Duck

The other night at dinner Carly was sitting at the table and she had a little bit of gas. Well she let one out and said, "Ha - that sounded like a duck. My bottom said quack!" It was so funny. I had to control my laughter to not encourage talking about gas, but it was so funny. I love how they are so quick on their feet when describing something!



Side note: Please pray for our house! We have some people coming back into town who really liked our house the first time they came into town. The are coming this week and maybe they will come and look again at our house. They have nothing to sell so that is great!

Trophies or Teachers?

This was the title of the devotional in my Bible today. It was really interesting to think about. It posed the question, "Do you view your children as trophies or teachers?" Hmm. If you view them as trophies, you look at all their accomplishments and personalities and place them up on your mantel and take credit for all they have become. Kind of easy to do. It is natural to take pride in your kids! When they do the littlest things that make you proud, it is easy for you to hold them up and smile at what wonderful thing they have done. BUT, if we view them as teachers, then we will submit ourselves to the lessons we will learn from God at their hands!!! I have to admit, over the past 4 years, I have learned so much from my kids! For instance, prior to children, if I were sick or in pain, once it was severe enough I would probably pray for my healing. Yesterday Carly was not feeling good, and I stopped what I was doing to stand next to her at the breakfast table and pray for her to feel better. I have done this a lot for them when they have boo boos or when they are sick, they listen, but never really respond. Yesterday, after praying, Carly dropped her toaster stick, and bowed her head and prayed for ME!!! She prayed with her eyes closed and with so much compassion. She thanked God for the day and to help me not to get sick! WOW! She showed me that yeah she was feeling down, but there are other people that need to be prayed for! This is awesome to me! They can do the smartest things in the world, but them getting the connection that there is an almighty God who can do so much for them is the best thing in the world. They truly are amazing teachers if you let them be. I taught their Sunday School class a lesson several weeks ago about a man whose son was sick and he went looking for Jesus to come and heal him. One afternoon they were running around the back yard yelling, "Jesus! Jesus! Where are you?" Matt asked them what they were doing. They said, "Dad, Chloe is sick and she needs Jesus to make her feel better!" Do we often run to Jesus immediately when something is wrong? Or do we wait until it gets pretty rough before going to Him? These are just a few examples of what my girls have taught me about the power of prayer! I can say, I have definitely gotten a whole lot better at going to the Lord so much faster with my problems, but I have a lot more work ahead of me. So what a neat question to ask yourself - is your child a trophy or a teacher? What holds the best lesson in life - your child can cut a straight line or having your child grow in their love for God and that they praise Him with their lives? God gives us the little miracles called children - learn from them!

It's a ........

GIRL!!!!!

All you that voted, majority was wrong! I think most were convinced she was a he, but alas, the girls rule in this house! We don't have a name yet, but we should have it pinned downed soon. Poor Harper is completely outnumbered! Uncle Kris and Harper have to stick together in their world of 3 sisters!

First Flutter of Life

On Tuesday, (St. Patrick's Day) I got to feel the first flutter of life from our baby! We were getting ready to go to bed and I felt the very faint thump from within! It is so exciting to finally get to feel, and today maybe name our little bundle of joy. It is kind of sad, because that will be the LAST time I will feel the first flutter! I am trying to savor this pregnancy and love every little bit of it because it will be the last. (I do not savor the yucky feeling and the bathroom breaks at night!) Today has been so hard to not really talk to the girls about going to the Dr. I wanted them to take a good nap and not be excited, so I have had to control myself until they wake up. It is exciting to go into the second half of pregnancy. The first half is just the down feelings and the exciting thought of a baby. The second half you get to put a name to the baby and feel and get to know their personality. I can't believe we only have 23 weeks left until we meet this baby (well probably 24 weeks knowing the way my pregnancies go!)

Monkey Joes

Today we went to Monkey Joes with Sarah and Preston. The girls were so excited to go today and practiced jumping all morning. We had a few surprises while we were there, but they didn't break down too bad. First one was they had to deflate one of the jumpers to clean it (someone either got sick or had an accident). Well, this worried them so much! We were at a fall festival once and the one there deflated while kids were in it and they have remembered that from when they were 2. So they do NOT like it when inflatables are down. So we went to the toddler section until the inflatable was back up - they refused to get on that one and probably will never again get on it. Also, Monkey Joe made an appearance and they are TERRIFIED of big dressed up characters (Disney World is definitely out for this family for a long time), so they wouldn't come out of the jumper they were in because I told them he couldn't fit in the hole!

Here are Carly and Chloe in the toddler section (the only slide they will go down and it is only like 3 ft. long)! Preston would not get in the pic with them, but he was around.

Here is Harper with some girl he befriended. She took him through all the big kid jumpers! Notice my 1 1/2 yr. old is going down the big slide - usually he went by himself, but this time the girl decided to hold him. He had so much fun with her and they did alot together. It was nice for me! I didn't have to do a thing! Harper loved making her go alot - she kept telling me, "he keeps saying again and I don't know about him but I'm getting tired!" She was so cute and she loved taking care of him.

Showings

We have had 2 showings so far and hopefully now that it is getting nicer again, people will start shopping! The first showing was a no go. The second showing (Saturday) the people said our house was their favorite out of 7! They did call our realtor on Monday asking about the neighbors and the sewer here (our realtor is our neighbor - their house is behind ours). So, we will see what happens with that. Please pray that the right people come by and want our house (the girls pray for this very often - they want a house with stairs!). I am getting ready to move now. I was very hesitant at first thinking if we sell, we sell. But now I am ready. This keeping the house cleaned thing is for the birds!! I mean, I always clean but keeping up with the toys isn't the funnest! But the girls do tend to clean a little better if I tell them someone may come look at our house and want to buy it so we can go to the house with stairs! And I would also like to bring our baby home to a new house and then we can get settled as a family and start our new chapter! The neighborhood that we want to move to is called Fieldstone Farms. It is like 5 or so miles from our house now. It will be closer to my parents and to our church. So we aren't going far. The neighborhood isn't our 100% favorite, but the house plan is and our lot backs up to trees and a creek (this is Matt's dream to live near a creek). Of course the people next door have dogs - UGH! - but I don't think I can ever get out of that. At least they have a fense (if you don't know - I HATE animals!!!!!!) - sorry Nichole (my sister the vet tech), but I can't handle the obnoxiousness that they bring! Anyways, just wanted to give an update on the homefront!

Dinner

Here are my children waiting for dinner tonight (yes they are in their pjs - it was raining and 40 degrees today, a most definite pj day!) The girls look like they are on death row - their stomachs were hurting so bad! Harper is just being cute and in on the action with his sisters. Notice how the girls are laying. They laid like that when they were tiny babies in the crib together, that is why I think they suck opposite thumbs, so they could look at each other.