Re-Do!!

Hailey's room needed a little sprucing up. When we moved her into her new room, we didn't take the time to paint or arrange the furniture in a way that made sense for her. The way the bed was placed didn't leave any room for her to play, so we cleared it out, painted a pale pink on the top of the wall and added some molding.We re-arranged and de-cluttered. It's so clean (for now) and has much better space for her to be in here.
We also took the attached mirror off of her dresser so it would fit under the window. This helped alleviate the need for a spot on one of the other walls.

In the end, she loves it! The colors on the wall look like Neapolitan ice cream! It's so perfect for my sweet little 3 1/2 year old, but will grow with her nicely... :)

Such a BOY!

So, my son has developed a little extra "shenanigans" over the past few weeks. His first new trick? Pulling his sister's hair. Not cool, you little stinker!! :)His next skill? Walking, you ask? Nope. But he sure can climb and get into stuff! And lastly - we discovered last night that he has quite strong legs. This was demonstrated while standing on the picnic table next to his sister when suddenly he kicked Hailey OFF said picnic table. She was not injured, but was quite disturbed that he would do this to her... :)

Well, kid...you sure do keep us all on our toes!

P.S. He took lots of unassisted steps tonight! Walking is RIGHT around the corner for this one and I am not sure we are ready for it!! :)

Punky Brewster called...

...she wants her "look" back... ;)

We recently sorted through several huge bags of hand-me-down clothes from some of our dear friends with 3 girls...needless to say, Hailey was THRILLED with a few treasures that really stuck out to her. Her favorite ensemble? Her Princess Aurora jeans, Tinkerbell t-shirt, sparkle shoes and an old pink knit hat that she's had in her collection for a while. Now, normally I have a very strict "no character jean" policy, but how could I say no after seeing the look on her face as she pulled these beauties out of the bag??

She's so cute...she kills me.

I'm Baaaaaack!!

Well, I'm back from camp, most of my laundry is done, and our house is feeling just about back to normal again. After a week with various grandparents, Hailey has spent the better part of the last several days punishing...er, I mean testing me. We've had several 5 alarm fits lately, but what she doesn't know is that this week has developed some pretty serious perseverance and tough-ness in me!!!

We brought 12 kids total from Federal Way High School this year. After coming to grips with some pretty distinct cultural differences, I realized that these kids just need boundaries. They need someone to say, "Hey! You can't act like that, but I still love you when you do!" So, I did.

It's so hard, but such a picture of what God does in our lives all the time. I hated having to be firm and tough...I'm much happier when I'm laughing and having a good time! I did still laugh a lot, but at one point found myself having to be so firm/loud that half of the dining hall got whiplash after I had to stop a food fight at my table that included ketchup!! Good thing they placed our table right next to the adult guests, huh... ;)

All in all, God is good! We had 2 kids from FWHS make a 1st time commitment to Christ and 1 guy re-commit his life! Then, we've also got several kids asking really good questions and pursuing Todd and I now that we're home!

What I appreciate about the kids that we brought is that none of them seemed to make an emotional "mountain-top" decision. They are really calculating the cost of following Jesus and trying to make a real decision! Praise God!

One of the biggest "take-aways" for me came when I was trying to get my girls to spend time with me on one of our last full days at camp. I'd had the "lunch incident" that afternoon, which in turn made them a little annoyed with me. Then, at freetime, I kept trying to hook up with them. I even offered ice cream! At the end of our freetime, the girls found me and took me up on my offer. After they got their ice cream, they sat at a table by themselves and said, "Thanks!", not making any room for me to join them. I was, of course, a bit disappointed and even a little hurt. It was then that the Lord seemed to gently speak to me and show me that so often, that's what I do to Him!! He just wants me...time with me to love on me...and sometimes I don't make time for Him. He doesn't get mad at me about it, but it grieves His heart when He just wants to be with me and reveal Himself and I don't take Him up on His incredible offer.

What a week! So glad to be home... :)

Obedience

So, I'm leaving tomorrow morning for camp with 3 of my Young Life girls. As excited as I am to go and watch as the Lord reveals Himself to these girls, I'm really struggling with the thought of being away from my kids for the week! I think that the "stitch" episode made it worse.

Yesterday we went to Build-a-Bear so Hailey could make Owen and herself bears with my voice in them. She had the best time! Her bear is pink (of course), wearing a Princess Aurora dress (that matches hers), and is named Sweet Pea. She also helped make this monkey for Owen...he's wearing a Hawks uniform (of course) and we named him Largent. Can you guess why?? ;)

Obedience requires sacrifice, and I am honored that the Lord would invite me into His amazing plan with these high school girls...even if it requires me to relinquish my role as a mom for the week and learn to trust Him in a deeper way.

I wonder if my YL girls will think it's weird when I tuck them in at night, cut their food for them, and ask every 30 minutes if they need to go potty...hmmm... ;)

Stitch...

Here she is...7 stitches right in the middle of her forehead. So sad...

What happened, you ask? Well...let me fill you in. She ran downstairs and then ran around her bed, tripped over her own feel (I assume) and smacked her head right into a wooden knob on her wardrobe. I heard a blood-curdling scream from downstairs and have never moved so fast in all my life! There I found her...my poor baby sitting on the floor with blood pouring down her face! I scooped her up, brought her upstairs, and got a cold rag to stop the bleeding.

In true Jessica fashion, it was 11:30 and I was still in my pajamas. I passed her off to my mom (who, thank the LORD was at my house) and ran to put some clothes on so I could take her to the ER. Something prompted me to call her pediatrician and when I told them what happened they said, "Oh, bring her right in!". We put a bandaid on her wound, which had stopped bleeding by then, and I left my mom home with Owen...who had coincidentally unbuckled himself from his high chair and was STANDING UP yelling at me. Whew...thankfully we avoided another catastrophic moment there!!

When we got to the office they quickly whisked us back into a treatment room, looked at her wound, and turned on Toy Story 2! Clearly kids should always be treated by people who understand kids... :) She watched her movie (which was the highlight of her whole day) and then the nurse came in to put medicine on her head. All she had to do was soak a cotton ball with this numbing medicine and we held it on her head for 20 minutes! NO SHOTS! :)

By the time the doc was ready to begin the stitching process Todd got there. Hailey didn't like the process at all, but she was more annoyed that the doctor's work light made it hard to watch her movie than anything else.

Once it was over, she was good as new...back to her old shennanigans! If it weren't for the princess, Hello Kitty, or Strawberry Shortcake bandaids that are being rotated on her head 3 times a day, you'd never know anything was wrong!

Now, as a mom, this was one of my most traumatic moments to date! My perfect baby girl has been scarred for life and all I kept thinking yesterday was what I could have done to prevent this from ever happening. Should I re-arrange her furniture so she won't knock into things?? Should I stop letting my 3-year old leave the room unsupervised?? Should I wrap her in bubble wrap?? Maybe I should stay home from Young Life camp next week just in case she needs me??

Nope. I must trust the Lord with her.

Obviously I have to do what's wise in watching my kids, but no matter what I do, there will be unforeseen injuries and things that are unavoidable. And that doesn't make me a bad mom! (Or at least I'm telling myself that!)

My poor baby!! Good thing you're so tough.

P.S. She's been nicknamed "Stitch" by her Papa...for obvious reasons. :)