we are . . .

"what are you thankful for?"

carter: "my mommy & daddy, my friends, miller and flower (what she calls her baby sister)"

miller: "mommy, daddy, sister and ruthie (carter's american girl doll)"

a little test run

last friday, our sweet friends welcomed a new member to their precious family. we all went to visit on saturday. the kids were so excited! when i arrived home from shopping with my mom, they were still napping. they woke up asking if it was time to go see baby charlie. so, after picking up a large diet coke from sonic for ms. jennifer, we headed over to meet baby charlie.

look who is so ready to be a big sister again. she held him for almost an hour. i had to steal him away. she was so sad when i took him, but mommy needs the practice too, right?? why do we forget so quickly how tiny they are? i mean, i have had two babies, why do they always look so small? 

as for miller, he was very interested in the baby and in avery's toys. he played with her toys completely content and would come look at the baby and touch the baby and smile at the baby and then go back to the toys. it was all very interesting. how often do you get a small glimpse into how something may or may not play out in your own life? not much longer until we will know the truth. look how sweet that baby is!

by the way, i know, i know, we have been m.i.a. lately, but it is because i have been sewing like a mad woman-post to come-and josh has been so busy there are no pictures. we would like to say things are slowing down, but since it is the holiday season and we have a baby due soon, then probably not.

grateful crafting

yes, i even decorate for "the little holiday that could" as i read another blogger refer to it as. i feel sorry for thanksgiving. it falls between two holidays that people seem to go all out for and it also gets ignored by the giant world of retail. so, i try to give a little love to the holiday that celebrates being thankful. of course, compared to my excitement for fall and absolute love of christmas, it seems almost as sad of an attempt as the rest of the world. 

below is one of my first banners ever. it is also one of my favorite. this banner has existed in some form for 3 years. it began as an attempt to give clout to my daughter's love for collecting leaves and acorns and such. so, i went to hobby lobby and bought several shades of brown cardstock, cut it in quarters and laced it together with a single roll of fall colored ribbon. then, with my old school aleene's craft glue, i created letters from the random nature items we collected on our daily walks. the first year, it read "happy thanksgiving". a little much, i thought. so, we have since changed it up allowing us to use different finds from every year. 

i love the simplicity and greenness of it. very thanksgiving-y, don't you think? i didn't know if it would hold up or not, but several of those letters are the same ones carter and i created three years ago. i just wrap it in tissue paper and store it in a quart size ziploc. oh, how it makes me happy! well, i am off to buy supplies for craft club tonight! wish me happy crafting!

i've been tagged, again!

i was tagged by my friend jennifer. i thought it would be interesting to discover the answer to this one.

here are the rules:

1. choose the 4th picture folder on my computer.

2. choose the 4th picture.

3. explain the picture.

4. tag 4 people to do the same.

seriously, we all have way too many pictures saved in our computer. pictures no one has ever seen, like this one.

this is carter looking through one of the fences at the zoo. this picture was taken in september of 2006. she had just turned 2 about a week earlier. miller was almost 5 months. we took a family trip during labor day weekend. just in case you are curious, it was originally blogged here. i cannot believe they have grown so fast!! miller is older now than she was then!

tag, you're it:

jennifer

kelly

joanna (i determined to make you a blogger! ha!)

emily

how fun! and now that pitiful post will not be staring at me every time i log on to the internet.

if you know me . . .

then you know i am not one to ask for help or even let others know when i am in need. i feel like a burden when others do things for me. but, sometimes it is best when others know your needs, your weaknesses. we have been flying through this pregnancy, so much that we only have seven weeks left to go. seven weeks. we have not done a single thing. in my first and second pregnancies, i would have had a fit if we were completely unprepared at this point. i remember when i was pregnant with miller and things were at a standstill, hurling the double stroller down the hall and telling josh to put it at the curb because i couldn't take anymore. irrational, yes! hormonal, yes! in fact, if you have ever carried a child then you know that your body is not your own and neither is your mind. everyone has had these little episodes where the ugly nasty person you could be all the time raises inside of you and spews out some crazy hormonal pregnant craziness that makes your husband question why he ever married you, much less allowed you to carry his child. 

well, we have not reached that point yet, but we did have a small bump in the road. on sunday afternoon and monday i was having low ligament type pain combined with lower back pain. when i called to see if i should be concerned, they didn't hesitate to say yes and to come in right away. they thought i might be in labor. labor?? are you serious?? i absolutely lost it. i cried the entire way there. we are not ready. she is not ready. several hours, an exam and a stress test later, they said everything looked good, but that didn't mean i couldn't go into labor after i got home. (thanks for the security!) many of you know that my husband has been working like a crazy person. one look at his blog makes you wonder if he ever sleeps much less has a day off. fyi, he doesn't. the last day off he had was this one. and i mean the.last.day.off. so, we ask for your prayers. prayers for a healthy baby. prayers for a 39+ week delivery. prayers for a healthy, sane mommy. prayers for time. time to prepare for our sweet girl. time to play with our precious children and enjoy our family before we become a larger family. the bottom line is this: i know that God's timing is perfect, that he knows what we need best and that regardless of how and when she enters the world, it will be in his perfect plan. 

we thank you. also, there is another more critical situation we know needs your prayers. please read about it here. please pray God will heal elizabeth's skin and her body.

what happens when no one wants to clean up

photo taken with iphone

cleaning up has been a struggle lately. so, today when carter announced they wanted to watch a movie, i said we had to clean up first. i said i would come help as soon as i finished what i was doing. i was approximately 15 feet away and it took me less than a minute before i went to check on them. there they sat on the playroom floor both with a marker coloring on miller's face! "what do you think you are doing?" i asked. carter quickly replied, "miller is a kitty cat." i told her to clean up the markers and miller to go look at himself in the mirror. he came right back crying, "i no want to be a kitty cat." i know, buddy, i know.

i am honestly shocked this has not happened before in this family. carter has made lipstick and nail polish with markers in the past, but never just drawn on her face. i know this is the creativity rearing its ugly head again, but since when is her blank canvas her brother's face!

trick-or-treat!

one thing i love about 4 year olds is their desire to be someone different every day, or several times a day. they can make a costume out of just about anything. carter is no different. she loves to dress up and has tons of costumes and random items to help do just that. so, halloween season is no different. she dressed as wendy for the hope fall fun fest, but she didn't get half the attention her little brother did. it was difficult for people to know what she was without the wig and because i usually had one and josh had the other. bless her heart, she had to be with him for anyone to get her costume. then, at preschool, she dressed as minnie mouse for her class party day. she was minnie mouse last year and told me about a month and a half ago that she was going to be minnie mouse for school. (her friend sophia was also minnie mouse and as soon as i find those pictures, i will tack one on.) so it came as no surprise when on the way home from school friday, she announced she would be belle for neighborhood trick-or-treating. 

belle and the cheeseburger

miller was really unsure about going door to door

a little funny: both kids had discussed the concept of trick-or-treating at school and safety for the night and so on. miller had been shouting "trick-or-treat!" randomly when talking about the upcoming event. so, we head out the door and visit our next door neighbors first because our kids are most familiar with them. as we get to the door, miller becomes very shy and his grip gets even tighter on my finger. when ms. christine brings the candy out to the kids, i ask, "what do you say?" carter responds, "trick-or treat!" and miller says, "may i have some candy?" well, at least he is polite and grammatically correct!