I see...

When Parker says, "I see...", it sounds like he is saying, "I eat..."

That's just good to know if you hear him say, "I eat Daddy," or "I eat trash."

Ellis at 14 Months

My baby girl is growing up too quickly! I need a pause button.

•  This little girl is unstoppable. She will walk and climb anywhere she wants.
• She continues to add words to her vocabulary.
• She loves to mimic sounds people make. She has no fear to try out her vocals.
• She believes 100% that she's a big girl now and that she can do whatever any other kid can do.
• I've seen some mini temper tantrums. I'm hoping that these don't accelerate into full blown temper tantrums as she grows closer to the terrible twos.
• She loves playing in her kitchen. She hasn't gotten to the point where she's pretending she's cooking. She likes to open and close the doors, put food in and out of the bins, and bring me some food to pretend to eat.
• She and Parker have become great playmates. Sometimes Parker instigates trouble, but I love to see them playing together.
• She loves to wrestle. If you are laying on the floor, you are fair game for some sneaky wrestling moves.
• She's so adorable. I just love to watch her in amazement. She's growing up too quickly. She's loosing the babiness and is growing in to a toddler.
• She just a sweet bundle of cuteness. I could just love on her all day.

Getting Closer

It's a little over 2 months away until our big move! It's starting to get real. I'm really excited about moving to New Orleans and becoming a seminary family, but I'm also nervous. That's a lot of change, and it's so far away from all that is familiar.

I've been pulling out things to get rid of since we will be living in a small apartment. It's so hard to prepare to move in to a place that you've never seen. All I have is a floor plan. Going by that floor plan, I've realized that we are going to have to sell our couch. I love our couch. It's red, comfy, and big. The big part is the reason it's got to go. I have to admit that out of all the things we are getting rid of the couch makes me the saddest. All the extra stuff that we had hanging around is not hard to get rid of. I started going through stuff with the rule that I have to love it and/or need it in order to keep it, but I love our couch and I don't get to keep it. The two pieces of furniture that we actually bought that weren't hand-me-downs, we have to get rid of because that just won't fit in our apartment. Sad times, but to bring myself back to reality, it's all just stuff. Stuff that will one day break, wear down, and eventually decompose out in a landfill some day.

All this reminds me that following Jesus is not easy. We have to surrender everything to Him, and that's tough. The deeper in my relationship with Christ the more I realize I haven't surrendered to Him. It hurts to release our tight grips on the comforts of this world, but the beauty of having surrendered what we deem as precious, to be filled all the more with my precious Savior makes all the pain worth it. I love the adventure of following Jesus. To the world, He may lead me down the path of craziness and stupidity, but as the Alpha and Omega, I know that I am secure, eternally secure, and that's all that matters. As we shed some of our earthly belongings to prepare for our move, I'm also shedding some more of the inner belongings that are taking up valuable space for the Holy Spirit to reign supremely in my life. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Ellis at 13 Months

Ok...so I'm late again on posting the monthly update. So much so that I confused myself about which age, 13 or 14 months, I was supposed to be posting on. You may have noticed that I haven't done a lot of blogging lately. I'm gonna get better. I had been focusing on Paul's mission trip to Peru and then while he was gone, we distracted ourselves from missing him by spending some time in the upstate and then doing some fun activitives around home. Alrighty then, let's get to the subject at hand.

• Ellis may have struggled with weight before, but she is making up for it now. She is eating like crazy! She will eat and eat until her belly is swole.
• She finally got her confidence and started walking.
• Along with this new found confidence, she decided that she should be able to climb Mt. Everest. I thought Parker was bad about climbing when he was little, but Ellis wants to climb everything.
• Ellis is quite the talker. Me ma (pick me up), cup, ball, I eat are just some. She says all kinds of stuff that you have to listen to catch what she's saying.
• She loves to play Pat-a-Cake. Before I get to the "throw it in the pan" part, she will throw her hands up and say "throw it."
• She also loves Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She does the motions to it and will sing "how I." So cute!
• She has moved up to 18 months clothing. She is finally in the clothing size she should be in! Yay!
• She wants to explore her world. She wants to be down and walking around.
• She already has a little rebellious streak in her. When we tell her to stop doing something that she shouldn't, she just smiles and keeps on doing whatever it is. Oh my!
• She is such a sweet little hugger and kisser. She can just melt your heart unless you a little person. Then she will attack you with hugs as she lays on top of you on the floor. (Poor Perry he experienced this many times when we were in the upstate visiting.)
• She has a little lovey that she calls baby. She sleeps with it and will carry it around with her.
• She's so fun to be with. She loves to interact and try to copy what you do.
• She thinks she's a big kid now. It's like she thinks now that she can walk she can do anything that all the big kids do.
• Have I mentioned before that she's the most adorable little girl in the whole wide world and I love her so much more than I could ever describe?

Little Bits of Randomness

I'm absolutely loving this weather. I love the cooler days which means open windows which means lower electricity bill!

I cooked enough potatoes today to feed a small army and only two of us were eating potatoes and one of the two was a one year old whose helping is small. Before I started cutting, I thought that I should go ahead and finish up the bag since there wouldn't be enough left to make an adequate dish. Boy was I wrong. I should have thought about how cutting potatoes multiplies the amount like Jesus taking the 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed the 5000. I guess we will be eating potatoes the rest of this week.

Speaking of multiplying, I think the Dum Dum suckers are multiplying in the candy bucket. I let Parker have a piece of candy after lunch and dinner if he eats a good amount. He really likes Dum Dums, and most of the time that's what he picks. There shouldn't be any left by now, but somehow he keeps pulling one out.

I really like cooking with cast iron. The clean up is the easiest. No washing! Just wipe out with a paper towel until all is clean. If there's a tough spot, just put in a little salt and wipe and it's done! Back in the cabinet it goes. Maybe I should only cook with cast iron.

