My Girl is Seven

Seven. Yes. Seven. Seven years since my first daughter was born. It was a Monday night. I had hardly labored at all, and her heart rate kept dropping. C-section was scheduled, and 45 minutes later she was here. She's had us wrapped around her fingers since.

We tried to make today as fun as possible. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. (Actually Pillsbury did; I just baked them.) Since I knew we wouldn't be having cake later, we put a candle in her cinnamon roll and sang Happy Birthday to her.

 I went up to school and ate lunch with her for the first time. That was fun! I saw lots of kids from last year's class, and they remembered me!  And while waiting in line, I'm pretty sure a couple of first grade boys were flirting with me. It was a sweet time with her, so thanks, G, for watching the other two!

After school Grandma picked her up and took her to get a cookie. When she got home, Analise got about five phone calls in a row. It was crazy! At the end of the day, we counted how many people called to tell her happy birthday, and I think we counted 10.

She opened her gifts from Grandmom and Pops. Everything was a big hit!

 Not many years can I take a picture of her outside without a coat on. We had a great week of spring like weather!

At the end of the day, I crashed. And then I realized that I was so focused on making the day special for Analise that I never took time to reflect. Most years I pull out the photo album and look at the pictures of her birth. Amidst this week of busy days/nights and flying solo, I didn't have the time.

I do  know that I am SO blessed to have Analise as a daughter. Majority of the time she is happy, helpful, and she loves to learn.

Something we did on Brandon's side the family was write special words to Analise on a placement she could keep. She loves that place mat, and most of the comments had to do with Analise always having a smile on her face. And she does. Analise, we keep praying that you will grow deeper in love with your Savior and that you will grow in wisdom, stature and in favor with both God and man.

We love you, seven year old!

Valentine's Day

Better late than never. Valentine's Day - Brandon is never home on this day, but that's okay. It's a fun day to celebrate, but it doesn't need to be all mushy mushy. He left early in the morning for a week in KY. I came out in the morning and found these beautiful roses on the table. Pretty roses for a great price, dear. Way to go. :)

 He got each of the girls a balloon. They were a BIG hit.

The girls enjoyed their Valentine's parties at school, exchanging valentines with friends and family, and of course they loved receiving things, too!

Despite daddy being gone, they felt loved!

A Concert Come True

I LOVE going to Christian concerts, and I think I have my dad to thank for that.  He introduced me to Christian music at a young age and took me to my first concert in 2nd grade...Whiteheart!

Growing up, my favorite artist was Michael W. Smith; quite honestly, he is still my favorite. Another artist  I listened to a lot was Amy Grant. And the two of them singing a duet? Always a favorite.

So thanks to Facebook, I can easily follow MWS's tour. When I saw he was doing a Friends Tour with AG, I wanted to go so bad. The day I discovered they were going to be three hours away, I cried. Seriously...tears of joy and excitement.

I immediately called Brandon to tell him. No tears for him. :) He just reminded me that he would be out of town, but he encouraged me to find friends to go with. After the initial excitement wore off, the reality set in: no one home with the girls, a terrible night of the week, cost, late night, etc. I finally told Brandon all my hesitations. He again encouraged me to pursue it. My dear MIL offered to take care of the girls. With that in place, tickets were purchased, and the countdown began.

I went with both sister in laws (even the one from out of state came!) and two other friends. We left mid afternoon for the drive. We ate dinner at PF Changs and then headed for the concert hall. I was so excited!

Here they are when they first came  out; I don't think they have aged a bit!

 Sorry this is blurry; I was a long ways back. Amy's songs took me back into time, and I felt like I relived some of my childhood. Songs I haven't sung for years came back to me.

"Sing your Praise to the Lord..." took me back to my days at the skating rink with my friends from school.

"Thy Word" took me back to the time I sang that song in church with my dad.

"Baby, Baby" and "Every Heartbeat" took me back to middle school. My friend always had a party where we put together music videos, and one year it was one of these songs.

 MWS sang his oldies and some of his new songs, too. My favorite was "Secret Ambition." I used to crank that song over and over and over.  He also lead us in some worship songs; he is my favorite worship leader.

