Milestones!

  First off, if you've been thinking of joining the Shepherding study, Mack says

 "WE WANT YOU!!!!" So join already!

So, Mack has learned a few new things lately. One of which being how to climb and go down a slide properly. The only problem has been the fact that our only slide is Rhyan's preschool sized slide (way too tall!). So when I saw this toddler slide at a consignment sale recently, I grabbed it!

And he loves it!!!

He has also recently learned the art of Rhyan's "bad face" . Its quite cute :-)/scary! lol

And he loves to say "uh oh"! about EVERYTHING!

More bad face! LOL

Have I mentioned that my kids have a fabulous Daddy?! He makes forts for them and plays with them so much more creatively than I've ever dreamed! They LOVE it! And i love him for it!

And guess who loves sour cream?!

Asking for "more" (thank you , sweet Jesus!)

He's so pleased with himself ;-)

And for now, folks, we're "all done"!

(loving that he's finally signing!)

Shepherding...- facebook page

Yeah, so for future reference.... i'll skip the entire title and simply refer to the book as "shepherding".

I want it to be SUPER easy for anyone who wants to join in on the study to have open discussion, so I've created a (closed) group on facebook for us!

Please click on this link and "join group" in the upper right. I made the group closed so as to keep the discussion private, so please dont hesitate to be transparent and share experiences and thoughts. My only suggestion: be positive and respectful of others opinions! :-) (as always!)

Shepherding a Childs Heart

I find myself giving instruction in a kind voice to my children and expecting them to comply with the same kindness that I have exemplified. And when/ they do not, because they are tired or hungry or in a bad mood, testing limits or generally just not impacted by my words, i immediately find myself irritated at their lack of obedience. Frustrated that they did not offer a "yes, mommy" with a smile (of course!). The next thing I know, my voice is raised or I'm using a harsh tone to accomplish this task of giving instruction.

Eventually the instruction is obeyed, but, alas, all of us have lost our smiles. We are now all grumpy. And frustrated.

Whats worse is when later in the day my daughter (who is 3) asks for t.v. time (for the 100th time) and when I respond with "no, maam, you've already had tv time today", she replies with " I SAID  I WANT TO WATCH TV". The tone is oh, so recognizeable and it dawns on me; my daughter is a mirror.

And I dont like what she reflects.

That is what has led me to begin this online study. It is with a heavy heart of my own convictions and a heart that is also full of hope that my family can function differently. That this old dog can be taught some new tricks. And that my children, as well as my husband and myself, will be the beneficiaries.

Will you join me?! Do you, too, desire to see change in your family's discipline toolbox and yet, you dont quite know what to do or how to go about it? Might I suggest that you click on this link to Shepherding a Childs Heart, order a copy and lets offer one another some accountability and encouragement!

I have read this book now twice. Applied a few things here and there and have been impressed with the improvements I've seen. I know it works. I also know that, like everything else in life, it is easy to get slack concerning the discipline of our children... and ourselves. Therefore, I desire accountability!

I will be writing a weekly blog post dedicated to each chapter in this book. I will post a couple of weekly encouragements and reminders of things to work on during the week (we all know how easy it is to be excited to make change on Sunday and then get bogged down with "life" during the week).

It is my hope and prayer that whomever might join me in this adventure might see great change in their own hearts.... for as we will learn, it is the crux of the matter!

Please leave a comment here or facebook or email me if you plan to join! I'd love to have names of people to be praying for as we embark on this study!

My Babies

I love how close the kids are. I'm not gonna lie.... the first year with Rhyan being little and Mack being little (and a little challenging) was hard. Not impossible, but hard. 

But seeing them play together and love on each other makes that hard first year worth it (shhhh, dont tell jeff [he was the one pushing for the 2 year time span]). They are little sweeties and i adore them!

Beauty Parlor: Part II

I'm not the only one welcomed into Rhyan's beauty parlor! 

(ps. i swear, Rhyan is NOT a nudist.... i just seem to capture pics when she's not dressed!)

 

Every headband she owns... on his head :-)

and a necklace, of course!

He's a beautiful man! lol!

Its BAAAAACK: Helpful Hygiene Tips

Ok, so not so much, really....
But as a dental hygienist AND a friend, i have GOT to recommend that everyone go and get THIS fabulous stuff!

Its Reach Total Care and get this...

its STRETCHY!!!!!

and my favorite kind is the PURPLE kind (its minty).

Who DOESNT want to use purple, Stretchy floss each night?! Honestly, its interesting. So go get some!
And prepare for your healthiest smile yet! Your hygienist may fall out of her rollie chair at your next visit, but hey, just consider that payback for all the times she hurt you in the past :-)

Have fun flossing! And.... you're welcome :-)

August 19

Last year, it hit me very suddenly and very hard that today was my Daddy's birthday.

Tears followed.
More like sobbing, really.

