Sweet Bedtime Prayers

Bonnie has gotten more confident saying prayers at meal times and at bedtime lately.  She went through a stage last year where she didn't want to pray and it was really hard to get her to understand why we need to talk to God and have a relationship with Him.  It's so hard for them to understand the whole prayer thing and the concept of praying to a  being that they can't even see.  But, lately, she's been okay with leading the prayer. I've told her she can talk to God about anything and he will listen and help her with whatever she needs. I love to hear what she says.  She prays for Loveshena (our sponsored child from Haiti through World Vision) every night and asks God to give her what she needs. She prays for the people in Haiti a lot because that whole situation has really interested her. Now, she's interested in the oil that has filled our beaches and she's constantly asking John and I about what's going on there. It's so awesome to see the faith that a child has and their longing to ask God to help with whatever is going on in their little lives at the moment.  Bonnie has stopped in the middle of trying to get her shoes on and said, "God, please please please just help me do this. In Jesus Name, Amen." She also has stopped to pray right before I've had to give her a switching saying "Please please please God...don't let this happen. Please don't let Mommy do this...." etc. etc.  Let me just say that it's very hard to spank her after that but I have to be consistent.  Anytime I'm frustrated she says, "Mom, you can just say a prayer to God and He will just make it all better." Oh, how we can learn so much from our children.  The other night her prayer went like this:

Dear God,  Please please just make Ava's little bottom better because God, I've seen her little bottom and it's really red and just please make it better.....and make Mommy's headache get better too.....and God............(LONG PAUSE).....we know that doctors can help but.....(LONG PAUSE).....gods can too and you're the greatest God EVER! In Jesus's Name, Amen."

It was so sweet and of course, I sat there thinking....there's only one God and I know she knows that but her goal I guess was to really let God know that he was the BEST in her book!

Ava's 2nd birthday

Ava turned 2 years old on June 19th and we celebrated by throwing her a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party. That is one of the first things she wants to watch when she gets up each moring. These past two years have flown by SO quickly--I just can't hardly get over it. She sits on the potty and goes sometimes but most of the time she just sits there for a few minutes, looks at her little books, and says, "De end" and then "No pee-pee". She sure does keep us busy these days.  She is into EVERYTHING--unlike Bonnie was at this age.  You just can't turn your back on her for even a second! She absolutely LOVES to sing and quite frequently wakes up around 3 in the morning and starts singing until she falls back asleep.  She goes through every single song she knows: 'Twinkle, twinkle", "Jesus Loves Me", "Alouette", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" (which she calls Itby Bider), "Blue Skies and Rainbows", and probably more that I just can't think of right now.  She learned "Party in the U.S.A." not too long ago and we had no idea she knew it until my phone started ringing one day and that was the ringtone and she started singing it! We were shocked and laughed so hard. We have to sing two songs every night before bed and they are usually "Happy" (You are my sunshine) and "Tinkle Star" (Twinkle Twinkle). She's a funny little thing. When you get on to her for doing something she shouldn't be doing, she looks at you and says, "Ohhh Kaaaayyy" in this slow, low pitched voice......and then a few minutes later, she's back to doing what she shouldn't be doing! Her favorite mischievious activities include locking herself in her bathroom and turning on the water in the sink, getting mommy's lipstick and smearing it on her face, and squirting lotion out onto her hands in large volumes. She loves chasing Bonnie and copying whatever she does. She loves to 'wing' (swing) outside and this summer she's been wanting to go to Mamaw's and Papaw's house to swim every day by saying, "I want to swim the waaater." It's so cute!  I just love her so much even though she keeps me on my toes. Speaking of toes, she walks on her tippy toes almost all the time. I don't know why she does that but it's just her little way of walking I guess and I'm sure she'll grow out of it. Here are some pictures of her family birthday celebration.

The invitations (they were very easy and inexpensive to make)

                                            Mickey Mouse Topiary and cupcakes I made

This is my very favorite picture from her party (thanks Stephanie for capturing it)

                                                                                             

Ava praying before we had her birthday dinner (hamburgers, veggie straws, canteloupe, watermelon, cupcakes)

She was a pro at blowing those candles out.  She made us relight them a few times afterwards so she could do it again!

