He's 3 Today!

Happy Birthday Josiah!

It's Birthday Week!

The first thing that has to happen during birthday week is that the house has to be cleaned. This cleaning must occur as close to company arriving as possible. Today was that cleaning day. I kept at it all day and felt as if I was mostly running in circles. Aliza finally figured out there was no getting out of it today so she started asking what she could do to help. What a lovely question!

Aliza played with Anna on the play mat. Aliza and I got to see Anna roll from her tummy to her back!

Josiah sat next to Anna while I was cleaning up his room. He was holding her hand. How sweet is that!?

Jeremy came home a bit early and helped me vacuum downstairs. He came home in the nick of time. As soon as the vacuum was turned off we lost electricity due to the high wind today. Between feeding Anna and taking care of the others' demands I wouldn't have made it.

Now Aliza and Josiah are camping out in our room for the weekend. Jeremy's parents, brother and his fiance are here for this first weekend of festivities.

I'm waiting for my campers to fall asleep...

Ahhhh. One is sleeping.

I should go down after Josiah falls asleep and say hi. My bed is feeling rather comfy though!

Anna--3 Months

Jeremy set up the lights tonight and we took pictures of each of the children. Birthday week is around the corner! I'm doing lots of planning this week. Here are a couple of Anna's 3 months pictures with zero post-processing.

Another Gem

I wish I had a treehouse so I could make up my own rules. ---Aliza

(This quote tells me I'm doing a couple things right!)

Aliza Quote

Aliza and I were reading one of those books with pictures in each sentence. Aliza was reading the pictures. It happened to be a Backyardigan's book and she had to remember the names of the characters. She was getting a little flustered because she had to really think to keep up with the story. So she said, "Wait, Mommy, wait. I'm buffering." I admit I was still trying to hold the laughter in three pages later.

Hope of Spring

Ah. Yesterday and today did my heart and body good. We took a walk both days. Fresh air in my lungs. Muscles being exercised. Children playing together outside. It just doesn't get much better than that.

We have such amazing neighbors that put up with my children's antics.
This afternoon Aliza was practicing her yodeling at the top of her lungs. It was most obnoxious, but she was outside I could hardly tell her to be quiet.

Mommy from Aliza's perspective.

I have 3-6 months clothes in Anna's drawer now. Awwwww. Just looking at the pictures makes me want to go kiss her. She's sleeping....I'll refrain.

SuperMom Moment

I know better than to think that I am Super Mom. But when I figured out how to get all 3 children on the stroller to cross the street to the library I was feeling pretty much like Super Mom. At least I can have a moment here and there, right?

Date Attire

Yes, I'm going to talk about weight. At my own expense. The picture was so unflattering I'm not posting it.

I had a hot date on Sunday evening. For Valentine's Day. With my bestest friend who is also my husband. I happened to want to look like more than a stay-at-home Mom and I had no pants in that category that fit. So I called my sister and my sister-in-law. My sister forgot the pants. So I picked up a pile of pants from my sister-in-law.

She apparently has lots of clothes since she presented me with a pile of 5 dress pants and a skirt. She starts going through the pile. This is my favorite from Express Size X. I recognize a skirt that she wore around the time she got married. We get to the bottom of the pile. This is Size Y from Express. I'm thinking...I KNOW how Express pants fit. This is not looking good for me. Then she points to the pair of natural colored J. Crew corduroys on the bottom of the pile. And she says--And these are my ginormous Size Z pants. I only wore them when I was THIS (think hand motions) big. I'm sure they'll be too big for you.

I brought my donations home and tried them on. Couldn't button the first ones. Couldn't button the second ones. Insisted that the zipper close on the skirt, but there was a bulge. You know, the worst fear at this point in post pregnancy is that someone would ask if you ARE pregnant. The third pair of black pants fit well enough that a long shirt could cover the snugness. And those ginormous pants? Yup. They fit. With a bit of breathing room, but nonetheless a comfortable fit at the waist.

Then I went looking for those heels that I haven't worn in an age. Black boots. Knee high. Perfect. But no. I couldn't zip them!

I decided to laugh. I called Meghan to confess and boosted her self-esteem.

This baby weight is hanging on this time. I have a pretty good idea why. I didn't have weeks or months of high thyroid. High thyroid makes your metabolism go crazy and I'm thinking that's why I lost my weight without trying the last 2 times. Oh well. I'm happy to feel good and be happy. Soon the weather will be nicer and I'll be able to do some walking.

Happy Heart Day

One of the first things I did this morning was carve out a pretty little Valentine spot. Chocolate is available all day on Valentine's. This is particularly exciting to Josiah.


