Sweet Sleep

It is 12:05 AM and Jewel Bug has finally fallen asleep :) We are on our way home from a great gospel meeting in McMinnville, TN where we got to see lots of old friends and made new ones, too. I forgot how much I love to hear my husband preach and he has a lot this month! Add the icing to our cake: we spent time with the Perrys and even saw the Reeds, old friends, good food, and the Smokies in the fall! Plus, hubby preaches again this Sunday ;). As for me, I'm off to try to get comfortable in Rosie, the Cube, and attempt a power nap...it's going to be a long, hard day!

Wordless Weds.

A Catch-Up Post

August was incredibly busy and tiresome, so much that I didn't make one single blog post :( So here is one to catch-up:

 Jewel Bug is talking non-stop and very clearly now. She really thinks she is a big girl and can do everything by herself except when she is whiney and then she CAN'T do ANYTHING by herself!  She is also really pushing that boundary or disobedience, ughh, that is very frustrating :(  We have finally moved away from Mickey Mouse, don't get me wrong, she still loves all things Mickey, but we have reached out to Dora the Explorer, Cars, and Princess Belle.  Sweet girl loves to sing, and I love to listen to her!  Everywhere we go she notices the letter A and says, "A for Aylin!"  :) Because I had to go back to work, she is back with Nannie Chelle and friends M-TR; but she loves her Nannie Chelle, Becka, and all her little friends so that makes the adjustment a little easier.  Here she is with her Mary Claire:

She got a pet fish and named him Pete; Pete the Cat has recently become her favorite Mickey character?

She moved into the 2 year old classroom for Bible Class :)

She got her first haircut!

 She did so great!  She climbed up in the chair, loved her "big dress," and just let Kourtney cut away.  She evened out her hair and put a few layers in to help it grow.  The left side was longer than the right, but we are all the same length now :)

We had a paint night!  Every year the school I work for does a fundraiser called Square One Art.  The students make a work of art and this company creates anything you want them to with it.  Last year, I did Aylin's hand print with each dog's paw print, so this year I built on that:

 Above: what Aylin painted all by herself :) and below: Aylin's foot print, hand prints, fingerprints, Tessie's paw and Buttercup's paw :)

We had a COUSINS playdate!  Payton and Aylin were so funny!  They saw each other, ran to each other, and hugged each other!  I love the pic of Payton and Aylin taking turns pushing Macey Jo in the swing...CUTENESS!

Just recently, she changed her bedtime routine on us. She won't let us rock her anymore!  We use to read a few books and rock in her glider before saying our prayers and going to bed.  But now she goes straight to the crib and starts trying to climb in, gathers her loveys and says goodnight  :(  She is still in her crib simply because we decided this year Christmas will be all about getting her a new room. In fact, we actually purchased our 1st Christmas gift! I know, I know, I am always the last minute shopper but Target had a cute little bed-in-a-bag that I had been eyeing on sale so we got it :)

She will be using my old twin bed and her great-grandmother's dresser for now. The other things Santa and family will be bringing include a chair, dollhouse bookshelf, owl pillow, curtains, ceiling fan, blinds (the new room is the only room in the house we didn't put blinds on when we 1st moved in), and any other little thing that might look cute in there.

I'm going to end it here with my little monkey, there are still a few posts I haven't done yet, but they will need to wait for another day.

Aylin Jewel's 2 Year Photo Shoot

We got in our CD of pics and I finally got to look at them, so here they are

Make a photo slideshow



My Consignment Steal/Aylin's Favorite Toy/Counting to 5

As a mom on a budget, I try to hit consignment sales for clothes and get hand-me-downs from friends.  Every now and then I find a great little toy; for example, two years ago, at about this time, we bought Aylin a rocking horse for $10 which we saved until Christmas.  This year I found this:

It is a Kleinway Baby Grand Piano, in great condition and I paid $15 for it!  A friend prompted me to do some research, and I found a few shops that sale these for $95-120, and on eBay and Craigslist they are $70 and up!  Let me just say this, this is the best $15 I have spent thus far; Jewel Bug LOVES her piano!

