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First Grader!!

Today was Nathaniel's first day of First Grade!

He was so excited to be going back to school and starting a new year.

My lil Flowertown Elementary "Busy Bee!"

His very own desk this year... in the second row of Mrs. Horner's class.

Praying for an amazing and successful year!

Motherhood Moments

Someone asked me recently what my favorite moment of Motherhood is. What a tough question to answer! There are so many thngs that I love about being a Mommy... and I do my best to cherish each and every moment I am given with my precious children.

I have thought about this question alot and though there are so many answers Icould give, I have decided my favorite moment of Motherhood, (other than the moment of first holding and looking into the faces of my beautiful babies!!) is bedtime.
Yes, Bedtime.
This may sound odd since bedtime is when our children are sleeping and we are not with them. But many of the moments I enjoy the best with my children are putting them to bed. The calm, peaceful moments of cuddling, sharing moments of the day, praying over them, kissing their little heads, and tucking them in.

As I sat rocking my baby girl tonight (after 30+ minutes of screaming and not going to sleep on her own!) I could only smile. I was reminded once again how much I treasure and love those moments. I can't help but think to myself how blessed I am. To think that this may be the last chance I get to hold, rock, and pray over my baby girl. Wow...
How can I complain?
I don't want to miss a moment of it.

When the day is busy, and kids are hectic.
When they are whinny and fussy, cranky and loud
When they want nothing to do with me...

There's always Bedtime.
There's always hugs.
There's always a kiss and a prayer.

As I lay Nathaniel down, go through our nightly routine, and kiss his forhead. He leans to me, draws me close... and says, "I love you Mommy!" How much, I reply? "Up to the moon and down again, and all around the world... and up to the moon and down again, and all around the world again... and THAT's NOT ALL!!" ..and Jesus loves you more! (Just as my mommy did with me!)
My heart melts.
My arms love the embrace and warmth of holding my precious ones close.

Lord, May I always treasure each and every moment you allow me to share with my children. They are gifts from you and I am blessed and thankful for the time you have bestowed on me to love them, raise them, and care for them.

My Confident Aquatic Problem Solvers!

We did it!! Elliana and Nathaniel have finished their session for Infant Swimming Resource Self-Rescue swimming lessons. I am so proud of them both and how great they have done. The last week was very different and difficult as we tested out their skills while wearing clothing. The week started with them wearing light weight summer clothes, then long pants and long sleeves, then to thicker heavier clothing, and lastly in full winter outfits and shoes.

Elliana's "Starfish!"

Thanie's "Starfish!"

Rotating from his back to his stomach for a swim-float-swim rotation. This way he gets as far as he can, but knows to roll over to float, rest and take a breath whenever needed!

Through this program Nathaniel and Elliana both learned breath control, and swimming face down (which promotes vertical swimming. When your face is not in the water your more likely to sink) Where your head goes, your feet are sure to follow!

Ellie floating independently with heavy fleece winter clothes on!!

The rolling over and going for the wall as she finds her way out.

For more information on Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) visit http://www.infantswim.com/.

These lessons are very different then your traditional swim lessons. The skills they learned are for self-rescue purposes in the unfortunate chance that they find themselves in a situation with water. SUPERVISION is always the best protection! Survival skills are just one more layer of protection we as parents can offer our children.

SOOOO Proud of them both and how hard they worked over the last month and a half. I truly believe that they are now confident aquatic problem solvers. So incredibly thankful for Becky, our awesome ISR instructor. Blessed that God brought her, and this amazing program into our lives, and blown away by the healing it brought, the passion it birthed and the new journey it has started us on! I would have never even dreamt it 2 months ago!

"Star" Baseball Player

Nathaniel: Mommy, when I grow up, can I be a Star Baseball player, would you like that?"

Spring time is here and it's t-ball again. Nathaniel has come such a long way this season. He has impressed us, his team mates, and coaches. He is so much more focused, able to throw better and often catches the ball. We are so proud of his hard work playing this year.

