10 on 2sday

1.  My ears are still ringing

2.  I often times type my name as: Loir, thankfully spell check shows a red squiggly line for me... strange fact I'm sure you wanted to know...

3.  Brynn does not like spaghetti.  It shouldn't surprise me ~ I didn't like spaghetti when I was little either.  Actually, I have a funny spaghetti story... maybe I'll share it some time!

4.  What does surprise me is how sassy a 4-year-old can be.  I had no idea.  Seriously, no idea.

5.  Avery tinkled in the toilet tonight.  Kind of random, although we have put the girls on the potty before, just to see what they would do.  Brynn freaks out, Avery did a little at first, but has been ok with it lately.  But she had never actually peed while up there.  Now she has... and of course, I took a picture of the momentous occasion! (I sure hope she forgives me for this picture...)

 6.  I'm not ready to actually potty train Avery.  If I learned nothing else from my experience with potty training Evan, it was that if I'm not ready... ain't nobody ready...  although, it won't keep us from putting them on the potty.

7.  I scoped out a location over the weekend for an upcoming family photo shoot... doesn't this look fun!?!? 

8.  Avery has been practicing putting clothes on...

9.  When Avery says Brynn's name, it sounds like bin, bun or ben.  And it's adorable.

10.  When Brynn says Avery's name, it sounds like A-E.  It's also adorable.

Any guesses...

...to what Brynn is doing?

...why, she's singing in her Brynn language of course!

My thought today...

Our ideas and opinions are limited by our experiences and perspective.

Probably why God instructed us not to judge others.

Prime example:
Before I had children of my own I used to "judge" parents who put those backpack leashes on their children, thinking to myself... "geez, why don't you just watch your kid?" 

Um.

I get it now.

In fact, I just may be in the market for a couple of 'em.

Perspective.

10 on 2sday

1.  So I've had every intention of  posting a '10 on 2sday' every week... you can see how well I'm doing...

2.  I posted a few more 'sneak peeks' on my photography blog!  One of them is my photographer friend and her family!  I gotta say, rather intimidating to be photographing someone who knows what she's doing and what you are doing (and what I'm doing wrong :), but it was a lot of fun and a great learning experience for me!!

3.  About a week and a half ago both Avery & Brynn climbed out of their cribs.  On. the. same. day.  I wish you could have seen the look of panic on mine and Dan's faces when we saw them trundling down the hallway.  I really thought crib time was over ~ my only chance in the mornings to actually take a shower is now clouded by the constant fear of them climbing out of their cribs and getting into something they shouldn't.  But, *knocking furiously on any wood around me* for whatever reason they haven't climbed out since.  It won't be long, though, and my whole routine will have to change drastically.

4.  We are well on our way to the 'terrible-2s' - both Avery & Brynn  are perfecting their fit-throwing skills.  (I guess since they have someone to show them how to do it I should expect them to be ahead of the curve on this one...)  Avery will straighten herself out and go stiff as a board ~ then she flings herself backwards.  For the most part I ignore it, except when she's about to fling herself into the furniture... Brynn likes to hit when she's mad... or bite... and I had a welt on my leg to prove it.  (although no picture)

5.  Evan asked me for celery.  Very out of character, especially since eating vegetables has been such a challenge.  This was a breakthrough.  Even if he does want me to slap peanut butter on it.  And I should mention, it started with me giving him sliced cucumbers... we slapped some pb on those and he ate them up.  He must have thought it was celery because that's what he kept asking for...

6.  The girls really like throwing things down the stairs.

7.  Evan gets really mad when the girls throw his toys down the stairs.

8.  Avery speaks in full sentences sometimes.  Her language development has me totally amazed...  and she repeats EV-ER-Y-THING!  I never got in a good routine of writing down all the words she started saying because it wasn't just a word here and there - it was an entire vocabulary!

9.  Brynn is still my little book worm.  All the kids like books, but Brynn has always been happy sitting off by herself with her nose in a book.  And she has created her own language to read with.  She's constantly babbling something while she's "reading."

10.  Avery & Brynn have set their sights on doors... including this one... which they can reach... and open... and may or may not have gotten into the yard without me noticing right away...

Adventures with Yoshi

Earlier this week, while the kids were down for nap/quiet time, me and Yoshi had a little adventure.

It started with me getting a little annoyed by all the barking I was hearing outside.

It wasn't a normal kind of bark.

So I went to check it out.

And here is what I saw:

So, obviously I had to go run for the camera and hope the frog would still be there when I got back.

Definitely still there.

Poor Yoshi, she just didn't know what to do with this thing.

But she was NOT happy that it invaded her space.

So of course, I got in a little closer...

Until.



This.



Happened...

Beyond Blessed

I went to bed last night with a smile beaming on my face.  I was overflowing with such joy, I was afraid I might not be able to fall asleep.

And the truth is, my day was chaotic, sometimes stressful, and I was frazzled by late afternoon.  The kids were crabby, Brynn didn't nap well ~ which always throws a wrench in my day...

But I was still overjoyed by life.

My cousin, Lynn, posted this as her facebook status yesterday:

"God, I don't understand You at all somtimes.  But I keep coming back to the knowledge that You are trustworthy.  I lift this day up to you."

I can't even describe how true that rings for me.

(one of) my posts on facebook yesterday was:

"I don't believe in coincidences... I believe in God Winks..."

Also ringing true.

I have been so blessed, and so fortunate to have amazing people in my life.

It just seems like everything that has happened in the past 6-ish months has been an incredible God Wink ~ a way of God giving me a little nudge reminding me that he is guiding me along the way.  Even the not-so-good.  God has been there.  For example; my Dad has been in the hospital for the past week (just busted out yesterday).  It was an awful feeling knowing that's where he was, and I couldn't be there to support him.  But he was in the right place at the right time to get the answers he needed - and I am thankful.

