Smithler: A Work in Progress

The girls at Halloween - pretty princesses.

It's been 6 months since I posted last!!! So, so sorry about that! I hope to get back into posting soon, but I've said that before, haven't I??

Well, I did want to post today, Thanksgiving, because we all need to remind ourselves of what we are and should be thankful for. A lot has happened in our lives since May, and the most important thing I am thankful for is God's provision in our lives. Even in really hard times, He is always right here with us promising to never leave or forsake us. Seriously, I can't imagine not being able to lean upon that!

So, since May we have celebrated birthdays, gone on vacation, survived a few illnesses (nothing serious), had family visit us in Arizona, changed churches, started a new school year (for Jeff), spent many days at the park and enjoyed some great family time. We also have learned a ton about ourselves and our Lord through the loss of two babies. I could go on and on about the things I have learned, and am still learning every day through these experiences. I know that people tend to hold onto their "We're Expecting!" announcements til after the first trimester, just to make sure everything is "okay". With Adeline and Lylah, we did just that. Only a small handful of people knew we were pregnant before 10 or 12 weeks. But, this fall I have completely changed my perspective. As conservative, followers of Christ, we say that we believe that a baby is a baby from the moment of conception. But, then we treat miscarriage as something that is so common, it isn't really a big deal. Well, I know that if one of my babies (Adeline or Lylah) were sick or in some sort of danger, I would want everyone I know (and don't know for that matter) praying for them. So, why wouldn't I ask the same for that sweet baby that may only be 4 or 5 or 6 weeks old in my belly? I should ask! And, I am...

We are expecting, again! It has been quite a rollercoaster and we know that it may not be over, but we would really appreciate your prayers for our precious little baby, that the Lord would see fit to allow him/her to make it to full-term. May He get all the glory for this baby's life, inside and outside of the womb. (By the way, I am due July 15th.)

And lastly, a list of a few other things I am thankful for today:

*My wonderful, patient, caring husband of almost 9 years!
*Our sweet girls.
*Our families who are very, very far away.
*Our church family.
*Pumpkin pie (it is my favorite food)!
*Morning/All day sickness (I will never complain again about it - Praise God that I am feeling bad)!
*The dishwasher.

There are so many more, but this is probably long enough. Thank you for reading and praying.

Fun Easter egg hunt!

The girls and I were pretty sick the week before Easter, so we stayed at home and colored eggs in our pajamas.

The best part of Easter this year was seeing Adeline begin to really understand why we celebrate it. We read her little Bible every day (sometimes we read two or three stories each day) and she definitely retains every single thing we read. So, when Easter Sunday came around, Adeline seemed to really get why we go to church at all, and what Jesus did for us. Since then Adeline has asked on more than one Sunday if we are celebrating Easter again. She can't wait until Easter 2010!

I mentioned Adeline's ballet class in an earlier post, but never put pix up. Her class is now over and I think she enjoyed it. It didn't seem to hold her attention like I thought it would though. We may try dance class again later, but she told me that this summer she would like to take an art class. So, beginning this week she will be taking two classes at the rec center, one where she gets to just run around and play with other kids and the other is called "Messy Art" - should be interesting.

Poor second child, Lylah. I haven't posted new pictures of her in months! She is already 9 months old which is so hard to believe. Time definitely goes by much faster with baby number 2. A few things she is up to these days:

One thing that is so much fun about living in Phoenix, is MLB spring training season. We live within 30 minutes of quite a few fields and you can buy relatively cheap "lawn" tickets for games. Absolutely perfect for families with little ones who could care less about the game, but love picnics! So, we went to two games in March, both on beautiful, 75 degree and sunny days. I'm sure I won't appreciate that same sun in about a month, but for right now, it's lovely to live in Phoenix!

I love baby feet pictures, don't you?

Adeline is into making silly faces for the camera these days. We are sitting at about right-center field cheering on the Cubs!

I can't decide if this picture is cool or a little scary.

This picture cracks Jeff up. Adeline was trying so hard to get Baba to read the sign to her, and he just wanted to take a picture of her breaking the rules.

Again, silly face!

Yes, I know I haven't posted pictures in a LONG time. For the three of you who check in periodically, so sorry about that. I will give you two of my main excuses - 1. Our computer broke. Well, it is still usable but I have to hold the screen upright with one hand and type with the other if I want to use it - not easy to do. 2. Our lovely 3 year old decided to "drop" our camera on the hard tile floor. We finally broke down and bought another one, but we were without a camera for a while.

