cute little baby girl!

Hailey was given a few adorable dresses from a friend from Germany and this one is completely ADORABLE!!! :) (or maybe it's the adorable little girl wearing it, but I guess I'm a little biased...)

Today we were "helping" Korey dig a hole for an egress window and mix some concrete to put some cement blocks in and I think I've finally come to realize that a pregnant woman and a 1 year old are anything but helpful...I know, it took me a long time, but I like to think more highly of my "abilities" than apparently I ought to! Poor Korey, I would fill up a bucket for him and then go to do something else and then Hailey would go behind me and dump the bucket out!!! Not quite what we were hoping for, but it was pretty cute and it definitely was a good way of giving Korey something to laugh about when he was super hot and working very hard!

25 weeks!!

Yesterday I had my 25 week doctor's appointment and everything looks great with our baby boy! His heart rate was 138 and it was going strong- he even kicked the doctor when he went to measure my stomach! I couldn't have been any happier! :)

I was cautioned by the nurse that my urine sample looked a little low on the "fluid" level so I should get plenty of water in my system...so, here I am trying to soak it in through osmosis! :) It's been so hot lately that I just jumped right in the pool with Hailey and used her new little watering can to "water" myself!!!

I have been experiencing really mild contractions and a very sore back/hips and I asked the doctor what I could do about them...and if the contractions were a problem, but he basically said that as long as I have Hailey in my life neither of them is likely to go away anytime soon! (and you can probably see why...) This little leech is attached to me and it's not getting any easier to carry "2" around!(don't critique my posture...it can't be helped...) But, I'm continually thankful that she does still enjoy snuggles and cuddling, at least some of the time, and that she's a small baby! She is such a little joy in my life and I can't wait to meet this little man of mine! If he's even half as much fun as his sister we are going to have a super fun house!! :)

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward...blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them!" Ps.127:3,5a

A One Year Old's Fishing Adventures

Hailey was feeling very adventurous Sunday in the boat! She tried a lot of new things and I think she decided that she likes fishing...well, except for the whole wearing a life jacket, not being able to go swimming, and being stuck in a boat part! :) She did really enjoy most of it, but her favorite part was looking over the side of the boat and trying to get into the water. I wish I could have gotten a picture for you to see, but I was too busy trying to keep her in the boat! She's definitely as active in the boat as she is out of the boat!!!!

She kept trying to stick her hand in the walleye's mouth, but Daddy wouldn't let her! Good thing, too, 'cause I looked in there and there are a lot of sharp teeth!!

16 months

Well, she made it! Hailey turned 16 months old today! I remember telling Korey once that if Hailey made it to 16 months I'd feel like I could do anything...and at the time 16 months seemed so far away! But, she did it!! She survived "babyhood" without her Mom doing something awful or wrong and killing her! And, I was right, I do feel like I can do anything- in the mornings, anyways, after 9 at night I don't feel like I can stand long enough to brush my teeth, let alone any great and wonderful mommyish feats! :) This kid is definitely a ball of energy! I know this is why God gave you a whole 16 months of cute cuddlyness before he made them like this. I think if she would have been this crazy and full of energy when I brought her home I may have just sent her right back!!! hahaha...just kidding! I love her more now than the day I brought her home from the hospital. In fact, I feel like I have been completely and utterly gifted with such a treasure in my life and can't wait to see all the exciting things that God has planned for her little life! She's already roaring and pulling at the tether lines to get out and experience more of life...she's been learning things like crazy, lately, and it's so exciting. But, at the same time, super sad. I think if I weren't having another little baby I'd be heartbroken to see my little baby looking and acting so grown up! I can't even count the number of times people have said to me lately, "wow. she just doesn't even look like a baby anymore!" and it is so true!

Here's a few of the new things she's learned lately:

-she can ask for milk or juice, depending on which one she wants...and speaking of that, boy, does she have an opinion on EVERYTHING. I've started having to slap her hands at least once a meal for food thrown on the floor, 'cause that's what she does with the stuff that she doesn't like- throws it on the floor for Allie, who is more than ready to eat it! (it actually rarely, if ever, even hits the floor...)

-she can say "hungry" and go by her highchair when she wants a snack or is ready for lunch!

-she dances to music and has sort of learned how to turn on the cd player by herself...she pretty much just pushes buttons until it plays something!

