Joy Inexpressible

Trial and Error

2012-02-05T10:48:00.000-08:00

I am busy preparing for the 2nd annual tea at for our church. It is very important to me that everything is just right, so I work hard to find the perfect recipes that not only taste good but also look good.

This weekend I tried this cake. (from pinterest) It looks beautiful and delicious right?

Pink Lemonade Pound Cake
1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
1 (3 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
4 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup pink lemonade concentrate
4 drops pink or red food color, optional

Glaze:

1 cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup white sugar

(I followed the recipe exactly)

First of all, the batter was obviously yellow due to the lemon cake mix, lemon pudding mix and 4 eggs. When you add red food coloring to something yellow, it turns orange.

Second of all, when you bake any cake, the outside turns brown. It's just a fact of life.

THIRD of all. The "glaze" is 1/2 cup white sugar and one cup of pink lemonade concentrate. Here is what it looks like.There's no way on earth it is going to look like the smooth, delicate, white coating as shown in the picture.

ALSO, this is how the recipe reads. Remove from oven and prick cake all over with a fork. Immediately pour lemonade glaze over top of cake. Let cake stand in pan until almost cool.

Okay, so do they not realize that the cake is upside down when it's in the pan? If I followed the recipe, the bottom of the cake would be drenched in that pink liquid. I cut out a slice and followed the directions just for kicks.
Yep, pretty much how I thought it would be; an ugly, wet, sticky piece of brownish-orangeish cake.

So where did that beautiful light pink cake in the picture come from? - Because the recipe under it is definitely not its origin.

This is why I try all of the recipes ahead of time.

Shes Got Skills

2012-02-04T12:24:00.000-08:00

Our little Joybug is working on some new skills! She has just started sitting by herself. Of course she still needs some practice but she can sit for awhile before toppling over. Not too bad for a 5 and half month old who was born a month early! Joy is a tiny girl weighing in at 13.2 pounds.

She is also so close to crawling. She can get up on all fours and rock back again forth. She tries to take a "step" but her arms give out. She is quite mobile regardless and somehow rolls, scoots and pushes herself all over the room. (mostly in a backward direction)She has had her 2 bottom teeth for a month now and often has her lips pursed, like she is sucking on them. We thought the top ones would make their appearance awhile ago but they have not broken through yet.
Joy enjoys long walks in her babybjorn and spends most of her time on her tummy on the floor, standing in her disc, jumping in her johnny-jump-up and of course being held and snuggled. She is a sweet and wonderful baby in every way. She smiles and is happy most of the time. She also does things you would expect a baby to do which is a novelty since Claire never did anything by the book. ( i.e. playing with toys, sleeping, fussing only when tired, rubbing her eyes when tired, enjoying life, etc.)

We love this little girl!

Cheap Entertainment

2012-02-04T07:48:00.000-08:00

This is what we do for fun on Friday nights.

Looking good!

Bubbles!

2012-02-01T09:31:00.000-08:00

I HATE to blow bubbles. Claire, of course loves them and I constantly feel like a bummer mom for not blowing bubbles as often or as long as she would like. We had a Little Tikes lion bubble blower but it was used so much it finally bit the dust.

I decided to splurge and get this bubble blower from Amazon. I always justify purchases like this by telling myself I can use it for my Awana Puggles group too. (and believe me, if it buys me 5 minutes of entertainment for the Puggles then it is well worth it.) I was more excited when it came then Claire was. I turned it on in the house and in less than a minute the air was thick with bubbles. I had to turn it off because there were so many that the floor was getting soaked. We took it outside to really try it out.

I let it run until Claire got her fill. I love that there is no wasted bubble solution with this machine. The only bummer is that the solution reservoir is very shallow so you can't carry it around after the solution is added. No matter how careful you are, it will still spill.

Even Joy like bubbles.

I am very happy with it so far. I figured it would be a good buy since
I have many more years of blowing bubbles.

