Molly

I don't even know where to begin in my description of Molly.  The amount of things I hope to remember about Molly at this particular stage in life seem endless.

Probably the best way to describe Molly would be to tell you that she is always one extreme or the other, literally, in all circumstances.  She goes from wide awake to dead asleep without ever being "sleepy."  She can be the most loving child or the most angry and loudest screaming child.  The most happy or the most sad....well you get the point.  Molly is a child of extremes.  And as a result, I can go from being totally frustrated with her to cracking up laughing at her in a matter of seconds.

Random facts about Molly:  She prefers to be naked or just in undies but rarely wants to get dressed.  Her favorite foods are stroganoff and spaghetti and she can usually eat more than Jason when we have either of those for dinner.  She also loves salad.  (Which is totally weird to me.)  She has great taste in music, preferring Mumford and Sons or Florence and the Machine.  She has most of the Mumford album memorized.  Out of all the family, Molly's eyes are the bluest (er...most blue?).  She is also the most hugging and kissing kid of all three.

After her first real haircut where she got bangs.

Molly loves her siblings.  Most days her and Isabelle will play together very well without any fighting.  She is also a great big sister to Lawson and constantly asks to hold him.  She loves playing outside and if we aren't outside her toy of choice is usually her blocks.  She loves to be read to and her favorite books are Pete the Cat and Everyone Poops.  She is also a lover of movies and has been watching Toy Story 1,2 and 3 over and over again. (and over and over and over)  Sometimes it is hard for me to pinpoint what Molly loves and not what Isabelle or Lawson love because really, Molly just loves to do anything her sister or brother is doing.

Molly is the only one of my kiddos to really struggle with eczema.  Hate that her little cheeks are always so dry.

She is a daredevil, fearless, and a persuader.  She will jump off of anything, climb anything and try to convince Isabelle to do the same.  We have a video of her at a very young age jumping from the coffee table to the chair without any hesitation.  Often times I look out in the backyard and see her jumping off some part of the swing set or sitting on top of her cozy coupe or doing something else equally as dangerous.  She also likes to spin around in circles in the living room until she gets dizzy and falls over.  I don't have to worry about Molly ever being the "follower" in the group, but I do have to worry about her convincing other kids to do things that might not be exactly safe.

Clearly a little grumpy when being woke up.

When it comes to me trying to be a better parent, Molly is the driving force.  Isabelle was such an easy child and continues to be easy.  Molly is not easy.  And surprisingly, I am glad she isn't.  She is strong willed and independent and likes to figure out what will happen when she crosses the line.  Finding a discipline method that works for Molly has been somewhat challenging.  I find myself praying a lot about being a good mom for Molly.  I know the Lord has big plans for her and I am comforted to know he doesn't really need my help to carry them out!  Since the day Molly was born and had to go to the NICU, I have been learning how totally dependent I am on Jesus (especially in parenting...lol).  

Molly is hysterically funny.  Here is a recent convo she had with her dad.  "Dad, what are these called?"  (pointing to her nipples)  Jason says, "those are nipples."  Molly replies, "No.  I am going to call them bobs." She says things like this all the time.  She has also started calling herself by other names, most recently, Kenna.  Each morning when she wakes up she asks, "Mom, can I be Kenna?"

To try and sum up Molly in just a few words is near impossible.  She is so incredibly sweet and loving with a very sensitive spirit, but she is also wild and challenging and totally frustrating at times.  I love her so much and am so blessed by her every day.  Yesterday on Valentine's Day, she was sick and running a high fever and yet, she crawled on my lap and said, "Happy Valentine's Day, Mom.  I love you."  She then gave me a huge hug and kiss and I was pretty much in awe of her sweetness.  She is remarkable.

Side note:  I wrote an entire Molly blog a few days ago and blogger did not save it.  I was crushed and am sure there are things I am leaving out, but for now, this will have to do.

Update on Sleep

Awhile back I posted about what I consider to be a myth, children sleeping through the night.  Many of you commented, and some suggested ways I might experience the magical joy of a full night's sleep.  After a few months of experimenting, I thought I would update you on our sleeping lives.  As if you care!

So, as I mentioned in my first post, I believe (and still do) that first time parents fall into the trap of thinking there is some wonderful age, usually around three or four months, where their child will start sleeping through the night and life will go back to normal and they will forever more be sleeping without any interruptions.  The problem is, in my opinion, that idea is crap.  A crap idea that I bought hook, line and sinker. 

