Argh Matey....

So we got some sad and frustrating news yesterday at our Opthamologist appt.  Abby Kate's eyes had stayed at the baseline of where they should be with glasses rather than improving.  Because her right eye is so much stronger, we now have to patch it for 4 hours each day.  She is NOT loving it and the only way I could get my imaginative baby excited about it was to play pirates (which only lasted about 30 minutes).  Now if I could only find away to keep her excited about it for the other 3.5 hours!

Celebrating Daddy....

I truly have no words.  Just humbled, amazed and in awe of my sweet husband, who is the best Daddy and loves our children with all his being.  And my own Daddy, who has championed and loved me right into the arms of my Heavenly Father.  And my sweet Bubby, who is about to be a Daddy of two, who works longs hours but loves his family with everything he is.  What a great bunch of men I have to celebrate!  Not to mention my father-in-law, whom I love dearly as well!  Thank you Father for giving me so many men who point me to You!

Fun lately...

Wow.  Moved into our super hot summer but have been having a ball.  Hide and seek (see above pics), pool almost daily, splash park (below pics) and tons and tons of snow cones!  I LOVE SUMMER!

Prayer and my giggle monster...

Just two things to note...
Abby Kate was praying last night and this was her prayer...
"Thank you Jesus for Momma and Daddy and Bo.  Thank you Jesus for Aunt Befie's (Bethie) pool, Sweecie's pool, my pool and Neannie's pool (two of which are blowup kiddie pools).  Thank you for caterpillars and lady bugs.  Thank you Jesus for my toys and my books and my animals...my stuffed animals.  And thank you Jesus for my room.  I love it.  And it is pink.  Amen."  :)
And Bo has literally melted my heart every day for the past week.  He has become so cuddly and when I walk into his room for nap/bedtime, he instantly lays his head down on my shoulder.  After I feed him, I rock him a bit and he lays his head on my cheek and literally starts giggling.  He has the raspy-est laugh you have ever heard and it is easily one of my favorite sounds on earth.  I always start giggling too until we both giggle so hard we have the hiccups.  And I lay him down and he just smiles and I thank God for such a perfect end to a day!

Just a few fun pics lately!  We cleaned out my Granny and Grandad's house last weekend and found 2 tubs of costume jewelry of Granny's and LITERALLY, she has had more fun with this than anything I can remember!  Notice she has it ALL on.  She said it makes her chunky.  

Bo is now standing on his own for long periods of time as you can see (forgive the crazy glasses) and is trying to take steps.  It LOVES doing this.  I am SO not ready for another walker!  Though he has been pretty discontent with crawling lately.  He wants to do JUST as his sister does so maybe walking will even the score for him.  They have such a ball together and there is nothing I love more than hearing them both giggle together.  It is everything I imagined it would be!

Yee Haw!

Is this not the cutest cowboy you ever did see?!

Our Sweet Livi is ONE!

The beautiful birthday girl!  

The decor.  Isn't it all precious?  Ashley MADE that adorable banner.  Literally, she is as talented as they come.  She made Bo and Abby Kate one too!  

The beautiful grandmothers!  Sweecie and Kat Kat.  

YUMMM!  First taste of sugar!

Can you believe my beautiful sister in law is 6 months pregnant?!

I cannot believe our sweet baby girl is already one!  It seems this year has flown by!  I literally feel like Liv is going to be a genius.  She is so verbal, sweet, curious, fun and giggly!  We LOVE getting to be so close and sharing her life.  WE ADORE YOU sweet Livi!

Hysterical rants of Abby Kate...

We really have gotten SUCH a kick out of Abby Kate lately.  She is so stinking fun.  Here are just a few samples of her...

Yesterday we were driving in the car after standing in the sweltering heat for 25 minutes to get a snow cone.  My girl, who hates getting wet, I mean so badly that if she even spills a drop on her, she has stripped down in no time flat finding me scrambling to get her covered before a cop, dhs worker or child predator can get a glance, decided to pour an entire cup of water on her lap.  This conversation followed...
AK:  (dramatically crying) OOOOHHHH, I am wet!  SO wet!
Me:  Well, of course you are, you just poured water into your lap...on purpose.
AK:  LET ME OUT!  This feels SO yucky!
Me:  No.  You made a bad choice.  This is the consequence.  We will be home in a few minutes and then you can get out.
AK:  NO!  NO!  NO!  I am WET!  LET ME OUT!
Me:  No Ma'am.  Sorry, but you made a silly choice.
AK:  It wasn't a silly choice.  It was a BAD choice.  BAD.  I don't like it at all!  Let me OUT!
Me:  You need to remember this so you won't do it ever again.
AK:  (more dramatic crying)  This feels AWFUL, just AWFUL!
Me:  (rolling my eyes and giggling inside)

This morning, she woke up pouring snot and with super watery eyes.  She was sitting on the potty and she started to cry.  I ran in and asked what was wrong and she replied, "My nose can't get free from the snot!"

AK:  Mom, look at my puppy.  And the collar I made for it.
Me:  That's awesome.
AK:  NOT awesome Mom!  Awesome is boy.  Beautiful is girl.  Say it is beautiful.
Me:  It is beautiful
AK:  (high pitched voice)  Good job Mom!  Way to use your words!  Way to obey me!

Fun with Poppy...

These could easily be my most favorite pictures ever.  Is this not the most precious man ever?  I am amazed at his gentlenss, patience, brillance, steadfastness, trustworthiness and unconditional love.  No wonder I am in love with my Father God.  What a great earthly example I have had.  What other 58 year old would go grab his top hat to serve as his granddaughter's Prince Charming?

9 Months!

I cannot believe 9 months have passed so quickly!  Our precious boy is continuing to come into his own and has such a fun personality.  He is so laid back.  LOVES LOVES LOVES his sister.  He is into everything and experiences everything with the greatest intensity possible (seems like an oxymoron with his being laid back but somehow it works).  He has the greatest little voice and laugh...super throaty and wonderful.  He still only says Mama (hehe) but we are working on other words.  He is a great napper and goes to sleep easily but still is waking some in the night (this is most definitely when a paci would come in handy!).  He is still taking four 8 oz. bottles a day and eats three solid meals.  He has recently been vetoing baby food and really wants things he can feed himself.  I think I missed this window with Abby Kate and she still has an aversion to some textures of foods so I am trying my best to offer nutritious choices that he can feed himself.
My sweet friend Ashley asked Bo to be one of the models for her Snapshop (her amazing photography class) a few weeks ago and these are the pics she took.  If you haven't already found her blog, you are in for SUCH a treat.  She is super creative and intentional with her precious 4 kids, you will get ideas galore from her blog, you won't believe it!  Her precious daughter is just a few weeks older than Bo and I have joked with Ashley that I so hope they marry!  I am so blessed to have such precious friends in my life.

Fun Days...

Not much to update.  Had 6 glorious nights of Bo sleeping 12 hours straight only to come to a strange screeching halt on Thursday.  Still not sure why he is waking again.  I will say, I think the hardest part of being a Mom is not the lack of sleep, but the constant problem solving.  It is emotionally exhausting.  Just when you think you have things figured out, or you get in a routine, it changes again.  Oh well!  We  have LOVED the warm weather and have spent tons of time outside (or in our diaper it seems).  Both kids are doing wonderfully.  They are both super snotty due to allergies I think but happy as larks.  Poppy and Sweecie came this weekend to help us complete a landscaping project and WE SO APPRECIATE it!  Poppy jumped on the trampoline with AK to her utter delight (see above pics) and she was spoiled as usual.  We truly had a ball.
Bo is getting more and more mobile.  It seems nothing can slow him down and he is SUCH a boy.  He is into everything and loves exploring and emulating his sister.  Abby Kate really has seemed so grown up to us lately.  We just delight in what comes out of her mouth (most of the time!).
Hope all is well with each of you!

Up, Up and Away

I feel like I have so much to update.  Sweet Bo made it through his surgery wonderfully.  I will say we had a TON going on right around his tubes so I was sorely disappointed when it didn't seem to change things as everyone had said. His left ear literally drained for 6 days.  It continued to get clogged, prohibiting the antibotic drops to get in deep enough so we were placed on another oral antibotic.  On top of that, his other top tooth came through which bled and bled and he continues to drool like a crazy man.  We also we in the process of switching him to formula and instead of gradually decreasing the breastmilk in his bottle, I went cold turkey and gave him full formula bottles while we were out of town for Easter (due to the convience of heating them in the middle of the night) and he began waking every 3-4 hours again.  It took me, the genius, 6 days plus a formula change to read the box that said, "Gradually switching to formula is best."  So I tried it last night, 5 oz. of breastmilk to 3 oz. of formula and he slept through the night like a champ.  SO SO love it when problem solving as a Momma gets a positive result!
SO SO sadly, I forgot my camera on Easter so I will have to get pics from the rest of the fam!  Bobby's family had a huge reunion and we had SO SO much fun.  My MIL has 4 other siblings and each had large families as well so it was SO much fun having so many cousins around.  Abby Kate literally had a BALL.  AK got to stay a few extra days with Neannie and Pop to play with our Florida cousins who got to stay the week.  I hope to get those pics soon!
The above pictures were last Thursday, the afternoon of Bo's tubes.  It really is amazing how quickly they bounce back (though coming out of/sleeping off the anesthetic was literally the worst nightmare ever).  Sweecie had gotten AK a new kite and we got to go fly it together as a family.  Truly one of the most fun afternoons in a LONG LONG time.  We so love spending time together!