Crayons!!

I read in a magazine recently a tip to take crayons to the doctor's office for easy

 entertainment in the exam room. I've tried it twice now and it is great!!! 

You must try this! The paper on the exam table makes the perfect canvas for the kids and 

since its not your ordinary coloring page, they LOVE it!! 

Make sure they are washable crayons though ;) 

Last time Kaitlyn colored on the wall in the two seconds I looked away,

 but it wiped right off with a baby wipe!

Try it!

"Pass" Update

Kaitlyn is transitioning well to life without her beloved pacifier. She's still crying each time I put her down but for a very short time so I can live with that. I sure hope we get back to happy sleep times soon though! Before pass broke she would barely even hug me because she was in such a hurry to get in her bed :) 

Despite the progress we've made, this particular day she was convinced she was not ready for morning nap. I walked in to wake her up so we could leave and she had apparently thrown all her stuff out of her bed during her two minute protest ;)

She is doing so well that it has become somewhat of a joke. She occasionally asks for "pass" during the day but has this look in her eye that shows she really does know it's gone but she just figures she'll ask,

 just in case I found one ;) The first couple times I tried to be sympathetic when she asked but then when she repeated it I would say in my "oh that was funny" voice that "pass broke silly." It totally worked and even Addison plays along which helps Kaitlyn.

Also, as a side note,

 the girls are really playing well together again which makes this Mommy VERY happy :)

Just a short little post but atleast you know we're still alive! hehe

Addisonisms

Just a quick post but Addison has been cracking me up lately :) She must be in one of those brain growth spurts. I've never actually read of such a thing but she would be the poster child for some research on it! Periodically she goes through these stages where she is learning so much and her communication skills just can't quite keep up. Here are some examples....

The other day I was busy doing who knows what and Addison came to me crying. As usual I asked "what's wrong?" but that was where the usual ended ;)

Addison answered through her tears "Kaitlyn doesn't know me." Containing my giggles I said, "Of course she knows you silly, what do you mean?"  Addison replied "No! She calls me Addy but I not Addy I Addison!!!" I lost it... she was obviously over tired that day but I thought it was hysterical :)

Then, a couple days later Kaitlyn was napping and Addison was helping me make cookies for a party we were going to. She doesn't let me get by with only allowing her to dump in the pre-measured ingredients anymore, she wants to be intricately involved in every step.  While I was still getting the dry ingredients together she asked if she could stir them. I said she could but she needed to wait just a minute. She let out a very heavy sigh and said "it's hard." "What's hard?" I asked.  "Being patient" hahaha

Last night as I was trying to get her tucked in bed she was stalling a little. We had the trundle bed pulled out and she was walking across it to climb in her "big bed" when she got distracted and started bouncing a little. I reminded her that we do not jump or even bounce on beds and she replied, "I just balancing. See you do your legs like this (squatting a little). When you don't have anything in your knees you balance them like this (bouncing up and down)." LOL She wasn't bouncing huge or jumping and I know some of you think I'm crazy but beds are for sleeping or resting. Anything else becomes a slippery slope and expects too much judgement from a 3 year old (or her 1 year old little sister).

I am so glad to say that we appear to be past the hard stage we were in for a few months and we have moved on to another fun stage instead!!

humbling

34% of Christian families consider adoption

ONLY 1% do it

There are 163+ million orphans in the world who need a Forever Family

If only 7% of Christian families would adopt, there would be NO MORE ORPHANS

**I have not been able to find the original source for these statistics but I have seen them on multiple blogs. Even if they are WAY off they are still INCREDIBLY ALARMING.**

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." 

John 14:18

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families..."

Psalm 68:5-6a

Vacation

I better hurry up and post this before we go out of town again!! haha

 Getting our vacation off to the right start ;)

 Helping Daddy look for bugs, hehe

 Can you tell it was bright? haha

This was our first time in the pool this season and she was doing great!!

We had a great week at home. As you've already read, we spent the first weekend celebrating our 5 year anniversary! We had a great time. Tammy took Monday off so we took advantage and hung out at her house that day... but I didn't think to take any pics.
We went back to my parents' house and relaxed for the afternoon... last visit I got in trouble for not taking a single pic of my mom, so I remembered this time ;)

On Tuesday, Kaitlyn woke up with a new tooth! No wonder she was so fussy the day before ;)

see?
 That afternoon we had our friends, the Afflerbachs, come over and hang out! Isn't it great to have those friends that you can just pick right back up where you left off and it feels seamless? We love hanging out with them :) I really need to quit slacking off on the pictures though!

Wednesday Kaitlyn got sick and I took her in to the ER.

Looks real sick, huh?

Turns out Mommy was right no matter how cheery she looked while we were there. She had a double ear infection and a sore throat so off we went with a Rx.

Looked like everything was headed in the right direction... until Addison got sick on Thursday. LOL 

She was running a fever for no apparent reason.

We still managed to see most people and make the rounds but it was a crazy week.

On Saturday we got to see and hang out with Trey and Erin!!! And then BBQ with all "the guys" as I've always called them. That expression doesn't work nearly so well now that most of them are married... 

I love getting to hang out with all the wives now though :)

 Happy Birthday Avery!!!

Just like the good old days... haha

We were hoping to go to church on Sunday at the church most of the guys go to but couldn't justify sharing our germs...

Crazy week I'm telling you! 

I'm just glad we are going back in a couple weeks!!!!