Counting My Blessings

1.  mother's day...and the girls who are my reason for celebrating differently these days!

2.  a mother's day cookout at my gram's.  It was fun to get together with some of the family and just hang out. 

3.  matching dresses for the girls.  i love it!

4.  the precious drawing my nephews and niece sent me for mother's day...and the sweet card jonathan's sister and her husband sent.

5.  time at the park with my cousin jenni and her sons alex & aj.

6.  kisses from liberty.  she has this way of doing it lately...she grabs my face and turns it to her and plants a kiss on my lips.  so sweet.

7.  a walk and a good visit with my sister and her boys.  i love hanging out with my sister, and the kids love it, too!

8.  a dinner and movie night with my dad.  he's been asking us over for dinner more often lately, which is nice.  this last week he rented a movie, too.  i like hanging out with my dad, and i know the girls love being with their poppo.

9.  dinner out at a chinese buffet..yum!  this was thanks to a gift certificate my dad gave me for mother's day.

10.  homemade laundry soap.  i haven't actually made and used it yet b/c i'm using up the rest of my store bought stuff.  i can't wait to try it, though.  it's a lot cheaper and i hear it cleans clothes so well.  i'll let you know when i try it!

11.  liberty's crazy obsession with her aunt ashlee.  everywhere we go she'll see either the kind of car my sister drives, or a red car, and she'll get excited and yell out aunt ashlee several times. 

12.  leila's smiles.  i don't think i need to explain that, except to say she has been rather cranky lately, so i appreciate them even more! :)

13.  dresses from poppy & gree.  i love these cute dresses.  thanks!

14.  sisters...oh so sweet...especially when they are playing together.  oh how i love to watch them interact!

15.  "ee-uh dit you!"  that's liberty saying, "leila get you!" and it means she wants jonathan or i to pick up leila and make her (leila) chase liberty around the house.  both girls giggle and smile every time!

16.  eye kiss.  libbs has this new thing where she makes her eyes kiss things (like her baby dolls).  not sure where she got that from, but it's cute.

17.  marker face.  this morning liberty decided to try to cover her lips with a marker...and colored her chin instead.  silly girl!

18.  every morning liberty says to leila, "morning puny" and gives her a kiss.  such sweetness.  (puny is a nickname we call leila).

19.  my first bouquet of "flowers" picked by my libbs. 

20.  liberty wearing a dress that my gram made for me when i was a little girl.  how fun and sweet!!

I'm curious...

I'm just wondering if anyone else has actually researched vaccinations and whether they are safe & effective.  I have been reading some eye-opening information on line and in some books.  One book by Neil Z. Miller is particularly interesting...it's called "Vaccines:  Are They Really Safe and Effective."  I have another book waiting at the library for me.  Anyway...just wondering if anyone else has thought about or researched this topic.

Leila @ 7 Months

Here are a few photos of Leila...can't believe 7 months has passed since her birth.  She is....giggling all day, army crawling, starting to get on her hands and knees, loving baby dolls, adoring her big sister (except when Libbs is antagonizing her!), very sensitive, loving her food, grabbing everything, etc.  She is very much a Mama's girl.  She has special smiles just for Daddy.  She thinks her big sister is so funny.  Oh what a joy she is to us! 

Counting My Blessings

We've been pretty busy here for a change!  Lots of stuff to smile about...and lots of pictures.  Sorry there's so many...I just can't help myself!

1.  Liberty & Jonathan's birthdays!  I love to celebrate birthdays!  Liberty had a small party at the park.  It was fun, but oh so windy!  Liberty had a good time.  She loved the cake (which did turn out pretty good) and ice cream, but would not open her presents!  Crazy girl!  She did love the bear I made her!

2.  DATE NIGHT!  My mom and her boyfriend got Jonathan a gift card to Cracker Barrel, so on Monday night we were able to go on a date.  My dad watched the girls.  It was so nice to have that time with my hubby! 

3.  A visit with my Grandma (dad's mom) and Great Uncle Dick.  Jonathan and I took the girls out to see them on Tuesday.  We had a good visit and my Grandma was just tickled to see the girls!

