Thanksgiving in the Mountains

Every other year for most of my life (since 1987) my dad's side of the family has gone to Gatlinburg for Thanksgiving. We rent a chalet in the mountains and just have a great time being family. With the very late fall, this was the first time we still had colorful leaves on Thanksgiving. It was a great trip. My aunt was kind enough to send me some pics, so I can now update the blog with pictures.

Update

Well, we have had no luck finding the camera, but I haven't been to church to try to look myself yet. Potty training is getting better each day. She actually told us she needed to go the other night at the store, and waited until we could get there.



Anna Kate's sleeping is back to craziness. With me getting mastitis twice in the last three weeks and all the company and traveling we've been doing, she just can't get on track. We may have another session of sleep training "boot camp" this week.



The best news in our family right now is that Tim finished seminary last week for all intents and purposes(though not technically) . He has two hours to complete his degree. We will be taking a marriage enrichment class together in the spring to fulfill that-it doesn't really have much if any work along with it though, so that's why we're saying he's done. We're done with the stress of trying to find time to study, go to class, in the midst of everything else in life. He will walk for graduation in May. So everything is in limbo it seems with lots of our future being totally uncertain to us. At the same time, life seems a lot the same. We know nothing is uncertain for God, so we are both pretty well at peace with that. We're just praying that we will be open to His leading and wisdom for all the upcoming decisions. For all of our married life we've just been waiting and working to get to this point, and now we're here and still don't seem to know quite what to do with ourselves :)

If you think of us, please say a prayer for wisdom and faith. We have two totally different "doors" of opportunity in front of us. One is related to church planting, a scary but thrilling possibility. The other is a possible opening into the IT field. We have no idea where God is leading, but lots of decisions will need to be made soon. Coming from a person whose faith seems to always be lacking, especially when it comes to major change, I realize my need for God every second these days.

Potty Training

Well, for those of you who have been around us lately, you know our struggles with Maddie not wanting to potty train. My initial goal was to have her trained before Anna Kate arrived. We tried in early July, but that didn't take. She is very particular about her "pooping in the corner" ritual, so she wasn't interested in the least to change that. I had just told my mom yesterday on our way home from our Thanksgiving trip to Gatlinburg that my new plan was not to mention anything about going to the potty to Maddie for the next month. I was going to put the potty away, have noone mention it in her presence, etc. Then after Christmas I was going to bring back the potty and have a fresh start.
Well, wouldn't you know the little stinker just up and decided last night that she wanted to go potty. It's not that unusual for her to say that and then just play or run around naked. BUT she actually went. Then she went again before bedtime. Today she's gone three times w/ only one accident. I think this is actually it. I don't know how the whole "pooping" part is gonna go over, but she seems to finally "get it" with the pee. Anyways, I know many of you will be glad to know we're finally crossing over :)
By the way, the reason posts have been nonexistent after our robust start to blogging is because I have lost our camera. I am very upset as we totally can't afford to get a new one right now. The last place I remember having it was at church two weeks ago for baby dedication. I called the church and they said they haven't seen it. I'm going to go there and look for myself and I'm praying it will show up. Until then....

Room Time

Maddie was in her room during "room time" today. That is when she plays in her room by herself with her music on and the gate up so she can't wreak havoc on the rest of the house. When I went in to check on her, she had stripped herself naked (which she is quite prone to do these days) and was trying to get her bathing suit on. It was in the twenties this morning I think, but she doesn't know the difference.

Pumpkin Day

We didn't do much to celebrate Halloween. Daddy did carve a pumpkin and Maddie helped hand out candy to our 5 trick-or-treaters. Moo!Maddie wouldn't sit still of course.Flashback to Maddie Oct "05-almost 5 months old

Growing like weeds

The last three months with Anna Kate:One Week Old Three Weeks Old What a Smile Sunday Best Poo on you!

Maddie

The next few posts are going to be a quick glance at the last few months. I've already gotten several comments that I should have posted pictures of Maddie too. Geez, you guys are impatient :) So here they are. Maddie is the biggest talker I know-she never stops! She is quite the comedian, and I think she gets her personality from her Daddy, at least that's what his mom says. She absolutely does not meet a stranger. She's also quite the Daddy's girl.
This was in August during the 100 degree streak. She loves to wear this hat with the one mitten (since the other is lost).Hannah, Maddie and Ruth enjoying their dinner. Baking cut-out cookies with mom. Ruth and Maddie at the balloon glow.

Climbing in Grammie's trees.

3 month old

I've had my original post ready for about 2 and 1/2 months, but never posted it. I plan on giving a synopsis in pictures of the last three months sometime soon, but for now, I'll show our precious three month old. She's currently in "sleep training" as she reverted from sleeping 7-8 hours at two months to getting up aroung two times a night over the last month. So we reluctantly decided we would have to break down and hear the crying, because obviously she's not going to give up on her own :) She finally cried herself back to sleep after 45 minutes or so last night. It was terrible, but I knew she wasn't hungry. She just wanted some company. I'm not much for company at 2am :) Then she slept all night-wow, it worked :) I hope that over the next few nights she'll stop waking up altogether.
The dress she's wearing was mine or my sister's :) I think my aunt smocked it for us.
The last pic is her napping this morning. She finally found her thumb. Maybe she'll be a better self-soother now.

Entering the blogosphere

With more and more of our friends and family being away from us, I decided entering the blog world would be an easier way of keeping up than sending pics over email. I've been reading lots of other people's blogs for a while now and love keeping up with my friends and their families through pictures and posts. So here I am. This way anyone who wants to know what goes on in our lives can look whenever they want. Honestly, it will mostly be pics of our sweet little girls and their silly antics. But maybe I'll get adventursome and muse about my latest wonderings every now and then. With a crazy two year old and an infant here, I doubt I'll have much time for musing for a while though.