We worked hard getting her to say "Two" when we asked her how old she was gonna be on her birthday.  Now, if you ask a question that has any type of numerical response, she says, "Two" and holds up 4 fingers spread out with two being stuck together. It's so cute.  The other night she went to sleep and said, "Papaw's two. Mamaw's two. Daddy's two.  Bonnie's two.  Mommy's two...."

Time for presents!!!

Herpangina....our awful experience

Well, vacation bible school was a few weeks ago and Bonnie came home after the first day with a fever.  She went straight to bed and slept that afternoon from 1-5:50 p.m. I KNEW she was for sure sick then because she never takes naps and she took a LONG one that day.  Her temperature was high for a few days and she had blisters on her throat and was very uncomfortable.  However, she just drank ice water and slept a lot and watched tv until she felt better.  It wasn't that bad compared to round 2 with Ava.......

As soon as Bonnie felt better, Ava woke up from her nap that day crying and had fever. We looked in her throat and she had blisters ALL on her tonsils and down her throat.  She was miserable to say the least.  I called the doctor and told him her symptoms  and they were almost exactly what Bonnie had a few days prior and he confirmed that both girls had something called herpangina which is a form of the coxsackie virus that also causes hand, foot, and mouth disease. It's all viral so there was no chance of an antibiotic doing any good. Treatment was just rest, Motrin, Tylenol, and as much liquid as we could get down them. We all pretty much did not sleep for an entire week that week.  The really bad part happened when Ava broke out into hives.  They were very mild that first night. I gave her Benedryl and it made them go away for the night. The next morning they were gone but by lunchtime, they were back in full fledge. They were so bad that I was afraid they would increase to the point that she might have trouble breathing---I'd never seen anything like it.

I gave her more Benedryl and called the doctor and he wanted to see Ava so I woke her up from her nap and took her and he put her on 8 days worth of steroids to clear up the hives. I had been giving her Benedryl every 4 hours and it was not doing anything to make the hives clear up. I gave her about 4 days worth of the steroids and stopped because she was finally all clear and the steroids were making her so ill, angry, and hyper. I didn't want to leave the girls to go on our cruise with her acting like that. She has done really well ever since and I hope the girls never have to go through anything like that again.

Bonnie's Ballet Class end of year performance May 13, 2010

Last year at King's Kids, Bonnie took ballet lessons right after preschool for 30 minutes on Thursdays.  It was only $7 a session so it was an affordable way for me to let her have some fun after school and let me get a few more things done before having to pick her up.  She LOVED working with Mrs. Allison and Mrs.Erica. Their end of year performance was so cute!

Mother's Day 2010

Bonnie made me a trivet with her hand print on it for Mother's Day!

Grandmother Lynn's 77th birthday!

May 13, 2010

We celebrated Grandmother Lynn's 77th birthday at our house this year! I wish I'd thought to get a photo of the grandchildren and great grandchildren there but I forgot!  Stephanie wanted to have a big surprise birthday party for Grandmother and we planned a big meal and I made her a strawberry birthday cake with strawberry cream cheese icing.  The funny thing is that Stephanie got a 76 candle thinking it was her 76th birthday and we didn't realize it until Grandmother was about to blow the candles out! I guess this year she was a year younger and next year it will appear that she has jumped two years but oh well!  We had a really great time and her face lit up with happiness which made it all worth it! This woman is such an inspiration to me.  She became a widow at the age of 29 and had 3 small children ages around 4, 6, and 9. I can't imagine all of the pain and stress that goes along with that. She has always encouraged me and always has the right words to say to me when I am having a hard time. Ironically, I found out a few weeks ago when visiting her that her name, Lynn, means "encourager". I was at her house and saw a little bookmark type card that had her name, orgin, and meaning and thought it was so awesome that her the meaning of her name portrays her true character.  She really struggles to get around these days as she deals with Parkinson's and distonia that makes her shake and have a hard time walking. That's hard for her to deal with. However, even when she's in a state of frustration, she will let go of her own needs and feelings and provide comfort for others if they need it. She's an amazing woman and I love her so much!

