Happy Birthday!

Last night we celebrated birthday's out at Ron and Marcia's. We celebrated because everyone will be busy over actual birthday time and also because Grace and Haley were here from Phoenix. Jenn's birthday is August 1st and Grace and I share a birthday on August 5th. :)

We just hung out and ate pizza, followed by a super tasty oreo dessert made by Jenn. Seriously, fabulous. It consists of crushed oreo's, ice cream, fudge, caramel..... Don't tell me you're not drooling right now. I should have eaten two pieces since it was my birthday! :)

Uncle Luke found a kitty in the middle of the highway and so he took it out to R&M's. It's a sad pitiful little thing! haha. But, it'll fit in with the 6 new kittens that were just born. :)

Norah loved the kitty. And the kitty loved her. (I'm pretty sure kitty's name is Ebony....but I'm not sure..)

However, the kitty was NOT a fan of Olivia:

HAHAHA.

The birthday girls. Jenn, Grace, Me :)

The girls always have so much fun jumping on the trampoline.

This one of Abbie cracks me up!

Eden loves the tramp too! :)

We decided since all 8 shellenberger grandkids were together we should get a picture. So, just ignore the fact that we decided to do this after everyone had eaten and all the children look like garbage dwellers. :)

Yes, all girls. Eventually there has to be a boy, right?!

(Haley and Eden, Bella, Olivia, Norah, Abbie and Eva, & Grace)



Wow.

Clearly I suck at updating this thing! I really need to get in a better habit of it. Maybe once fall and winter come I'll have more time to update. Summer is just so busy! But, I'm not complaining. It's been awesome. We've been to the cabin a few times (which is so fabulous everytime!). One of those trips was while Great grandma smith and uncle Ronnie were here. We look forward to their visit every summer! The girls all love them both to pieces.

Brian and the girls and I went up to the cabin last weekend since all of the other shellenberger's were out of town for family reunions. Our first night our friends Elyse and Brandon (and their 2 kids) went along with us. It was alot of fun. We stayed up way to late on friday night playing cards and laughing. They left after dinner (and a fun four wheeler ride in a storm!) on saturday. It was nice to put the kids to bed and just spend that evening with a glass of wine, cards, and my hubby. I have learned that I start off the game so fabulous and then the further it goes and the more my glass of wine disappears, the worse I start playing. haha. :)

The next morning we got up and ate breakfast and then loaded the girls onto the four wheelers (Liv with me and Norah with Bri) and drove up to the lookout point. Norah loves the fourwheeler. But not quite as much as her sister! :) The hillside was covered in flowers and was so gorgeous. It was the perfect photo spot....even if we were all covered in dirt. :)

Olivia is getting so big. In fact, there is less than a month now until she starts school! I thought I was ready, but then when I found that out.....this mommy had a slight panic attack. Maybe I'm not ready!? She is ready though. She's been busy practicing writing all of her letters and counting everything she see's. She's also started spelling this week. She started spelling simple words such as 'mom' and 'cat'. And is now spelling things like "pool" and "stool". So proud of her! She's going to do great at school! As long as she can sit still....

Norah turned 18 months on the 10th. I'm in denial. A year and half already? We're officially closer to 2 than we are to 1! How did this happen? She's definitely a toddler and not a baby anymore. I'm holding on tightly to all things baby but there's not much to hold onto. She is starting to talk a little more. Most of it is just things that we understand and sounds like jibberish to everyone else. haha. For example, she now says "What are you doing?!" but to you it would sound like "whaaa errr dooo neeee?" :) She LOVES to color. Probably because her sister always has paper and a marker in her hand. Though, we have changed to colored pencils since Norah devoured a blue marker last week. Girl has mastered the bottom lip. She is very unlike Olivia at this age. Liv did everything she could to push the limits and could care less when she got in trouble. Norah however, strives to behave and all it takes is a raised voice and her heart sinks and that lip comes out quivering. I'm such a sucker. It gets me everytime! She adores her sister more than anything. One of my favorite things is when she comes in and asks for a snack and after I give it to her she says "Sissy?" and won't walk away until I give her one to take to her sister too. :)

Brian and I are doing amazing. We went through the hardest trial of our marriage recently but it's so so amazing to see God working! Not even 'on the other side of it'....but even during it, I could see Him working. Our marriage has truelly been strengthened. We have been forced to talk about 'issues' that we previously had just swept under the rug. Sometimes you dont talk about things because you 'don't want to hurt her/his feelings'. But in the long run, that is what you end out doing. You have to be willing to talk about everything in marriage.....the good, bad, and ugly. We learned that my 'love language' is not his, and vice-versa. We are also making sure to check in with eachother on a daily basis. It's been so good. I have to give all the credit to keeping God in the middle of our marriage. Without Him, we'd probably be in the statistics category of divorced couples.

I have learned a lot lately. About my marriage, about myself, about my faith, about my friends. It's humbling to see how some people will drop everything to surround you with love when you least deserve it...but most definitely need it. And saddening to see those who do the opposite. One of the best things I have learned is that my husband, my children, and my God are all that I need. <3

Another month older.

