She cried so many tears

I took Abby in for her 15 month check up.

To say that she hated it would be the understatement of the year.

She vacillated between crying and screaming the entire time.

With good cause I might add.

Abby is a "Mommy and Daddy Girl."

Meaning, in the realm of adults, we are pretty much the only two that she likes.

She will eventually warm up to other people, but in reality, it is the two of use that hold her heart.

(I kind of like it. Who am I kidding, I LOVE it!)

That being said, visiting the doctor is just short of torture for her.

Ainsley doesn't really like new people either.

We now have a new pediatrician AND he is a BOY!

Ainsley is especially shy around men.

The majority of the appointment Ainsley was hiding underneath chairs or in the corner.

Abby on the other hand was crying on my lap the entire time.

She cried with everything.

Listening to her heart.

Looking in her ears.

Checking her hernia.

Checking her lymph nodes.

Measuring her.

Weighing her.

You get the picture, right?

She also had to get her flu booster shot.

Poor thing cried and cried.

The big crocodile tears that slip down her cheeks and land on your lap.

The tears that when she looks at you you want to cry along with her.

Those tears were nothing, I repeat NOTHING compared to what came next.

They had to draw blood to check her lead levels since we live in an older home.

My heart broke y'all, like into a million billion gazillion pieces.

Luckily she only had to be poked once, good veins, PRAISE THE LORD.

All in all, she is well and excelling.

Homegirl is FINALLY above 20 pounds, yes she is 15 months.

She is our tiniest by far.

She has caught up on all of her milestones and is now exceeding for her age.

The morning wore her out so much that she had fallen asleep in the car before we had even left the parking lot.

All of this showed me yet again how very blessed we are for healthy children.

I read blogs and hear of people who have sick kids that are fighting for their lives.

I cannot even begin to imagine the pain and the fear that this must bring.

I praise the Lord for the gifts that He has given us.

For our children.

For health.

It makes all of the little things in life that are annoying or difficult seem that much smaller.

It makes my complaints seem so inconsequential.



What day is it???

This weekend has seemed like a whirlwind of activity

Fun activity, but activity none the less.

Yesterday we decided to take the kiddos out for lunch.

It was so fun and crazy and busy.

I loved it!

There was a guy there that made balloon animals and such for the kids.

The girls were so excited, there was a lot of squealing going on at our table!

Adison requested a butterfly on a flower.

The cool thing was that he could make it!!!

All Ainsley really wanted was a heart.

He had these really cute heart shaped balloons.

She was in Heaven.

The man was extra nice and made her a princess crown with ANOTHER heart on it.

Abby got a cute little teddy bear holding a heart.

She was so excited that she kept hugging it and smiling.

After that we hit up my favorite store, Target!!!

I needed to get some hair color and while there spied a book that I have been dying to get my hands on.

Yippee!

I was simply giddy to be getting The Pioneer Woman's new book, it didn't disappoint either.

I might or might not have stayed up until 1:00 in the morning to finish it. Yes, it was THAT good!

After that, hubs took me to get cupcakes.

We went to Billy Vanilly (it used to be called Daddy Cakes).

They had been on the show Cupcake Wars on Food Network.

Let me tell you, those cupcakes are G-O-O-D!

K got me an entire box for yours truly.

I tell ya, he loves me.

How funny is their sign!?!

A special someone named K ate the other one, he said it was really good. I am impatiently waiting to eat more of them.

While the littles slept, Adison played, K headed over to a friends house and I read my book and ate a cupcake.

That is my idea of relaxing, I enjoyed every.single.second.

Today has been a bit rough though.

Poor Abby is just miserable.

We think that she has a tooth coming in.

Plus, the diarrhea, exploding diaper thing has returned.

No matter how quickly you get that sludge off her little bum is hurtin'.

It makes me want to cry.

I am so very grateful to have her 15 month check up tomorrow, I need to quiz him on what is going on with Abby.