Anna and Carter went to baby story time at the library. Aliza enjoyed it too. Josiah got to play on the computers with Chrissy during the story time.

Then Grandma came over with some cupcakes to decorate. She thought she had an easy, fool proof, rather clean plan. BUT Aliza insisted on spreading the frosting and Josiah knocked over a dish of sprinkles.
Aliza is my event planner. She always has a BIG plan! Today she spent a lot of time decorating the dining room. Here is Care Bear land and Strawberry Shortcake Land. She did lots of cutting and lots and lots of taping. Aliza could hardly wait for Daddy to empty his pockets when he came home. She wanted to show him so badly.
Heart themed dinner. Heart plates, napkins and pizza.
Josiah's dinner. I promise this is the only day of the year such a dinner occurs!
Josiah loves stuffed animals. He declared his puppy cute and quickly made a home for it in his bedroom.

Playing

I opened the door as quietly as I could. I zoomed in as far as I could and snapped a quick picture. Then I closed the door as quietly as I could. I just love it when Aliza and Josiah play together. This is Josiah's favorite tree. He will go outside by himself and play in the dirt with his trucks. Aliza would much prefer to stay inside and do crafts and follow me around, but today was just too nice. I shooed them both out and they had fun.

Anna holding on to a rattle for the first time. She loves to suck on anything...except a pacifier! A first in our family.

Blinders

I figured something out. I need to put blinders on. I imagine myself holding my hands on either side of my eyes blocking my peripheral vision so that I am forced to focus on that which is right in front of me.

I went grocery shopping by myself tonight. That's a dangerous thing. I have time to think! So I was thinking about blinders and I started thinking about Iron Chef. Have you seen the show? Each chef is very busy preparing their own dishes. They are not wasting time looking around at what the other chef is doing or how the judges or audience is reacting to their decisions. They are completely focused on the task and their assistants who are helping them accomplish their goals.

My point? I'm putting on blinders and focusing on what I need to do to raise my children to be God-fearing, confident, independent adults. I'm not going to waste my mental energy wondering what other people are doing and looking around to see who is watching and how they are judging or not judging me (and my children).

I'll be working hard over here! I'll still share my life and be here to cheer on other Mommy's. I'm thankful for all the other Mommy's and women who cheer me on.

A Random Moment

Chrissy bought this for me. It is living about my desk where I can see it from my bed. It seems like I see it a lot. At first it kindof scared me seeing "thrive" so often. Now I wake up in the morning and think, OK what am I going to do today to make sure that I am thriving.

I was sick this weekend. The stomach brand of sickness. I am a complete wimp when it comes to nausea and one of my worst fears of Mommyhood was being sick and having to take care of children. This is the first time I have been sick as a Mommy and it was as miserable as I expected. However, it could have been far worse. Aliza let me keep her Apple pony with me until I felt better (her most cherished toy). She also came to check on me every minute and half that I was resting. The worst day was Sunday so I did have a chance to lay down. Bless her heart. I shipped her and Josiah out to Aunt Janell on Monday so I could just have some space and Aliza was heartbroken to have to leave me. But she had a most wonderful time with Aunt Janell, as always.

We were back to thriving today. At one moment I realized every one was occupied so I grabbed the camera and just simply captured each person's activity.

Tracing while singing Rooftops by Jesus Culture at the top of her lungs. Priceless.

Anna has discovered her hands now.

Mommy, am I scary? He's watching John Deere tractors. Josiah spent some time playing outside and wanted to watch John Deere plows more than anything else when he came in.

Late Nights

At 9:30 one night...
I couldn't bring myself to break up this sweet conversation. Aliza and Josiah were looking at an American Girl catalog. Aliza was helping Josiah circle everything that "he" wanted.


At 10:15 on a lot of nights...
Anna cuddles with Mommy and Daddy. I actually really like giving her my undivided attention and it is my fault that she is up this late. I let her take a super long nap in the afternoon which puts her third nap way too late and then she eats and is awake way too late. I'll remedy that one of these days. Actually tonight she was in bed at 8:00.

It is uncommon for Aliza to take a nap anymore. I don't usually hear from her after she is tucked in. Except for tonight when she must have been too tired because she threw a fit because (get this!) I cleaned up her room and (*gasp*) I moved her sleeping bag to a different place in the room so she would have more room to play. (Yes, she had time out until she was ready to thank me for cleaning up her room.)

Josiah still takes a nap. He needs it. He has also learned to keep himself awake at night. At nap time he lays right down and is asleep in minutes. At night he can keep himself up for hours. Even if we lay with him he stays awake. It can easily be 10:30 or later until he goes to sleep.

I'm pretty sure I am the ring leader of the Heslop Family Circus.