Tickle Monster

A short video of me tickling Bella and hearing her deep, belly-laugh! We love it!

Okay, I Admit It...

I read strangers' blogs. Not only do I read them, I love them. I look forward to them. Some days, I even rely on them to keep me sane. I have about 5 (okay more like 10, but I only keep up with about 5) blogs that I have found online written by talented, hilarious women who don't mind admitting that motherhood is not always the most joyous, wonderful thing out there since sunshine and glitter. These women, even though they're strangers, have made me feel like I'm not alone, like I'm not the only mother who has wanted to lock her children in the bathroom and go scream into a pillow. They enjoy their children, love them and revel in them, but with a wonderful tongue-in-cheek sarcasm that shows they don't take themselves too seriously.

As much as I enjoy, and even appreciate, these women, I also know that there is a key difference between us. That difference is Jesus. I'm not making a judgment against these women, I'm just making an honest assumption. I'm sure these women have good days, too, but they definitely write to an audience that expects them to be funny. And thankfulness isn't always funny.

I want to remember to be thankful. I have had three and a half awesome months with my husband "stuck" at home. I have loved having him around everyday and will probably go into shock when he returns to his normal schedule. By the way, that will be on Monday. I am thankful for a wonderfully healthy little girl who has never had an ear infection, the flu, respiratory problem, or countless other ailments that have kept my friends' babies in and out of urgent care. Even when she broke her collarbone, she was only in a sling for a week and handled it pretty calmly.

I have a beautiful home and a husband with a killer work ethic. We have been blessed not to have to stress over lost jobs or a poor economy. I have the amazing opportunity to stay at home with my daughter, and even on my worst days, I can't believe I'm lucky enough to be the one she turns to whether she's crying or overcome with giggles. I'm thankful Bella will learn about Jesus from Steve and I, and that we've been given the wonderful privilege and responsibility to teach her about a God who loves her more than we could ever attempt.

So...as thankful as I am for my fellow strangers/bloggers who make me feel like they know what it's like to be in the thick of the trenches, I'm even more thankful for my husband, my baby girl, and my Jesus. And I need to remember that.

Princesses Coming Out Our Ears

I'm getting an early start on some decorations for Bella's birthday in hopes that the actual day will be as stress free as possible. Her birthday (and party) is on a Sunday, and Sundays are always more stressful. It will be a small party, just some of our close friends - Bella's "aunties and uncles". The party items that have my little "Martha Stewart heart" all excited, though, are the hats. We're doing a very loose princess theme, and I made princess hats with things that were already in my home! No wasted money on party supplies!

These hats are my current pride and joy - I made them by printing off pictures of as many Disney princesses (or princes) as girls and guys that were coming. Then I glued them to scrapbook pages to make them larger. Finally, I stapled strips of cute fabric to the tops to add a little more flair than just using ribbons.

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The gang's all here! I didn't include Snow White, because I have a confession...I loathe and despise Snow White. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's the insipid princess songs she sings, but needless to say, Snow White did not make an appearance on the party hats.

Tried to get a picture of the backs to show the fabric tassels. The boys got regular silver ribbon; let's be honest, the boys don't care what's coming out the top of their hats. I'll be lucky if the two little boys even wear theirs.

My new favorite princess - Rapunzel from the movie Tangled. I like that she has freckles and isn't as "done up" like some of the others. I'm probably putting way too much thought into the Disney princesses, but when you spend your whole day with two years olds, you think about stuff like this.

So, yes, I'm about 2 1/2 weeks early, but it's fun being done with a big part of the decorations already. Now, on to planning the cake...I saw a tutorial on the Betty Crocker website that I want to try.

I Scream, You Scream...

Okay, so it's been quite a week! I got the stomach flu on Tuesday and it was awful! ("Awful" doesn't even being to describe it!) I felt like death for a full 24 hours, and we had Steve's mom and dad coming into town that night. Thankfully, I was starting to feel much better by Wednesday afternoon (I even convinced Steve to order a pizza for lunch), and we've had a fun time with everyone! On Wednesday night, we took Mom and Dad to a frozen yogurt place called Pink Berry - it's amazing! Lots of fresh fruit toppings! We got Bella her own little cup of yogurt with strawberries and mangoes, and she ate it like a big girl.

Steve and I have been talking for awhile about getting a seat to put on our bike for Bella to ride in. I grabbed one at WalMart this morning so that Dad could help us put it on. She loved it! She does NOT like her helmet yet, but I think we may just let her fuss with it on until she gets distracted riding in the bike. She and Rex both got a turn, and they both actually squealed with joy as I rode around the cul-de-sac with them. Riding on a bike is one of the activities that Steve's physical therapist has him do, so he should be able to do it just fine. I'm looking forward to getting out on a real trail and letting Bella enjoy the view!

Mom and Dad walked Bella and Rex down to the playground in our subdivision. We are not wrapping her arm as often anymore - she seems to be healing really well - but we go ahead and do it when we think she might need the extra support. We wrapped it for the playground so that she would remember it was hurt and not overdo it. I think we're going to wrap it for the next few Sundays, so the nursery workers remember not to pick her up.

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"Is That the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?"

This weekend, Mel and I drove to Chattanooga, Tennessee to attend our church's annual women's retreat. This is my 4th year attending, and it is always a blessed event! It provides some much-needed girl bonding time, as well as always refreshing me spiritually. This year we met at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel which is located in the actual historic train station. Some of the rooms are even in the old train cars themselves!

After arriving on Friday evening, Mel and I dropped our bags in the hotel room and decided to walk around downtown. It's a cute little city and the weather was gorgeous! Saturday was divided between three sessions, lots of good food, and the longest game of bingo ever! my favorite thing from the weekend was that we had a chance to give each other communion on Friday night. We passed around pita bread and a glass of grape juice, and we held the bread for the woman next to us while saying, "This is the body of Christ; broken for you." Then we held out the cup for them to dip their bread in and said, "This is the blood of Christ; shed for you." It was a really special, intimate time.

Chattanooga is home to our dad's alma mater, Tennessee Temple University. Of course, we had to take some pictures around town! Here we are in front of the university's sign.

I have an old black-and-white picture of my dad catching a soccer ball as a goalie in college. We found the soccer field, but there was a fence around the whole thing that was locked. I thought it was completely logical to try and climb over, but after getting to the top, I was a little worried about ripping my new pants!

Okay, okay, Mel convinced me to come down off the fence and just take a nicely posed picture in front of the fence...with the goal in the background. We had a great weekend!

Living With Houdini

First, the "official" story...we were at my parents' house this weekend for my birthday, and on Saturday morning, Bells was climbing all over the dining room chairs (she's a climber). She started to slip and ended up falling on her shoulder and side. She cried the usual amount for a minor fall (she can be a drama queen) and moved on with her day. Nothing seemed to be the matter...she favored it at times, but nothing too serious.

The main indicator that something was hurt was her reaction whenever we tried to pick her up under her arms. She would yelp and grab her neck. I know that seems like something is obviously wrong, but really, she would always get over it very quickly, so it seemed like she was just a little sore from her fall earlier.

We had dinner on Saturday night with a family friend who used to be a doctor and he was the first to suggest a broken collarbone. He didn't examine her, but he did suggest that I...wait for it...push on her collarbone! I told him that he was more than welcome to push on it himself, but I was not going to push on it when I had no idea what I was feeling for. Even then, we all decided that it was probably just bruised and she was not reacting strongly enough to have any broken bones. (stupid us!)

After church on Sunday morning, we had another friend who is a Fire captain and EMT look at her, too. Her was coming off a 12-hour shift, but he looked at her playing and said it looked like she was too mobile for a break and she probably had pulled a muscle in her neck. Steve and I decided to wait until we got home to take her into urgent care.

We took her in on Tuesday night and she received full x-rays, etc. The doctor said that , yep, she had fractured her collarbone! Oh my goodness! We were a little incredulous and felt really bad for letting her suffer for four days. I guess we couldn't really have done anything. The doctor had her fitted with a small sling and then wrapped her arm in an ace bandage to keep it tight to her chest.

Which brings me to our little escape artist...

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This is how she's SUPPOSED to look with her arm wrapped. Well, not her face, but her arm and body. I know she looks miserable, but she's just being ornery in this picture and didn't like the fact that I was taking her picture. She pretty much reacts like this anytime I pull out the camera.

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Here she is, all wrapped up with her sweater over her left arm to keep her from messing with it. She is sitting in her new booster seat, which she loves, and coloring contentedly like a big girl!

And this is what I walked in on this afternoon. We hadn't put her over-shirt back on after naps and she managed to get her entire arm free! The ace bandage was still wrapped around her waist like a weight belt. I re-wrapped her for the FIFTH time today and let her go play...

My 28th Birthday!

I'm catching up on posts, can you tell?

My birthday was a week ago, and in addition to taking me out to a wonderful, baby-free dinner, Steve also planned a surprise party with Mel!

The party was just with a few friends, and at the last minute, one of our girlfriends got really sick, and another one had to help a friend in labor, so it ended up being a VERY small party!

It was a total surprise and we had a great time eating chocolate cake and playing games.

Hugging my friend, Carolyn, after they all surprised me!

Blowing out the candles...luckily, I didn't have to blow out all 28!

Mel and I stopped cleaning up to take our "sister picture."

Thank you for my birthday party, Steve!