sickies again...

yet again our household has been struck by another round of the sickies...hence my lack of time for posting smiles. thus far i have received a pass from feeling icky...but not so for the rest of the fam. it was kate first, followed by elizabeth, and then mike...who found himself at the hospital in the middle of the night because his ear was hurting so badly. no worries...his is okay...and feeling much less pain now that his ear drum ruptured and relieved a bit of the pressure that was building. oh me, oh my...i am ready for spring! :)

as a pregnancy update, i am feeling much better these days...not nearly as much ickiness...rather it is turning to heartburn, which is easily controlled with antacids at this point. now i'm just hoping i will find some renewal of energy now that i am heading into the second trimester (and no, i can hardly believe we are already passing the 13 week mark!).

an elizabeth moment

last night after tucking the girlies in bed, mike ran to fill my van with gas while i started folding some laundry (mind you...i did the laundry like a week ago...that's the way i roll these days!). i thought i heard someone up and about...perhaps some little feet stealthily creeping down the steps. sure enough, i peer around the corner to see miss elizabeth making her way through the living room, hands covering her eyes as if she is counting for a game of hide and seek.

eyes still covered, she whispers,

"mommy...i need my puppy."

"okay, let's find him."
elizabeth wanders carefully forward--eyes still covered, so i ask, "why are your eyes covered pumpkin?"

she uncovers her eyes and give me a quite serious look, "well, mommy, i didn't want to scare you."

i managed to stifle my laughter at the innocent silliness of her thought process....after all, we have warned her that sneaking up on people can be scary! i handed puppy to her, gave her a kiss on the cheek and asked her to head back upstairs to bed. of course, as she walked away i just had to sneak a peek and see that yes, indeed, she had covered her eyes once again for the trek up the stairs...lest she "scare" someone along the way.

it is most definitely God's grace and kindness to provide cute, funny, tender moments in the midst of the current "staying in bed" battle with our little cherub!

ten-ish smile tuesday

first...if you haven't already, check out this post from sunday...go on, i'll wait!

1. okay...now that you've done that...i can fill you in on the fabulous details. first and foremost...we are thrilled, of course! the official due date is sept. 3...and i am just now hitting the 12 week point. this time around has been MUCH different that my other pregnancies...constant nausea for the past 4 or 5 weeks (which does now seem to be subsiding a bit)...while i never had any nausea with the others. and this perhaps explains my absence from much of blog-land...you see, simply put, i've been sleeping whenever the girls sleep...which incidentally is my typical blog-time! :) we got to see the baby during a very early ultrasound around the 7 week mark, and then just last week i was able to hear the incredible, amazing little heartbeat...God is so faithful!

2. popcorn and movies...i feel like we've done a lot of this lately...for a lack of energy to do much else. i simply had to catch the moment with the girlies sitting side by side, munching on their popcorn and engrossed in the show...because truly, this moment was just that...one moment...and then they were off...running around, etc

3. a full freezer...a little over a week ago (since i missed "smiling" last week) my friends chrisy and jill came over and we cooked the afternoon away...stocking up our freezers with cavatini, beef stew, chicken tortilla soup, and chimis...i am SO thankful to not have to think about groceries and cooking right now!

4. yesterday, after our 18 month well-check peditrician visit for kate resulted in a melting down kate, the need for new (and pricey) shoes (apparently kate has extra wide, very flat feet), antibiotics for her icky nose and face rash, and a crazy morning, i was thankful for the blessing of a coupon for a free $25 gift card with new prescription shooting out of the magic CVS coupon machine at JUST the right moment before i picked up and paid for the script. since the co-pay on the prescription was just $2 that means they paid me $23....which means we scored three jumbo packs of huggies! (and it was a silver lining after spending more at stride rite on shoes for kate than i would choose to spend on myself....sheesh!)

5. kate's new shoes already are making a difference in her walking technique...she is walking heel to toe instead of flat footing it...and her little toes actually have room to spread out! and i'm thankful God has provided so that we were able to get the shoes and hopefully prevent future foot problems.

6. fireproof...mike rented this for our date night in, and i thought it was fabulous! we've had a lot of date nights in (or couch dates!) lately...i love that we able to be creative in this phase of life (without breaking the bank by constantly hiring sitters---although i TOTALLY think hiring a sitter is a worthy expenditure now and then!).

7. valentines cookie making! elizabeth had a blast helping frost...and kate, well, she just liked eating them!

8. the chance to get outside friday afternoon. it wasn't all that warm, but after a string of everyone in the fam being sick (at different times...) we were all ready for a nice dose of sunshine! kate was psyched to try out libber's tricycle!