-she can sit on her zebra and make it go backwards and forwards

-she says GO when she wants to go outside

-she tells Allie to "go away" when she wants to sit on my lap without Allie bothering her

-she has favorite books, and has memorized her favorite parts of them...she'll even make me rush through the whole book just to get to the elmo that pops up or the Vroom noise!

-she loves to read to herself and spends a lot of time going through her books and "reading" them to the chair!

-she calls my belly "baby"

-she calls herself "baby"

-she says Momma when she wants something and if I don't answer she says it louder and louder until I do!

-she knows that she can chase allie around the house and how to get a rise our of her...she loves it when allie gets mad and sighs or growls at her- she runs away giggling!

-she knows who her Papa is and goes running and giggling to the door when he comes home from work

-she loves to play dress up with a pair of shoes that someone gave us...she brings them to me and says "on" and then clomps around the house in them laughing and having a super fun time!

-she LOVES the water and her little duck sprinkler. She often goes up to it and says "on" and gets mad if I say NO

-she definitely knows what NO means and can throw a pretty good fit when she hears it!

-she chases any kind of bug- as long as it moves, she chases it!

-the dirt must call her by name, because she spends every waking moment either wanting to go outside and play in it or playing in my pots or flower gardens outside!

-ice cream and chocolate are her best friends...or maybe their her mommy's and she just gets to go along for the ride...i'll leave that one for you to decide!

-meeting new people is still her passion, but she's a little more obvious with who she likes best, now. Most often, unfortunatley, she picks men and the ones who do the silliest faces and make her giggle usually win!

-she has a big girl sippy cup and is done with goats milk and onto whole milk

-she loves to eat cheese and blueberries. I think if I'd let her that's all she'd ever eat- unless I was eating something different then she'd want whatever is on my plate!

I love you, Hailey Elise. You light up my life and I thank God every day that He blessed me with you! I know that you are going to be a great big sister and I am so excited to see you "play" with your little brother!

It's the little things

...in life that make you happiest!

like chasing an orange balloon around the kitchen
teasing the doggie with it...

waiting for it to come back to you...

running with it...

thinking about eating it...

hitting it so it bounces away...

throwing it up in the air...

showing it to mommy...

studying it...

who knew that there were so many things a baby could do with an orange balloon??!! Definitely not me! Hailey and I went to a garage sale down the street from our house today and the little girl gave Hailey one of her balloons and from then on it became a prized possession! :) It even occupied her for at least 15 minute and that's gotta be some sort of record!

good times with a great family

Korey was gone for the weekend so I spent some time with my family...

I helped my Dad put in a paver path between their flowers and the lawn!

my wonderful mom knew that I was super tired out, so she took charge of Hailey and entertained her with a worm (yup, we were digging in the garden and found some earthworms)... some water...

and letting her climb the stairs...

And Fysh came down to spend the weekend with me! We had a ton of fun and Hailey just adores her auntie fysh, so that makes it so much more fun!

on Sunday morning without even meaning to all three of us girls ended up matching, so we just had to have a picture!

It's so great to have family around when Korey's gone! They all helped to make what could have been an awful and extremely boring weekend fun and enjoyable! :) I'm still super glad that Korey's home, though! I missed him terribly!

Advice...

Ahhh...yes, what is it about being pregnant, having a little baby, or even just smiling and saying HI to someone that makes them think you are just waiting with baited breath for their great piece of advice??? ;) It's enough sometimes to make me want to do what Hailey's doing and just stick my head in the sand! But, lately I have been trying very hard to think about each piece of advice that I get and seriously consider the merits of putting it into practice. I definitely can't use each piece- or I'd just be running around in circles, since most of it is pretty contradictory! However, on my way home from visiting the lady who sold us our house, Lillian, at the senior apartments and once again being introduced and "made over" by each and every little old lady in the place- which, by the way, if you're looking for it is a great place to go for advice- I realized that there are a few pieces of advice that you never hear...and I think I know why! :)

So, here's my list of top ten pieces of advice that you never hear from the older generation:

(and I'm pretty sure I've heard most everything except for these) :)

1) spend a lot of energy and time cleaning your house so that it is spotless no matter when someone decides to pop in!