She is so miserable that we had to cancel going to small group tonight.

It was a tough choice to make, but homegirl is just not happy.

Friday Follow and some other stuff

Head on over and join me at The Chatty Mommy for Friday Follow.

There are some fun blogs over there, check.it.out.



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In other random news, it snowed again.

A lot.

On top of a lot of ice.

Goodness.

I feel like I have been writing about the weather a lot.

I apologize for this, but this is kind of what is happening right now.

Sigh, I hope to stop talking about this soon.

While Abby was talking a little snooze Ainsley and I headed out to do some shoveling.

Well, I shoveled while she ran around and threw snow balls at me.

After throwing the snowball, she would squeal and run away as fast as her little legs would take her with a maniacal little chuckle trailing behind.

It was hysterical.

She even tried to do a snow angel which during previous snows was not going to happen with her.

She is slightly timid and does not enjoy new things so the fact that she was willing to give it a shot earned her a high five and a woo hoo!

I have pictures to share, but am out of photo storage space, so I will put them up later after we purchase more storage. Blah!

5 Question Friday

1. Can you drive a stick shift?

Not even a little bit, I have never even had the desire to learn how to.

I did have a dream the other night that I could. Yes, this is totally a random thing to dream about and I have no idea why in the world I would dream about this.

2. What are two foods you just can't eat?

Onions, oh my goodness, NO!!!! I have a gag reflex to them. *Shuddering* I think it is a texture issue because I like the flavor so I use onion powder.

 

I don't like lettuce on my food. I love to eat salads but eating lettuce on sandwiches, hamburgers or tacos also makes me gag. I know it is odd, but we can still be friends, right?

3. Do you buy Girl Scout Cookies? What is your favorite kind?

I don't buy Girls Scout cookies :( I do love them though and have zero self control with them. My favorite kind though are the peanut butter sandwich ones, yum!

4. How do you pamper yourself?

I really don't pamper myself. I do enjoy long hot showers though, so I make sure to do that sometimes instead of the super quick one I usually take. Other than that, I don't. I would rather spend anything extra on the kids or doing something as a family. Boring, I know.

 

5. What is your nickname and how did you get it?
Besides my all time favorite nickname of Mommy or Mama, my nickname is DD. When my brother was really little he had some pretty severe hearing issues and couldn't say "Danna" so he called me DD and pretty soon most of family and close friends did too.

The Good, the Bad and the Funny

The Good: Abby is finally over her stomach bug, nasty diaper thing. Ainsley seems to be getting better with her sassiness, we are having much better days! Adison is a truly amazing big sister. Hubby got home safely from work today (the roads are awful! We had freezing rain and snow today.)

The Bad: Ainsley fell out of her bed last night and she was really scared. It is snowing again, seriously, this feels like a never ending winter. I still haven't taken the car in, I need to, but am kind of hoping that if I ignore it that it will stop. That is sooo likely to happen.

The Funny: Adison said to me the other night, "Mommy, your name is spelled D-A-N-Y, ya know, the Y is silent but kinda sounds like an A." What??? K and I were seriously rolling with that one. Abby is still doing her silly dance and I cannot catch it on video, she is a smart, sneaky cookie. Ainsley is 3 and well pretty much every other word that comes out of her mouth is a riot.

Your turn, please share I could use a laugh, this snow is driving me batty!

A VERY brief reprieve

I have had a headache all day today and it isn't letting up.

Please forgive the fact that this will mostly be pictures.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know that I have stated it before, but I am over winter.

Like we broke up and I don't want to speak to it over.

Yesterday, was nice.

So nice that I took the girls out for a walk after picking up Adison from school.

Not quite short sleeve weather nice, but I got a little excited and wore them anyways.

It was a mistake, oh well, you live you learn.

Just when I thought that winter might be an okay thing, it decided to slam us today with freezing rain, snow and gusty cold winds.

