Fresh Strawberries and OJ...it's all in a week with Nana and Denden

  Every year for the past I-don't-know-how-many years, my grandparents have loaded up in their camper and headed south for the winter...snowbirds, as they call themselves.  They always leave a few days after Christmas and head home at the very end of March.  In all of these years, only one even has drawn them away from Florida during this time, my wedding.  And then we had babies :) This year, they came to visit (or to the rescue!) in February when I was very pregnant-sick and this past week, they left their campsite a week early and spent the last of their winter vacation with us. 
  The girls - not to mention Jacob and I - love it when they are here.  I cannot begin to tell you how much help they are when they're here!!  On this last visit, they brought us some fresh strawberries and some fresh Florida oranges...YUM!!

  I caught a glimpse of my childhood as AB sat with my Denden at the table and watched him cap strawberries.  I used to sit on my Granny Wren's (Nana's mom) front porch for hours at a time in the summer and shell peas and break green beans.  These are some of the best memories of my childhood...summer days in Bradford, TN.  My Nana will take these strawberries and cut them up, add some sugar, and serve them over hot biscuits with butter (another reason why I love it when they visit!)

  They also brought their juicer over - that my granddad said they got at a garage sale many, many years ago - and we made fresh squeezed orange juice with the dozen or so oranges they brought.  And it was SO much better than Tropicana!!  Denden showed them how to do it and then let each of them do a couple of oranges. 

  
 We ALL enjoyed drinking the fresh OJ together after we made it!!

Planting Our Rainbow

  One of my MOST favorite books to read to my girls...and one of their favorites, too...is a book titled "Planting a Rainbow."  It's a big board book with the brightest colors I've ever seen.  In summary, a child and their mommy plant a rainbow every year....they grow something red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.  If you know me, then you know that I love lots of color, so maybe that is why this is one of my favorite books to read. 
  Last year, as I was reading it to the girls, the thought hit me that this was a great idea to do with them!  So, last year was the first year.  I took AB (Lynns was only 8 months old) to a family-owned nursery and we picked out a purple plant.  I don't remember what it was called, but it was pretty and grew and grew and grew!  Each morning AB and I would go out to the front porch and water our pretty flowers.  This was happening while Jacob was away at Basic Training, so we would write to him and send him pictures - and even a flower one time - all summer long.
  Well, today was our "Plant Our Rainbow" day.  Jacob was away for drill, so this morning after our picnic snack in the back yard, we loaded up and went to the garden center at Wal-Mart. (I would've loved to have gone to another family-owned, local nursery, but I failed to look any up!)  We went up and down the aisle of beautiful flowers.  AB said she wanted orange flowers and insisted that Lynnsie wanted pink ones.  Lynnsie doesn't know her colors, yet, so I held some pink ones up for her and she smiled and reached for them and said, 'Kay.', which seems to be Lynnsie for "yes".
  Next, we went and picked out some pretty flower pots to put our flowers in.  AB chose one with stripes that were pretty shades of blue and Lynns chose a pretty green one.  We came home, ate lunch, napped, snacked, and were just heading back out to transfer our flowers into our pots, when Jacob walked in...surprising us all b/c he wasn't supposed to be home until tomorrow.
  We all went out and Jacob helped put the flowers in the pots.  The girls were really excited and now our tiny little front "porch" has some beautiful color to it, our own little rainbow.

  * As I was trying to take their picture, our neighbor came over and started talking to Jacob, so getting them to actually look at the camera became a lost cause :)

Pretty Pink Toes

  The background story:  I bought some awesome new nail polish -Electric Pink - for this spring and painted my toe nails, ultimately leading AB to ask me to paint hers.  "Of course!" I told her.  This was our first "mommy/daughter pedi"...I was proud to do it.  So, that Sunday morning (yes, a Sunday morning) while AB was eating her breakfast, I painted her toe nails.  See the finished product below:

  Our conversation this morning:
  Me: "Anna Beth, you need to put your socks and shoes on so we can leave for school."
  AB: "Ok, mommy."
  She comes back with her "flop-flops" on.
  Me: "No, Anna Beth, you have to wear your socks and shoes, you can't wear your flip flops to school."
  AB: "But, mommy, if I wear my shoes nobody will see my pretty pink toes!"

She's such a girl...and I love it!!

Just when I...

Just when I....

* pick the toys up out of the floor, they cover the floor with them again.
* get their lunch ready, they decide they're not hungry.
* mop the floor, they spill their milk.
* finish the laundry, they fall down in the mud.
* change their diaper, they poop.
* want to pull my hair out, they bring me happy tears.
* tuck them into bed, they get up again.
* start to eat my supper, they need help with theirs.
* get them settled down, they cry again.
* sit down to take a breath, their world seems to fall apart.
* warn them about running in the house, they fall down and "bunk" their head.
* get them out the door, they have to go potty.
* think they're not watching, the imitate my very words and actions.
* take them to the park to play, it starts to rain.
* put a new roll of toilet paper out, they completely unroll it.
* get everything set up to fingerpaint, they decide they want to do something else.
* blink....they'll be all grown up and these things won't seem like that big of a deal.

