New Pics!

I finally loaded the new camera sofware and invested the 30 minutes in figuring out how to get pictures off the new camera and onto the computer. I know Christmas was a week ago, but I couldn't resist a few choice shots of the kids on Christmas eve.

I'm still experimenting with the new camera, but the pink haze is gone. I almost miss it...

Jack chewin' on a mum-mum in his Christmas eve duds...

I love this picture of Ella even though she was actually whining about the fact that I was about to take her picture. I love it that she's so girly and feminine even in the way she pouts!

Bo was really enthusiastic with his cheese!

"Hey Ella, want to eat my boogie?"

And yes, she did.

The silver lining? Maybe they are finally getting this whole sharing thing...

I just can't quit you, baby Jack!

We're still out of town. Two days, three haircuts, and one trip to wal-mart down, one more day to go.

I think we're all ready to head back home. Ella burst into tears when we pulled into the apartment parking lot earlier today. She kept crying, "but I want to go hooooome!"

J's had more work this weekend than I ever remember him having before. We've hardly seen him at all and our sleep has been very intermittent at best. I say our sleep, but it's really more his than mine. Either way, I'm ready to be back in my own bed! Thankfully, he only covers one very rural hospital tonight so there's at least a chance that we won't have any calls.

Jack has pretty much thrown me for a loop these past few days. He's officially on a nursing strike. Seriously, the boy hasn't nursed since Tuesday. He just has absolutely. no. interest.

I know he's 8 months old. I know he's just a baby. I know that this is probably, maybe, just a phase, but it sure does stink.

For the past four and a half years, I have either been pregnant or nursing. Kind of staggering when I think about it that way, actually. I know I should probably be jumping for joy that there's a chance that I may have my body back, but it's a little hard to let go.

Tonight I didn't even try to nurse. J encouraged me to try, but I tearfully told him I just couldn't handle the rejection for the third time today. I feel silly even typing the word rejection when I'm talking about nursing and an eight month old. But honestly, that's kind of what it feels like! I just know in my heart that I'm not ready to give it up yet.

More attempts tomorrow? I'm just not sure.

Oh, and just for the sake of remembering. Jack started crawling yesterday. J and I were so excited and cheering him on; Bo and Ella just sat there trying to figure out why his crawling was such a big deal. Bo looked at me at one point as if to say, "you know, I can do this crawling thing any time you want. You really don't have to get that excited about it!"

So fun to see him growing up, even if it does mean he's not interested in me anymore :(

Change of Scenery

We're all on the road with J this weekend for his moonlighting gig We got here last night and settled into the apartment. Bo keeps running around shouting, "I love this apartment. I'm sooooo happy to be here!"

Honestly, I'm happy to be here too. It's a nice change from the scenery at home AND the apartment had an update since our last visit! There was some sort of plumbing incident that resulted in the all the flooring of the entire unit being replaced. This is truly fabulous news.

Our last visit was eight weeks ago, so I was able to park Jack on a baby blanket and keep him off the very old and very dirty carpet. Now that he's everywhere and into everything, it's so nice to feel like I can let him scoot around to his heart's content without worrying he might find a treasure buried deep in 1970's shag carpet.

Ella found many treasures [read: bugs] hidden in the shag on our last visit. Nice, huh?

This weekend we stay until Monday, so I'm a little nervous about filling the time with the kids. I was awake until after 1 AM listening to J get call after call, so I'm not exactly feeling the most fresh.

I brought lots of activites and planned on doing lots of things outside since the highs are supposed to be in the sixties for the weekend. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate this morning and I spent quite a bit of time checking the reports about severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in the area instead of enjoying the outside activities I had planned!

Maybe we'll take a family trip to Wal-mart at some point!

This is the song that never ends...

Ella's version of the alphabet:

ABDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ...now I know my ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ...now I know my ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ...

and on and on it goes!

Naughty or Nice?

J reminded me the other day of a story that I just couldn't resist sharing.

We know a woman here who has four children. While they are all still young, her youngest was three last Christmas. As the holiday season was in full swing, this particular mom was driving around with all four of her munchkins. The youngest two [both boys] began bickering in the back seat.

