Artsy Maryn

Do you have a child who shows gratitude often?  Josiah has been so precious, saying thank you when we wash his hair, and thank you when we give him medicine, and just at any point in the day he gives us hugs, kisses, and shares his love with us.  We pray before dinner, but if we have a second course or dessert, he feels we have to pray and say thank you to God again.  

I feel as though I have tried and tried to get Maryn to say Please and Thank You since the day she was born and yet she still struggles with these words.  But as I was looking through these pictures, I see that she is grateful, and she does notice the beauty in small things.  She also works hard to make things even more beautiful.  She just has that eye for all things lovely.

Maryn notices the beauty in weeds and thistles (notice our weed garden behind her, which she loves).

Here she is making a memory box like Josefina had in her book, Meet Josefina.

Ooh, who is this little fairy person?

Maryn and I decorated this t-shirt today.  She loves it :)
And she kept saying, "I love having girly time with you, Mommy."

You're welcome sweet Maryn.

:)

Special Moments

Maryn is figuring out reading!  And here she is doing a little word family game from Aunt Cathy.

These two are getting really close.  Maryn is so great with him.

Josiah loves to play with the rice while Maryn paints and draws and colors.

I love to do real art (rather than just "crafts"), and I am grateful I have such a gifted  student.  Josiah is doing very well painting and coloring as well.  I am so excited :)

Neighbors Elise, Bekah and I got together and made these sweet wreaths!  Guests are supposed to write on the leaves what they are thankful for.  So far Maryn has added to the wreath:  Art Supplies and People.  Ha!

This is Maryn laughing at Josiah as he drank his paint water.

This is an adorable painting of The Princess and the Pea!

Josiah is quite a handful lately.  I wondered why they were being so quiet.   He and Maryn had spread very thick, expensive shea baby lotion in their hair, on their clothes, and all over their bodies.

I guess things like this are a rite of passage.

And this sweet baby.  I just have no words.

He's sitting up pretty well.  And drooling a lot.

So cute I could just die.  :)

Sibling Sweetness

Sunday Sweetness

The Big Reveal

It took 39 weeks for baby Owen to get to this point, and involved a very painful, uncomfortable pregnancy if I can be honest with you.  I was a little concerned how my older two children would take the addition of our precious little miracle.  Other than both kids being a little afraid of me and that big ol' hospital bed, they were extremely excited!

 They brought Owen a special gift, and what a surprise--Owen had gotten them gifts too!  I will have to get you pics of those gifts later.

 All three children have adapted very quickly to each other.  Maryn expressed her disappointment today that Owen STILL can't play, run or jump around with them.  Josiah has had one fit in which he bopped Owen right on top of the head.  Today Owen turned 8 days old, and I think the novelty has pretty much worn off and they are well into the swing of things.  It's hard to believe, but Maryn has really stayed busy (partially thanks to all the fun stuff Aunt Cathy and Mamaw brought), and we have hardly watched television at all.

 I need to get some better pictures of my Mama on here!  Here's one I took of her and Owen with my cell phone.  :)  I love his long arms.

So I guess we're doing all right.  I'm not too happy that John went back to work on Friday, 4 days after my c-section, and doesn't have a day off until Friday.  Or that our washer broke for good today.  Or that Maryn peed on the bathroom floor and then she and Josiah rolled around on balls in the pee....

Buuuut...enough.  Life is good.  Fun and interesting, at least!  We are blessed.

"We marvel at some of the experiences, through which we are called  to pass, but afterward we see that they afforded us some new knowledge of the Lord."  - G. Bowen

"He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken."  Psalm 62:2

Hearts

Today I am grateful for my husband, who wraps baby shower gifts for me.  I tried to get the trickiest things to wrap and he still managed to do it well.

 I am grateful for two children who could not be more different.  Maryn (in a Peter Pan pose?) practicing ballet and Josiah is his "car" that he and Maryn designed.

 Josiah.  Oh, how he loves dirt.

This has been our life.  We've been outside a lot the last few days, so those times are very relaxed and carefree.  Two hours at least, typically, of my sitting on my rear talking to the neighbor ladies while our kids play and play and play.  Josiah really doesn't get into any trouble, he just loves dirt.  Yesterday as you can see, someone brought out water and he was having a good time making mud.  I did stop that.  I think mud should be saved for spring and summer, just my opinion.  Not quite ready for mud yet!

When indoors, Maryn asks to spell things so she can type them on her little computer or on Microsoft Word, or write them on her whiteboard or paper.  She is such a little nerdy pants (like her mama).  Her favorite word to type and spell and sound out is Antarctica.  Beyond that, I just try to keep her busy so she stops asking to watch shows.  She paints, she does crafts, we play Barbies and make alphabet soup in her kitchen.

And Josiah just throws the ball around, chases cars, pounds on toys, leaps from furniture piece to furniture piece, sometimes making some seriously bad judgments on space and how far he can jump.  He has also started getting a little rough with his sister, and has bitten her a few times now, usually pretty hard.  He has vampire teeth, so it really does hurt BAD.  I've experienced it myself a time or two (oh yes, and it was the reason I stopped nursing a bit early!).  Today he got a long time out in his bed for leaving teeth marks on her arm.

I love my kiddos.  I'm so excited to have a MAY baby, so I'll be able to just go outside and let my older two play and play and play.  I'm thinking we might need to get a new, stronger baby monitor so that I can hear little Owen while we are out.

Happy Spring!  Oh wait, it's February.  :)

Sweetness

Josiah frequently lays his head on his sister, and she coddles him like any big sister should.  :)

This is Josiah and his baby, whom he cares for so sweetly.  I am feeling so good about having another baby boy.  That being said, I do mourn the "loss" of the idea of having another girl.  Maryn and I were hoping for a little Lucy, but maybe some day, a few years from now, God will bless us with another baby girl.  Right now I truly don't think there's room for another female in our home (which I'll explain later).

 Here's Maryn (Rapunzel) and Eli (Flynn) attacking Elijah (a bad guy).  Don't worry, they didn't hurt him.  :)

The last couple days have just been hard on me.  All of us besides John had flu shots on Friday and it has wiped us out.  Josiah had four shots, and Maryn had three.  It was miserable.  I like to try to follow a slower vaccination plan, where each kid only gets two at a time, at most.  But as a one car family on a tight budget, we fell far, far behind.  So I felt it was time to load up.

Anyway, Maryn is just having one of those weeks.  It's like she has PMS once a month or something.  So moody, grouchy and intolerable.  I've been pretty much up to my eyeballs in Maryn madness.  Her hormones on top of my already out of whack hormones are not a pretty picture.  We really haven't been very nice to each other.  I hope she doesn't grow up to be a "mean girl."  I feel that she's headed that way sometimes.

Whatever happens with any  of my kiddos, I know that God's glory will shine through.  I do believe he works all things together for good.  And whether my kids grow to love Jesus or despise him, or live their lives to glorify him or live lives of sin and rebellion, His glory will shine through and I will try to show my kids the grace and love my Father shows me.  But I sure hope he helps me tap into his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in the day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment stuff.  Isn't that the hardest?

Parenting is hard.  hard.  hard.

Winter is here.

 I found them like this watching Toy Story 2 as the song "You've Got a Friend in Me" played.

 We might have gotten a little creative with Maryn's pumpkin this year!

 She's so excited!

 Oh dear, I can't even hold it in!

Cooking With Two

I needed some brownies today.

 So despite the fact that both my children were grouchy, tired and sick, we made brownies.

 Maryn is such a helper...and Josiah is such a little taste tester.

 Maybe he's more than a just a taste tester..,

The kids were playing by themselves in Maryn's room.

Josiah:  Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!
Maryn:  I didn't do it!

I went back to see what they were doing and Josiah was stuck in the bookshelf, so I brought him out to the living room.

Maryn:  Nooo!!!  Give him back to me!

Sunny days of fall in Kentucky

 Maryn bought a princess umbrella with her Toys R Us gift card from Kendra.

Josiah loves to play in the dirt.  And look how well he plays with others and cooperates.  He's helping fill the bucket.

We love living here.  There are always children to play with.  Last night we went outside and not a single person was in our backyard.  It was weird!  But it was full of fun and laughs this afternoon.  And yes, that is dirt coming out of Josiah's nose.

 Beautiful day.  Beautiful friends.

 Playing together.  I love it.

John is done working overnights and is home all weekend.  We are elated.  I love him.  And he even woke up early at 6 am and washed the dishes for me.  I've become dreadfully behind on household chores because I am D-O-N-E at 8:30 pm.  Sigh.  But I'm doing fine otherwise.  No nausea at all lately.

I feel very busy getting ready for Preschool Monday, Cubbies, and preparing for our big Chili Cook Off on October 29th.  Who knows if we will do anything for our SIX year anniversary.  I think I may just want to sleep!

I think the anniversary is a hard thing to celebrate.  Should we just do what we normally do?  What we always do when we have a date, and what we always did before children?  Eat out, go to a bookstore for hours, and have coffee?  Or should we do something more special?  And what on earth else is there to do beyond restaurants, book stores and coffee shops that's still fun and not dangerous for a pregnant woman?

sweetie pies

 Sibling sweetness.

But sometimes, I find myself saying, "Please just go play by yourself!"

 And Josiah is very happy playing by himself.  But he loves his sister, and wants to do what she does.  She is not as thrilled about this arrangement.

But sometimes we manage to find a way to include everyone.  Even Bosco (the baby doll).  Here we were in our "car" on the way to "Kroger" and the "Book Store."

We also go for slow walks as Maryn rides her tricycle around the block (very slow walks).

We eat popsicles.

We play bubbles.

We play hide and go seek in the house as a family.

Have you played hide and seek lately, as an adult?  It's actually pretty fun.

And the latest family favorite,

we pretend like Maryn is once again our burrito baby.

We used to call  Maryn our burrito baby because she loved to be wrapped super tight as a newborn.  She loves this game.  We love it too :)  Josiah was our enchilada baby.  Hopefully, we don't have more than four or five children or else we may run out of Mexican entrees to nickname them after.  But so far we've considered naming our next baby chimichanga or tamale.  Haha :-)

Josiah turns one soon.  He will be a year old on Friday.  Is that hard to believe?  He is my little sunshine.  He loves to play cars, ball, push things, move furniture around, stand up on his own (no steps yet though), and make lots of noise any way he can.  He is strong, silly and smart.  He repeats a great many words but so far his main words are Mama and ball.  He loves to make sound effects (vroom, vroom).  He makes and copies a lot of signs, but doesn't usually do them on his own without any prompting, except milk, waving bye bye or hello and sometimes "more."  He was definitely saying and signing "bubbles" today, which was so cute.

He got his first bloody nose today.

His favorite foods are macaroni and cheese and popsicles.  And ice cream and anything sweet or sugary, of course.  He's surprisingly more into green veggies than any other veggies.  He especially loves any food he can feed to himself.

He isn't crazy about sippy cups.  But he likes the straw type sippy cups so I guess we'll need to start getting some more of those as we break him of bottles.

And that's the update on my almost-one-year-old.