knock knock thursday...

this is one that daphne loves to tell people. she's pretty cute when she tells it too.
-knock, knock
-who's there?
-boo
-boo who?
-don't cry, it's just a joke.

what a day it has been! we were up and out the door by 6:35a.m. for a meeting i had. from there two of our friends came over for an all day play date. well- it was suppose to be all day. poor drew is allergic to dogs. about an hour into being at our house his eyes starting getting really red and he began to rub them. as time continued they got worse and worse. after lunch he was miserable and in tears. i called his mom and then his dad came over to get him and his brother. once he stopped rubbing his eyes the swelling went down and he perked back up but his mom and dad took him home. side note- our dogs were outside the whole time and he still had a horrible reaction. poor guy.

to top that off our daphne has been constipated for...well...her whole life. she has been having a very difficult time over the last 2 weeks. i had been in contact with the pediatrician this week and we had put her on a laxative. after 4 days on that we still were without any movement. today she had a very distended belly and was walking around saying, "mommy- you pray ask God heal my belly." she was hurting so badly. i called the dr. again and we went in. she has functional constipation as well as the same strep infection anna has been fighting for 6 weeks. we were told to go buy a couple of pediatric enemas.

i have heard about enemas but i have never administered one. we went home i gave her the enema and then we waited. we waited some more. i had her sit on the potty which she freaked out about and then i figured it wasn't working. i went to the kitchen to make a bottle for anna and then i hear crying. daphne is standing in the living room (on the carpet mind you) with poop running down her leg. i grabbed the carpet cleaner that was already out for some other reason of adventure and sprayed the floor as i scooped her up and headed for the bathroom. she still wouldn't go when i put her on the potty so i wiped her down and put her in a bath. moments later she began to cry so i took out of the tub and set her back on the toilet and she unleashed. it scared her a bit and so she shut down shop and wanted back in the tub. i drained the tub scrubbed it with clorox wipes and put her back in it. we did this about three more times until she seemed to be done. it has been about 2 1/2hrs and so i think she is done for the day but the amount was still very little for the amount of time she has been so backed up. i think we may be needing to do that remaining enema tomorrow. we shall see.
all that adventure has sure worn me out. i am thankful i could care for my precious girl and though gross, i would do it again for her.

fyi- i am calling a carpet cleaner tomorrow to make an appointment!

i'm a total sucker for school supplies....

do remember in You've Got Mail how she talks about loving the fall and something about a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils? that spoke straight to my heart. i too am a total sucker for school supplies.
today when i went out to get the mail i found a packet of information from henry's new school. in the packet was a pink piece of paper that had his very first school supply list. yes- the sappy girl that i am did cry a happy tear over that list. i have thought on many occasions about the whole "back to school" scenario that would one day play out in my own family. i have looked forward to taking henry to buy his pencils, glue, crayons, scissors, etc. i am looking forward to using my label maker to label all his items with his name on them. my little man is growing up and i am so thankful that we get the opportunity daily to pray for him and to prepare him to face this world.

thank you Lord for school supply lists and for all that is ahead for henry as he begins his school career this fall. i am so excited to see what You will teach all of our family through this adventure!

we are with tooth...

it's official! anna has her first tooth. she bit down on my finger this morning and i felt the sharp edge of her first tooth. she did manage to pop that thing out earlier than miss daphne who waited till she was 13 months old. she is also on the verge of crawling on all fours...i'll let you know when that happens.

knock knock thursdays...

okay so there is a blog i read regularly and the author has thankful thursdays where she lists things she is thankful for. i love that idea so i will list things i am thankful for at the end of this post but i also want to make this knock knock thursday and share my son's knock knock jokes with all of you...

~knock knock
~who's there?
~panther
~panther who?
~panther no panther i'm going swimming!

that cracked me up!! if for some reason you don't get it pants or no pants i'm going swimming.

now to things i am thankful for today-

• nine years with my husband
• four awesome children
• two wonderful sisters
  
• fabulous friendships close by
• fabulous friendships far away

i will save so many more for next thursday. have a blessed weekend.