She asked them to stop.
She strongly suggested they rectify their differences.
She told them to stop.
And then, she broke out the big guns.

"Boys, Christmas is coming and Santa knows how you are behaving. You need to stop arguing and be nice to each other so that Santa will bring you presents. You don't want to end up on the naughty list."

The boys settled and silence reigned for a moment.

Then, the mom said she heard her youngest crying in the backseat, and he began to wail,

"Mom, I just can't do it. I can't be good. I try and try and try and try, but I know I can't do it. I want Santa to bring me presents, but I don't think he can because I am so naughty."

What powerful words from a three year old, huh? It's a story that J and I keep coming back to this holiday season even though we heard it last year.

The truth. I know myself, and I know that I am naughty. I am certain that if there was a list, I would not be on the nice side!

How thankful am I that I get to spend this holiday thanking God that I don't have to be good enough. Because "God, who is rich in mercy, made us [ME!] alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions," I can rejoice in the grace by which I have been saved!
[Ephesians 2: 4]

The truth is that I want to think that I deserve it. I want to believe that there is some good within me that justified an innocent death.

And yet, when I think about Mary laying that sweet newborn baby down on a bed of hay in a manger, I am overwhelmed. The power and majesty of Heaven wrapped up in the tenderness of a newborn babe is almost too much to bear. Knowing that perfect little baby would become a bruised and bloody body on the cross...most of the time I can hardly believe that I was worth it.

To be loved that extravagantly, that relentlessly, that powerfully; that is why I celebrate.

Committed

The demolition phase of the bathroom is complete. As J says, we're now committed!

The awesome news: turns out there wasn't the water damage we were anticipating! Equally as awesome, the tile came out in super large sheets [unlike our master bath, which produced a plethora of mosiaic tile pieces!], and J got the whole thing cleaned out this morning!

The kids were a big help in preparing the tub...

And this is what it looks like right now:

Not too pretty, but because the demo was super quick, J's hoping to get more done today than he was anticipating.

Oh, and we've got a date planned tonight...yay! Our plan is to grab some dinner and then pick out a new camera...the pink haze is getting worse and worse!

Chilly

It's a brisk 25 degrees here today with a windchill that makes it feel more like 16. Youch! We did venture out to the gym this morning for a brief workout, but we're snuggling up indoors for the rest of the afternoon!

Coming up with indoor games is always challenging, so we've been working on our [gentle] tossing and catching skills.

It's fun for all!

Dirty Santa

I grew up going to parties where people played "white elephant games" or brought gag gifts, but I'd never played a round of "dirty santa" until we moved here.

Honestly, I think the term dirty santa is a bit of a misnomer...I think it's always important to clarify that it does not mean naughty but rather unkind in a an "I'll steal your present if I want it" sort of way.

I'm just saying that things could be pretty embarassing if you misunderstood and showed up with the wrong "category" of gift for the party! Hmm...I'm just saying that could be a little awkward.

We went to a Christmas party last night with some other young couples and had a rolicking game of dirty santa. The funny thing was that Jason and I both felt terrible about the fact that we had "stolen" presents.

What is it about those sort of games that brings out the the truth of our human nature?
Some are intentionally being deceptive by hiding items or being unclear about whether or not the gift is actually "frozen" or not.
Others work themselves into a frenzy over a set of bath salts or a starbucks card [or in my case a Sonic card...$10 is a lot of happy hour happy!].
It's kind of crazy!

As we were settling into bed last night, I found myself dealing with the truth in my heart. I love stuff. [Makes me think of the Veggie Tales about the Stuffmart...anyone?] Most of the time I want stuff. For what? I have SO much and there is nothing I need. nothing.

This morning I layed on the floor with the kids and played for over an hour. I needed it. They needed it. After a day of baking and running errands yesterday, it was balm to my soul to relate to them and enjoy just being with them.

What an amazing reminder that stuff is empty, fleeting, and ultimately just a substitute for what we really want: the truth and love found only in Jesus. Oh, how I need to know that every day!

Who let the dogs out?

