New week...

Hey friends, are you there?  I say this every time I start to write; how crazy it's been and tons of excuses.  Not today, we are going to jump in!

I can't believe the election is over!  I'm relieved because, honestly, I was just sick about the whole thing.  Yesterday felt sorta like 9/12... the day after, you knew s*%t was about to hit the fan, that it was going to get ugly, fast (and wasn't it fitting that it was so cloudy yesterday!).  I had higher hopes for our people.  I thought another candidate was going to win.  I thought he was going to be a better leader... do they still teach American history in school?  Are they still teaching why we left England and about a king?  Not THE KING, but the king that was just a nightmare?  If so, then I think that we the people would have voted differently.  I have other opinions about why we re-elected the president, but that is neither here nor there and we all know I have not perfected the art of controversy.  So for the sake of a fire storm, I will keep my political jokes and controversial opinions to my sister.

The Lord sweetly reminded me on Wednesday that ultimately He is the ruler and only He can restore this country, that we are His people and He will not forget to take care of us.  Oh Sunday my husband's sweet best friend did this, please watch it and cry (okay, ugly cry) while watch it...

Let the trumpets of mercy blow... rise you sleeping lions!

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/52873052?badge=0" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> href
="http://vimeo.com/52873052">God of This City feat. Chris Russo from href="http://vimeo.com/seacoastchurch">Seacoast Church on href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo.
Happy Thursday!

Time.

I am alive.  I really am.  I have been really busy and life is happening at a rate I cannot comprehend.  I don't have any photos to share today or funny stories of my babes - well, I do, but most of you know me in real life and have already heard the bedroom story that had Frank hysterical.

I've blog before that we have been through and are going through an extremely difficult season right now and the last thing on my list right now is write about how I feel.  And if I really honest, I don't know how I feel right now, numb?  emotionally disconnected?

This isn't a poor me, or please feel sorry for me, but rather real life happened real quick and it hasn't been pretty.  I try to keep it real around here, but I need to have my privacy about something, right?

The girls turned 1 and 2 last month.  It is crazy how fast this is last year has gone by and the ups and the downs.  How I feel like I blinked and missed EK's babyhood.  Her newness.  Now I have an almost walker who is strong willed, biting and laughing about it {Lord, please help me!}.  I have a toddler with more opinions than anyone I know and INSISTS on having coffee in the morning while she watches Curious George- I'm not kidding.

Sleep.

People have asked me over and over what we did/do for our girls to be such good sleepers.  Here it is:

Nothing.

For the amount that we put in, should not yield what we have.

But I will tell you what we did.

First, we swaddled.  Tight.  I mean TIGHT.  My girls looked like little burritos with heads sticking out.  I'm not kidding.

Paci's.  Some say do it some say don't.  We did for both girls.  AB loved her all the time.  EK used it for it's purpose and would spit it out.  We just got rid of them a few months ago.

Eat, wake, sleep.  We were given strong advice of the eat, wake, sleep routine from baby wise.  So I/we would feed them as soon as they woke up (think breakfast) we would have wake time with them (play, bath, change diaper) and then nap.  Repeat.

Bedtime routine.  When they were little (newborn, not sleeping through the night), we still did a bed time routine.  We decided that 8pm would be bedtime and 8am would be our wake time.   Before then, around 7 or so, we would do a feeding, give them a bath, read a story and have prayer time as a family.  So anytime that they would wake up between 8 and 8, we would do what baby wise calls a "dream feed".  It's a no non-sense feed.  No snuggling, no eye contact - just feeding and back to bed.  Some may say, you don't want to snuggle your baby?  You don't want to soak up this time?  No.  For me, there is 12 other hours in the day to do that.  In addition, I'm a monster when I'm sleep deprived.  I'm super emotional, short tempered and mean.  My other family members do not need to suffer.

Also, for 6 weeks, I would feed around the clock, working toward a 3 hour schedule.  Meaning, of course I'll feed my child when they are hungry, but trying to get them eating every 3 hours so that I can nap, play with the other child, take a nap myself, shower, sit and stare at the wall do other things.  After 6 weeks, they can sleep up to 6 hours at night without a feeding (literally their bodies can do it).  So when we put them down for bedtime at 8pm, I will do another dream feed at 10 or 11pm and then let them sleep until 4 or 5am.  Then at week 7, make it 7 hours.  Then 8 weeks, 8 hours.  And work our way to 12 hour routine.  We would also work out of doing the dream feed.  Both girls made it clear they were not interested in it anymore.  Now if they wake up during the night when I want them to be sleeping, I'll wait a few minutes to see if they will go back to sleep.  I made the mistake one time of going in when AB was crying.  She was not awake, but rather changing sleep cycles and was just fussy.  I woke up her and scared her out of her little mind.  Oops.  I for sure gave her extra snuggles that night :)  If they don't go back down, then I would go in and tuck them back in, maybe they came out of their swaddle or wanted the paci back in.  If they would continue to protest, then I would feed them and put them back to bed.

