Why We Invite Our In-Laws...

I had to tease my mother-in-law, Karen, and tell her that the only reason we invited them for Christmas was because she makes all the food and Carl watches all the kids! ;) (Which is exactly where Georgia was while I was snapping pictures of other people cooking in my kitchen.)

In my defense, I made the mashed potatoes.

Say Cheese

A week before Christmas we invited Andy's family to our home to celebrate with us. One of the most fun things for me to watch now that Georgia is older is how she interacts with her cousins. She loved playing with all of them...especially Claire and Ella. They spent a lot of time together in Georgia's room playing with new toys.

We found Claire and Georgia sitting in there together, so Annie and I decided we need a cousin pic. We stood there for a few minutes, both of us calling out to the girls, "Say cheese! Come on...smile! Look at Mommy...smile! Say cheese!" This is what we got:

New Fad:

It's called I-love-my-new-pink-boots-and-I want-to-wear-them-all-the-time.

Festivities

I love Christmas! It's one of my favorite times of year and I truly enjoy all the festivities of the season. But I've been so BUSY I haven't had time to blog about a single one of them. So, in order to draw out the Christmas season just a little longer, my next few posts will be about some of our Christmas fun this year.

I decided this year I was going to attempt the biggest mom-Christmas job of all time...in my mind at least - sugar cookie cutouts. Oh, yes. I've been hit once again by the domestic bug. My Grandma Mary made these every year for Christmas before she passed away. Not only were they tasty, but beautiful too. It was such a treat for me to make these, but it took a really, really, REALLY long time. That's probably my own fault though, because I have the gift (curse?) of perfectionism. :)

Belly Pic

I can't believe not even ONE person has asked me to post belly pics! Not one! Well here I am at 32 weeks; 8 weeks left and this is my first belly pic. Oh how things change with baby #2. . .

Jones

My newest nephew was born on November 27th! His name is Jones Mitchell Hensley and he weighed in at 8 lbs and 2 oz. Recently, Andy, Georgia and I made a little stop at my sister and brother-in-law's house to meet him. He's a darling little fella and I think he looks like his big sister Madge.

Georgia really likes babies, but as soon as I got little Jones in my arms, she had to sit on Mommy's lap, too. I'm really starting to get curious as to how she'll behave after our new little one gets here.

A few pics of our time together:

Girl Talk

Claire: Oh my gosh, Georgia, I LOVE your boots. They are so cute.
Georgia: Thanks...they are, aren't they?
Claire: You HAVE to tell me where you got them. I need a pair for myself.
Georgia: I didn't pay a penny for them! They were from a friend.
Claire: They're just so soft and I love the fur. I just have to get some!
Georgia: They're super warm and comfy. Your boots are cute, too, though.
Claire: Come on, a girl can never have too many pairs of boots!
Georgia: (sigh) It's true. Let's get together soon and go shopping!
Claire: Let's do it, girlfriend! Have your mom call/text my mom and plan it.
Georgia: Sounds great! Darling shirt, by the way....

Elmo!

Before Thanksgiving we acquired some tickets to Sesame Street's 1-2-3- Imagine! live show through a good friend of ours. Andy and I were excited to take Georgia, but wondered how she would react to the large costumed characters. I had decided that she would absolutely love it or absolutely hate it; she'd have a great time or she'd be terrified.

We don't even watch Sesame Street because we have a hard time tuning into that channel at home, and so I used the one Sesame Street book and Elmo sippy cup we have to re-introduce her to some of the characters. It worked! That night at the show she recognized Elmo and Big Bird right away - and she had a great time! It was fun to watch her wave, clap and dance in the aisle.

We all enjoyed the very lively show, but Georgia has not stopped talking about Elmo since. My mom bought her some Elmo slippers, which she wants at all times, either to wear or just carry around. And you can tell when she is either thinking about the show (or the slippers), because a random, "Elmo!" will pop out of her mouth.

Thank you, DeVores!

The Night of Puke

Two nights ago, I was telling someone how healthy Georgia was and how we hadn't been sick in awhile. Later that night, around 11:00 pm, I heard Georgia cry out and Andy went to check on her. He started yelling for me to come and I imagined the worst - something involving blood.

It wasn't blood, but it wasn't anything nice either. PUKE. Lots and lots of puke. Georgia's head, pillow, sheet and comforter were drenched in vomit. I couldn't believe such a little person could produce so much.

