Sunday Sweetness

Sunday Sweetness

Sunday Sweetness

These two kids are my favorite kids in the whole world.

They are the best.  The smartest, funniest, cutest kids

(they are also the second and third most sinful beings I know, behind myself, but who's counting?).  ;-)

Adorable...

 It was brought to my attention that a lot of you haven't seen our new van yet.  We  have had it for a while.  But here it is.  We are LOVING it.  My only complaint is that there's no handles on the ceiling for me to hoist myself up or reposition my giant watermelon body.

 Maryn has a new love for our whiteboard.  She found a marker that actually works quite well and lo and behold, she can write.  She can write really well, it turns out.  She wanted to write Daddy a message because he was going to get home after she went to bed.

We just love her, and we love the interesting ways God is working in her heart lately.  It's very interesting when your kids start to verbalize what is going on in their minds and souls.  It makes it difficult to deny there is a sinful nature in all of us, but also that there is a Savior wanting to redeem.  That there is a Holy Spirit stirring our hearts.  And that there is a Father who makes his presence known to everyone, somehow.

Sunday Sweetness

John and Maryn made omelets after church.  We also ate the cheesy potatoes I made late last night and of course, leftover Krispy Kremes!

Look at our tiny kitchen.  Our little house is starting to bother me as I get bigger and bigger.  It seems everywhere I walk I have to "squeeze" through something or use special martial arts skills to get where I need to go.  I've been tripping all over the place (including over my own children), hitting my head on things, and running right into walls sometimes because I underestimate my size and ability to balance.  Too much counterweight.

Dreams
It's harder to be content when I'm tired.  I had the craziest dreams last night.  I dreamed that all these people, probably every person I know, was coming up to me and asking me questions.  The questions didn't make sense, but I was trying to answer them.  Worst dream ever!

Then I had a dream I went to a trendy new church and their Sunday School Classes had names like, MMA and WWE.  MMA stood for "Mixed, Multi-Age," WWE was "Women" something.

Our church's Sunday School classes are called ABFs (Adult Bible Fellowships) and in Florida our Sunday School classes were BLGs (Bible and Life Groups).  I don't understand why they can't just be called Sunday School.  What's wrong with Sunday School?

Then I had a dream that one of our neighbor friends was storing her fingernail polish remover in Pez dispensers..  We went to her house and a little girl friend of Maryn's was opening the Pez dispensers and spilling fingernail polish remover every where.  It was a huge mess!  And her mom was so mad at the little girl for getting into things, and I just kept thinking, "But why is she storing her fingernail polish remover inside Pez dispensers?"

I'm tired, uncomfortable, kind of in pain, annoyed and frustrated, and emotional, but usually quite happy.  It's been a great weekend, but cold.  My joints hurt a lot.  I could hardly make it up the stairs and my hands are freezing up on me at times.  Our sermon and Sunday School class today was about contentment.  I think I'll go look over those notes and re-read the passages we covered.  :)  Happy Sunday!

Sunday Sweetness

Sunday Sweetness

 Our kids were soooo cute this morning, but we didn't have much time to get good pictures.  Our whole family matched.  I'm not into the family matching stuff (bleh!) but we did it by accident.  Josiah is fitting into 6-9 months clothes now and holy cow, his new clothes are adorable.  Thank you to whoever bought them because I do not remember.

 I believe this cute little outfit came from Goodwill, courtesy of you can probably guess.

Below, Maryn is twirling in her princess dress.  But the top part of her dress is "itchy" so she wears it like this.
Yep, John was playing a little ditty on her wooden whistle.  We're a musical family, dontcha know.

 Rewind this picture 30 seconds and Maryn's hair was adorable, Josiah was laughing, and I didn't look like a drunken gypsy. 

Happy Sunday! 

Sunday Sweetness

No flash!

Sunday Sweetness

Sunday Sweetness

Sunday Sweetness

 Maryn skipped her nap today and instead joined me on the couch for some girl time

watching Hope Floats.  Not the most quality movie for a small child, but she was interested in it 

for some reason.  I guess because she was so tired.  She never falls asleep randomly.

She woke up just in time to eat my ramen noodles.  Boo.

This little man has been so sweet, smiling and chillin.'

Except he is having a growth spurt today and has been literally attached to me 

about 22 hours of the last 24.

Sunday Sweetness & My Babies are graduating...into different sizes. :-/

Sunday Sweetness
(and some tears)

I am happy to announce that Maryn is exactly ONE week away
from turning two years old. My baby girl!
And she wore size SIX shoes today.
Finally. Thank goodness, because the size fives were getting pretty
yucky and I didn't want to buy any to last her a couple weeks.

I haven't posted pictures of Josiah in a few days and...

He grew up!
Sorry you missed it.