To the Zoo

2012-01-28T12:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to the zoo with Grandma and Aunt Shelbe. Some of you may know how I feel about the zoo from reading this post, but I had an open mind and figured that since Josh's family always has a great time, the animals must somehow sense their presence and come out of hiding. The weather was absolutely perfect so we were off to a much better start than the last time.

Right off the bat we saw the giraffes and elephants, all out and close to the fences so we could see them.

Joy enjoying her giraffe in front of the giraffes.
We got to see this disgusting ape up close. Claire was eating a strawberry as we were watching it and the ape saw the strawberry and wanted it.

She (the monkey) then grapped some lettuce and brought it to the window and held it out to Claire as though she thought she could trade. Claire was freaked out and backed away. Leaving the gross primate sad and dejected.From there we went to see the camels. Claire and Shelbe took a camel ride.We then went to the goat petting area for awhile. Claire loved it.For some reason this goat was deemed precious by Claire.
Claire thinks she is going to get a horse when she is bigger. She is terribly mistaken.Grandma and my Precious Punkin waiting for sissy.I was super excited that the peacocks were walking around the food court area. For whatever reason, Claire is deathly afraid of peacocks even though she has never seen one.
She routinely has nightmares about them too.
Look how close she got!Off to see more of the zoo!
and ride the carousel.
and last but not least, We petted the sting rays. Claire was not afraid at all.How many babies could spend 5 hours at the zoo and be happy at every moment? This one could.

It was a super fun day; every single animal was out and about and we had a great time!

Thank you Grandma and Aunt Shelbe!

Dresser Makeover

2012-01-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

We had gone back and forth over what to do about furniture now that Joy is in her own room. I was planning on buying a white dresser to match Claire's old crib and changing table but kept dragging my feet about spending $250 on a dresser. My parents didn't have a use for this dresser that belonged to my grandparents so I took it and gave it a new look.
The nursery is going to be an aqua/seafoam color with yellow accents (permanently. I'm not painting it again) so I knew I wanted to paint the dresser yellow. I have painted furniture before and it has always been a nightmare so I decided to try using spray paint this time.

But before I could paint, I had to do the worst of the work; which is of course sanding. I didn't like this design in the wood.... it looks too southwestern so I filled it in with some acrylic patch to make it smooth.
I did two coats of Krylon primer spray paint and about 5 coats of Valspar yellow satin. I started and finished the project while Josh was in Mexico so it didn't take too long. I love the way it turned out.

No unsightly brush marks or drips. Yay! I did spend around $50 on paint and new hardware but that's a heck of a lot better than the cost of a new one. Plus this one has a little sentimental value.
Now that there is not a pile of clothes in her room, I can work on the curtains, dust ruffle and recovering the rocking chair.

Scrap Fabric Hair Flowers

2012-01-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

I wanted the girls to have a special hair bow/band for Christmas; not just the same old ribbon bows I usually make for them.

I had pinned this fabric flower on my pinterest board and decided to give it a try. I used two different fabrics to make it looks more dressy; a soft chiffon left over from a previous project and a black silk type fabric from an old top. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out so I made one for Joy as well. (as shown in our Christmas photos.)

Later, I made this one out of Claire's window curtain fabric and a dress she had ripped while acting crazy in Sunday School.

Here is a quick picture tutorial of how I made them.

Find the fabric you wish to use and cut it into 9 squares. Mine were approx. 4x4 but it just depends on how big you want your flower.

Then cut a 5-petal flower out of paper and pin it to half of your fabric stack. Use the paper flower as a pattern to cut your fabric squares.
Ta da.

Then you need to cut a small circle of the same fabric to anchor your petals to. Fold one flower in half, and in half again...

then make one little stitch with a needle and thread to anchor it to the circle of fabric. Sew four petals to the circle of fabric and there you have the first layer of the flower.

Now for the send layer, fold the petals the same way but instead of sewing them on exactly on top of the first layer sew them on so they overlap the gaps of the first layer. (The picture says it all.)
Sew the four petals of the second layer.

To finish it off, you need to take the last flower, fold it in half and then roll it so it looks like a flower bud.

Sew it to the middle of the flower and sew the surrounding petals to it so they are secure.

Attach the completed flower to a clip or a headband and admire your work!

Gigi

2012-01-19T06:10:00.001-08:00

I am sad to say that last month our Gigi passed away. You may remember that I wrote this post about her just a few months ago. That day we spent with her was one of the last that she was feeling halfway good and able to be out and about. The cancer her body had valiantly been fighting for over a decade was finally taking its toll. Her health continued to deteriorate and after being taken to the hospital due to severe dehydration, it was clear that she would not bounce back and would not be able to live on her own anymore. She stayed at my parent's house for her last days. My mom took care of her round the clock and she had hospice nurses coming to check on her daily. I had happened to be over at my mom's house the day she died. My mom kept checking on her every 15 minutes or so all day. (Gigi had been mostly unconscious the last 2 days) I was just getting the girls packed up when my mom checked on her and she was gone. We are so glad that she passed quickly and did not have any pain or anxiety.

This is the last picture taken of her at Thanksgiving.

We are so glad she was able to be with family the last few months of her life. When I told Claire that Gigi had died she gasped and said, "Oh no!" so sadly. When we talk about Gigi, Claire always remembers that Will died too and they are together with Jesus.

Tortilla Land

2012-01-17T15:21:00.001-08:00

I have been buying these uncooked flour tortillas for a couple of years now and every time I make them I think, "I should put these on my blog." but I am making dinner so don't have time to take pictures or my stove is so disgustingly dirty that I don't want to.

So here you go. If you have not seen them, or maybe have but haven't tried them yet, I am here to tell you that you should.

They are typically found in the refrigerated section alongside the cream cheeses. The pack of 18 costs between $2.84 (Walmart) and $3.87 (Fry's) - Or $8.73 at Safeway ... I'm just kidding, Safeway is too lame to have these - but if they did I'm sure they would be outlandishly priced.
There are a few other brands available but they have way more ingredients and artificial stuff in them so I have steered clear of them.

They look like this out of the package. Just peel one off

and throw it on your hot, cast iron skillet.

Wait until it bubbles up a little and give it a flip.

The second side bubbles up like this so you can take out your aggression and hit it to flatten it out.

Then, is just a few seconds, you have a lovely, thin, extremely soft, flour tortilla. (The whole process takes less than a minute) Put the rest of the uncooked tortillas back in the bag and freeze until the next time you need them. If I am really on the ball, then I lay a sheet of wax or parchment paper in between each tortilla before I freeze them. That makes life much easier if you only need to grab one or two for a quick lunch.

So go ahead, give them a try! Once you do, I guarantee you will never go back.

Back on Track

2012-01-17T07:35:00.000-08:00

I know, I know,

I've been a bit lame when it comes to blogging lately.

We have just been so extremely busy that I haven't had time to do much of anything.

I have so many things to post about so hopefully, now that life has slowed down a bit,
I will be crankin 'em out.

Christmas Pictures

2011-12-17T21:35:00.000-08:00

I was bummed that it was raining on the day that we took our Christmas card pictures so they had to be inside. I am not a fan of indoor photos; the lighting is always terrible. We set up a little background in my parents' arizona room (best lighting...we thought) and snapped away.

Hurray! We are looking in the same direction!

Unfortunately, the cloud cover and time of day changed between photos so all three of them have totally different lighting - in case you were wondering.

I absolutely love Joy's
What a trooper. She was in that box for quite a while. Her biggest problem was that she wanted to stand the whole time. Trying to force a baby to bend at the waist is comical and rarely successful.

Claire's camera smile is improving but my mom and I had to stand behind Josh and act like weirdos to make her smile genuinely.
A sister picture never did happen, for obvious reasons.

