Laughter is the BEST Medicine

Check this out!!

(I have to add that Daphne watched this after I uploaded it and almost laughed just as hard!!)

6 Months

I know I am a little behind!!! Oops!

6 Month Stats - 14 lbs 5 oz, 20%

26 1/2 in, 75% (still much longer than Norah or Lucy!!)

Anyway - Daphne was 6 months last Friday. She is growing and changing much faster than I sometimes like!!! She is really a sweet, sweet baby. If she is well-rested and has a full tummy - she is as content as can be (now that I say that - she will probably have a grumpy day! Ha!)

She LOVES her voice - which she gets honestly, because her sisters are exactly the same way! She cooes and screaches and squeals ALL. THE. TIME.

She is just starting to sit up - propping herself up with her hands. She likes to be sitting up putting toys in her mouth as opposed to lying down with her toys. If she is lying down, she doesn't stay in one place. She is either scooting backward, rolling, or inching forward (which I have been referring to as "the inchworm"). Check this out:

As always she LOVES watching Norah and Lucy. If they are running around laughing and squealing, Daphne tries to join in on the squealing! She gets excited when she sees either Norah or Lucy - often kicking and waving violently or throwing her body around.

As mentioned before, Daphne is a finger-sucker like Norah and Lucy, but she also tugs on her ear with the other hand while she is sucking her fingers. If she has a blankets nearby (or bib or burp rag) she rubs it on her ear instead.

We are enjoying our time with her and are so thankful for a sweet baby girl!!

Who Put Joseph in the Well?

After church today I asked Lucy what her Bible story was about. She replied, "Joseph." Based on her craft I could tell that it was the part of the story where Joseph's brothers put him in the well, so I said Lucy, "Who put Joseph in the well?"

She replied, "NOT ME!" - she said it as if she was being blamed for something she didn't do!!

Training

We have 4 weeks left until our triathlon!! The last couple of weeks, I have felt overwhelmed with training. I have been extra tired in the early mornings making it very difficult to get up - which in turn made me a little grumpy about training.

Last Saturday I biked for just under an hour - probably about 12 or 13 miles, but wiped out on the last mile. Before the fall, however, I was feeling pretty good about the biking. I wasn't feeling like I was going to die or anything.

I ran 4 miles on Monday and felt great afterward - if it wasn't for the fact that I needed to get home to feed Daphne, I might have been able to go a little farther.

I biked 6 miles on Wednesday morning - very easy ride (seriously never thought I would say that considering the first time I rode 4 miles I really thought I was going to die and I never wanted to get on a bike again). Then I swam about 1/3 of a mile in the afternoon. The swim was hard because I hadn't taken the time to swim in about 3 weeks - oops. The weather has been unseasonable cool so I didn't really want to swim in the cold water. It sort of took my breath away. I felt like I would never finish and that was while I could still touch! Now I know that I REALLY need to make the effort to swim a couple of times each week until the race.

Friday I swam about 1/3 of a mile. It went a little better today. The one thing about swimming in the lake is that if you are tired and out of breath, you can't rest. I still have to float or tread water - not much of a breather.

Today, Jenny (my friend from church who is also doing the tri) and I rode the 12 mile route of the race. We had a few issues - my chain came off and got stuck. STUCK. Another biker (maybe cyclist is the better name for him) was riding by and stopped to help us. He even struggled to get the chain free, but finally had success and we were off again. The bike I am using is a little older so the gears are a little strange. I'm glad to actually know the route of the race - there are some KILLER hills! Seriously, we were CRAWLING at one point. When we finished the ride we ran for about 20 minutes. I was tired but not dying - which I can't believe. Although, swimming first - which is the hardest part at this point - may totally change things.

I also need to add that my sister came over today to stay with the girls while Kevin and I trained. Actually, Norah and Lucy were going to come and we were going to alternate swimming while they played, but as soon as they heard Alison was coming overto stay with Daphne, they both wanted to stay home. They kept her busy and entertained. She did some VERY girlie things and Norah and Lucy tried to talk her into all kinds of stuff. They tried to convince her that I let them use my make-up - all of it. Ha! Thanks, Alison for hanging out with the girls - they had a blast!

I don't feel quite so overwhelmed now and I know if I just stay consistent with my training, I should be fine. After today, I am getting a little excited about the race. If nothing else, it will be a great experience and has been a great way to get back in shape after having Daphne!!

Lucy's Quote

I meant to share this a couple of weeks ago and just forgot.

Lucy had been kind of sassy and not very nice to Norah. She was also acting sassy to me. At bedtime, I told her that we needed to pray about her attitude.

She prays (enthusiastically, I might add), "Dear God, Thank you for my attitude! Amen!"

Quote of the Day

Norah: Why do you always make me work? You always make me do the work you don't want to do. It's like I'm at an orphanage - always working, working, working.

(She was saying this as I was making her pick up some little Bible verse cards that SHE had spread all over the floor)

A Quick Recap

I know I haven't posted for a little while, but we have had a MILLION things going on!! Here is a brief overview of all we have done.

I have coffee/dessert with some new friends who are also homeschooling. It was great to chat about our plans for the next year without being interupted by all the children. They have great ideas/suggestions that I plan to incorporate into our day.

Kevin and I went to Florida for a few days. Those of you who know me, know that I stress out about leaving my kiddos - especially when flying on an airplane. I don't usually sleep well the night before we leave and I have a nervous/anxious feeling in my gut from the time we leave our house until we land safely at our destination (it starts all over again when it is time to leave).

This time, however, I saw God working in my life when our good friends, the Norwines, showed up behind us at the security check. Even more ironic is that they were on our airplane. They were flying through Miami on their way to the Bahamas. They are incredibly busy with teenagers and we, of course, are busy with little ones, so we don't have a lot of time to hang out. We were so busy chatting/catching up that the time in the airport flew by - and I don't even remember feeling anxious or nervous. I LOVE recognizing the little ways God reveals himself to us.

We had a great time of relaxing and sleeping. We spent about 2 days on the beach (with LOTS of sunblock and a large umbrella - I have this new found fear of skin cancer and wrinkles) and we ate at some yummy restaurants. It was nice to get away for a few days while the girls played nonstop with my mom.

Sunday, my sister and I (and Nicole, although we didn't see each other) ran in the All-Star 5K. It was a beautiful day - not too hot with a slight breeze.

Sunday afternoon, my college roommate, Beth, came by while she was in town. It was great seeing her and catching up.

Yesterday we went to one of those bounce house places, similar to Bounce-U. The girls had a great time running around with some new friends (other homeschoolers).

Today, the girls hung out at Heather's while I ran some errands. We hadn't seen the Morrison's in a couple of weeks, so I know they enjoyed have some time with Savannah and Sawyer.

I am trying to get some planning done for our first 12 weeks of school. Besides homeschooling Norah this year for kindergarten, I am also going to do some preschool stuff with Lucy. I have decided to follow this plan with Norah and I am really excited about it.

Through all this craziness, I am also continuing to train for the triathlon. This week I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the exercising, but knowing I have a little over 5 weeks helps a little. The running is going fine and the swimming is fine. I have been biking 7-9 miles and have to get to 12 before the race, but adding the 3 together is the overwhelming part!!

Hair Bows

Obviously with 3 girls we have an outrageous number of hair bows. They (along with headbands, rubberbands, and various clips) have taken over a drawer in the girls dresser. I can't ever seem to find the bows I am looking for!! I have seen several different ideas to store these bows. This is the one I decided to make.

Here is what it looked like before we added the bows:

And here is what it looks like now:

As you can see, though, we are completely out of room for new bows!! I bought a board that was 14 inches by 20 inches and assumed we would have atleast one ribbon length to add bows to as we buy them. Of course, Kevin thinks this means we don't need anymore bows! I think I will just have to make one for Daphne's room!!

4th of July

We had a great weekend! We relaxed, enjoyed time with friends, and worked on a few projects!!

Kevin had the day off on Friday - yea!! He went mountain biking with some guys from our small group then he and I worked on a few projects while the girls napped. Kevin took Norah and Lucy to the 4th of July festival that was going on in our community. The girls had a great time. They met up with Morrison's after awhile. They bounced in the bounce house, slid down the big slide, rode some rides and finished the evening off with a funnel cake!

Later in the evening I asked Lucy if she saw Sawyer. She replied, "Yeah, he's my buddy!" Cute!

Saturday was a dreary, rainy day! We spent the morning relaxing and playing with the girls. Kevin installed a new dishwasher!!!! Our old one had been broken for about 3 months!!

As fitting with tradition, we headed over to the Diehl's house after naps (everyone napped - so they were ready for a FUN evening). We had a DELICIOUS dinner! The kids played and played and played. The Diehl's had purchased a few small fireworks for the dads . . .er, kids to enjoy. The kids attempted this project, but ended up finger painting instead. I put Daphne to bed at their house and JH went to bed too. The dads took the 4 bigger kids to see fireworks. We had a GREAT time! It is always a blessing to hang out with the Diehl family. We were amused at one point in the evening when Luke said, "Norah and I just want to be alone." As the parents, we figured it is better to allow it now than when they are 15 and 16. Ha!

Jack wasn't really wanting to be apart of his own family picture, but he saw us getting ours taken, he climbed right up!!

After putting the girls to bed around 10:30, we slept in on Sunday morning. Well, Kevin, Norah, and Lucy slept in. Daphne was awake and ready to eat by 7:30. We worked on a few more projects and then went to our community center to swim in the afternoon. The adult lap swim was open from 3-4 and the kids pool was open until 4. I swam some laps while Kevin and the girls played in the pool. I joined them after about 20 minutes of swimming and we had a great time!! We have lived here for almost 4 1/2 years and this is the first time we have taken the kids to the indoor pool (it was cold and rainy here yesterday). It is so nice!! There is a lazy river and a little playground/slide in the water.

I'm a little sad to see the weekend end because we had a great time!!

Thoughts for Thursday

I don't regularly participate in Thoughts for Thursday (does anyone anymore?), but I decided to go for it today. I am having an inner struggle going on right now so I thought I would post about it. I am suffering from "Idle Hands syndrome."

There are a couple of verses in the Bible that touches on this. Ecclesiastes 10:18 says "If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks." Ecclesiastes 11:6 says, "Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well."

Like most moms, I have a million things to accomplish in a day, but do I do any of them? Not really. I do the basic day to day things like feed, bathe, and clothe my children. I keep the laundry caught up for the most part. We read and play together, but seriously other than that I don't do a whole lot. When we are having people over, I stress out because I have to clean the whole house all at one time. Luckily for everyone in our family we have people over about once a week, so the main floor and the basement are cleaned that often. The upstairs is totally different. It is a mess. A. BIG. FAT. MESS! There are clothes, shoes, books, hair stuff, baby stuff, bath toys, etc. all over the second floor! I just can't seem to motivate myself to go up there and tackle the mess. Just thinking about it makes me have a mini panic attack!! It is ridiculous. Funny thing is that I don't like messes and clutter, but I am so overwhelmed that I don't even know where to begin.

Besides the mess upstairs, my laundry room is a mess, my refrigerator needs to be cleaned out, the school shelves need to be purged and organized, and these are the most important things at this point. I also would love to not have to run around mad crazy before people come over! I would love some sort of organization in this house!! It is driving me crazy!!!

I guess the struggle is that I want to have a nice, clean, organized house, but I also want to enjoy my children. I want them to enjoy being young and at home with mommy. I am so thankful that I can stay home with the girls, but I don't want to waste time doing things that really are not that important.

One would think I could use their naptimes to get a few things accomplished, but nope. I usually end up blogging, watching TV (or channeling surfing), napping or reading. I'm totally being lazy! What am I doing right now while Daphne naps and Norah and Lucy are playing together? Oh, right, I am BLOGGING!!

I certainly didn't learn to be lazy from either of my parents. They are both busy doing stuff all the time. Sure they relax and watch TV or read in the evenings, but that is after my dad has worked in the yard, moved 3000 pounds of boulders, and built a trellis and my mom has made cookies for all the neighbors and everyone else she knows who might enjoy some, made dinner for someone who had a baby, made bibs and hooded bath towels, helped my grandma with stuff and babysat my niece. They deserve to sit and relax a little. I on the other hand, do not deserve it at this point.

Maybe I should start by making a master to do list (nothing like still putting things off by appearing to be productive!! Ha!) and slowly try to cross things off.

Okay, your turn. Anyone else feel like I do - or am I totally crazy? Any suggestions on how to keep up with things here and still be able to enjoy my girls?

9 years!

9 years ago today we were getting ready to get married. Our wedding was at 11 a.m. at Grace Church in Morton. It was a BEAUTIFUL summer day - not too hot for an outside reception at my Uncle John and Aunt Kim's house.

God has truly blessed our life together! I can't wait to see what the next 9 years hold?

I love you, Kevin! Happy Anniversary!

Okay, so I have searched for a recent picture of just Kevin and me. Sadly, the most recent picture of us together without the kids is from about a year and a half ago - Kevin is bald and I have longer hair. Clearly, we need to take our picture more often!!!