A Little Help?

Haylie's nap time.  Oh boy.  This kid could probably go forever and never stop to sleep.  I guess she thinks there are wild and crazy parties happening while she is slumbering.  But in reality?  I'm either laying down to gear up for round 2 of the day or trying to get things done that are boring to her anyway!!

So, I guess what I'm asking for is some advice from other moms.  Haylie is 2.5 years old.  She doesn't ever want to nap, but if I go in there and lay down near her and maybe rub her back for 10 minutes, she passes out and will sleep for 2+ hours.  If I don't do that?  She'll play in her room for an hour and then start banging on the door (which she can easily open) to come out.

If she didn't end up with such a bad attitude later in the day, I wouldn't feel compelled to make her sleep.  And if she didn't fall asleep SO easily if she is just calm for 5 minutes, I wouldn't even suggest laying down.

Lord help us all if Jace is still awake during this time...she keeps popping her head up saying, "He's awake!" or "He's crying!" just in case I didn't hear.

So, all that to say...

Should I give up making her sleep?  Should I give in after an hour of her playing in her room?  What has worked best for you and your kids?

Visitors from Neosho

This past weekend we had the pleasure of having Justin's grandparents stay with us!  We had a great time.  I don't think I cooked one meal and we were all over the city.  We enjoyed time at Cafe 7, showed them our duplexes, went to the Memorial, ate at Cattlemen's for a late lunch and finally went home to nap!  It was their 63rd wedding anniversary and I think they had a good day!

They were such troopers in the heat!

While out at the Memorial, I noticed J started sticking out his tongue.  I tried doing a self portrait since he was on my lap (I kind of missed) but still...

...look familiar?

I couldn't resist a naked baby picture either.  This is him being ornery.

The kids sure did enjoy Great-Grandpa and Grandma visiting.  Lots of tickles, hugs, snuggles and kisses!

You Can Run, But You Can't Hide

This week we attended our church's VBS.  The theme was Jonah - You can run, but you can't hide.  The staff did an phenomenal job with the skits, props, crafts, and everything else that goes into VBS for 500+ kids.  I volunteered to help with crafts for 4 & 5 year olds, so my kids went to babysitting at the church.  The start age for VBS is 3, but since Haylie is 2.5, they put her in a group and let her go do the stations too.  And let me just say...

She LOVED IT!!!!  These are the things she keeps talking about after VBS:

-I hold the rope!!  *They have the kids hold a rope going between stations so no one gets lost.
-I see a big whale!  It's BLUE! 
-Where'd the big whale go??
-*After watching two whole skits, the whale's sound effects "burped" up Jonah.  Her only take away from the skits..."He burped!!  Big time!!
-I ate cookies!  They were black.
-Look, it's my fish! It lights up.


Imagine all of those being said with 100% enthusiasm...25 times over.


If you ask her what she learned about, she says God.  But if you keep asking questions regarding Jonah, she eventually gets around to telling you all about it. I love seeing her having such a good time learning about God and the Bible.  Thank you, MRCC, for doing such an AWESOME job...and especially for letting my baby girl join in this year.  It brought tears to my eyes seeing her take it all in and having the time of her life.

Father's Day 2012

Haylie was just ecstatic to give this to her daddy.  On our craft morning, we made these for the dads instead of doing our normal story time.  It was a lot of fun, but the kids wanted to help more than we wanted them to (paint + kids + new floors = Erin freaking out)...but we all survived and ended up with these great canvases.  (Thanks to Amy C. for finding this great idea.)

Haylie's hands took up more space than I thought so we had to do something a little different with Jace's...which, I'm surprised I even got his on here!  He was a little unsure about the paint and kept curling his hand up.

We are so blessed by Justin.  He is a great father and husband, who works so hard for us every single day.  He really is the world's best daddy - HANDS DOWN!

Champion Eater

This kid likes to eat.

A lot.

Last week after our visit to our favorite pediatrician, he told me to start trying solids with Jace.  Well, this kid can't get enough.  He eats like a champ, unlike his sister who barely would touch the stuff.  He starts out smiley and then starts talking more if you don't feed him fast enough and then starts yelling when he's had enough.  So far we have tried green beans, peas, carrots, squash and sweet potato.  We'll stick with these for awhile before starting meats, fruits and rice cereal.

I'm excited to have an eater!!  It's way better than trying to shove food down my kids throat.

Summer Crafts

At one of the many consignment sales I have frequented, I stumbled across this book with the mindset of doing all of these with Haylie.  Well, I apparently need motivation to get out crafts so I decided to start a small group this summer where girls and their mommas come help us go through the stories and crafts.

There are 40 stories which are in chronological order of the Bible.  The last one we did was The Red Sea Miracle.  It's told by the perspective of a female in the story - this time was Miriam.

Then after the few paragraphs, there is a craft - partly done by  "Mom", partly done by "Me." (To control chaos - mostly done by Mom...)

 

They listen...if they have pretzels...

 
Or two headbands on.

After the story, moms then step in to help the girls figure out their craft!

We've had a lot of fun and have come up with some cute crafts!  If you want to join us, leave me a comment and I'll message you details!  

Haylie Learns to Clean

"Haylie, did you clean your own room?!"

"Yes!!"

  "Wait, where did everything go??"

Found it.

It's Summer Time!!

Who needs Whitewater Bay when you have a teeny tiny slide and a pool for one?  Oh yea.  It's getting wild over here!

We have FLOORS!!!

I never thought this day would come.  The day when I would say good-bye to our nasty carpet!  I have been wishing and hoping and finally, on Memorial Day weekend, my floor dreams came true. 

A big thanks to Justin's parents, Jerad, Dustin, my dad, random Richard from next door and lots of well wishers who took on this massive project.  It was 4 days of non-stop flooring.  And it was 4 days of me and the kids imposing on my parents.  (Thanks again!!)

BEFORE:

Almost Done!!

AFTER!

It would have been better to take the same shots as my before pictures, but I'm trying to avoid the messes made by my favorite Haylie.  I mean, who wants to pick up toys just for a picture?

These are our new vent covers.  I just love them.  It really helps complete the floor, instead of the nasty, beat up gray ones that were put in about 20 years ago.

Now that we have our wood floors, it means that we now have to rearrange our furniture, which means new wall decor, which means new rugs, which means a whole lot of stress on the budget.  But I'm trying to be economical and use what we already have.  So who wants to come over and help me redecorate from things we already have?  You know it will be fun...

4 months!

What? I have a blog?  Oh yeah.  Between floor renos, being under the weather a bit, friends having babies, Thunder games, craft mornings, etc., I have basically been ignoring this bad boy.  But I'm trying to make a come back!  Starting with...

Jace turning 4 months old!  I feel like I was just blogging about his 3 month milestone.  He is just a chunky baby boy.  He is 16 lbs and 26 inches long.  Even our pediatrician commented on his size!

We just started giving him baby food yesterday.  It was a big day for him and he ate like a champ.  We started with green beans (per our peds recommendation).  Today we stuck with those and then we'll do peas, carrots, squash and then sweet potato.  I'm excited to see how he does with them.

He slept through the night last night, but has been getting up once.  I'm hopeful he just needed more satisfying food.

Just about to outgrow this swing!

What.  Bring it.

He has no neck.

A little cramped in here!

He has yet to roll over, but we are trying to give him more tummy time so he has a chance.  Other than that, he just loves to smile, giggle and swing.  He really loves sitting up and tries with all his ab muscles to do so if he is that determined.

I just looked up Haylie's pics when she was 4 months. Can you tell any resemblance?