And some that did not make the cut.
Merry Christmas!

Little Ballerina

2011-12-14T19:33:00.000-08:00

We enrolled Claire in another parks and rec class and it just came to an end. Claire seemed to enjoy this tap, ballet, tumbling combo class but after watching her performance on the last day I see that she actually liked the ballet portion of it best. I think that her sudden interest in princesses helps; she thinks she is a princess when she puts on her ballet skirt and she often wears it over her jeans at home.
This class was SO much better than the last one. I was unimpressed with the teacher because of her bizarre personality, but I see now that she really taught the girls a lot in such a short amount of time.

Here is one of the many little dances the performed.

Believe it or not, she actually was one of the better ones in the class.
We definitely were proud of her after her performance.

My Little Helper

2011-12-10T06:19:00.000-08:00

Claire always asks to help me when I am making something in the kitchen. I try my hardest to always say yes. I don't want to discourage her from helping but sometimes it is really hard. It's more like saying "Yes, come make a huge mess and double the time it should take to make this." I have been letting her help for about a year now and it is starting to pay off. Now she knows how to help a little better - and I know what to trust her with. In other words, please do not be alarmed that she is stirring pots on the stove. She knows to be careful and I always stay right there with her.

She was proud of herself that she could stir both pots at the same time.

She has also learned to taste as she goes.

I have passed on some chores to Claire. For a while now she's been helping me by putting away the silverware from the dishwasher. I have always hated doing that for some reason. I save it for her to do now and she likes it.

Joy watching her sister help.

Joy is so funny, She always looks on, longingly, as Claire and I do things together or when Claire and Josh are playing, she can't take her eyes off them. I think she wants to be a big girl too already.

Christmas Handprint Art

2011-12-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving, we started Christmasing; putting up lights, decorations, baking and crafting. I haven't blogged because all my projects have been half done for the past few weeks but I am finally starting to get them all wrapped up. Plus, I have had zero time.

The first "craft" we did was hand print art - ideas stolen from Pinterest.

Claire made a Christmas tree.

She enjoyed it but needed some help in the self-control area when we were stamping her hand. Sliding you paint covered hand all over a white canvas becomes much more irresistible when your mom tells your not to. (Note - I found both canvases at thrift stores for $1 each!)

For Joy, I did a snowman footprint painting; Claire helped paint her sister's little footy.

I am glad we took the time to do these projects. Now we will have these precious pieces to bring out each Christmas and remember when our babies were still little.

Annual Autumn Pictures

2011-11-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, even the best planned photos shoots...

are torn asunder.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Friday at the Farm

2011-11-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

This weekend we made a trek out to Vertuccio Farm for the last day of their Fall Festival. I wanted to go before Halloween but we were all too sick so it had to wait.

It was amazingly uncrowded and the weather was perfect!

They had a great, big, air-bouncer thing that Claire instantly HAD to jump on. Most of our time there was spent bouncing.

Josh and I bounced too. It was pretty fun I must say. Even Joy enjoyed it.

We spent some time looking at the animals

and feeding the goats.

Claire milked the fake cow for about 2 seconds.

and did some other activities the farm had to offer.

Joy and I hung out and watched Claire and Dadda most of the time.

I forget how small she is until I see a photo like this. What a peanut girl!

I was hoping to get a good picture of the two girls together, but after about 40 shots none of them turned out. I have to post this one though just because I love Joy's expression so much.

"Get me out of here!"

Sometimes I feel a little sorry for Joy because it is going to be tiring to be Claire's sister.

That's okay, we love you Claire.

All in all we had a really good time and plan to go next year!

Halloween...Finally

2011-11-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

What a bummer Halloween was for us this year! Our decorations never made it out of the garage and our pumpkin was never turned into a jack-o-lantern....But more about that in a moment.

