Greightful!

It's been a while since I did my grateful lists, so I thought I would try and get back into it. Time permitting of course! :o) This is the first night in a long while that both kids have been in bed before 8:00 pm and that one little monkey is not crying for no reason (maybe the cry it out method is beginning to work).

So I am grateful for:

1.) These two who really love one another and enjoy laughing and playing with one another. Today they spent a big portion of the day running and 'chasing' each other. Ok, so Zech runs around and around laughing hysterically and GG crawls and tries to follow him and stops to laugh hysterically as Zech runs by. Finally Zech decided to crawl with her and that was quite the game for a bit.



2.) A freezer full of Bison meat! WE LOVE BISON!! Normally it is a struggle to get Zech to eat all of his meat, but ever since I have been feeding him the Bison, he can't seem to get enough of it. He will even ask for seconds! I also made some ground Bison for Genesis and she LOVED it! It's lean, tender, flavourful and best of all it is not full of hormones, pesticides and all that yucky stuff!

3.) Strollersize! I joined with a girlfriend and it has been awesome!

4.) My wonderful hubby who is such an amazing man and my 'bestest' friend in the whole wide world! I thank God for him every single day! Pray that he gets feeling better! He has a nasty cold and is pretty swamped this semester.

5.) My first night out all by myself since GG was born. Thanks Christina for having me over and for teaching me some new things about the blog world! Go check out her blog and say hello, she just started it and she LOVES COMMENTS! :o)

6.) The Bible. One of my New Years goals was to be more disciplined with my devotions. It has been so difficult since having Genesis. However, I have started a read the Bible in a Year plan and have been doing really well so far. I have done this before, but this time is different. Our church did a series titled 'One Word' before Christmas and they provided some incredible insights on how to read, and study the Bible. The acronym they taught us was SOAP (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer). They also developed journals as an aid and it has been the most useful tool I have ever had. My devotions have taken on a whole new level! I really get into the Bible and seeking out what God wants to lay on my heart, even when I am reading the Old Testament!

7.) Good friends to confide in, to listen to me and provide awesome words of encouragement and advise. It has been a trying week, but I am so thankful for wonderful friends who love and pray for me.

8.) A SKYPE date with my dear friend Mari! We talked for over an hour and she put up with interruptions from my kiddos! ;o)

The Real Me

One thing I need to do more of... is take more pictures of myself, or pictures with me in them. This is a hard thing for me right now, as I hate seeing pictures of myself (yeah, we are our own worst critics--I know)! None the less I still want some memories......even if we have to look back a few years from now and laugh hysterically. Yes this really is the "real me", no make-up, my glasses, bedhead, in the middle of a make-shift workout in our basement, wearing yucky workout attire! AHHHH!

I got this 'Nano template' from the Jessica Sprague website. It was a challenge a few months ago and I really liked it. I also took these pictures quite a few months ago and knew that I wanted to use them on this template. It will be a two page layout, as the second page will be the journalling about 'the real me' and where I am at in this particular stage of my life.

Something fun to do after an extremely trying day! I wish I had more times like this, but the dishes are calling, the house is a mess and most importantly I need to do my devotions and spend some much needed time with my wonderful hubby! :o)

Panoramics

A short post for now, and hopefully this week I can do a bit of catching up. We are still sooo tired and sleep is something that we can only dream of!

We got a new little point and shoot camera for Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love my Rebel, but wanted something a little more compact to take with me when we went on walks, to the park, etc. One of our favourite features on this little point and shoot is that it does panoramic pictures. My hubby is mastering them and at first it is a little tricky, but check these out.

EXHAUSTED

EXHAUSTED- Extremely tired: bleary, dead, drained, fatigued, rundown, spent, tired out, wearied, weariful, weary, worn-down, worn-out. Informalbeat, bushed, tuckered (out). Slangdone in, fagged (out), pooped (out). Idioms: all in, ready to drop.

This about sums up our last few days. Yup we are going on day three of this nasty stomach virus. Zech has had it the entire time and last night it finally let up until about 4:30 am. Good timing because Genesis had it until about 1:30 am. We are living off of NO SLEEP!

Poor John has had to miss a few classes and try and get some reading and assignments completed in between all of the "spitting up" as Zech terms it. He has also been camping out in Zech's bed and/or on the floor. He's so amazing!

I pray tonight that we will all finally get some sleep. I can't believe they both got it again---we already had it during Christmas.

So we'll be back, hopefully soon!

The Things You Say....

I wanted to do a little post about this little Cowboy for a bit now. This age is sooo funny and the things he says are so cute--sometimes (he also talks back quite a bit now)! :o) I don't want to forget them and obviously don't have the time to scrap book them, so here it is on my blog.

Also I wanted to use this picture. John let me sleep in one morning with GG and brought Zech downstairs. He wears this hat everywhere and one day he is a cowboy and the next he could be a pirate. Anyways, John asked him to smile nice for him and he took a picture. It is so stinkin cute, but he took it on his phone (so the quality is not the greatest). I told John he needs to take all of Zech's pictures now, as he will not pose or smile for me!

A few things that he says that melt our hearts:

1.) I always say to Zech and Genesis: "I love You and you know what, Jesus loves you most of all." I don't know why or how I started that, but I always do it. So now Zech always tells us that he loves us and Jesus loves us most of all. He says it to me, Daddy and even GG.

