Saturday, November 20, 2010

Sugar and spice and everything nice...

Briella turned 4 months on the 16th of this month. I haven't been very good about posting her growth month by month, but as I snuggled her to sleep tonight I couldn't help reflecting on how sweet she is.

Briella still sleeps in our bed part of most nights. Her crib is in our bedroom, so if she wakes during the night we tend to be less than willing to let her "cry it out". She fell asleep in our bed tonight a few hours before Paul and I were ready to head to bed, but a little while ago I heard her fussing and slipped in to check on her. She was just laying there bundled in her swaddler, kicking her feet like a little girl on a too-tall stool, and smiling sunshine up at me :) That baby girl puts all the love she has into every smile.

(Better photo of the smile I see all day long :) Unfortunately, I don't have a current photo of her as our camera was thoughtfully given a bath by her older brother!

I laid down next to her and she snuggled her face in, fast asleep in minutes. I watched her thinking about how very sweet God made her. I feel so blessed to experience this sinless phase of life with her, only seeing need or goodness. Honestly, I don't believe she's ever been cranky just because, most times any crying is settled with a bottle or a cuddle. We joke about her being "snuggly to a fault", because she loves being squeezed and kissed and cuddled so much her little heart seems to break if I'm too busy to grab her at times. Her favorite thing at the moment is looking into your eyes as you talk to her, and babbling right back. It is a wonderful thing to reach the age that they really begin to love you. I know this time won't last forever, she does have a sin nature in there somewhere, but for now I love being so loved by my sweet baby girl :)

Monday, November 15, 2010

An Amendment

After mulling over my last post I felt led to make an amendment.
Although lately I have been struggling with feeling (like Job) that God is picking on me a bit, I know that I have nothing like Job's claim to righteousness. Meaning that although my body and mind are physically at the end of what they can handle, God may very well be trying to teach or correct me through it and I want to be soft to that teaching. Even though it's hard, and right now it stinks.

I also wanted to add that whatever God is trying to do in my life through these trials, I am surrounded by friends and supporters who are nothing like Job's counselors. Over the past three days we have had three families bring us allergy-safe meals or groceries, a doctor friend make an emergency Sunday house call, four friends offer to clean my house, a very wonderful friend take on some projects of mine that must be finished within a few short days, and numerous people helping and offering to help with caring for our children while I can't.

I'm ending the evening unable to sleep, but having spent time soaking in God's Word, and feeling chastened, stretched, and encouraged. Thank you all my awesome family and friends, and thank You Lord God for surrounding me with people who love me.

My life is a little crazy lately

So, I've been really sick this past week, but like most mommies out there, had no choice but to keep at 'em and wait until I got better. BUt...... I wasn't getting better. Actually, by Saturday night I had a 102 degree fever, difficulty breathing, and shaking chills along with my flu symptoms, and have barely been able to get out of bed for two days. Today I had the pleasure of being officially diagnosed with pneumonia. Why????

Not that we're there yet, but I can't help but draw a correlation with just having finished reading Job.....

Friday, November 12, 2010

My Funny Little Boy

This movie cracks me up! Please excuse my messy house :)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Yes! We are still alive!..... (I think)

Hello friends and family! We are still here, even though I haven't really posted (about our lives) in a long, long time. Things lately have been....hard. As in, vainly clutching the last tattered vestiges of my sanity in a futile attempt to prolong the inevitable kind of hard. I've mentioned before, two is harder than one, but it's harder in the same way that even a good marriage is hard sometimes. You love the other person like crazy and long to spend time with them, but the unexpected issues on "the outside" make life difficult to cope with in the context of marriage or children. At least for me. 

Paul started his new job the first of last month, which is a mixed blessing. Great job, but he's gone a lot and very tired when he gets home. Talking helps me deal with stress in a huge way, as do hugs, but when the kids go to bed at 7:30pm and he conks at 8pm (to be up at 4am), both are in short supply :( 
We also "bought" my parent's van, but had to replace the transmission (= lots of $)-this resulted in a hilarious video I will share if it ever loads. So in an attempt to help pay for it, we did not drive it, leaving me without a car for a month. I don't know how many of you have ever been trapped lived in an apartment with a high energy two year old and an infant-- it's a bit tough. Throw in an inability to eat "real" food, no insurance for a sick baby and mommy and a lack of date nights.
 The result.....a faaaairly large meltdown on my part, a realization that I'm not the "strong person" I thought I was, a much greater dependence on God, and an awesome talk/ time out together with my hubby figuring out how to make this work. Things are getting much better :)

Although this past month has been less than blissful, we have had some great times together.

Briella turned 3 months! She is such a sweet-spirited little girl, with a smile for everyone and SO much to say! She babbles at me all the time :)

 We added a leaf-canopy to Westly's bed :) I think it's fun with his jungle themed room- he only tolerates it because he is convinced it keeps the "hoo-hoo's" away. My son is terrified, not of monsters, but of owls.

 Westly loves cuddling his sister on the couch, and she adores anything associated with her big brother :)

 "Hey, look! I have thrush!" We couldn't see the doctor for this, but after about a month it went away on its own!

She's reaching for and grabbing things now

 What a snuggler! Napping with tired daddy

Sleepy Westly coloring in his fort. I love these pictures :)


Showing off his stickered his tummy :)

I just liked this outfit :) The lower one looks so much like Westly to me


Westly got his first major haircut. Which means my goldilocks is no more :( His new cut is rather uneven (try not to notice) as cutting a 2 year old boy's hair consists of crawling after him around the living room, and/or sitting on him.


 I've tried to find fun indoor games for my biggest monkey on rainy days, hence the fort in the above pics. This day it was "toddler bowling".




Goofy jammie time with sissy :)

Precious napper

Ok Thomas, you've got some explaining to do. See the look on my son's face? You getting your choo-choo-self covered in cocoa powder was an unparalleled tragedy in the Higgins household. 

.......until the day they towed the van away to fix it.
You may have noticed I was laughing so hard I could hardly explain why he was bawling. I'm such a bad mommy- but in my defense, I had spent the last 20 minutes explaining to him what the tow truck was doing.

Playing "keep-away" with sissy, she loved it :)


My cute little pumpkin

My other pumpkin, in the world's cutest jammies. Thank you Tara :)

Zonked

And I'll leave you with a little something special to think about......






















Heh heh heh (evil chuckle)... and while you're fighting off the nightmares remember, it's ok. He's my child, not yours :)

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

newborn and bro~sis photos

Newborn Briella Photo Shoot






 Fall 2010 Brother~Sister Photo Shoot










Thank you Kivetts!!!!