Claire could not decide on what she wanted to be this year. She changed her mind every other day. If she saw butterfly wings in the store, she wanted to be a butterfly, if she saw a ladybug costume, she wanted to be a ladybug, she even said she wanted to be a caterpillar or a cricket for some reason, but those two were out of the question. She definitely had a bug theme going though. One day at Goodwill, we found a big girl's bee costume that was made out of cute fabric so I got it to resize for her and told her she was a bee. She needed some convincing but after my mom found the wings for her at the dollar store of all places, she was sold.

A leotard, leggings and antenna finished the outfit. (also found at thrift stores)

Easy beesy. I was glad that her costume was low maintenance (and cost) this year.

Joy was originally going to be a peanut but after much trial and error, I decided there was no way anyone would be able to tell that she was a peanut. She looked more like a sack of potatoes.
After I abandoned the peanut plan my mom suggested a flower since it would kind of goes with Claire's and it would be easy - at that point I was running out of time. So a flower she was.
Complete with lady bugs crawling up and down her stem.
Joy is very hard to take pictures of. When we try to take pictures outside, it is too bright for her and she squints and looks angry. I think more than the sun was making her angry here though.She was a sweet flower most of the time.
The Friday before Halloween, we went to my grandma's for their trick or treat morning. Claire woke up coughing and sniffling. We could tell she was getting sick.

We decided to go for a short time and stay away from Gigi so she wouldn't get sick. The Renaissance residents sat at tables with their candy and she just went up to them and said "Trick or Treat!" and then "Thank you!" when they put a candy in her bag. I was happy because everyone there was giving out good candy.
After that, Claire went downhill drastically and was sick for days, she was barely well enough to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and to go to the harvest carnival at church. We kept her away from other kids though and the carnival was outside so we figured it would be okay for her to go. She would have been devastated if she had to miss it. It wasn't til a week later that she was finally not feeling sick but still has the cough and nose issues. Of course she couldn't be sick without giving it to me and Joy, so we have all been sounding gross and feeling blah that past few weeks. Hopefully next year will be a better one for us!

They Don't Make Them Like They Used To

2011-11-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

I have been coveting my grandma's sewing machine ever since she moved out here and gave it to my mom. It is so solid and heavy, made completely of metal parts.

Not these flimsy plastic things that they make now days.

My machine had an episode a few months back where it just stopped working. I started to panic and tried several things to get it started again but nothing worked. I remembered what I learned from growing up with Nintendo - When all else fails, blow in it. So I did and miraculously it started working again. (and has worked well ever since) The event got me thinking about what would happen if my machine died on me... I would probably want a better quality one, I had asked for this one because I had no idea how sew when I got it 3 years ago and I didn't know if I ever would. I looked at some machines and the prices. Outrageous! I knew I would be out of luck and have to save for quite a while to get a new one.

Well, one day I stopped by Goodwill and look what I found!It is the exact same machine as my grandma's, in perfect condition and in the original cabinet. You can imagine my excitement when I saw the price, $34.99. I had a coupon so it came $27.99.

I was a little nervous that it would need servicing but when I tried it out I was shocked at how beautifully it runs. It makes the most lovely, quality humming sound.

I love it. Happy sewing to me!

Round Two - Cloth Diapers

2011-10-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

We had a very positive experience with cloth diapers when we used them for Claire but we felt that the diaper covers we used were lacking in a couple of areas.

With Claire we used Thirsties. They worked great as far as leaks go and ease of use but they did NOT last for more than one child, the velcro tabs became weak and would not hold well at all and the white trim around the legs drove me crazy as it was only white for the first week.

This time around my mom and I researched quite a few brands and styles, ordered a few, returned a few and finally decided that the Flip by Bum Genius was the one.
I was a lttle hesitant of the Flip because it does not have gussets but I have never had them leak out the leg yet. There are great colors to choose from and notice that the trim is the same color as the the rest of the cover.