Grace.  Give yourself some grace.  They do not come out of the womb knowing the difference between day and night, you need to teach them.  Give yourself some grace. Your tired, hormonal, and need some coffee but if you are like me your so worried about your milk supply that you don't.  Have a cup and get over it.  At least you can have an attitude adjustment.

Patience.  It did take some time and a whole lot of patience.  But we got them sleeping.

Do they still wake up at night, yeah.  Do they still protest, sometimes.

But I hope that this helps someone.

She's 1!!

Happy Birthday Emma Kate!

I can not believe that you are one!  Where has this last year gone?  You bring so much joy to our family.  Even birthing you was easy (I'm not kidding- you practically walked out!).  I just can't imagine our family without you!  You are the highlights of conversation in the car, you are the one that gets "hushed" more than anyone (by AB of course), you are the life of the party and an absolute joy.

Our first photo together.  Look how sweet you were!

AB loves you so much!  Until like a week ago, you guys got along so well.  Mostly because you take her toys, get in her space and yell at her.  She doesn't like it.  Ha!  She has fed you, burped you, held you and even tried to nurse you!

She is your best friend.  I will teach you to fight for each other, to stand up for each other.  You two have something that no one else in this world has, you have a bond that is so close that no one will seperate.  

Meeting for the first time.

Sweet girl, I just can not believe what a year has given us.  You overcame your acid reflux like a champ, you sucked me dry nursing and have loved fiercely this year.  You love to snuggle, and I don't mind one bit.  You loved to nurse and I wish so baldy that I worked harder to do it longer.  You love to be held, I think mostly so you can see more of what is going on.  You HATE to be left out.  You HATE that you can't walk yet and get really frustrated.  You were the same way before you started to crawl.

  

You yell at me all the time.  You do it when you are happy, when you are mad, when you just need attention.  I really don't mind and come to appreciate our form of communication.  I love that when you are on a mission and crawling to get here, you "bulldoze" over anything in your way to get there.

I absolutely love this photo of you!

 EK, you love your daddy!  When he gets home you book it to the door to meet him.  If you are in your highchair, you will yell at him until he comes over to kiss you.  You love for him to hold you and play with you.  You don't take your eyes off him if he is near.  When he sis playing with AB, you just stare and have a wild look if your eye.
Don't worry, the feeling is mutual.  You know when daddy looks at you and this is done with dinner?  It's because he is twitterpated.  It means, he is so in love with you that he loses his appetite.  You'll understand one day.  He is so smitten by your cuteness, your sweetness, your ability to belly laugh and your sense of humor. He loves that you don't push him away or sass him.

snuggle time

 You are the biggest goof ball of a baby!!!  Look at you!  You are the life of the party and never met a stranger.  

Just in the last few weeks that it has hit me how big you are!  The other week, we went to the water park for a play date.  You sat there in chair eating your snack, drinking your water and asking me for more!  I refrained from tearing up.  I guess in my mind, I still think that you are an infant that needs to eat every 3 hours.  You have also started feeding yourself your meals in the last few weeks.  YOU ARE SO MESSY!  Just the other day i was on my hands and knees at a restaurant cleaning up under your high chair it was so bad!

That is cinnamon toast in your hand.  

You are so wiggly, this is how we have to bath you.

 Baby dedication:

You and me babe with a photo bomb by aunt em!

Baby dedication May 2012

I love you sweet girl!  I can not wait for this next year to watch you grow into a toddler.  I can not wait to see you start talking and walking.  I cannot wait to see how your little personality will come out more with time.  

Sweet one, I pray everyday that you will love our Maker early.  I pray that you will run as hard as you can after Him.  I pray that you will have a kind and compassionate heart and you will chase your hopes and dreams.  I love you so much sweet girl!

Happy Birthday baby!

Love,

Momma

Ah, sorry friends.  I hope that you are still there.  If not, then I understand.  

There has been so much going on!!  So do you remember when I said that we have some things on the horizon and I didn't have permission to share yet?  Well, I do now :)

Here is what is going on:

Frank got the 2nd year intership and is now on staff at the best church in the world! seacoast.  I am so proud of him!