2) don't worry if you don't get enough time to snuggle and cuddle with your babies- do what makes you happy- go to work, take up a hobby, and get a babysitter whenever possible

3) be at church whenever the doors are open, be involved in all the ministries and outreaches

4) get your kids involved in as many sports and or activities as possible- don't give them a moments peace- just go, go, go!

5) cook from scratch meals with a vegetable and a bread at least 2 times a day

6) if someone offers you help don't take them up on it- you can do it all by yourself and should at least try really hard to! (and definitely do NOT ask for that help)

7) don't worry about visiting family and spending time with friends, you can make a go of it alone

8) don't take a rest and or nap in the afternoon when your baby does

9) don't eat that ice cream cone- it'll go straight to your hips

10) you can spoil your baby so don't pick her up when she cries or snuggle with her whenever she wants it!

Instead, this is what you often hear from these wise women:

1)it's your house, you live in it- why shouldn't it look like it?! In fact, a super sweet lady said to me today, "I learned that it's ok not to make your bed, because it's my bed and if people don't like that I don't make it they don't have to look in my bedroom!" Isn't that great?! :)

2)I miss all that running around and chasing after my babies...they're all grown up, now, and that seems so far away! Make sure you take all the time you can to play with your little girl! (and this from a 90 year old lady who should definitely know!)

3) spending quality time with God and teaching it to your kids about Him is more important work than the greatest missions work on the planet! (and this from a retired missionary lady...)

4)make sure you take lots of walks and spend plenty of time playing in the park with your little girl, she won't always like to be around you or have the time for you! (from one really great old man, who might just be a tad bit lonely...)

5)Can she have a cookie? Make sure you cut those hotdogs and grapes in half. Here's some leftover mac 'n cheese can she have some? Does she like ice cream?

6)Your mom will come and stay with you when the new baby is born, won't she?? You ask her to if she's not planning on it- for at least 2 weeks! :)

7)I hope you visit your own Grandma as much as us! It's so fun to get a visit from such a sweet little girl! (unfortunatley...I don't...)

8)Now you girls go home and take a nice nap- chasing after little ones is hard work!

9)You better have a cookie, too, you want your little boy to grow big and strong! :)

10)You snuggle and cuddle this baby whenever you can- hold her and rock her whenever she'll let you, this time goes by so quickly! (said Lilian with tears in her eyes and her arm around my waist...)

Aren't these pieces of advice better than the first set?? So, why, as mother's and as women do we feel like we have to live by the first set?? It was a real wake up call for me, today, to really HEAR and LISTEN to the advice that these wise women (and man) gave me! I hope I never forget to take the time to play with and rock my babies, to not get so busy "doing" that I forget what truly important in life---and it's not eating a 5 course meal that I spent hours preparing or being the best soccer mom or keeping the cleanest house or even being at church whenever the doors are open-it's spending time with my Lord and Savior and teaching my daughter, and soon my son of the importance of putting God first! Here's some great advice from the greatest Daddy of all, The Lord:

"Thou Shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And these commandments shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house; and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise!" Deuteronomy 6:5-7

FEAR...

Does this look like a little girl who has any fear in life?? No way...I think that is why God says that we have to come to Him with the faith of a child- they just know that their mom's and dad's are going to take care of them, so they don't waste any of their precious time worrying and fretting about things that aren't within their control, anyways!

Lately I have been very convicted to start memorizing some scripture and hiding God's word in my heart. I've done it a few times in the past and I've always sort of approached it as something that I know I should do, but something that wasn't very "personal" or life changing for me. And, I feel like this time is totally different. Maybe because my life is crazier than it has been before, maybe because I've grown in the Lord and making more of an effort to have it change my life, or maybe I just need the verses that God has brought to me to memorize, but whatever the reason, I'm so thankful for the verses that I have been hiding in my heart the past few weeks. This weeks verse is 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God gave us not a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self control". This has been the perfect verse for me this wek! Korey left for Canada on Thursday and I never like being alone in the house at night and I repeated the verse to myself a lot early Thurs. morning and last night, when I was lying awake! When I first picked it I didn't think it would mean that to me- I picked it because I feel like I have been ruled a lot lately by what I think people think of me or what people may think of me, but not what God thinks of me. But, as I've worked on memorizing this verse and meditated on it, it has come to mean so much more than that! Last night, as I lay tossing and turning in my bed (that feels HUGE when I'm alone and super small when Korey's here...go figure!) I got to thinking about that second part and how truly it is my self control that I need to work on to conquer my fears! I need to just STOP focusing on my fears and put that energy onto something else. It takes self control to turn from the ungodly thoughts and fill my heart and mind with good thoughts and that is often where I lack. I just want God to wave a magical "nice thoughts" wand over me, so that I don't have to work at it, but it doesn't often work that way- actually, I can't think of a time that it ever worked that way- at least for me! So, as I continue working on memorizing this verse I pray that the Lord would continue to work in my heart and my mind- to transform me more and more into His image for me- so that I may become a woman of love and power and SELF CONTROL! Because just as the little kids song that I learned so long ago says, "self control is the very best way to control yourself!" :)