I was in our bedroom and Jeff walked in.... pretty sure he regretted that (as good of a husband as he is, i think he gets very uncomfortable when i cry... he just wants to fix it. and there's no "fix" for this).

This year, I anticipated it a little better. And I've chosen to think on the fact that he is whole, in the presence of Jesus and temporarily we are apart. Basically, he's gone to my home earlier than I.

And honestly, I'm happy for him. He wouldnt come back if he could, i'm quite sure.

But I wont lie, it still hurts.
I still wish oh-so-desperately that i could see my children get to know him here. If only for a short time, well, it hurts my heart too much to think about the joy that my kids and my daddy would bring one another.

I trust, however, that i will see them share life together... only, it will be where there is no heartache or pain or separation.

And until then, I'll spend every August 19th celebrating the fact that my Daddy was born. That God chose to allow him to be my (unconventional) Daddy. That he (daddy) chose to BE my daddy. And that for 26 years of my life, I got to be a part of his life, and he mine.

THAT is something to celebrate.

*I will forever miss you, Daddy. You are on my heart daily and there are times when i struggle so much with missing you that i find myself convicted that i miss our relationship more than i miss that of my relationship with the Lord when we are "not on great terms". You showed me what it means to love- you loved me unconditionally. You demonstrated for me how to forgive- on more than one occasion. You taught me how to study my bible- and even though you made me turn every single page of my bible individually before i was allowed to us it (it had "onion" pages.... very delicate and they sometimes stick together when new), I am so glad, as it served me well for over 10 years until I had to retire it (hello, Peter fell out!). You interviewed every guy i brought home and pretty much hand picked Jeff as my hubby (THANK YOU!).
I thought you were a terrible daddy to have in my dating years, btw.... turns out,  you were awesome :-)
You made me apologize and learn the art of humility- which i hated!
You were the best Daddy any little girl could ever DREAM of. I am honored to call you mine.
Happy Birthday, Daddy. Celebrate well! I'll look forward to celebrating with you again in person... one day.
Love
Peanut

Our Kiddo's :Camera Dump July

Just a little randomness for your Saturday:

Pretty much what Mack does his ENTIRE independent playtime. Lay at the door crying off and on. If you dont watch him, he'll go off to sleep on you! ;-) Emily and Laura, any suggestions?!

My sweet girl in her outfit her "Mayer" gave her. She's a little doll in it! Girl LOVES some pink! And check out her typical pose! I'm telling you, Emily parker, you've rubbed off on her!

And my precious, happy Mack ;-)

A little over a month ago, Mack started refusing to eat until you gave him a fork. He'll actually shake his head "no" if you try to feed him but will take the fork and feed himself fine. He pokes all the food himself and everything. Is it just me, or is he EARLY to be doing this!?

Of course, Rhyan wants me to take pics of her using her fork, too :-)

My babies LOVE to chase each other (well, mostly Mack chasing Rhyan) and when he catches her (she lets him catch her), he hugs her and she tries to get away. While laughing abounds.

LOVING these kids!

My Birthday!

Well, I've turned the big 3-2. 

And it pretty much feels exactly like the big 3-1.

Except, I had to work so it really didnt feel like much of a birthday at all. Well, thats not entirely true. It just felt like a grown up birthday.

Which is not nearly as exciting as a kids birthday, but alas, I suppose we all grow up! ;-)

I actually told Jeff that we planned vacation perfectly this year. We got home from the beach and I started back to work on my birthday week! We celebrate Hanukkah style at work, so that gave me some incentive to show up :-)

Tuesday morning we started off with Chick-Fil-A breakfast and a sweet tea. YUM.

Wednesday (my actual birthday) we had homemade chocolate pound cake with chocolate icing by Kerri. Oh my! And then I came home to a homemade (by RHYAN and my Mama) chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

It seems that the people who know me best understand my neeeeeed for chocolate ;-)

Btw, Rhyan started off my morning by bringing me a card (super cute... she picked it out herself!) and said "you wanna go to grammy's house? i make you a cake!" hehe. It was supposed to be a surprise!

Idk why my camera is making pics so dark lately?! Rhyan didnt want to wear a shirt. She's quite the exhibitionist! FOUR generations here... and I just cant say enough of how grateful I am to share my birthday with my Mommie. There were many times this year that I didnt think she'd be here to share it!

And then Thursday, Dr Cohen and the girls took me to lunch at longhorns!

I was grateful to be wearing scrubs w/ elastic by the end of the week :-)

Jeff gave me a nice card but I told him I didnt really want anything b/c I'm wanting to get a smart phone here soon and I'd prefer to just save up for that. Plus, we had just been at the beach and ate out a lot, etc. 