Our little girl is 16 months today!

{23 pounds 12 ounces}

Where does the time go? She's definitely losing signs of 'baby' and becoming more and more of a sweet little toddler.

Actually, as I type about how sweet she is, she's sitting on my lap sobbing because Olivia won"t share her slinky. Oh, the drama!

Normally, her and her sister get along so well. Olivia loves her sister and loves taking care of her. She definitely plays "mom" to her. Sometimes a little to much. Norah usually doesn't mind though. She adores her. If Olivia is gone, Norah walks around saying "Sissy? Sissy?" When Olivia was sick puking last week, Norah would sit outside the bathroom door crying because she wanted to be with her. When she was with her, she'd rub her back for her while she cried. How sweet is this girl? Seriously.

She's really developing her own little personality these days. Since getting tubes she has finally started saying more words. She still has a short list compared to what her sister was saying at this age but it is growing on a weekly basis. Sometimes I swear it's on a daily basis! She says all the basics: mama and dada (though she usually just calls us 'mom' and 'dad' which cracks me up), sissy, dow (down), done, ba (bath), num nums, dee (drink), nigh nigh, sit dowwww (sit down), and her new one that she says that makes me laugh is "ohhhhh mannnnn!"

She's super smart. She runs and grabs the dust pan for me when I sweep, and when she's hungry she goes to her high chair and says "num num?" and then while I'm setting her highchair up she goes and gets the tray out for me. I love how she does things on command. If you ask her to go throw her diaper away, she does. Ask her to go get a diaper from her bedroom, she does. My favorite thing is her nap/bedtime routine. Once she see's her milk come out of the microwave and I say "You ready for nigh nigh?" She runs down the hall to her bedroom, pushes the button to turn on her fan, and crawls up into the chair I rock her in and waits for me. haha! I've never seen a kid who's always so happy to go to sleep!

This little girl has changed the dynamics of our family and blessed us in so many ways. I am so blessed to be able to hold her and say that I am her mommy. <3

Teething and colds and puking, Oh my!

I really feel like watching the Wizard of Oz today. To bad that won't even be happening. Norah suddenly came down with a cold yesterday. I have seriously never seen so much snot coming out of her nose. Awesome image in your head right now, right? Oh wait, it gets better. When I wasn't up with her all night, I was cleaning up the puke that Olivia was launching all night long. Seriously, nights like that make me wanna take my own uterus out. Okay, not really. Another baby would definitely be welcome in this house, but wooh, last night was really lame!

On top of having a cold, poor miss Norah is teething. She only has 4 teeth right now but soon (hopefully sooner rather than later) she'll go from 4 teeth to 8 teeth. She's getting 4 newbies on top! She's quite the miserable little lady, which in turn has made her put on a giant pair of grumpy pants.

While the kids are mildly contained, I'm sitting at the table with a book infront of me. I wish it was "The Lucky One". But, no no, it's even better than that. It's called the book of giant medical bills. Yee-haw!! Another thing that makes me remove a body part. Paying bills make me wanna poke my eyeballs out.

This is sort of a violent post. Maybe I should rate it PG13 or something. Warn someone.

I do have some super fun projects coming up. When our house is normal. Or, healthy anyways. I doubt we'll ever be normal. I printed a 20x30 image of Olivia and Norah for their room (drooool) and I have some projects for my own room that I can't wait to do too! Also, next week, the girls and my mom and I are all driving to Kennewick for a few days to visit my fabulous friend, Annelee, and her family. I'm going to be doing their family pictures and I can't wait! :)

Motherly duties call...

Finding the beauty

I have struggled my whole life with being self conscious. In my teen years I dealt with eating disorders multiple times. Now, as an adult, and a mother of 2, I struggle with it just as much as I did in highschool. Maybe even more.

This month, I have had three conversations with my five year old daughter about calories and fat because of things that she has heard, and repeated. Yes, some things she heard in her own home, from her mother's mouth. Others she has heard from neighbor girls or friends. I know that I can't protect her from what she hears outside of my home, but I can help prepare her on how to love herself no matter what other's say. It makes me so sad that I'm already having these kinds of conversations with her at this age. I thought I had a few more years to prepare for this!?

How can I teach my daughter how to love herself how she is, because that is how God made her....when I struggle with it on a daily basis? I have learned on numerous occasions that being a parent isn't just teaching your child. It (more times than not) is your child teaching YOU as well. 

God tells us that we should "love our neighbors as ourself" (Matthew 22:39). How exactly are we supposed to love ourself? Just the inside? We can't love what's on the inside if we don't love what's on the outside. Likewise, we can't love what's on the outside if we don't love what's on the inside. Being a mom has made my struggle even harder because heaven knows, there's so much to be unhappy with. The extra baggage, the stretch marks. But I'm starting to learn to be happy with it because it is what God made my body to do. My body wasn't made just to walk around and look pretty. My body was made to carry babies. And I have carried two amazing babies for (a total of) 18 months. That extra baggage and those stretch marks are proof of what I've done. Of what my body did. They teach me to be proud. They remind me what my job is and how I need to grow and be better at it on a daily basis.

