School, bad preschool attitudes and pieces of veggies...

So, alot of things are changing in our life. First, I am going back to school! Matt and I took some time to pray and think and plan our life (as best we can!) and feel like the practical and blessed next step for our family is for me to resign my position at work and go back to school. I will be attending Capella University this spring to begin getting my Masters Degree in mental health counseling. Eventually I would like to work in family and marriage counseling, but we will see where God puts me. So exciting! The program is predominately online, meaning, my coursework will all be over the internet with on-site clinical hours as required. This is cool for a few reasons: 1- I get to be home with my girls until Kylie is in kindergarten and Madeline is old enough to go to pre-school, 2- my schedule can be super flexible, 3- I dont have to bother with the classroom setting, which can be distracting. My awesome friend Shannon is going back with me, so we can re-create our own classroom, study with one another and work together on projects. I think this is important because we ARE losing classmate and professor interaction in the traditional sense.

Other updates...Kylie is three now. This means she can yell at me, hit me and be overall hateful one second (simply because this is the right of a three year old, apparently) and quite lovely the next. Speaking of lovely moments, this morning I got back from the gym (TRYING- if I would just eat right- to lose 30 lbs!) and she said, "Mommy! You're home! I missed you and love you really much!" Very sweet.

Madeline will be one in less than 2 months! Holy cow, time flies! She sits and she lunges for toys, trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to get into a crawling position. She is a blast...she continues to be the SWEETEST baby EVER!!! She is just so lovely all-around. She can say Momma and Dadda and she tries to say "baby" and makes noises that sound like "I love you". Sweet! She hates eating vegetable baby food, but loves pieces of veggies. Whatever. :)

We are happy. Since I have my two-week-notice last week, I am stress free for the first time in a really long time. Not that my family and I weren't happy before, but the constant stress was really affecting my family negatively. I am happy now and I feel it in my home's atmosphere. Praise God for closing doors and opening others!

Life with a Three-Year-Old

Some new developments in our life...Kylie is 3 now and overnight it seems my life has drastically changed! No more quiet moments...if Kylie is awake, there is chatter going on. Here is what I read about this age recently:

"Your budding conversationalist loves to talk and sing. Lengthy verbal turn-taking is a hallmark of this age. He'll be able to answer simple questions and also ask questions of his own. Sometime he cares less about the answer than keeping the conversation going. "

I agree 100%. There is often no point to the questions she asks or to the comments she makes...it's just about keeping it going! Sometimes, despite the fact that I try to ignore the constant "Mama, Mama..." I snap back with a "What, Kylie?!" Not the most loving attitude, but it's the constant-ness of it that becomes a bit tiring. I love her so much and truth be told there are some really great things about all this verbal ability:

• Kylie now clearly communicates love- she tells me she loves me in her heart and that because she loves me, she wants a kiss (because I told her her daddy and love each other and so we kiss. Of course, right!?)
• Kylie tells us what she loves about each of us...she loves my hugs, she loves daddy's beard, etc
• Kylie can also describe situations now...soon there will be no talking about things discreetly because she picks up on it
• Kylie can sing songs from start to finish- I'm not talking Twinkle, Twinkle...I'm talking about long, adult songs on the radio!

Love my biggest girl, but life with a 3-year-old is way different...

By the way- Madeline is awesome! Nine months and so very sweet still. She needs me in a different way than Kylie ever has. Kylie loves to be with me, but Madeline NEEDS me emotionally. She is definitely a Mama's girl and she is all about being with only me. I can leave her with other people, but the second she hears my voice or sees me, she is no longer happy.

She can now stand up next to things (her bed) and hold herself in a standing position. She also does majorly great sitting. She has absolutely no interest in crawling or rolling to the other side of the room, but the pediatrician isn't worried and thinks, given her muscle control, that she will be one of those babies that goes straight to walking...although I think we can hold off another couple of months!

Wow...it's been a long time since I have posted anything! Time has flown by. We are less than one week away from Madeline's first Thanksgiving, Kylie will be 3 years old in less than one month, and we still have to do ALL of our Christmas shopping! I had wanted to get that all done this weekend, but threw my back out for a second time and we didn't do anything except stick around our house. I'm finally feeling better, but this yucky back stuff is no fun! Couple that with anxiety because the last time this happended was when I was first pregnant with Madeline, and it was an interesting week. Don't get me wrong- I love my girls- I just am not ready to be pregnant again ANY TIME SOON!