Jeff's parents came on Saturday, though, and kept the kids for us and we used a gift card that one of Jeff's students gave him to one of our favorite japaneese resturants! We had a wonderful meal and had a great time just hanging out and talking. I really do enjoy our alone time :-)

So, i'm  a year older. But as a friend of mine says "celebrate getting older; there are lots of people who wish they had the opportunity to do so".

Grateful for another year to share with those i love!

Heading Home!

OH, Amelia Island... how we will miss you! 

We left around 8:30am and headed on home with our van loaded to the brim with all our stuff, plus about 34 shells from the beach! haha. There were just so many pretty ones!!!

I had texted Laura Pool, a facebook friend of mine that I've never met (dont worry, she's not totally random... she's real life friends with my blog friend turned real life friend, Emily) and asked if she was up for meeting for lunch! I figured it was a long shot that the timing would work out but it DID!!! I warned her that we were all travel presentable only and not really "first time meeting" kind of presentable! But she swore she didnt care and so we planned to meet up in Macon for lunch.

At 5 guys. YUM.

While I ordered, Jeff and Mack had fun w/ the camera

And then, in walked my beautiful friend!!! Rhyan was stoked to meet her too (haha... what is with her in this pic?! she looks drugged!)

It was so wonderful to get to meet in real life! And Jeff was so great.... he totally understood me wanting to take time to meet up with her (she's a fellow babywise mom)! He watched the kids and took Mack for a little walk around outside while the two of us chatted it up!

And btw, my melasma (facial pigmentation) came back while at the beach. Regardless of the fact that I wore spf 50 non stop. Grrrrrr. I have some tricks up my sleeve I'll be posting on soon about that but this pic above shows the discoloration pretty badly :-(

We got home around 4:30 and started unpacking. The kids really did awesome on the drive home (minus about a 15 minute window of Mack yelling and Rhyan crying b/c she was asleep and it woke her up). 

What a FUN summer trip! Sad to see it go and excited for next year!

Amelia Island: Saturday... last full day!

... oh, our last full day! *sigh* 

We spent a lazy morning around the condo. Breakfast is always a top priority (hello, FOOD!) so we shared some grub and visited with Gran and Grandad while they packed up. They left around 10 (i think?!) and after our goodbyes, we headed on down to the pool. Even though it was our last day, we really didnt want to break out all of the beach gear.... its a LOT to haul out there and set up. Especially since we were going out so late!

The kids were happy as could be to hang at the pool, though! And believe me, we wore them out as much as we could :-)

After naps we once again were lazy and just got ready for dinner and an evening exploring the old town!

 We started with dinner at a little italian restaurant that Heather recommended. It was pretty good. Not as good as I'd hoped but honestly, i went with their special which was (obviously) italian... and the truth is, when I'm at the beach, i want SEAFOOD. But Jeff was tired of seafood so it was a pretty good compromise.

We thought it'd be fun to let mack try a lemon (since he was being so sour anyways... haha). I missed getting a pic of the first try... hilarious! He was too smart to try that again! He just shook his head "no" :-)

Hello, lips!

The night before, when we went to Bretts waterway cafe, Jeff had loved looking at these fish and kept talking about how Rhyan would love them and he wishes he could show her... so, we did :-)

And of course we HAD to get a pic w/ the shrimp at the marina!

I've mentioned that Rhyan looooves trains, right? I mean, she loves Thomas the Train but she also really, really loves real life trains. She always wants to check them out!

Mack was a good brother and didnt mind waiting :-)

And on the way back to the car, rhyan kept saying "Daddy, i have some icecream? please daddy i have some icecream?" He had originally said that she didnt need any but her persistence paid off. Girl got her some icecream. Besides, do we really EVER "need" any of the junk we eat?!

Mack wasnt so sure about the cold of it...

... but quickly decided he wanted more and started reaching and grunting :-) He ate ALL of his kiddie cup (strawberry... it was delish!) and then some of rhyan's chocolate! (she was not happy about that, but hers was melting! she is such a slow eater!!)

Jeff suggested on our way back from dinner that we take the kids out to the beach one last time to see it before we loaded up to head home the next day. He was thrilled that I brought my camera! :-)

Feet pics are HARD when you have two uncooperative boys! The girls were very good ;-)

Mack's little legs are so TAN!

EWWWW! dead/squished crab. Btw, we were all staring at it and Jeff scared the beegeebies out of me by pretending it had come back to life suddenly. Omgosh. I HATE to be scared like that! It made me so mad i didnt want to talk to him. Which he, of course, thought was hilarious.

I cannot say enough how wonderful this trip was!

*Waah moment: The first 6 months of this year was rough. With Jeff teaching, in his masters degree one to two nights a week (not to mention homework) and coaching baseball and Mommie being sick and me being so worried about her....

well...

this time away, with each other with virtually no responsibilities was perfection. 

Just what the Dr ordered!

A HUGE thank you to my fabulous in law's for making it all possible!!! Love yall!!!