4.  MOPS.  I always love going to MOPS.  I love the ladies there.  This week we had a talk about finances.  It was very good and enlightening.  I borrowed a book called "Your Money Map" by Howard Dayton.  It's interesting.  It talks about getting yourself out of debt (any kind). 

5.  More homemade bread!  This time I tried a recipe from some friends from college (Katie & Titi).  It was so yummy!  I'll post the recipe later if anyone is interested.

6.  Dinner with my Dad.  He invited over for dinner on Tuesday, along with my sister and her family.  We all had a good time visiting.  I love watching my dad with the grandkids.  He's such a great Poppo to them and he just lights up when they are around.

7.  Our little dishes girl.  Libbs just loves to "help" do the dishes.  Any time she hears water running in the kitchen she thinks we are doing dishes and gets upset if we aren't.  Too funny!  I always tell her there will come a day when she'll be crying to get out of doing the dishes!  Ha!

8.  Lots and lots of time outside.  We are loving this weather!  I think Libbs could live outside if we let her ;).

9.  Liberty's new thing when she is going to bed (or we are pretending to sleep during the day) is to tell us "Nigh Nigh Sweetheart."  So precious!

10.  Leila is sometimes trying to pull herself up...usually when she is in my lap and she wants to be closer to my face!  Crazy how fast she is growing!

11.  The movie "Martian Child."  Very good movie. 

12.  Getting rid of clutter!  Jonathan and I went through our belongings yet again and got rid of more stuff we don't need.  I just love that feeling when you go through your stuff and drop it off to Goodwill (or wherever)...so refreshing!  We don't really have a whole lot as it is, but after having most of our stuff in storage at my dad's for the better part of a year, we figured there were things we hadn't seen in all that time, so we could get rid of some of it!  We're also trying to be proactive hoping Jonathan gets a new job soon, which would mean moving again!

13.  Cookouts!  We had a big cookout here this evening.  It was a lot of fun.  We even had a bonfire of sorts.  My sister and her family were here, so the kids got lots of playing time together.  My mom even invited my dad to come, and he did!  It was a little weird to me at first with my dad there and my mom's boyfriend...but I'm happy my parents get along so well still.  It's nice.  My aunt came for the cookout as well.  It was a fun evening!

 

Hmm...Maybe I need to learn to do a slide show on here.  Thanks for putting up with my picture craze! :)  Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's!

It's been one of those days...

You know the kind...the days where you just want to pull your hair out and scream until you can't anymore?!

...Can it be that these two daughters of mine could have sibling fights already?!  Aren't they too young for that?  Liberty has this short whine/scream that she does just to antagonize Leila.  Seriously!  She does it until Leila starts to cry, and then she smiles and does it some more.  Where did this come from?!

...And when will this "I don't have to listen to Mama/Daddy" thing end?!  It's so frustrating when I tell Liberty "NO," and she thinks that means she should keep doing it over and over and over.  I could possibly go bald over this!

...And how about those tantrums in the middle of the store or parking lot.  Those are lots of "fun!" 

...And now that they are finally in bed, 20 minutes later we can still here Liberty doing her oh-so-annoying whine/screams!  This hard to describe whine/scream might possibly institutionalize me...REALLY!

So that's my day...how was yours?

Oh yeah...on a brighter note, Leila is 7 months old today...how did that happen?!  I took a few pics and was going to post them in a blog tonight, but I'm just too tired to do it now.  Maybe later.

Liberty is 2!!

How can it be that my sweet firstborn daughter is now 2 years old?!  Time sure does fly by!  I just wanted to share a few pictures...one of Libbs the day she was born, one of her on her 1st birthday, and one from today.  We celebrated a little bit with couple of gifts, but her little party is on Saturday.  Libbs got lots of phone calls from family today, which she was happy about.  She went around all day saying "birtday."  I cannot believe how much she has changed and grown since she was born two years ago.  All day I've been thinking about the day she was born, and the time since then until now...oh what a blessing!