Conversation

After painting Hannah and Mya's fingernails, they walked over to the couch and had this conversation:

Hannah: "Look at my nails Mya!"
Mya: "Oh, that is beautiful."
Hannah: "My Julie did them."
Mya: "Look at mine."
Hannah: "Oh you so beautiful, Mya."
Hannah: "I like your shoes Mya."
Mya: "Oh thanks."

Mya: "You be Ariel."

Hannah: "You be Barbie."
Mya: "Otay!"

Then they took off running through the house chasing after each other. So cute!

Family Reunited

Dan and I had a wonderful weekend in Sugarcreek, Ohio. We attended a marriage retreat through our church and stayed at a wonderful place called the Carlisle Inn. The accommodations were amazing and we especially loved the king size bed. Sara stayed with my Mom and Mya stayed with my Dad and Kim. Mya did great at my Dad's house, but Sara had a tough time being away from us. My mom called us late Saturday afternoon to let us know that Sara was miserable and had a terrible cold. So she was so gracious and drove Sara to Sugarcreek so we could stay at the retreat. Sara stayed the night with us and did great. All the married couples at the retreat LOVED having Sara around. She got passed around all night. She slept through the night and took a nap during the church service in the morning. When we arrived at my Dad's house to pick up Mya we were greeted by Mya and Kim at the front door. Mya was so excited and yelled "Mommy, mommy, mommy!" and ran into my arms. Then she saw Dan get out of the car and yelled "Dan, Dan, Dan!" and ran into his arms. That was the funniest thing ever. Occasionally she will call him Dan because she hears Hannah call him that but she doesn't do that very often. For some reason she felt like she needed to call him Dan instead of Daddy today. Once we picked up Mya we went to the grocery store and headed home to unpack everything. Back to reality! The girls were pretty needy and wanted to be held all the time. Sara even fell asleep in her highchair during dinner. She didn't sleep much when she was with my mom so she was very tired today. She took lots of naps!



The marriage retreat was centered around the movie Fireproof. If you haven't seen the movie yet, please make sure that you do. It is excellent. Dan and I saw it in the theatre, but it was great to see if again to be reminded of how important it is to take care of our marriage. We find it difficult sometimes to focus on our marriage because the kids take up so much of our time. At the retreat we had some great conversations with couples. One couple had a great testimony about how they did not have to go through the 'empty nest' experience when their kids left home. They talked about how they put their marriage first while their kids were growing up so when their kids left home they were excited to have a quiet house and be together. That makes so much sense! Dan and I try to date each other, but we know how easy it is to put that on the back burner.

God is our first love, then we love each other, and then we love our kids. This is such an important concept to keep in mind. The speaker that we had on Saturday talked about how we need work hard at saying five things to our spouse when we have conflict (except I can only remember four things right now). We need to say, "I'm sorry.....I was wrong.....forgive me.......I love you." We talked about how important it is to have your heart be involved with these words rather then just saying them so the conflict can be over. I am so guilty of saying "I'm sorry" so we can be done with the debate rather then saying it because I really mean it. Barriers in your marriage get broken down when these phrases are said from the heart. And we know that when barriers get built up over time it is hard to break them down. This happens in all relationships when we don't want to let go of things. God and only God can be the one to give you a spirit of forgiveness when you don't want to forgive. So if you have God in your heart then He can make your marriage great!

Surgery Date

Dan finally has his surgery date scheduled. His appendix will be removed on April 22nd at 7:30 AM. We would appreciate all of your prayers for a smooth surgery. I am excited for Dan to be able to have his regular level of activity back. I know that he has been missing lifting weights and running. Yesterday he had a doctor's appointment and he got the clear to run and lift so he made sure to do both of those things after work. It was good to see him get to exercise again.

We have some exciting news in our household. Mya is finally potty trained. It was just like something clicked with her yesterday. She just got the hang of it and is doing really well. She is even accident free during her naps. Sara is surprising us with some new developments too. Yesterday she was playing with the girls and I wasn't paying attention to where she was. I asked Hannah where she was and she told me that Sara was upstairs. I shrugged it off and kept typing an e-mail. But then I heard noise upstairs and noticed that both girls were downstairs. I asked Hannah again where Sara was and she pointed upstairs. I turned the corner and there was Sara staring at me at the top of the stairs. She was getting ready to tumble right down all the stairs. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could and grabbed her just in time. I didn't know she could even climb stairs. She also learned how to wave and clap yesterday. And.....she can stand all by herself for 5 seconds. Wow! I feel like she is just going to start talking to me one of these days. I know that I might be partial because I am her mom, but she certainly seems advanced for a nine month old.

I started writing this blog entry during nap time today and now it is 8:30 PM and I am finally getting around to finishing it. Whew! It was quite an afternoon with the girls. When both of them are fussy it gets intense. I finally put them all in the car and drove them to Mansfield to pick up my ring that was getting fixed. They enjoyed getting out of the house and it was good for me too. Sometimes I just get so frustrated when I can't meet their needs. Mya is at a tough age where she is trying our patience all the time and Sara needs me for just about everything. And we want a third child. What??????? Even though some days are very tough, I STILL love being home with our children. I consider myself very blessed for what I have. Being a christian certainly doesn't mean that life will be happy and easy all the time. It is important to remember that God sharpens us through trials. If we didn't have trials then we wouldn't have opportunities to learn things about ourselves or others. Trials are good and at the end of the day I praise God for giving them to me!

Dress Up

The girls decided to play dress up this morning. It was quite comical! Here are a few snapshots of their gorgeous outfits.

Loving Arms

Veggies

I recently got this great idea from a friend in my bible study. Now I LOVE my husband very much, but those of you who know him know that he is a picky eater. So of course I work hard to make sure that my girls eat a variety of foods and like them. I want my girls to be just like their daddy in many many ways, but not in the way of eating food. When I was talking to my friend at bible study one night, she suggested that I have a plate of fresh veggies that I put out every day at dinner. That way I can make sure that the girls eat vegetables and can make a choice of which vegetables they want. This has been a fantastic idea! Not only do I put it out at dinner, but I also have it available for morning and afternoon snack, in addition to other snacks. I also offer a variety of dipping sauces sometimes like peanut butter, ranch dressing, and cream cheese. Below is a beautiful picture of my veggie tray. You will also see a picture of Mya enjoying her veggies during her bath today. She would request a vegetable, Hannah would go get it for her, and then she would eat it in the bathtub.

"I made a lellow!"

That is definately not a typo in the title of this entry. It is just Myanese talk. We are working on potty training her and she gets so excited when she goes. She yells to everyone in the house, "I made a lellow!" In translation that means, "I made it yellow." She learned from Hannah that when you go to the bathroom your pee is yellow and that is a very cool thing for a toddler. Mya successfully goes to the bathroom right before her bath in the evening, but we haven't mastered going in the toilet during the day. We are still working on that, but it will come in due time.

I wanted to dedicate this entry to Mya because we have seen so much growth in her lately. She is changing constantly and we are so proud of her. She hasn't been the easiest two year old. We have definately had our ups and downs with her, but I am seeing signs of maturity this week. She is responding to discipline much better and obeys us more often. She has not been quite as clingy and we have seen less tantrums. Today she sang the whole alphabet song by herself for her Daddy. He was so impressed with her knowledge. He always tells her, "Mya...you are so wise." Today at the dinner table she told him that she is wise. Those two crack me up sometimes. There are stories of Dan eating chapstick when he was a toddler. Guess what I caught Mya doing today? Oh yes....she was hiding in a corner eating her chapstick. Blah!!! She is very much like her Daddy in many ways.