Life with Caroline

We took Caroline to Chuck E. Cheese for a last hurrah before Landon was born.





I was huge and pregnant and couldn't do much other than smile for the camera and eat pizza. As I recall though, the pizza wasn't too good so I had only one slice! It was a fun night though. She really loved every minute of it. Aaron took her around and helped her ride the rides she wanted to ride and play the games she wanted to play. Aaron and I played a few games of ski-ball, my personal favorite, and won her some tickets. She actually won some herself too! It was a game where you just push a button and whatever it lands on you get that many tickets. Complete luck...and she pushed and got the most you could win! We were more excited than she was!





All four of her grandparents were able to come with us that night and Oma even climbed up in the big play equipment with her!



I don't think she loves Caroline at all...do you? :)





It was a really fun night and one I'm glad we got to spend with Caroline. Now, if I can just get her to stop asking to go back!

When we were at the hospital, someone brought us a gift in the HUGE bag. Caroline immediately took out all the tissue paper and climbed in. She had a blast climbing in and out of that bag. I love her creative mind!



I found this Elmo toddler bed at Kids Market for $40. We have been on the lookout for something like this to help Caroline sleep better at Opa and Oma's house. We went to visit Uncle Jud and Aunt KK a couple weeks ago and took this up there. She loves it. Oma and I like that it will work for other grand kids as they all get older too. Uncle Jud and Daddy loaded it up in Opa's truck and it now awaits her at their house!



She's an amazing little girl with a happy heart and kind spirit. I am so thankful to have her in my life and I love each and every moment I share with her. Her 3rd birthday is only weeks away. How did that happen???

Fall Imagination

You know you're living in the deep south when 85 is considered "cooler temperatures." :) However, I am so happy that it's finally cooling off a bit! According to the 10 day forecast, we're going to be in the 70s from Sunday until next Friday too...so that is exciting! I absolutely LOVE fall! October-Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the colors, the smells, the weather, the food, the time with family and friends...just EVERYTHING!



I'm having trouble locating my fall decorations though. I haven't unpacked them yet. I'm fairly certain they are in a box with Christmas items. (Which, incidentally, is also where I'm pretty sure the gravy boat is, Oma! I remembered after you left that at the old house the gravy boat was in the same cabinet as the Christmas dishes, so I'm sure it was packed with them.) At our old house, I had my pumpkins on a shelf, not in a box, along with some Christmas things, so I think that is where they got packed. I'm going to look for them and hopefully get them out this weekend.



Caroline is really getting an active imagination. She loves to play with figurines, dolls, and stuffed animals. She has 5 small princesses. She has Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Ariel. They all have on fabulous ball gowns. Before you think we've gone overboard on giving her so many, let me explain. Cinderella and Snow White were Landon's gifts to Caroline when he was born. They sell these little princess figurines in the checkout line at Target. EVERY TIME we were in there she asks to buy them. So, when we were trying to decide what to let Landon give her, I had picked out another doll, that cost $10. When I was in the checkout line, I saw those figures and remembered how much she liked them. I was able to get them both for $8, saving me $2 and she LOVES them! So, after Landon's arrival, we've had a bit of potty training regression. So, I made up a sticker chart. After she gets 5 stickers in a row, she earned another princess. While this sounds simple enough, bless her heart, it took her almost 2 weeks to earn Belle, who was the first one. Once she did though, I loved how proud she was of Belle and how she beamed when asked about her. It didn't take quite as long for the next one, although still over a week, and the next one only took 6 days. She hasn't had any accidents this week, so hopefully we're back on the upswing of that situation!



I've totally copied my friend's blogging style. She often will blog about things going on in their lives, or thoughts she's having and just post lots of cute pictures of her children. I'm doing that some now. I always used to feel like I had to have pictures of what I was talking about in order to blog, but since I'm taking so many pictures right now of the kiddos (that happens when you have a new baby and are home more often!) I just thought I wouldn't worry about it. I will still have some "themed" blogs though...such as Caroline's first trip to the dentist which was this last week. I'll do that one later on!



I'm going to Kids Market tomorrow morning with some friends. This will be the first time I've left Landon with Aaron for a long period of time. He'll have to eat while I'm gone. I'm nervous about that. I'm sure everything will be fine, but I am a nervous nelly about anything concerned with his feeding. I am really excited about Kids Market though! (It's a huge consignment sale that has great deals!) I get just about all of Caroline's smocked Sunday dresses from there and I'm sure I'll do the same for Landon's church clothes. I am excited! I'm also looking for a high chair this time around. Should be a lot of fun!





Caroline is playing over at Granny and Poppy's today, and Landon is napping at the moment...so I should probably go clean or fold laundry! Have a wonderful weekend!