See, there are these things called growth spurts, and sicknesses, or ear infections (ugh!), and nightmares, and loud thunderstorms, and so on.  The list of possible night interruptions is endless.  Most of the time, once kids start sleeping through the night, they keep it up.  But, it does not mean that you will never again be up in the middle of the night.  (I think even as they are teenagers, I may be awake some in the middle of the night......maybe not because they are in bed with us, but I think parents still have restless nights even with grown children)

With that being said, many commented that perhaps if I stopped the afternoon napping habit that bedtime would be much easier and my kids would, in fact, sleep through the night without waking up.  So, we gave up naps. 

Gave. Up. Naps.

Except for Lawson.

No naps. 

Did you catch that?  No naps.  For anyone.  Including me.  UGH.

The results?  No naps is much, much, much more work than naps.  Because, you see, Molly is still tired.  And it is serious work to keep her awake throughout the day.  If we go somewhere in the afternoon, forget it, she is out in seconds once the car starts moving.  And forget putting on a show while I cook dinner.  She will be out in a matter of minutes then also.  She has been known to fall asleep during dinner!  My kids have never been the type to fall asleep anywhere other than their beds.  Until now.

BUT, if we manage to keep Molly awake during the day, bedtime is a breeze.  And she stays in her bed at night.  Mostly.  Isabelle has also improved in going to bed.  She was never really difficult, but it is easier now.  And like Molly, she has improved at staying in her bed throughout the night.

I can't say whether or not I think no naps was a good idea or bad idea.  I am so tired from being up with Lawson that a nap really sounds great about 2pm.  And, it is serious work to keep Molly awake sometimes.  And, the days where I fail, and she falls asleep....bedtime is right back to being a chore.  So who knows.  I am sure Jason appreciates the decline in the number of nights a little child is crawling into bed with him, but again, they aren't gone altogether.

As for Lawson, I am just hoping and praying that once we have the ear tubes put in, sleeping will go back to normal for him.  Only two more weeks until surgery.  To the mommas who have been through the ear tube madness, I am so impressed by you.  This not sleeping thing is no joke!

I am going to continue the no nap routine.  It gives us an earlier bedtime, and usually more sleep at night from the girls, which I like.  However, I would hate to give the impression that taking away naps was easy or is easier than what we were doing before.  Kids are work.  Plain and simple.  I only traded one kind of work for another.  Lawson will continue to nap for at least another year.  And I am counting on the tubes to do the trick at night. 

Do your kids take naps?  What has been your experience with your kiddos sleeping through the night?  I would love to hear your opinion!

Isabelle

Lately when I look at Isabelle I swear she is fourteen, not four.  She just looks so grown up.  Everything about her is changing so fast.  And, I hate it.  Hate. It.  I try to remember how she looked as an infant, how she snuggled up when I held her, how she nursed, how she looked while sleeping, all of it.  Sadly, it is hard.  I would not have thought that four years ago would seem so far away.

My friend, Erin, blogged about her daughter, Kate and it was beautiful.  I loved every word.  I doubt I will write as beautifully as she did, but I am going to try.

So, here in a nutshell, is Isabelle at four years old.  These are the things (or at least some of the things) I hope to remember about her at this age.  And for the record, four years old is a pretty fantastic age.

Isabelle gets dressed the instant she wakes up.  She loves to pick out her outfit complete with shoes, socks and usually some sort of headband and necklace.  Even though it is winter, she would prefer to wear shorts and short sleeved shirts.  Since I have put away most of them we sometimes have a minor meltdown about what to wear.  She is very particular about her clothes and what she wears, but above all her socks are the most important.  She will spend an incredible amount of time putting on socks, adjusting socks, and then deciding to get new socks and try again.  She is crazy about her socks.

Her favorite show right now is Calliou.  Man, I hate that show.  She watches it (after getting dressed) while drinking her milk for the day.  If she had it her way, after Calliou we would do creative and educational things all day long.  Playing playdoh, coloring, making crafts, doing "school", and playing memory are just a few things she asks to do just about every day.

Right now she is figuring out how to determine what letter a word starts with by saying the beginning sounds.  She is a pro at rhyming, a skill that seems to have developed overnight.  She went from having no clue to waking up a rhyming pro.  She can count to 100 pretty successfully and can write her name, mom, dad, and molly.  She still uses signs, though not near as much.

Isabelle is a singing girl.  She loves songs and you can count on her making up her own songs and singing them at least once per day.  Sometimes after we put her in bed she continues to sing and sing and sing until we have to tell her to be quiet and go to sleep.

She is a great big sister.  She loves Molly and Lawson and spends a vast majority of her time playing with them.  She tells me multiple times a day what a "cutie little brother" Lawson is and loves to help me out with him.  I know she really cares about him because I have found her picking sock lint out of his toes (she hates sock lint in her toes)!  She also likes to make him laugh by playing peek-a-boo or crawling around chasing him.

Isabelle loves the outside.  She loves riding her bike and her scooter, playing on the swing set and much to my dismay, loves playing in the dirt.  She's not afraid of much including bugs, spiders and worms.  YUCK!

Her favorite foods right now are pizza (from Top That Pizza or Papa John's where Uncle Danny works), crunchy chicken with noodles and broccoli, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I don't know where she got it from, but she seems to have a bit of a sweet tooth.  HA!  She is in a really bad habit of asking for dessert after every meal.

She is a daddy's girl at heart, and each morning when he leaves she can be found standing at the garage door waving goodbye.  For some reason she has also started telling him, "If you find a polar bear, put him in the back of your car."  I have no idea where she got it or why she says it, but it's adorable.  She depends on Jason to come home for lunch and is pretty sad when he can't.  Most of the weekend she is found right by his side.

Recently, Isabelle has started saying to both Jason and I, "You didn't get your lovin' from me today."  She then proceeds to crawl on our laps and give lots of hugs and kisses.  It might be my favorite part of the day.
And, despite the fact that she tells me she will turn, "five, then six, then seven, then eight, then nine, then ten," she promises she will still sit on my lap even when she is forty-eight.

Isabelle is a lover (she never fights back even when her sister is hitting her), a drama queen, a bit of a wuss when it comes to injuries, hysterically funny, always helpful, bright, smart, beautiful, and a million other things.  I want to bottle her up and keep her just this size forever.  

Lawson is ONE!

So my baby boy turned one this past weekend.  One.  Crazy.  I am having a hard time coping.  Freal.  He is helping me a little by not walking and not getting any teeth so he still looks like a baby.  Kind of. 

one of the greatest days ever

Here is some info about Lawson at one.

Height: 29 inches (24th percentile)
Weight: 18 lbs and 11 oz (3rd percentile)

photo taken on his actual birthday

Eating:  Was improved until this past weekend.  He is/was eating more "real" foods like non-baby oatmeal for breakfast, veggie pasta or spaghetti, chicken cut up into tiny, itty bitty pieces, soup, bread, etc.  Basically I am trying to get away from baby food.  It is hard with the no teeth thing to find table foods that he can eat!  Lawson still nurses about 4-5 times a day and I think for now I will continue to nurse.  I may change my mind once those teeth come in, but for now we're sticking with it.  Lawson eats just about anything I give him with the exception of chicken pot pie!

Sleeping:  Also had major progress until this most recent sickness.  While Lawson has never really gone through a long phase of sleeping through the night, it was close during these past three weeks.  I had finally felt enough peace about his ears to do some sleep training and then BAM, sick again.  After seeing the doc today we are scheduling a time to meet with our ENT to discuss tubes.  Hopefully one of these days Lawson and I will sleep.

Likes:  Anything his sisters like, his rocktivity music table, his paci (lol), pulling up on the furniture and cruising around, taking baths.

Dislikes:  Having his nose wiped, not being allowed into his sisters' room, drinking from a cup.

Milestones:  Lawson started clapping and is close to mastering some signing.  We are working on mostly food/eating related signs for now.  He also started taking baths in the bathtub without the baby bath and really likes it when he gets to take a bath with Isabelle and Molly.

For Lawson's birthday Jason and I made a construction cake that I discovered on pinterest.  I found the picture on pinterest but the link only took me to spam, so I googled construction cake and found her site.  Here is the link.

Her cake was pretty awesome and I thought we could pull it off.  I was responsible for the cake (I used the recipes from her site) and the icing (used this icing and made the chocolate version).  I have to tell you that I think this was the best from scratch cake I have ever made.  The frosting was super yummy also!  Jason was responsible for the decorating.  He cut a little sliver out of the top and piled it back on the cake and frosted over it all.  We then used oreo crumbs for dirt and put candy rocks on as well.  The trucks were purchased at target in a little combo pack of construction vehicles.  Jason did a great job and overall the cake was a huge success. 

Here are some photos of the cake.

And, just as soon as Laws is feeling better the lovely CCMiller will be taking some photos for us!  I am so excited to hopefully get some great shots of my little guy!

Happy Birthday to the cutest, most cuddly, sweetest, most adorable little guy on the planet!

Adventures in Cooking: Bread, Frosting, Ravioli and PW

One of the first meals I ever tried to cook for Jason (aside from tacos or spaghetti) was orange chicken with wild rice and a green vegetable (can't remember the veggie!).  I was so excited to cook something new and even better it was from a new cookbook I had gotten from my mother in law.  I can still remember the feelings of pride I had cooking for Jason.  I can also still remember the look on his face when he cut into his massively undercooked, basically still raw, orange chicken.  It was a disaster.  Sometimes it is hard to believe that I am that same person who couldn't even cook chicken all the way.  I mean, don't most new cooks burn things?

Anyway, here are a few new things I have made recently.

First, Magical Frosting.

I love Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  I have found great recipes there.  My broccoli cheese soup recipe is from her also.  So, when Jason requested I not make buttercream for Isabelle's birthday cake, I looked at her site for frosting ideas.  At first glance, this recipe does not seem worth all the work required, but trust me it is.  This was seriously the best frosting I have ever had.  My only recommendation is to follow the recipe EXACTLY.  Don't try to cut corners with this one or you may be disappointed.  Also, if you like super sweet frosting, you might as well just stick with a can.  This one will not be for you!

Next up, Baked Ravioli.

This is a great and easy to prepare meal for the whole family.  Everyone in my family loves it.  It doesn't take long, has simple ingredients and works great for our meatless nights!

You didn't think I would start off the new year and forget to mention PW did you???

Her Chicken and Noodles recipe is divine.

I did a few things different.  I did not use a whole chicken because I only had breasts.  So, I used two chicken breasts.  I also did not use the water from boiling my chicken for the base of the soup because, well, I did not boil a whole chicken!  So, instead I used chicken broth from my pantry.  I also did not use near the amount of onion she did because I am an onion hater.  I did not have white pepper so I used black, and did not have turmeric either so just left it out.  With all the changes it still turned out absolutely delicious!!!  My kids were only slightly impressed, but they ate it so I consider it a win.  Jason and I loved it.

Lastly, a recipe I think you need to go make NOW.  

Bread.  As in homemade bread.  

This recipe comes from probably my all time favorite blogger, Jami Nato.  Haven't heard of her?  Go read her entire blog then come back and make bread.  Or, make the bread and eat it while reading her whole blog.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love her, you'll get a great bread recipe.  And if you're anything like me you will wish that somehow, someday, you might get to meet Mrs. Nato in person.

Okay, back to the bread.  You will need a bread maker, but you won't cook the bread in the bread maker.  You will only use it for the dough cycle.  You will also need a loaf pan to bake your bread.  I won't lie.  After reading about hair in bread (don't believe me, google it) I was compelled to at least try to make my own.  I was pretty sure I was on the right track after the second rise.  The dough was so BIG and looked so promising.  After baking it and having the smell of fresh bread fill my house I could hardly wait to taste it.  After waiting the five minutes after taking it out of the oven I cut myself a slice.  WOW.  Like, WOW.  It. was. so. so. so. good.  I honestly could not believe that I made bread that tasted that good.  Now, I can't stop making bread.  Easy, cheap, delicious.  I think I might make more today.  

There you go, four great recipes that seriously, you should make.  No excuses.  They are all so tasty.  And if you think that maybe you don't have the skills to make some of this food, just look back at the beginning where I mentioned the chicken debacle.  If I can do it, so can you!

Christmas Recap

I realize Christmas has come and gone, but for us our last Christmas was less than a week ago.  We celebrated with my dad and step mom last Sunday concluding our four Christmas celebrations.

Here is a recap of our holiday season in (mostly) pictures.

We went to Church on the Move's, The Story of Christmas.

The girls and I made goodies with my mom, sister and my sister's kiddos.

We decorated cookies and opened presents with Jason's mom and grandparents.

We celebrated Christmas at my mom's house where we ate our traditional Christmas breakfast.  I took a grand total of zero pictures.  Luckily, Jason took a couple. 

