The Daily Grind

Even though we are traveling, daily life must go on and does! Here are some of the latest "daily" things we are doing. First, though, having only each other to play with has brought Elie and Jadon closer than ever. The picture above is a great example of some of their combined creativity:o)! When you're little and you're cooped up in a hotel room for most of the day, why not decorate each other?!

Of course, part of daily life is grooming... something that has become quite the ordeal with our little Elie. Not only does she not want to take showers anymore, she hates having her hair done. She has been insisting on getting her hair cut for probably two months now. Finally, after days of tears, screaming and fits over brushing her hair, we gave in.


Ahh, much better! She wants it even shorter... something Bryce and I aren't quite ready for. But she's got an appointment with Nonnie's hair dresser, for after Christmas, and she and Nonnie have a date together... we figure this gives us a few weeks to get used to the idea:o)

Other daily things seen in our ever changing home... Elie hard at work over her lessons. She is quite the little scholar:o), loves to have Mommy or Daddy involved in everything she does and adores getting her picture taken too.
What a gorgeous little creature! (course I'm a bit bias:o)! Jadon is becoming the clown! If he can't play with his sister he enjoys swimming in the bath, bullying Simmea (he's really just trying to show his affection, but Simmea's not always aware of that fact:o), playing cars with baby Jesus (the Christmas toys we brought out), and romping in the snow. He is becoming increasingly hard to get a picture of. Quite the opposite of Elie! This one was taken as I surprised him. Jadon is also becoming very social now. This is a new side to his personality. He is usually very shy with new people or people he doesn't see very often (aside from my mom (his Nonnie)!), but these days, he'll play with just about anyone... Here we are waiting for a table at Cracker Barrel when he found another little boy about his age. They played with cars, lining them up and "shooting" them across the floor until our name was called.
Even as their lives are changing nearly daily, they are doing so well, and thriving in the dailiness of life. We are so proud and pleased with our little family:o). And so humbled at how God takes care of these two precious babies!

Family Pictures

Okay, I just can't help it! I had to show this progression of our family trying to get a good family picture... mainly Jadon! It cracked me up to see these. If Jadon wasn't being Mr. Funny Man, it was Bryce or I that had something funky going on... sometimes it was all of it!

The best picture by far... but where'd Bryce go??
Good job directing Lindsey! Or was it cleaning Elie's ear?? Singing kids... Can you hear the song?

At least we got a ton of laughs together!

Moments of Pure Sweetness

After getting to our hotel at 2 AM last night, this morning we got going a little slowly, and as I was getting things ready for the day Jadon came up and started patting my tummy.


"You, you, you," he started in his little stutter, (at this point I was steeling myself to hear " you tummy getting bigger, Mommy." as that is what Elie always greets me with, because she is so desperate for me to be pregnant with a baby sister) "you, you, you so beautiful, mommy! I so proud of you. Will you dance wif me," he asked as he wrapped his arms around my legs, smiling up at me with huge blue eyes.


How's that for a good start to a slow, sleep deprived morning?! It's moment like these that fill motherhood with sweet charm. I hadn't even brushed my teeth yet and I'm already being told I'm beautiful, and being asked to dance. Gosh, if that's not flattering, I don't know what is:o)!



As the morning progressed Elie and I settled in for school work. We're working our way through the alphabet, in a phonics based curriculum. I recently added an independent book for her to work through, just to spice things up for her and this morning she read the words, "van" and "pat" all on her own!!! I was shocked and am so proud of her!!! :o). This is when I feel that nothing beats home schooling and I feel so lucky to be sharing and witnessing these moments with her - and so proud!

As the day progressed into evening we promised the kids a swim in the pool after supper. Jadon's first question of me, "With Sister?" I pressed him a bit, teasing, "no, just Jadon." Well, he didn't like that one bit! I asked him, "who's your most favorite person?" He didn't bat an eye, "SISTER!"

Sigh! Wow. What an amazing day! I am so blessed and completely humbled to be mommy to these two amazing and incredible little lives.

Broken Hearts

Elie cried herself to sleep tonight, and it was probably the most poignant cry I have witnessed from her yet. She recalled her trip into the ICU to say goodbye to Grammy Ancy, how there was a pony and a necklace waiting for her on the bed from her Grammy, and then went on to share how she misses Grammy Ancy with all the love in her heart.
She said, "It's so hard to say goodbye to someone for forever. You can still go to their house, but they aren't there and my heart just aches for her. And now I know that she will never be there again. I remember all the nice things she did with me and I remember putting on my tutu and dancing for her when uncle Scott played the piano until my tummy got hungry. And she clapped for me. I miss her Mommy. All the love in my heart misses her. I won't ever see her again. I thought I'd have a Grammy for a really long time, but I don't get to. I close my eyes and my tears just keep coming out, cubie I miss her so much. Mom, will you pray for her now? I will when I can, but I just can't right now. Please pray, Mommy."

I'm crying even as I recall her little voice.

I did pray. I asked that God would comfort my little girl's heart. And I spoke aloud the promise that God works all things for the good of those who love Him, and asked Him to show Elie what good can come from her Grammy being in heaven now, instead of here with her.
I have to admit that I cannot fathom what good that is. I know Nancy is more comfortable, but I want to think that God could have given her that new knee and taken her to Israel, and kept her here with us, healing her. Instead of taking her. My mind understands that Nancy is in a better place. But my daughter's heart doesn't understand why she can't see her precious Grammy. And I ache.
If it were only Bryce and I, I think I could really be at peace with Nancy's death. But the process of letting go that my daughter now has to undergo breaks me apart inside.
The best I can do is quote God's promise to work all things for the good of those who love Him for Elie's sake... because right now I am suffering the pain of watching my child hurt in a place I can't make better. And there is simply nothing I can say.

A Little Bit More Personal

When Elie was first just able to talk we started getting in the habit of each night at bed time asking her if there was anything we needed to ask her forgiveness for. Over the years we've kept it up with both kids. We saw it as a chance to show our children that it's okay to make mistakes and to give them a voice for their feelings.

Of course we have also had them apologize to each other and to us for the usual childhood errors, and to respond to each other's apologies with, "I forgive you."

But until recently, it never occurred to me to also go to my kids at bedtime and tell them where I needed to forgive them... or, where their actions or words hurt my feelings. I guess I've never really felt deeply wounded by my kids... they are just kids after all:o)...

Until this week, on a "move day," where we check out of our hotel room and spend the day in the car as Bryce works. This particular move day seemed to be specially hard on the kids - particularly Jadon. So I found a Mc Donald's with an incredible play area and thought we'd settle in for an hour or so, until it was time to meet Bryce at the nursing home. All was going according to plan, until Jadon wanted Elie's happy meal toy. Things escalated to the point of Jadon screaming two-year-old swear words at Elie and I ("I not be your friend anymore!" ... "I not like you!"... "You meanie, Mom!"... and the like). Time out was not working... loosing his french fries only worsened his tantrum... to the point of him throwing Elie's food on the ground and us leaving in a hurry. He ended up loosing his brand new match box cars for the rest of the day... the only thing that seemed to have any impact on this little two-year-old tower of power.

I thought I handled things quite well... I didn't raise my voice and talked Elie through why she wasn't going to be able to play in the play area, even though she was a perfect saint (she really saved my sanity!!), and got the monster that kidnapped my son into his car seat without anyone getting hurt. But later that night, as I was recounting the incident with Bryce I burst into tears.

Now I realize that these kinds of episode just go with the territory of parenting. I also know that Jadon was very tired, probably a bit insecure at having his home packed up yet again, and was just a little on the cranky side... but this time I had my feelings hurt, and deeply. I didn't realize that was part of the deal... that I could be so hurt by such a tiny human. I thought that part came later... you know... in the teenage years?

And now it's dawning on me that this is when we need to be teaching him the impact of his actions and words, not just in consequences like lost match box cars... but of what they can do to another human being.

Anyway, this tantrum just got a little bit more personal with me, and I hope I'm learning something from it. I hope he will too:o).

Mexican Dinner

So we are out to eat at Carlos O'Kelly's (a Mexican restaurant) and we have all ordered drinks, except for Jadon. As we are waiting to hear what he will come up with (having been given the options of milk, water or juice) he looks down at his children's menu, points at the picture of the boat on water and says clearly, "Um, I want water Mexican please."

Yep... so the little man had Mexican water tonight:o) - compliments of the waitress who commented on how adorable he was... I couldn't agree more!

Halloween!

We just had to show you what a kick we got out of watching our kids bobbing for apples. This was at Elie's Awana party last night, where we went instead of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

Elie is totally the dainty girly girl. Jadon... well, he just went for it!