 

And finally a video to let you listen to what we have been hearing since Thursday night:

If you listen closely AJ counts to five at the end of the video, the sound only catches the 4 and the 5 because 1, 2, and 3 were so soft.  It was the first time I heard her count CORRECTLY!  Normally she just skips around all the numbers from 1-10, normally saying 6 and 7 three or four times.  I love this girl and love watching her play her new piano :)

"Out of the Mouth of Babes..."

A Memory Post for Our Family

(Images from NASA's website)

Tonight, as I was pulling Aylin Jewel out of her carseat, she looked up and REALLY noticed the stars.  We have pointed them out to her before, but tonight was just different.  I was in a hurry and my mind was racing about getting everything inside, taking care of the girls (dogs), getting the trash to the street, and getting AJ to bed because we have a long day tomorrow.  I was privately praying that she wouldn't give me too much trouble tonight because I was tired and just didn't want to fight with her (she's been fighting sleep for the last couple of weeks).  That is when I heard it...an awe-inspiring, "WOW!"  I stopped and watched a little sparkle in Aylin's eyes as she scanned the sky.  Finally, she looked down into my eyes and said, "Momma, whasat?" (What's that? for those of you who don't speak baby)  Her look of amazement just brought a smile to my face, and I forgot about everything else including the rush to get inside.

I replied, "Those are stars, aren't they beautiful?"  To which I got a "yes...bootiful stars," all the while gazing upward.  I then asked her if she wanted to watch the stars for a while, which gave me a very excited YES!  So we took our stuff inside, let the dogs out, gathered up the trash and took it to the street, and then sat down in the grass and looked up at the stars.

We talked about How God made the stars on day 4 and sang the creation song.  We talked about how the stars form shapes and some people use them to find their way home.  Then she wanted to sing the creation song again and we talked about the other things God made, each time coming back to the "bootiful stars." 

My Jewel Bug then said "pay" (pray) and folded her little hands together. Which at the time made me tear up and as I am writing this is making me full-out cry.  So we said a little prayer outside on our front lawn at 9:20 PM, and we thanked God for his creation and specifically for his beautiful stars.  And we asked that Mommy not be in such a rush, that I would take the time to look around (up in this case) and enjoy God's creation more often.  That I might SEE as my 2 year old SEES.

When we finished praying, I promised her that when she was older we would learn about the different constellations God put in the sky and how to find them.  She hugged my neck and said, "okay mommy."

I told her we needed to go inside and call her daddy (he is on a youth trip) before going night, night.  As we walked into the garage, she waved at the stars and said, "Bye, God stars!"

The first thing she said when her daddy said hello was "STARS!"  She then tried to tell him all about them in an excited blur of words I couldn't even understand. :)

I leave you with a couple of Bible verses that seem extra relevant tonight:

Matthew 21:16 "...Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise." 

(This is where I got the title from)

Also read Deuteronomy 6:5-7, Matthew 18:1-10, and Mark 10:14-16

Vacation Bible School at the Southaven Church of Christ

On Sunday night we have an introduction lesson into our VBS followed by a Hot Dog Supper and Balloon Release.  To date, AJ has cried 2 out of the 3 years we have done this, so daddy always hides a back-up balloon for her.  Every now and then it pays to be the preacher's kid :)  The pic above is of her when she received her BUB (back-up balloon).  This year our theme was "In the Lord's Army" and had lessons about "Christian Armor," "Gideon's Army of 300," and "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho."

The guys, Ben and Eric, did an amazing job on the auditorium stage!

Shannon (Reed's mom) and I taught the Gideon lesson to 2-4th graders this year; this was our story room:

 

On the last night of VBS I sent Aylin to her class with my camera, here are some of the pics her teachers took:

 

Here are all the crafts Aylin brought home from the 3 nights of VBS.  They are the Christian Armor (at least wheat we made it home with), Gideon's torch, and Joshua's trumpet.  She had a great time in class, thanks to all her teachers and assistants!

And finally Aylin Jewel's Photo Memories from her 2011 VBS class: