Bunk Beds

We bought bunk beds this summer, not really intending to use them until next summer.  Maddie just moved into a big girl bed not that long ago, and we didn't think she was ready to share a room yet.  So the bottom bunk stayed in her room and Nate got the loft bed in his.  However, we caved and gave in to the constant requests to share a room.  We didn't think she was ready and we were right, however the move was made and the bed wasn't going back.

While the transition has been less than smooth, with most nights moving Nate out of the room until they both fall asleep and then putting him back in bed, there's is something so sweet to checking on the kids and seeing them in the same room sleeping.  And last night was the first night that they both fell asleep in their beds.  Granted it took them awhile to settle down, but eventually they did, all on their own.  Victory! At least for one night.

Fire and Ice

With the weather so cold, school has either been delayed or cancelled, thus cancelling our activities. 
We woke up on Wednesday with no MOPS.  It was quite cold in the house, realizing that the power was out (again, happened for a few hours on Monday afternoon).  This is not a good thing when it is this cold out.  So I had the brilliant idea to get a fire going in the fireplace.  I have never performed this task and should have known it would not end well.  The chute didn't open all the way and so smoke started filling the house.  Luckily the log I had put on didn't catch so I just waited for the firestarter block to burn down.  We went upstairs to get out of the smoke and get warm in my bed.  We cuddled there for awhile but quickly realized the kids are too squirmy to do this all day so we left the house to go play at the Commons.  The power was back on by the time we got home in the afternoon.

That afternoon I decided I better get some laundry going (the mountain of clothes piling up is a good sign).  So I started the washer and then we went upstairs to play.  We came down a bit later to find the kitchen flooded. The washer has done this before when it's really cold, the water in the pipes freeze and the water comes back up the outlet tube...and onto the floor. 

Feeling really overwhelmed with all the events of the day, and on day 10 of Michael gone to a school in Iowa, I start to cry.  Then my sweet, sweet little man says to me, "Mommy, don't be upset.  It's okay, God loves you".  Yes He does.  That's all I needed to hear. So I can take the power outage, and the smoke filled house, and the washer dumping water all over the floor.  I am so grateful God has given me these beautiful children that help me keep things in perspective when it gets a little rough.

Maddie, Oh Our Little Maddie

Just a "quick" note for a Maddie update:

For memory keeping purposes (because I can't remember what happened yesterday), I will give a little update on Maddie. She is super smart. She knows her alphabet and can recognize many of the letters and some numbers too.  She loves singing songs and her favorite right now is "Jesus Loves Me".  Often, though, she is too smart. But when she's trying to get out of something and she gives that little grin, who can stay mad? (which is the problem)

Maddie now thinks that if she closes her eyes she is invisible.  Which means she can do whatever she wants.  So whenever the desire to be naughty and not listen arises, she simply closes her eyes and the proceeds with whatever it is that makes her happy and drives Mommy crazy.  It must also affect her hearing, because when she's "invisible" she can't hear a word I'm saying. Gotta love her.

Maddie and I were sitting on the couch, watching Toy Story.  She turns to me and out of no where tells me she was naughty at church last night.  So I thought, okay this is good.  She is feeling bad about what she did.  So I told her that next time she can be good.  She looks at me and says "no" and then turns back to her movie. So I guess she wasn't trying to clear her conscience, but just simply stating a fact.

She has also started biting her nails. It's weird. How do kids pick up these habits? Well, at least I don't have to cut them anymore.

Nate is Four Years Old

I asked Nate what he wanted people to know about him, now that he is four years old. He said, "I do silly things." And, that pretty much sums it up.

He is our silly guy. He likes to make us laugh-making silly faces or making up silly words for things.  And you should see him dance.  He shakes his booty and twirls is hands around in the air. It is awesome. He is still really sweet and sensitive. Everyone is his best friend.

Right now he is at the stages of being both very independent.  He started taking showers (with some help from Mommy still) but is back to taking baths.  Some days he will pick out his clothes and get himself dressed and other days I have to do it all for him.  He even still wants to be fed sometimes, which is slightly pushing it. :)

He loves: his little guys (action figures), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (he would eat them for all three meals everyday if I let him), his Daddy (big time Daddy's boy right now), being outside. 

Our First Visit to the Love Chapel

We had our first volunteering experience and it was wonderful!

I meet with an amazing group of ladies each Thursday for a Bible study.  That in itself has been such a blessing.  Encouraged by the church and each other to take our studies one step further with service projects, we found our first opportunity at the Love Chapel.