 Together they sang some of their songs and duets. They sang the entire "Somewhere, Somehow" a song I listened to all the time back in high school. I was a hopeless romantic then as well. :)

It was a night full of blessings and great memories. Thanks to Brandon for your blessing to go; thanks to my MIL for taking care of the girls. I am thankful for great traveling weather and safety on the roads. I am thankful my family was healthy.

We got home at 1:45 am and I got to bed at 2:00. What I learned the next morning was that I am too old for this. I felt physically sick when I woke up. Next time girls, we are spending the night! :)

Family Party

The friend party was on Saturday, so we had the family party on Sunday. Before going over to Grandma's house to celebrate, we let Analise open her gifts from us. Brandon was going to be gone on her birthday, and I wanted him home when she opened them. And what 7 year old doesn't mind opening gifts early?

 Here she is with her new things. She loved them all, and I loved the fact that most of these gifts were purchased at 75% off! :)

 Aunt Sarena was home for the family party. Yeah!

 The parents :)

 Analise with her cousin and best friend, A. She got a book light from her cousins and was so excited.

 Grandma and Grandpa gave her some great presents, too!

 We had enough panda cupcakes leftover that I didn't need to make another cake. Ahh...

Mom and Me Birthday Party

Ahh...birthday parties. Love 'em, but they are a stretch in my creativity. Analise had all sorts of crazy ideas for a cake...Zhu Zhu pet cake to a hockey cake. Or better yet - Zhu Zhu pets playing hockey. I needed a theme here, and I didn't want hockey. :) So I took her to Hobby Lobby with me, and we came up with a game plan. I wanted another mom/daughter party, because I think those are special times. It turned out that our theme was "Analise's favorite things."

She invited four other girls, and they were all able to come. The girls seemed to have lots of fun, and I enjoyed the time with the moms, too!

Analise set the table

A few  of Analise's favorite things:

leopard print ( a new favorite, I think)

chocolate

pink

gold (cups)

jewelry

I made a chocolate dip to go with her favorite fruit (strawberries)

Another fave - nail polish. We played a game with nail polish, and each girls' toes looked different. This game was a BIG hit!

We spent time as mom/daughter pairs putting together our panda cupcakes. This was lots of fun!

The girls built the pandas with their mom's help, and then they all ate them. However, Analise wanted to share her panda with her dad. I chose not to take that personally. :)

When Analise and I bought all the party goods, I counted out 10 pieces of scrapbook paper to use as our place mats. When she set the table, she came to me and said, "Mom, we  have a problem." She showed me the last scrapbook paper. Nice, huh?

The girls brought their Zhu Zhu pets over, and they played with those quite a while. We then did the nail polish game, decorated cupcakes, Analise opened presents, and then they played again. The two hours flew by, and Analise was just delighted in how everything went. Yeah! And I might add, there was NO mess to clean up. A special thanks to Brandon for taking the girls to volleyball in the morning so I had an hour at home by myself to get things ready, and also for Grandma allowing the girls to nap at her house to they weren't in our way. :)

And my favorite thing - seeing Analise so happy and watching moms and daughters interact and have a special time together.

Quick Pix

Mom, you may not want to see the last picture...

A couple of random pictures...

Sadie LOVES to carry around backpacks. Here she is with Maisie's bag. I thought she looked hilarious wearing that headband.

 

 Brandon has caught several mice in our garage. Ick. However, the girls love to see them and pet them. Not me. :)  However, being the softy that I am, after he catches them, I always ask him to let them loose outside. He complies even though they never survive. He has learned that girls need tenderness, and  this one way he shows it - for Analise's and my sake.

Mom...if you did happen to read this - don't worry, they aren't IN the house. You can still come visit. :)

Family Fun Friday

Friday was a family day, thanks to Brandon taking the day off from work. We'd originally planned to head east for some fun, but we ended up going to Plan B. There was a last minute meeting at church I felt like  I should attend, and it was over lunch. We spent the morning together by going for donuts, and then we came home and Brandon and the girls spent a long time outside. After having several Saturdays with Brandon at work, it was nice to have a morning at home with him around.