The Flip is a one size fits all diaper so they are much more cost effective than most. They can be adjusted with the snaps to be short and let out as your baby grows.Another feature, that made them superior to the others I tried is the stretchy tab that snaps over the front. It just gives the diaper a little better fit. Snug and comfy.
I do not like the all-in-one diapers. I have tried them but I just hate the way they feel and I don't like pulling out the insert when it is all wet and gross so I knew I wanted just the diaper covers again.

So, when I need to change Joy's diaper, I just grab a cover and a pre-fold.

Stick it in like so,

and voila, good to go.
When it's time for a change again, (if it's just pee) I hold on to the cover and let the pre-fold fall into our diaper pail - which is nothing special, just a trash can with a lid lined with a trash bag. Then I give the inside of the cover a quick wipe with a wipey and the cover can be used until it gets wet or until number 2 happens. When it does, I just throw the whole thing in the diaper pail. No big deal.

About 2 times a week I run a diaper load. There's nothing quite like a rumply stack of cloth diapers warm from the dryer.However, it's only a matter of time before the diapers come out of the dryer looking like this.I just set them out in the sun. Usually, a day of sitting in the sunlight bleaches it right out. Sometimes, it doesn't get it all the way out - in which case washing it in a load with bleach will always do the trick and bring it back to looking new again.

The savings with cloth diapers are unbelievable. Sure, they are a little expensive upfront. (but thankfully for me my parents and my grandma bought them for me for Joy's baby gift)

I have 5 covers which cost $13.95 each and 3 dozen pre-folds at $18.00 per dozen.

That comes to $124.00 (shipping was free)

According to several online, baby cost calculators the average cost for disposable diapers is about $65 per month. Even if Joy is potty trained by 20 months like Claire was, that is $1300!

And now some pictures of my cloth diapered baby.
She likes them too. But she has no choice.

Live and Learn

2011-10-29T16:42:00.000-07:00

Grinding 25 lbs of wheat....

is an outside job.

Unfortunately, we learned this the hard way.

It was much easier clean-up this time.

A Day With Gigi

2011-10-27T05:35:00.001-07:00

Last month, my grandma moved out here to Arizona from California. She moved into a beautiful retirement community called Renaissance in Sun Lakes.

The main entranceThe Lobby (very small portion of it anyway)

My grandma pays one monthly bill that covers everything (including once a week cleaning service) ((except for cable.)) She even gets 20 meals a month that she can eat in the dining room. My mom and I ate there with her one day and it was delicious food. When my grandma goes by herself, they have a special seating area for single people so she will be put in a group to get to know people. All of the residents there are so nice and the majority of them are in good health and active. There are so many activities to take part in too! Water aerobics, billiards, bunco, bingo, book clubs, group outings, movies, church services and the list goes on.

I decided that I want to move into a place like this when I am old. It seems like so much fun! It kind of reminds me of being in high school when my sports team would go travel out of state for tournaments and stay in hotels. Just easy, fun-living with friends and activities. Yes, please!

Renaissance also has a little salon, ice cream parlor, library, movie theater and gift shop - All without ever having to step outside in the heat.Each resident can decorate their door and little alcove however they like.
Grandma is not a much of a decorator - but my mom finally got her to at least put a basket of flowers out. Claire likes it because she can tell which room is Gigi's.

My grandma's living area (she has yet to be convinced that she needs something on the walls)

The kitchen

The view from her porch.

Last week, I took the girls and went with my mom to visit her and take our last swim of the summer in the heated pool.Joy doesn't scream in the water anymore!Claire loves to visit Gigi and is not shy around her at all.

and neither is Joy.Group shot!

After swimming, pictures and the hanging of a hummingbird feeder, we went to run some errands, but first stopped by Wendy's for lunch.

Grandma loves to order chocolate shakes and she splits them with Claire. I am sure that Claire gets more than her fair share.Next, we went to good ol' Walmart as we all needed to get a few things.
Claire held Gigi's hand the whole time and told her "Gigi, I need to hold your hand so you don't get lost."