We are officially on the outs.

Sigh, someday winter will catch on that it is not nice to tease.

People's feelings get hurt.

Back to yesterday though and the sun.

I took the kids to a nice park and walking trail.

I decided to shake it up a bit, normally we play at the park but I wanted to be able to talk with the kids and have them interact with each other too.

Hence the walk.

They had so much fun running around and stepping on sticks.

I think Abby had just as much fun watching them, she kept laughing and chuckling.

This picture just melts my heart.

Yep, I am offically a puddle now.

Having fun crouching through the trees and sticks.

Adison is such an amazing big sister, she held Ainsley's hand while they walked through all of the underbrush and made sure that she didn't fall. I was so impressed!

Don't forget to come back this evening for the Good, the Bad and the Funny!

Where does she come up with these things?

Ainsley is funny, there are no ifs, ands or buts about it.

One of the things that makes her so funny is that she is normally not trying to be, hysterical things just pop out of her mouth.
Plus, she is three, that seems to be a magical age for comedy.

This morning she was especially funny.

A: Adison and I are friends, we are on a team.

Me: Really, you two would make a great team. Maybe we should call you the "A Team"?

A: No, Mommy, my name is AINSLEY and I know EVERYTHING!

(With this one, it was the tone and conviction with which she spoke, I was rolling!)

+++++

A: Mommy, I think we should have two babies.

Me: I'm sorry honey but we are not having any more babies.

A: Well, what about three babies.

Me: Ainsley, I am sorry honey but we are not having any more babies, we are done having babies.

Ainsley: Well...how about statues? Adison and I really like statues, could we get some of those? Well, for Abby too. Could we get statues for the three of us? I really like statues!

Me: Um, Ainsley, no honey we aren't going to get any statues.

Ainsley: Um...oooh, look Mommy they have a slide.

(I have no idea where this one came from.)

+++++

A: Mommy, why do they say "Lift up your face"?

(We were listening to a Third Day song.)

Me: Well, honey, I think that they are talking about lifting your face up to Heaven.

A: Well, when we get to go to Heaven can we take a plane?

Me: I don't think so honey, but if that is how Jesus wants us to get to Heaven then we will take a plane.

A: I'm scared to go in a plane, will you sit next to me?

Me: Ha ha, of course I will sit next to you sweetie.

A: Mommy, we have to follow Jesus' insturctions.

Me: Yes, honey we do have to follow His instructions.

(She has been really curious about Jesus lately and going to Heaven, I love having these discussions with her.)

+++++

I love talking with kids this age.

It is so interesting to hear how they work through things and the way that they think that things work.

They are also really random and if you aren't paying attention you will quickly get lost.

How I get my babies to sleep

Adison, 3 days old

I wish that I would have done this with my first.

Not that she was a difficult sleeper after we got through the first three months.

They was sheer torture.

We tried doing the bath and reading, but instead of making her sleepy it woke her up even more.
We eventually settled on a routine that worked for Adison and she slept like a champ.
I wish that I would have thought of something as simple as singing during bedtime.
We did it throughout the day, but for some reason I never thought of singing the same song every bedtime.

I started doing this with Ainsley.

I sang the same song every time I put her to bed.

Her song was "Daisy Daisy."
I chose that song for her because I could replace the word "Daisy" with her name "Ainsley."

Every time I would lay her down for a nap or night time she would hear it.

Then she would simply go to sleep.

I remember thinking to myself, "This is GENIUS! I should have done this with Adison."

Since it worked so well on baby number two I decided to give it a shot on baby number three.
I chose "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," why that song I have no idea.
It just made sense to me that they should have their own song.

What do you know, it works like a charm.

She now knows that this signifies time to sleep.

If I don't do it she doesn't succumb to sleep as easily.

Without fail as soon I start singing to her, Abby immediately slumps down, rests her little check against the crook of my neck and the swaying begins.

It is such a simple thing to do but oh so special.

