A day at the lake

Yesterday we went to Peck Lake to visit Jacqui while she's in the state for a family reunion. It was great to see her, but I will keep this short because SHE informed me that my blogs are too long to read....*sheesh* Cailen had fun playing in the water, finding sticks and rubbing mud all over her legs. We thought she might enjoy a ride on the pontoon but the motor aspect of it was a bit too intense for her I guess. On the boat all Cailen did was wave her hands to say "all done!!" in sign language...

We got to eat and chat, and drink coffee on the dock...It was a nice day to just get the heck out of "dodge"...it seems life has me sitting still often. I'm so ready to move and yet day after day I sit in a living room that I sold (in my mind) last November...in a town where none of my friends live anymore! :( So it was like a mini vacation for us and neither baby cried on the long ride home which was nice.

Our babies got to meet before they grow up too fast....and as usual they were compared for size. It's official: two and a half month old Riley is bigger than eight month old Julia...but really what do we all expect out of a Miner child? Anyway, Ri is calling me now and I don't want this particular blog to be too long...It was good to see you Jacqui!

At the Doc's today

Riley had her wellness exam today. She's in the 95th percentile for everything. She is a whoppin' 14 pounds 15 ounces so by tomorrow she will most likely be an even 15 lbs at the rate she's growing!....She got her first set of vaccines today. My ears and my heart forgot the cry of my own little baby getting shots...Oh how awful it is to hear that cry! It was such a pained cry I had never heard Riley utter....*Ugh!*

Tonight she is very touchy. It's clear that her chubby little legs are in a lot of discomfort. I hope I can handle the potential emotional rollercoaster that I may ride with the two girls tonight. Normally daddy's been putting Cailen to bed so there isn't the "I'm tired-jealousy." Tonight, I have to put them both to bed. Anyway, Riley is otherwise healthy.

It may sound cruel, but if you saw the way she wakes up in the morning I just have to say that she's just "fat and happy." I used to work in the bakery at Hannaford and they have this thing called a proofer. They put the Italian bread dough in there so it will quickly rise in a warm and humid environment. When I go to change Ri out of her jammies in the morning her doughy little legs are so warm from being bundled up in her footed jammies all night and her chubby little warm legs remind me of the dough balls fresh out of the proofer, rising in the warm environment. Her face as she stretches and cracks the first smile of the day is priceless. She looks half confused and pleasantly elated that she is opening her eyes to another wonderful day. Her face pulls into her double chin and her dimples shine as she curls her dimpled knuckles into fists and stretches her arms up in the air. She looks so happy to wake up every morning. It is so cute. And being the warm gushy dough ball she is....I think she looks, as I said, fat and happy. I love her!

The Best Advice (from Pastor Jim)

Before we were married, we only met with Pastor Jim twice out of three premarital sessions. I remember him laughing as only Pastor Jim can, semi-jokingly asking us if we knew what we were getting ourselves into.

Beyond that, one thing has always remained in our minds and in our hearts from these two sessions with him....

From here on in, NEVER use the "D" word. Not even as a joke (ie. "If you don't start keeping the sheets tucked in the bed, I want a divorce! haha!").

Divorce is not an option, divorce is not a joke, it's not to be taken lightly, it's not what we signed up for, it's not in God's plan and it's not in our vocabulary.

I am proud to say that neither Kris nor I have ever used the "D" word when referring to our relationship or our marriage, NOT even as a joke.

I really feel that those words from Pastor Jim 'Never use the D word,' 'Erase it from your vocabulary' and 'Don't even use it as a joke!' were truly words of wisdom. Even a "d" joke could harm the one you love, and it could even cause a crack in the relationship and allow that idea to seep inside...

I've always appreciated that seed of wisdom and I thought I would share it.

Another note on this topic...Jeremy M. at work was talking to a customer (from high school who had a twin brother?) They were kinda catching up on where they were in life and the guy said that either he or his brother were getting or had gotten divorced (I can't remember.) I really appreciated Jeremy's take on the conversation. Essentially he said that divorce was like throwing away part of your life...Let's say you are 30 and you've been with your spouse in a relationship for 10 or 15 years...When you get divorced, you throw those years of your life away (33%-50% GONE!).