Schooling

A big discussion in our house for the past year has been about schooling for Caroline. Did we want to send her to a Mother's Morning Out program or keep her home with me? Did we want to look into private preschool that would feed her into a private Elementary school? Did we want to home school her? Did we want to unschool her? (Have y'all heard of this? It's a new approach to schooling...basically you don't send your child to school or home school, you just teach them from everyday experiences. We didn't actually consider it. :) ) She's still very young, and in our state you don't legally have to have your child enrolled in school until they're 7. So, we have time. However, we want to plan ahead and have plenty of time for prayer on the subject, so we've been doing just that.



We still haven't decided what we're going to do for the long haul, but for now, she's home with me and we're beginning some preschooling. We're working with the Letter of the Week curriculum. Right now we're doing the Preparatory Curriculum. It's going well. The first week our subject was cows. We read books about cows, colored pictures of cows, found cows in our community, looked for them as we drove around, (Chick-fil-a has a huge blow-up cow on their roof. She LOVES this.) and pretended to be cows. She knows where a cow lives, what it looks like, what it eats, what it gives us, what a baby cow is called, and the noise a cow makes. She really loved the material we covered. We also learned about squares and searched a magazine for them. We cut them out and glued them onto construction paper. We learned about the letter "A" and colored one and talked about words that begin with "A."



I figure, if nothing else, I'm setting aside specific time for just Caroline and me. Time like that is never a waste. We're moving on to Jungle next week.



In other news, life is joyous. Landon is doing great. I've begun to cluster feed him in the evenings. That means I feed him every hour for several hours leading up to bedtime. We also started swaddling him. He did not like to be swaddled at first, but we gave it another try and it's wonderful. Between the cluster feeding and swaddling, he's sleeping a lot better at night. I feed him for the last time around 10, then he goes down and is sleeping until 3. Woohoo! I feed him again at 3 and then he's down until between 6-7. We're loving all the rest!



Life is good.





War Eagle!

Provisions

We had a good weekend. We didn't do too much, just watched football and worked around the house. Nothing too spectacular, but it was good nonetheless. Time spent with the family is always good!



There is a little country church about an hour and a half from here. It's a very small community and they only have about 10 members. Summer of 2009, when Aaron was laid off from his job, the Lord provided for us using that group. Their preacher had a stroke and had to be out for several weeks. They called our church to see if any of the men would be willing to come preach. Aaron, never having preached before, went one Sunday. I was teaching Sunday School, so I wasn't able to go with him. Anyway, he returned and I was surprised to learn they had paid him a small amount for coming. We weren't expecting that. He said that he also mentioned the loss of his job in his sermon as an illustration (I believe he preached on not worrying about tomorrow). After services, they offered Aaron the job until their regular preacher could return. What an unexpected way for the Lord to provide for us! That small check every week made it possible for us to survive while Aaron was without a job.


(4 weeks old)

So he went. I got a substitute for one Sunday and Caroline and I went with him. I was pregnant at the time, and the church there was so happy and excited for us. When I miscarried, it was a comfort to know they were also praying for us. We had extended our church family.



On Wednesday of this past week, their preacher called Aaron. He had to be out of town Sunday and needed some help. He's called a few other times during the year. So we went out there yesterday morning and Aaron preached. I was, unfortunately, not able to catch much of the sermon. Like I said, this is a small church. The building is adequate, but tiny. There are no Bible classes for Caroline's age. There is no nursery to take Landon to when it's time to nurse. It was difficult. Landon was fussy. Even after eating, I still had a hard time calming him down. We sat on the very back row. Caroline had a bag of books with her. I needed to change his diaper. No changing table or station. I had my changing pad with me, so I went out into the lobby and closed the door. Caroline didn't want to come, and instead of causing a scene by making her get up, I let her stay on the bench. She was coloring. I could see her through the glass on the door. She was an angel. Sat there the entire time I was changing him (on the floor), and didn't make a peep. When I came back in, I pulled her close and whispered how proud I was of her and gave her a hug and kiss. The grin she gave me said it all. She needs my praise, love, and affection. Probably a bit more now than she needed before Landon arrived. I wish I could have caught her smile. She was proud of herself, and she should be! We were so proud of her.



We're having our gospel meeting this week with Paul Sheehan. He is hands down one of the.best.speakers.I've.ever.heard. Last night he spoke of not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ. After his lesson, we sang "I'm not Ashamed to Own my Lord." The last verse of that song always gets me choked up.

"Then will He own my worthless name before His Father's face? And in the new Jerusalem, appoint for me a place."

I've got chills just writing it out. Will my name be there? Am I living a life that is pleasing to my heavenly Father and His Son? It's something to think about an act on.

If you're in our area, I highly recommend coming to hear him. We're meeting every morning at 10 and every evening at 7. You will be uplifted.


(4 weeks old)

I hope you all have a great week! I know mine will be wonderful and exhausting, but so worth it!

