As I sit here, Ahnie in her bed not quite asleep for her nap but in her bed. AJ downstairs resting on the couch with Brett, again not asleep but quiet I can't help but think what our lives will be like in a week!
Our life has been crazy since we found out we were pregnant. Everything from Closing on our first house, moving again 2 more times before making it into our new home, AJ in his first year of preschool, Ahnie starting in an in home daycare when normally she was at our home with a college student, Ayden deciding that napping is over rated, finishing the school year with my job for next year a little shaky (now knowing that I will be doing the same thing), getting into the swing of summer to find that our kids both think going to bed is over rated and some nights our wonderful sleeper (Ahnie) would be wide awake at mid-night, taking a summer course that was everyday for two weeks, Brett busy with baseball games and practice daily, AJ's Tball schedule and now the week that we will hopefully meet our precious baby girl!
We have been blessed by so many things this year but also having that feel of being in the middle of a whirlwind... As soon as I think we are at a new normal something would change. It has been a busy season in our lives. I am so excited to welcome our newest baby girl into our family. So excited for a newborn to slow our lives down a bit. Keeping us a little closer to home and little closer to a schedule and hopefully it will be a great thing for our family! I love having summer babies because we can still make it to the park for a bit and they are so easy to come along where ever the big kids need to go because the only schedule they have is eating and sleeping. I am hoping for a few more days at home, calm just us, and enjoying our lives together.
It has been so fun hearing Ayden and Ahnie talk about the new baby. Ahnie has loved all the baby things that have been put together for the baby. You can find her babies in the bouncy seat, swing and bassinet daily. I am often told that I need to be quiet because her baby is sleeping. She is constantly talking about her baby sister and her clothes, diapers, binkies and blankets. Right before bed it never fails, she looks over at me and say Mommy, I love ______ (baby). She talks about her so much that I think many have figured out her name. Ayden on the other hand has been curious and asks great questions about the baby. He will rub my tummy and ask if she is moving so he can feel her kick. But has not been to excited about the physical stuff like his sister. I have noticed him become so gentle when our friends with new babies come over. He has been very interested in them and wanting to hold them, read to them, make them smile/laugh. Then he quickly asks if his baby will do that. He still has yet to say the name but I think he is over making up names for her and just calls her "baby". I can't wait to see how he is when he first meets her.
Dear Baby Williams, You are so loved even before we have set eyes on you! You are talked about daily and we are very anxiously awaiting your arrival. You have a big brother and sister that already adore you and can't wait to see you! Their life will change when you come but I am so excited to see how we all become a family of 5!!!
Love,
Mommy
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Potty Outside...
The other day we were over at our friends, the hofferts house. All the kids were outside "washing" their toys and were all soaked! Emily had just laid Taylor down inside and sure enough Ahnie needed to go potty. To keep her wet and dirty self outside of Emily's house and to let Taylor rest in quiet I took her over to the side of the garage and pulled down her pants. I told her to stand with her legs apart and she could try to go potty outside. She did what I told her and tried. Then she looked up at me with a question look on her face and said "But Mommy, I no have a penis." I agreed and we went inside to go potty.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Happy Birthday Brett
This year while Brett was working we went out and picked out his presents. Ayden and Ahnie each got to pick out something for him and then I got him a movie he had been wanting. We then got home and made a yummy dinner on the grill for daddy and wrapped his gifts. (Ayden wanted to hide them as well...I think this came from us hiding his easter basket but who knows...we went with it) We also made Brett a cheesecake and fresh strawberries.
We had a great night! Ate dinner, opened presents after Brett found them, went for a walk with the family and then came home for cheesecake! I think fun was had by all and Brett loves his birthday so I think I finally got it figured out how to celebrate both well!!!
Friday, May 3, 2013
5 Year Anniversary
I can't believe its been 5 years since we said "I do" yet I think back to all we have been through and how our family and relationship has developed and changed and it seems like we have been together for much longer! In 5 years we have bought two homes, got a dog, had two kids and expecting #3 in July, both changed jobs, along with many other wonderful memories we have made it through. I am very excited to see what the next 5 years brings us!!
To celebrate our anniversary Brett's parents offered to take the kids for the weekend! We took them up on it because after baby #3 comes who knows when we will get a weekend away alone. We looked at all the big cities in driving distance (Brett looked for baseball games, I looked at my weather app). Well there were no home baseball games that weekend and anything North, East or West was too cold so that left us with Kansas City or St. Louis. Since Kansas City is a little closer we decided to go there. It was so nice to get away with no schedule and just be able to spend time together!
We got to Kansas City at 6 just in time for dinner. We decided to find a new BBQ restaurant that we had not tried. We decided on Aurthur Bryant's. It was pretty good but I still love the famous Oklahoma Joes. After dinner we checked into our hotel just in time to watch the stand off of one of the Boston Marathon Bombers. We watched that until he was captured and then decided to head out for a little desert. We stopped at TJ Maxx and Kohls quickly to see if Brett could find some Royals gear then hit up Cheesecake Factory for desert (for me) and a beer for Brett.