She also held Gigi's hand so she would not get hurt by cars.

It was cracking me up because every time I took pictures that day, I would take about 30 of each shot knowing that out of the 30 maybe one or two would be good. My grandma kept saying I was the paparazzi and 3 different times asked me if I was "out of film yet?"

We look forward to many more fun days at Gigi's new house. This weekend they are having a trick-or-treat night for all of the residents great-grandchildren. We'll be there for sure! Claire is excited for another chance to wear her costume :)

Our Sunday Best

2011-10-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

After last week's post, I realized that our families never get to see Claire and Joy in their church clothes. I decided I will try to post a picture on Sundays so they can see that we do dress up once a week.

I promise my next post will not be about clothes!

African Outfits

2011-10-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Josh shared about his trip to Africa during the evening service at church. To be festive, I made the girls outfits out of one of the kapulanas that Josh brought home. Joy's was a typical shirred top and this bloomer pattern. Claire's was just a simple dress due to the lack of time and creativity. It was a little ill-fitting since she was napping when I made it - I kind of guessed on the size. Aww, my little brightly dressed family.

I am pretty sure that people in Mozambique don't dress like this.

Sunday Attire

2011-10-16T16:48:00.000-07:00

This morning, I let Claire choose what she wore to church and she insisted that she wear a princess dress. She was so excited about it she wanted to show Grandma and Nana and Uncle Didi so I told her we could take pictures for them. (So there you go select few)We then decided that Joy should wear her fanciest dress as well. I had to dig through boxes in the garage to find the matching hair band. When I put it on her head, Claire laughed and said "She looks ridicullus!" I said she looked pretty and reminded Claire that she once wore the exact same outfit.Poor Joy had just woken up and was not in a picture taking mood but she was a good sport.
It's amazing how many things you can do before 8:15am. We were only 1 minute late for church.

Awana Cubbies!

2011-10-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

This is Claire's first year in Cubbies!

We are so excited! Memorizing the verses is pretty easy for her and she enjoys when we work in her book together throughout the week.

Her interest and ease of memorizing gives me hope for when we officially start school in January.

She really does love it even though she was being contrary in this video. After she said those 2 verses she got her Jumper patch - which is very exciting.
We are still working on her Cubbies song. I think we sang it 27 times this afternoon.

2 Months 2day!

2011-10-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

Joy is 2 months old already! She just hit 10 pounds.

She loves when Claire holds her and entertains her.She likes to sit in her bumbo and take in her surroundings. She likes to be kissed on her chubby, yummy cheeks.

Joy definitely looks different than her sister. I am so glad because I did not want a mini Claire clone. One of my concerns with having 2 girls is that one is always way prettier than the other. Think about it, every time there are sisters in a family, there is the pretty one and the uglier one. Now of course, as with any of my generalizations, there are some exceptions but this is a common phenomena I have noticed throughout my life. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens...

Claire looks like Dadda but Joy ended up with more of my features. I'm glad to have a child that somewhat resembles me. Her skin is a little darker than Claire's and she has darker hair than Claire ever did. I was kind of hoping her eyes would be brown but they are getting lighter and bluer everyday.

Yep, she looks like the Mason side of my family. Sometimes, at just the right angle and with just the right expression, she looks like the spitting image of my grandpa.

I love this little girl! She is a sweety!

Big Girl Bike

2011-10-09T21:36:00.000-07:00

For months we have been promising Claire that when the weather gets cooler we would teach her how to ride her bike. Our neighbors gave this bike to us over a year ago (obviously I would not have chosen a Disney Princess bike for her) but we are so glad to have it now! Claire has held us to that promise and this weekend she finally learned. It only took 3 different sessions for her to get it down and now she is a pro. This afternoon she rode while I walked with Joy. We went a little over a mile with no mishaps. It is great to be big!