Anyway, we had a little picnic at a local park tonight and I really wanted to share a picture of the girls! Hopefully, I'll start blogging again soon, but I've said that before... Maybe if I get a bunch of comments (and a new computer), it will motivate me to update more! (I know, shameless!)

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Yes, I realize that I am months behind in pictures for the blog, but this is more fun for me... So, here it goes...

Jeff and I did not go to the dentist last week for the first time in... umm.... 5 years! And, we certainly have not been back multiple times over the past week because, well... we haven't been in 5 years!

On that note, I would never, ever put Adeline to bed without brushing her teeth because I knew if I took 2 more minutes to put her down, I would miss the first few minutes of Grey's Anatomy. (Don't worry, I really did brush them the next morning!)

And, because I am not addicted to any TV shows other than Grey's, I did not spend 28 minutes of precious nap time watching Reality Steve this week talk about what may or may not happen on the Bachelor. (I'm not even going to link him, I don't want to be a bad influence and encourage you in any way to waste your 28 minutes as well.)

As we were pulling out of our driveway yesterday to go to church, Jeff and I most certainly did not hear Adeline say "But you forgot to buckle me in!" We are such responsible parents, we would never, ever forget something like that. (And, no, I'm not going to tell you which parent forgot!)

I did not spend $6 at Costco this week buying the book Twilight just because I have heard so many people talk about the series. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like it, but I was just too curious to put it back down.

I did not spend almost 3 hours talking to my great friend, Amie, this week and I absolutely do not miss her a whole bunch!!!

And, finally, I did not take my little girl to the dance shop this week and buy her her first ballet shoes and leotard for ballet class I enrolled her in. (First class this Wednesday - I promise to post pictures! It should be interesting.)

The day was upon me... Monday I had to take both girls to the doctor - Adeline for her 3 year well visit and Lylah for a follow-up visit for an ear infection and a flu shot. I knew that Adeline would probably have to get at least one shot as well, so I was not looking forward to this appointment in the least! Which takes me back to the last time this scenario occurred...

About 4 months ago, I took Lylah in for her 3 month well visit, which of course included a number of immunizations. Now, I hate to see my babies upset, but I don't freak out when they cry after getting a shot. I know it hurts them, but I know it is for their own good. So, I comfort them as best I can and before we can even get all their clothes back on, they are fine - like it didn't even happen. However, I should not have expected my 3 year old to react the same way.

To put it in perspective, Adeline HATES it when Lylah cries! Sometimes she yells at her to stop, sometimes she tries to cover her mouth, and then there are the sweet moments when she will sing a song for her or give her a toy to attempt to calm her down.

Back to the doctor... Adeline was sitting quietly in a chair, eating an extremely healthy and nutritious snack pretzels and being the sweet, obedient, little girl that she is! I thought to myself, "okay, Adeline is fine so I can comfort Lylah when this onslaught of shots begins." As the sweet, unsuspecting nurse gave Lylah her first of four shots, Lylah cried out in pain (who wouldn't?). I stroked her arm and kept telling her that it was okay and it would be over soon. BUT, before I knew it, I hear Adeline yelling "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" as she proceeds to jump down from her chair and head for the exam table. At that point I realize that Adeline needs to be soothed and calmed down much more than Lylah needs me stroking her arm. So, I walk around the nurse to get to Adeline and not a moment too soon because my lovely, obedient, patient and calm 3 year old is attempting to claw her way onto the table so she can swipe the remaining needles away from the nurse (who was a little surprised at the whole ordeal). The gesture was sweet, but it was a little crazy for a few moments as I tried to console Adeline and watched from across the room as Lylah screamed with each additional prick to her little, chubby legs. The entire episode only lasted a few moments, but I do not wish to relive those moments ever again.

Which brings me back to this week. Not only am I taking both girls back to the doctor, but this time, I'm pretty sure Adeline will have to get a shot as well. What a difference a year makes! 2 year olds may have an idea of what is coming, but you can kind of talk around the whole shot thing until that precise moment is upon you. And then, it's over before they know it and a sucker or a sticker makes it all better. A 3 year old, however, is not so easily distracted. As soon as we walk into the office, she knows what is about to happen and I notice her increased breathing and little hands shaking a little bit with nervousness. Poor girl! However, things went remarkably smooth! Adeline got her shot first, cried for less than a minute and was fine. Lylah got hers, cried for just a few minutes and was fine. The nurse came in with bracelets and suckers for Adeline and a little plastic octopus for Lylah and all was right with the world. Crisis averted! But, next year, I am scheduling the appointment so Jeff can at least come along. He shouldn't have to miss out on all of these wonderful memories!