The next morning we slept in until 9 am which was AMAZING! Then got up and went out for breakfast at another local restaurant. This was a dinner that specialized in southern breakfast food. I had french toast made with biscuits. It was sooo good! Then we headed for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. This museum is also attached to the Jazz museum so we went through both. It was very cool looking at all the history of both Baseball and Jazz. I love learning about that era. It was so fascinating. Then we spent the majority of the rest of the day at Plaza. It was a beautiful day! Sunny, tulips were blooming we we were able to shop and look at many high end shops.
We ended our day at the Melting Pot for dinner. This is a much more upscale restaurant than we are used to eating at and it was fun to splurge a little. The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant that specializes in 4 courses, Cheese, Salad, Main Course and Chocolate. The fondue is made at your table and it comes with many dippers. We choose the southwestern cheese that was a little spicy then had a salad. For the main course I got Chicken, Steak and Shrimp and Brett got 3 different varieties of Steak. It all come raw and you cook it in the fondue pot at your table. Finally was the chocolate course. It was amazing!! They had almost 12 different varieties of chocolate that you could choose from and came with soooo many different dippers. My favorites were the rice crispies, strawberries, marshmallows and bananas. Brett like the strawberries, bananas and the cheesecake. The other funny highlight of our dinner was we were put in "lovers lane" and had a curtain at our booth. We laughed when she shut it the first time...Like what do they think it going to happen in here... We decided it was in a hallway so it was to keep us away from any commotion in the hallway. HAHA
On Sunday, morning we woke up early headed to a Church that a friend of ours goes to and then headed the the Outlet Mall. It was another beautiful day to walk around outside and get some shopping done. we took off around noon picked up some lunch and hit the road. We were very excited to see the kids after being away for the weekend! I think its so important for couples to get away and just spend time together to work on their own relationship and then it always feels so good to get back home! Its also so great for our kids to get extended time with their grandparents without us around. Some of my favorite memories are with my grandparents spending a week there without my parents!
To celebrate our anniversary Brett's parents offered to take the kids for the weekend! We took them up on it because after baby #3 comes who knows when we will get a weekend away alone. We looked at all the big cities in driving distance (Brett looked for baseball games, I looked at my weather app). Well there were no home baseball games that weekend and anything North, East or West was too cold so that left us with Kansas City or St. Louis. Since Kansas City is a little closer we decided to go there. It was so nice to get away with no schedule and just be able to spend time together!
We got to Kansas City at 6 just in time for dinner. We decided to find a new BBQ restaurant that we had not tried. We decided on Aurthur Bryant's. It was pretty good but I still love the famous Oklahoma Joes. After dinner we checked into our hotel just in time to watch the stand off of one of the Boston Marathon Bombers. We watched that until he was captured and then decided to head out for a little desert. We stopped at TJ Maxx and Kohls quickly to see if Brett could find some Royals gear then hit up Cheesecake Factory for desert (for me) and a beer for Brett.
The next morning we slept in until 9 am which was AMAZING! Then got up and went out for breakfast at another local restaurant. This was a dinner that specialized in southern breakfast food. I had french toast made with biscuits. It was sooo good! Then we headed for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. This museum is also attached to the Jazz museum so we went through both. It was very cool looking at all the history of both Baseball and Jazz. I love learning about that era. It was so fascinating. Then we spent the majority of the rest of the day at Plaza. It was a beautiful day! Sunny, tulips were blooming we we were able to shop and look at many high end shops.
We ended our day at the Melting Pot for dinner. This is a much more upscale restaurant than we are used to eating at and it was fun to splurge a little. The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant that specializes in 4 courses, Cheese, Salad, Main Course and Chocolate. The fondue is made at your table and it comes with many dippers. We choose the southwestern cheese that was a little spicy then had a salad. For the main course I got Chicken, Steak and Shrimp and Brett got 3 different varieties of Steak. It all come raw and you cook it in the fondue pot at your table. Finally was the chocolate course. It was amazing!! They had almost 12 different varieties of chocolate that you could choose from and came with soooo many different dippers. My favorites were the rice crispies, strawberries, marshmallows and bananas. Brett like the strawberries, bananas and the cheesecake. The other funny highlight of our dinner was we were put in "lovers lane" and had a curtain at our booth. We laughed when she shut it the first time...Like what do they think it going to happen in here... We decided it was in a hallway so it was to keep us away from any commotion in the hallway. HAHA
On Sunday, morning we woke up early headed to a Church that a friend of ours goes to and then headed the the Outlet Mall. It was another beautiful day to walk around outside and get some shopping done. we took off around noon picked up some lunch and hit the road. We were very excited to see the kids after being away for the weekend! I think its so important for couples to get away and just spend time together to work on their own relationship and then it always feels so good to get back home! Its also so great for our kids to get extended time with their grandparents without us around. Some of my favorite memories are with my grandparents spending a week there without my parents!
