Sunday, September 17, 2017

Daddy got Selah June ready for church, and she looked absolutely adorable. Her little blue shoes from her Grammy were the perfect complement to a poofy dress with bright colorful flowers. As we were walking from the car to her class, I begged her to let me take her picture. And, as usual, she wouldn’t stop and humor me for anything. Finally, once inside, she said I could take her picture in the little rocking chair. So what did she do?? Picked her nose, of course. That little booger…

After the service we decided to call in an order for pizza to Santinos. Selah June wanted to play on the playground in the playhouse. She said I could take her picture if I came and ordered food from her at the window. Next thing I knew, she was on the phone calling the pizza place herself to order our lunch. What a mess…

September 15, 2017

Were really struggling with our sleep right now. I think she’s growing out of her midday nap. She certainly needs one, but then she’s up until really late at night and up again in the wee early hours of the morning. It’s wiping Jeremy out. I don’t hear her because of my sleeping drugs, so I’m not much help until they wear off.

This is usually the scene to which I wake up. I wish she would just stay this little, and I wish she was more interested in bedtime snuggles. She’s such a cute little cuddlebug.

September 13, 2017

The hurricane led to all universities across the state being closed on Monday, so we got an extra day to spend together having fun. Selah June still love to go to Target, and now we’ve worked the system so that we get stickers, popcorn, and a banana just for being cute and saying please and thank you.

September 10, 2017

The threat of Hurricane Irma kept us a bit preoccupied during our Branson adventure. Our flight home on Allegiant was cancelled, and we had to exchange our rental for a one-way minivan to pick up at the Springfield airport and drop off at the Pensacola airport. The rather was perfect. Though we were scared about hitting wind and rain, we raced the storm home and had no trouble at all. And certainly we faced no traffic. We were the only crazy people to be headed toward the storm!

The kids were really really good. They watched movies and took naps. They were happy to stop every 3-4 hours for a quick potty break. And they were happy with an occasional round of chicken nuggets and lemonades.

What started as a fun trip to the mountains to play with lots of kids sandwiched between two exciting airplane rides turned into a marathon road trip with 2 of sick with sinus infections and one of us puking her guts out.

A very different trip home indeed.

But it was exactly what we hoped it would be… a big unforgettable adventure!

The ladies planned a 2911 birthday party to celebrate all the kids’ birthdays over the course of the year. Here is Selah June sporting her new shades that were part of her party favors.

And here is one of the few other girls in the mix, Lily. She has an awesome heavy foot and stomps everywhere. We had a good laugh at this little one as she ran all throughout the house.

This little one was new to the group and was such a sweetheart. He just wanted to hug on me – something Selah June was not going to allow.

Selah June used her bucket to pick up lots of rocks.

And she didn’t really want to join the party and did so only reluctantly and with great resistance.  Don’t let the picture fool you… ?

Here they all are! A crazy bunch of miracles!!

The first night at the resort, the kids got into all kinds of toys. This was Selah June’s pick. She was spiderMAN!

We all gathered around the outdoor fire pit and made s’mores. Selah June was of course content to eat chocolate bars at a distance.

Thursday, September 7, 2017

We left today for our big trip to Branson to see our huge network of half-siblings from all over the country. Jeremy found cheap flights on Allegiant Airlines flying out of Destin, so we decided to make an adventure out of the transportation and take the kids on their first airplane ride. We had to leave around 10am to make it to Destin in time to get through security and on our plane by 1:00ish. The kids fell asleep on the way there, which was good because we were coming up on Selah June’s nap time.

Jeremy and I knew that the other kids would have their backpacks, so we made sure to find her backpack and fill it with lots of snacks and toys. She was all about wearing it on her back just like the other kids, but she wouldn’t let me pull her hair in a ponytail…so it made it a little challenging to get on her and get her situated.

Here she is at the gate. She would not pose for a picture no matter what I offered by way of a bribe.

And here she is with her security sticker. Who knew they handed these out?

She wanted to be right next to Satie, so Jessica sat with the girls on one side and I sat with Sebastian on the other. As you can see, she was totally fine. Of all the kids, she was the least freaked out. The engine noise didn’t bother her. The feeling in her stomach didn’t bother her. She didn’t mention her ears feeling funny as the pressure changed. Nothing. Calm as a cucumber.

When we landed in Branson, the kids suited up with their backpacks and we all made our way to baggage claim.

Monday, September 4, 2017

I love this picture. I know that it might seem inappropriate or maybe even that I shouldn’t let her play in the front yard without being fully dressed. But I love the little moments of baby that she still has. In a few weeks, she’ll turn three. We’ll be faced with different developmental phases. But for now…right now… she is two and taking in all the freedom and beauty that is in the small things of her every day. This is the beautiful result of children coloring with sidewalk chalk on our paved driveway. They created this masterpiece on Saturday when everyone was over to watch football. The sprinklers ran both Sunday morning and Monday morning and created this beautiful watercolor effect.

On the porch, I worked on refinishing the living room furniture passed down from Grandma and Grandpa’s house. This piece went from being my least favorite originally to my most favorite refinished. Abigail took a sander to the top of it and revealed beautiful variation in the wood. I decided to leave it natural and paint the rest.

Meanwhile a little monkey sat enjoying the weather and watching me work away.

Sunday, September 3, 2017

So you have to look closely to see the significance of this pic. Yes. That is right. We are YARD OF THE MONTH! That is something I never thought that any member of my extended family would ever achieve. (And of course we didn’t earn it. We pay a lot of money for a yard service.) Honestly, I think that this is an effort on the part of our busybody homeowners association to shame our neighbor across the street to mow their grass.

On the inside of this house, we are excited about brand new pjs that our daddy bought us! They are paw patrol and mickey mouse! Selah June decided she needed some pjs, and within 24 hours she had them. And these were just in time for our trip to see all the half-sibs.

Grammy and Grandpa stopped by to check in on us. And Selah June decided she needed to teach them how to make snowflakes. She even took their colored coffee filters and folded them  like I do for her. (I had to be very sneaky in order to refold them in a way that actually could be cut into a snowflake.)