10 Smile Tuesday

hello there.  i can't believe another week has gone by!  not too much has gone on besides getting ready for the move :).  we will be having our phone and internet turned off on friday.  we will have internet access at jonathan's parents house and i will try to keep up with the weekly smiles as best i can.  we are really excited that the move time is so close now.  liberty is especially excited to "fly high in the sky" to california.  then she'll name all the family she will see there.  so cute! 

1.  a good book, a glass of milk, and a cream-filled donut!!  i had been craving these donuts and finally found some...not at a donut shop, but at walmart of all places!!

2.  libbs and singing.  the girls like us to sing to them at bed time.  i usually sing the same few songs.  well the other day i was in the bedroom packing and liberty was in the living room playing with her toys when i heard her singing, "oh my soul rejoice...joy my king..."  so such precious words coming from my precious girl.

3.  a fixed car.  last week we took our car in to get a new serpentine belt and have the egr checked.  it runs beautifully now!!  who would have thought a little egr sensor valve could fix all the problems our car was having?!

4.  as i type our car is sitting at the place where they will install our hitch.  just one more big step toward the move!

5.  speaking of the move...it's now only a few days away! 

6.  our little dare-devil liberty. 

7.  leila in a box. 

8.  sharing a yummy snack.

9.  a sleeping baby at dinner.  i always find this so cute when it happens :).

10.  feeling the baby in my belly move again.  even though my belly is growing and i have pregnancy symptoms, i still get nervous wondering if all is really ok since we haven't been able to see a doctor here (i think mostly b/c of our miscarriage before this pregnancy).  those little movements here and there are so reassuring! :)  and i can't wait to get moved and set up with a doctor (i want to hear that heartbeat)!!

10 Smile Tuesday

good morning!  it is about 2am right now and i just cannot sleep.  my body is feeling restless...i'm sure it's the pregnancy.  instead of tossing and turning and keeping jonathan awake, too, i decided to be productive and write up my 10 smiles.  maybe when i'm done typing my body will be ready to relax again.

1.  liberty hugs.  she has been so so affectionate lately and we are just eating it up.  i am especially enjoying her hugs.  she'll wrap her arms around my neck and squeeze and go "mmmmmm."  (she picked that up from me, i'll usually say, "mmmm, i love liberty hugs" when she hugs me).  so sweet. 

2.  winning these super cute hair bows from uniquely u boutique.  aren't they adorable?!!

3.  our little mimic.  liberty is copying everything we say and do lately.  most of the time it's cute...sometimes it's a reminder to us, lol!   cute story...the other night when jonathan was putting liberty to bed, he had to scratch his nose.  liberty immediately did exactly as he did.  she really likes to copy what daddy does. 

4.  daddy, the girls and a guitar.  i think the picture says it all.

5.  the girls playing together.  this has been happening quite a bit lately and it's so cute.  in this pic they are playing a bit of "peek-a-boo" with an empty cupboard.

6.  kid-sized frosty's from wendy's.  frosty's are a favorite treat of mine.  the other day liberty ran some errands with me and she was sooo good, so i treated her to her very own frosty.  she loved it, of course!

7.  leila's new "pose."  she does this a ton now. 

8.  a trip to the park on a cooler day.  it was good family fun :)  of course there are a lot of pictures.  i especially love the swing pictures.  i know i post so many pictures on my blog, but remember i have friends and family who live far away who want to see pics, and of course i want to share lots of pics!!  maybe i should start making slide shows?

9.  i've reached the 16 week mark in the pregnancy.  yea!  everything seems to be going along well.  i feel the baby move every now and then...oh what a beautiful feeling!

10.  i believe we may have finally settled on a bedtime routine for the girls in which they are both happy and content when they fall asleep (which means liberty is not getting into leila's bed keeping her awake and ticking her off!).  part of it was me finally deciding i need to stop letting what society says i need to do with my kids sway my decisions.  i need to do what's best for my family and i and follow my mama instincts.  it seriously feels so refreshing to do this!

Thoughts & Ideas, please

our girls share a room.  we are having a problem EVERY night with liberty getting into leila's bed when we put the girls down.  she'll climb in and cover leila with blankets and throw toys in and leila gets very upset.  liberty will even do this after leila has fallen asleep, which of course wakes leila up.  we have tried different disciplinary actions with liberty to no avail.  we have tried putting leila to bed first and putting libbs to bed when we know leila is asleep, but liberty will climb in anyway and wake her up.  this makes for a very angry leila.  we've tried putting libbs to bed first, but leila is usually always so tired and craving her bed before liberty finally gets to sleep we then have a CRANKY baby on our hands.  if anyone has any thoughts or ideas for us, we'd love to hear them!!  thank you!