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Discipline and Love
These past few weeks I have been feeling like the "No Police"! I feel like I would tell AJ to do something he would do the opposite. I would take away something he would have a tantrum or yell and scream, we were constantly at odds and I just felt my patience go out the window day after day. Ahnie has been watching and as she told me two days ago "Mommy don't say that to me!" also listening to her brother. I just felt defeated.
Well I was on Pinterest one night and came across a pin that took me to this blog: http://www.notconsumed.com/2012/05/02/consequences-for-little-hearts/
She talks about having natural consequences for your children. When I read it I was thinking wow that sounds great but it would never work for my kids. The biggest thing I have taken away from her blog post was that she has one rule "always show love". When I read this I quickly thought, what about the no throwing balls in the house, or pick up your toys before you get something else out, or obey your mom and day?!? But she quickly describes how everything comes back to love.... While I read this and went on with my days until I came to one of those situations with my 3 year old and I felt like the love idea would work so I tried it. I can't remember the exact example but he looked at me and did what I asked and we were over it and had moved on. I was amazing but also was like well yeah that fit perfectly but it won't always happen like that. So I tried it again (luckily my son has given me lots of time to practice in the past week) and it worked again. Here are a few examples I can think of that we have dealt with in the past few days; Ayden yelling because I asked him to put on his jammies and he didn't want to take off his jersey. "Ayden can you try telling me that again but using loving words". Ahnie pushing her brother. "Ahnie are you loving Ayden right now? How can you show Ayden love?" Ayden got a time out at school for throwing blocks in stead of picking them up. "Ayden were you showing Ms. Sarah love my not picking up and throwing blocks? Were you showing love to your class that could have been hit by those blocks?"
This past week I tried this with out telling Brett what I was doing. I just want to see what would happen. I really wasn't sure but liked the idea of it. Well, it wasn't until last night when my small group and I went out with Corey Peters to hand out groceries and offer prayer for people in our community. Before we left he was talking to us about how he talks to people about Jesus and the bible and eventually asking them to ask Christ into their life. He was talking about how the bible says that we are to share Christ with everyone we meet and that is not always by talking to them about Christ but just by showing love to them. That was when it all came together and put a meaning behind this idea! If I truely want to mold my children's hearts to be followers of Christ and to share Christ with others the best way to do that is start by showing love. Ayden and I were able to have such a great conversation today about why Love is our main rule in our house and how Jesus came to this earth and showed love to everyone he encountered. We also were able to tie that into holy week and how Jesus showed us love in the biggest possible way, by obeying God and dying on the cross for our sins.
I need to read her blog a few more times to get the natural consequences down that she talks about but I have been amazed by this idea of showing love at all times and that being our main rule in our house. I love it! I hope if anyone of you are struggling with discipline like we are this might be something to think about for your family.
Well I was on Pinterest one night and came across a pin that took me to this blog: http://www.notconsumed.com/2012/05/02/consequences-for-little-hearts/
She talks about having natural consequences for your children. When I read it I was thinking wow that sounds great but it would never work for my kids. The biggest thing I have taken away from her blog post was that she has one rule "always show love". When I read this I quickly thought, what about the no throwing balls in the house, or pick up your toys before you get something else out, or obey your mom and day?!? But she quickly describes how everything comes back to love.... While I read this and went on with my days until I came to one of those situations with my 3 year old and I felt like the love idea would work so I tried it. I can't remember the exact example but he looked at me and did what I asked and we were over it and had moved on. I was amazing but also was like well yeah that fit perfectly but it won't always happen like that. So I tried it again (luckily my son has given me lots of time to practice in the past week) and it worked again. Here are a few examples I can think of that we have dealt with in the past few days; Ayden yelling because I asked him to put on his jammies and he didn't want to take off his jersey. "Ayden can you try telling me that again but using loving words". Ahnie pushing her brother. "Ahnie are you loving Ayden right now? How can you show Ayden love?" Ayden got a time out at school for throwing blocks in stead of picking them up. "Ayden were you showing Ms. Sarah love my not picking up and throwing blocks? Were you showing love to your class that could have been hit by those blocks?"
This past week I tried this with out telling Brett what I was doing. I just want to see what would happen. I really wasn't sure but liked the idea of it. Well, it wasn't until last night when my small group and I went out with Corey Peters to hand out groceries and offer prayer for people in our community. Before we left he was talking to us about how he talks to people about Jesus and the bible and eventually asking them to ask Christ into their life. He was talking about how the bible says that we are to share Christ with everyone we meet and that is not always by talking to them about Christ but just by showing love to them. That was when it all came together and put a meaning behind this idea! If I truely want to mold my children's hearts to be followers of Christ and to share Christ with others the best way to do that is start by showing love. Ayden and I were able to have such a great conversation today about why Love is our main rule in our house and how Jesus came to this earth and showed love to everyone he encountered. We also were able to tie that into holy week and how Jesus showed us love in the biggest possible way, by obeying God and dying on the cross for our sins.
I need to read her blog a few more times to get the natural consequences down that she talks about but I have been amazed by this idea of showing love at all times and that being our main rule in our house. I love it! I hope if anyone of you are struggling with discipline like we are this might be something to think about for your family.
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