My dad and 'Grandmarner' as he jokingly calls her

We were singing 'Happy Birthday' to her in this photo. She looks so happy!

Grandmother and the great grandchildren (Ava, John-Parker, and Bonnie)...they really want to eat the cake!

How Ava eats an apple

I walked into the kitchen one day and saw this on the table.  This is how my little Ava eats an apple.....

Circus Fun

              The circus came to our town a couple of weekends ago and we had a lot of fun there! Bonnie got her picture taken with the clowns! Ava was too afraid.....

Marah went with us as well as my nephew John-Parker!

Here were some of our favorite acts

John and Ava

We got to ride on the elephant! It was a lot of fun but we had to pay $6 a person to walk around a circle ONE TIME!!! Ridiculous cost....but the experience with the kids was priceless!

Workout with Bonnie and Ava

I started Jillian Michael's 30 day shred yesterday and the girls have been working out right along beside me as I do it! They push me to keep going! Bonnie decided that I should follow the beginner instructor and she would follow the advanced one! HA! I didn't have hand weights the other day so I used canned tomatoes. Bonnie and Ava went into the pantry to get their own cans (the 6 ounce tomato paste cans work very well for little ones! ) I stopped to take this video of them for a few minutes to capture some memories. Don't worry...I went back on the DVD and redid the part I missed while videoing them, so I was NOT cheating! :)

Bye, Bye, Pacis!!!

I decided to take Ava's pacis away last week while John was out of town. We took Bonnie's away about the same time so I thought we'd just go ahead and do it before Ava turns 2 in a couple of more months. She did pretty well--better than I had expected. You see, Bonnie and Ava both loved their pacis, but Ava has been TOTALLY addicted to hers! She was constantly going into her bedroom and getting it and her 'blankie' and wanting to have them all day long. I'm not concerned about her carrying the 'blankie' around, but I did want to nip the paci in the bud. She cried pretty hard for about 30 minutes that first night and for a minute, I thought...WHAT HAVE I DONE??!!!??? But, I hung in there and talked to John on the phone until the crying stopped. Naptime the next day, she cried for about 10 minutes and went straight to sleep. Then, the next night, she didn't cry at all and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Old MacDonald" until she fell asleep. I have NO regrets about taking the paci away and am SO glad I went ahead and did it! I actually found another one in my purse the other day that I need to get rid of PRONTO so I still need to do that, but I'm proud to say that we are DONE with pacis! YAY! I took some video footage of me guiding her to throw the pacis in the garbage. It's about 7+ minutes long! Bonnie helped me put a new bag in the trash can after we took the trash out (about 5-7 pacis were in there!)

Zoo Day!!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

John was out of town the entire week last week so I took the girls to the Birmingham Zoo for the day.  Some friends from church joined us and it was such a fun day!  Here are just some of the special creatures we saw at the zoo:

                                                                           
                                                                          A gorgeous macaw                                                

                                        a cute little bird of some kind that kept poking his head out

                                                               and trying to bite Bonnie

The Lorikeets........beware of them pooping on your head...happened to a little girl with us....feeding nectar to the lorikeets all day long can be a messy situation! Look how BEAUTIFUL they are!

I thought it was HILARIOUS how these monkeys slept sitting up like this!

This gorilla posed for me to take the photo. How so very kind of him!

No swimming.....NO KIDDING!!!

Cute pics of the kids at the Zoo

Barklee, Joshua, Hugh, Bonnie, and Marah

Bonnie and Ava looking for alligators and turtles in the water.  Bonnie was giving Ava a lesson on what to look for

Ava LOVED looking at all  of the animals!  In this second shot, she LOVED looking at her reflection!

Petting Zoo photos (Ava LOVED the goats!)

And at last, we made a stop at the splash pad.  This was perhaps the most fun part of the day for them.  Bonnie was exhausted and bumped into another kid and started crying and it was downhill after that.  She kept saying she was NOT TIRED but I knew otherwise.  After about 30 minutes at the splash pad, both girls were ready to head back home.  Needless to say, Ava was asleep before we left the parking lot!  It was SUCH a wonderful day spent together with my sweet girls!