nine months

Macy turned 9 months old today. *sigh* It's so great to see Macy's personality coming through, and I love all the milestones, I just would LOVE to keep her little just a tick longer. Don't I just sound like every other mom on the planet?!


She's grown a TON in just a few weeks. Saying "dadadada" and "mamamama," waving good-bye, pulling herself up to standing, trying hard to move but still not crawling, and feeding herself bits of food not just baby food mush. But with all that growing and changing, she's still just as sweet as that little newborn that we met in July. She loves to cuddle, to be held, tickled, watch movies with Elise, sung to, play in the tubby, pet Indy, and be outside. Her favorite food right now is pancakes, and her favorite toy is anything of Elise's. :) What she hates: being left alone in a room, getting her diaper changed, getting dressed, and wearing socks.



As Elise gets more independent, and now as Macy seems to get bigger by the day (I know, she really does!) I feel more and more blessed and also anxious about raising these girls. Somehow the job just feels overwhelming at times. I pray that they'll be strong women, but also compassionate and serving. I want them to love others selflessly, but not be taken advantage of. I hope they are successful in whatever they choose to do, but also that they'll leave lots of room to change and grow as God leads. Is how I'm training them now going to get them there? Am I too hard, soft, generous, emotional, distracted.......and on and on.

That's where the power of prayer brings me to a place of rest and peace and hope. So, while we run around to Kohl's and the grocery store tomorrow, I know that what we talk about and how we treat people shape their world. I know that how we spend our money and our time is forming habits for their adulthood. But, I also know that running errands on Friday is just running errands. We'll buy sunglasses and rice cereal. We'll probably stop at every potty we come to. And my prayer is that in all of that, in the normal and the silly happenings of our week, God will do the shaping. God will use my attempts and also my failures, to teach my girls about HIS world and about how they are to be a part of it. In the end, it's only my job to point these girls to Him. To His will, love, grace.... HE does the rest.

shorter days

I know, I know, as we approach springtime, the days are really getting longer. But, on my stay-at-home mom days, the days are so much SHORTER.

All of a sudden, it's difficult to get my girls lunch before naps at two. All of a sudden it's late afternoon and Bryan is calling to tell me that he's heading home in the next few minutes, and I haven't even started dinner. The laundry is piling up. The kitchen floor is a dirty mess. Our bathrooms are entirely embarrassing. There are just better things to do!

There are swings to ride. Walks to take to the park. Cozy Coups to push. Driveways to color with chalk. Window boxes to clean out. Bubbles to blow into the warm breeze......such fun WARM weather things to fill our days.

Welcome, warm days. Thank you for making a day at home fly by, leaving us dirty, content, and exhausted from a day FULL of outside fun.

I'm so excited for the real summer months to arrive. This unexpected weather has brought thoughts of beach days, splash pads, sundresses, swimming pools, camping, sprinklers, garden tomatoes, dinner from the grill, captain sundae.......YAY! Welcome spring. Hurry up, summer.

what kind of march is this?!

Even though our days were filled with an annoying fever bug, cancelled plans, a crabby teething baby, and a couple sleepless nights; we still had a GREAT week. The weather was so awesome! We tried to be out as much as possible, enjoying the swing set, walking to the park, and driving with ALL the windows down. Each day has ended with mandatory baths to wash all that sunshine and dirt from

those little girls. So fun!!

Macy loves the baby swing, and Elise is more than happy to push her in it




this girl LOVES to swing. if it were up to her, we'd swing all day. every day.






so fun when our neighbor friends come out to play
Charin and Elise are only 10 days apart, and Elise loves to play with him





Macy was super happy in the swing, and like most babies, very content to be outside









another highlight of our week was not one but TWO trips to Lowe's,

and we got a race car cart both times!!

And Macy girl turned 8 months old on Monday.....

At 8 months Macy is wearing 9-12 month clothes, size 3 diapers, sleeping less-than-great, LOVES to eat: pancakes, pumpkin, cottage cheese....anything, really; nursing well, sitting up and reaching forward to grab the toys she wants, sleeping on her tummy, sitting up in shopping carts instead of riding in her car seat, "talking" nearly all the time-loudly :), loving TV & movies, is a total daddy's girl, has 2 bottom teeth, loves petting Indy dog, and is still sweet as sweet can be.

Hard to believe my baby is 8 months old. I'm so looking forward to the summer months full of warm-weather fun with my girls!