from before Christmas

Christmas Preparations: At church & at home

our little family Christmas

Thankfully, Santa always knows our travel plans so we're able to celebrate our little family Christmas early before we head out of town. Unfortunately, this year, Graham had a fever and the day after wecelebrated we found out he had the flu! Needless to say, he was quarantined in our bedroom for a few days (and nearly went crazy), we had as much Lysol around as I could get, and we got a care package from our neighbors.

Despite all of this, the girls had a WONDERFUL Christmas celebration! If only Santa had realized that Lydia really wanted a "baby" doll and not one that matched her sister and that she'd really want her own guitar, not realizing that the awesome blocks were her big gift. Oy. Maybe that Santa will get things perfect eventually.

all the extras

This blog is overwhelming when you're SO VERY BEHIND.

With the ridiculous belief that we might actually do something like print this blog some day, we (make that I, Ashley) are still posting and trying to keep up. Instagram really is taking the life out of this blog, but that's a post for another day. In the meantime, some more photos from the holidays ...

Bedtime fears

Lately, as EB has been just about to drift off to sleep, she becomes overwhelmed with fears about the house burning down, losing me, her daddy, and her sister, losing everything she has, and about bad people getting into the house and keeping us out of her room so we can't protect her. Tonight, as her eyes were drifting closed, she said, "I don't know why it's this time every night I start to get scared."

I tried to calm her fears saying a fire had never happened to me or lots of other people I know and then explaining insurance and that we could buy back all our things. She responded by saying all our things are really old and you can't buy things like them. I knew she'd probably figure that out but thought it was worth a try. 

Finally, I told her to pretend all her fears and anxiety were going from her brain all the way to her hand and from her hand to mine. That I'd take them for her. She said she didn't want me to worry. So I told her I'd pray about them and then God would take them. 

She said she felt better having Lydia in her room and not being alone but she was worried L wouldn't really know what to do if something bad happened, that she felt better with an adult in the room. So, I just rested beside her, and she held my hand as she fell asleep. That brilliant little brain of hers is such a blessing and burden at the same time. 

No more paci, sort of

First, I should say that this little girl is addicted. ADDICTED to her "ba-ba."

We have been talking to Lydia for what seems like years but has only been months about when she'll be ready to trade in her paci for a toy at Target and finally be done with it for good. This system worked really well with EB, and we were confident it would work again.

The first night we were back in town, she announced at Chick-fil-A that she was ready to trade in her paci's. I think Graham heard choirs singing out and trumpets blaring at this announcement. So, we ended up at Target right after dinner where Lydia finally selected the perfect baby ...

... meet baby doll Margaret Clare Bodie.

She was so proud of herself and handed the cashier her paci to "pay for" her new toy. We'd been talking it up so much and were marveling at our good parenting on the way out. In the car, Graham was telling her how proud he was and asked her if she thought it would be hard to go to sleep that night without her ba-ba, to which she responded sincerely,

"I have more ba-ba's at home."

Oh, parenting fail. We just hadn't paid attention to the fact that EB had gotten down to only one since paci for a while before trading her's in and Lydia literally still had 5. Graham held strong in insisted Lydia knew what she had done when she traded it in. There was A LOT of screaming and crying that night for a paci. We both had a nagging feeling that she really thought she was trading in just one paci for one toy -- what a racket that would be!

So, we told her the next day if she wasn't ready she could have one ba-ba but Margaret Clare would have to go in the attic. She dropped Margaret Clare like a hot potato.

Fast forward to 2015, she still LOVES her ba-ba's but has been saying she'll be ready "the next day after tomorrow" -- hopefully that day will actually come.