Aunt Katie helped Lawson open a present.

Lawson put on his new stocking hat!

The girls spent a lot of time in their new robes from Aunt Buh-Buh.

Molly was a little tired after our day of celebrating!

Christmas Eve we fixed hot chocolate and loaded up in the van for a Christmas lights tour.

We also wrote a note to Santa and put out some cookies and milk.

We woke up Christmas morning to open presents but the only thing the girls wanted to play with was the bowling.

We kept to our plan to buy only four gifts (a want, a need, something to wear, something to read).  Of course, Santa left one also.

Isabelle got to spend some time outside riding her bike.

Christmas evening we ate a delicious dinner of chicken fried steak with my mom, brother, and sister in law.  It was very yummy.

Then, this past Sunday, we celebrated with my Dad.  Of course we ate tacos and played games.  Jason did well at Quelf, but Terry still won.  (if you haven't heard of this game I think it is worth checking out!)

There you have it, our Christmas in a nutshell.  Despite the craziness and chaos involved in planning and shopping and cooking and cleaning, I still love Christmas time.

Goals for 2013

When I was a working woman I had to set goals all. the. time.  Daily goals, weekly goals, monthly, quarterly, and on and on and on.  For everything.  Sales, professional development, staff, my students, every aspect of my job required me to think about and set goals.  I mention this statistic every year, and I think it is important to mention it again.

80% of all Americans have no goals, 16% do have goals, 4% have goals and write them down, 1% have goals, write them down, and read them on a regular basis. That 1% will make nine times more income in their lifetime than the other 99%.
And while setting my personal and household goals hasn't exactly made me a rich woman financially, I do believe it makes my life better to be working towards something rather than just muddling through.

So here goes, my 2013 goals.  Or at least my 2013 goals that I am sharing with the interweb! 

1.  Lose weight.  Duh.  However, since this goal is so easy to lose track of, I am setting quarterly goals this time around and will check back in three short months.  For the first quarter, I would like to complete a couch to 5k program.  Day one is already complete.  I am also going to make it my goal to drink more water.  I used to be very diligent about this and it is time to get back to it!  I figure if I accomplish those two things, weight loss will follow.  We'll see.

2.  Complete at least three days of school a week with Isabelle and Molly.  I don't feel a lot of pressure to do five days a week with the girls because technically neither of them would be in school anyway, but I do want to be more consistent in what we are calling school.

3.  Work on a monthly character trait as a family.  This month is obedience.  With the girls we will discuss obeying your parents, but for me this means learning more about being obedient to God.  Jason's mom bought us a book about character like forever ago and I am using it to pick our character trait for the month.  Some examples are truthfulness, self-control, boldness, hospitality, joyfulness, patience and dependability.

4.  Earn money to buy a camera.  I have literally no idea how I will find the extra money to do this.  And even if I do find the money, I am not sure how I will justify using it for a camera, but I do want to try.  If I manage to get a camera, my next goal will be to find the money to take an online course from one of my favorite bloggers/photographers.

5.  Learn to care more about what God thinks than what people think.  I have a hard time with worrying about what other people are thinking about me.  I worry when I have people over if they will think my house is too dirty, or too small, or too crowded.  I worry about what people in my family might say if we get pregnant again.  I worry about what I look like, how I dress, how I dress my kids, my decision to home school.  It is ridiculous.  Why do I care?  I really don't know.  What I do know is that it is crazy to worry about what people might think instead of being concerned with what God wants for my life.  So there it is, I want to spend more time in the Word, more time listening to sermons, more time reading books that help me grow closer to the Lord and I want to stop worrying about what people think about me!

6.  Read more.  I'd like to read at least two books a month.  I feel like I do that now, but I haven't really been keeping track, so for now 24 seems reasonable.  I will let you know what I am reading and what I think.  I am almost through with a book I got for Christmas about parenting.  It's good stuff.

Lastly,

7.  I would like to make 2013 the year I stop being so hard on myself.  Even typing that is difficult because what I am thinking is, "good grief, don't be such a moron."  Whether or not I think I am overly hard on myself, my family believes I am.  They tell me all the time, "stop being so hard on yourself."  So this year I am aiming to give myself a little credit.  I am not entirely sure how to do this, but I am going to attempt to find out. 

There you go, my goals for 2013!  What do you hope to accomplish in the next 12 months?  I'd love to hear.  Also, if you have any book recommendations I would love to hear those also.