Why Do You Keep Coming Back Here?

Only my Mom will truly appreciate this post, and what she will appreciate is that she is not the person who has to put up with this anymore. Joe is lucky I don't allow myself to do this for real and instead make it into a joke and blog about it.

...

 

 



I hate when I reach a point in life when what seems the best action is to lay down on the floor and kick and whine to someone who is willing to listen about all the things you want to POOF disappear or change! Its like the perfect storm (most likely the result of hormones) has erupted and nothing is right. So just to be funny this is my tantrum and you are the person.

My house is a mess

The laundry is NEVER done

My socks have holes in them

I need new underwear, I'm tired of them not fitting right every other day (back to the laundry problem)

I have been eating waaaay too many Christmas treats

I have a headache (see above)

My jeans don't fit (see above)

My brain is overwhelmed

I have no desire to exercise

Im too busy for snuggle baby naptime

I just want to crochet something while watching Christmas in Connecticut darn it!

I wish my coupon to see the Shillito's Elves hadn't expired on Sunday

I want the wood box to be full of dry wood instead of outside dripping wet

I want to like Downton Abbey but I cant get past the first episode

I don't like the gifts we got for the girls this year

Ill stop now

 

yeah. see. theres nothing pretty about that and when you allow yourself to whine it just starts to get out of control.

So instead lets do what I am thankful for.

I got 95% of my Christmas cards mailed today

I have pretty painted toes and a fresh haircut this week and even if my brain was too preoccupied with stupid stuff to enjoy the time without children and with good company to really enjoy it I can still enjoy the result.

I finally have the "go ahead" on a childrens curriculum so I can start planning and I am choosing right now, today, to wait until after Christmas to do so :o)

I enjoy cooking and have a yummy meal planned for tonight

I have the ability to get up right now and tidy my house and jump on the treadmill (hahahahaha) if I wanted to. So lets dig through a basket of clean laundry, find a pair of big girl panties and get over yourself. Look at the big picture. Shut up, ask for help, slow down, stop doing "stuff", and read that last post from just a few short days ago when you had some perspective!

She Knew That

After finishing a wonderful bible study on the book of John last week and knowing I will start a new one in just a few short weeks I decided to spend this time in the book of Luke and just bask in the seasonal appropriateness of the text.
Yesterday while I was reading chapter 1. Enter Annie
"What are you reading?"
Mom: "I'll tell you what I am reading, I am reading about the angel Gabriel. Remember him? He appeared to Mary."
Annie:"yeah"
Mom: "Well He also appeared to another guy named Zechariah and do you know what he told him!?!?"
Annie: "Yeah, that he was going to have a son, and to name him John"
.....
My eyes of course popped out of my head and I screamed and yelled and made a big deal and she just said "yeah I learned about that from my teacher" and ran off to play.

The Me He Wants Me To Be

Seriously having a hard time turning my brain off lately.

 

I have so much on my mind,

big stuff,

 important stuff,

 mundane task stuff,

 reflection stuff,

 restlessness,

 unhappiness,

 contentment,

 God stuff,

 good stuff,

 emotional stuff,

 fun stuff,

 life changing stuff

...

but isn't all stuff life changing?

 

I am feeling the ebb and flow of sanctification right now. I feel growing pains but not bad ones, just pains that I will look back on if I get to be old and gray and see like Polaroid snapshots of times when He changed me more into the likeness of Him and turning me into me.

 

When I think about the younger me I am glad she is gone. She was nice enough but the Polaroid shots just keep getting better and better. Sweeter and deeper and more meaningful as I have aged. A lot has changed over the years, a lot of experiences and regrets that make me do things differently these days. I guess that's just "sanctification baby". I use quotes there because that is my mantra these days.

 

I feel Him prodding me in new ways.

I feel His guidance and I appreciate that I know He is in control.

I feel at rest with where He has me right now which is good. I want to be fully here, I want to be fully present in this time with these little babies because I am looking forward to their future and I want to make sure I invest in their here and now and not miss out on this short time.

 

They are small,

they are needy,

they are selfish,

they are emotional roller coasters,

they are of the flesh just like me

 

Romans 3

 

¹⁰ as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹ no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
¹³ “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps (snakes) is under their lips.”
¹⁴ “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶ in their paths are ruin and misery,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰ For by works of the law no human being^[c] will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

 

 

I keep trying to lay down the law so they will keep the law. It is time I teach teach them the law in order that they might know sin and repentance and grace!

 

 

So I will do the daily tasks that He has set before me.

 

I will learn my husband more and grow our relationship deeper.

 

 I will wake up before the sun and change diapers and read books and teach letters and shapes and paint and hide and seek and kiss and hug and snuggle.

 

 I will be a Labor & Delivery nurse and love the people I interact with at the hospital.

 

I will coordinate the children's ministry and the volunteers and love the people that I come into contact with there.

 

I will explore the things I am passionate about and be more purposeful with my time. 

 

And through all of this I will bring glory to Him, preaching His name and giving Him the glory for it all.  

 

 

Thanks for the outlet blog world!

 

Peacefulness

I love watching the Lord orchestrate my life. Its exciting and calming when I can see that I am not the one in charge and He can do far more than I can ask or imagine (Eph 4:20)
He has given me a sister in Christ who challenges me daily and last week she shared with me a truth that she learned in her bible reading. It blessed the socks off of both of us and so this morning when I learned a truth I decided I should share it with you so that we can all benefit from my leg work. And by the way, TAG you're it! Would you share a bit of wisdom that He has taught you?

Colossians 3:15-17 (I like New American Standard Bible best for this one)

¹⁵ Let the PEACE of Christ ^[a]rule in your hearts, to which ^[b]indeed you were called in one body; and ^[c]be THANKFUL. ¹⁶ Let the word of ^[d]Christ richly dwell WITHIN you, ^[e]with all wisdom teaching and admonishing ^[f]one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing ^[g]with THANKFULNESS in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving THANKS through Him to God the Father.

The bold and caps are how I choose to study verses. I bold, highlight, circle, underline and exclamation point the words that He is pointing out to me as important ones in the scripture. The cool thing is that I have been studying these verses all week and I JUST realized typing them out that thankfulness is in all three verses. I had been focusing more on the rest of the scripture, isn't God cool?
So I have been applying these verses to my parenting and learning from Him that I need to be more peaceful with the girls. And its hard not to be peaceful when you are focused on being thankful in every circumstance (Oh the circumstances that Crazy Woman hands me!). The only way I know how to do this is to have His word IN me! Now comes the good part, we all know what it means to teach so if I take my time to teach my children truths and expected behaviors then you have something to refer to in the moment. But I had to look up admonish because I was pretty sure it wasn't the finger shaking in front of the face and the smack on the butt that I was making it out to be.

Admonish

1- to indicate duties or obligations to

2-to express warning or disapproval to especially in a gentle, earnest, or solicitous manner

3-to give friendly earnest advice or encouragement to

 

Thats all way more peacful than screaming and wagging a finger in thier face! But then I had to look up solicitous because I didn't even know that one!

 

Sol-ic-it-ous

1-full of concern or fears : apprehensive 

2-meticulously careful

3-full of desire : eager

 

ohhh thats good purposeful parenting advice!

Say What?

Mia, like any two year old, is not easy to understand. I can do very well if I am looking at her or I know what topic she is on. Yesterday morning she woke up before the sun and was laying in bed with me. After a while I picked up my phone and started checking email and such and she kept touching the screen. She was also being very loud for 6am and generally just being naughty. I told her many times to stop yelling and stop touching my phone and when she didn't I disciplined her for it and then went back to my email. I was doing a really good job tuning her out when I realized she was saying something over and over through her pouting and fake tears... "you forgive me mommy? you forgive me mommy? I sorry for touching your phone, you forgive me mommy?"
Ohhhh gaahh! Its too early! Could I please deal with your contrite spirit when the sun comes up!?!

Then this morning she came crawling into my bed again around 6:30 and Annie was not far behind her. After laying with me for .5seconds they began arguing over what movie they would watch with breakfast. Mia was adamant that she would watch her movie and I told her that they would have to agree on a movie or they couldn't watch one. Again after tuning her out I realized she was saying "I don't want sisters anymore"! This is too much for me to deal with at such an early hour. I am going to become a coffee drinker and I really don't want to!

Why Is It?

Why is it that my children play so well together when they are doing something naughty? Its like they are bonding over the camaraderie of knowing they are disobeying and neither one wanting the fun to stop they don't tattle but instead join in on the behaviour until they are found out and then they are quick to throw one another under the bus!

When Mia gets spankings she says through her tears "Spank Annie Too!!" Which I find very amusing but have managed to keep from laughing especially at the look in Annie's eyes that reveals either guilt or astonishment that I might just spank her too.

This has also come to my attention recently.
Why is it that all fairy tales have some part that makes you cringe as a mother?
Hansel & Gretel -Mother dies of starvation, wicked stepmother leaves them in the woods where a witch tries to eat them.
Cinderella - Dead Father, wicked stepmother, you know the rest
Snow White - wicked stepmother who hires a hit man on her
Rapunzel - kidnapped and locked up
Rumpelstiltskin - Father gave her away to the king who's advisers locked her up & forced slave work on her
Sleeping Beauty - cursed by a wicked fairy godmother for heavens sake!
Princess & the Pea - teaches girls that princesses are dainty and picky
Thumbelina - stalked by a toad and taken in by a mole who tries to force her to marry him
Belle - motherless
Arielle- motherless
Jasmine - motherless
Bambi, Tarzan, Nemo & Fox and the Hound- You watch them become Motherless!!
Don't even get me started on the new ones like "Up"

It certainly brings about some interesting questions from my little girls! May I recommend some movies? Not that they don't have their interesting twists but they are loved here at our house.
Peter Pan - yes they are left alone with a dog and run away with a boy... look past that.
Lady & The Tramp - yes she ends up with the guy from the streets but he changes his ways for her!
Robots - even if you don't watch the whole thing, watch the first scene when they are "making a baby" its a riot!
Where the Red Fern Grows - yes its sad but a good wholesome nuclear family situation
Old Yeller - again, hard times but good strong values
Princess and the Frog - Great music!
Tarzan - Skip the first scene and its Great! (unless you are Mia and request the "scary part")
Despicable Me - or "Coco Meat" as Mia calls it. Aside from the man adopting 3 little girls just to do his villain work its great. Unless you don't want your girls to adopt the phrase "I'm going to kick your butt" then don't let them watch this one!
Winnie the Pooh - Classic, wonderful, silly ol' bear
Chicken Run - just amusing
Curious George I & II - Love that little monkey!

You're welcome!

Indiana and LoK Giveaway!!!

We took the girls to Indiana last weekend. Uncle Joe and Monica got engaged (!) and they threw a joining of the families party. It was fun to get to meet Monicas family however it was weird to be a minority for once... her family is so big and they weren't even all there!!

We had a great time with family, played with cousins, the girls enjoyed their first hayride and since it is all Annie ever talks about we even took a chilly gator ride down to the creek.
I know I have talked about it before, I have been enjoying the creek ever since Grandpa took me when I was a little girl and would show me how to skip rocks and now he is doing it with my girls and that is SO special to me!

Everyone was super excited that Joe could make it up as he has been scarce on our trips for the past few years while he was in school and working on the weekends.

 

I love having my new I phone but one of the downfalls is getting it out to take pictures and then having my picture collection in two different places. I need to set it up to send them to my computer also bceause I have some CUTE hayride pictures on there!

I hate that we have missed the window of beautiful fall foliage to take the girls pictures. Carly will be due for her 6month pictures in December so Ill just wait till then. I am really hoping that I will win a photo session with my talented friend Lauren at LoK photography! How fun would that be? She does a great job, especially with kids and my girls are kinda shy around photographers, plus every time I take them to the local portrait place I swear Ill never go back... and then end up doing just that!

Pictures

The girls realizing that the tree out front had lost some leaves were very excited to play in them.
Annie is always surprising me with how good her memory is, however she didn't remember ever playing in the leaves before.

Without being able to see her grownup features she looks like she did as a baby with the fat little cheeks and dimple chin :o)

 

 

 

I prefer projects to imaginative play although I am learning to play along in the world of make believe.

However this is my idea of a fun thing to do with the girls, as long as I can keep my OCD at bay and just let them have fun. Annie got her very own rolling pin from Aunt Kara and Uncle Ben for her birthday and I told her we would have to make daddy an apple pie. However I forgot about the fact that I am terrible at making pie crust and I can't even roll it out so I didn't want to involve her in one of my biggest frustrations of baking. So we broke out the fall mini cookie cutters (and one valentines day heart) and made suger cookies!

 



In tutu's of course!

Annie came up with the idea to make the tye dyed looking ones... isn't she a creative genious?!? Makes her mother proud! The oak and maple leaf ones were my favorite but for some reason I failed to get a picture of those.

She is my precious "baby wawa"

His Ways Are Higher

Isaiah 55:8-9

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

When my church announced a while back that we were launching a Multisite church I didn't think i had any interest in it. I was actually pretty judgemental about the fact that my church leaders were even choosing to go with a multisite, which is where the congregation will watch a video feed of the preaching pastor on a screen. There will be a campus pastor and staff however it will still operate under the same umbrella as our main campus.

See I can be a pretty judgemental person, I think that God gives us the ability to assess a situation analyze it and come to a conclusion. Its one of the things that we are taught how to do from infancy, its something that fascinates me as I watch my own children learn to do. I actually get to witness the formation of their thoughts, opinions and judgements. This is very easy to see with children because they are so basic, they see shadows and think monsters, it is up to me & the rest of their world experiences to teach them that shadows don't mean monsters but instead show them how to look around the room for what is really casting the shadow.

However being human, in my finite little brain I make rash judgements based on little information or a limited understanding and will often come to a biased conclusion.

I like our church, I trust our leaders, I think they have a pretty rock solid group of people assembled to shepherd each other and us as a congregation. I think that our missions and goals as a church are built on basic biblical principles and work well. I agree with our doctrines (because they are all derived from the bible) so I didn't see why they weren't just starting a new church with a new pastor that used the same doctrines and ran the same way. I think Pastor Brad is a good speaker but he is not the end all, there are many other gifted pastors and a video screen pastor is sooo impersonal.

However after it was explained to me that Grace Fellowship isn't looking to church plant, however to simply reach out to more people. Our church has a fairly large congregation, I being one of the people who is willing to drive across many counties to attend every Sunday because I have a love for the people and the mission that God is doing there. So the goal in a multi site is to simply break that down and have a place where we can reach out to a different community without having to ask a neighbor to drive across 3 counties. Multisite churches have a history of being very successful and my heart began to change towards the idea however I never thought I would want to attend.

When it was announced that the church was going to be in Newport Ky God immediately laid it on mine and Joes hearts to go. And I Couldn't Believe It! It was an immediate knowledge that we would attend and I don't think I have ever had such a quick peace about a situation.

Our leaders were ready to go as early as October however God had yet to provide a building for us to meet in. He was growing us as a body to rely on Him and His timing and His providence. As a church we fasted and prayed one week and in that week He showed us His faithfulness in providing a movie theatre on the Levee to meet in.

During this time of waiting I offhandedly wondered about who would coordinate the nursery and thinking I had a little experience in working childcare I would email the pastor to offer to coordinate that very small task.
Upon hitting the send button I was immediately struck with the fact that I have 4 other people in my life namely Joe that I should probably think about before I committed to this. When I told Joe what I had done his initial reaction was just as I thought it would be and he was slightly annoyed. However leaving him alone with just the suggestion he very quickly got behind me 100% and even started to get involved. He started talking to Pastor Peter about it and Pete informed us that he and his wife Sarah had been praying for a couple to fill this position.
Now the position that I volunteered for was nursery coordinator, babies... infants... toddlers... easy peasy. Give em a story and a snack and play with blocks and change diapers...however here it is a month or so later and I hold the paid position of Children's Ministry Coordinator, preschoolers, children, 5th graders for heavens sake! How did that happen? I have no idea other than to say that it did and I am OK with it. God will definitely grow me through it. He already is, I am learning that I will have to be very organized and step outside my comfort zone. I am learning to rely on Him for His guidance because clearly He has got this under control however I really wish I could fall back asleep in the middle of the night instead of laying there thinking about what on earth I am going to do with 30 kids in a movie theatre for over an hour other than popping in a Veggie Tales and handing out popcorn :o)

We are not pioneers on this though, movie theatre churches actually already exist and I am going to go and see them and be taught by them and find out what they do with 10 two year olds in a movie theatre because as Joe said "have you ever seen a little kid try to sit in a movie theatre seat? They fold up and fall right through the back!"

My prayer in this is that God would increase our excitement level. Joe's mentality is "somebody has to do it so we might as well do it" mine is "I would be pretty good at it and I could get the job done". I want God to make us excited about the ministry and that we would actually enjoy doing it. So pray for me if you think about it and if you are joining us at Grace Fellowship Newport go ahead and sign up to be blessed by working the nursery!!!

What God is Teaching Me

New thoughts, ideas, and ways of thinking become much more concrete for me when I say them out loud or get them all out on paper (or blog) to see or hear if its actually truth. I have found lately that sometimes I will say something out loud and as soon as it comes out of my mouth I want to take it back or reword it because simply hearing myself say it makes me realize that is not exactly right and God has given me His truths and a brain for a reason so that I can decipher these thoughts.
Because I get so excited about new things that He is teaching me I have decided to try to write them out here, to give Him the glory for what He is doing in my life. I have become one of those people who wants to ask everyone I come into contact with "what is God doing in your life?" because I am so excited about Him in mine that I want to hear what He is doing for others.

So here is one topic I have been mulling around lately...


What a work God has been doing in my life lately. Pastor Brad has been preaching sermons on Idols of the Heart and in addition to that our bible study has been reading the book he just had published on the same topic. Through this he encourages you to examine your heart for things you might be idolizing. An idol doesn't have to be something bad and its especially not the first thing that comes to mind like a statue of a golden calf or a totem pole (at least those are the things that come to my mind when someone says idol) that you bow down to and worship. By his definition an idol is "Anything or anyone that begins to capture your heart, mind, & affections more than God."

My easiest ways to look for them so far has been at his suggestion of what makes you angry, what do you spend your time thinking or worrying about & what do you spend your money on. Also asking myself "would you sin to get it, sin to keep it?".

