two girls

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

i was putting ella down for bed tonight and i always tell her that she's my most favoritest girl in the entire world and she's the most beautiful girl in the world. then i realized that once sadie gets here, i won't be able to say that to ella anymore. it's strange to think about loving TWO girls the same. i'm sure i'll get it all figured out the moment i meet sadie, but it's still strange to think about.

we went to subway tonight and ella ate an entire 6" ham sandwich, a bag of chips, and most of my tea. i think they must starve her at school.....

Dare I say it? (take 2)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Ella is potty trained! We just started day 5 in only panties and we've only had one accident, which was our fault. She was having so much fun playing and didn't want to stop and we didn't make her stop to go. We're still learning too! :) She is doing great! On Wednesday, Ella's teacher told us to send her in panties on Friday because she never has accidents at school and is always in the same pull-up that we left her in. So we did and she hasn't worn a diaper since (except for sleeping). She even made it through a $160 shopping trip to Wal-Mart! I'm so proud of my little girl. Every time I look at her, she looks so much older and more experienced. We are in a REALLY good phase right now. I could not be enjoying her more. She is so polite, she doesn't fight me about everything, and she spends hardly any time in time-out anymore. She's helpful and is always in a good mood. She's starting to become more outgoing and she says some ridiculously cute things. Last night, we all went for a walk and she looks up at us out of the blue and says "I love Spencer". He's a boy in her class. Last week, he busted her lip and this week she loves him. Spring is definitely in the air!

I started this post this morning and since then we went on a strawberry picking adventure at Froberg's in Alvin. She had so much fun. When we got to Froberg's, she had to pee so we asked one of the workers where the restroom was. She directed us to the porta-potty. Yay. A newly potty-trained-ish toddler in a porta-potty. Well, to put it nicely, it was absolutely disgusting in there. Ella immediately started freaking out because she did not want to tee tee in it. But i covered the entire room in toilet paper and she was screaming. But she peed! Once we were done, we walked out and she told me "Mommy, I didn't like that. It was scary." I know, baby, I know. So, five days in and she's already had to brave a porta-potty. Go Ella! And I should mention that I have over four pounds of delicious strawberries at my house. Anyone need some?!? Most of them already have a bite taken out of them. :)

We also went and had lunch with Josh at Joe's BBQ. Well, while Ella was eating her grilled cheese, she peed in her chair....and boy do I mean peed. I should have known better and asked her to go to the bathroom, but we were waiting on Josh to get there and I didn't want to leave all of the food on the table. Now I know what the priority is when it comes to lunch and potty training. Definitely potty. Our waitress got a good tip. :)


This series of pictures shows pretty much what went on during the strawberry picking:
This was our first attempt, but silly me didn't think to call ahead and ask if we could pick strawberries in the rain.....we ended up getting to go see Grandad at work instead!
(I just realized as I uploaded these pictures that I put her in the exact same shirt as last week when we tried the first time. Apparently I think that shirt is very strawberry-picking appropriate)
Finding just the right strawberry.


Inspecting her strawberry. She learned to pick the pretty red ones, not the green ones.



This is what happened when I told her she couldn't take a bite out of every strawberry she picked.



Showing off her loot!

park family update

well, it's coming up on summer and i've overcommitted myself...yet again! :) let's see, i have my 10 year class reunion coming up in August. so we've been busy planning since last summer and things are really starting to take shape. but that means there is a lot more that has to be done. i think back to the day i decided to run for senior class president and didn't realize that i would have more going on in my life in ten years than just high school. silly teenager....

my due date is may 18th. so i'm now seven months pregnant, and feeling every bit of it. i have easy pregnancies, though. i was talking to my sister in law, heather, the other day and we were talking about being pregnant. now she and tracy had difficult pregnancies! so i really can't complain too much. but i find myself running out of steam pretty quickly these days and it's getting harder for me to keep up with ella and all of the other things going on. and if i could just catch a full night's sleep...

we've also started our 4th on Main planning again. I think this year, because i'm pregnant, i've got a "work smarter, not harder" mindset kicking in. josh and i were talking about the 4th of july and i was really looking forward to it because we had such a great time with ella last year. he gently reminded me that this year will be muuuuuuuch different. he'll be on ella-duty while i'm on baby duty. i don't think that leaves me much time for actually helping out. i'm not sure a 6 week old can make it outside at the park all day and all evening for the fireworks. we'll see!


we are in the process of selling our house. we've gotten most of the hard work done. we fixed all of the minor repairs that needed fixing (well, most of them) and we're just waiting on a buyer. it is a little difficult to leave the house every morning as if someone were going to go in and look around at anytime. mostly difficult because a two year old lives there. although josh would say that i'm messier than the two year old. i'll still blame it on her :) i've NEVER made my bed since i moved out of my parents' house. so i've been having to make my bed the past two weeks every morning. i hate it. i don't think i'll ever like having to make my bed. i figured i'd sooner or later grow up and enjoy doing it, but that still hasn't happened!


josh is playing football these days. at the age where a lot of people retire, josh, dusty, and drew decided to START playing football! we went to our first game the other night and it was fun. ella made it until halftime before she wanted to go home to go to sleep. they lost pretty badly, but it was fun to go cheer them on.


OH, and I'm having a baby in MAY! I've got 55 days to go!!!!! I'm not ready....... :)


life is crazy, to say the least, right now. but i'm enjoying every moment of it. ella has gotten so fun lately. the other morning, she woke up at about 3am and i could hear her through the monitor singing where is thumbkin and abc's, twinkle, twinkle, pretty much every song she knows. and after about 20 minutes, she fell asleep again. it was wild, but so much fun to listen to in the middle of the night. i love her conversations she has with me and i love how smart she is. we talk about so much and she really just blows me away. i just wish she'd let me fix her hair........

a beautiful soul

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

My earthly mind cannot comprehend heaven and what Layla could possibly be doing at this very moment. My heart is heavy, yet I know that this remarkable little girl made such an impact for the kingdom of heaven. I wish it was a battle that she did not have to fight. It is so sad to know that she was so young and endured so much. There is a sense of relief because I know that she is now healed. She has shed her broken earthly body and gained something far greater than we could ever imagine. Yet I am so sad that her time on earth has come to an end. I never met her, but she turned my world upside down. Through all of my tears, I am so grateful for the lessons that she taught me as a mother and as a person. Thank you Layla Grace.

Please pray for the Marsh family.