mommy's big girl!

Hailey's getting so big lately and I'm thankful- it means that she'll be less work when the baby comes! :) (or maybe more...but, we won't think about that!) :)

Here she is helping me empty the dishwasher! This is her favorite job- she's actually worse than the dog- it seems like she has this special hearing that allow her to hear me open the dishwasher from any room of the house and she always comes running to "help" me!

Here she is rocking the "baby"...I think she's practicing for when he comes!

and now she's holding him on the couch...and I think that she may be burping him!!

oops...

I guess we're gonna have to work on getting the baby off of her lap in a nicer way!

Friends make everything better!

Hailey usually doesn't really like being in her swing, or if she does go in it, it is for only a little while, but the other day we had a friend over and he and Hailey had so much fun playing outside- with the swing! I guess it is true that everything is more fun when you have a friend!

It was also fun for me to have Brogan with us. I am looking forward to having our little boy around here and it was good practice to have a different little boy here! I had a lot of fun getting out the trucks and semis that Korey had as a kid. I told Brogan about them before we left his house and all the way home that was all he could talk about. It just made my day and made me even more excited to have this little one here to play with! :)

I think that Hailey is getting herself ready to be a big sister, because this morning she brought me a centipede! Yup, you saw that right- a centipede! She was crawling down the hallway giggling and I didn't think anything of it until she came to me a few seconds later holding something in her hand and it was a wiggly, squiggly BIG centipede! I had a very hard time holding myself together long enough to kill it, but after I gave myself a mommy pep talk it was slightly easier- maybe it was the testosterone from this little guy that gave me the strength! ;) Whatever it was, I just hope I NEVER have to do that again and from now on am going to teach my baby girl to KILL things instead of playing with them! (on another note, though...I'm thankful that she didn't eat it and brought it to me!) :)

only in Wisconsin...

...can you wake up on May 8th to snow covering the ground! How crazy are these pics, huh?! I think that this is the first time I've ever seen my lilacs in bloom and covered with snow at the same time!

The good news, though...
although the cold weather stayed the snow left by the afternoon! And, one of the best things about the cold weather is that Hailey got a chance to wear an adorable snowsuit that someone had bought her and I thought she'd never get a chance to use!

Korey's Mom and Dad had a garage sale today and Hailey and I went down to help out with it. Mel's family also ended up coming and Hailey just had a blast with them all. She is the only little baby around and they all definitely dote on her! She got to eat a chocolate donut, a cookie, some brownies and who knows what else!! :) (no wonder Aunt Kelly had to chase after her all afternoon...) :) It probably wasn't her healthiest eating day, but she sure had a good time, so I figure one day won't hurt her too much!! I mean, seriously, who could say "no" to this sweet little face?? Definitely not me and, obviously, not her Aunt Kelly who followed her all over and let her run up and down the road and then carried her back on her shoulders! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

About 15 months ago the Lord blessed me with the greatest joy of my life, my daughter- Hailey Elise and on that day I became a mommy! Little did I know that no part of my life was ever going to be the same or that I would love all the changes so much! I can't think of even one day where I have honestly wished that I weren't a mommy. Not that there weren't plenty of days that I have wished for a break, but I absolutely love being a mommy and thank God for the privilege! Having Hailey has made me rethink what a mommy is, too! I have so much more respect for my own mother and for my mother in law, not to mention my Grandmother's! These are all wonderful women and I only hope that I can be more like them as I grow up! And, I pray that someday Hailey will appreciate me and love me like I do these women!

Happy Mother's Day to all the great and wonderful mommy's in the world!