After my meeting we headed west to a really tall tower looking over a really large railroad yard. My first choice? I'll be honest...no. Has Brandon been interested in going for a long time? Yes. Did we accomplish the goal in getting away as a family? Yes. Was I happy? Yes.

The girls  had fun going up eight floors to look out and see all the trains. Brandon loved learning about how it all works. I would have rather seen lots of green out the windows, but I can't expect much else in the middle of winter.

Thanks, sweetie, for giving me the gift of a family day!

Let the Good times roll...and roll...and roll

We've had a very busy couple of weeks. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
A week ago Monday after taking Analise to her music class, I came home and quickly changed for a night out. I'll admit - it was fun to put on something nicer than jeans (but not a dress.:)) and go out with my man. We went to a local ministry's fundraiser; we sat at the same table with family and friends and saw lots of other friends from our community. The speaker was Jim Daly, so it was a neat experience to hear him in person instead of over the radio. The girls enjoyed an evening at home with "twin 1."
The next evening was P/T conferences for Analise. Again we needed a sitter, so "twin 2" came over  to hang out. Brandon and I were thankful to hear what the teacher had to say about Analise. This mommy heart is so thankful!  I keep praying Analise can be a model student - not for man's approval (or mom and dad) but instead for the Lord.

Wednesday night was Awana, and it was Mom's Night, so that required a little more planning. Plus, I got to hang out with Analise some as a mom. What fun! I enjoyed story time with her; we went around the room and shared what we loved about our child, and the child shared about their mom. Analise said, "I love my mom because sometime when she says we can play the Wii, she plays with me." (note to self...)

Also at Awana, the leaders encouraged the kids to raise and give a dollar so they could give their mom a flower. Being in the ministry I knew about this; what I didn't know was how hard it would be for Analise to give up a dollar. It almost became comical. Analise is usually a sharing, generous girl, but I'm learning she holds a little tight with her money. Over the week I gave her a couple of quarters when she went about and beyond with helping around the house. I then let her use two quarters she already had. She beamed with joy when she gave me my pink carnation. Later when we got in the van she asked, "Mommy, I can I have a dollar? I lost mine."  Mmmmm.....I don't think so. :)

Thursday morning we didn't have any school, but I did have P/T conferences for Miss Maisie. I took the girls over to their cousins while I was there. It was really enlightening to go and learn about Maisie. The teachers were all really pleased with how she is doing. She's developed a lot, follows directions, doesn't complain, plays with friends, and her fine motor skills are coming along. They affirmed me in the decision to keep her in preschool one more year. Something I found really interesting was something Maisie did. The kids are given 10 flash cards with a number 0-10 on it, and they have to place them in order. Not only did Maisie do it correctly, but she was the only one who did it in her head; she didn't talk through it. I wonder what this implies.

After the conference, a friend dropped of  her two kiddos to play awhile. The kids all had fun. Then a friend from church, a NYL agent came to talk with us over lunch.  During the afternoon the girls worked on Valentines, we cleaned and tried to get some things done around here.

Thursday nights for the last couple of months have been "Truth Project" nights. We have a young engaged couple and 2-4 college kids come each week to watch The Truth Project. It is a highlight of the week for me. It's been over two years since I have watched them, so I am challenged too.

And Friday...well, that deserves its own post. :)

The Tongue

One of our daughters is learning that lying is a sin and will not be tolerated in our house. She's been caught and punished a couple of times. Since punishment number one wasn't effective, I decided to get creative. After dinner one night we had a family devotion/lesson on our tongue. I read a verse from Proverbs on how the Lord detests lying lips. After reading the verse, I gave each of the girls a small amount of lemon juice. Their faces were priceless!

I then read another verse from Proverbs about how sweet words are like honey. We talked about what sweet words would sound like and then tasted some honey.

Since then we've had no more lying (hopefully she remembers!) and now when someone says something unkind, one of the girls will say, "That's lemon juice." Or when someone is kind with their words, I'll hear, "That's honey, right mom?"

Lord willing I will remember this lesson as well and use my tongue to edify and encourage those around me!

