Blessings

Wow... I am just in awe of our God and how good and how faithful He is to us. We, Nat and I, are so undeserving of Him. I'll admit it, we haven't treated Him like He should be treated. We haven't been living the way we should, we haven't served Him like we are called to do. We both have been convicted of this. Not that we are living a life full of drinking and partying... were just not living fully for God. So I feel like He has absolutely no reason to take care of us and to bless us. But as always... He makes our life so amazing, and so perfect and keeps sending blessings to us... and I CANNOT comprehend it. I can't even fathom His love for us. Its brings pure joy to my heart when I TRY to figure out God's wonderful blessings... I feel like I can't thank him enough for his promises that He keeps. Its just amazing... and I could go on and list the many things running through my head right now of how He has blessed us this week... all the way down to receiving a measly little $6 check in the mail cuz I over-payed a bill. He provides enough for us to pay bills and to put food on our table every meal... how could I want more than that? Thank you, Father for keeping your promises most of all for loving us unconditionally. Thank you that I cant even comprehend you and your wonderfulness!!

The 3 best blessings a person could ask for...

My wonderful, loving, handsome husband who provides for our family and makes it possible for me to stay home with our girls.

My beautiful curly headed, blonde hair, blue eyed 15 month old. Who can put a smile on your face any second of the day.

And last but definitely not least... My adorable,crazy haired, most beautiful deep blue eyes I ever seen 2 month old. Who smiles and laughs more than any 2 month old baby I have ever seen. She is teaching me to be happy... and to smile, because it makes everyone else smile to.

Bad mom

I will admit that I have been quite negligent with little Ms. Payton. Yes, I feed her... but its usually in her swing with her bottle propped up. Yes, I know thats a no-no... but I do it anyways. She is in her swing most of the day and doesn't get held very often. I know, I know, poor kid. But it has been so hard to find time to be her momma. Madelynn takes up most of my time... and when she is napping, I am wanting to sit and rest. I've been pretty convicted of how much time I dont spend with her. Now please, dont get me wrong, I love this girl to death and I do not neglect her on purpose. It just happens without even realizing it. So with that said, I have been making a point to actually sit down and feed her and play with her. We do tummy time... which she absolutely hates, its pure torture for her to be on her tummy. Madelynn has really enjoyed having Payton down on her level and Payton has loved to be able to see her sister and be so close to her. She just lays down there and laughs and smiles at Madelynn. Today, Madelynn actually tried to pick her up. She loves to hold her. She will go up to Payton and hold her hands out (like she does if she wants someone to hold her) and look at me. So one day, I picked payton up and put her in Madelynns arms and she was so absolutely thrilled. Its so sweet. I hope that they always have this love for each other. Im so glad God blessed me with 2 girls.

she is laughing here. Maybe she doesn't hate it to much... or maybe she just knows she was fixin to get turned over. :)

I FINALLY feel like we got Payton on a schedule and thats been so nice to be off that newborn lifestyle... if that makes sense. Her and Madelynn pretty much play at the same time, nap at the same time and Payton usually goes to bed about an hour or so after Madelynn and then sleeps through the night, and wakes up about an hour after Madelynn!! So its just all workin out. I get to spend that hour with Madelynn eatin breakfast. I am thinkin about moving her into the room with Madelynn. Heck, she already sleeps WAAAAAY better than Madelynn does! Im about ready to have our room back to our room. I was ready to move Madelynn at 6 weeks and ready with Payton about the same time.

We have been stuck in the house for a couple days now and I think were all going stir crazy. You know how sometimes you just gotta get out??? Thats where we are. I wanna take Madelynn to the park so bad. Its so beautiful outside during the day. Maybe she will pick up this walkin thing really soon and we can go outside and play!! She is even closer than soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo close. She is actually doing it, just still crawling more than walking. She will most of the time stand up and start walkin, but when she falls she is done and just crawls. Its so cool to see her like upways... and walking. I got my camera out this morning determined to get a video or a picture of her walking... I was unsuccessful. I'll keep trying tho.

Dog, s'mores, cousins, and a dedication.

All in one place. I have sat down and tried to post something about every single one of these things but have been unsuccessful due to my motherly duties. So guess what?? You get it all right now... It might take 4 hours but Im 'onna do it!!

Maggie, the dog, has made her way into our home and just fit right in. She really likes Nat, and coulnd't care to much for me. She pretty much runs from me anytime I come near her... all we can figure is that she has had a bad experience with a female in the past. We can tell that she has definitely had a bad past. She was very skittish and nervous around people but is slowly coming around to where she will actually come to you when you call her and not run from you. As for the potty training and training... how amazing is it that she has already got that down?? I'll take an already trained puppy any day!!

see what I mean.. made herself at home??? She even stole poor 'ol mitsys dog bed

She loves Madelynn and so badly wants to play with her... she just gets to rough. I think once Madelynn can walk and run away and stand her ground rather than layin on the ground helpless... it might be a bit easier for them to play.

Speaking of walking... She is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo close I can almost taste it! She is trying so hard.. she has got the balancing down and she knows how its supposed to be done.. now all she needs is the nerve. She takes off from stuff and takes a few steps till she falls then she does like a crab crawl.. standing up and crawling at the same time if that makes sense.. hey, maybe its the next step in walking?? ya we'll say that. She will walk from person to person most of the time for a good long distance, but when it comes to bein on her own she is still scared. Her 15 month appt. is on Thurs and the Dr. said she should be walkin by then... so we'll see what he has to say about it. I just think that she is slow and lazy about life and I also think that her torticollis slowed her way down and thats another reason that she has done everything so late in life. We'll see. She is stinkin close tho!!

On Friday, we grilled some burgers and then had my mom, dad and sisters over for some s'mores! It was perfect weather for roastin some marshmallows and makin s'mores. Madelynn got to try her first s'more/roasted marshmallow ... and I think its safe to say that she enjoyed the heck outta it. She was soooo tired that day and only got one nap in and almost got put to bed early... but then I thought -I cant put her to bed... she's gotta try this stuff! and Im sure glad I didn't. It was lots of fun.

she loved 'em

and Payton enjoyed bein all snuggled up with her papa

and we finally got a picture of the 4 cousins! So cute!!

there they are. thats alot of work right there... 4 of em- all in 20 months!

thats pretty good if you ask me.

can ya'll just see the trouble we have ahead of us??

Holidays will be a blast in a couple years!!

and the 2 little cousins.

Cash is definitely turning into quite the handsome boy!! Every time I see him I can't help but to think that he is looking like such a big boy!! I just can't get over how handsome he is... isn't he?? And Jedd... He is gonna be a big boy! Everything about him is big. He is good lookin just like his big bubba to!

and last but not least.. Our sweet little Payton was dedicated this mornin. It was a sweet time for our family. Madelynn was dedicated just almost a year ago. How awesome is it that we get to dedicate 2 sweet baby girls to the Lord all in one year. God definitely has a special plan for us!!

She was fussy during the whole thing... go figure, the kid never cries... then when we go to do somethin like this, she is. It was dumb on my part for not bringin a paci up there with us. To top it off, her papa got to dedicate her! :)

Isn't she just a little nugget head??

Ok.. do you see the attitude in the way my oldest child is sitting and the look on her face??? Thats all because she did not want to take a picture... so this is the best I got of the 2 of them... and she would not lose the paci. That was most of the attitude.

I love him.

see her cryin??

ok.. and I just can't resist sharin these with you

Look at that hair!

Nathaniel... is that you??? This is sooo not him! Thats what makes it funny.

ok.. so I was wrong. That took approximately 4.5 hours. :) But now Im done.

I said I'd never do it again...

This morning, Nat called me... which is kinda rare because he is working. I answered my phone and he says do you love me?? Now you know, when a conversation starts out like that... it usually turns out to be a bad thing. I of course said yes, then he asked me again do you love me?? I again said of course I love you... I wouldn't have married you if I didn't love you. Then he asks how much do you love me. I said bunches (thats how we have always answered that question...) Then I said... ok Nathaniel, what do you want?? He starts to explain to me how this dog had been following him around all day and its skinny and blah blah blah... so I immediately thought ok, he wants me to call the dog catcher to come pick it up so it will leave him alone (Nat doesn't like to make phone calls... so he always leaves "his dirty work" I like to say, to me.) Then he says... and its so cute and sweet and she has been following me around all day. When I go in a house she goes and lays in the grass and then when I come out, she comes running to me wagging her tail and I have asked around and no one knows who she belongs to and everyone has told me that she has just been running around the neighborhood for about a month now... can I bring it home??????????

Are you kidding me?? We JUST got rid of our dog and I specifically told him when we got rid of her that I DID NOT want another dog for a long time. I want the girls to get a little older, I need to mourn, and I dont want another dog till we can build a fence in our back yard. So I reminded him of this.. and he keeps asking me if he can just bring her home. So I finally agreed.

We brought her in and gave her a much needed bath... She was soooo gross.

She is a very sweet dog. We are thinkin she is probably 3 or 4 months or so.. and were also thinkin maybe she's got a little german shepherd in her. What do ya'll think?? Anyways.. I told him we would give it a week or so and see how she does with the girls... so we'll see. The thought of potty training and training a dog makes me wanna go cut my fingers off. So far she has done all her pottying outside so that has been a plus. Maybe she had an owner at one time. Its kinda hard not knowing anything about her. And if you know someone who lost a dog and this possibly could be theirs, let us know!! Nat found her around 24th st. Nat is going to work with her training wise, possibly going to some of the classes at Petco. Hopefully it will just end up being a great thing for our family. She is definitely still a puppy cuz all she has done is sleep today and she is extremely clumsy.

What I like to call... STRESS!

This weekend, we decided on a whim to tear up our house and make it new again. Nat and I are the kinda people that if we get an idea in our head, and its possible, we gotta like do it NOW and get it down ASAP! Started out last weekend, at midnight on Saturday, I mentioned that I wanted to paint... and we had a bunch of paint left from our house out in Mertzon. Nat said, ok lets do it right now... you dont gotta tell me that twice!! So we painted the living room last weekend. This weekend, Nat woke up and he was "itchin" to do something drastic to our house... He initially wanted to do the kitchen and put all new cabinets in... BUT, I was like hey, we got our flooring out in Mertzon that you could get and put in... and its FREE! So of course, being the wonderful man that he is, he went and pulled it all back up and came here and put it all back down. Easier said than done tho. It was a bit difficult at times to get it all done with the girls here but we managed.

Before

During

After

Before

during

after

before

after

ok... so children items fill my living room.... not furniture. We also did the hall.. but its just a boring 'ol hall with a desk in it.

Drove me up the wall.. but I survived.

and Madelynn...

she managed as well.

Nat does such a good job doin stuff like this! I am so thankful to have a man that can and will do this stuff for me... especially when I randomly come up with these crazy ideas. He is great at everything he does. Don't ya just wonder what went wrong with crazy people like that?? :)

On a side note, I HATE allergies.

and on a more important side note, Madelynn's 4 precious little teeth have finally come in enough to be brushed... so she learned how to brush her teeth today. It was a success.... almost to much of a success. She had a little melt down after I took it from her 15 minutes later. Speaking of melt downs, she now has many melt downs through out the day.. and its driving me crazy. If she dont get her way, watch out cuz she's gonna let you know about it. Whew man does that push my buttons.

brush 'em

'

Before, all wrapped up in the swaddler thing...

After.

I love to watch her stretch and wiggle when she is unwrapped. Its like a beautiful butterfly being born. :)

**if you dont have one of these swaddle things, get one, and if you know someone havin a baby, get them one!! Its called the Miracle Blanket. They are the best things in the world. They sell them at Myers drug I believe. Someone gave this to me for Madelynn and it works wonders, it really does! I didn't think Payton liked to be swaddled so I never really did it, but the other day, I pulled this out and wrapped her up, and she slept through the night.. and has since. Not saying that it will help the kid sleep through the night.. just helped mine... and hey, I'll take my 2 month old sleeping through the night any day! Now if we could just get her sister on the wagon we'll be settin well!

Pumpkin Patch

One little tradition that I really wanted to start with my family was to go to a pumpkin patch and get some pumpkins to carve. Last year, Madelynn was 3 months when we went... we did not really get a whole lot of pictures cuz the place we went was not the greatest... but this year, we went to the one out in Grape Creek and lemme tell ya... if you have kids or are interested in doin somethin like that, drive the few miles and go out there. It was beautiful! Everyone was so nice and friendly and welcoming. We had so much fun. Madelynn walked around (holding her daddy's hand of course) the whole time and she was so fascinated by everything. She loved all the pumpkins everywhere. Very neat place! I definitely recommend it!!!

last year

this year (my baby is growin up!!!)

Last year

This year. We added a family member. :)

Aren't they cute??? :)

Both of their shirts say something about mommy and Nat can't hardly stand that it doesnt say somethin about daddy. HA!!

ahhh... the 4 of us.

sisters are the best.

little nugget head.

she was scared to death of this thing. But when Nat picked her up, she gave him a high 5.

AND the best part of all... I carved my very first pumpkin ever! and I am hooked! It was so much fun. So much so that Im gonna put pictures of myself on here.... and Im not to much of a fan of pictures of myself.

Can you guess whos idea this was??

There he is!

all lit up

Im proud of my pumpkin. I must go get more and make more!

Ok, I promise promise that I did not put all of the pictures on here... probably not even half. Ya'll gotta tell me if you get sick of the millions and bazillions of pictures on here!!! Cuz if you don't, I'll keep doin it! I could look at them all day and never get sick of them. I would love to hear feedback from you people out there.... You are out there right??? I am starting to have my doubts. :) ... but thanks to the people that do leave comments or talk to me and let me know you like to read my blog. It makes me a little more motivated to write.