Remember the bracelet from the Fall Festival?
The one that survived baths, soapiness, sloppy joes, nacho cheese,
and many, many boogers?

Well, I cut it off. Above you see how that went.
But there are good things happening here, too.
Here's Maryn helping Daddy open the box for her bed.

The only time I've seen her so excited is when she sees the fountains at the mall.
Or when I give her Benedryl.

"MOM! Don't let her kiss me AGAIN!"

"You turned around and I grew 12 inches."

Sunday Sweetness & Praise and Rewards

In the photo above, Maryn still has on her bracelet from the Family Night at the seminary. You may remember Family Night from last year, where Maryn had her first carousel ride. I may try to cut this bracelet off while she is sleeping, because she is very attached to it. Or not. I know my psychology professors would not agree with that plan.
There are a lot of things I do as a parent that my psychology professors would never advise anyone to do. For example, I've been bribing Maryn with stickers. To eat her peas, to brush her teeth, and to keep her bows in her hair. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with using stickers now and then. It's something tangible to show our little ones exactly what we want and expect.

When I was teaching, I did a grad school project with stickers. I had a particularly difficult class that year (understatement of the year--it was nightmare class). But as most first graders are, they were very eager to please. They just didn't know exactly what to do in order to please. So I walked around all day with a sheet of chart stickers on a yarn necklace, giving out stickers whenever I saw them doing anything at all that was good, expected, or above and beyond pleasing. I'd stick a sticker on their Post-It on their desk and at the end of the day, they'd bring their Post-It to the closing circle and we'd openly discuss our stickers. It was really an incredible project. I learned a lot about my students and a lot about myself. After two weeks, the stickers were put away and I had a brand new class (not literally, but behaviorally). When things started to go awry, like around Christmas or after Spring Break, I'd bring out those stickers again.

This is what I hope for Maryn. The stickers are just one temporary, concrete little way to help her understand, "This is good," instead of me always focusing on the negative. Plus, if she can't remember to brush her teeth, who will?

Maryn and her friend were running around outside today and a lady came out and gave them each two Twizzlers. Now I don't know about most two year olds, but my toddler can't eat Twizzlers. She is a very lazy chewer, and these Twizzlers were about ten years old. So when we got into the house, I bribed her with Smarties. Now, I don't really think that can be counted as bribery. I was just trading out a bad snack (Red dye right before nap time? Chewy candy for a kid whose parents can't remember to brush her teeth? Someone call 911!) for a more developmentally appropriate treat.

Do ya'll have any bribery stories? Thoughts on my reaction to the Twizzlers? ;-)

Teaching Our Children to Pray Part II

Here is our "Sunday Sweetness" picture. She was even cuter earlier when she had on her glitter tights and pretty white shoes. But this picture was taken later in the day. Still sweet! But Josiah didn't want me laying him on the concrete, so he was left out of the picture. Sorry :-(
We found this idea inside one of Maryn's Sunday School Newsletters. How cute is that? We have added even more leaves to our tree since this photo. It's right on our door, too, which is right by our dining room table, so we won't forget to pray for anyone. I'm not sure if John appreciates our house looking like a preschool, but he married me so I think he knew it was coming...
We have been really busy. We have something to do every night this week and all weekend. I feel like our house will never, ever be clean. But the good news is that my belly is feeling a lot better, so having a clean house is doable just not feasible at this time. I just folded all our laundry, however. But I folded it two or three days after I washed it, so alas, it is all wrinkly. I hate that. But the good news there is that our dryer seems to be working now! I only have to run it once. Big time saver.

I really want to try some new recipes and have a sudden urge to be Suzy Homemaker. One of our friends brought us the most fantastic homemade bread (well, it tied with our other friend Hope's bread) and I absolutely must learn how to make it. It was so delicious. I also found a Betty Crocker cookbook at Half-Price Books for $10 and found a ton of yummy recipes with directions WITH photos for dummies like moi. I'm super hopeful I can buy it sometime soon. I don't have a "catch-all" or "go-to" cookbook like that. And that's just what I need!

As much as I want to be Suzy Homemaker, I'm finding I just don't have the time or energy. So I am taking it pretty easy. I tend to put Maryn and Josiah first during the day, then cleaning and THEN cooking. I'm not sure if that should be the order of things, but that's how it's been.

On tonight's menu....stir fry. We'll be trying bamboo shoots in our stir fry for the first time. I'm not really excited about it, but I am so tired of eating nothing but peas or salad as our veggie for dinner. I thought this potato, pepper and zucchini casserole sounded promising as a side dish. Maybe some day. Do you know of any good vegetable side dishes or interesting ways to season vegetables? Pass your ideas on to me, please :)

Sunday Sweetness

Maryn was waiting for John to take a picture in this one, but I love her facial expression. And her cheeks!


I think it looks like they're both smiling in this one!