Home Bound

I really should be folding the laundry.  I thought to myself "what better way to avoid folding laundry than to write a blog."  Plus, several of those pictures from Maggie's party are very blurry and it bugs when I open my page and that is what I see.

Last week, I woke up in the middle of the night sneezing and coughing uncontrollably.  Everything on my face hurt and I laid in bed wondering if I should tough it out and try to go back to sleep or walk myself downstairs to the medicine cabinet to find a Tylenol and a tissue.   I was down and out for the rest of the week with what I can only assume was the flu, since I never went to the doctor.  Fortunately, Kev was able to come home early from working away to take care of me and the girls because when I feel that bad, I become a parenting failure, unable to manage even the smallest of tasks gracefully.

I was still feeling rough this weekend, but I managed to get out and about a bit bc staying in the house was driving me batty.  I'm glad I did bc I think it helped me get over the hump to feeling better.  Then Monday our normal winter weather took a drastic turn into real winter weather.  The thermometer (is it a thermometer of barometer)  hasn't crept over 30 degrees once this week.  We did try to play outside one day, but were driven indoors after about ten minutes.

Notice that Libby's hair is crooked on the opposite side now, due to her taking another stab at cutting her own hair...that was fun.  Again.

This afternoon we are getting dusted by snow again, and it is currently 21 degrees.  I am hungry for spring.  It might be a bit early to start longing for it, but my desire for spring normally kicks in just after Christmas.  Projected temps for next week are a bit warmer.  Maybe all this cold air has killed all the germs and it will be safe for us to get out  play again in the near future.

This picture is for my mom and dad.  The horse was Maggie's birthday gift from them, on this evening she road him with all her  might shouting "Po-po- han-tus" and laughing with rock back and forth.

Hoping it is warmer where you are.

Grace and Peace

xoxo

The Barely Photographed Party

I think that  my days of the over blown birthday party might be behind me.  I just couldn't get my ducks in a row enough to make it happen this time around.  However, we did have a party for Mags this weekend.  I made some  fru-fru tissue paper balls and a lot of home made food.  I made home made ice cream, hot fudge sauce, caramel sauce, guacamole and buffalo chili. Then my mom made a beautiful cake and no one could eat all my ice cream and toppings because they filled up on her cake.  I totally understand this because when my mom and a cake get together something magical happens.  

I was in charge of getting the party ready, holding the birthday girl, and talking to my friends.  I was not in charge of pictures which means we have about five of the whole night.  It really is a shame because Maggie's dress was adorable and turned up in the mail just a few hours before the party started.  Here are a few pictures so that when she reads my blog one day, she won't think that I forgot her.

These two pictures were before the party.  I was so impressed with how well Maggie helped my mom line the cup cake pan.  She was very patient and tidy...not at all like her mother.

 

Loved these home made ice cream cones.  I snagged the idea from Pinterest a while back and because I already had most of the supplies, they cost about $2 to make!

 In the end, I'm glad we had a party.  It may not have been as big as we have done in the past, but we celebrated!  We celebrated with family and friends, with little kids running amok through my house giggling, with babies on the hips of their mamas, and with my precious girl smiling all night long.  All was as it should be.

Grace and Peace
xoxo

Maggie Montage

January 7th came and went without me writing a mournful post about babies getting bigger, or my children leaving for college, or running off and getting married.  There is something about the second child that makes it a little easier to let them grow up. I don't seem to resist it quite as much.

Look how far I have come in my parenting skills

Maybe it is because even though we are leaving a beautiful time in her life, I know we are entering one equally as beautiful.  This stage of her life may even be a bit more magical as her imagination grows and develops to discover wonderful games and far off places that only she will know about.

On Monday morning our sweet Maggie Bell turned two years old.  There are times when I forget that she is two and I think that she is still my baby, but then she reminds me by saying "no Dada's baby," and puts me in my place.  Something inside her ignited over Christmas and all of a sudden she can talk.  Some days she wanders around the house just randomly saying all the words she knows, for example "ummm Sissy, ummm Bubble (trouble), ummm kitty, ummmm Gus, ummmm Bab-bette," and on and on it goes.

Most of the time, when she is sad, she still wants me to hold her, but occasionally when something makes her upset she will only want Libby to comfort her.  Whenever I see her turn to her sister for comfort I get a bit misty inside because I totally understand what she is doing.

These sisters have an unbreakable bond that no one can take away from them.  It is God designed secret society called "the sister club" made especially for the Jones girls and no one else.  I hope that they always cherish it.

On her birthday we had school, lunch with Daddy, cupcakes, and presents.  I am planning a little party for her this weekend.  I am trying to make it special and unique for her while not going over the top.

Laura Gillian made me feel guilty for not posting a Maggie Post on her birthday so I put to together a 3 min slide show of pictures of her 2nd year of life.  It took me most of the day so I am hoping that it frees me of any  guilt I am harboring for not writing about her on her actual day of birth.

Maggie Bell is probably the sweetest little girl I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  Sometimes she just needs to touch you to know that you are there.When I hold her she rubs the back of my arm like she is the one giving the comfort and actually, I think sometimes she is.  Maggie is happy just being a part of whatever her loved ones are doing.  She does require a lot of entertainment, just as long as she is included.  She throws temper tantrums like any other toddler but she can easily be talked down from it, which is new territory for me :) Definitely teaching me how very different two children can be.
 Maggie is warm and inviting. She feels like home to me.      

She is a precious gift designed to fit perfectly within our family.  We are so thankful for her little life.
Here is that little montage I mentioned...Watch it if you have a spare 3 minutes in your day.  I promise you wont regret it!

Grace and Peace and lots more birthdays for my darlings.
xoxo

Thinking

I've been thinking a lot lately.  Over thinking things really.  In fact  I think, that I've been thinking so much that I am not doing anything.  Christmas break officially ended Wednesday, and then it officially, officially ended when Kev went  out of town again on Thursday.  By mid-morning on Thursday I decided that my self-discipline and motivation were "officially" still on break.

Gus is doing a lot of thinking too

I felt so motivated at the beginning of 2012.  This year I keep asking myself if I have resolutions, and if I do what are their purposes?

I wandered around my house that last few days in search of what it is that I am supposed to be doing, feeling frustrated  and almost board.  I was trying to explain it to Kev as bordem, but one is certainly never bored raising two little girls....

I wrote that top part earlier today. Before I sat down to finish up this post I read this quote from this blog
"I hope that you will be given all that you need to feel comfort in what it is you are created for."   

I know that we were all created for one specific purpose, to bring glory back to the Father, but in that I think that in our lives there are many different ways we accomplish that.  That quote speaks to me about purpose and sticking with that purpose.  It kind of energizes me to stop wandering and just do.   I just know I have to do something.  I have to be present, I do not have to be perfect.  

I certainly wasn't perfect when I dressed myself on this day...hmmmm????

The second encouragement I received this afternoon came in the mail.  I knew that there was a surprise Christmas gift that I had not opened yet.  Kev told me that it was coming in the mail and it was going to be our theme for the year.  I really thought it was going to be something technical because that is just who he is.  To my surprise there were  two t-shirts in the package that say "Go outside and play."  I think I needed a theme for our year.   I think I love the one he picked.

I am excited about this year.  I know it going to be an exciting one for us.
Here's to less wandering and more doing.

Grace and Peace

A Day Late And A Dollar Short

I can't let go of 2012 just yet.
I can't let go until I document how beautiful this Christmas was.
This Christmas, as a special treat to my parents, they had Amy, Carly, Matt, Sidney, Allison, Kevin, Libby, Christian, and Maggie all under their roof at the same time. (That is the order in which each family arrived into the Bennett clan).

I imagine that for them Christmas couldn't get much more perfect.  I didn't want our week to end.  There was family meals around the table and present carnage everywhere you looked.  There was screaming and squealing, and poor sleep at night.  There were hugs, there was laughter, and of course when I squeezed my sister goodbye there were tears.

Christmas Eve morning we woke at our house for a Jones family Christmas.  The girls might have been at the perfect Christmas age this year, squealing with delight at every package.  Little Mags tried on every clothing item as she open it.  Kev was in charge of pictures and opted to not take a picture of Libby's face when she saw her big present...What?  I was holding her so I couldn't see her face, so I and you will never know her exact reaction to the humongous doll's house she received courtesy of Grandma.

Gus demolished his gift in about ten minutes

Trouble liked his gift as well...

I feel like there should be tons of words that I should write about how wonderful our Christmas was, but the longer I sit here, the more I keep flipping through the pictures.  I get choked up and wish we had just one more day to sit with them, to laugh with them, to just be together without agendas or plans or an entire country between us.

I am very aware that this time with my little ones is so fleeting, and that time with my family  is precious.

So in my lack of creative writing in this post, I'll say Merry Christmas one last time until next year, and Happy New Year to you all.

Grace and Peace

xoxo