It has brought to my attention many different areas in my life that I was trying to force a good thing like obedient children. I have been able to see myself in a new light that when I get angry or impatient with the girls it is because they are not doing things fast enough with a cheerful attitude. I get angry with them and start yelling when they are slow to respond or seem to be ignoring me completely. I have realized a few things
 1)I need to constantly be teaching them what is expected of them instead of demanding them to jump when I say jump. I need to get down and look them in the eye and hold their hands & attention and explain to them daily what I am expecting them to do (clean up the blocks) and even why (we are getting ready for lunch and then naps so if we clean up first then all the toys aren't all over the house and when you wake up we will be ready to play something new) It gives them a purpose for what they are doing instead of marching when the dictator says so. And taking time to do this will give them a foundation of obedience because sometimes I do need them to do something quickly with obedience just because I said so!
2) They must acknowledge that I have spoken. Simply turning and walking away or continuing on with what they are doing is rude and says "You are not important & I don't care what you are saying" and I have no way of knowing if they even heard me because lets be honest, when the TV is on I doubt they do!
3) They are KIDS and kids are not adults. Deep, I know. I have had 30 years of learning and an OCD personality to go along with the fact that when I want to clean a room I have a system that works and agility to get it done. Kids are slow & clumsy and spill the full bucket of blocks twice before it makes it to the playroom and they get distracted & want to twirl and jump and crawl around the room instead of walking a straight line and its just takes time. And I have learned that if I slow down and let them crawl to me barking like a dog when I ask them to come get dressed they are not being disobedient they are being kids. And also that I have to allot for a whole lot more time to get things done. Kids can't clean up breakfast dishes and get dressed in 10 minutes.

My new challenge is to try to let them express their personalities and not squander who they are and shove them into my little box of who I think they should be (i.e Me).
Annie is my emotional one. She is passionate about everything and I don't encourage that enough because I can't relate. But I am looking forward to jumping in alongside her and getting excited when she is excited. Last week she came RUNNING (you know when kids run its RUNNING) across the yard screaming Mama! Mama! holding "her very first feather!" I wanted to say "eww yuck, birds are gross and feathers are gross put that down!" but instead I examined it and praised her for finding it and was excited with her and let her brush its sofness on her cheeks (ack!) and even helped her look for it when she lost it 5 seconds later. I cared, because she cared, and I'll admit it was fun!

Mia is my crazy woman. I haven't yet decided what it is about her that I need to embrace other than the sticky fingers, messy hair and endless supply of "play clothes" because there comes to a point when you just have to give up on stain treating every single spot every single day!!! I can encourage her weirdness and quirks easily because she gets them from me and I think she is hilarious :o) I have a hard time with the fact that she does not reason well and when I say "come" she turns and runs the opposite direction laughing and tripping over her pigeon toes the whole way. She is the little sister but she is not so little anymore and so I am still trying to figure out what to allow her to do and how to teach Annie that she is her equal.

So I can say that I have been enjoying them a lot more lately because I no long have disobedient little soldiers who are constantly out of formation and not saying "Yes Ma'am" when I bark an order. I have children with dimples in their chins, cheeks (and bottoms:o) I have girls with as many emotions as I do who need help reigning them in and directing them into passions instead of flinging themselves on the bed every time their Tutu is in the dirty laundry because you can still dance and twirl on laundry day you just have to suck it up and know that sometimes life gives you blue jeans! :o)

Wake up!

As a mother you never know what is going to be your wake up call in the morning. Around here we seem to go through seasons. For a while it was Annie coming into our room a little too early pulling her pillow and blanket behind her and she would simply lie down on the floor next to our bed for a while. I liked that one. That practice was a quiet slow transition from sleep to the busy day. Then she became impatient and would stand next to my bed and say "Im Hoooouuuunnnggrrryyy" and whine. That got old very fast and I explained to her that it was rude to come in and start the day by complaining. So instead she would come in and stand with her body pressed against the side of our bed which puts her nose level with me and just stand there until my eyes opened and I jumped out of my skin!

Then I had Carly and my hubby graduated school and was no longer leaving the house every morning and Annie was so excited that he was there that she started going to his side of the bed! Since Mama was recovering from surgery and up during the night with Carly he was getting up with them for a few weeks and letting me sleep in and get up and shower and dress and everything before coming downstairs for the day. I will NEVER in all my life forget the feeling of getting to do that. That was a very pampered kind of feeling.

Then Joe started something I don't think would have ever occured to me to do, when Annie came into our room he simply said. Good morning, now go play and let us sleep... and she did!!! What!??! She knows she is allowed to get fruit out of the fridge so she would help herself to an apple for breakfast and so I started leaving her a cup of milk in there too. It was brilliant! We were sleeping or even just leisurly waking up and it was nice!

Until Mia started waking up a little earlier and figured out how to get out of bed so she was no longer content to quietly play in her crib in the morning. Now she is the one at our bedside in the morning and you never know what she will do... or has done :o) She usually comes in stealthly and picks up my glasses off the bedside table and then Jabs me in the face with them saying "come ONNN Mama!" or "I watch Tarzaaan" sometimes jamming the DVD into my hands. Or all of the sudden shes doing a belly flop onto your back which is fun. This morning she was standing in my room stark naked asking for milk like there was nothing amiss. Crazy woman!

From now on Joe will be getting up and leaving the house hopefully before they are awake and I will go back to the more normal routine of getting up with him and being up before they get up which isn't as good as sleeping in, but its a different kind of good. Its the good of enjoying a quiet morning alone before there are demanding little people all around you asking you things like "when will we do school?" "When can we go to Big Uncle Joe's House?" "When will we sleep at vacation again?" "When will PorterBeth be here (x6!)" "if they will be here after nap then when are we going to sleep?" "Can I have a cookie?" "When can we look at pictures of me when I was a baby?" "Can we go for a walk?" "Where are we going today?" and I have only been up for 48minutes :o)

 

Say What?

There have been many statements made by my children that cause Joe and I to look at eachother and shrug our shoulders and ask them to repeat themselves. Between lisps and made up words and words that only a parent can understand (sometimes) its just difficult to follow them quite often. We coined the phrase "thats not english" once Mia started talking because she truly has her own language. And I have convinced myself that some day she will tell me what "sha bah dah bah die" or "sha bah die" means. Because I will die one crazy person if I never figure it out, she STILL says it and she can talk pretty stinkin well for a 2 year old!

So while riding in the car this week we were not surprised to hear Annie in the back seat singing a song that made absolutly NO Sense! I laughed and commented that she was just like her father singing all the wrong words to a song. Well it turns out she was singing all the correct words after she had me laughing so hard at her I got home and immediatly googled the words with a hope that maybe part of them were right and wouldn't you know she was spot on!
The song?

