1st Real Haircut

Claire refuses to wear ANYTHING in her hair. Sometimes I can get her to wear a pony tail when I have one, but that's on a rare occasion. Since Claire is going to be the flower girl in Amy's wedding this weekend, I decided it was time for her first real hair cut to shape it up some.

Claire LOVED it. I mean, that's an understatement. We got there a few minutes early and as we waited, she would randomly yell out, "Haircut!" She was so excited and kept asking if it was her turn. There were only a few people in the room and they thought she was hilarious.

Claire grinned the whole time. She followed Eraka's instructions to look down and turn when she needed. She sat very still and loved watching in the mirror. Everyone commented on how great she was.

Here is the before:

Here is the after:

And MJ waiting:

Claire even let Eraka put a pony tail on top of her head which she refused to take out before bed. She even called me back upstairs around 9pm because she had taken it out and wanted it back in. She is completely enamored with her hair cut experience and has been grinning all night. I may have created a monster. :)

English Lesson by Claire

One of my favorite new Claire-isms is "amn't". Her conjunction for "am not."

You or I would (hopefully) say, "I am not," or "I'm not," or "You aren't."

Claire says, "I amn't," and "You amn't."

Sunshine and flying kites

Pink eye has officially left the building, and thanks to some medicine, I'm feeling like I can function again. Apparently, I'm going to catch everything going around these days. Awesome.

On a happier note, today was a great day! The sun was shining and it was warmer. Church was awesome. (Seriously, you should go look up the sermon and listen to it.) I was so encouraged by the sermon and just from good conversation with friends. Then we went to the park to have lunch and play with more friends. It was beautiful outside and it was so nice to enjoy it.

Claire has noticed people flying kites at the park before. When Jeremy realized it would be warmer and windy this weekend, he went and bought one. Claire asked all weekend to go fly it but we promised after church.

I wish I had a picture of Jeremy walking over to the field with 5 or 6 little girls (ranging from 7 to 3) following behind him. A few of our Dad-friends followed and they flew the kite for a while.

Jeremy and Claire, of course, stayed long after everyone else got bored and moved on to the play ground. I finally had to convince them that MJ was long over-due for a nap. As soon as I got there in time to watch Claire fly it all by herself, a gust of wind took out the kite and snapped it.

No worries. Claire was fine with the promise of a new one and time to come back. I love that she loves to be outside. Now if only her sister would be a little more tolerable outside. We're working on that.

Please note that Claire picked out this kite: pink and purple with fairies. And she is wearing her absolute favorite dress right now.

There's No Place Like Home

We're in the process of having our basement finished which is exciting and a huge blessing. In the midst of this, we also decided to have some major plumbing done. It was going to need to be addressed sooner than later, and why not while the rest of our house is being torn up?

So this week we had to leave and stay some place else. We were fortunate enough to stay at my in-law's house. They have a big house that was empty so it was easy for us to crash there.

However. However. It's just not fun to be away from home. Especially with little ones.

Words cannot express how happy I am to be home. And we were only gone FIVE days. That's it.

(Side note: my morning sickness is back and I've been really sick this week. Read: not good conditions to be away from your own bed.)

I'm thankful for this week because I walked away feeling confident of a few things:

1. The size of our house is perfect. I had started to have house envy. Now I am realizing that it's the perfect amount of room for us and I couldn't take care of anything bigger. Well, I could. I'm just not sure I would want to.

2. We really don't need cable again. I've been wanting it lately (a lot), but I realized this week that all I watched was Food Network and I missed Hulu and Netflix. Not worth the extra money now that I'm so used to not having it. (and I seriously watched a LOT of cooking shows)

3. I always want to have a dog. Man, kids are messy.

4. I cannot live without internet. I got behind in work stuff and I felt disconnected. I'm dependent.

Again, please here me saying that I am so grateful we had somewhere to go, and a really nice place at that, and it WAS only five days. BUT I needed a reality check in order to be thankful for what God has given me ABUNDANTLY.

I think there's a nagging in all our hearts to want MORE. I'm realizing that the stuff I have is not the more I want. It's been good for my priorities and my heart to re-examine what's most important. What do I want to be filled with? What do I want to spend my time doing?

Not that wanting or having a big house is wrong. It's just not what I want. And for some reason I feel like I have to justify that- which I've realized is my own insecurity. Who cares what kind of house I live in? (aside from those living with me)

So things are changing around here. Well, SLOWLY changing as our house is still under construction and my morning sickness has returned. (And I have another bad cold and I'm getting over pink eye in both my eyes) Yes, that's kind of vague. I'm still trying to sort all this out myself and I don't want to send empty promises into the blog world. :)

I want to be filled with less clutter, more time spent reading the Word, more time enjoying my kiddos, more time with other people in my house, more time with people outside of my house, and more time to just BE.

And then I've got about 5 or 6 months until our world gets flipped upside down with the third kiddo.

Sick and prayer

My morning sickness is back with a vengeance. I had about a week where I felt great, then this week I felt really tired and kind of icky. Today, I feel like I did a few weeks ago. I'm frustrated and annoyed. BUT I'm trying not to complain too much because I have a healthy baby and this is temporary. I can handle this right? (I mean, it WILL end, right?!) Really, this is so minor in the grand scheme of things. Who really cares that my house is a mess and I can't keep up with laundry? That's not important right now.

My good friend, Katie, has been in the hospital with her son, Finn, all week. He has a form of epilepsy and when he gets sick, he gets SICK and starts to have a lot of seizures. Please pray that they can get his sickness under control, so then his seizures will get under control, and that they will get to leave the hospital. I visited last night and Finn had improved SO MUCH. He looked great, and I got to watch a little Sports Center with him while Katie got a shower. Overnight, he spiked another fever, and they'll be in at least until Monday. Please pray for Patrick and Katie, Finn, and his little sister Ainsley. (Ainsley has a virus too now!)

Can it be Spring, please?

Baby Pretzels

My girl LOVES this hat.

Tonight Claire asked me if I would like a pretzel. I said, "No, thank you." And she replied back, "No, Mama, put it in your mouth and the baby will catch it!"

Of course, I had to eat it then. And Claire loved every minute of it.

13 weeks (and a few days)

I had another doctor's appointment today. I'm not sure what this kiddo is doing but it always takes a few minutes to find the heartbeat. (It feels like an eternity) The nurse practitioner had to chase he/she around my stomach the last time I was there- it was pretty amusing.

I'm still shocked every time I hear the heartbeat. We're actually going to have THREE kids. Holy crap.

My doctor told me today that she wants me to go on bed rest at 34 weeks. Not modified; doing totally nothing. She wants to try to get this kiddo to go full term. MJ was just a few days shy of what's considered full term, and we were both totally healthy, but it would be nice to go further with the next if I can. And, of course, Claire was early at 34 weeks because I developed HELLP.

How long I'm on bed rest will be determined by whether this kiddo is a boy or a girl. Baby girls are just generally stronger than boys. (We learned this with Claire. Every time someone came in my hospital room when I was 33 weeks and sick, they were so happy that she was a SHE!) So if this one is a girl then I will be able to go back to normal activity at 36 weeks because that's considered "safer". If this baby is a boy then I have to stay on bed rest until the end.

So if you need me in July, I plan to be sitting in a pool while other people play with my kiddos. HA!