Sunday, April 15, 2012

Livie

Where do I start with this little girl?  It seems like everyday I have some good story about her, or something funny she said, or something cute she did.  She is just a really funny little kid!!


Can you tell she's into to princesses??  And babies??  And PINK??  Oh my.  Seriously, if anything is pink...she notices RIGHT away.  

One night we were out at the lake and Chad kept trying to get her to watch the sunset...but she, of course, was busy playing with her cousins ;).  After awhile she moseyed over and suddenly yelled, "It's PINK!  It's PINK!  Look Dad!!".  Haha.  It actually was a cool moment - great to show her that God likes pink too :).

Here's a little video of her reciting her first verse.  Sorry about the "toot" in the beginning...I'm telling ya, she's just goofy!



That was Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"...just in case you didn't get it ;).

She's grown up so much just in the past month.  I think some of that has to do with giving up her paci.  I honestly was dreading the day we would take it away because she was so attached to it and throwing tantrums whenever she wanted it :(.  It was getting pretty bad.

So, I thought if I could come up with something to get her mind off of giving up her paci, maybe it would ease the pain??  Haha, so we bought a fish!  Or Livie did.  With her paci.  

We took her to the pet store on a Sunday evening.  She picked out a "pink" betta fish with pink rocks to go on the bottom of the tank...surprise, right?  And when we went to the check out, I told the cashier before hand that Livie was going to be giving her the paci to help "pay" for the fish.  At first, Liv did so good...she handed it right over.  But as soon as she realized she wasn't getting it back...the crying started.  The poor cashier quickly handed the paci back to me, saying..."She can have it back!".  I was like "No, no, no!  She'll be just fine." The lady was probably thinking, "Yeah right!", as I carried my screaming daughter to the car. 

But she was fine.  After a lot of talking up the fish and talking up the fact that she was a BIG girl and that paci's are for babies...she was fine.  "My gave my paci to the fishy lady," she said over and over.  That night she did cry for about a half hour...but I just sang her to sleep and she slept all night.  And really since then, she's done great.  She did SO much better than I ever thought she would.  Praise God.

So...where are the pictures of this blessed event??  Well, I thought I would have plenty of time to take a picture of Livie and her fish.  BUT...alas, the fish lasted only 3 days :(.  I am NOT the best with taking care of any pet...even fish I guess.  Now Livie says, "My fishy died...went back to Jesus".  

We've promised to get her a new fish SOON...I just hope the next one lasts!!

So getting rid of the paci was kind of the start of having some good heart to hearts with her.  And although she's only 2, she is starting to grasp some stuff.  She does have her toddler tirades...daily.  But we just keep talking a lot about sharing, obeying, disobeying, consequences...trying to get to the heart of stuff.  I'm just praying it's sinking in!  I know we have a long road ahead of us.  But here's my cheat sheet for now (from the parenting conference) in making her see her need for a savior during our daily struggles...


Haha...trying to get answers from a 2 year-old to some of these questions is near impossible!  But at least we're trying :).

I LOVE the fact that she's still 2 though.  She brings us SO much JOY.  Seriously, we're pretty attached to this little girl...



Livie and Adalai with my Dad on his 60th Birthday...

With Neiko on Easter 
(this is the only pic I got that day :(..I need to do better next year!)

Such a trooper...

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Emma

Blogging is definitely taking the back burner around here.  LOTS going on...growing, selling, building, moving, celebrating, stretching...and just trying to live life in between it all!  

While I could write a book to catch up on all that's going on...I'm going to try to split up all that I want to write about over a few days.  

And today, I'm going to start with our smallest blessing (and I'm going by size not quality here)...little Emma.  Haha, I don't know if I should call her "little" anymore though.  She may be small...but she is mighty :).  Her chub, cheeks, personality, hair...I mean, check it out!  Anytime we go anywhere, she gets comments, comments, and more comments.  And it just keeps growing...


What else?  Just this week she started to army crawl!  So fun.  And it may just be army crawling, but she's already keeping me on my toes.  Gotta watch this one...


With the crawling has come some feisty personality too.  She's generally a really happy girl (giving LOTS of big smiles and love)...but in a given moment when she wants something, she shows some spice and aggression until she's succeeded :).  Haha, I think we might have our hands full between her and Livie.  


And I'm sure no one is surprised that this little girl LOVES to eat.  If she has her paci in and there is food around...that paci is quickly spat out and her head starts bobbing in attempt to try to get whatever she can :).  Oh, and if she wants more...she starts gabbering...saying, "mamamamama" with a concerned look on her face.  Very hard to resist that!!



8 months is such a fun stage with her!  She is definitely loved...  With our crazy lives right now, I am so thankful for the days (or moments) that I'm given to enjoy her, love on her, and see the little girl God has made her to be.