The kids have discovered a new favorite game: making a dog house. I'm not sure why it's a dog house instead of a fort, but a doghouse this is and it's provided lots of fun for all! Today, Bo even snuggled into the doghouse for a nap, but then quickly changed his mind and opted for the bed instead.

It was this "doghouse" that allowed me to cook dinner in peace the other night.
And my friends, that is a priceless gift!

What will they think of next?

Jack is now moving faster and faster. He's still pretty much doing the army crawl, but he can get around! His newfound mobility and a week of freezing temperatures [it was 18 on Monday] and lots of clouds and drizzle have inspired me to do the last great toy reorganization of 2008.

I bought a few "babyproof" bins for the items that are not baby friendly, and got to work sorting out the kids toys. I put a few toys up in the closet so that the kids could not get them out without my assistance, and I put a few other things in bins so that they would not be immediately accessible to Jack.

I got all the toys sorted and put away and felt pretty good about the whole deal. Then, and this is where you'll really just how stragely my mind works sometimes, I was laying in bed and I remembered that I had not found a place for the kids' plastic dinosaurs. I remembered seeing them in my giant pile of toys, but I could not remember storing them anywhere. While I don't think they pose a huge threat to Jack, I did want them to be stored safely away. I drifted off to sleep wondering where those pesky little things had gone!

I completely forgot about the whole thing until I was walking by the kids big wheels and noticed something strange on the handlebars of each bike.

Looks like the kids found their own place for the dinosaurs :)

Bathroom complete!

My mom asked how the bathroom was coming the other day, and I realized I'd forgotten to mention that it is FINISHED! We joke that it always takes longer and costs more to finish a project than we anticipate. Well this one certainly took longer than we planned, but we actually came in under budget...woo-hoo!

So when we bought the house, the bathroom had this exterior window...

...that no longer had an exterior view. The previous owner had finished off the porch leaving a window between the bathroom and study. Not the greatest for privacy!

J spent a weekend tearing out the window and closing in the hole. We intended to make that part of the wall a built in cabinet, but changed those plans later in the process! We have a TON of storage in that bathroom already, so we ultimately just decided to make it a wall.

J and his dad ripped out all the old tile and shower doors just a few months after Jack was born. It was quite a process!

The new tile went up pretty fast...

And Bo was a big help through the whole process. He was so excited to be doing a project with daddy!

Even though the bulk of the work was done with the tiling, there was still a decent amount of cleaning and sealing that needed to be done before we could actually use the shower. About two weeks ago, J went to install our new shower door, and alas, it was a few centimeters short! Turns out we have a really random shower size. Would have been nice to know that in the beginning! We considered special ordering doors, but when we realized the prices started at $1200, we decided that was slightly out of our budget! We settled for a new rod and shower curtain instead. And voila!
So fresh and so clean, and so heavenly to bathe in my own bathroom again!

Turns out, we discovered some serious problems in the kid's bathroom and so the demolition in their bathroom begins this weekend. We intended to retile in there at some point, but the situation is now critical, so we are starting a new project. Bathroom #2 has a much stricter end date!

Yeast

This morning the kids were playing in my room while I put on a bit of makeup. They love to go through the drawers of our bedside tables and find little "treasures" to play with. The other day, I had to intervene just as Bo was about to put my old retainer in his mouth.

Now that I'm typing it, I feel a little silly even admitting that I still own my retainer. My braces came off in the 9th grade! I should probably be embarassed to admit that I actually wore my retainer on a regular basis when we were still newlyweds. Sexy, huh?

Anyways...today, Bo excitedly pulls out a...hmmm, how do I put this lightly? A prophylactic...

I was waiting for him to ask what it was, but he declared, "I know what this is! Mom, it's yeast. It's a packet of yeast! I want to go make some bread with this yeast."

It does, in fact, slightly resemble the yeast packets that I use in the kitchen, but I had to gently let him know that we would not be using that "yeast" for any of our holiday baking this year.

I feel grossly unprepared to be the mother of boys!

Sometimes they embelish their own outfits!

Shake your booty?

Sometimes I say things, careless words, and only after those words have escaped my mouth do I realize how powerful they are. We've been talking quite a bit about our words around here and I'm trying to help the kids remember that what they say is really so, so important!

