Keira Marie 4 years 3 months

Officially 4 1/4 years old, Keira  is a little miss sassy pants. We have had to do a LOT of "training" this month in terms of how she is allowed to talk to not only Mommy and Daddy but also to her sisters! Really, most of the time, Keira is a sweetheart but they all go through these testing phases and Tom and I find it really important to nip it in the bud before it turns into a bigger problem Hopefully, it is working out. I guess only time will tell because right now it doesn't ever seem to be working! haha.

Anyways, Keira has started Irish Step Dancing Class this summer and last week, the teacher allowed us to come in and watch at the end of rehearsal. She is absolutely loving this and we are going to try to keep it going. Not only is it really fun for her, but it is also some seriously good exercise!

No matter what she is doing, she is usually singing and/or dancing while doing it....here is the song we sang for Pre-school last week...

Also....the big news for Keira this month is that she decided to get her hair cut! I think this was harder for mommy and daddy to deal with than Keira but I am honestly still shocked she wanted it. For the past 2 years she has been patiently waiting for her hair to touch her bottom and her life goal was to be Repunzel. Anyways...here are the before and afters!

Before, very excited!

After...feeling very cool!

Sassy pants and all...I just love this kid.

Janessa Faith 5 Months Old

Janessa is five months old today...I really can't believe it! I still remember how uncomfortable I was in March like it was yesterday.

Libby and Her "new baby" as she fondly refers to Janessa!

This month, Janessa has started to sleep through the night consistently. She sleeps from 8:30pm(ish) to 7:00am(ish) and better than that...she has joined the girls bedroom! I will not complain about this child's sleeping because we can literally walk into the bedroom lay her down and she goes to sleep all while the light is on and Keira and Libby are running around [loudly] getting ready for bed! She is an angel baby.

Janessa seems to be happy wherever she is as long as she can see what is going on. The only time she actually gets a little cranky is when she wants to sleep, eat or be changed and as soon as said thing is done, she is happy again.

Right now, this child seems to want to shove EVERYTHING in her mouth...including but not limited to, her shirts, burp cloths, bibs, MY shirt, toys, rattles...etc.

She still is not even trying to roll from back to front although she has been rolling the other way for 2 months now...but she loves grabbing her feet and trying to eat them! She also really wants to sit up but isn't quite there yet!

Janessa is a sweet little doll....yesterday, when Keira was having a rough moment with Libby, she said, "Libby needs to find a new family, but I want to keep Janessa.". No worries, we talked about how that wasn't nice to Libby and all that, but I was still happy that she at least wanted to keep one of her sisters=)

A Peaceful Yet Unpeaceful Sunday Morning Drive

This past Sunday morning, I got in the car at 8:05am to drive to church by myself. I was singing on the worship team so Tom would bring the kids at 9:30 when church began. And oops...I was supposed to be at church by 8:00! Ok..I digress..that is not part of the story!

Anyways, I was driving along smiling because everything was so peaceful. the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, there were no kids yelling or taking toys from each other in the back of the car, and there weren't many people to be seen between my home and my church. Then it hit me. There weren't many others on their way to church. My peaceful attitude quickly changed and it has been on my mind ever since. 

Now, I do realize, I was leaving early and many people go to church at different times, but still, it made me think of how most people these days spend their Sunday much like they spend their Saturday. Back in the day, everyone went to church. It was expected. When was that lost and why? When did it become acceptable to sleep in on a Sunday morning or schedule other things in place of going to church?

Do not misunderstand what I am saying. I do NOT believe that going to church is what saves you. I most definitely believe that we are saved by God's grace, through forgiveness of our sins, by believing that Jesus is the one and only Son of God and accepting him as our Savior. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Ephesians 2:8 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" We are NOT saved by works (doing good, going to church...etc.). However, I do see commitment to church as EXTREMELY important. As Christians, we need fellowship. We need growth. We need encouragement and We need to meet together to worship!

Hebrews 10:24-25  ^"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,  not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

I realize that we all have things that we struggle with and have fault with, and trust me...there are plenty of things that I know that I need to allow God to change in me, but going to church on Sunday morning just isn't one of them. It just doesn't occur to us in our household on a Sunday morning that church is optional. It is something that I love and look forward to each week. I would never want my children to be out of the habit of going. I think that part of the reason that it has never been an issue for me, is that we went to church every Sunday. Not only going, but serving within the church and setting an example for me. As a child, it was enjoyable to me and I loved it and so far, my children feel the same way. 