"Brown girl in the ring"
Tra la la la la
She Looks like a sugar in a plum PLUM, PLUM!" (which mia likes to scream)

Now, much to my chagrin my children have been watching "The Wiggles" at Joe's moms house when she keeps them on mondays. And I have 1 rule about Grams house. When I am not there she is allowed to feed them anything and let them watch anything (except sponge bob cause I hate it!) because she is a reasonable christian lady who has standards and knows mine and Joe's and she watches 5 chilren under 4 for 8-12 hours on monday. If watching The Wiggles gets her through the day with sanity then I say go for it!
So it is the weird creepy grown men mock turtleneck wearing childrens song singing group The Wiggles that have taught my children this traditional song originated in the West Indies that I kind of find about as offensive as Ring Around The Rosie. I wondered if it was ok for a couple of white girls to be singing about a brown girl but... whatever Ill call it cultural and check off social studies as accomplished for the day.
 :o)

 

Pink & Stink

It's a pink kind of morning here at our house. Annie gets to celebrate her birthday a day early with Joe's family and for the occasion she requested a pink cake, with pink icing and pink sprinkles of course. So I pulled a recipe out of my brain cookbook for Paula Dean's strawberry cake and looked it
 up. I figured all that pink should taste like something besides red food coloring. So last night the girls and I whipped up the cake and then this morning we iced it. I didn't have any more pink sprinkles as they are the most commonly used around here and the store didn't have any, so she chose pearl white and I have to say it is one beautiful cake! It sits now in the fridge awaiting the party.



As I sit here and type this I have this bundle sleeping in my lap and you can't tell me all that pink is not the best most squishiest pink you have ever seen!

I am big into the nickname thing. I don't mean to, these names just come to me and I feel that they are divinely appointed they are so very appropriate every time! Except for the 2 years in High School when I called Kara "Fletch" that was funny, but not at all divine. However John Patrick is my little chuchy face. If you had known the little cherub faced thing as a 2 year old you would understand. Porter is Mr Bojangles. If you have ever witnessed the child exist you would understand. I have a friend who's baby has the softest jiggliest fat ever and I call her "Flubby" My list is endless. So lately I have been calling Mia "Stinky". The name is so fitting but I don't like it I don't want it to stick, I don't want to be calling her Stinky in front of her friends when she is in high school. I just think its mean :o) However I decided last night that Oxy Clean needs to hire Amelia as their best spokesperson. Every time I think a certain stain will never come out it does!

Annie just informed me that she wont get a blister if she wears her flip flops on a walk because they have princesses on them. Which makes total sense in her head!

Speaking of princesses they are taking over my house. I don't have a big problem with Disney princesses, sure they are super girly, pink and ditsy looking in all their pictures but I have a hard time believing that Annie will still want to be a princess past the age of 8. Joe is super supportive of the princess thing. He keeps buying her princess paraphernalia. She now has a pink disco ball-esq night light, bed sheets and dolls among many other things.

So while typing this post I decided to stop and explain to Annie that I am a princess and she could be one also because my Heavenly Father is the King. I also told her about her castle in heaven that he has for her if she believes that Jesus died for her sins also. She is very receptive when I explain to her that we are to model our behavior after His and I think that is one of the first steps with little children understanding the Gospel. She asked me if this was heaven to which I replied "no, we are here right now to tell everyone about Jesus and our Father the King and that they can live in a castle in Heaven too" and she very excitedly said "ok will you help me tell everyone!" :o)


 

 

BFF

The truth is, halfway through writing this post I seemed to remember writing one similar a while back. But I dont lable my posts so I cant seem to find it. So if this is nothing new to you well then Oh well just stop reading and we will chalk this one up to post partum brain.

A few years ago I was attending ladies bible study at church. I had already attended a fall and spring course with this "facilitator" (as Ann calls herself) and now we were back together for another 12 week study. On the first day we all get our books and are introduced to how an inductive study goes and are encouraged to talk each week and share what you learned through your study homework and be very open and real with eachother. I have been taking Anns class for about 6 courses now and this particular time was the only time she said that she wanted to go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves and share something about yourself that you wish was different, that you wanted to change.
I can remember thinking to myself that there was a lot about myself that I didn't like but it all seemed silly and superficial and I was going to share the silly and superficial things however when it got to be my turn someone elses words were coming out of my mouth. I don't know if it was the process of listening to the women or what but I found myself sharing the fact that I lacked a good friend and I felt it was because I was too selfish to invest in someone elses life enough to be a friend.
I have my sisters and we are all very close, I think I have used that excuse in my adulthood for the reason I don't have a "BFF". But I felted convicted, I felt selfish and prideful in my lonely existence. I shared that I didn't know if I needed a best friend or if I just needed to be a better friend to those I had. I didn't plan on saying these things so I pretty much was just talking out loud. There was an awkward moment a while later as a girl was sharing about being new in town and not knowing anyone and not having any friends yet and Ann suggested the girl and I be best friends. I can remember thinking "no thanks" but to this day I can't tell you who that girl was ;o)
Then God
He worked on my heart through the next year or so of attending that bible study. He deepened our relationship. He made me a better person, a less superficial person, a better wife, mother, sister, and He in his perfection has seen it fit to send me a friend.
I had forgotten about sharing about needing a friend although never lost the feeling that I was lacking that person in my life that I could share things with and wouldn't you know that He provided me with a friend that I got to know in Ann's bible study last fall.
Jess, Oh my sweet friend Jess. I knew who she was because their family attend our church and Joe and I would welcome their boys Troy & Bear into nursery each week. Then week after week as the nursery workers could not console the screaming toddler Joe would take Bear out into the vestibule and play with him every sunday so his parents could stay in the worship service. No one ever asked Joe to do it, he just liked Bear and chose to.
Then Jess started attending womens bible study and she would talk and share deeeeeeep things about her life. And she would answer deeeeeeep questions with amazing loving truth about what Christ has taught her. And I was in awe of her faith and relationship with Christ.
Eventually we swapped numbers and got together for a playdate and that was an amazing opportunity to get to talk with her one on one and be challenged by the way she lived out her daily life. And I loved it, I thrived on it, I was better because of it. And I still am. Jess and I have a saying "its fun to do life with you" because when we get together we attempt to talk and have mommy time, but the truth is we just end up parenting and in between the discipline and refereeing we have a chance to say wonderful words of encouragement and love & understanding with eachother and over the summer I declared her my "BFF".

"Boys"

I saw a little girl last week who had what I considered to be the ultimate haircut when I was about 9 years old. It was SHORT, I can remember talking my Aunt GG into cutting my hair super short that summer so I could shake it out in the pool like the boys and although my dad didn't remember my hair ever being so short I have a picture somewhere to prove it and I LOVED it!

On another somewhat related note when my sisters and I were little I have happy memories of older gentlemen out in public calling us "Boys". Our school bus driver/farmer-neighbor called to us out his window every morning "howdy boys!" as we came running down the front walk. Friends of my Grampas at the corner stop would call me "son" or "sonny" and it always got the toothless grin & laughter they were going for and made me feel special, like I belonged in the corner stop that smelled like motor oil, with all the old men in their overalls, suspenders and Pioneer hats drinking coffee with the weather radar in the background, surrounded by tiny bins of nuts and bolts :o) Sometimes I can remember when feeling particularly boyish (in my jeans and plaid shirt with SUPER short hair) that maybe they really thought I was a boy. When I got my ears pierced I always thought to myself "don't they see the pretty heart earrings in my ears?" :o) I guess you could say I was the perfect amount of tomboy, no dresses, jeans please, short hair & sparkly pink earrings because I am not a boy and I don't want to be a boy, I'm just not "girly" because they are lame :o)

All these thoughts and memories came back to me this morning as I paid over $200 for a plumber and his elderly assistant to snake my sewage line while they called my girls "boy" and it made me smile.

Sweet Brooke

Dana Indiana

 

Population 600

 

Houses the Most Amazing Chocolate Ever

 

http://brookescandyco.com/

 

In a home my Great Grandma Nellie once resided in, by the way

 

Who knew that a town small enough to list every ones birthday & anniversary on their calendar would hold a world renowned chocolatier (ok maybe not world... but it should be)

 

An individual truffle costs over $1 each. No child in our family has ever had the privilege of tasting anything made by Sweet Brooke. Until now.

On my last visit to Brooke's Annie came along for the ride, when she found out there were samples on the counter she wiggled in line until she could reach. She wanted to eat all of them, I had to restrain her... until she saw this...

Oh the sweet pink chocolate swirls of the dark chocolate raspberry truffle that sang to that little 3 year old girl. She had to have it... so I let her :o)

We sat outside on that huge country porch, a tiny little blond baby in a big Adirondack chair until there was raspberry plastered to her cheeks and dripping off her fingers. She declared it "so yummy" and offered me a slobbery bite (of which I politely accepted). When she was done she kindly asked for a napkin of which I had none so I urged her to lick every bit of sticky ooey goodness off her fingers, which she did, after which she jumped up and proceeded to dance down Main Street (don't call CPS, the streets were closed for the festival).

 

And that my friends is one of the many reasons we love Brooke!

Lately

I started doing some preschool with Annie, we did some workbooks last year that I got for mere pennies when a bookstore closed. This year the only real difference is that I make her sit in her chair instead of stand, I make her use a pencil and hold it correctly and she has to follow the directions that I give her. After that I am trying to remain calm and let her be 3 (...almost 4!) I will also work with her on it every morning that we don't have something else planned which she will love and to try to incorporate what she is learning throughout the day. I like the books because they give us time to go slow, we will be working on the letter "f" for the next 2 weeks! (don't ask me how they choose the random letter to start with cuz I don't know!)

Joe has an interview with Duke on Wednesday!!! PRAY!!! Specifically that it doesn't take a month to hear back from them.

Although Joe is ready to be done with his serving job and I am ready for him to have a more normal schedule we have enjoyed having him here 4 days a week. I have been able to go grocery shopping by myself or just with Carly every time! I have also had 3 lunch dates with Girlfriends, gotten my hair done and such all without needing a babysitter! Yay!

I went back to work monday. They started using a new computer system while I was gone and so I had 4 hours of shadowing & training and then worked 4 hours on the floor and it was o.k. We were fairly slow in Triage and so I was able to do a couple of admissions and a few other things so I now at least know how it should go, I decided to pick up 4 more hours tomorrow morning so I can try to do it all again before next monday when I am thrown out into who knows what and am expected to chart it! I hate feeling like I don't know what I am doing. I just wish I could take care of a patient and not worry about charting it but they won't go for that. :o)

As mentioned before Annie will be turning 4 next month and I am amazed. Joe and I were at Target last night (yes we did wander around Target for 45 min on our first date out since Carly) and I felt a little sorry for the guy after we spent 20 min in the barbie and princess isles and when we turned the corner to the next isle he said "oh that's boy stuff". I will say he was very into which princess toys Annie would like the very best, however he also picked up a WWF stuffed figurine and suggested we get her that also... the thing was frightening looking!
She has requested Pretty Pretty Princess Game and a horse for her doll "Cowboy" which they do make but its more expensive than the doll herself! :o(

Carly is getting super fat and is smiling at everything these days. She is such a good baby and is sleeping anywhere from 5-9 hours at night although 5 is normal. I can handle getting up once a night just fine :o)

Mia has started climbing out of her crib and every time we say the word "bed" or "bedtime" around her she says "I get up". Im not sure if she is rubbing it in or just stating fact because she is proud of herself but she gets spanked for it every time! I started putting her in a sleep sack but that only lasted 3 days until she realized she knows how to unzip it. :o( She's still crazy as ever, this morning she woke me up saying "Hi Uncle Ben... haha I say Hi Uncle Ben to you..... and Kawa, Elly, Porter Man, Kicholas, Baggie Jo, DonDon, Wauren and Kiki" These are the types of statements I get before my eyes are open... she is so weird :o)

Dominoes with Mia

This morning I played a matching game with picture Dominoes with Mia for the first time. I laid some out on the ground for her to choose from then put one out and said "can you find one that matches the ice skater?" Her reply without a pause was "Nope, Go Fish!" So I showed her that there was an ice skater and how to match it. The next picture was a lion "can you match the lion?" Her reply "Roar!" Haha, she did however get the game and play very well after that, with an occasional "nope go fish!" thrown in here and there, I guess we know what game she prefers :o)

Now they are in the dining room singing "Hillbilly Will" Thanks for teaching my girls Kid Friendly
love songs Aunt Kara :o)

DIY Finger Paint Review

I tried another wonderful Pintrest idea today. Annie wanted to paint and normally my rule is no painting while Mia is awake. I know, mean mommy right?
But today when she asked I remembered that I had seen this DIY finger paint and that I couldn't wait forever, someday I had to let Mia paint also. It was pretty cool and I learned a lot from my first timer experiences.
1. Wait till baby is napping, you need all hands on deck and she will just scream the entire time you leave her in the bouncy seat :o(
2. Put in small jars like the baby food jars on the web site. The muffin tin made it way to easy for them to put their whole hand in and Mia especially wanted to just play with it in her hands... which I did let her do (to a certain degree)
3. Put them outside. I started to put them outside on the picnik table and then ended up in the kitchen because Carly was awake. Because I want it to be fun for mom also I need a more controlled environment. I will put them in the yard, have all the paper pre cut (we have a big roll of butcher paper that the girls use for art work) have the hose running and give them both rags. They liked to get it all over their hands which is fun, however they kept wanting to wash their hands to get new colors and color combinations and we went through millions of paper towels. Mia ended up painting her face and stomach (they were both clothesless for this activity) and I threw them in the bathtub afterwards which was fine but hosing off would be easier.
I don't know how well it stores because I threw out what was left.
It was fun to practice their colors.
Making it was quite the science experiment it went from liquid to solid in a millisecond!
After letting it cool each one was a little translucent muffin that when I stirred and smushed it went into a paste again.
Mia just wanted to lick her fingers clean. After cooking it and using only food products I didn't worry about it too much. Im sure it tasted fairly good with the sugar in it!
All in all it was a hit! I will definitely do this one again!

There are no pictures of the girlies as they were semi nakey for this project :o)

Vacation

Ohhh vacation, you have come and gone and treated us well yet again! Our family has been vacationing at Lake Barkley for over 15 years now, no wonder it feels like a second home to us! We haven't changed our ways either except where necessary and for improvements.
Things like adding 11 children in 7 years makes you adjust your personal tanning and sleeping time quite a lot. I used to get up early because it was nice and quiet and watch the fishermen and then after second breakfast (what, you dont have two breakfast's on your vacations? Lame!) head down to the lake for prime sun time between 10 and 12 when we would head up for lunch and a game of cards or nap then head back down to the lake for more prime sun from 2 till about 4 when you would shower and play some more games until dinner unless its your turn to cook, after dinner play more games until you crash into bed just to get up and repeat it all again for 7 days in a row! Throw in some random Jet Skiing, a boat outing and a trip to "Sweet Miss Patty's" and you have the Glenn family vacation summed up. Now I get up because I have hungry babies who want to watch cartoons or take nature walks and then they are hungry again and you find its 2:00 before you make it down to the lake where you gloriously float for a few hours while they nap. Our evenings are filled with a rousing game of "whack a mole" where you put one kid to bed while two pop back up for a drink or potty and just when you think they are all quiet one more starts screaming and your game of speed scrabble has been delayed an extra 45 min or you play with a sleepy baby on your lap which is just a major handicap :o)
In the good old days there was a family restaurant called Miss Patty's that served family style buffet complete with chicken n dumplins, pickled watermelon rind, church lady pies and soft serve ice cream. It has sadly burned down ............................................................................................
..............................................a moment of silence for Sweet Miss Patty's.............................................
and now we are left to search far and wide for something half as good for our annual night out.

Because I am at a time in my life where I can't finish a task let alone a thought I will leave this post ending awkwardly as I started it 24 hours ago and my brain can no longer seem to form full thoughts or sentences.

The Husband

This feels a little like cheating because I already posted today, however I wrote that one a week ago and forgot to post it.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how wonderfully perfect my husband is for me. In small group a while back we read the book "Just Do Something" by Kevin Deyoung. It is a very good book although I am fully convinced I could have written it myself ;o) It was just my kind of thinking... and perfectly enough it is Joe's way of thinking as well :o) There is a chapter in it about getting married that summed up says, find a girl you like and marry her. We talked about the thought that any two Christians can have a successful marriage. I get the idea behind the thought but there is just something perfect about being married to someone you just "get". I brought up the fact that there are lots of males in the world that I think are wonderful people and I totally understand why their wives married them and consider them to be quite a catch, however I can think of tons of reasons why I could NEVER be married to them myself :o) I suppose that is why you date and fall in love and hang out and your thinking and desires and dislikes and quirks become similar more and more along the way until the wedding day when you become one and the oneness just continues down a path until one day you look like one another :o)

With Joe being home more often than not since graduating, following a year of him being gone more often than home I have really enjoyed having a buddy in the house. There is adult conversation and tag team parenting and its all leaving the girls very high maintenance :o) However so worth it!
I am also learning how to live with him around more often. He is here, doing things I normally do and getting into stuff he normally leaves alone. I do believe he even read my blog for the first time ever a few weeks ago. He also says things like "don't you dare blog about this" which makes me laugh because its usually something I would never blog about anyway, I just love that he is somewhat aware of this little corner of my life.

Yesterday he had a day of appreciating a truly long day for no reason at all other than the sheer fact that your 3 children seem like they have multiplied into 30. You know those days where they just seem to talk more and get hurt more and need more and do more and make more messes and bedtime cannot come fast enough and for some reason dinner doesn't get eaten until its dark outside and your brain no longer works so you dirty double the amount of dishes? That was our yesterday. We survived and I like to believe he appreciates me more now because of it.
He was still wonderful though, he kept the kids while I ran a few errands and helped Kara pack for vacation which she didn't really end up needing but it was a good excuse for us to fold laundry, snuggle Carly and chat for a few hours.
 He helped me make dinner and as I fought to let him stir the pot and give his opinions. Its amazing how much I feel like the kitchen is my domain (except dishes, he can always wash the dishes). I had to continually remind myself that even thought I wouldn't have chopped that so small or stir that so often or used that spoon that it really didn't matter, especially because I was so tired and it was a new recipe that I was totally and completely changing myself!