I got to see a real visual picture of the power of my words the other night. I got a musical birthday card from J's parents, so we've enjoyed busting it out for a good dance party. Who doesn't want to break it down to "Whomp there it is!"?

I made the mistake of telling them to "shake their booty" while we were dancing one day. Neither of them really understood what that meant, but this was the universal interpretation:

Love it!

They've actually been asking quite a bit about their booty and wondering just what I was talking about. Not easy to explain; that is for sure!

**NOTE: As Ella joins Bo to dance, she's saying, "mine shake booty."

Slap and Draaaaaaaag

We're definitely entering a whole new phase of mobility with baby Jack!

This afternoon we were enjoying a few last minutes of playtime in the boy's room before everyone headed to bed for naps.

Bo excused himself to go potty.

Only moments later, I had Ella get her baby doll and head for her room. Before I could get back to Jack, Bo needed some assistance in the bathroom, so I was helping him get cleaned up.

As we finished washing our hands, I heard, slap...draaaaaaag, slap...draaaaaaaag. I peeked around the bathroom door and noticed Jack slowly making his way to the den. He was in the foyer and he'd slap his hand out and then scoot. When he saw me, he gave me this look like, "there you are! I was wondering where everyone went!"

I think he's going to keep me on my toes :)

Sit and Spin

Jack has discovered the sit and spin!

Most of the time he's content just to scoot over next to it and hit it with his hands, but I decided I'd let him take a little spin on it yesterday.

I'd say he enjoyed it!

Ella wanted to join him before too long, and they had a great time spinning together.

Raw Sewage and a Flat Tire

Last night as I was in the thick of cleaning up the dinner dishes, I pointed out to Jason that the sink and disposal had been a little slow on the drainage lately. He came to take a look and immediately suggested I stop using the sink.

One trip out to the garage revealed that apparently the pipe was clogged and some excess water had made it's way out onto the floor of the garage. Nice.

We got the situation minimally under control and I scooted out to my Christmas party/ornament exhange for other resident and medical school wives. It was a lovely party, and there were a couple of women who walked in shortly after me. They commented they had parked near a tan van that looked like it had a flat.

Despite the fact that it sounded like it was probably my car, I continued enjoying my drink and food in the nice warm house. As the party was wrapping up, I scooted out to check the tire situation, and the tire was most definitely flat.

One hour and several freezing trips out to the car later, the nail had been removed from my tire and the hole had been patched. It was definitely one of those days that I'm thankful we pay for AAA. It was worth it!

Things I've learned in the last 24 hours:
1. When the drain is clogged and one continues to use the sink, things can get stinky.
2. I've been put on kitchen sink/dishwasher/washing machine restriction until the plumber gets here tomorrow. Wow, those appliances get a lot of traffic around here. I only hope the plumber does not judge my growing pile of dishes!
3. Our van does have a spare tire that is full sized, and I now know where it is located!

Dance Party

I could post a million things right this second, but I'm so excited that the video actually worked that I'm going to put our "dance party" footage on for right now!

Here's a still shot of the action!

This is still our favorite song. The kids love the beat and it's been fun to see them both counting and bopping to the rythym. I LOVE the fact that they both slow down as the song ends and the music slows. It makes me giggle every time!

Here are the words; they repeat over and over:

Are there more gods than one? NO! There is only one true God. How many persons in the One True God? One, Two, Three. Let's name them: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

When we got home this morning, Bo was really sad to have to get out of the car.

Ella informed me, "Mommy, Bo is sad because he wants to listen to the music. He really likes the 1, 2, 3 song and he wants to have a dance party!"

One more plug for this CD...it really is awesome!

Who?What?Why?How?Where?When? by Eric Gilbert. You can order one here. Better be sure and get yourself some dancing shoes as well :)

Who do you love?

This afternoon, I was doing some reading with Bo before his rest time. We were reading a book about God's creation that ends with a little prayer about how thankful we are that God loves us!

As we were sharing a tender moment, I reminded Bo that I love him very much, and that God loves him too. I made the mistake of asking him who he loves:

"Um, I just love myself a lot!"

Tagged

I'm going to gloss over my picture/video posting woes today! I've been tagged by Tonya, so here it goes!