She was crying and shaking as we put her in the tub - huge chunks were falling out of her hair. After I wrapped her in a towel, I just held her, hoping to stop the shakes. They did stop, but then she threw up all down her front. Back she went in the tub. My heart was breaking as she cried for Daddy and then for me. From that point on she threw up every 20-30 minutes until 4:30 am. She and I "slept" on the floor, knowing we'd be washing sheets all night if she went back to her bed. I didn't sleep at all and Georgia in only half hour intervals. She didn't throw up from 4:30 to 7:00, so I deemed it safe for us to crawl into bed with Daddy.

Thankfully Andy's schedule is flexible, so he spent the morning at home so I could sleep. Georgia was her sweet, normal self all day, except she had no appetite. Not surprising and we didn't push it. Today has been much better with a slightly improved appetite.

I hope it's a very, very long time before we have to go through that again.

Thankful

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name." Psalm 100:4

It's too easy to remember what we're thankful for on Thanksgiving Day and forget about the rest of the days of the year. Isn't it truly something we should put into practice every single day? Yes! Thank you, Lord for all your good and perfect gifts!

May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving Day.

Who Doesn't Love Pumpkin?

Well, we never got around to carving our pumpkins this year. Too bad...I think Georgia would have enjoyed it. But there was too much happening and we were gone the weekend of Halloween, so it just didn't happen.

Not by us, anyway. We started noticing these little critters as they took a very fond liking to our pumpkins. Nibble after nibble started adding up and after awhile, these pumpkins were completely carved through. It started to get a little gross, but the entertainment factor for Georgia was so huge, we couldn't bear to get rid of them. Each morning she would sit in her highchair and watch as the squirrels ate their "beffast" too.

Thank goodness these pumpkins were only $2 each.

Muddy

It's fun to hear Georgia begin talking...and trying to figure out what she's saying. One of her newest terms is "Muddy," and it's usually in reference to Andy. We're not exactly sure where it comes from or it's exact connotation, because she sometimes uses it with different tones and in different contexts. Here are the three possibilities that we think it could be:

1. A quick combo for Mommy + Daddy.
2. "Where's Daddy?" When Georgia wants to know where something is she'll say "Mmmmm....go?" or "Mmmm....Daddy?"; which, when said quickly, sounds like "Muddy."
3. Georgia has very often and very clearly called Andy, "My Daddy" when speaking of him or to him. My + Daddy = Muddy.

We think the last one is the most likely. :)

You Might Be a Pastor's Wife If....

...people are shocked when you know the words to old popular songs.


from You Might Be a Pastor's Wife If...by Kathy Slamp

New Room

It's been about a month since we painted Georgia's new room and moved her across the hall. I wanted to have her completely accustomed to sleeping in her big girl bed before the baby comes. People kept telling me I have until the baby is ready to sleep in his or her crib, but that seems so far away and I didn't want a baby and a toddler adjusting to new sleeping arrangements at the same time.

All in all it's gone very smoothly. Only the first few nights did Georgia ask to sleep in her crib, but we just kept the nursery door shut and moved all her toys over and there really wasn't too much fuss about it. She has only fallen out of the bed twice - and never while she was sleeping. Both times we could hear her talking and playing through the monitor, so we think that before each crash she was standing up. Those, too, only happened in the first couple of days and it hasn't happened since. It's just so funny to me because she used to sleep all over the place in her crib, but hasn't done that since moving to a toddler bed. How do they know what to do?

Anyway, here are some pictures of the new room. I don't have anything up on the walls yet; I'm still trying to come up with some unique decorating ideas. Maybe a collage of some sort....any suggestions?


This last picture is just too funny not to share. I put her on her bed so I could take a picture of the big girl on her big girl bed, but she immediately started crying because she thought I was making her take a nap. She kept saying, "No nite-nite! No nite-nite!"

What a Day

The last few days have been very interesting.

It started on Tuesday morning at my doctor's appointment. I was scheduled that morning to drink the orange drink to check my blood sugar and look for signs of gestational diabetes. At the office they pricked my finger (three times, by the way!) and discovered that I had failed the test. WHAT??? I had done just fine when I was pregnant with Georgia. They told me that I'd have to take a 3-hour glucose tolerance test the next day. It goes something like this:

*Fast overnight for 12 hours. (Might be easy if I didn't wake up at 3 a.m. really wanting to get a midnight snack.)
*Go to the hospital, have blood drawn, drink the orange drink again.
*Wait an hour, have blood drawn.
*Wait another hour, have blood drawn.
*Wait ONE MORE hour, have blood drawn.