He also had the idea to hang a record number of picture frames on the walls  that have been boxed up since we moved 2 years ago and he was so very patient with me and let me rearrange them on the floor 95 times before he hung them up. He even used rulers, levels and math to hang them exactly the way I wanted them! Wow, Math, my brain hurt while I was standing at 11:00pm bouncing a crabby baby and he was doing math and hanging pictures on the walls... I guess that is where our perfect similarities end, I would have gone to bed hours ago with crooked pictures hanging on the walls :o)

The Darling Mermaid Darlings

Did anyone watch the show Pushing Daisies? I loved it, it was quirky and cute and had the lovely Kristin Chenoweth, and the Darling Mermaid Darlings which is what watching my girls in the pool makes me think of every time :o)

 We have been enjoying Joe's moms pool a lot this summer. I am DYING that I haven't been able to jump in with them for the past 5 weeks, just following doctors orders :o( I have been sitting in the shade with Carly Baby and cheering on the girls as they test their bravery. Last summer Amelia had no qualms in the water and at a mere 12-15 months old she preferred being under water to above. She would pitch herself out of my arms and hold her breath as she dove underwater. By the end of the summer I could let her stay under for a few seconds before pulling her back up, it was such a crazy thing to see. It made Joe very uncomfortable and would make me swim with her. Therefore it is not surprising that this summer true to her Crazy Woman nature she is jumping in, diving under, belly flopping, leaping off of her daddy's shoulders & wanting to be pitched across the pool by anyone willing. She wears swimmies and paddles her little heart out but after she gets tired she cant paddle past the slight current made by the filter and its quite amusing to watch her float in the current around the pool. Annie has always been my more timid one. She has loved the water for the past few summers and enjoys playing on the steps, floating on her back with her swimmies and just generally playing around. This summer she has perfected jumping off the steps with just enough force to allow her chin to go under but not her head and there was no convincing her to jump off the deck or let her Daddy throw her up in the air... until now! The child has started running and jumping into the pool, letting her head go under water and is swimming face down "underwater"! Then just a few days later she asked to take her swimmies off and jump in to Joe without them. She jumped in and proceeded to swim underwater to his waiting arms! The very next jump she wanted to see if she could swim all by herself to the stairs, and she did! She can swim about 3-4 feet underwater before she starts to get nervous and comes to the surface quickly, however she has not figured out how to doggy paddle yet so she just treads water with her nose barely above the top until we pick her up :o) And her latest trick is that she is able to lock her legs and stand on Joe's hands raised all the way above his head! If he's not careful he is going to have a cheerleader for a daughter and we all know he would rather have a softball/soccer player ;o)

I wasn't going to post this without pictures, but the good ones are all on Joes moms phone and so they will have to come later...

 

Thoughts & Ism's

I have this baby,  she has been living in my house for a month now and I have yet to see the whites of her eyes until this week ;o) She has been living true to preemie rumors and has slept so very well that I had to fight to wake her up to feed her. This is one of the most frustrating things in the entire world when you are in such a tired, hormonal & emotional time of your life. I would have to do everything shy of hanging her upside down and when I would get her to open one eye for one second I would lay her back and she would immediately fall fast asleep! She also was not feeding for as long as my other girls did, she seemed to be done after 5 min and everyone knows it takes waaay longer to feed a newborn than 5 min! But in spite of all of this she has been fattening up nicely. We go to the Pedi tomorrow for her 1mo follow up as well as Amelias 2 year check up... prayers would be appreciated, its the first time I am doing a dual pedi appointment! :o) I am sure I will grow from the experience and be a better person because of it :o)

The job that Joe wants was posted last week so he has applied for it after many days of revising his resume and writing responses to the silly application questions. This application said things like 1.check all that apply: bachelors, associates, certificate etc, 2. Explain in your own words why you are qualified for the things checked above... duuuhhh because he has obtained a bachelors degree, an associates degree, and an electric certificate... Geesh! Now make what I wrote into a paragraph and sound very intelligent and not at all sarcastic and you have your application worthy answer! So PRAYERS are seriously wanted for this one, the posting will be taken down on the 17th.

Our small group has taken a summer hiatus (thank you small group for not showing up at my door every thursday for the past 2 months! I love you all and I LOVE LOVE hosting small group but new baby = tired mama by 7pm!) They have been playing some sand volleyball for the past few weeks. Carly and I watched from the sidelines the first week. The girls came along the next week because the set up is really nice. Its in a little valley, set apart from the rest of the park, its completely shaded and there is a small playground, a shelter and a nice big maple tree to sit under with the bebe's (of which there are currently 5 in our small group!) This past week as soon as we arrived there was a nice little pop up shower that was not concerning, I plopped down with the bebe's and started to feed Carly, the rain picked up and I decided to move under the shelter, then the skies opened up and everyone else joined me under the shelter as the rain and then hail started pouring! The wind picked up and a tree fell behind us in the woods... just when you had time to feel a little nervous (unless your Dave, then you are wishing your children weren't present so you could challenge your small groupies to a game of volleyball in a hail storm) it was done. Now that the sand was a big mud puddle and the blankets were soaking wet, people decided to leave. But not Super Dad, he already had the girls out dancing in the rain before the sky went dark and the hail came, so they went puddle hopping, playing in the wet sand and sliding down the soaking wet slides for a good 30minutes before toweling off and heading home for baths and bedtime! I am really enjoying watching my best friend be a daddy these days. We are going to miss him when he gets a 9-5 (even though we have heard rumors that the job he wants is more of a 6-3!)

Speaking of Daddys Girls. Joe's mom bought the big girls these jammies a few months ago because they say "I'm all about Daddy" and it sums them up quite well. Then Carly received a hand me down dress that matched! So I attempted to take pictures.

Ism's

Me: "Joe there is a mouse (trapped) in the basement"
Annie helping me put the groceries away grabs a can of ravioli off the shelf and says "Here Mom, smack it with this!"

Annie being very annoyingly excited about leaving for a party I suggest a game of would you rather...
Me:"Annie, would you rather be a mermaid or a princess"
Annie:"what are you talking about?"
Me:"its a game, would you rather be a mermaid or a princess?
Annie:"Neither, I want to be a little girl"
ok, try again
Me:" would you rather live on the moon or in the ocean?"
Annie looking very quizzical "I just want to live in a house!"
I give up! 

Joe getting ready to mow the yard in 100degree heat puts on an old basketball tshirt with the arms and sides cut out. Annie entering the scene surveys this outfit choice laughs and says "daddy what are you doing? Your naked is out!"
Mia coming into the room jumps up on the bed, takes one look at her father and looks at me confused and says "dada, what you doing? Mama, wook at him shirt!"
I foresee them reacting this way about his wardrobe choices many more times in his future :o) 

Mia has picked up the term "but MaaaaMaaaa" she says it when I tell her to do something she doesn't like, and she says it when she is tired, bored, happy, sad. All. The. Time! I am ready to loose it! It was a little amusing in the beginning because you could tell she didn't know why she was saying it, it is just what she has heard her sister say. Kind of like when she replies "Noooo..... toooo" Instead of "No I don't want to"

Yesterday at lunch Uncle Joe said "Mia you are a Crazy Girl" to which she replied completely serious faced "toots in your bed!"