Love

this afternoon liberty was sitting on my lap and she said, "i love you mama." of course i said "i love you" back. she then said, "i REALLY love you mama." such sweet sweet words!

10 Smile Tuesday

 

this may look like a strange picture, but i just wanted to show you the bites from the spiders that have been attacking me in the night.  now, i haven't actually seen a spider bite me, but we have had an abundance of spiders in the apartment lately, even one crawling in our bed one night when we were reading to each other.  ewww!!!  for some reason i am the only one getting LOTS of bites.  i usually get a new one almost every night.  it's so crazy.  this picture is just some of the bites i've had so far.  they are itchy and annoying and i cannot stand them!  i've been looking for a way to stop the itching with things i have at home and i finally found something that works!  and it's really simple.  mix baking soda with water into a paste and apply to bites (let dry).  i got instant relief!  alright...on to the smiles from the week :).

1.  liberty's random acts of love for leila.  all throughout the day she will randomly walk up to leila and give her a hug or kiss or some other sweet gesture.  so cute.  of course, in the next moment she's libel to just push leila over or try to pick her up from her neck...but you can see that she loves her little sister!

2.  watching the train.  this is one of liberty's favorite activities...pretty much since we moved here!!  as soon as she hears the train whistle she yells out, "i hear train!!!"

3.  our little climber...or as we like to call her, our monkey!  that would be liberty.  the girl wants to climb EVERYTHING!!  she'll even tell me she wants to climb the ceiling...yikes!  can you see her in there??

4.  it is now less than 20 days until the girls and i fly out to cali (17 days from today, actually)!!!

5.  sleeping babies.  there's just something precious and innocent about a sleeping baby.  you can't help but love watching them sleep!

6.  liberty's "pool."  i remember as little girls my sister and i always played with this big tupperware container my mom had...we would make it into a "pool" for our barbies and other toys.  so much fun!  the other day leila was napping and i was trying to think of something different for liberty to do and i remembered our made up pool....so i made one for liberty.  she absolutely loved it and asks for it every day.  such a fun little thing...it makes a mess, but it's only water!!

7.  oreos and milk.  the best way to eat oreos (at least according to me).  libbs and i were sharing some oreos the other day and of course i had to teach her the art of eating them with milk.  quite a messy job, but tasty!

8.  the book "tuesdays with morrie."  i'm about halfway through it and it is very good!  has anyone else read this book?  over the weekend i was especially struck by morrie's quote, "the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves.  and you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."  such a true statement...and not an easy thing to do at times. 

9.  naps on the weekends.  oh this has to be one of my favorite things right now.  i could actually use a couple of naps every day, but since liberty isn't really napping anymore i don't get to nap either!  however, my hubby is home on the weekends and i always take advantage of a good nap while he is here to take care of the girls. 

10.  making progress on a knitting project. 

11.  and one more smile w/ a ton of pictures just for fun!  playing outside yesterday.  it was an overcast day and therefore cooler outside, so the girls and i enjoyed some time out in front of our apartment.  there's not much out there besides rocks, but the girls loved it!  and so did mama!

leila was trying to figure out the stairs.  she did get up a couple of them, but she didn't seem to be a big fan of the stairs in the end.  maybe because they were cement.  who knows.  it was cute anyway!  thanks for putting up with all my pictures!  we hope you have a great week and are finding lots of things to smile about in life! :)

Laugh of the Day

this evening the girls were playing whatever little girls play when suddenly liberty was crying and asking for help.  i turn around and liberty has her potty chair around her neck.  yes, she put her head through the potty hole!  and we couldn't get it off right away.  liberty was crying and crying, and i was laughing!  i couldn't help myself.  and i wasn't the only one...jonathan got a good laugh out of it, too!  she looked so funny with a potty around her head.  don't worry, we did get it off and she is just fine...but i doubt she'll be putting any potties around her head any time soon.

PICTURES!!!

i was finally able to download some pictures today...yea!!  be sure to check out my 10 smile blog (below this) for smiles to go with the pictures :)

this is libbs staring longingly at the other kids (who wouldn't play with her) that were at the park...this face breaks my heart!

leila at the park...she loves exploring everything!

leila was standing, but started going down mid-picture

precious little feet

smile w/out the squinty face :)

oreo girl

"let's go fishing!"

liberty's bear is about bigger than leila!

precious