Those memories in your mind and even literally in photo albums become what to you? Worthless.

If you get remarried there's a part of your life and memories you have to tip toe over because it's not like your new spouse wants to hear about the good ol' days with your ex....It's so much better to try to get through the tough times, after all ...you chose your spouse to walk through life with you as one who loves you enough to be there for you through the tough times in life. Shouldn't you not only be there for your spouse through the tough times and even when your spouse IS the "tough time" you are going through? For better or for worse....Isn't it so much easier not to throw that part of your life and that friendship away. To work. To find counsel. To pray and believe for your relationship. To believe that the love that brought you together will be and can be resurrected even in the difficult times. To know that God gave you each other and He can get you through it! Maybe I've fleshed out more than what Jeremy said, but I want his gist to get across here...

I have heard of relationships with serious affairs on one side of the relationship. The spouse who was hurt-a man of faith...stayed with his wife. Worked through the pain and believed God for healing, and the marriage is still together and they are working through it. I'm sure they have hard times, but I believe they do love each other now...I have so much respect for this man! Not many spouses male or female would stay around and let a marriage heal after this....Talk about forgiveness! Talk about love and commitment! Talk about a marriage REALLY going through the fire!

I am seeing marriages today break up for SO much less than what this man went through. People are giving up on their marriages left and right and it's really been paining me to see. I have stayed awake an night praying for relationships that I know of that are being given up on. I have shed tears for these people! I've heard so many people say "we are great friends when we are not together." If only people could remember their vows and work at their relationship. I believe people who were friends before and during marriage, and while separated can IF THEY WORK AT IT get along in their marriage as well. I don't want to sound like I'm judging anyone, I'm not. I just wish we as a society and especially as Christians would stop giving up on our marriages...

When I wish people a happy anniversary these days I mean it hard core because I know for some it takes work, it's a battle and they made it made it where other have "feared to tread!" (they've made through that time line of "'til death do we part").

If the man I mentioned earlier can love his wife and reconcile through the worst of marriage hardships, how can so many people throw away so much for so little?

I am sorry, I have to vent this because my heart has been very, very heavy burdened for some people lately and I really wanted to share at least those seeds of wisdom from Pastor Jim. The rest may seem like ramblings but I needed to get it all out and YOU, reader, are my outlet. Thanks for stopping by! I love you all and pray God's covering and blessing over your household.

My wish for my reader: Married friends of mine, maybe even separated friends of mine and those who may marry in the future, please delete the "d" word from your vocabulary now. Don't wait. Do not let it enter your relationship, your heart or your mouth. Tell your spouse.

And tell them you love them for better or for worse would ya?

(I sincerely hope this didn't sound pious, that was not my intention.)

A creative little girl and a proud mommy

I love to watch Cailen make new friends (since she was so attached to me for so long). She really loves meeting new children and she has finally started to say "hi" and wave to her peers instead of reserving the greeting for only her baby sister. She even tried to read a book to her new friend Haley this weekend!

I love that when Haley visited us this weekend, Cailen squealed and ran to the toy room hoping she would follow her and when she did, Cailen took a toy off of the shelf and handed it to the girl as if to say "welcome to my toy room, please play with my toys, I would love to share them with you!" As you can see in the picture, she even was okay with Haley carrying around her baby doll for her (the baby doll is VERY important to Cailen).

I love how she pretends with her baby doll. She reads her books, lays her down and rubs her back while singing a soft song to her, she diapers her (and even wants diaper cream!), feeds her, sits her up in a chair at her table, talks to her, etc...

I love that if she can't find her baby doll she will call around the house for her "Baby!...Baaaby?...Baby!?" and if she realizes we left her upstairs she will sit at the bottom of the stairs calling her "Baby!" I don't know if she thinks baby will walk down by herself or if she just hopes we will come and take her to get the baby...I've never bought a gate for my stairs and she doesn't abuse the fact that the stairs are open for the walking!