When It's Way Too Quiet

  I was cooking supper one night and was just thinking to myself, 'The girls are playing so good together right now."  There were no cries, squeals, or any other indications that a potential injury was about to occur or a favorite toy and had just been hijacked.  I finished up supper and got it in the oven and went to join in on the fun.  The "fun" was this:

  The tears started when she realized they just might have been doing something they weren't supposed to.  It was another one of those times where, there was a huge mess to clean up and it was just better to laugh than cry...as I realized a bath had to taken before supper and there really wasn't enough time for that.

  What happened was....AB decided to "help" me get Lynnsie ready for bed by putting her lotion on her.  Only, it wasn't the Johnson and Johnson's lotion, it was Eucerin lotion.  You know, that really, super thick lotion that you have to really rub into your skin and it doesn't just wipe off.  She had it on her face - as you can see - her hands, arms, and her feet.  I can't tell you how many times I almost dropped Lynnsie in the tub...she was so slick and she was sliding around everywhere!!  But, in the end, all was well and it was a "little thing" I just had to blog about.  The mess was cleaned up, supper was eaten, and Lynnsie had exceptionally moisturized skin for about a week!

A Quick Morning Bath

  We always do baths at bedtime...between supper and that great time of day when we tuck them into bed before we crash in exhaustion ourselves!!!  However, one morning last week called for a quick morning bath.  It became a need about 10 minutes before we were supposed to walk out the door...of course, why wouldn't it, right?  I still needed to dress Lynnsie, myself, and do my make-up.  So, here's what happened:
  I asked AB to bring me the hairbrush so I could put her hair in a "pokeytail" - her word for ponytail.  She had been gone too long to just get the brush, so I went to bathroom and found her at the sink, with the hairbrush.  She told me she was washing the brush for me.  This made sense because sometimes I have to run the brush under the water and then run it through her hair, to dampen her hair so it will go into a "pokeytail" easier.  I thanked her and told her that was good enough and started brushing her hair.  I had run the brush through her hair several times when I noticed there was soap all in her hair.  That is when I looked closer at the brush and found that she had REALLY washed the brush for me...what a good little helper she is sometimes :)  I tried hanging her over the sink, which was quite a sight, to rinse out her hair but she just wouldn't reach without possible injury to us both.  So, I striped her down real quick, and put her in the tub where I just ran the water over her head!!
  Sweet girl was so confused...when I got her out and dried off, she said - in a most confused voice - 'It's time for bed now.' 
  PS - We still made it out the door on time :)

Are we washing bellies tonight?

  I love teachable moments...you know, those times where you realize that whatever is happening, there is a lesson to be taught/learned.  The problem with me and teachable moments is, most of the time they are long gone before I realize there ever was one!! But, the other night, I saw it right away!  Well, rather, God opened my eyes and said, 'Hello....don't let this pass up, too!'
  We have a little game that we play most nights as supper is ending and we are getting ready for bath.  Some time ago, Anna Beth started asking if we were "washing bellies tonight".  Meaning, are we taking a bath.  She asks if we're washing hair, bellies, arms, legs, and, yes, "booties".  It is very cute and fun!!
  So we were in the bathroom and I was getting the water ready, AB was going "potty" and Lynns was running around naked...dangerous for an un-potty trained toddler, I know.  AB said, "Are we washing hair tonight?"  I told her yes.  She said, "Are we washing bellies?" and again, I said told her yes.  Then she says, "Are we washing hearts tonight, mommy?".  I said (in a "silly voice"), "How can we wash your heart...it's inside you?"  She says, "Can God wash my heart?"
  BAM...teachable moment.  I told her that yes, God could wash her heart.  I asked her how her heart got dirty and she said she didn't know.  I told her that when we do things that make God sad - like not listening to mommy and daddy, not being nice to our friends, taking toys away, etc. - it makes our heart dirty and that dirt is called "sin".  I told her that God loves us so much, that He gave us Jesus so He could wash our hearts and make them clean.  She seemed satisfied with this answer and, typical of a 2 1/2 year old, moved onto something else.  I think it was at this point she asked if we were washing "booties" tonight. :)
  It was so awesome, though, to be able to tell her about how much God loves us.  I know there is so much more to talk with her about and we definitely will as she gets older and wants to know more about Jesus and how to have a clean heart and just to what extent He went to to show us how much He loves us.  I was so thankful that God did not allow me to be so wrapped up in the bedtime routine that I missed this moment.  I pray and I wait for the day that she asks God, "Can we wash hearts tonight?"