What about you?

What are some of your little tricks and routines for helping little ones off to slumber land?

A picture is worth a thousand words

I could not come up with anything to write about today.

So frustrating.

Instead, I decided to share one of my favorite pictures.

In this one Adison is 5 years old and Ainsley is about 4 months old.

I did a little impromptu photo shoot for Valentine's Day.

Look at how cute and little they are!

When I look at this picute I see such love and happiness.
I see beauty and care.
I see giggles and hugs.
I see miracles and blessings.
I see so very much for them.



I had to include another one of Ainsley since her face was kind of squished in the other pic.

I cannot believe how much hair she had at such a young age!

I love to look through the photo folders on the computer sometimes.

 It is like watching a story unfold.

How young we were, all the places that we have seen and the things we have done.

I love seeing how the kids change.

Today was a nice trip down memory lane.

Happy Monday!

Sorry about yesterday

Hello all!
I hope that you are having a wonderful President's Day so far.

We have a play date and lunch with my Dad planned for today.

Other than that, hopefully some relaxing!

So sorry that I didn't do a post yesterday.

We had friends over Saturday night and I was TIRED yesterday.

I ended up spending my day cuddling with kiddos, reading and eating pizza.

I was so tired last night that I was in bed by about 7:45, yawn!

Okay everyone, I am off to get some stuff done!

See you this afternoon :)

Oh what a Friday: From crazy hair to poison control

Friday started out like any other day.

Me glancing over at the clock and dashing out of bed.

The day needed to start, get kids up, fed and dressed so we could take Adison to school.

Not 10 seconds after opening my eyes did I remember that they are having Spirit Week at school and today was Crazy Hair Day.

Adison had explained to me the previous afternoon what she wanted done and it didn't sound too bad.

But, the harsh reality hit bright and early Friday morning that it was an *extra* thing to do.

Our mornings are on a tight schedule but I knew that we could make it work.

She basically wanted to wear ALL of our flower hair clips in her hair so she looked like a garden.

That was my goal and I feel like it was pretty successful.

She also wore a pink and orange butterfly shirt to drive that garden theme home.

I decided to let her wear some body spray that smelled like flowers to give her that extra something.

She looked so cute!

After dropping her off the day went according to plan.

That plan included attacking the laundry, yes I got some of it done so it didn't, in fact, grow legs and attack out fair city.

We did have a fun little outing planned for the day and we went on a picnic with some friends that included some time to play and run around at the park.

We get back home, put the baby down for a nap and Ainsley and I hang out for a bit before picking up Adison from school.

Fast forward, I get Ainsley ready to pick up Adison.

I told her to wait by the back door like I do every day.

I tell her I am going to go to the bathroom and get Abby and then we need to leave.

I was gone MAYBE 90 seconds.

As I am walking into the kitchen I immediately know that something is wrong.

Ainsley just looked off and panicky.

I ask her what is wrong and she just points to the floor over by the fridge.

I look over and just then she starts puking.

Uh oh.

I see one of out dishwasher soap packs on the floor and the package is torn open.

I look back at her and then the REAL puking begins.
To say that I was terrified could be the understatment of the year.

After she is done I ask her what happened.

She said that she took a bite of the soap pack because she thought it was food.

What???
She clearly KNOWS that it is to wash the dishes, but she is 3 and who knows what she is really thinking.

I do the only thing possibles seeing that I now have 3 minutes to pick up Adison from school.

I wipe her up, get the kids in the car and call poison control.

They said that kids actually do this a lot because they think it looks like candy.
**I wish that I would have known this before, heads up to all of you that use these and have small children in your house.**

That she might vomit (already took care of that), have some diarrhea and be a bit sleepy from puking.

We also had to watch her for an inability to swallow, which the kind woman told me was really rare.

She also told me that those things supposedly taste AWFUL so most kids don't ingest that much of them.