I love to see her learn to talk in conjunction with learning letters and colors...She'll pick up her letter Y and say "Why!" or the letter B and exclaim "BEE!" She knows almost all the letters now, and can say/identify simultaneously probably 8-10 of them. She also knows shapes and can say "heart" and "stars" when identifying them. Today she picked up something white and said "white!" the other day she picked up something "orange" and said "ARNGE!" She also can identify the number eight and nine and say them...and she's picking up on most of the numbers too. I am so excited about all this and I feel like maybe I'm doing okay as a stay at home mom :)

I also love the fact that she's still blowing on her finger and toe nails three days after she had them polished! It's so cute.

I love how she's so into her routine of having daddy put her to bed that she's finally okay and independently saying "Dye!" ("bye") and offering me a kiss goodnight as she gets her baby and drinkie and follows daddy up the stairs...night time was very hard for us once Riley and Cailen both needed ME at the bed time hour.

I love that Cailen was watching a prince and princess cartoon ball room dance and she turned to me and took my hand and had me stand up to dance with her.

I love how we will march around the house together, and when I say "jump!" she will bend her knees-pop up- and flap her arms like a baby bird attempting to leave the nest long before it is able, when I say "kick your feet!" she'll give it a try and then either hold my hand or grab onto something as she wants to keep kicking her feet but is all too aware that she is going to tip over any second.

I love the fact that she diligently sings her alphabet all day long even though she's still got a lot of polishing to do. Generally it sounds like this "Eh, Bee, Ee, Dee, EEe, Ef, Gee, Nowaknowmah EEe-Ef-Gee!" or "Eh, Bee, EE, Dee, EEe, Ef, Gee! Do wah, doo wah, eee, ef, gee." When she's bored of the song or inspired by her love of her family the song will turn turn into the same tune but contain a string of mommy, daddy, baby, duckie, etc..

I love the fact that when I take her to the park and let her run around, if I think she's getting too far from me, I love the fact that she listens to me and comes right back to me.

I love the fact that she excessively uses her sign for "please" even if she doesn't say it yet, though I think she said it once appropriately. I can't wait to see if all the signing of "please" will translate to frequent use of it when she can talk. Let's hope so.

I love the fact that she knows her colors because I taught her things like "Look this is RED, it's the same color as elmo!" or "Hey this is blue like Cookie Monster." Now her name for Elmo is "E" so when she sees something red she says "E!" and bobs her head like she does to his Elmo's world theme song...or if she sees something blue she says "Cookie!" She has tried to say red though, it's something like "Retdch!"

I love the fact that the other night I said "Do you know that you are mommy's beauty?" and she confidently said "uh huh."

Finally, I love the fact that I just proof read this to her and she had to go get her baby, blow on her nails, and she sang the "EFG's" with me while I was reading this to her! :) Silly girl.

I never thought I would love being a mom as much as I do. Now, obviously we all have our moments and some days there are many "moments" but it's all so worth it in the end. It's just so amazing to watch their personalities, brains, faces, hearts, etc develop. I can't tell you all how much I love my babies...I am SO blessed! For anyone with a child of their own...You probably understand. A love for your child, and the love they have for you is really insanely profound.

Mommy and her little ladies.

Our membership at the picture people was about to expire, so we hurried out and had a photo shoot. cailen wasn't into posing a whole lot and pics of the two girls together just did not work out so i had to hop in the photo. It was amazing that this one of the 3 of us came out as good as it did because, you can kind of see their cheerful moods were quickly fading after a long appointment..(Kris didn't dress for the occasion so he sat on the sidelines...) The bottom one of riley is similar to the one we got printed of her, but the one we actually got was a full body shot that we had cropped because the angle and the chubby legs looked bigger than her head almost :) ... otherwise, these are what we ended up with. there were other cute ones, but we only had so much cash-a-roo so we had to say goodbye to those little moments of life.... we have these sweet ones captured and framed, so it's good enough for me. :) actually, the first one I don't have yet, I have a free one to order online and i think that's the one i want, just because i like riley's relaxed facial expression....