Popping Tums

"I spit up, Mommy. I spit up on floor. See it?"

Yes, I have seen your "output" several, several times in the past few days. Poor Baby. Get well soon, we've got to party hardy soon for your SECOND Birthday!!!

PS Have I earned enough "sick leave" hours? I'd really like to take a day off. Being a Mommy to a sick child & a growing, hungry baby is hard. Even harder with my own fever now.

I am VERY thankful for all the days through out the year that we are all very healthy!!!

Silva~Rothrock Wedding!

A few short weeks ago our cousin, Grace, commited her life to her new husband Andrew. It was such an amazing ceremony, so heartfelt and genuine. They are a wonderful couple who have a huge heart for serving the Lord & serving others. Their ceremony was a beautiful portrayal of that. All the sister's were as gorgeous as ever supporting their beloved sister. Unfortunately I have a "mother's eye" now when the camera is in my hands...meaning I really only take pictures of my kids now! But trust me, the wedding was fabulous & Grace was a most beautiful bride.

My very handsome date & husband. Lucky me.

Grandma Julie holding little Ellie Lu.

Auntie Lily & darling little Chloe.

Sparkler's for their departure, what a fun way to celebrate the ending to SUCH a Beautiful wedding!! We are SO thrilled for you two as you begin this adventure of marriage together!

We love you!

Lucy has got it good

There is no real reason why she is shirtless & wearing her Elmo slippers. Just one of those nights I guess.

She now can open up the spice/cracker/snack/swifter/pancake mix & syrup/cereal cupboard.

She usually opens it up and says "OoOoOooooh! Lots of things!" Then lists a few that she knows she's not supposed to touch.

There's the syrup, Mommy!

There's the pincakes, Mommy!

There's the sweeper, Mommy! etc..etc..

The quietly looking & recounting what she sees has now all changed. She has been taking the cereal boxes out, removing them from their nice cardboard boxes, and if she can before Mommy catches her, she shoves her little fists down in there and scoops out many a handfuls to our eager dog Lucy, who is growing by the minute.

I have yet to clean up tonight's spilled Raisin Bran.

On this particular day, Daddy had brought home two new cereals for us which Audrey thought was just downright silly to be sitting unopened...

PS The "water" she is refering to is the unopened bottle of vinegar. Oh she only wishes everything were a bottle of water to play with.

Eyes in Recovery

Adding to Audrey's list of "Funny new things I can say"

--She found an empty contact case, I put a few drops of water in it to satisfy her love of water, and for some reason she related it to medicine (since we were in the bathroom maybe??). She opened it up and splashed water onto her eyelids...

"My eyes are sick. I need medicine, make Audie feel better."

Happier times

Literally taken about 5 seconds apart...

This is such a hard age. For the parents, with out question, yes. But more so for the toddlers themselves. Audrey is almost 2 years old, and I think between age 1.5-3 is the most amount of changes, learning and growth that their little brains go through at such a rapid speed. That is not scientific at ALL, just my personal opinion. Audrey literally goes from being a sweet, pleasant, well-mannered, totally verbal and smiley girl to the complete opposite...screaming, waving her hands frantically and yelling baby babbles usually accompanied by throwing herself onto the floor or doing something intentionally wrong while staring you down in the process of doing it. It is exhausting. For both she and I.

Some days I wish someone would make me take a nap.

Her meltdowns usually occur if she's hungry or really tired. On a good day we have one meltdown. Ellie on the other hand is at stage where she does not necessarily require as much personal attention as Audrey does. She needs to be changed, fed and held. Only problem is I cannot hold her all day long like I wish I could, and like I used to with Audrey. Therefore, little Ellie dear has done a lot of crying lately due to the fact that I have had to put her down so much lately and tend to the toddler needs.

So what it comes down to is...balancing two children is hard!!!! :) I have so much respect for all those good attentive Mom's out there with multiple children...let alone having multiples (twins,trips..). I love being a Mommy to my two little girls 98% of the time. I have a lot of patience and enjoy being super silly....but wow, that 2% (or more on some days...), that are so difficult are truly exhausting. Physically & mentally. And my spirituality tends to increase with how much assistance I need to rely on from God to be the Mother to Ellie & Audrey He has called me to be. Truly the hardest job there will ever be. But on the flip side, so many beautiful precious memories are being created all the time... and I Love knowing that.

Today, both girls took turns crying their little eyes out. At times they were both crying, but that's life lately. It was the almost constant crying all day long coming from one of them that is the reason for this post. I have seen some very sad faces today, so I thought I would go through some recent pictures I've taken to remind myself how happy it does get around here...despite how today went. All of these pictures were taken within the last 2 weeks or so... Already I'm smiling at the possibility, the hope, the prayer! that tomorrow may look something like this........ :)

Ellie's First Smiles!

Little smirks.....

Just before she was 6 weeks old, Ellie began to smile! That has got to be one of the biggest highs to see your child smile for the first time. Truly. It is addicting. You get them to smile that first time, or eventually laugh, and you continue to do anything and everything to make it happen again and again and again... It's intoxicating and beautiful.

Such a simple joy to marvel at the ability to smile. :)

Appropriately enough, Grandma Lu was the first to be able to get her namesake, Ellie Lu, to produce such a joyous smile. Luckily I was there, and even luckier I had my camera with me!!

A true, intentional, looking straight into your eyes--Smile