Here are some of the highlights from my #5, Royal Blue, left handed boy!

Up to Bat!

Home!

Baseball Ready!



Check out that form!

Always a... "Good Game!"

Team Party and Trophie night.

Spring 2010 Summerville Little League 'Sportsman Shop' Royal Blues

" YES, My dear... You can be ANYTHING you want to be when you grow up... and I would love to see you play baseball. Just remember... You are already a STAR to me!

I love you Thanie!!"

18 Months

Elliana is now 18 months old!

It's so hard to believe she is growing up so fast. She is such a joy and delight to us. It's amazing how much she has changed and progressed in the last 6 months. We are so proud of all that she is doing. She is really trying to imitate sounds and words and has learned quite a few. She loves music and is often found dancing. You'll never miss when Ellie walks in the room as she beams her million dollar smile and gives her"Miss America" wave high in the air. She blows kisses and gives hugs all the time and absolutely loves babies. Elliana will never be left out of play time with Daddy... she loves to be tickled and wrestled with and jumps right in with big brother. She already has such a sweet tender and caring heart and it shows with her interactions with others as well as in her play. Elliana adores her big "bubby", Nathaniel.


Ellie knows many of her body parts and has taken off with signing!I love to see her making requests with signs and I do believe it is reinforcing the verbal language as well. Here is a short video of her in all her cuteness.

Elliana also has such a little personality blooming. I must confess that we do have quite a Diva Princess on our hands.

Elliana loves shoes (of any kind, any size!) loves jewlery, lipgloss and nail polish. She is often found with a purse or bag on her arm and a bracelet and necklace on.

We have learned the word, "No" which we are not too happy about but we are working through it. When she wants something, Ellie is not shy to let us know and when we don't get our way, there is quite a little attitude that shows its face. We've also learned to love the camera... and "CHEESE!" ...when we're in the mood!

We love her so much, and know that we have been soo blessed with the gift of a daughter. I thank God every day for our precious little girl, our Elliana, our answered prayer.

Out of the Mouths of Babes Moms!

This is a new blog carnival found over at MckMama's Blog. I always chuckle when I read about the silly things that come out of MckMama's Mouth. It's nice to know I'm not the only one that say's such goofy things. As Mom's you never know what we may need to say to our children on a daily basis! It's part of the joys of Motherhood.

So today, I decided to join in on the fun! Here are some things that have come out of the mouth of this Mom...

"NO, Hunny... Please don't put your hands IN the Poop!"
"If you would just lie still, this would be over with very quickly!"

"Please do not squeeze or pull the snake! We will let him free himself."

"Do not let her touch or grab your penis! We keep our private parts to ourself!"

"Yes, that is poop all over her sheets, No you can not see it and smell it, I will clean it up". "Yes you make Lots of messes like this when you were little."

"Wipe off marker should not be used on your sister... please only use it on your wipeoff board, thank you."

"No, when you grow up you will not have breast, and you will not need to wear a bra. Only Mommy's and ladies where a bra."

"I'm sorry sweetie, but you may Not eat scissors! They are not a snack or a toy."

How about you?? What silly things have you said lately?!

ISR Update

My little Swimmer! ...

Well, we are now at the end of week 3 of lessons. Things are going great! It's amazing to see the change in such a short time period. Elliana is doing so good and is so much happier, you can see the confidence building as she improves day by day.

As intense as I knew it would be, I still had my doubts about only 10 minutes a day. I have been so impressed and amazed to see how much that 10 minutes and the consistency of everyday can do.

Earlier this week we also started Nathaniel with Self rescue lessons as well. He was so excited to finally have his turn at lessons! With a big smile on his face from the first minute, he is really enjoying the lessons and doing really well.

Here is a short video of Nathaniel on his first day...

We are working on floating more than anything with him as he is a bit over confident, but I know that he will continue to improve and gain these important skills in no time.


Chin to the ceiling.... starfish!

Looking forward to the coming weeks to see them get even better and better as they gain more confidence and the skills come naturally

OrangeOnions.com

I found a great new website that I wanted to tell you all about! It has great products for great deals. They also have giveaways and sales for all your shopping needs! I am looking forward to doing some shopping! Check it out for yourself and be sure to check out their
Deal of the Day!


http://www.orangeonions.com/c=6xOgJrKRACevEDu2AyvMVwvsN/category/peel_of_the_day/

Elliana's 1st ISR self rescue swim lesson

Today was Elliana's first ISR swim lesson. She will be learning self rescue water skills over the next few weeks. It was an emotional and difficult day but I am so proud of how well Ellie did! They began today by working on holding onto the wall (or the pvc bar at the wall- lower for practice due to Ellie's size) She needs to gain confidence in the wall and learn to reach and go for it (not a person) when needing help or a way out.

Here is just a quick snipet of her lesson.

Looking forward to watching her grow and learn over the next few weeks!

18

This past Saturday, March 20th was a very significant day for my family.

A month and a half before my twelth birthay, in 1992, my dad died in a work related accident and went to Heaven to be with Jesus.

It was one of the hardest days of my life.

It rocked our world, and changed the course of our family.... forever.

This year marked eighteen years, he's been gone... 18!! Wow!

Such a hard thing to comprehend. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

I still miss him so much.

I still wish so desperately he was here to be apart of our future. To have been here for al of lives exciting (and diffcult) events. To have met his incredible grandkids, to have taught us all to appriciate music even more, to remind us always to laugh.

Yet life has moved on.

Soooo much has changed and we have all grown up.

My mom is remarried. I have a step father and 3 new siblings (:

We now live 8 hours away and each have families of our own.

Saturday was also a special day in a very different way.

11 years ago, in 1999, Jake and I made a decision to begin something together....

We began to sponsor a little boy named Mohamed Abeid. Mohamed lives with his family in Tanzania, Africa.

What makes Mohamed special is that he was born on the same day that my dad went to Heaven. March 20, 1992.

One of the things that comforted me that most after loosing my dad was remembering that Life begins and life ends. God gives life, and he ends life. It's a cyle we are all a part of.

It may be hard for others to understand, but for me it was comforting and special to know that I could help and support this little boy, who God chos to give life to, the same day tht he chose to take my dad to his heavenly home. Mohamed may not make it through this life, without sponsorship, and we were able to be apart of that plan.... pretty amazing.

Through the years we have kept in touch with Mohamed, watched him grow, and mature. Kept up with his studies and been amazed as his handwriting, and artistic abilities have improved greatly. He know writes us his own letters and draws wonderful pictures for us. It has been a wonderful journey to have been a part of.

Last Saturday, March 20, 2010, Mohamed turned 18 years old. He has grown into a handsome young man. Our little boy, is not so little anymore... and we are proud to have him as part of our family... and honored to havebeen able to be apart of his life.

Happy 18th Birthday Mohamed!

Bye, Bye Birdie Bottle... Blues

Another feat. Another milestone.

It has been over a week since Elliana has had a bottle. She loves her sippy cups. Heck, she loves everyone elses sippy cups too! I realized that it was harder for me to just give up the bottle than for Ellie. I want to comfort her, to make her happy, to soothe her. The most difficult for Elliana ME ,is bedtime. We were to the point where we really wanted her to start putting herself to sleep. To back down from the long 30 minute or so ordeal of rocking, bouncing, etc. to get her to sleep. But thats what she wanted. Thats what she loves. It was so hard to let go of that. So I gave in and went with the bottle.

It worked. She went to bed, on her own with her bottle. We just had to lay her down.

It was wonderful, It was peaceful.

After a few weeks of this I decided it was time to start weening the bottle. She is 15 months old now. So I tried it. I rocked her a bit, comforted her, then layed her down... this time with a sippy cup. A little fussing, A pushed away cup, and even some tears.

But it worked. She still went to sleep... within a very few minutes!

So Bye, Bye Bottle it was!!

Since then, Elliana has done so well with just the sippy cup for bedtime. What a relief.

...That is Until we began the Bye, Bye Bottle Blues...

The last 2 nights have been very hard for Ellie (ME!) Elliana has cried, and cried, and thrown fits, and tried to throw herself out of my arms... Just to get to bed. It breaks my heart. I want her to get peaceful rest, I want her to be happy.

I know the easy answer. I know what would work...

But I can't go back...

We said Goodbye to the bottle and theres no turing back!

NOT ME! Monday

Being brutally honest, and living to tell blog about it!
Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. "Not Me! Monday was born out of my desire to admit some of my imperfections and reveal a few moments I'd rather forget. You may find it therapeutic to join in and do the same thing!" You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


As I went through this week, I certainly did not take notes on my Not me Monday antics so that I would definately have something to blog about today! I have a much better memory that to need that and I would never be so worried about such things! Nope, Not me!

I did not thoroughly clean off our lovely highchair this weekend for the first time since Elliana was 7 months old!! And I did not feel ashamed at how dirty is was and how much was hidden under that lovely seat cover! I take much better care of my children's things and would never put my child in something that dirty! Nope, Not me!

And as I was cleaning said highchair, which took place on the back deck, I surely did not watch as my darling one year old daughter picked up a (who knows how old) wheat thin that has fallen from whithin the chair somewhere. I did not allow her to put the cracker in her mouth and proudly walk off eating it as if she had found a prize! I would never let my child eat something old like that, that momentarily fell onto the deck. Nope, Not me!

At another point while outside this weekend I also did not leave my wonderful children unattended for mere moments as I loaded the dishwasher. While playing with chalk my lovely son did not decide to scribble all over the table with chalk just to rub it off with his hands, creating "chalk snow" All over his sisters head!!! I always keep a better watch over my children than that. I would never stand by and let something like that happen to my poor baby girl! Nope, Not me!

How about you... what things have you Not been up to??

NOT ME! Monday

Being brutally honest, and living to tell blog about it!
Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. "Not Me! Monday was born out of my desire to admit some of my imperfections and reveal a few moments I'd rather forget. You may find it therapeutic to join in and do the same thing!" You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

While trying to get some things done around the house, I did not leave my one year old daughter unsupervised in her highchair with some crayola beginning crayons (..and, ...a... oops! ...paint!) And I did not come back moments later to find her eating said crayons paint and covering her face and mouth with beautiful colors! I am more responsible than that and always watch my children closely! Allow my child to eat art supplies, and even photograph said incident, Nope, Not me!




I did not run out with a friend to walmart sat. night at almost midnight to grab a few things for Valentines day so that I could suprise my hubby with some chocolate. I am much more together than to forget a gift for such a special holiday like this one! No last minute late night shopping for me, Nope, Not me!


When I delived such said gifts to hubby, knowing (as always) he would not have anything in return; I also did not feel completely and totally stupid and humbled when I recieved the greatest gift ever!!! My hubby surely could not have gotten away with keeping such a huge secret from me and getting friends and family involved with this gift without me having a clue... And I definately did not become speechless when given this ,heartfelt, handmade, three-strand, personalized bracelet!! Nope, Not me!!!



After bathing my darling daughter, I did not take off my wedding rings and set them on the couch to apply her lotion. I would never be so careless with something so special and valuable. And dd surely did not hop up and instantly find the jewlry, tossing them, in attempt to avoid me getting them from her. I did not spend the next 30 minutes searching everywhere for my engagment ring which was missing so that I could find it before my husband got home! Nope, not me!
(**of course, it was my wonderful hubby who found the ring, after comforting me and calming me down from feeling so stupid, by simply moving out the couch. Your the best hubby, I love you!** )