Looking Back

To respond to the comments about feeding Kiera: we actually feed her fairly often because she's not good with messy meals and things like yogurt. She often asks for help. Jared did literally try to force food in her mouth on Monday night and she just spit it out repeatedly. Since then, she has eaten wonderfully and has been quite well-behaved. :)

On a different note, I decided to post an old video. Kiera was 4 days old here. She certainly has come a long way!

The Suppertime Battle

Yesterday, I made chicken alfredo for supper. I'm pretty sure that Kiera has eaten it in the past, but yesterday, she decided she didn't want to. We've tried all sorts of things to try to get her to eat when she doesn't like a certain meal, but nothing works except for the grace of God. That girl can be extremely stubborn. Yesterday, we even ate cake + ice cream in front of her after supper and told her she could have some if she would eat her supper, but she refused and just sat and watched us! I was surprised that she wouldn't even give in for sweets! She asked for other food throughout the evening, but our answer was always the same, "You have to eat your supper first." We gave her only water to drink and she wanted milk, but again, we told her she had to eat her supper first. We put her to bed with an empty stomach and she quietly sung + talked to herself for about 45 minutes and then we went to her room and she wanted to eat her supper! She finally ate a couple of big bites and even those took her about 10 minutes to eat. She got some milk after that and then went to sleep no problem. I think she's actually only gone to bed with an empty stomach twice as she usually ends up caving after a couple of hours. I pray almost every day that she will be stubborn in her faith. I try not to always see these kind of characteristics as bad things because I know that God can use them for His glory. It's just channeling them in the right direction that is a challenge! Good thing I'm not alone. I often think of this verse: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3 God gives us everything that we need! :)

Sunshine on a Rainy Day

As it is dark + stormy outside, I choose to be thankful.  Today I am thankful for:

221. That we're not experiencing a drought

222. Books

223. Eyes that can see to read

224. Blue eyes

225. Sidewalks

226. The color red

227. Plastic cups

228. Flowers outside a teahouse

229. Work

230. Finding sweet deals at garage sales

231. Dish soap

232. Candles

233. Pens

234. Cats

235. Face cloths

236. Fireworks

237. Window blinds

238. Fruit

239. Nutella

240. Days that I don’t have to cook :)

My Family Makes Me Laugh

Yesterday, Jared and I were washing dishes together and talking about numbers of kids. We know a family with 9 kids and I was saying, "Can you imagine having 3 kids and then thinking that you would like 2 more sets of 3 kids?!" Then Jared said something about you may as well make it an even ten kids and then he said, "Our kids are good-looking. We certainly have the ability to produce good-looking kids and the world needs to be populated with more good-looking people, so don't we owe it to the world to keep on reproducing?" Oh Jared! If you want to be pregnant 10 times and push out 10 babies, go right ahead. I certainly won't be doing that!

On Sunday, we took our kids for a walk to get ice cream. We got to the store and the guy asked if he could take our order. Jared paused as he was looking at all the different ice cream flavors and Kiera piped up loudly, "Medium black coffee!" We laughed so hard! I didn't realize she had picked up on Jared's coffee preference, but she has been in the van quite a few times when we've hit the drive-thru. Hilarious!

Chaos

That would be the perfect word to describe this past week. Thankfully, there hasn't been any big, horrible event, but it's just been a bunch of little things that have piled up and have me wishing for a break. Today, I said to Jared, "2 years and 3 months!" He said, "Until what?" I said, "Until Kiera starts school!" She's just been getting into everything. I think she's bored. It all started on Wednesday. I had just finished mopping the floor in preparation for company coming in the evening and then 15 minutes later, Kiera spilled her cup of milk all over the floor. Then, I was trying to get food ready and she was getting into everything she possibly could! The next morning, she woke up and I discovered she had done the poop storm of the century! She literally had poop on her from head to toe. I was trying to clean her up, but she didn't want to stay on the diaper pad, so she ended up getting some poop on her carpet, too. While I was running her bath and trying to clean everything up, Blake started yelling and fussing. I eventually got everything done and the laundry going and calmed Blake down. Fast forward 12 hours, at 11:30 last night, Blake woke up and started crying. I thought, "Hmmm...maybe he's hungry." I went to his room and picked up and discovered that he and his blanket were covered in puke! He proceeded to throw up 6 or 7 more times in the next 20 minutes. He was crying and I was scared because I didn't know what was wrong. I still don't know what was wrong, but thankfully he's healthy today. It might be the banana baby food I fed him for the first time yesterday. He fell back asleep and I prayed he would sleep through the night, and he did. Praise the Lord! Then this morning, I was getting his bath ready and he did poop storm of the century part 2! Thankfully, he did it before his bath and not after. Once I got over how disgusting it was, I thanked God that my kids bowels are working properly. So, while I was trying to get him all cleaned up, Kiera got a hold of the paper towel and proceeded to unroll half of it. I got Blake all cleaned up and was trying to clean up his outfit and get another load of laundry going when he started crying. So, I ran back to him and grabbed my slippers on the way. They were under the kitchen table and I bumped my head trying to get them. I went and picked up Blake, sat down on the rocking chair, looked down, and discovered that I had poop on my jeans. Seriously?! Ya, so the past couple of days have been hectic and full of laundry and bodily fluids. I'm really hoping for a calmer week-end. It seems there's never a dull moment these days!

2 hours after posting this, I was sitting with Blake by the window. A lady walked by our house and as soon as she saw us, she smiled big and waved. I took Blake's hand and waved back at her. It may seem strange, but that totally made my day! Right after she walked away, tears sprang to my eyes and started trickling down my cheeks because it felt like God was smiling at me and waving, reminding me that He is still here. Yes, life can be messy and things don't go according to my plans, but "God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1 Thank you, God, for showing your love to me today through a stranger.

Videos

These videos are from the end of April. I just hadn't gotten around to putting them on my blog yet, so here they are!

Another Difficult Week

It’s been a hard week and this time it’s not Kiera!  Blake is currently cutting 3 teeth (2 on the bottom and 1 on the top) and has a cold.  I’m thinking the cold may be related to the teething.  He has a cough and a runny nose.  I can feel the teeth poking me, so I’m hoping we’re over the worst of it right now.  He has been waking up multiple times in the night and sometimes takes a long time to fall back asleep.  On Tuesday night, I was up with him from 1:00-3:30 a.m. and then 5:30 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.  I did, however, sleep before that, in between that, and after that, so I was tired, but it could have been way worse.  He’s been waking up 3 times usually.  Last night his wake-ups were shorter, so that was nice!  I have to be thankful for all the good things because it could always be worse!  I have to admit, though, my initial attitude when being woken up in the middle of the night has not always been thankfulness.  God is gracious and has blessed us with Kiera napping again!  I had put her Pooh blanket in the crib, since it is a crib blanket, and had put her in her new bed with her new blanket.  The other day, I had washed the Pooh blanket and she found it and immediately stuck her fingers in her mouth and started sucking on them, which is what she does to fall asleep.  God gave me the idea that she might start napping again if we let her have that blanket back.  Sure enough, she has napped every time we’ve put her down!  Praise the Lord for His wisdom!  So, we’ve had ups and downs, but God’s grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in weakness.