I had to do all this without eating ANYTHING. I think total time was 17 hours without food and I was hungry.

Things started to look up at lunch time. Andy took me and Georgia out for a yummy lunch at Old Chicago. Now it was blessed nap time. Not so fast! On the way home we got rear-ended. We were stopped at a stop light and this woman ran right smack into us - HARD. It jolted Georgia awake. Believe it or not, and I still can't, there was no damage to either car. One small hole in our bumper from her license plate and her plate did bend. That was it. I couldn't believe it because, really, I've never been hit in a car that hard before.

So, we had to wait for a police officer to come and yada, yada, yada. You know how it goes. The woman was very nice (poor gal, it was her birthday) and everything went smoothly. Andy's taking the van in today to get checked out just in case, but it looks like we won't have to mess with repairs or insurance.

And now today I've been waiting for the results of that mega-long test. The nurse called just a while ago and.....I'm normal! She said everything looked fine and Tuesday's test had been just barely over in the first place. This is wonderful news - no more finger pricks or blood draws, no dietitian meetings or classes, and no worries about diabetes.

Let's hope today is a little more peaceful.

Laundry Innovations

I'm always looking for ways to save money. At the suggestion of a friend, I have decided to make my own laundry detergent. She told me it only cost about a penny a load and so I had to find out for myself. I am going to keep track of how many loads I do and see if it truly is that inexpensive.

Making it ended up to be very easy (no complaints there!) and it looks like it will last a long time.

Just a cup of each of these three things:


Add 4 1/2 gallons of hot water and voila! This bucket is full of detergent. I still have enough supplies to make this 5 gallon bucket at least 5, maybe 6 more times.

Wanna give it a go yourself? Here's the website: http://www.soapsgonebuy.com/category_s/40.htm Good luck!

New Addition

How does the old saying go? "With the growing of a family comes the addition of more modern appliances." Ok, I made that up. But it seems like we keep saying, "since we're having another baby, we should..." The mini-van, new stove, and now a new deep freeze.

Andy has been wanting one of these for a long time, but it was always last on our to-get list. We were given one that was 30 years old and worked just fine, but we didn't turn it on for a year. Oops. Couldn't get it to work. What a bummer! We were looking forward to buying a turkey. But after a trip to Sears for some humidifier filters, we decided to just look and guess what? SALE!! We took a few days to think about it and even saved an extra $10 just by ordering on-line. So here it is! We've got a few things in there already (see the turkey?) and are on the look out for grocery sales to stock it up.

Biblical Womanhood

Here is a link to an article written by Andy's brother, a pastor, about biblical womanhood. There is much food for thought. Grab a cup of coffee and take a few minutes to read it. I think it's great; it's stretching, encouraging and maybe offensive - but in a good way. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.

http://www.cbmw.org/Vol-14-No-2/

click on The Means, Mandates and Motivation for Biblical Womanhood (Titus 2:4-5)

Ackey

This is one of Georgia's new favorite words. Every tiny bit of dirt, each minuscule crumb, any little scrap she finds on the floor she exclaims, "Ackey!" and hands it to me to throw away.

Needless to say I was surprised this evening when I asked her what was in her mouth and she showed me a mouth FULL of dirt, crumbs, and left over tidbits from the stove-top I had just cleaned. I dug out as much as I could, but she actually didn't seem to mind a mouthful of "ackey."

Maybe it was because she didn't eat any of her dinner. I just hope now that this "ackey" habit doesn't continue.

Pumpkin Party

Grandview's annual Pumpkin Party was last night. There were lots of fun games and cute costumes and of course, CANDY!!!

We were excited to take Georgia and she actually participated in some of the games. She especially loved the duck pond. All she had to do was pick up a rubber ducky and the number on the bottom determined how many pieces of candy she got. She just wanted to keep the 'quack-quack's' as she calls them, and I just wanted her pick Snickers and Reese's as her candy choices. It was time to move on to another game when she tried to get into the duck pond - costume, shoes and all.

Here is our little flower on the move. She loved her costume by the way. When she saw herself in the mirror she just laughed and said, "Pretty! Oh, pretty!" Andy and I dressed up as gardeners. We were pretty cute, too.

Flower Georgia and Ladybug Alivia


Playing games for candy

Showing off her candy prizes

Ultrasound

We had our ultrasound a couple of weeks back. Thought you might want to see sweet Baby Schu #2. Boy or girl; what do you think? At this point only the good Lord knows!