Well, the diarrhea hit less than an hour later and I watched  her like a hawk for any additional issues.

Why is she so much scarier at 3 than she was at 2!?!

I have also not been letting her out of my sight for a moment, eating the soap pack is something that I NEVER in a million years thought that she would try to do, but she did. Sigh.

Today (Saturday) she is just fine and we both learned a valuable lesson.

She learned that eating a soap pack will make up puke and have AWFUL diarrhea.

I learned that my three year old cannot be trusted for even 90 seconds while I use the restroom and get her baby sister.

Seeing Adison's hair like this is amazing.

She has the straightest hair I have ever seen and it does NOT hold curl at all.

It lost all of this curl/body within a matter of hours

**All pictures were from my phone, sorry they are not the best quality.

Friday follow and some random info

Head on over to The Chatty Mommy and join me for her Friday Follow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, I have to tackle my laundry today.

If I don't I am afraid it will grow legs and attack the city.

Yikes!

I also slept horribly last night, I hope to be in bed early.

Ainsley fell out of her bed last night, she was so tired she didn't even cry.

It freaked her mama out though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a great Friday!

Five Question Friday

1. Have you worn the same outfit more than one day in a row?

Um, as embarrassed as I am to admit this, yes. I'm a mom and there are mornings, more than I would like to admit, that I roll out of bed, grad the closest articles of clothing and throw them on. Sigh.

2. If you had to choose any LARGE city to live in, which would it be?

Probably Kansas City, it is really close to a lot of family. We are pretty happy with the size of our current town. It's big enough to have the stores & restaurants that we want to go to yet small enough for there not to be too much traffic.

3. Fly or drive with the kids on vacation?

At this point I would just take a vacation, period. But if I had to choose it would probably depend on the length of time in the car. I really don't mind either, but with having a one year old and three year old, long car trips can be a bit much for them. But really, I would do either for a vacation.

4. What is your idea of "spring cleaning"?

I don't spring clean, gasp! I do my normal maintenance cleaning then once a month or so the whole family (minus the one year old) gets involved to really get the place shiny looking. I love having a clean house, but really just don't enjoy cleaning.

5. What is the best book you have ever read?

I can't just choose one, I love to read and pretty much enjoy everything. I love reading the Harry Potter series and well, everything. I can't just choose one. It's like choosing the best song that you have ever heard, I am too indecisive to choose one.

The Good, the Bad and the Funny

The Good: the sun was shining today and we spent the entire afternoon outside. Glorious! Adison also had her music program tonight, she was darling! Way to go Adison! Valentine's Day was a blast, the girls had so much fun!

The Bad: Cabin Fever struck our house with a vengeance, there was crankiness galore. Ainsley threw up Valentine's Day morning, so sad! My van is making a weird creaky noise, I really don't want to take it in, but I think I need to, cha-ching $$$

The Funny: Abby has been doing this really funny dance thing lately and when she moves her head it looks like a ventriloquist dummy. It just cracks me up, I try to get it on video and she stops doing it right away. She is on to me! I know that I have WAY more than that, but after being outside all day then heading over to Adison's music program, I am zonked.

Your turn, I can't wait to read yours!

Thursday in the SUN!

I think the Heavens were smiling at me today after yesterday's post.

It was SUNNY and WARM today!
Gloriously warm, like short sleeve shirt warm.

I embraced it.

This afternoon a friend of mine and I took our little ones to the zoo.

It was so wonderful being outside, letting Ainsley run and being able to talk to another adult.

How cute is this little baby hippo with it's mama!?!

Ainsley was so happy to be at the zoo!

Abby had fun looking at the giraffes.

Fun times climbing on the giant bronze lion.

Ainsley and my friend Jennifer's little girl holding hands.
Aren't they precious!

Abby and I by the elephants.

She was enjoying looking at them too much to bother with a photo op.

Lee hanging out on a carved, wooden bear after the real thing scared her to tears.