I'm so excited to teach my daughter about what her body is capable of. About all the amazing parts and pieces that God created so she can one day make a baby and let life grow inside of her, and to raise up her daughter (or son) (but we'll go with daughter since this family can't produce boys) to be just as amazing as she is.   I love seeing God use my daughters to help me grow as a wife, mom, woman, and child of His. 

Changes.

Last thursday I got up at 4:30 a.m. (I will not tell you how scary I looked at that time of the morning) and took my littlest lady to the surgery center for tubes in her ears. She's had fluid on her poor little ears since december and has had multiple ear (and double ear) infections and it was time for tubes. Brian had Friday off and so he couldn't take thursday off which left me going alone. I went in my super-mommy cape though and everything went great! Olivia had tubes twice and so this wasn't my first rodeo. I did remember how long Liv cried after from anesthesia and that's what made me the most nervous. The nurse gave Norah some "loopy juice" and came back about 10 minutes later to get her. I handed her off and the nurse carried her back. Right before going through the doors, she looked at me with her drowsy little face and managed to lift her little hand up and waved bye bye. OH SNAP! Tears most definitely followed.

42 minute later (yes, 42) they came and got me and I went back to see my sweet girl. The nurse was holding her and she wasn't even crying. She saw me and said "mama! mama!" and snuggled right up with me. Let me just tell you how awesome this girl was. She NEVER cried. Okay, she cried once in the car and that was because she saw the hospital tag still on her ankle and was trying to rip it off. haha.

Since getting the tubes, she's been even happier than her normal happy self. And her words are starting to spew out of her mouth. Just since last week she's now added "papa" and "mommy" (sounds more like meh-mee). Why yes, I do melt into a giant puddle everytime she says it. How did you know?

Olivia is getting ready to go on a new big journey herself! Yesterday I picked up the packet from our church for Kindergarten! I can't believe it's time for that already! We've prayed, and decided to put her in school at our church. We want what is best for her and want her in a safe enviroment and in a place where she's free to pray, and talk about Jesus. I'm not sure at all where the money is going to come from, but I know that God will provide! I can't wait to see how He blesses.

And something totally un-kid related and completely random: These 2 video's have been on repeat in my house all week. Literally. You might not be my friend anymore if you seen how many times I have played them.

I hope Phillip wins! But then colton sings and I hope he wins. I wonder if they could both win? haha. Good thing I don't have to decide!

And this is just a fabulous cover of the song. The bearded guy is probably the coolest dude, ever. And I just saw that they have bearded guy shirts. Seriously? Sign.me.up!

Easter.

We had a great Easter weekend! The weather was FABULOUS and we spent alot of time outside. Saturday we did things around the house while the girls played out in the backyard. Little miss Norah is much like her sister and loooves being outside. She loved having the freedom of going in and out through the slideing door as she pleased. Saturday night we decided to grill and we made Ash's chicken. It.was.amazing! Ashley is my husbands sister from phoenix who is an awesome cook. She should really start a blog and share some of her recipes! (hint hint!)  Eh hem. Anyways. The chicken was amazing (didn't I say that once?) and we steamed broccoli on the side. I decided to give my broccoli some zing and squeezed a little bit of fresh lemon on top and then sprinkled it with kosher salt. Holy yum! I ate alot. And I regretted it later.

Saturday Olivia and I also made some Bunny Bait (which was mentioned in the previous post) and it was just as good as ever. It's so addicting. And I'm sure the possibilities are endless. I am sure I'll be making it for birthdays and other holidays now. I'm already planning for Santa Bait. haha. Come on, tell me this doesn't look fabulous??

On Easter I thought we were going to be celebrating alone, but my MIL and FIL came back from their little trip on saturday night and so we spent the day with them. I had to work in the nursery at church so I missed out on the service which really sucked, but it's okay because someone's gotta watch all those cute little kiddo's so it might as well be me. :)

(How adorable are they?)

After church we had lunch and then played some cards. (Brian and I got smoked by the older's TWICE. How does that happen? Next time we'll have to play Twister. I bet we'll win then!) I took dessert and let me just tell you how stinking amazing it was! There's 2 pieces left in my fridge and I'm currently deciding if I should share with my hubby when he gets home or eat them both really really fast. I could always blame the missing piece on Wally (my mom's dog who we are dog sitting). haha. Ok, Ok. I'll share.

This was super easy and suuuuuuuuper tasty. The crust is just crushed pretzels (a little-ish) butter and sugar. And the center is cream cheese and cool whip mixed (little more sugar). And the top layer is raspberry jello and raspberries. SO good. It says to set for 4 hours but I just made it the night before and let it set over night. In the fridge of course. :) I figured I should throw that out there so people don't go making themselves sick from food poisoning or something.

Olivia and Norah did a little easter egg hunt in the backyard. They had a blast and the 70* weather was fantasticccc!

Well, I have 2 small monsters to feed and get ready for bed and then I have a date with my couch and The Voice while I wait for my hubby to get home. I hate these late nights. :( I'm so blessed to have a husband who works so hard for us. <3

Have a great week and I hope God's blessings pour out on each of you!