Perhaps the next big thing to share is that I officially crossed over ~ not in a weird way.  I received my first print order from one of my senior photo sessions the other day and it just hit me.  Bam.  I'm really doing this - I'm really going into business.  And the questions started... am I ready? can I do this? what if I fail? what if I fail?

Bottom line for me is this, (trying not to get too deep, here) I really don't like to fail.  There.  I said it out loud.  But I read a quote recently that I can't remember who wrote, and I'm going to put it back into my own words because I can't remember it exactly...

Success is going from failure to failure without losing your passion.

{Updated:  "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm" ~ Winston Churchill}  (I was pretty close!!)


So true.

And really, I don't even know how I would define failure at this point, anyway.  All I know is that I am trusting God, that he is nudging me in the right direction, and regardless of what failure might mean... I'm going for it!

And I will leave you with this; a picture I took on Sunday driving home ~ I was seeing too much beauty on my drive home, and I just had to pull over and snap some pictures.  I was going to enter it into an amateur contest in our area, but I don't think I qualify anymore, and I think I'll take the trade off...

Have a good Monday...

...or Avery is gonna get ya!!

GO CYCLONES!

The big in-state rivalry game is on Saturday... guess who we are rooting for!!  I don't have video yet, but we have been teaching the girls to say "Cy", and "go Cyclones!"

GO CYCLONES!!!!

Sometimes...

...quiet time turns into nap time.

...and the back story on why he had the laundry basket in his room: we had an adventure where we went to save Kevin, and we needed a way to steer the house... quick ~ name that movie!

Photo Op

This ended up being one of my favorite pictures from last weekend.  I have TONS more that I still need to sort through from our family weekend, but I just had to share this one:

10 on 2sday

1.  It doesn't feel like Tuesday

2.  I'm not ready for fall, although judging by the long pants and light jackets I had to put on the kids this morning to go out, I'm not sure I have much of a choice...  chili & potato soup, yes - coats & jeans, not so much

3.  We went on a whirlwind trip over the extended weekend, and part of it included taking Evan to his 1st ISU game!!  We brought a backpack of goodies for him... just in case... and I'm not sure if the toys distracted him from watching the game, or if he really just didn't care - but he was quite amused with the toys we brought!

4.  Avery started saying "love you" - it sounds more like "uv oooh" - but it might be the sweetest thing I've heard/seen since the girls started hugging...

5.  Brynn has decided she wants to be a big girl now and wants to walk wherever we go.  Doesn't always work well for me when she flings herself away as I'm trying to carry two wiggly little girls, but we are working on it...

6.  I feel like I am playing catch up all the time right now.  I'm trying very hard not to let it overwhelm me at this point, but I'm just really praying for a time when I don't feel like I have a million things to do at once.  Fat chance, I'm guessing.

7.  During our whirlwind weekend we had no cable or internet for about 5 days - I must say, it was nice.  Although, I did just get a new {smart} phone recently *love*, so I was at least able to get some emails and some facebook stuff.  Although, I think that was contributing to my feeling "behind."  I love to read blogs, and I wasn't reading any while I was gone, so I came home to over 200 blog posts in Google Reader.  Totally ridiculous to feel "behind" on reading blogs... I dunno, I may need to start downsizing.

8.  We just took Avery back to the allergist last week to run more tests - mostly checking different varieties of fruit that we suspected were causing more eczema problems.  Just got the results today to find most came back negative, and pineapple came back borderline.  Doesn't explain why she had her eczema flare up recently, but at least we know the fruit we suspected wasn't it.  I can't even describe how frustrating it is to NOT KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER!!!!!  AGH!  (thanks for listening reading? allowing me to vent)

9.  I did another senior photo shoot last week, it got dark very quickly with a thunderstorm moving in so we got what we could and planned another date next week to try a couple more locations.  We had also planned to do some shots indoors, which was extremely nerve-wracking for me since I'm not real skilled at indoor lighting, but we had fun playing around in the auditorium!

10.  Our whirlwind weekend included a visit with my Dad's side of the family down in SW Missouri - it was just awesome.  The logistics to get us down there and how everything worked out, truly was perfect.  A HUGE thank you to Sharie for watching the girls while we went to the game Thursday night - it made the trip possible, and I could not be more grateful.  I got to meet all sorts of family I had not met yet - cousins, babies of cousins, spouses of cousins, friends - LOTS of photo ops - and it was a great weekend!

This man was one of the highlights of the trip... my Grandpa just turned 96 this summer, and he rocks!  Just thought I'd share that!

Prayer Warriors Needed

If you are willing to pray, please do...

My friend, Christy ~ please read her blog post

My cousin, Clint ~ battling with brain cancer

My Uncle Gary ~ traveling to Africa on missions

My Dad ~ for healing in his eyes and heart

My SIL's best friend ~ battling with cancer that has spread to the bones




I haven't really talked about this, but I fully believe we are in a spiritual battle for our souls.  We know life on earth is short, but our souls are what count.  And when we are under attack we can't love like we are called to do. 

Praying matters!
It may not change the outcome, but it will change our hearts.

I had this big, long (hopefully beautiful) post that I've been trying to write for the past several weeks to try and introduce my Aunt Elaine's Pocket Prayers, and I just haven't gotten it complete.  But I love what she is doing, and now is the time to share.  Check it out if you feel like you need 'help' praying - they are a beautifully done.  I plan to share my recent experience with them, but I'm still trying to finish that post... I tend to get a little windy when it's something weighing heavy on my mind.

For now, thank you.