Abby smiling at my friend Jennifer.

I could not get Abby to look at the camera, oh well, a profile shot is always a good thing.

After picking Adison up at school we headed over to the park to hang out with some more friends.

The kids had so much fun playing, the moms had fun talking and we all enjoyed some time outside.

Too bad it is supposed to get cold again, oh man!

Tonight I will be doing another Good, Bad and Funny.

See you then!



Cabin Fever, it's running rampant

I am having one of those floundering spells.

Nothing is really wrong, just sometimes life/stress/whatever just feels like too much.

(Luckily, the housework is not suffering from my funk, I can't stand a messy house although I do let that slide. Too complicated to get into.)

So, like I was saying, nothing is really wrong, I am just feeling a bit overwhelmed by a lot of little things.

Does that make sense?

I am blaming all of it on Winter.

The cold.

The snow that is left on the ground.
The nasty slushy, muddy stuff that used to be snow.

The sickness that comes with the cold.

The cabin fever.

I want to be out of this funk.

I want to take the kids outside to run and play so that they will get out of their funk too.

To laugh and play and enjoy each other

It just seems like this cycle of crankiness.

It's really no one's fault, it is just the nature of this time of year.

We have been trapped inside for too long and Spring is just on the horizon.

I feel like I could reach out and touch it.

It is this close.

So, enough whining on my part.

I will snap out of it and embrace the end of Winter because all too soon Summer will be upon us.

It likes to bring oppressive humidity, unreal heat and those pesky little things called tornadoes.

I know that in the peak of Summer I will be calling out for Winter because then too we will be trapped in the house.

Such is life in the Midwest.

P.S. My oh so talented hubby took all these pictures, gorgeous. Way to go babe.

P.P.S I am trying an experiment, I wonder if I actually make myself get dressed (no yoga or exercise pants) if that would help with this funk. Radical, I know. I am even blow drying my hair, this is serious people.

It's a V-Day recap (picture heavy)

Valentine's Day.

I think it is a fun holiday, but I mostly get into it for the kiddos.

 

My morning started off so sweet with hubby wishing me a Happy Valentine's Day first thing.

Then I got Abby up and ugh, she is either teething or has a bit of a stomach bug because homegirl smelled awful (that is putting it mildly, believe me!).

(Later on the stomach bug would be revealed as the winner of that decision.)

So I get her cleaned up and got the bigger girls ready for the day.

Adison was so cute wearing pink AND she picked the shirt out on her own.

(Yes, I realize she is 8 and should be picking out her own clothes, but she doesn't care what she wears. So I usually just toss a shirt her way and she is pleased as punch!)

I had to go to the store right after dropping Adison off at school to get some milk for the Babs and while there they had the cutest donuts and I thought that would be a fun little treat for Ainsley.

Ainsley was so excited that they had pink cupcakes (that is what she kept calling the donuts)!

So I cut them so we could eat them a little bit easier, then told Ainsley that they were ready.

She then told me that she wasn't hungry and her stomach hurt, she then went to lay down on the couch.

That should have been my warning, that she layed down.

Not 10 minutest later I hear, "Mama! I'm going to pook!

I run to get her a puke bowl and within 5 minutes she is puking.

This is how she spent the rest of the afternoon.

Flash forward, we get Adison from school, K gets home from work and dinner is cooking.

Time for pictures, Valentine's day has to be properly documented.

(Lee was feeling much better!)

Then, in my attempt to get a picture of my sweetheart and I this happened.

He is such a stinker!

Then I FINALLY got this.

After dinner, the girls (and a big girl) got their sweets.

K did all the Valentine's day shopping, what a catch!

They also got some sweet gifts from K's parents.

They rock!

 

It was a great day in the end.

We had a wonderful day sharing and showing love, can't ask for more that that!

**Bonus**

I had to share these pics that I took this morning, the girls were just too cute!

Happy Tuesday!