Happy Birthday!

I just wanted to wish a happy belated birthday to my sister-in-law Kendra.

I would also like to wish a hapy 60th birthday to my father-in-law, John. We're looking forward to seeing you guys tonight to celebrate.

"I want my tongue to swim in Dr Pepper."

Another gem from Miss Mara. Her way of telling her daddy that she wanted a drink.

That ranks right up there with Ariel's "booby covers." :)

The Hopping Light

Last night, Mara said that she needed to turn on her "hopping light." We couldn't figure out what she was talking about, but she kept insisting it was in her room. We finally realized she was comparing her bedside lamp to the Pixar lamp, Luxo Jr. You know, the one that squishes the 'I' in Pixar at the beginning of any of their movies. So, according to Mara, we now have our own "hopping light" in our house. :)

In memory

It was one year ago today that we lost my mom. One year ago since I was woken up with a call from my dad telling me the bad news. So much has happened this past year. It's still hard without her around, and I still miss her dearly. I'm sad to know that she won't be here to meet and hold our future children, but at the same time, I also know she is up in Heaven taking care of the one we recently lost.

Blog header

I finally got around to creating a header for our blog. It's pretty basic, but it's fairly easy to change it. :)

Enjoy!

Wall-E

Mara has been asking to go see Wall-E for months now (or at least since the commercials started coming out). It doesn't help that we watch the Disney Channel most of the time. She would get so excited about the commercials that we knew we had to take her to see the movie.

It worked out that we were finally able to take her to see it yesterday, and she was so excited. She started squealing when we pulled into the movie theater parking lot and could hardly sit still waiting for the movie to start. For being the third movie she has seen in the theater, she sat enraptured for over an hour into the movie, and then she needed to go to the bathroom. When we got back, she didn't want to go back up to our seats, so we just sit down at the front to finish the movie.

Overall, it was a good movie. Both Wall-E and Eve were cute and made Mara fall in love with them even more. The movie was a little strong on the environmental issues, but nothing like Happy Feet. :) John said that we left at just the right time because it got a little scary at one part, but I have the feeling we'll see this movie many more times once it comes out on DVD.

Here's Mara holding one of her Eve figurines.

Our little fish

Mara is a little fish. She is fearless around a pool, and we have to keep a close eye on her all the time we are near one. When we go up to the pool near Mike and Myra's house, she quickly sheds her shoes and wades right in before we can even set our stuff down. She loves to go out to the three-foot mark where she jumps to keep her head above water. Yesterday, she even held her breath and went under water as well as tried to swim all on her own.

She has also been enjoying splash days at school. One day a week, the kids wear their swimsuits to school while the teachers bring out the kiddie pools and water toys, and the kids go to town. We have no problems getting Mara ready for school and dropping her off those days.

We definitely need to get her enrolled in some swimming lessons, but it looks like she's starting to learn some of the basics on her own.

Here are some pictures from a couple of different times when we went swimming.

Success!

I think our little girl is about 95% potty trained. She's been dry for about six weeks now (even at night) with only two accidents while washing her hands during that time. To top it off, she has even been doing No. 2 in the potty most of the time for the last week.

It just all seemed to click with her one day. I think accidentally soaking herself during her nap time convinced her to start going pee in the potty. Really, like everything else, she just has to decide she wants to do it, and then she'll master it almost immediately.

She's working toward earning the Biggest Littlest Pet Shop, which is her prize for being full potty trained. (That and hopefully a promotion at school so she'll be in the same class with a lot of her friends.)

We've been holding on to this since before Christmas since we were able to get a really good deal with extra animals and all. Hopefully we'll be able to give this to her before too long.

Keep praying

Please keep Kendra & Rick (John's sister and brother-in-law) in your prayers. Rick goes in to surgery tomorrow to repair some of the damage from the accident, and then he will be well on the road to recovery.

Also, more details have come out regarding the accident, and it really is a miracle he survived. If anything had been different with the accident (the speed he was going, where he landed, the age of the trees he hit), we would be attending his funeral and not praying for his recovery. God definitely had a hand in what happened, and I hope and pray that Kendra, Rick, and their family will come out stronger as a result.

Trying again

It's been over two months now since we discovered we lost the baby, and we finally can start trying again. I have to admit, though, that I'm kind of scared heading into another pregnancy. I'm not typically a worrier, but I know I will be anxious until after I make it past the 15-week mark. I'll probably be that way until I'm holding the sweet baby in my arms, knowing that he/she is OK. I just have to keep reminding myself that God is in control through all of this, and there is nothing I can do differently.

The other thing I have to overcome is the timing of the next pregnancy. If we get pregnant on our first try this time around, my due date will be about 10 days after Mara's birthday. I didn't really want our kids to have birthdays that close together, but I also didn't plan on not having another child until after Mara's fourth birthday and I don't really want to hold off much longer. However, only God knows if we will be successful this month. I know that everything happens in God's timing, and I've come to accept that I can't be so particular on when we'll have another child. This last pregnancy definitely proved I can't decide/control that. :)

While my miscarriage has had a big impact on me, I am so thankful that it happened after we had Mara and not before. I can't imagine the heartache we would have gone through if we didn't already have a child to love and cuddle when we were down. I am thankful every day that we have her in our lives. Some days, she is a typical three-year-old and we butt heads, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Please pray

Please keep John's sister, Kendra, and her family in your prayers. They've been having a really rough year this year, including losing her husband's grandparents, a short separation, and more recently an accident that totaled Kendra's minivan. The year became even worse when her husband, Rick, was in a bad motorcycle accident Wednesday. He was pretty beat up and has a severely broken jaw as well as several other broken bones in his face/head/neck. He is now awaiting surgery on Sunday to repair some of the damage. A Caring Bridge site was set up for Rick to keep everyone updated on what's happening and his progress.

It's going to be a long road for Kendra and Rick and their kids Hannah and Josh. Please keep all of them in your prayers as they all recover.

Happy Fourth of July!

I couldn't decide on just one. Plus, Mara loves Mickey :)