9. surprising daddy by swinging by and picking him up for a lunch date after Bible study this morning. the girls and i took him to a little Greek place with a lunch buffet we enjoy! fun, fun!

10. a sleeping elizabeth! lately sleep has become a battle with elizabeth (who up until the past few weeks was a FABULOUS sleeper...11-12 hours at night and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon)...she is going to bed just fine but waking up at the crack of dawn, and then, rather than staying in her room as we've instructed her she is constantly in and out, waking us up, making noise, etc. and thus far discipline has had little impact. i'm not sure we've found the solution, but for the moment she is sound asleep in her bed taking a nap...which means that though i'd love to share more smiles, i should go and do the same while i have the chance! :)

since we've been away...

since i've been mostly absent from the blogosphere lately (and managed to even miss ten smile tuesday), i figured i really owed it to my faithful readers to write a special post. and, really, what is more special than my two girls...so without further ado...turn up the volume, press play, and enjoy! :)

was that what you were expecting?! as you can see....elizabeth was way more into the whole camera thing than kate...but hey, i had to share kate's as well...after all, i think it was pretty darn cute! :)

ring around the rosy

just a little sunday evening fun around our house...daddy was at the grocery picking up a few odds and ends for my freezer cooking day with the girls tomorrow....and i couldn't resist capturing our giggles on camera!

ten smile wednesday!

my mom and sister just pulled out of the driveway a wee bit ago...and the girls are tucked away for a nap. i thought i'd better sit down and share some smiles before i too crash for a nap of my own! :) we had a fabulous time together...a nice dinner out for just us girls (minus the munchkin ones) monday night...haircuts at aveda for my sister and me tuesday...some mario karting and wii bowling....lots of laughing, chatting, game playing (of the 3 year old-ish variety)...and just plain enjoying being together! that combined with our smiles from the weekend before made for one full week! here goes!

1. the arrival of this cute little sign from wendi


2. ...and these fabulousy adorable bows i purchased from a college friend's etsy shop...pop by and check her out. the bows are simply precious...and really do stay in even my girls super fine hair!


3. a friday morning gathering with jill, chrisy, and their babes...good girl time chatting, catching up, and planning our next freezer cooking day! :) i love that all four of our children were beyond enthralled by the little play table....


4. homemade pizza night...and better yet, eating it as a picnic in the front room. add to that the flop where i killed the yeast in the first batch of dough (another story for the next smiles)...and then used that non-rising dough to make cheesy garlic bread...and it makes it an even more tasty fun night. anything that raises life above the ordinary...right!? can you tell kate was LOVING it!



5. leslie's super fabulous chocolate chip cookies....to die for!




6. our new water heater...and my wonderful hubby and dear friends who helped get it installed (after our old one died friday...hence the killing of the yeast in the pizza dough...apparently my microwaved water was warmer than i thought!). nathan spent all day saturday and some of sunday afternoon helping mike relocate all of the plumbing, etc...and get the new heater installed. jill and brennan, of course, came to join in the fun and hang with us gals. i love the shot of the guys heading out to dig up the water shut off...bless their hearts!


7. dinner and hanging with keith and lora...after the day of water heater work, jill, nathan, brennan, mike, the girls, and i headed to our friends for a night of hanging that we'd had on the calendar for quite some time. lots of fun...and a special thanks to lora and keith for letting the girls take a nice warm bath while there! :)

8. super bowling partying--the kind where no one really cares about the game...and instead we spent the evening chatting, eating, and just enjoying each others company.

9. snow play!

10. our much anticipated, fabulous visit with aunt shell and grandmommy (and clover, aunt shell's puppy, too!). SO much fun!

libs and grandmommy (sweet and silly!)

mommy, kate, and aunt shell (after our haircuts...but before any kind of primping or make-up wednesday morning!)--the cuts sustained the best of tests...how does it look in the morning!

the best aunt EVER reading curious george....

...coloring....

..giving out laundry basket rides...

...loving libbers....

...and playing game after game after game...

can you tell just how much fun we had!?

...

if i am absent from blog-land for the next little bit, it is only because i am completely enjoying and savoring some special time with my mom and sister, who arrive tomorrow morning! i am so anticipating all of the fun we will be having...relaxing and simply being together.

as a sidenote...we have had a week full of smiles...that i will share when i find time to post again. after quite awhile feeling "blah" the past three or four days have been a huge blessing. God has provided several opportunities for fellowship and hanging out with encouraging friends (and the realization that we really had been "shut-in"--so to speak--and without much fellowship in the past few weeks)...some good rest...and simply just encouragement. He is so good to give us just what we need...just in the nick of time too. isn't it so true that He never gives us anything beyond what we can handle. amen!