Seeing Blessings

I always try to be grateful for the blessing in my life. But as with most things, there are times when I am better at it than others. This week I feel like I really "got" how blessed I am.

I went through the girls' clothes this weekend. Just figuring out what fits, getting out the warmer clothes, putting the small clothes away for Lucy, etc. and I just marveled at how many adorable clothes my kids have. (Thank you, Katie!)  There was a moment when I just paused and thought of the kids I saw while I was in Egypt, and Israel, and even on my mission in California. How their parents would love to have dressers full of beautiful clothes for their kids! I am so grateful for the clothes my kids have.

Then I went to the kitchen. Since I have been couponing, my cupboards are full. Seriously, full. In fact, I complained to Jonathan that I was out of cupboard space. Then I realized what I had said. Again, the feeling of how blessed I am. If only everyone had the problem of too much food in their cupboards.

Of course, my biggest blessings are my children and husband. Right now I have lots of friends who desperately want to get pregnant. I have so been there. But I look at my three beautiful girls and my heart just bursts with love and gratitude. And they are healthy to boot! How blessed I am!

And I see it everywhere in my life. I have friends, my husband has a job, our cars work...I could go on and on. Of course, we have struggles too. And some days I truly feel the burden of the struggles. But I am so grateful that the Lord is so patient and persistent in showing me the good that is in my life. I hope I always see it.

Now on to the pictures of my darlings: ☺

Sami is so good at "posing" for me when I pull out the camera. I love her smile. And her laugh.

Janie is still the dress-up queen. We went to a yard sale where the lady was selling tons of silly headbands for a quarter. This orange hair was among them. And she is still "Super Spy" from Elise's Halloween party.

And Lucy is getting SO big! She is now 7 months old and is wearing 9-12 month clothes. I can't believe it. She is just so darling.

Park

It's been months since we were at the park. Sami has been asking for months to go to the park. The day finally came. But it rained in the morning, and we weren't there very long when it got really hot. 

So not our favorite day back but it was still fun and the girls are waiting to go back.

I thought Lucy would go crazy in the swings, but she was just totally chill about it. Like "Yeah, Mom, it's cool." 

But then again, maybe she was just tired and could barely keep her eyes open. 

 I wasn't very good at taking pictures. But we have our first park trip of winter documented. Even if not very well. :)

I've Learned My Lesson...

Sami has been chewing and sucking on her hair. I remember doing it as a kid too, but it was really grossing Jonathan out. So I said I would cut their hair. I woke up early Friday morning, and since we were all up, I thought I would just cut their hair. I had done it before and it turned out okay. Why should this be different?

I started with Janie. That went okay, so Sami was up next. I cut her hair and it also seemed okay. But as the day went on, I kept noticing "spots" I had missed. So I kept giving her "trims." 

After her bath the next night, I thought her hair was still uneven so I gave her another little trim. When she woke up, I realized I had made a big mistake. One side was way short!

I started crying. I couldn't stop crying. I was going to "fix it" again, and got our my scissors, but decided I needed someone who knew what they were doing to help out. I woke up Jonathan and he heard me crying and was afraid someone needed to go to the ER. I told him what I had done, and he didn't think it was that bad, but I could not stop crying. Every time I looked at her, I burst into tears. 

So I took her to Great Clips.

That was humbling.

The gal was nice and I told her I had learned my lesson when she said "it's harder than it looks, isn't it?" Yes, ma'am. And then later she said, "Yeah, I fix little girls' hair a lot. Usually when they cut their own hair with scissors." Oh, not when their mom messes up with the scissors? But she was very nice about it all.

And later that evening, my period started. And suddenly the hysterics made more sense.

So I have learned that cutting hair is NOT something I have a natural eye or talent for. 

I will either fork out the money or their hair will grow out. My mom says that I shouldn't give up, I just need more practice. But I am too scarred to practice anymore! And thankfully Sami is too young to be scarred by my handiwork. 

But Sami is so cute, she would still be beautiful even if she was bald. (But hopefully she will never be bald because of me or my PMS!) And Sami told me she looks "adorable," so I am grateful she didn't know why her mom was crying all morning. And I totally agree with her, she is adorable.

And after some sleep and some cookie dough and two tylenol, I like her hair. It fits her personality and I am glad she likes it.

(And can I just say that I am so glad that I am married to a man who has studied and understands hormones. In fact, he feels sorry for me when my period starts because he understands the physiology. This will serve him well in 10 years when he has a house of  four hysterical females with no good explanation of why. He will just pass around the chocolate and midol. He's a very good man. ☺)

They went to a friend's Halloween party and love the accessories they came home with. Janie is still wearing her "glasses," and tells everyone she is "Super Spy."

And this little lady can almost sit all by herself. And she rolls all over the place. She is mobile by rolling around. 

And we are going to the park this week! We can't wait. I will post pictures of that, I'm sure! 

I loved this week...

I love days when we are all home and happy. The girls love hanging with their dad when he is home. He has been doing 30 hour shifts all month, but in third week of October he will be done with 30 hour shifts forever! We are so excited. We will celebrate, for sure. 

