October- 2009 in a nutshell

Well, it's been a long time since I posted! So, I'm gonna have to play catch-up yet AGAIN!

October 2009

This Halloween, Bonnie was a mermaid and Ava was a lobster. They were SO cute but I didn't choose very kid friendly costumes. Bonnie's costume was very cheaply made and the whole skirt of it tore off of it within seconds of me taking out of the box. Oh well, Ariel didn't need a skirt anyways. This was Ava's first Halloween to dress up and be able to walk around (last year, I strolled her around in the stroller as "Sleepy"). Well, she didn't much like dressing up this year. I had a very hard time getting a photo of her without her trying to take her costume off. Pretty much, the whole night she was dressed as a kid with a red sweatsuit on! Here are some memories:



This is how Ava REALLY felt about her costume:

Indecent Exposure

WARNING! Indecent exposure up ahead!




Naked Story #1: Ava LOVES to get in the shower with me so Bonnie helped undress her and Ava took her diaper off herself. Well, it was a little too soon to do that and Ava had a teeny tiny accident. UH OH!
















Naked Story #2: I shower both of the girls with me a lot of the time because they think it's fun and it's a lot easier on me to get us all ready at the same time. However, I can't dress them both at the same time, so I usually get Ava out and get her ready for the day and Bonnie dresses herself. Well, this day was a little different. I dried Bonnie's hair and told her to go get dressed while I dressed Ava. After I came out of Ava's room, this is what I found:



Bonnie's been telling me that she wanted to learn to play the piano and I guess she decided to take it upon herself to play her a little tune out of the new Zoe songbook! I guess she's wanting to start a trend and be a naked piano player. Hey, there's already a naked chef right? HA! Just kidding! I just laughed my head off when I saw her. She was so serious trying to play a song....not laughing or ANYTHING. I love how she positioned her feet for her performance!

Like I always say: Never a dull moment!

What we've been doing lately

Ava LOVES pickles! We went to Jason's Deli in Huntsville after we dropped Daddy off at the airport and gave Ava a pickle for the first time. It entertained her for quite a while! She gnawed on it until it was almost gone! Boy, what a mess!




Bonnie, Natalie, and Lanie waiting to go see Disney on Ice in Nashville! They had SO much fun! Bonnie saw all the characters skate out and she said, "Hey Mommy! There's Donald Duck and all his cousins!"



Ava found Daddy's boots and Allison put them on her. She couldn't move and was about to topple over! Check out that little baby bootie sticking out!


When John was in Wyoming, he bought the girls some denim western style dresses for them to dress up in. They look like little Amish girls to me! So cute!

The Week Ahead

John will be flying out on Friday to go see his brother Billy in Jackson, Wyoming. They are going hunting on an elk reserve and fishing the rest of the time. He will be gone until late Thursday night. I'm so excited he's getting this opportunity to go, but I know we will miss him terribly! I've never had the girls for a week by myself, so it will be a much different experience! Me and the girls, along with Memaw and Allison, will be going to Nashville for the weekend while he is gone. Hopefully, this will take my mind off of being home all week without him. John's cousin, Jennifer, and I are taking the bigger girls to Disney on Ice--a COMPLETE surprise to Bonnie! She's gonna be SO excited! Jennifer's neighbor's son-in-law (I think) works for Ticket Master and got us free box tickets. This will be a great opportunity for Bonnie and I to spend some time together. I can't wait to see her face when she finds out what we're gonna do!

Tonight, on our way home from church, I was talking to Bonnie about Daddy being gone for almost a whole week. I said, "I sure will Daddy while he's gone next week!"

Then, Bonnie proceeded to say one of the sweetest things I've ever heard her say. She replied, "Well, Mom, I won't miss him because God will be with me! And God is our DaddyGod too! He's our daddy and God all at the same time! Isn't that cool?"

I wish y'all could've heard her say that. I was like, "Uh....yeah...you're so right!"

We went to the grocery store to get a couple of things after church and she was trying to convince me to buy a balloon for her daddy because he stayed home tonight because he's exhausted. She was convinced that balloon would make him feel better....and it would've if I hadn't been so cheap! I refuse to buy balloons at the grocery store when you can get them at the Dollar Tree!

Okay, I just totally got off subject, but my point is that I'm just so proud of how Bonnie is maturing. She has always been really sweet but she's just got SUCH a big heart and she would do anything to make anybody feel better. She draws me multiple pictures every day with jumbled up letters on them that to her say "I love you SO much, Mommy!"

I just had to take a moment to brag on her. I just feel so blessed to have two healthy, sweet girls. I'm trying hard to not take time with them for granted. They are growing up so fast!

Open House and Bonnie and her Daddy

I'm really trying to get better about posting and using this blog as a journal. So much happens so quickly and I need to just do some quick journal entries every day or maybe just every week instead of looking at what other people are doing on Facebook (that doesn't really matter!) Okay, here goes:

We went to Bonnie's open house today at King's Kids. Katie Hooie will be her teacher. We are really excited about her going there. I really wanted her to have Bible implemented into her preschool and I think we will be pleased! Her and John played with the blocks in the classroom today for so long that I thought Katie would have to add him to the class roll! I should've taken a picture! It was so sweet to watch them build towers with those blocks.

Yesterday, John came home yesterday for a minute and as he was leaving, Bonnie walked him to the door and said, "Bye, Daddy! Have a good day, and don't talk to strangers!" John said, "okay, I won't!" HA! SO FUNNY! If John didn't talk to strangers, then we wouldn't have an income! :)

Ava Dancing

Ava has been dancing for about a month or two now--swinging her hips side to side---SO CUTE! We have one of those little refrigerator animal farm things and she loves to push the button and dance!

Happy 4th of July!

Yesterday, we had John's company picnic out at his parents' house. I made these cupcakes for the occasion. I also made chicken stew the day prior, but when I went to warm it up, I got it too hot too quickly and scorched it. The whole kitchen smelled burned and the stew tasted burned. I was so upset. I didn't cry or anything but I was just very disappointed. It was a HUGE pot.......I was gonna have a lot leftover to freeze for the winter......all that money to make it down the drain....etc, etc. I kept telling myself, "what's done is done" and could hear my mother's voice in the back of my mind saying, "don't cry over spilled milk!" I scorched it because I was trying to keep Ava from pulling the knives out of the dishwasher (her new favorite pasttime) and was also trying to clean the house before the lunch. I can usually multi-task pretty well, but that day wasn't my best moment! John's dad came to pick up the pot of stew so maybe his mom and Memaw could 'fix' it. Bonnie told me, "Mom, Papaw can fix it if you just don't cry." I told her thanks for encouraging me and then she just started cleaning like crazy. I guess she felt bad for me and wanted to help me feel better. She went into the playroom and put EVERYTHING up where it belonged and then went into her bedroom and cleaned her toys up in her closet, putting everything in the bins where they belonged also. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! She smiled SO big and told me what she'd done and said, "Are you proud of me?" That sweet little thing! She is so caring and loving and she just made me feel so much better! When we got to John's parents house, his mom had me taste the stew. It was a LOT better but still had a bit of a scorched taste to it. I said, "What did you do to fix it?" She replied, "It has a half bottle of white wine in it!" I was amazed at how much it helped. So for future reference: White wine takes some of the burned taste out of soups. I'll have to start buying that and keeping it on hand in case I mess something up again! We had a great time eating together and Bonnie got to go swimming afterwards. John took most of the air out of her floaties and she swam a lot on her own. We were so proud of her achievement! Later that afternoon, they gave her some watercolors so she could paint herself and that was a lot of fun. She wanted to paint Ava but we wouldn't let her! :) Here's what Bonnie's makeup art looked like!

Recent Bonnie Funnies

Bonnie LOVES to do her "art projects" at her desk. She cuts from old magazines and glues stuff down on construction paper. She loves to trace her hands over and over. She is drawing people now and does such a good job. I think she's gonna be creative----here are just a few reasons why I think that:

1. I came in the room one day and she had made this collage for me, I might add, all by herself. I just about laughed my head off. I guess those are the things she thinks are important to me: make up, Dreft baby detergent, pregnancy tests,and a bowl of soup! HA! She makes me laugh so hard. Of course, she has no idea what a pregnancy test is; I guess she just thought it looked like a cool object to cut out!

2. One night I came home from some girl function at church or something and John came to the door and said, "Bonnie wanted to trick you while you were gone. She made this sign and I wrote down what she said. She wanted to tape it to Ava's door so she could 'trick mommy'. I don't know what a 'tree bearaty' is but that's what she said." Bonnie has a BIG imagination and makes up words that are quite hilarious.


