Life Happens!

So, it’s been a LONG time since I actually made a “for real” blog post.  But I have a good excuse…life happened.  I’ve been insanely busy.  Usually that would be a lie and it would need to read “insanely lazy” but that hasn’t been the case the last few months.  I never really thought having 3 kids would really make life that much busier, but I was wrong!  Especially 3 little kids!  So – here’s the update on all of us.

Caroline is such a big girl.  She is my all the time helper.  She starts 4K in August and I don’t know what I will do without her.  We spent many nights praying and talking trying to decide whether or not to do 4K…but we ultimately decided she would absolutely LOVE it.  This will make her the youngest in her class (which we originally said we wouldn’t do) but we figure she can always repeat it and never know the difference if she lags behind.  She does well with her glasses and at her check up a couple of months ago, she was told she had to wear a patch for 2hrs/day for the next 8 months.  We were a little bummed at first, but it could be MUCH worse.  After a month or so she really adapted to it – and sometimes even ASKS for it!  She wrote her own name and Amelia’s name the other night.  She did hers without any spelling assistance, but needed help spelling Amelia’s.  But after we helped her spell it, she wrote it!  I was so proud!  She’s doing so well.  She also starts gymnastics in a week and she is BEYOND excited.  She’ll be in a class with her friend, Addie Jane so she can’t wait!  She had her first sleepover a few weekends ago with Addie Jane and it was so fun!  We ate pizza, played outside, then popped popcorn in our pjs and watched Rapunzel.  Then they slept in the top bunk together.  So cute.  We got a puppy a couple of months ago, Minnie, a miniature dachshund and Caroline is totally in love.  That about sums up Caroline.

First sleepover!

Amelia changes mentally every day.  She knows things that I didn’t think she knew.  When we were working with Caroline on writing names, I started writing random letters on the board and Amelia was calling them out AND telling me what sound they each made.  She didn’t miss a single one!  I was truly impressed because I didn’t know she knew all of that!  She still has some social issues, but they do seem better than they were 6 months ago.  She’s a lot better around family and kids that she sees often.  She’ll occasionally talk to strangers and say “Hi!” to them which she certainly wouldn’t have done 6 months ago.  She really just seems painfully shy.  But I was told that many moons ago, I was shy too.  She’ll grow out of it eventually.  She is somewhat of a diva princess.  She wants things done for her.  She wants you to hand her the cup that’s 2 inches in front of her, you to drive her around in the power wheels gator, you to push her on the swing, etc. She is so funny!  I’ve never seen a child eat ketchup with a spoon until Amelia came along.  GROSS.  But she absolutely loves it.

 

Amelia was NOT happy about the sprinkler being underneath the trampoline.  Caroline, on the other hand, was thrilled. 

Walker is nearly 9 months old!!!!  How did that happen?  He’s pulling up and crawling EVERYWHERE.  He eats a massive amount of food.  He’s cutting his first two teeth on the bottom.  One is punching through and the other is trying.  He’s taking it fairly well and really doesn’t complain with it much.  He is literally the happiest baby you’ll ever meet.  Nothing upsets him.  He is so chill.  He smiles if you meet eyes with him.  He loves to bounce up and down to music, his wubanubs, sleeping, eating, and his MAMA.  He is SUCH  a mama’s boy…and I’m totally fine with that.  I love it, actually.    He still takes 2 naps a day and goes to bed around 7:30-8p and sleeps until about 6:30-7:30am usually.  That would seem like I get a lot of sleep, but I’m usually dumb and stay up until around 1am and then kick myself all day the next day.

 

Pulling up for the first time!

I am BUSY with sewing!  I took a dress order recently and I got SO many orders.  I’ve been working hard to get them all completed!  Between occasionally taking care of my house (ha!), my kids, my business, and sometimes sleeping, there’s not much time for anything else…like, blogging, for example.  But I’m trying to catch up because I do *love* to go back and read my old blog posts to remind myself of what my days were like back when…

My whole world sitting on that couch!!

Judd is busy planting!  We’ve had weird spurts of rain all Spring, and that has made planting stretch out a little longer than usual – but it’s going!  Just about every time it gets dry enough to plant, it rains again.  But they’ve gotten a lot done in the last week or so and that has made everyone breathe a big sigh of relief.  He’s been getting home after the kids go to bed (and he leaves long before they get up) so they are missing him a lot right now!  Just a few minutes ago, Caroline said, “Mommy…I miss Daddy,” and just kept on coloring.  I’m thinking they may need a trip to ride on a tractor with him. 

Don’t let him fool you.  He’s a softie at heart…

Everybody staring at one tiny phone screen…

I hope you all have a blessed week! 

My Girls!

I haven’t posted much about my sweet girls lately.  Since you got a Walker-Picture-Overload the other day, here’s a few of my sweet first and second babies.  (They’ll always be my babies!)

I’ve really been trying to get better with my camera using the manual settings and my 50mm lens.  I love it.  I’m also really new to editing so go easy on this amateur. 

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She posed all by herself!

I thought this one was so funny.  Running full speed!

This wasn’t what I was going for with this shot.  I was wanting it focused on her eyes, but she moved and it got her mouth instead.  After I looked at it a few times, I decided that might be the cutest button nose and sweet mouth ever created.  So I kinda like it. 

And just for fun – a shot of the world’s worst dog.  She’s so terrible – and covered in mud!

I love my girls!!!

Happy 18 Months, Amelia!

Well, you are officially 1 1/2 years old.  It honestly seems like yesterday we were having your birthday party – and somehow that was 6 months ago! 

You are so funny.  You love to plug your ears.  Of course, your favorite time to do it is when the congregation is singing in church.  You’ve actually made song leaders laugh while leading singing.  (And for the record, you’ve done it with me and your daddy holding you – so it’s not just my voice that does it to you…ha!)  Speaking of church, you seem to have a crush on our preacher.  This absolutely cracks me up, because your sister does too!  You go about it in a totally different way, though.  You tease.  You smile and wave and cut your eyes at him while he’s standing up there preaching or during the invitation song…but when it’s over and he tries to talk to you – you run as far as away as you can get!  You bury your head in my shoulder and wait until he’s gone to look up!  It is SO cute.  He loves it, too.  You two definitely have a “thing” for our preacher…I hope you always go after godly men!   

You are starting to talk a lot more.  You can say several words very clearly and then some that only Judd and I can decipher.  You can say Papaw, no, thank you, ah-oh, Deda, Daddy, Mama, Audra, Drew, Oma, you try really hard to say Granna and Caroline but they’re a little bit tougher, more, I need, pig, Duke, Sassy, all done, bye bye, hello (hewhoa), baby, and stomp.  I’m sure I’m missing some, but those are the ones you say most often!  You can also kinda sorta count to 6.  You need someone to start you off with 1, but you can usually go from there to 6 and then you start saying random numbers. 

You LOVE:  Caroline, sunglasses, your leapfrog alphabet toy, your blankie, your bed, goldfish, juice, milk, Mama, Daddy, bathtime, playing in the water, books, the iPad, playing in the potty (this is a no-no!), someone singing to you, chicken nuggets, jell-o, giving a high five, Dora & Diego, jumping, Ms. Lois, and any game with Caroline! 

You hate:  Getting your hair washed, Mama Daddy or Ms. Lois leaving you, Caroline taking your toy, getting your teeth brushed, Duke & Sassy (they scare you!), bread (you don’t necessarily HATE bread, but you choose other things over bread – which blows my mind because I LOVE bread!), being told “no,” and not getting a snack after your nap. 

You are SO tender hearted.  You cry SO easily if we tell you “no-no” or even just change our tone of voice with you.  It’s an all over cry, too.  You cry huge alligator tears and need lots of hugs to get over it.  It makes it REALLY hard to ever discipline you!  (I think you’ve got a genius plan, there.) 

You have 3 molars now and 1 more trying to cut through.  Molars have been difficult for you – but hopefully after this next one we’ll have a break for a little while!

You are growing up WAY too fast!  Your personality changes all the time, but I think it’s safe to say that you’re shy.  When you’re around new people you don’t talk much and are really clingy.  The biggest mistake people make it trying to come on to you too quickly.  You will shut them down for the rest of their visit!  Ha!  You ease yourself into social situations.  Most people that know you, know this about you so they try to be easy with you – but they all want to love on you! 

 

We love you SO much!  You and Caroline have SO much fun together.  I’m ecstatic that you will always have each other!  You two really are best friends – even at this young age!  I know you’ll be a sweet big sister when the time comes – but know that my love for you will never divide – only grow bigger.  My heart has room for all of you!  You are such a joy.  I love you more than you’ll EVER know. 

Mama

Caroline & Amelia’s Room

So I am finally getting around to taking pictures of their room.  I really am happy with it!  I have a few teeny things that I’d like to change over time but nothing major at all.

The amazing staircase bunk bed!  We LOVE it.  It has awesome storage space and is extremely sturdy and space efficient!

I want a small lamp to go here because the one she had on her nightstand is just too big.  I’ve seen them at Hobby Lobby before – I just have to find time to go there!  I also want to order Amelia a bow holder since we already have too many bows and it’s her room too, now.  I’m thinking of having my friend Morgan paint me another canvas with Amelia’s name but I’m not sure where on the wall it will go!

The bookshelf!  Seriously, she looked like she had mounds and mounds of books until we put them on the shelves.  Now it looks like we deprive her.  Ha!  The Fan will eventually sit on the bookshelf and I’m hoping to get a second little lamp to go on there somewhere.  I need Judd to cut a small hole in the back to reach the outlet without cords going everywhere.  The bird canvases were also painted by my friend Morgan and they match Caroline’s bedding!

The top bunk!  I LOVE the bedding.  It’s Pottery Barn Darcie Quilt Bedding.  They discontinued it a long time ago and we’ve had the full size for Caroline’s room for a long time.  I’ve scoured eBay waiting on a twin size to be posted.  The day the woman posted this, I used the “Buy It Now” feature and scooped it up!  I was so happy to find it!

Caroline’s massive pile of stuffed animals.  She wants them all to sleep with her.  Ha! 

My sweet girl who said, “I need you to take my picture!  CHEESE!” Her eyes are almost closed, but you get the idea.

Here’s where everything is from:

• Bunk bed – Simplybunkbeds.com – it’s the Columbia Twin over Full Staircase Bunk Bed.  We are REALLY happy with it.  It’s sturdy, solid hardwood with great storage and safer than a ladder. 

Bedding – Pottery Barn Kids Darcie.  It’s been discontinued!

Curtains – The Company Store Kids

Bookshelf – Target “Carson” 5 Shelf Bookshelf.  The white one can only be purchased in stores. 

Bow Holder – Etsy shop (I can’t remember what shop and our internet is SO SLOW today…I’ll try to come back and fill that in!)

Pictures!

26w2d

Excuse how homely and generally yuck I look.  It was taken at 10pm and we had just come back from town and put the girls to bed…long day! HA! 

Just because I can’t resist, look at this adorable face…

She’s the most social of all seven puppies.  She ADORES Caroline (or really anyone who will give her some lovin’) and I couldn’t help but snap some pictures of her.  And seriously, look at that tongue! HA!

Amelia said she didn’t need her picture taken.