Life Well Spent

As I'm typing, my children are "playing" together in Landon's room. Caroline pulled her pink wagon full of blocks in there and while he lays on the floor, she's building a tower up around him. I love that she loves to be with him. She was playing upstairs a bit ago while I was feeding him downstairs. I coughed twice and both times heard her little voice, "Are you ok?" I love how she loves me and looks after ME. When he cries, she checks on him. I had to run get something and left them in the room for a moment and he cried. I heard her telling him, "It's ok Landon, don't be afraid." PRECIOUS.



Life is fun and tiring, and while I love every minute, I have to say, it's hard. I haven't had any time for myself, which I think will continue for the next, oh, 18 years or so. I'm praying that I will always cherish the times I have with my children, but there are times I am selfish and just want to sleep or eat without noise. Without crying. Without whining. Without someone needing to go potty the moment I pour myself some tea. I pray for love and patience.



We waited the recommended 4 weeks, but Landon now has a paci. It's nice, but not the miracle worker I had hoped it would be. We haven't given him a bottle yet of expressed milk, but I think that will be coming this week. He'll be 6 weeks on Wednesday and I think it's safe to do so now. I need help with the nightime feedings. He still wakes every 2 1/2-3 hours and it's taking a toll on me. Aaron is happy and more than willing to help, so we're going to try it. I hope it works! Having help with one feeding will be joyous!



I hope this post has not come off as me complaining. I do not mean it that way at all. In addition to friends, grandparents, great-grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins read this and they like to know all the ends and outs of our life. Even the bad parts. This way, I only have to say it all once and then we can chat about it later over the phone without having to go into everything all over again. I also find it somewhat cathargic to get it all out there. I always kept diaries when I was growing up and this has become a sort of diary for me.



My sweet husband made coffee for me this morning. I was overjoyed when I smelled it brewing. Aaron is so thoughful in many, many ways, but this isn't something he does on a regular basis. I was so touched by the gesture.



At night Landon is still in our room, but for naps this week, I'm trying him out in his crib. I think Caroline and I are keeping him awake in our room. Our daily life revolves around the kitchen, living room, and bathroom, all which are close to our bedroom. I'm hoping him being a little farther from all the hustle and bustle will help him rest. He definitely gets overtired easily.



Right now we're using a sound machine for white noise while Landon sleeps. Caroline just uses a fan, and we might end up going that route with him too, but right now he's liking the sound machine. The one we have will only go for up to 60 minutes at a time before cutting off. We'd like one that will go constantly. Anyone have one they love that you could recommend?

Family of Four

My last pregnancy shot!

Brand new boy!

Big sister meets little brother.

Our family.
(Please excuse my Rudolph nose...a side effect from the spinal.)

Life for us is, in a word, BLESSED. It's not always easy, and I've felt some stress, but I love my husband and my children more than I can express in words. I've been worried and stressed a lot about how clean my home is and how well things seem to be running. I complained the other day to a friend who had one child with a stomach virus, one with croup, and one she is homeschooling about how Landon always wants to be held and if he's not eating, he's fussing. Thinking about the conversation later, I realized that I have no reason or room for complaints. Soon enough my son won't want to be in my arms any more. He'll be too busy crawling and exploring and following his sister around. So, if you stop by my house and there is dirt on the floor, crumbs on the rug, and dishes in the sink...you'll know I've been cuddling my newborn and kissing my toddler, and relishing in the moments that make up a family.

Caroline Time

Life here is going well and we're loving our new family of four. Landon is such a sweet baby. He's not the best sleeper right now, but I know it's just a phase of his life that will pass too soon. While we miss our sleep, these are still precious moments with our son that we will never get back and we're trying to soak it all in.

Leading up to his arrival, we tried to do some extra special things with Caroline. We had talked about taking a small vacation to the beach, but in the end, we didn't want to spend that money with a new baby coming. We decided the better option was to do some fun things around town. Anyone who really knows Aaron knows that he is a movie guy. He loves movies. He could pretty much watch just about any movie just because it's a movie. So, we talked it over and decided that it might be a good time to take Caroline to her first movie. Like her daddy and her great-uncle Brent, she loves Buzz Lightyear. So, perfect! Toy Story 3 it was. We waited until it had been out for a while to avoid the crowds. We picked a happy Saturday (the day I turned 37 weeks pregnant) and headed to the theater.







When we arrived, Caroline was really excited to see the huge poster of Woody and Buzz in the lobby. When he bought our tickets, Aaron mentioned that this was Caroline's first ever movie at the theater, and the manager brought her out this straw to commemorate the occasion.



We went all out for this event. We ordered a kids pack that came with some candy, popcorn, and a drink, which came in a small plastic cup with Toy Story characters on it that we brought home and washed. I drank her drink because we also got her her very own green slushy. She loved that. This was also her first time having popcorn. She loved that too.









She did great during the movie too. She really enjoyed it. The first time Buzz came on the screen she gasped and said with pure joy in her voice, "It's Buzz!" I loved seeing her eyes light up and seeing how fascinated she was with the huge screen. I told Aaron we could have just brought her in and let her watch the ads before the movie and she would have been happy. It was a fun day.