After study and lunch on Thursday, we headed over to help them out.  The staff and volunteers at the Love Chapel were wonderful.  With all our little kids in tow, we don't know how much of a help we would be (or really were), but they were gracious.  While we desired to help, we also wanted our kids to learn about serving others.  They set up stations for the kids so that they could help.  They could roll up utensils in napkins, sort plastic bags, stacking bread, and help divide dog food into smaller portioned sacks.

Nate did a great job helping.  Maddie did well, for about 2 minutes at each station, but about as well as to be expected. So it was a lot of running around after her and we left with her screaming (granted it was naptime), but it was completely worth it. Being able to bring them there to help other people and talk with Nate afterwards about it will hopefully develop servant's hearts in our children.  I don't think he completely understands at this age why we were doing what we were doing, but my hope is that they will continue to help others and when they are older it will be a part of their life,

as if "they've been going to the Love Chapel as long as they can remember".

 

TN Vacation

It has been a full, crazy year with WOCS, and so instead of getting away this summer we made plans to wait until after Michael graduated to go on a mini vacation.  We set our sights on Tennessee, booked a cabin, and anxiously awaited October.  When the government shut down happened, we questioned whether we should still go, but since the cabin was already reserved and paid for (and we REALLY wanted to get away) we decided to go ahead with our plans.

And boy were we glad we did! We had a wonderful time. 

The trip didn't start off on the best note, with Michael getting bit by a neighbor dog when dropping Sammy off at Jaime's, but the wound wasn't too terrible and ended up healing up without any infection.  The kids were amazing on the way down and back and that's without sleeping much of the time. We packed the car full of books and games and toys and they did a great job entertaining themselves. It wasn't too long of a drive-about 6 hours.

The first day was spent getting there and then settling into our cabin. We stayed outside of Pigeon Forge in Sieverville.  The cabin was adorable!  The kids loved it and wanted to live there and make it our new home. There was a hot tub and gas fireplace (which took a little bit to figure out both). It was a two bedroom but the kids ended up in bed with us most of the time.  We thought we would use the hot tub more but only ended up using it once--it was difficult getting the kids settled down at the end of the night with them sharing a room. But, the fireplace was on if we were there.  It was wonderful starting it up with a flick of a switch!

The first full day there was spent in Gatlinburg at Ober Gatlinburg.  I highly recommend it if you have small kids.  The highlight was the chairlift to the top of the mountain and then the slide on the way back down. Maddie was pretty scared going up the chairlift the first time, just repeating over and over "I don't want it.".  She even tried to climb out at one point so I was pretty stressed out the first ride up, but by the end she was enjoying it and we even went up a couple more times. There was also a human maze, kiddie rides, and pretty neat playground area, mini golf, and a water slide (that Michael talked me into going down with Nate--of course I ended up 3x as soaked as he did!).  It was a very full, very fun day. 

The next day, the state decided to reopen the Great Smoky National Park and so that's exactly where we went!  I was so excited because I thought it was something we were going to miss out on while we were there. Our first little hike was 1.0 mile round trip to a little waterfall.  The kids didn't even make it (possibly worn out from yesterday?) but it was fun to walk the trail and look at the beautiful trees.  We drove around the park and even saw a couple of bears climbing up a tree!  We went to Clingman's Dome and walked up to the tower.  This was tough for the little ones because the walk up, although paved, was quite steep.  So, even tougher for us because they were either on our shoulders or we were carrying them much of the time. We were pretty high up and since it was an overcast day, we were literally up in the clouds.  So we didn't get a great view but still really neat to be in the clouds.

 Our last full day in TN we decided to go to a children's museum.  It was a rainy day and a perfect way to spend the day indoors.  However, when we got there it was closed for construction.  We were going to avoid the tourist traps but we found ourselves with nothing to do and not really wanting to hang out in the cabin the WHOLE day so we hit up a store that had a few bears you could see and feed.  The kids enjoyed that a lot.  And then we went to WonderWorks.  It was fun and the kids are still asking to go back to the "upside down" house.  It was nice to get back to the cabin at a good time to enjoy our last night there.

Halt on Potty Training

We are pausing the potty training and so happy to do so! It was going nowhere fast. :)  Maddie did figure out what the potty was and what to do in it, but didn't quite get that she needed to tell us before she had to go.  She would also only tinkle a little tiny bit and then turn around and have an accidents within seconds of using the potty.  So needless to say I was cleaning a LOT of messes.

The only reason we started was because she was constantly taking off her diaper, knowing she wasn't quite ready yet but moving forward with it anyway.  So, when a couple of weeks ago she decided to start keeping her diaper on we decided to stop the madness and let her keep her diapers!

For now, she uses the potty when she feels like it but it's mostly diaper time. So the Minnie Mouse undies will stay comfortably nestled in her drawer for a bit longer. We will try again when she is ready and I think the process will be a lot smoother. :)