The funniest was when we were in Superstore the other day and Zech kept saying: "Daddy, I love you and Jesus loves you most of all". Now if you haven't heard our son, he is not quiet, so the whole store could probably hear him. He gets pretty excited when he expresses his love too! So we got quite a few looks and we just say it back to him--no need to be ashamed! :o)

2.) Every night we read the Bible, say our prayers and then John takes Zech to his room and they have "cuggles". Every night, Zech always asks Daddy if he will cuddle with him even though it is part of his routine. We have to give him a time limit now, otherwise they would be cuddling all night long. So we start with the 5 min. warning and then the 2 min. warning and then finally the 30 sec. Lately he tries everything to extend his time, here are just a few:

- 3o more seconds daddy.
- no you listen to me, you don't go, as he tries ti push John back down.
- Ice cold water, please.
- No don't be rude, you stay.

3.) The funniest thing happened the other night after we had said our prayers and John was tucking him in. Zech turned to John and said let's pray and put his hand on John's and said:

Dear Lord Jesus,

Please help puppy.

Amen.

Too cute and funny! He has two stuffed puppies and a baby dinosaur that he has to sleep with every night. He will not sleep until he finds these beloved pets! :o)

4.) He is so in love with his sister and very protective of her. I told Genesis that she was being a bad girl the other day because she wasn't listening to me and kept getting into something that I didn't want her to. Zech got pretty upset and said:

"She is not a bad girl. She is just a baby and you give her hug right now." (he sure told me)

He also gets really upset anytime she is upset and he tells me that I need to hug her, and he will always go to her and tell her that Jesus loves her and will help her. What a sweet heart!

5.) "It's just pretend!" We bought him a Curious George movie before Christmas. One of the episodes George is afraid of the dark and thinks that there are monsters in his room----just what we needed. In the end it was all pretend and just a part of his imagination. It took us a bit to explain this one.

One day Zech found John's Star Wars DVD and wanted to watch it. John told him that he couldn't because it was too scary and not for little boys. Zech just looked at him and said:

"It's okay, it's just pretend!"

6.) Ask Zech what his name is and the answer is always 'Larry'! The other day at the park he greets the kids that are coming to play and says, "Hi my name is Larry, what's your name?". So now I have to tell him to say his real name, not his pretend name.

Genesis at 7 Months...

I feel like my baby is no longer a baby. I can not believe how fast she has grown and changed so much. With Zech, because he was our first we were constantly waiting, anticipating each new milestone and now with Genesis, I don't want these milestones to come as quickly as they seem to be coming!

This month flew by, yet again and there are lots of new milestones to report! :o)

Genesis at 7 Months:

- Weighs 18lbs. 4 oz. (8.36 kg). She lost weight which kind of caught me off guard because she eats so much, but then as John pointed out, she is really active and just goes everywhere.

- Is 28 1/4 inches long.

- Is wearing mainly 12 month clothing--depends on the brand. She is still super long and she has pants that don't fit her length wise (can you say flood) and are way too big around the waist.

- Wears size 4 disposable diapers.

- Goes, goes, goes! She has mastered crawling and she can really move! Zech loves to run to a different room and call her and she goes crawling to him. He thinks that is the funniest thing ever.

- Eats three meals a day and even has snacks. She is a hungry little girl!

- Eats all sorts of foods. She really likes chicken, turkey and her veggies. Still not a fruit eater! I make most of her food at home and the odd time when we have been out and I have just bought some jars, she isn't too fussy about it.

- Started on finger foods. She LOVES Puffed Wheat. They are great things to keep her occupied while I am trying to finish making supper. She has also tried Cheerios, and baby Mum Mums.

- Loves water. She drinks it from a cup and now from her new sippy cup with a straw. She also knows how to drink using a straw!

- She can go into the sitting position all by herself. I thought John had sat her up and he thought I had sat her up and we know that Zech certainly didn't sit her up. We then caught her doing it, so now we know! :o)

- Loved her first Christmas! She was totally into the wrapping paper! ;o)

- Still doesn't sleep the greatest. It has been a struggle, but hopefully now that we are into a better routine after Christmas things will get better. She still naps twice a day (not long) and then goes to bed around 8:00 pm. She is usually up twice a night---still!!

- Had the stomach flu after Christmas. Not fun!

- Is such a busy body. She loves to play with all of her toys, especially her brother's which doesn't go over too well. Now we are really learning all about sharing!

- Goes for the outlets! AHHH!

- Is little Miss Sensitive. We were a little surprised. I told her "no" very firmly because I didn't want her to touch the outlet and she had a complete melt down. John told her "no" and held her hand back when she was trying to shove her Mum Mum in her mouth (the whole thing) and she had another melt down. Completely opposite of her brother! ;o)

- Loves to give kisses! It is sooo sweet!

- Loves to dance!

- Loves it when we sing to her or just sing period.

- Is still a very happy, smiley baby!






- Now pulls herself up onto anything and everything! We had to lower her crib and put up the baby gates.

- Loves books, but always wants to chew on them.

- Is a total Mommy's girl when she wants to be fed, but loves to play and have fun with Daddy!

- Loves her bath time!

- Gives mommy Raspberries on the tummy all the time ( I have no idea why?)!

- Is a bit of a chatterbox (not as much as her brother). Makes all sorts of noises, but lately is really into this laughing thing. She has this funny little laugh that she does all the time--it's cute!

Slowly, but surely....

I feel like I have so many things that I want to post and write about, and yet I still have to finish my December layouts. Ahhh!! However, slowly, but surely these things will get done. So here are two more layouts from December. Sometimes I can slap them together in mere minutes, other times it takes a lot longer! Oh well.....