Speaking of my girls...they are so great! We just got a dog (a little Shih-Tzu named Molly) and Kylie has a new best friend. They play like CRAZY all the time! Kylie grabs the dog's toy and throws it for her, Molly tackles Kylie to get the toy back...lots of giggling, lots of running. It's chaos, but happy chaos. The best part about this dog is that she doesnt shed!!! Yeah! She does chew, however, and that drives me nuts! Today she messed up a wooden puzzle and I wanted to deck her...I did "spank" her though...dumb dog!

Madeline is getting pretty big! She is seven and a half months now and she is such a happy girl! She still just likes to sit back and take all the action in, but she is so smiley and giggly at us! She loves Kylie and thinks she is the best thing in the world. She is eating baby food regularly now, although she only eats fruit, because veggies and cereal make her gag to the point of puking...drama! She sits on her own really well, and she really wants to talk...she is so close to saying Dada and Mama. She is also really good at giving "hugs" and kisses. The kisses are really slobbery, but that's okay because it is the absolute best thing! I walk into her room to get her up and her arms and legs start moving a mile a minute and she will have this big grin on her face! I remember Kylie doing this too...then when I pick her up she buries her face in my neck and snuggles in! Love those "hugs"!!!

This Evening

Kylie just asked me where her paci (pacifier) was. I told her it was in the kitchen on the counter. She went and looked but couldn't find it. She came back and asked where it was again. I gave the same answer to which she replied, "Mom! Stop kidding me!"

Updates...

Just a couple of quick updates...

• Kylie prays before bed...very cute! Last night's prayer went something like this:

Momma- "Thank you Jesus for Kylie and for our day. Please bless Kylie while she sleeps and keep her safe. Give her sweet thoughts and dreams and help her to wake up in the morning ready for her day."

Kylie- "And no be scared of dark- kangaroo (she carrieds around a little Roo doll...) scared of dark."

Momma- "Thank you Jesus that you are going to help Kylie and kangaroo not to be scared of the dark. Please bless...run through the list of family members...and keep them safe."

Kylie- "And the zoo and the animals. And Coffee dog (our friends' schnauzer). And all my friends at church."

Momma- "Please bless the zoo and the animals, coffee dog and all our friends.

Kylie- "And thank you that Daddy was only playing with the vacuum (I buzzed Matt's hair and then I used the dust buster to get it all off his shoulders. My poor toddler, who is scared of the vaccuum/dust buster, watched as her father acted like it was eating him and screamed...Grrr, Matt...)

Momma- "And thank you that Daddy was only playing with the vaccuum. Amen."

• Kylie loves to swim- last summer she HATED swimming but now she loves to swim. Her favorite thing is to tell me that she is like a penguin in the water and that if she splashes me it will be so cold! Madeline really likes the pool too which surprises me because Kylie HATED the pool her first summer.

• Madeline is ticklish! Right up on her upper belly- tickle that and laugh and she gets the biggest kick out of things.


• Madeline can also sit up AND grab things! She no longer likes to lay down anymore if there is the option of being upright and sitting. So cute! She likes to grab for her toys but by far her most favorite thing in life is to just be sitting and watching activity.
  


• Kylie likes to play the violin with two sticks. She hums "Twinkle, Twinkle" when she does it.


• Kylie can sing the ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus Loves Me, and The B-I-B-L-E. Love the singing!!!

Here are some recent pics...

Happy Madeline Playing with Her Toys!

I put Madeline in her bouncy seat for the first time a couple of weeks ago and she was thrilled! She loved the little toy guys that were hanging down and told them a whole lot! So cute!!!

So Busy!

I realize that I am so bad about posting on this blog...I have good intentions, really! We have been so busy lately. Let's see...what have we been up to?

Our 4 year anniversary was June 19th (Yeah!) so Matt and I left Kylie with his mom and took the baby with us to a bed and breakfast in Chester, IL. It was called the Stone House and it was wonderful! It was this od house that started out as a church originally but was converted into a residence in the 1920's. The best part is that there was this big plantation-style front porch that was so inviting! We were the only guests for the night which was great because we really got to relax. Plus, the weather was perfect (like 70 degrees) so we got to spend as much time as we wanted on the front porch watching the river and we didn't sweat at all! Here are a couple of pictures...

Then we had:

• Wedding in Southern Illinois on June 21st
  
• Rachel's (my sister) birthday on the 28th of June
  
• Friends over for dinner on July 1st
  
• 4th of July
  
• Another trip to southern Illinois to visit Matt's family on July 6th
  
• Out-of-town family in to visit on July 8th
  
• Family dinner out for my Grandma's 80th birthday on July 9th
  
• My other Grandma's birthday on July 11th

All-in-all these past 3 1/2 weeks have been so busy with lots of good food (which I need like a hole in the head) and lots of good fellowship! Here are a few more cute pictures from the past month: