Miss Sassafras

Oh, little Miss Madelyn... she is so sassy and it ends up being so hilarious.  She is very much into the "I do it myself" phase.

Her favorite phrases are:
"That is so RUDE."
"I will, I PROMISE."
"Let's do this thing!  Haha!"

This morning she came running out of Briggs room and said, "Mom!  Mom!  I totally rocked the house!!"

She is such a Daddy's girl.  She wants to be with him, by him, as close as possible.  Somehow she scoots herself onto his lap at every meal... She wakes up early enough to sleep next to him until he leaves for work. When he wakes up at 6:30, she is right by his side.  It is very sweet.

I folded a mountain of laundry the other night, and put the kids' piles onto the couch so I didn't wake them up putting it away.  The next morning I was doing dishes and looked back into the living room only to see that the clothes were all missing.  I went to find them, and saw Maddie putting the last of the laundry into her drawer.  She put away all three kids clothes, in the correct drawers, too!

Sometimes I just find her spraying windex and wiping the dining room windows, sweeping the floor, or clearing off the table.

Every morning when Briggs wakes up, she goes to him first, and plays with him until I go in.  The other day I needed to take a shower when they were all awake, so I asked Emma to watch Briggs.  She said she didn't want to, but Maddie said, "Mom!  I watch Briggs!"  And she did.  She sat on the floor in front of him, giving him more toys and keeping him happy the whole time.  They have a special connection, and they love to wrestle, cuddle and play.

She loves food, pretty much everything.... but she hates pop and orange juice and doesn't love hot dogs.  Her favorite foods are peanut butter and honey sandwiches, strawberries, grapes, apples and cinnamon oatmeal, and any kind of pasta.

Where does snow come from?

I love kids... I especially love my kids.  They are so stinkin' funny and honest and matter-of-fact.  They see things as they are and don't read into things like adults do.

Anyway, this morning there was snow on the ground!  They were SO excited.  We have been talking about snow all day, everything Emma draws or creates is a snowman.

Because I was curious if they knew, I asked, "Where does snow come from?"

Emma:  "From the ground, like rain." (from the sprinklers)

Maddie:  "Snowmen give snow to us."

There you go!  Science, kid-style! :)  I learn something new every day!

PS- Emma now understands that snow comes from clouds... but Maddie is sticking to her story! I love it.

Toddler #3

Emma is taking swimming lessons, and her first lesson was last night. Maddie wanted to watch, so she went with us. While we were there, I got this text from Jared, but I couldn't tell what it was because my phone couldn't handle it.

 

After running into some friends who were there with their girls for dance, and a not-so-quick trip to the store, we were gone about 2 hours.

While we were gone, Briggs kept getting into things, making messes, and then he unplugged some cords from an outlet.  So Jared put him in timeout(we start using timeout around 12 months- it seems to be effective even that early!). 

He was really mad at Jared, so he just stood up in the corner and then pushed off from the wall, the force making him take a step or two.  When he figured out what he did, he just kept going, so he practiced walking almost the whole two hours we were gone, and was pretty much a pro by the time we got home.

It is funny because he wouldn't really take any steps after he did a couple of weeks ago, so this almost came of out nowhere.  Funny boy.  I try to pretend like they are still babies for as long as I can, but once they start walking, they are officially toddlers in my mind. : / 

Scary Stuff

Emma has expressed a lot of fears lately, the usual things that little girls are scared of... monsters, bad guys, the dark, being alone... but by far the worst is SPIDERS!

Every year right after Halloween, I go to Wal-Mart and buy costumes for the next year at something like 70-90% off.  Sometimes the costumes are a little odd, but my kids make up for it with their cuteness. 

Well, Emma is the "Spider Countess", a long black dress than includes a large gold spider on the front.  Awesome. 

She hates it.  A lot.  Until I told her that a Spider Countess gets to turn all mean spiders into nice spiders with her wand.  Hey, it might be true!  Do YOU know what a Spider Countess does?

Anyway, so now she seems to not only deal with spiders better, but she kind of LIKES them!? She draws pictures of them all the time, and talks about them all the time. This is one of her recent spider drawings on the magna doodle.

Lazy Day/Good Books

Some changes took place in our ward today(that I'm really excited about, by the way!), so my 3 meetings that were planned for this afternoon were postponed.   So we came home, fed the kids a quick lunch, and had a nice quiet afternoon. It felt good to just be home and purposely ignore dishes, laundry, etc... I love the Sabbath.   I read 2(!!) books this afternoon. Both were excellent, and I highly recommend them...

 

 

 

And while I'm thinking about it, these are some of the other books I read recently that I really enjoyed...

How I Learn

I've already done some Christmas shopping, and have been trying to come up with a couple more ideas.  I thought I could get some input from the girls.

I wasn't sure what they remembered from last year though. 
So I said, "Hey, do you remember who Santa Claus is?" 
They both responded with, "Santa Claus?!  Yay!" 
Emma:  "He is so nice!"
Me:  "He will be coming to our house soon, do you know what you want him to bring you?"
There wasn't even a pause and they both responded, "JESUS!!"

Feeling pretty humbled right now....

I try really hard to focus on the "true meaning of Christmas" at Christmas time, but it is actually pretty easy at that time.  He is everywhere, the feeling is everywhere. 

But what about the rest of the year?

Birthday Boy!



I can't believe it, but our little Briggs is ONE!  I'm not sure when he suddenly changed from our little baby boy to busy little toddler, but he has definitely moved into a new stage.

 

Briggs,

I love you SO much. You bring such joy to our home. There is something about your grin that just melts my heart. None of us can be grumpy when you smile at us. You give such great hugs and slobbery kisses. I love the way you sing and talk every morning when you wake up, the way you outeat us all at every meal with such gusto, and the strut in the way you crawl. I think it is hilarious how much you already torture your sisters. You are just so calm and content, and I'm grateful for the peace you have brought into our home. Your favorite words are "four-wheeler", "ball", "dog", and "jump." Love you, Mr. Bigs.

Love, Mom

 

We started the festivities in the morning when we heard him wake up... Emma was still sleeping, but Maddie and I went in singing "Happy Birthday" and he thought it was pretty funny. 

 

 

We all wore birthday party hats...

 



 

 

 And we spent the rest of the day spoiling him rotten.  We put candles in everything he ate all day long so he could blow them out.  He didn't blow any himself, but Maddie and Emma were more than happy to help out. :)

 

Then we had a fun little birthday party consisting of presents, cake and ice cream with family.

 

 

Love the sass

She is at Grandma's for a couple of days while Emma has her surgery and recovers a little bit.  Jared's sister Mandee sent this picture she took a few weeks ago and I love it. 

If Maddie isn't cheesing it up for a picture, she is totally distracted by the next thing she is going to run off and do, like in this picture.  She is probably ready for another 4-wheeler ride... or horse ride... or to go play football with the boys.  Her love for life is contagious.  And I love her!

Love and Protect

I knew hoped when Emma and Maddie were born only 14 months apart that they would be close.  I hoped they would be best friends and love playing together, that they would be there for each other when things were hard, protect each other when needed.

They really love each other so much, and so sweetly show it in different ways. 

Maddie idolizes Emma, imitating her, following her around, and going out of her way to share with her and make sure she gets all the same treats, stickers, etc. that she is getting.

Emma graciously lets Maddie do EVERYTHING with her.  Baths, sharing rooms, sharing clothes and toys, sharing friends and basically lets Maddie be IN her personal bubble all the time.

Lately, things have changed a little bit as they have matured more. 

Maddie still idolizes Emma, but because Maddie is so sassy and strong-willed, she has become Emma's protector, sometimes her voice.  Emma so gently plays games with Maddie and "reads" to her, helping and serving her in so many ways.

Recently we have noticed that Emma hasn't been feeling very well.  She has always been a heavy sleeper, but she slept 17 hours the other night.  She took a 4 1/2 hour nap today.  We've noticed her struggling with her speech a little bit, and her hearing quite a bit, especially in her right ear.  Her right tonsil is HUGE, so we made her an appointment with an ear, nose and throat specialist.  He looked at her tonsil and commented it was large.  Then looked in her left ear and said, "And she can't hear, can she?"  He looked at her right ear and said she can only hear about 5% out of it.  We scheduled her surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids and have ear tubes put in for Friday.  Jared had this exact same surgery when he was 2 1/2 years old(with the same doctor, in fact!).

Maddie has worried so much about Emma going to the Dr.  She keeps talking about it, and has been a little emotional.  I told her she will go to Grandma's house while I take Emma to the Dr. next time, and she almost lost it.  She said, "But Emma NEED me.  When she wake up, she want me!"  We are just talking through it, and hopefully both girls will deal with it better by the time it gets here.  But they fell asleep on my bed again today and I found them like this: 

 
I hope they always love and protect each other like this. 

Painted Wallpaper

We have been wanting to add some patterns/depth to our kitchen.  Originally, we were thinking some kind of tiling or other backsplash.  Then I came across THIS and thought it would be perfect.

I still have lots of touch-ups to do, but so far, it's looking great!

Fresh Air

We were sick last week so we bundled up and went for a walk to get some fresh air.  Always helps us feel better!

Maddie was sick first and was feeling the best, so she helped me push the stroller around the neighborhood.  It was really chilly and windy that day, and when we were about 3/4 of the way around the neighborhood she said, "WHEW!  What was I THINKING?!?"

Maddie says the funniest things, and keeps me laughing all the time.

Uh-oh!

Briggs took his first steps yesterday!  It is only a matter of time now.  How I love that little guy!

What do you do?

One of the things that I have learned about General Conference (really any talk, actually) is that we don't all get the exact same message from the exact same words as our friends, spouse or family. But I LOVE it when others share what they got out of it, because it helps me see things differently, often adding insight to what I was already thinking on.

 

So one of the things I learned from Conference was that we all need to be more Christlike, to serve more, be more.

 

 

I heard about a talk that was given recently where the man speaking said that when most people around the world are asked what they do, they respond with things like volunteer, read, coach, serve, travel, bird watch etc.  Only in America do most respond with what it is that they do for MONEY. 

Somedays I think I don't do very much service, I definitely don't travel, I don't bird watch, I don't volunteer at homeless shelters, I do read when I can, and I haven't been able to coach any teams, not even my own children's yet. 

But as I was thinking of some of the women around me- my friends, family and ward members, I am humbled by the things you "do for the world." 

-You faithfully visit 4 women every month, encouraging and uplifting them.
-You teach your children pre-school.
-You deliver dinner to women in the ward when they have a baby, are sick, or moving.
-You help your neighbor pull their weeds.
-You teach your children to pray.
-You deliver homeade bread to your elderly neighbor.
-You volunteer in your child's classroom.
-You give up sleep to help your child work on a school project.
-You read to your children.
-You cook healthy dinners for your family.
-You pack a bag, dress your children into dresses or suit, make their hair look nice, and wrangle them for 3 hours of church.
-You teach a rowdy class of primary children each week, not sure if they are even listening.
-You make time for your aging mother- helping in her yard, listening when she needs to talk, driving her places and making her feel loved.
-You accept callings or assignments at church that stretch you so far you're not sure if you can do it.
-You support your husband in his callings, his job, his hobbies.
-You teach your children to work.

I hope that the next time someone asks you, "What do you do?" you can think of a couple of things.  Because I know you are serving and doing so much good in the world.  You don't HAVE to do any of those things, those are choices you are making, and you are making a difference.

I want to be "doing" those kinds of things for others- thank you all for being such a great example to me of Christlike service.