Sami and Janie have started borrowing my recipe books (just the ones that I am willing to let them play with) and then they go and make the recipes in their toy kitchen. This is the feast they put together one day this past week. 

I have a friend with three little girls the same age as Sami and Janie. Two of the girls are twins, in case you were wondering. So we had six little girls here this week. So fun.

And my baby. I could go and on about her cuteness. She gives me the best camera faces. 

Our best news came from our lawyer this week. Our court date to finalize the adoption is December 13th. And our temple sealing will be on December 29th. I can't wait!! I have been giddy about it all week.  We will have lots and lots to celebrate in December!

Becca & Preston's Visit

The big highlight this week was Becca and Preston's visit. We hadn't had a real visit with them since their wedding two years ago. It was so fun to see them, and see how happy and cute they are together. And it was fun to see them get to know my girls better and meet Lucy.

One of the fun things they did was set up a treasure hunt for Sami and Janie (& Lucy too but she isn't mobile enough to find the treasure so Sami and Janie found her treasure for her ☺). Becca made up clues, green ones for Sami and yellow ones for Janie, and then they helped them work through their clues to find the treasure. 

Sami and Janie thought this treasure hunt was so fun that they are still "playing" it, hiding notes and trying to find treasures. (And one of the clues was in the backpacks so I guess they thought they needed to wear their backpacks??)

Their treasure was a horse in a purse, as Janie calls it, and some paint coloring books. And a cute cow for Lucy, but I didn't take a picture of that. (I thought I was taking so many pictures, but as I downloaded them tonight I wished I had taken so many more! Next time...)

Janie's horse is named "Jessie," and Sami's has been a cast of characters from Strawberry Shortcake. 

 Becca is VERY talented musically. She played the piano and sang for us. She also showed Sami how to play a few basic songs on the piano. 

And Becca and Preston played a lot of Memory. I just sat with Lucy and watched. :)

And I have to say that my older girls were smitten with Preston, especially Janie. They hadn't been here for more than a few hours when Janie said "Preston, you can sit by me because I love you." She was always sitting by him or hugging him. It was so funny and I was relieved that Preston is such a great guy, otherwise I would have been very worried. :)  

It was a super fun visit. We are blessed to have them in our lives. The only bummer about their trip was that Jonathan was so sick. For most of their visit he was either working or falling asleep somewhere. But he felt better at the end of their visit and that was nice. Because Jonathan makes any party funner. And it was a party. We had cake (Preston had a birthday while he was here, the perfect excuse for chocolate cake!) and we laughed and had a great time. 

Thanks for spending your vacation with us Becca and Preston! 

Another Week...

Lucy is 6 months old tomorrow! I can't believe how time flies. 

In celebration of her 6 months of life on earth, we gave her a taste of peas for dinner. Up to this point, it's only been cereal. 

I love it when they can eat more food. And I love the faces babies make when tasting new food! 

This girl just cracks me up. She gives me the best faces for the camera. 

 When we first got her, I was worried that we wouldn't bond. Silly. I must have been tired. We have totally bonded and I love it! I have totally fallen in love with this one. It's amazing how much love you can have for each child.

This is a tired face. Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks?!!

And summer is almost over here. I can feel it. And I am so looking forward to winter!

My older girls have been a little stir crazy lately. We don't go outside except in the morning when it's cooler. So I try to find something for them to do all afternoon.
Janie loves Polly Pockets. These are some old school, origional Pollies, that I found at yard sales and some my mom gave them. 

Enjoy them while you can, Janie, because when Lucy starts crawling, these bad boys are going up in the closet. 

Her eyelashes are amazing. I wish she got them from me. 

Sami has been the most bored this summer. But she loves anything electronic. Any little computer or game is a favorite of hers. She asks me almost every day when we can go to the park. I was happy to tell her today that we were going to go soon. 

 And I did take Sami to the doctor this week about her penny. I couldn't find it. So we went to the doctor then waited an hour and a half for an x-ray. We were all ready to go home by the time it was done, but gratefully, there is no penny inside Sami. 

Rainy Days

We finally got some rain here. One day this week it rained all morning. The girls got their jackets on (it wasn't really cold, it just seemed right to have a jacket on), and  then they begged me to let them outside. 

When Janie saw these rain boots at a yard sale, she was in love. She wears them all the time, but when it was raining, it was a special treat to wear them in the actual rain. 

I love this picture of Janie jumping in the background.

And Lucy and I stayed inside and I took pictures, of course. She loves to stick out her tongue when she smiles and we think she's beyond adorable. 

In other news, Jonathan started the ICU again this month. So he is doing those awful 30 hour shifts. But the end is in sight and it won't last forever.

Sami swallowed a penny this past week. The girls were having quiet time and Sami started screaming. I ran into her room and she was so upset and told me she put a penny in her mouth and swallowed it on accident and now her tummy hurt.

So I called poison control and they told me to go through her poops until I find it and if I didn't find it in a week, we will have to get an xray. Oh joy. Still no penny. It's been three days. Of course we have lots of talks about why we don't stick things in our mouth.

And I am working on a few small projects that I will post later. It feels good to get some stuff done!