A lot of times I have thoughts that I run through my head like a Facebook status. I know that's sad, but 9 times out of 10 they never make it on Facebook. I don't want to be one of those people who just put way too much information and blow up everybody's news feed with their every thought or action.

Time is flying by too quickly. In my mind I keep thinking that we have 6 months before we move to New Orleans but it's really more like 3. There is just so much to do. So many things we want to do, people to visit, etc before we move so far away, but time is just ticking away.

Speaking of New Orleans, Paul got his acceptance letter from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary yesterday. So, it's official! I'm so proud of him. This has been something he has wanted to do for a long time and now it's finally happening. I know it's going to be tough, but I'm excited because I know this is what God wants for us. Living for Jesus is sooo not safe or boring!

Well that's enough random thoughts for the moment. I've got to go get busy doing my afternoon chores. Oh what fun! No, really I'm kinda excited about doing them but the reasoning is a whole other post.

 

Confessional

I have to confess...confess that I'm a lousy housekeeper. Most days if you would drop by my house unexpectedly, you would find remnants of about 3 meals hanging around on my kitchen floor, pots and pans sitting on the counter waiting to be washed, and a sea of toys to dodge on the living room floor.  I like things to be clean and organized, and I can get my house that way, but the problem is I'm lazy. There are so many other things I would rather do than to clean up. The ironic thing is that while I'm ignoring the everyday house cleaning, I've been working on getting things ready for our big move to New Orleans which is a little less than four months away. I've been getting rid of clutter at least and packing up a few boxes. I would much rather do those things than clean up a kitchen. I know that sounds weird.

I've been on a mission for some time now to be more disciplined with my time. I can do good for a few days. Then things get crazy and I'm back to square one. But I'm not giving up. I'm not striving for perfection. I'm just striving for better. Thank God He is so gracious to me. He can help me overcome my laziness that is preventing me from being the best that I can be. I've been learning how to give myself some grace. I know that the reality of having littles running around means that keeping a house pristine clean is out the window. Like a friend of mine said cleaning up after children is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing. That being said though I still know that I can do better.

I'm putting this all out there because it feels good to get my dirty little secret (pun intended) out there, and hopefully help encourage someone else who is struggling like me. So there you go. 

Parker at 3 years

There is just know way I should be writing about my 3 year old boy. He just can't be 3 already! He has done so much growing up over the past year.

• Stats: 35.6 lbs  40 inches tall. Yep, he's a biggun. I'm going to be looking up to him one of these days.
• His interests: trains, cars, planes, generally just things that move, riding bikes, puzzles, books, hide and seek, jumping, tumbling, water, music
• Favorite shows/movies: Word World, Caillou, Curious George, Wild Krats, Cars, Thomas the Tank Engine, Toy Story
• Favorite color: green
• Favorite foods: spaghetti, broccoli, cheese, raisans, rice, salsa, tacos, black beans, corn, bananas, pretty much any fruit
• Foods he doesn't like: mashed potatoes, any potato unless its french fries or sliced thin and crispy, tomatoes (unless it's salsa)
• He loves the water! He took some swimming lessons this summer and was quite the water bug. He would jump in without holding anyone's hands. He wouldn't hesitate to put his head under water. He would have been content to stay in the pool all day.
• His speech has improved greatly especially in the past few months although people who aren't around him much might disagree. He's talking a lot more and it is becoming easier to understand what he is saying.
• He's very social. He will make friends with other children when we are out and about in places where there are other children.
• He loves music and dancing. He has some interesting dance moves. Sometimes he will even "break dance." He just roll all around on the floor and hold one leg in the air while he's in the bear crawl stance.
• He's still a daddy's boy. He tries to be just like Paul.
• That being said. I'm his comforter. I'm the one he goes to when he's upset or hurt.
• He's such a loving, snuggly little boy. He loves to snuggle up with us on the couch and wrap up in a blanket. He gives some good hugs and kisses. He makes sure you get kisses right on the lips. He doesn't settle for a cheek.
• He likes to be a helper. He does a good job helping me around the house and taking care of Ellis.
• He is such a good big brother. He looks after Ellis and plays with her. Of course like every brother and sister, they have their squabbles, but for the most part they are great companions.
• He has yet to have his first hair cut, but soon it's gonna have to happen. He doesn't have a lot of hair, but it just needs some trimming and shaping in some places.
• He's convinced that he is a six year old boy.
• Most days his attire consist of only underware. Some days I can manage to convince him to put on some clothes.
• He has a pair of green crocs that he wears a lot. I don't know what we are going to do when he grows out of them.
• He can dress himself. I just love to see what outfit he's going to put together.
• He thinks band-aids and kisses make any boo boo better. However, lately he also thinks any boo boo should warrant a trip to the doctor. His reasoning is that "doctor's fix."
• Doctors may fix boo boos. But Parker thinks Paul can fix anything that's broken. I mean anything.
• I love his little toddler sense of humor. He will just laugh and laugh at some of the silliest things. Sometimes I'm not even sure what makes him laugh.
• He loves to put together puzzles. A new puzzle can keep his attention for a loooong time. Even an old puzzle can keep him busy for a while. At church on Sundays, he will spend most of the worship hour time in the nursery putting together every single puzzle in there.
• He has pretty much given up his nap. Every once in a while he will take a nap in the afternoon, but if he does, I limit the amount of time he sleeps or he would be up waaaay late at night.
• He loves to color and is very good at it. He actually colors objects on the coloring page. He doesn't just scribble all over everything.
• He is potty trained except for at night. It may be a while before he's in underware at night.
• He just absolutely melts my heart. I could just bunch him up and squeeze him and kiss him all day long.