Thankful for...

A lot of things! We had a great Thanksgiving at Great Wolf Lodge. We were able to avoid any nasty weather for our travel time. We spent Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning hanging out in 80+ degrees, having fun in the waterpark. We also enjoyed a great feast of Turkey, roast beef and a chocolate fountain, among MANY other choices. A trip to the craft room and arcade rounded out our stay. I think this is one tradition we will continue...Regan already asked on the way home if we could come back next year!!

A little about Sage...

Sage will be 21 months this Friday and it is hard for me to believe she is almost two!! She is developing quite the personality and this is an age that I just love.

Her vocabulary is really starting to expand! I don't quite know how to type things the say SHE says them, but her words right now include: apple, juice, water, ice, eyes, button (as in belly), nose, banana, cracker, cookie, grapes, sticker, kitty, OW!, poo-poo, coat, cold, arf!, roar, elephant, giraffe, and just about any character on Sesame Street!!!...oh, and my favorite 'wuv ew!' (love you!)

Our daily routine starts with me waking her up, most days, at 8:00. When I walk in the room, she says 'dada', I reply "dada's at work", "bu ba", "yes, he's bye-bye", "NA-NA", "Regan is down stairs", "pooh", "no, pooh has to stay in bed", "baba", "no blankey stays in bed too!",she clucks to tell me her drink is gone, "yes, we will get more drink downstairs", I change her diaper and we head down for breakfast.

Once we are downstairs, she climbs in her chair and attempts to buckle herself in. If she can't get her buckles done, she voices her displeasure, and there is no eating without buckling in...she is a little OCD about this!! We have our breakfast, usually cereal, and go about our day.

When bedtime comes, it is time for 'caca', some crackers. When snack is done, we pour a cup of milk and she willingly heads up the stairs. After diaper change and PJs, we lay her in bed, put pink pooh in one arm, blue pooh in the other, hand her her drink, cover her with her blankie and exchange "wuv ew's". It puts a smile on my face everytime!!

Her sleeping has been much better! She has not woke up and cried extensively for over a month. When I hear her wake now, she wimpers and stirs a little, but seems to know how to put herself back to sleep now.

Despite the drama that she can put on when being told 'NO' or when she doesn't get her way or when she has to share Mommy with sister, she is a good kid and this is a fun age. Her smile can still light up a room and melt your heart. She can make even the grumpiest mommy laugh and smile when she covers her eyes and pretends to count as the 'seeker' in her game of hide and seek.

What a blessing it is to be her mom!!

A great time!

Last night Regan had a great time trick or treating at AWANA. The church decided to not cancel AWANA because of Halloween, but rather hold Halloween with their own approach. They held trick or treating in the gym and had the kids say 'Jesus Loves Me', instead of 'trick or treat'. Regan was bouncing off the walls before even having an ounce of candy. She had decided weeks ago that she was going to be Belle. About an hour before we left, I mentioned that Eden was going to be Sleeping Beauty...thus, Regan also went as sleeping beauty. She couldn't wait to be 'twins' with her buddy!

I also had a great time last weekend. I was able to get away Friday night and all day Saturday with some friends and attend the Hearts at Home conference for moms. A couple of the girls spent the night while Paul took our girls camping at Double JJ. Saturday morning, I found out I had won a layout competition at Scrap Girls (with the layout above of Regan) and would get to be a 'designer for a day' (which also meant free stuff for me)! Sunday morning put the icing on the cake when I won a $10 gift card to Starbucks at Church!! It was a nice weekend for re-charging the batteries, per say!

Another neat thing happened with the competition at Scrap Girls. In my layout I submitted, my journaling subtly shared a little about my faith. Part of the 'prize' for winning is designing another layout that will be featured in an upcoming newsletter. When I found out I won, I was praying for an opportunity to share more of my faith in the next layout. On Sunday night, I started putting together what I thought was going to be my submission. I thought the layout was 'open ended', meaning I could do whatever I wanted. Monday, I received my instructions, including the 'theme' that I was supposed to follow. The theme was COMFORT, what gives you comfort, how do you comfort others, or anything related to comfort. I knew immediately what I wanted to scrap. My greatest comfort comes from God's word. What a GREAT opportunity to share my faith! So, on Saturday, November 10, this layout will be featured in the Scrap Girls newsletter. I have no idea how many people get the newsletter, but I know Scrap Girls community has over 9000 members. So I would guess it goes out to quite a few. I pray that someone is touched by what they see in that newsletter.




A funny side note: In some emails I have been exchanging with one of my Scrap Girl friends this week, she asked me "Do you think your engineering skills play a part in the planning & design of your LOs?" I told her how funny I thought that was and how she must not know many engineers! (they tend to be pretty BLACK/WHITE thinkers) I said "I think I can design layouts DESPITE my engineering background!!!!"

Hope your week is Blessed!!!