9 months old...

anna is now 9 months old (as of last thursday). she is trying so hard to crawl up on her knees but she still uses the roll as her main form of transportation. she does not have any teeth yet though she drools like crazy. she loves to have henry and daphne sing to her. she is our most ticklish baby thus far. you can pretend to tickle her and she will start laughing. she is our treasure!

the kids and i have been making forts these days. its their little clubhouse where they think they can hideout and that no one hears their little conversations. it's pretty cute. in fact just now they were fussing with each other in their fort and i heard henry say "stop that , daph. do you want me to be nice to you?" well the Lord said to me "stop blogging and use this very moment to remind henry that i gave my life even when people were not being nice to me. love those that persecute you. " the Lord opened henry's heart to hear how he should treat his sister in that moment and without any prompting from me he apologized to daphne. i love their fort and that even under a big quilt and between some folding chairs God is there!henry spent the afternoon with his buddy kolton last week. you can see that there were battles to be won and women to save during their play date. i love watching my little boy growing into a little man.

i have children who are full of life and adventure and passion. they make me smile. they make me laugh. they make me want to pull my hair out. they make me get on my knees. they make me a mom.

there are some folks who say things about my kids ( i am hoping unintentionally) that really hurt me and i have to remember that my children are not here for the praise of men but must seek to please the Lord and receive His praises. as i parent my three amazing kids i am seeking to please the Giver of these gifts not the people around me. i struggle with this and lose sight at times of their little hearts that i have the responsibility of shepherding. that being said, God is at work in our family shaping and reshaping each of us into His image. i love watching Him work in the lives of my family.

God, you are so good to me. You have blessed me beyond measure. You are the One i want to please. may our family be a sweet aroma to You. Thank you, O Lord for never leaving us. i love you.

she is finally feeling better and other going ons...

anna has been struggling with this strep infection officially for 3 weeks and it was definitely around for a good 2 weeks before we went to the dr. she finished her antibiotics 2 weeks ago and we saw a little improvement. well on monday her little buns were on fire and bleeding again so i took her to the dr. sure enough the strep infection was back. she has been on antibiotics for 48 hours and there has been drastic progress. the dr. also gave us a topical steroid for the eczema and that too is better. her little demeanor is so much better. i am so thankful for her and that she is healing!

we are enjoying lots of swimming and playing this summer. in fact i think we have been swimming everyday except for VBS week.

speaking of VBS week...
i have volunteered for 3 VBSs in my life as a parent and i will say that this year i enjoyed it the most. the reason is simply this- the Gospel! on thursday we made Gospel bracelets (they are strips of leather with colored beads that represent the Gospel message). i was blessed to share the gospel with close to 100 children. i was humbled every time as i spoke of our sin and what we deserve but what Christ did for us.

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6

i confess that i often lose sight of what i truly deserve and what He did for me because He is love. i think this is part of why we are to share the Gospel with a hurting world. when we share what He has done for others we remember that He did it for us.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23


"For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ." Romans 6:23

VBS was fantastic and i was blessed by the little faces of all those kids. i really loved watching henry & daphne sing and dance. they enjoyed every minute of VBS.

back to the swimming...i have two fish for children. i can't get henry out of the water and poor little daphne (who has no body fat) loves to swim and jump in but she is often too cold. her little lips just quiver and turn blue.

we have a busy weekend ahead...visit with great grandma, swimming with the grandparents, a friend's dance recital, a date night, a birthday party and a father's day celebration. we should have plenty of pictures to share next week.

have a great week!

just plain weird...

i always new that my children would be genetically predisposed to weirdness. ross and i are pretty weird in our own right and today our son proved that he too is strange. i have told you all before that anna tends to suck both thumbs at the same time. well, today on our way home from vbs she was again sucking both thumbs and henry pipes up. this is how the conversation went:

h- "hey mom"
m- "yes, son"
h- "what if we could cut off our thumbs and put them where our buns (that's what we call the buttocks) go and put our buns where our thumbs go.
m- i am thinking..."where is he going to go with this?"
h- "then we could suck our buns."
m- "that would be really gross, goofball!"

i love my little weirdo.

VBS has begun...

so we have begun this year's vacation Bible school at church. once again i am doing the crafts for these kiddos and we are going to have a really fun week.
this morning i was praying that i would have a servant's heart when interacting with everyone involved. God keeps reminding me to get of the way and let Him do His thing. i am there to glorify Him and Him alone. i am excited to see what He is going to do in Henry and Daphne's lives this week. it just brings tears of joy to my eyes as i watch them in the the big worship rally praising the Lord with all of who they are. i took anna in with me at the end of the day and she had a blast listening to all the music and watching all those big kids.

i will try to post some more of what we are up to these days but for now i must go cut out more boots.