Welcome to the Joys of Colic

2011-09-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, we have been busy. Nothing exciting or note worthy has been happening but we have been BUSY. Busy trying to get back into the swing of things after staying at my parent's house for two weeks while Josh was in Africa, busy doing laundry, busy cleaning, busy with cooking and busy with kids.

Joy has been keeping us especially busy in the evenings as a few weeks ago she decided to have colic. It started the day before Josh left for Africa. Like clock work, at 6pm, my sweet, little Joy turns into a fussy, gassy, burpy, back arching, crying, spitting up, screaming Joy. At first we didn't know what her deal was and assumed it was because I had been eating spicy foods. I cut those out of my diet and she was still having her daily issue so I knew it wasn't that.

After a particularly bad night, I made a doctor appt for her to make sure that it was just colic and not something more serious. I was pretty sure it wasn't anything too bad since she only had trouble in the evenings. The doctor said she wasn't sure what it was since it only occurred at a certain time of day (dumb) and I was doing all the things that she would have suggested. She called over to a Pediatrix group doctor to see if they had any other tips. After waiting 40 minutes she came back and said "Well, they think she might have a little acid reflux since she is arching her back. Here is a prescription for Zantac, give it to her twice a day". I was proud of myself for not saying anything - I have learned from experience not to share my beliefs about certain medicines to the doctors who are getting paid big bucks to write the prescriptions. I just said "Okay" and took the prescription and promptly threw it away after I had left. Seriously? Zantac?! They want me to give my little 6 week old baby a drug like that, to treat something they THINK she MIGHT have a LITTLE of? The thing about Zantac is it doesn't even cure acid reflux, it just masks the symptoms, not to mention it has been linked to causing stomach cancer. On top of that, she doesn't have acid reflux, I had researched colic and AR extensively and she definitely has colic.

So, I set out looking for a way to ease Joy's colic but so far they have all been futile. I cut dairy and wheat out of my diet, cut out coffee, spicy foods and any acidy foods. I feed her when she is sitting upright, burp her repeatedly, we've tried ALL of the typical calming tricks, i.e. leg pumping, and laying over your legs on her tummy. We have been giving her probiotics since she was born, we've tried gripe water, Mylicon (which seems to help a tiny bit), Hylands colic tablets, and my last hope was that she was getting too much foremilk and not enough of the fattier milk but even when I fixed that problem she still has her hours of screaming and fussiness. I have just accepted now, that she has colic and it can't be helped.

Poor Joy... poor us.

3 and Up

2011-09-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

We have recently discovered that there is a reason why companies mark their products with the phrase "3 and up". There is something magical that happens when a child turns 3 that suddenly makes them capable of tasks that to us, seem simple and doable at the age of 1 1/2 or 2.
I am very guilty of forcing things on Claire before she is ready for them. We put her in a Johnny Jump Up at 2 months, gave her a Little Tikes car on her first birthday, she got her first trike at the 18 months, and her scooter last Christmas when she was 2 1/2.
But much to our frustration, she wasn't able to ride any of these toys until she turned 3. Hi Ho Cherry-O and Candyland also games that she is just now able to grasp.... if only we had believed the box we would have saved ourselves (and Claire) much frustration.

When Claire was a baby, we were constantly looking toward the next milestone. "I can't wait til she can smile" "I can't wait til she can sit up" "I can't wait til she can crawl, walk, talk etc".

I don't feel that way at all with Joy. Maybe it's because we lost Will that I don't take this baby stage for granted, or maybe it's because we already have been through it with Claire. Either way, I am loving every moment with Joy. I want to be careful not to rush her along and make her grow up too fast.

She'll be 3 before we know it.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub!

2011-09-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Joy's in the tub...

and she's getting to be a chub...

(She weighed 8 lbs on her due date last week!)

Changed

2011-09-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

Remembering our Will today and all that the Lord has done for us during the year.