He also got all his ducks in order (all by himself), got his GI bill activated, registered at school and started.  He was accepted to the Citadel and will hopefully start there in the next few semesters.  

I'm so so proud of him and he's finally doing what he loves and going to school for something that he finds interesting and just "gets".

So this leaves us ladies home and missing him lots.  Works all day, comes home and scarfs dinner down and then heads to night school.

If you were thinking babies:  No.  My plate is so beyond full that we don't need to add to it right now.  

Last week was crazy!

EK woke up the other morning and her eye was SO swollen.  Like the bridge of her nose wasn't there anymore.  

I took her to the Dr. and they said to just watch it.  I dropped her off at a friends house so Frank and I could have a meeting with no kids.  When she woke up from her nap it was worst!!  The swelling was going to the other side of her nose.  Long story short, I ended up taking her to urgant care at like 8 that night.  They were worried about cellulitis and gave her some meds.  The next morning she looked better and then the next day it was back to normal.

The day after all of this, the girls and I went to charlotte to visit my parents.  No reason but to just visit.  The girls always get spoiled out of their little minds and I enjoy just hanging out and drinking a beer with my dad in his office.

Visiting Aunt tootie for lunch.

I love this photo of them.  He walks so slow with her.  Just like he did when I was little.  He tells her what all the things are around her and to look for traffic.  You can really see, but she is holding his index finger and then he wrapped his other fingers around her hand.  He use to do this to me when I was little and it made me miss him then.

The house that I grew up in.

When you go to your grandparents, your aunt makes you dinner and you eat it infront of the TV- watching the backyardagins; Duh.

This always happens.  I get my car cleaned and they pull it off the line for extra extra vaccuuming and cleaning.  I'm sorry and I hope my ridiculous tip showed that i know how bad it was.  One friend said "you could feed a whole African tribe with all the crackers that were in there."

At your grandparents you pick tomatoes off the vine and eat them without washing them.  Thankfully they grow organic.

And grandmother (her great grandmother) has a love affair with frappachino's and is a sucker that won't say "no".  Lucky girl, I was drooling.

We made it back to Charleston just in time for our friends suprise 30th birthday.  EK helped herself to the left over cupcakes she kept finding.

Then Carson (my youngest sister, also know at Tootie) came with her hubby for a quick visit and a wedding.  It was so nice to have them and she makes my life easier.  AB is in love with her and EK would not flirting with her uncle.  Uncle Will likes to "pick" on my girls like their daddy does.  After they gave EK a lemon and a lime they then stuck crayons in her hair.  She thought it was a hoot.

I hope that you are enjoying your labor day, yankee holiday.  We should be pool crashing somewhere and relaxing.  Last years labor day I cleaned for 1/2 of the day and then went into labor.  How fitting :)  

Upcoming events in our home:

EK's birthday

AB's birthday

Girls weekend trip (I'm jumping up and down with joy!)

Are you there?

Sorry for my lack of attendance lately.  I told you how I needed to regroup.  I told you that my sister was in town.  I told you that it's been super stressful around here lately.  But have I told you that when I'm stressed or really sad I retreat?  I do.  I become anti-social.  I need to just hide and I ugly cry in the shower take lots of showers.

Well, if you are still there, I thought this might be a fun way to jump start back in the game.  I've seen it done a few times...

Do you have a question that you want me to answer?  Do you want to know my thoughts on something?  

Go ahead!

No question is too private, no question is out of bounds.  Let's have it!!

Love,

Abbey

4 years and 4 lessons

Today, 4 years ago- in the POURING rain, Frank and I put of our super fancy clothes and pledged to each other to love each other, cherish each other and to respect each other for the rest of our lives.  That was cute.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into nor did I understand (do I still?!?) what I was promising.

So here are my top 4 lessons learned in my 4 short years of marriage:

1.  Fight naked.  Yes, do it.  When it gets nasty, get naked.  It usually makes the argument seem so silly and I know for sure I"m less likely to get verbally nasty when I'm physically so vulnerable to my mate.

2.  Feed your man well and first.  When you need something, need to talk about something or just need his ear, he will more than likely be more attentive when his belly is full and it was tasty.

3.  Have sex often.  It will make you more connected to each other AND it will make keeping his eyes just on you way easier.

4.  Date nights.  Don't talk about the kids or work or money.  There is other times  to do that, talk about your hopes, your dreams, what is going on in that heart of yours.  When we do, it's amazing what we can learn about each other!


So there you have it.  My top 4.  Am I perfect at this?  No way.  But I sure am trying to be great at it.  Frank- here's to the next 84 years... may we love hard, forgive often and laugh through the good times and the trials.