3. Last night, Bonnie laid down with me in the bed for a while and I read my book as she read her books. I asked her if she had talked to God yet today. I told her that we need to talk to God throughout the day because he's our friend and he helps us....and well, we just need to pray to him and thank him for everything he's blessed us with. I told her that God would probably be lonely if we didn't talk to him and have a relationship with him. She then looked up in the air and said, "God? Are you up there?" She then immediately looked at me and said, "Mom, he's taking a nap or som'pin. (something)"

Ava is a year old!

My sweet little Ava Claire turned a year old on June 19th! I can't believe it's been a year already! She has been standing up on her own for a couple of months now. She took a couple of steps on her birthday and gets so excited when she does it! She's not fully walking yet, but it won't be long until she realizes that she has the ability to. She nods her head "yes" and shakes her head "no" when you ask her if she's hungry or if she wants more........and it's always accurate which is pretty hilarious! She has the sweetest little personality. She seems to be pretty laid back so far. She pretty much always wants her momma! (which makes me feel good and exhausted at the same time). She's still a great sleeper! She loves the water.....anything having to do with the water whether it be a pool, the bathtub, sink, or even the toilet! UGHHH!!! Yes, I said the toilet. I caught her playing in the toilet one day and was like, "GROSS, AVA!" She had water all over the floor and just looked up at me and smiled. She can crawl about 20 miles an hour----that's how she crawled away so fast and started her toilet splashing contest. Which brings me to the inspiration for her first birthday. I was just gonna make some simple cupcakes and then I thought about using her duck bathtub as a cooler and thought a "duck theme" would be great for her first birthday party since she loves taking baths. I used Bonnie's "Lucky Ducks" game as a table centerpiece where we ate and had random rubber ducks on the table. I found 2 books about ducks in Bonnie's bookshelf and used them as decorations also. I made a duck cake, lemonade with rubber duckies floating in it(brand new of course---not the ones with fungus in them in the bathtub.....HA!), "barbie cups", a vegetable tray, fruit skewers, bacon wrapped smokie weiners (courtesy of Memaw), monterey salsa, tequila-lime chicken wings (from SAMS), butter pecan grahams, snicker bar brownies(courtesy of Grandmother Parker)........I think that's it. Needless-to-say, we had plenty of food. Ava didn't care for her cake much; she just wanted the marshmallows around the cake (made to look like bubbles). The party was a success but I'm glad it's over. I just can't believe she's 1 already. Here are some more pictures from the party.

Blog Scrapbook

I am now using my blog for a scrapbook for the girls. I have found a website where you can print off your blog and put it into a book, so I can do that if I want in the future. Any funny little thing they say or do or just something I want to document will be on here. Depending on how eventful the day is, I may have more than one post in a day. I may also post about past events that I haven't written about before. I don't wanna miss a thing and this way, the girls will have some funny stories and memories to look back on. Feel free to comment or just read about our crazy, fun life! The time is passing by so quickly with them! Next post: Ava's 1st birthday party extravaganza.....coming VERY soon, I promise!

Co-Sleeping at 8 months old!!!!

Well, we had our first co-sleeping experience the other night with Luke and Ava and I'm not sure it turned out so innocent! This is how they looked when we laid them down. They were both sound asleep.......blanket in between them.......everyone on their own side......nobody touching..... This is how we found them right before Jud and Julie left and then.......AVA!!!!!!!! Well, in her defense, he was sort of being a bed hog! She just needed more room! HA!!! How precious is that! They could be on the old AT&T commercial for their "Reach out and touch someone" slogan!

Are you up for the challenge?

Learning to Be Proactive not Reactive

By: Craig Harper Published 4/23/2007

I've learned that most people, most of the time are reactive not proactive (when it comes to the big-picture stuff).
Here's 10 ways to move from being reactive to proactive.

One of the interesting things about my work is that I get the opportunity to see how people 'work'... how they're wired. Typical behaviours, thinking, attitudes, reactions. How they deal with situations, circumstances, events, catastrophes, tragedies, good stuff, bad stuff; life. It's all interesting stuff for me.

I've learned that most people, most of the time are reactive not proactive (when it comes to the big-picture stuff). That is, many of us are not particularly good at taking charge of our future, our health, our relationships, our career, our finances, our destiny... our life. We tend to spend our life reacting to events, situations and circumstances, rather than creating and shaping them.