On a different doctor's office note - what would you do in this situation?

For some reason, our doctor was extremely busy this week and so we had to wait an unusually long time in the waiting room. This waiting room is small, but it is still split in 2 different sections, one for healthy kids and one for the sick. We are sitting in the healthy section, enjoying a little Sleeping Beauty on the TV screens hung on the wall and 2 little boys come in with... well, I think she might have been the grandmother. They were about 4 and 6 years old and were instantly taken with Lylah. As the grandmother signed them in at the front desk, they immediately plopped down in front of Lylah's car seat and proceeded to touch her toys, pull her pacifier out of her mouth and hold her hands. I was so uncomfortable with this and was trying nicely to ask the boys not to touch her toys or her hands or her face. I'm thinking "does this lady not see what her boys are doing?" She finally turned around and told the boys to give the baby some space. What does that mean? In their little minds, it just meant to back up about 2 inches. Anyway, this continued even as the grandmother came and sat down (practically in my lap, I might add. Apparently, their definition of personal space is much different than our family's). The kicker was as soon as the grandmother sat down, she pulled out a tissue from her pocket, held it up to the older boy's nose and said "blow"! WHAT?!?!?!? Are you kidding me? I think I even laughed out loud a little bit because I could not believe what was happening. I just wanted to scream "get your sick kids away from my baby!!!!" But, I didn't. Should I have said more? What would you do?

By the way, I have never been so happy to see someone who came in after me get called back to see the doctor first.

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not spend way too much time this week working on TAXES! And it's not even April yet. Ughhhh!

I absolutely love cutting my girls' fingernails, so I most certainly did not avoid cutting Lylah's nails, even though I knew they were getting long. And, I did not wake up the next morning to see a big scratch across her cheek due to the fingernails that I did not put off trimming. I would never do that, I'm super mom!

I did not absolutely freak out because Adeline accidentally let one of her birthday balloons loose in the backyard and I was not ultra-paranoid that some poor animal or child would find said balloon and choke itself. I am not a paranoid person at all and I never conjure up crazy, irrational scenarios in my head.

Even though I haven't bought diapers for Adeline for at least six months, I did not completely forget which child I was buying diapers for and buy size 4s for Lylah. This did not happen four days ago and Lylah is definitely not still wearing size 4 diapers even though they are way too big.

Speaking of Lylah, I did not bring out the high chair this week and she did not get to try lots of new solid foods. Not my baby, she cannot be 7 months old already!

I know that I am probably the only person who would ever do this, but I most certainly did not eat an entire bag of peanut butter m&ms this week! And, of course, I offered the m&ms to everyone in my family, I would never think about hoarding an entire bag! Not me!

On a fun note, I did not go shopping this weekend and would have never even considered buying a cute, new coat and boots for myself. And, it does not make me sad at all that we live in the stinkin' desert where I can't even enjoy my cute, new coat because it cannot already be in the 80's outside!

A friend of ours offered to take some family pictures for us this week! I was not excited at all about the potential of free pictures and I definitely did not go out and make sure we all had outfits that matched. Unfortunately, the photo shoot cannot be summarized perfectly by this...

And, finally... I did not celebrate my baby girl's 3rd birthday this week! There is no way she can be that old!!!!!

We went to the "bounce place"!! This is, by far, Adeline's favorite place to go so we invited her friends, Isaac and Dallas and spent Friday morning bouncing away. It was perfect, we were the only ones in the entire room so we had all the inflatables to ourselves! The kids loved it!

The first time we went to Bounce U, we had to help Adeline climb up everything and go with her down the big slides. This time - she was all on her own!

I shouldn't admit this, but I totally started crying watching Adeline climb up these stairs with her little mat in her hand. It was just hitting me hard that she is growing up so fast. I also cried singing happy birthday to her on the morning of her birthday. I'm such a girl!

They had a TV on in the snack room and the kids did not take their eyes off of it.

Lylah, as usual, just hanging out. You know we have babies that spit up A LOT, so where the baby is, there is always a cloth diaper in hand, or in the car as the case may be.

Cute kiddos!

I love sweet Isaac's face in this picture (on the left)!
"Can I cut in??"