8 TV shows I watch:
1. The Office-J and I love watching this one together. It's currently the ONLY thing I watch on a regular basis!
2. Sesame Street
3. Praise Baby [this is a DVD but I'm really having to stretch here...]
4. 48 hours mystery-J and I love this one too when we do sit down and watch TV together...
5. Yo Gabba Gabba! [another kid's favorite that we sometimes watch while I unload groceries after a morning grocery store run!]
6. Barefoot Contessa [during the months we have cable TV for football season :)]
7. Everyday Italian
8. Curious George-On those days Bo doesn't fall asleep for his nap and I'm wanting to steal some extra snuggle time!

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Cheever's
2. Sonic [drinks during happy hour :)]
3. Macaroni Grill
4. Peking
5. Wendy's
6. Season's 52
7. Chick-Fil-A [best biscuit ever!]
8. Hmmmm...can't really think of another one, but I love my own cooking. Silly, I know!

8 Things that happened this week:
1. Gigi came
2. J took three calls
3. I did the power sculpt class at the gym...twice...ouch!
4. Christmas Party for MOPS
5. Christmas Party for J's work
6. did some fun birthday and Christmas shopping with my mom :)
7. spent close to 16 hours in bed Saturday and Sunday with a sore throat and serious exhaustion...still not sure what that was all about!
8. finally made a switch on the CD in the car...yeah! Instead of Veggie Tales, we are now enjoying the much more pleasant who?what?why?how?where?when? CD by Eric Gilbert. It's the shorter catechism questions [or "calechisms" as Bo calls them] and answers set to music. It is really a fun CD, and I've caught myself singing the now familiar tunes as well! But seriously, it's amazing to hear Bo singing, "I cannot see God, but he does see me. And nothing, nothing can be hid from God!" Truly priceless! Thanks Gigi for getting us out of the Veggie Tales rut!

8 Things I look forward to:
1. Heaven
2. all the kids being potty trained
3. more babies...Lord willing!
4. officially having the master bathroom finished
5. no more call for J
6. no more boards for J
7. seeing our families again/traveling to see everyone...soon, I hope!
8. celebrating Christmas with the kids this year!

8 Things I wish for/pray for:
1. all the kids being potty trained
2. living closer to family
3. to laugh, hard, always!
4. to give more freely than I anticipate receiving
5. a vacation, sans kiddos, to somewhere warm and sunny with my husband...and to maybe actually feel good about wearing a bikini at said location :)
6. patience
7. finishing lots of things that are currently not quite complete :)
8. to have kids who can say that they never knew a day they did not love Jesus with their whole hearts!

8 people I tag:
1. Carrie @ Life is Beautiful
2. Gretchen @ Down Home
3. Rachel @ Moments with my Miracles
4. Shelli @ Mike, Shelli, and Graham
5. Carey @ Pumpkin Patch
6. Dani @ Allison Wonderland
7. Jen @ Blueberry Lunch
8. Ali @ Two Onesies

Frustrating...

I've been trying to post a few things to the blog since yesterday afternoon, and it's just not working. The text seems to be fine, but our pictures and videos seem to overload our connection and I keep getting booted offline when I try to post. So frustrating!

We had a whirlwind visit with Gigi and the kids are already asking when we get to go on a big airplane. I've got some priceless video of the kids having a "dance party" to the new CD Gigi brought them. I'm hoping to get it on here at some point. The funny thing is that it took the kids a little while to warm up to a new CD. Bo is having a hard time letting Veggie Tales go, but we have enjoyed dancing!

More to come once I get this whole internet deal sorted out!

Choo-Choo

I managed to wrap up almost all of my Christmas shopping this morning at Target. Gigi was a big help, and headed off with Ella who was not being super cooperative. They found a gingerbread train kit and we had big fun tonight after dinner. With daddy on call, it was a great distraction for all!

Ella was so particular and insisted on putting the candy on one piece at a time.

She was so proud of herself after every piece!

Bo also got into putting the candy in just the right places, and even used the box for some inspiration.

Ella made sure Bo kept everything just where she wanted...

Here they are with the finished product. They were so proud of their work!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!