We get sick (and scared)... we make a decision to start an exercise program and to 'get healthy' (reactive).

Our partner leaves us (we get scared)... we decide to be a better partner and do anything to make it work (reactive).

We have a nervous breakdown (get scared) ... we decide to manage our stress and cut back on work (reactive).

We crash our car and nearly kill five people (and get scared) ... we decide to drive slower and be more responsible (reactive).

Yes, they are all good decisions... but they all should have been made before reality beat us over the head and punched us in the face.

A life based on reactive decisions, made out of fear and limited options, is never going to be our path to our best life... but that's what many of us do.

React.
Cope.
Struggle.

If we want amazing then we need to do, decide and create (be proactive). Yes, there is a time to be reactive (we need to react and adapt to a range of stimuli thousands of times every day) but I'm not talking about avoiding the kid on the skateboard (a smart reaction), or shivering in the cold weather (an unconscious reaction), I'm talking about the big stuff.

The.. what-is-your-life-really-about... stuff.

I'm talking about proactively, consciously, fearlessly, intelligently and methodically choosing and creating your best life. (Not waiting for 'amazing' to happen to us... or to ring the door bell). I know it all sounds a little 'business-like' but sometimes we almost need to put our life up on the white-board, get out the flow charts and get a little analytical, un-emotional, objective and practical about what the heck we're doing with our life, our reality and our existence here on the big blue ball. Because really... some of us (seem to) have no idea, no plan and no ability to make a decision.

We seem to waste a lot of energy stumbling along... to nowhere in particular.
Well nowhere that we really want to be, anyway.

The scary thing is that, in a minute.. we're all gonna be five years older. And trust me, some people reading this post will still be going around in circles, still procrastinating, still making excuses and still reacting and coping. Still talking about what they're gonna do.

Not you of course.

It seems many of us are professional waiters. That is, we spend our life waiting for some cosmic sign or unavoidable reason to make a decision and to do something.To get off our behinds. What a waste of time, talent and potential.

People who waste their ability, their health, their opportunities and then complain, blame and make excuses frustrate me and make me sad because I have more faith and belief in their potential, than they do. I know they can create amazing but they consistently choose nothing.

And do nothing. Because they don't need to do anything. Yet.

They're always about to do it. Too many of us consistently avoid making decisions and let 'life' or other people make our decisions for us. I have had hundreds of people (literally) over the years who have asked me to make their significant decisions for them... "you decide... you tell me what to do." "Sure, give me all your money and go away."

Are you kidding me? Seriously guys, c'mon... make a decision.
Make a bunch of them. Get uncomfortable.
Take a risk.
Be the twelve year-old sometimes.
Do something.

Too often we make decisions when we're backed into a corner, when we have no choice. The key is to choose and do... before you have to. We finally address things (which should or could have been dealt with long ago) when a catastrophe happens... but often, it's too late.

Being proactive usually means dealing with discomfort, lack of support, fear and even resistance from others. So deal with it. Toughen up. Creating your spectacular life and everything that goes with it, is regularly a challenging and uncomfortable process.

That's okay. You're okay.

Reactive is... "I've got massive chest pain and pins and needles down my arm... maybe I'll go to the doctor." Proactive is... "Even though I have no symptoms, I want to live a long, healthy life so I have embraced the life-long habits of healthy eating and regular exercise.

Reactive - is boring, frustrating, painful, unrewarding, unfulfilling and illogical (when you consider what most of us want). Proactive - is amazing, rewarding, challenging and scary.

I love a bit of scary.

Okay, here are my simple, let's-not-make-it-too-tricky suggestions for moving from a reactive to proactive existence.

(1) Think... but not too much... (you'll end up doing nothing).
(2) Consider (and visualise) the cost and the consequences of a life-time of reacting.
(3) Create a to-do list right now and start ticking boxes today.
(4) Deal with your fears.
(5) Stop looking for, wanting or needing... the approval of others.
(6) Have your goals and dreams wrapped around a realistic, practical plan.
(7) Set yourself dead-lines.. "I will do... by... "
(8) Get stuff done early in the day (when possible)... it helps get your head in the right place.
(9) Use an accountability partner (friend, coach, mentor) to help keep you on track.
(10) Have an opinion, get off the fence... stop being a spectator.

Okay.... now, ready... set... go.

Waddya still sitting down for?