideas on how to get my 5 yr old to clean her room. I am working on a few things to try to encourage her, we'll see how it goes over time. Not jumping to conclusions yet (her room is NOT clean at the moment). 

Next up. Magnet School.

Yesterday was Kyley's evaluation for magnet school. I'm somewhat excited and somewhat sad.

I can't picture my baby girl going to big school for one, and two I do have a part of me that wants to homeschool.

We should know something in about six weeks to whether she gets in or not. If she does, we'll send her, if she doesn't we'll homeschool. We've pretty much said ok God whatever Your will is, we'll do it.

She was excited yesterday about the evaluation and enjoyed it. From what I gather they just asked her a bunch of questions trying to get a grasp on her learning curve etc.

Today when we got ready for school she asked if it was her last day in her little school and she'd be going to big school tomorrow. Um no sweetie, sorry that isn't until August. LOL

Today we go to dance, and she's getting her new dance costume. yay. I can't wait to see it and get pictures of her in it! This year's costume is PRECIOUS.

Tomorrow Kyley has a pediatrician appointment to get all of her shots etc for her 5 yr check up so she can go to school! She's actually excited about it. Poor girl, she has no idea. 

Elijah is growing like a weed. He's talking a lot and showing interest in potty training. Thanks to grandma he's stocked up on big boy undies now.  He's worn them around the house, and prefers them but won't sit on the potty often enough so we're just taking it one day at a time. 

However, he rips his diaper off anytime he doesn't have pants on... so we've either got to get him to leave it on, or get him to sit on the potty. hmmm.

I finished my Bloom book. Same Kind of Different as Me. Expect a post soon about that.

Other than that, nothing much new. Glad to be able to "catch up" a bit on blogging hopefully soon!

Advice Needed...

Derek and I are totally out of ideas...

HOW do you get your kids to clean their rooms without standing over them CONSTANTLY?

I for serious, have to be IN THE ROOM with Kyley to get her to pick up anything. It doesn't matter how much we discipline her, reward her, whatever she will NOT do it.

She has this misconception that cleaning her room means us cleaning together, and I'm sorry it's just not happening. She's old enough now to put her toys away on her own. *sigh*

Any advice is welcome. Like I said she hasn't responded to discipline, bribes, rewards, taking toys away, nothing of the sort.

Please help this mommy who's tired of looking at a messy room and having to clean it herself.

Precious Memories, Unseen Angels

Just a few pictures of things that will always be precious memories.

mini me part 2?

Gosh this kid looks like his daddy....

yuck.

The past few days we've been a bit under the weather with a stomach bug. I'm very much hoping that we're all on the mend and going on with life now, but that would explain my lack of posting :) Ok, back to regularly scheduled programming!

What do you say when God wants to take control?

I love love love this group... look them up on youtube, you won't regret it.

random, random, random

Just a few cute pics from this week I want to share...

Stubborn

(for the sake of being real, I am sharing this. I pray my husband doesn't mind)

A few days ago, Derek and I had somewhat of a "disagreement"

Though it was more of a misunderstanding of sorts.

You see, I went out of my way, to do something for him that I knew he would enjoy.

And in doing such I still seemed to offend him because he thought my actions were something totally different from what they really were.

So I explained to him what was going on, yet he still felt like I wasn't being "honest" even though I was.

Yet I"m not here to say he is the stubborn one.

I want to share with you how I was so stubborn during all of this.

He went to bed that night frustrated with me and I couldn't sleep (guilty?) because I was so offended that he believed I wasn't being honest with him.

(mistake number one, i let him go to bed without resolving the issue)

So I sat up, played a video game and stewed.

As I slept (or didn't) and woke the next morning the Lord began to deal with me about my stubborness.

I would not allow myself to forgive him for offending me.

Nor would I allow myself to not be offended.

I fought all morning with this inner battle. Wanting to be mad at him and angry, but wanting to be godly.

Um yeah, in case you haven't noticed, those things typically don't go well together.

So, recognizing the voice of God, and reason for that matter, I began to actively TRY  to move on. I began to speak kindly to my husband and gently. I began to allow myself to be excited to speak with him or when he came home from work that day. I began to move towards moving on from being so stubborn on this matter.

All day long though, no matter what I did to turn my mind towards God, it seemed that Satan would throw something at me to remind me of how hurt I was.

I mean really, here I am trying to do something NICE, and all I get is a slap in the face.

(of course that's not reality, he didn't intend to hurt me, he honestly thought he was right)

 So, on goes the battle.

So, moving right along, this goes on all day, and my stubborn flesh just keeps wanting to let this anger build up and keep pushing him farther and farther away, but my spirit is so tender and wants mercy and forgiveness to be in full.

So, even when later in the evening I was faced with again showing my husband love and revisiting the very thing that set him off the day before, I wanted to run away from it. I wanted to just say forget about it and go on with life. But that would accomplish nothing. So I put on my big girl panties and said ok Lord I'm going to give it all to you. And yet, I STILL wanted to run my mouth and make smart remarks when he tried to hit me with something from the day before.

Did I mention that my flesh is STUBBORN????

And as I continued to pray, and realize how stubborn I really was being, God began to give me peace.

Now don't get me wrong, I'd been praying about it before, but most likely not in the most humble of minds.

Anyhow, so God began to give me peace and forgiveness for my stubborness in my heart, and I began to slowly see the anger and resentment fade. I stopped thinking about the fact that I was hurt. I stopped thinking about the fact that I felt like I wasn't trusted. I stopped thinking about ME and focusing on HIM.

And God said, write about it.

So here I am.

Holding my sweet little man in my arms as he falls asleep. Writing about it.

I want to tell you that God is real. God is forgiving and God is merciful.

I want to scream that no matter how stubborn we are, HE knows our hearts.

He loves us unconditionally and He can soften our hearts like no other.

Thank you Lord for softening mine and allowing me to experience your mercy.

Rah Rah Rammer Jammer...

My kids have been learning about football this year.

I've always been an Alabama fan, but since getting married I haven't gotten to be so much into the football.

You see, my sweet Derky, is a "I don't like to watch sports on tv" kinda guy.

But with Bama going on to win the national championship this year, and Kyley being old enough to understand that you can root for one team and not the other haha

I've had a lot of fun sharing my love of the game with them.

Plus I think these pics turned out cute, though a bit rough LOL

What a week!

It has been one crazy week.

And as of yet, it's not over!

So far we've had frozen pipes outside in the laundry room, a car that needed servicing, and a pipe outside that eventually busted and is having to be replaced.  No running water for 2 days from said pipe while we waited on the plumber to be able to get here (thanks to renting we cant just call whoever we want *sigh*)

Turns out the pipes out back in our laundry busted. in at least 3 places. OH JOY. LOL thank goodness we're renting and it was easy fixes. 

It just so happens that while the water was NOT working, Kyley so kindly got sick. that was fun to clean up, let me tell ya.

Praise the Lord for little blessings though that helped me make it day to day without losing my mind.

Like these sweet babies who know how to make mommy smile. Or random little things like meeting grammpa and gramma for dinner while we had no water. Or hanging out in the nursery with Angie and Harlie last night watching all the sweet babies.

No matter how crummy a week it's been. God is still good. And He is still on the throne. I will forever praise Him.

Mini Me?

Cupcakes:

Mini Cupcakes: