florida

At 3:30 am on Friday, March 5 we left for Florida with the girls. We were hoping that they would sleep for a good portion that morning while we drove but they didn't fall asleep until 6. We drove until 5 pm to Atlanta, GA and we spent the night there. The next morning, we went to the Georgia Aquarium (the nation's largest). We had a good time there. They had everything you could imagine an aquarium having, including 4 huge sharks in HUGE aquariums. It was the best aquarium we'll ever go to but I think we just decided that aquariums aren't our thing. Nowadays, the discovery channel is top dog! But if you like Shedd's Aquarium in Chicago, this one will blow your mind (we never liked Shedd's much!)

After the aquarium, we headed on to Florida to stay with our good friends, Brian and Dorothy. We got to their house around 7. We were there for 6 days and had so much fun. We went to Daytona Beach one day, St. Augustine, shopping in Orlando, and Gemini Springs which is an awesome park in Orange City where Brian and Dorothy live. We also volunteered a day for Disney through Habitat for Humanity. What a joke! We were supposed to work for 4 hours. We were at this house for 2 hours and probably only accomplished a half an hour of work. It was very unorganized. And after 2 hours, the guy in charge said we could just go home since there wasn't anything left to do. And we got 2 free Disney tickets for it! So with those tickets, we decided to go to Disney Hollywood Studios. We were very thankful that we didn't pay to go there. There was just a lot of shopping and only 2 good rides to go on (which I didn't go on since I'm pregnant). We had had enough of the park after 4 1/2 hours. Wow, I sound like a downer!

We had 4 warm and sunny days and 2 rainy days. We left on Friday night and drove through the night. We got home 22 hours later on Saturday. The ride there and back could not have gone better with the girls. We had invested in tv/dvd players for the girls which was a big help. We had a great time! Brian and Dorothy were so good to us and there could not be a better couple to live with!

And here our some boring pictures. Our camera needed new batteries and we kept forgetting to pick some more up, so these are pretty much the only ones we got! They are in no particular order...

a children's bible

Looking through Ruby's children's Bible the other day, I came across the story when Jesus teaches us how we are to pray. I love this children's Bible because it's so easy for young children to understand and for myself! This is how The Lord's Prayer is worded in this children's Bible:

Hello Daddy!
We want to know you. And be close to you.
Please show us how.
Make everything in the world right again.
And in our hearts, too.
Do what is best - just like you do in heaven,
And please do it down here, too.
Please give us everything we need today.
Forgive us for doing wrong, for hurting you.
Forgive us just as we forgive other people when they hurt us.
Rescue us! We need you.
We don't want to keep running away and hiding from you.
Keep us safe from our enemies. You're strong, God.
You can do whatever you want. You are in charge.
Now and forever and for always!
We think you're great!
Amen!

I thought this was a refreshing way to look at this prayer.

And this is another excerpt from the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the dessert. Jesus had just been baptized and went to the dessert to 'be with his father to get ready for his new life' (which is similar to how I should make time to be with my Father since I am new creation). The devil tempts Him but Jesus refuses to be tempted. This bible says,
"Jesus wasn't like Adam. Jesus was a new kind of man. He would not believe the terrible lie that the enemy spoke. Jesus knew God loved him. And he would trust God. No matter what. It was just as God had promised to Adam and Eve all those years before. Jesus had come to do battle against the snake's work. He would get rid of the sin and the darkness and the tears. And He would suffer - but He would win."

Isn't that a great way to word what Jesus was all about?! And if we are a new creation in Christ, we should go to war with the devil just like Jesus.

This is from 'The Jesus Storybook Bible' by Sally Lloyd-Jones and I would highly recommend it for children. The stories are laid out in black and white that makes it easy for kids and adults to understand. It's brought some further realization into my own thoughts. Just thought I'd share :)

patience, anyone?!

I've heard that you shouldn't ask God to give you patience because He will give you the occasions to practice patience. That being said....

My girls have been making me laugh and rip out my hair all at the same time lately. I have been losing my patience with them lately and I don't know if it's because I'm slightly more irritable since I'm pregnant (I'm only irritable when I'm pregnant :)) or if they are just acting up more. Natalie verbally abuses me and Ruby quietly gets in and destroys everything. You'd never know that this silly little girl can scream her lungs off at me:

And don't be fooled by this innocent face:

Look what she accomplished in 5 seconds right behind my back while I was busy at the stove:

That's RICE all over the kitchen floor! Do you know what a pain it is to try to get every last grain of that swept/vacuumed up?!

Natalie doesn't get into things that she shouldn't too quick and Ruby hasn't been talking back... until today. She said 'no' for the first time and she will do a single scream while staring me down when she is upset with me. It's been quite a week! But then Jordan comes home, and they put on their sweet innocence and he can't understand what I'm talking about!

ahh, but I love them! I'm trying to remind myself while in the chaos, to enjoy it and find humor in it. They are growing so fast and I am going to miss even these bad days.

in sickness and in health...

So Jordan and I celebrated our 4th anniversary on Wednesday. What did we do to celebrate? Nothing! He was downstairs all night (he even slept down there) and I was upstairs. We had plans but Natalie got sick that day so Jordan wanted to stay away. Happy anniversary to us! She got over it in one day but I got it the next day. Apparently there's some g.i. bug going around. So we laid low the entire weekend and I sanitized like crazy but now as I type this, Jordan is sick with it too. I'm praying that Ruby doesn't get it now too....

Natalie and Ruby continue to change and grow-up. Ruby is just about the same age that Natalie was when I had her. I'm glad that I've still got time to prepare for baby #3. Natalie is at such a fun age. Lately she likes to joke with me... usually it's about Gary needing to wear shoes when he goes outside. And then she'll look up at me and wait for me to laugh. But at the same time, she has kind of been reverting back to the terrible twos that I thought we were out of. One minute she is talking back and disobeying and the next minute, she's stroking my cheek telling me she loves me. She's definately the more complicated of the two. Ruby is as laid-back as ever. Although she is beginning to hold her ground when Natalie tries to take advantage of her sweetness. Ruby knows how to throw a fit but she gets over it so fast! She is so smiley and happy -as always! Thanks to my mom, she can sing the 'Yes, Jesus...' part of Jesus Loves Me. And Natalie can just about sing the whole song. And whenever we put any music on, Ruby is dancing all over the place. She especially loves pop rock/hip hop. It's the cutest thing!! Both of my girls are just a breath of fresh air to me even when the going gets tough! And baby #3 is making himself (or herself) known too. I can feel much more movement lately which is just as exciting as the first time I felt Natalie and Ruby move. It is such a miracle. Jordan and I are still content with not finding out the sex of this baby. We've hardly discussed baby names because some of our friends and family are pregnant and I don't want to pick a same name. So far, everything looks healthy with the baby and I take that so for granted. That is by far the most important thing.

And Jordan and I are as happy as can be (I hope I can say that on his behalf!) I feel so blessed to wake up with him every morning and greet him at the door every night. We have grown with each other so much these past 4 years. We never imagined that we'd have (almost) 3 babies by now and I can't wait to see what other blessings are to come in our marriage. We have been together for just about 7 years total now and they have been the best years of my life!! I am so blessed to have him as my husband!

....til death do us part....

update

Wow, it's been a while since I've last blogged. And a lot has happened since, too! We had a lot of fun with the holidays this year. Natalie and Ruby really enjoyed it and they were troopers with all of the late nights we had. And we announced that I'm pregnant again! Yep, that'll be three babies in our four years of marriage. Go ahead, do the math... it calculates :) So due to my lazy and sleepy pregnant state, enough said! Enjoy the pictures for now!

This last one is what you get when you buy the cheapest preg test there is! This is something like how the conversation went:

Jordan: "Look at the test, are you pregnant?"

Me: "Yay! We're pregnant.... right?" (hands test over to husband)

Jordan: "Well, there's a faint little line.... what's the directions say?"

Me: (fishes through the garbage to get directions then tries to explain) "I've gotta be, right? I'm tired and cranky..." (along with other non-mentionable things!)

Jordan: "Yup."

So yeah, we're pretty sure we're pregnant!!

natalie 2.5

Tonight I gave Natalie her first official haircut. I think it turned out cute. Natalie has very thin and wavy hair that has a mind of it's own and many different personalities - just like Natalie! She has had a very thin but long mullet going on for way too long. So I cut about 3 inches off. She looks even older now. So here are before and after pictures:

What else is new with Natalie.... Well, Jordan taught her to say 'Yes, sir' and now she adds 'sir' onto many other phrases. She also knows how to joke with us and say 'just kidding' since we pretend to not know that she's joking. We watched the movie "Elf" with Natalie just recently and do you know when Will Ferrell burps for an abnormally long time and then says 'did you hear that?!' Well, Natalie says that now after she or Ruby burps or toots!!

Natalie's current favorite song is the 'boom boom Jesus song' a.k.a. 'Little Drummer Boy'. She's been doing really well with potty training still, woohoo!! She's having less temper tantrums but still can be little miss attitude. We were at Jordan's aunt's house the other night, and Natalie went in the basement, looked around, didn't see anyone she wanted to talk to, and turned around to the stairs with her chin up when they tried talking to her. So Jordan's cousin says real quietly, 'she can have such a little attitude' and whether it was coincidence or not, Natalie whipped a plastic toy at her. It's funny and sort of cute but I really hope that someday she will just humor people and not give them attitude! And yet she can be so overly polite and so loving the next minute! Natalie is like a box of chocolates, you never know what yer gonna git (that's from one of the best movies ever made: Forrest Gump for you sad people who didn't know that!)

When we put Natalie to bed, we have to go through all these rituals: she needs milk, she needs a kiss, she needs a hug, she needs the fan on, and she's got some kind of order that she needs to do it in because sometimes we need to give her multiple hugs and kisses! But it's always worth it to hear, 'I love you' at the end. And she crawls into bed with us later and kicks us with her constantly flailing arms and legs. But only occasionally do I bring her back into her own bed. I like it when she crawls into bed with us and cuddles up. And a few times, I'll wake up to her stroking my face or kissing me and telling me she loves me! My theory is that she won't be sleeping with us when she's ten, right? It'll stop eventually ;)

Natalie is coming up on her half birthday making her two and a half. And in spite of the tantrums and the occasional bad attitude, Natalie we love you more than we thought possible. You are such a ham and a spit-fire. It's been so fun to watch you learn and grow. These two and a half years of life with you have been a BLAST and we look forward to a lifetime with you!

grandma quotes

I just found these two quotes on grandmas and I thought they were so true. Holidays always make me miss my grandmas even more than I already do. Is that normal? They've been gone for 4 and 5 years and I still miss them like crazy! It's just selfishness because I know they're happier in heaven. Anyways, I really love these quotes:

A grandmother is a little bit parent, a little bit teacher, and a little bit best friend. ~Author Unknown

Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete. ~Marcy DeMaree


Here's to my grandparents who get to spend another Christmas in Paradise!