It is important to Tom and I that as our children grow and get involved in more and more that they will not be involved in activities that occur on Sunday mornings. It just won't be an option. I really hope that if you are reading this and this is an area of your life that you struggle with, you will be encouraged to change it. Make God the priority in your life. Realize what example you are setting to those around you. Understand that if you make time for the Lord, He will make your schedule work out. If you are "too busy" than consider cutting something out that is not as important. Sure we want our kids to be involved in things and we want to as well, but it is more important that they form a relationship with their Savior that is lasting.

Wow...all that from a drive to church.

5 Years married!

Today marks the 5 year anniversary of our marriage. I have to say that it has been amazing.  Looking back, we barely knew each other really but we knew that we agreed on the big stuff...Faith...Family...Church...Friends...etc. and we have had a great time getting to know each other better all the time. So many people told me when I got married that by 5 years we wouldn't mind being apart but I am happy to say that they were wrong and I hope to keep it that way...Niether one of us sleeps well without the other by our side!

When we got married I remember saying that for our 5 year anniversary we would go somewhere tropical or far away...but instead we managed to already have 3 kids! Crazy but more amazing than we would have ever imagined! Thanks to my parents, my Aunt, my Gramma (yes, we spell it that way!)  and my cousin, we were able to away get last night to Niagara Falls...we definitely missed the kiddos and felt a little empty handed without them but really enjoyed being able to just talk to each other and walk around (and spend a LOT of money on pretty much nothing!) I'll blog about that trip later but for now...here are a few pictures from our awesome wedding day!

And for any of you that might be worried that I spent our anniversary blogging..no worries...I wrote most of this ahead of time!

Keira's Preschool...week 1

Many of you know that we have chosen the path to home-school. Although I have been given the advice from other home-school moms that I don't need to do pre-school and that it could cause me to get burned out quickly, Keira has basically asked for it. I thrive on structure and schedules so we decided as a family that we would just get started a year before Kindergarten. I know that it seems early but with vacations that we have planned and knowing that Janessa will need surgery sometime this winter, I wanted to make sure we would still be done with the program before Summer.

The week started off....funny...to me at least. I am not sure where she got it from but suddenly when I mentioned that we were going to start pre-school, Keira started whining and complaining about it! When we actually sat down to do it...SHE LOVED IT...but then said that she was done (after the first day) and didn't need to do it any more. haha.

At the end of week one...I am happy to say that she loves it and looks forward to it. She has even said her Bible verse a few times when I have told her that she needs to listen to me at other times during the day!

Most days I feel like I can't do anything the way that I want to (keep the house clean, keep up with laundry, have a hot dinner on the table, not yell at the kids...etc...the list goes on...and on...and on) but so far...I feel like Homeschooling is exactly what our family is supposed to do.

Ask me again when I am teaching complex math and we will see how I feel! haha.

Libby Grace, 2 years 7 months

Today Libby is 2 years and 7 months old. We think that she is absolutely hysterical! She is at a stage where she wants to keep up with big sister and most of all wants to talk as much as her. This results in random phrases being used when they don't make sense and just saying things that don't pertain to each other.
For example: She came downstairs with her minnie mouse and a few books and said, "I got some books to red to Minnie. That's the question." Um...what's the question..haha! I LOVE IT!

Libby is completely in love with Minnie Mouse and sleeps with a [disgustingly gross] stuffed version who she refers to as "Big Minnie". This is probably because all of her other Minnie's are smaller but in my opinion...it isn't very big :)

Also, this week, we began potty training. Let me pre-empt this by saying that if there was one part of parenting that you could send your children away for, it would be potty training for me...I despise it! Becuase of that, I choose to be the mom who does it as fast as I can, all at once, not dragged out and YES...I BRIBE!

When I potty trained Keira, it took 6 days. she was 26 months and the first 5 days were brutal  (she never went in the potty at all). Day 6, I stripped her down, put the potty seat in the living room, turned on a movie for her to watch and waited. When she started to go, I stuck her on the potty and that was that. She has only had a few accidents ever...even at night!

So...when Potty training began this week, we went straight to having Libby be naked. My schedule conflicted a few times so I actually had to put her in a diaper to go places on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday was Wednesday and although she cried all day long (because she was holding it and HAD to go!), she went in the potty twice! (She also peed on the floor twice and in her diaper at nap time). Today, she woke up dry (Wahoo!) and about mid morning, she came downstairs from playing with Keira, sat on the potty and went...no crying! She made it through the entire day with no accidents! Success!

We are still waiting for her to do number 2 but this is an entirely different experience than it was with Keira! In some ways, it is easier and some ways harder but regardless...I still HATE potty training.

for future embarrassment purposes! (Don't look at my messy living room....when I am potty training, nothing else seems to get done!)