Daddy Daughter Date Night

Our local Park and Rec offers a daddy/daughter date night every February for girls in grade 1-5. When I saw Analise was old enough to go, I was really excited. However, I also knew it would be a stretch for Brandon. Unlike me, he isn't one for large gatherings with lots of people. I told him about it, and he said he would go. What a man! (I think it helped that he was reading Dr. Dobson's book, "Bringing up Girls." :))

Analise was excited, but she couldn't quite grasp the concept, other than she was going out with her favorite person, her dad. The day before going out, I was again explaining to Analise what the night would be like, what she would wear, and we had a conversation  similar to this:

Me: "Analise you will wear your bridesmaid's dress, and daddy will wear a suit."

Analise: Will he wear a tortilla?  I mean a tuxedo?"

Me: complete laughter. All  I could picture was Brandon looking like Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story Three.

Anyway, this is a big deal around here; they were expecting 650 dads and daughters. One could buy corsages and arrange to have your picture taken. Girls could go to a beauty shop in town to have their nails and hair done. We went the simple route - dress up and go. I painted her nails; I curled her hair and apologized that I couldn't do anything fancy. She didn't care. Some curls and cute clips were fine with her. It was SO nice having a dress already! She was ready to go when her date got home, and I'll admit, she went out with a handsome man!

They enjoyed an evening with dinner (lasagna, green beans, bread sticks, mousse and lemonade), she did a craft, and then they danced for about an hour. She came home on a high; she was so excited!

And I observed and listened to their night while pondering these things in my heart. A dad taking a daughter to something he knew would be important to her, setting his preferences aside. He went not knowing who he would see there, a familiar face. And he went beyond that. He said only about one in ten dads actually danced with their daughters; they stood on the side and watched. Not my man - he boogied with his girl. My heart just swells with gratitude.

As they showed me their new dance moves when they got home, a song went through my head:

SCC -  Cinderella

"And I danced with Cinderella, while she was here in my arms, because I knew something the prince never knew...the clock would strike midnight, and she'll be gone..."

Silly Sadie

Sadie can have her moments, and sometimes days, where she is moody and naughty. Thankfully those are the minority. Most of the time she is happy and makes me laugh. Here are some of those moments:

She was supposed to be sleeping but instead found some of her sister's stickers.

She wanted to wear my glasses.

She helped me make mashed potatoes, and I let her lick the beaters...something we  hardly ever do!

As I look back three years ago, waiting in the hospital bed, I didn't know how things would turn out.

For my birthday this year, my SIL gave me a cd of songs put together by one of my favorite authors, Karen Kingsbury. When she gave me the cd, she told me she always thinks of Sadie and me when she listens to a song on that cd. Sure enough, I listened and cried the whole way through. I figured this time of year was a good time to post it, because it sums of how I felt during that time, even when I couldn't put it into words.

"What is Means to be Loved" by Mark Schultz

For five months, eight days

My wife and I waited

Getting ready for our baby girl

But when the doctor called and said, "I need to see you,"

And, "Could you come soon?"

Something died inside of me to sit with him and hear

A test had said our baby might not live to be a year

And turning to my wife, he said, "What do you wanna do?"

She said, "I wanna give her the world, I want to hold her hand; I wanna be her mom for as long as I can; I wanna live every moment until that day comes; I wanna show her what it means to be loved."

So we spent each day

Watching every minute

And praying for our baby girl

And I will not forget the way I felt that moment when she came into this world

But they took her from the room just as soon as she was born

And watching through the window I could see her holdin' on

When a voice inside me said

"I wanna give her the world; I wanna be her dad; I wanna hold her close for as long as I can; I wanna live every moment until that day comes; I wanna show her what it means to be loved."

Well since that day we got to bring her home

She's been out to prove those doctors wrong

You should see her now

She's as pretty as her mom...

We're going to show her what it means to be loved.

A Breath of Fresh Air

As I sit and write this, most of the country seems to be in a blizzard. Though we didn't get much snow, we got lots of wind and subzero temps. I'm glad I captured our 48 degree weather with photos, or I might think I was just dreaming. Last Friday we went outside to play...bikes, scooters and all. Analise finally got to really ride her new scooter. Maisie remembered how to ride her bike AND use her brakes. Sadie was simply happy to be outside.