Eliza turns three!

You know that poem:
"Sugar and Spice and everything nice,
That's what little girls are made of."

That describes Eliza Ann quite well. She's just a bundle of fun...always saying funny things...with passion and energy. One minute, I can't believe how cute she is...the next minute, I'm worn out from her exasperating, independent behavior.

My "Miss Middle" just turned three...and I tear up just thinking about it. She just can't be three already! How can this have happened?

It seems like yesterday, she was crawling around, making "trilling sounds", and giving out the best giggles. I miss those BIG BLUE eyes and hanging jaws. I loved to kiss those cheeks.


Eliza has grown into her name. She's spirited and sweet on any given moment- and I love every bit of her.

We had some friends over for a small Pumpkin party last Friday for a playdate, but my camera battery was dead and my iphone was low on storage...so I have nothing to show for it. We did have a good time. The kids pinned the Heart on a skeleton and painted pumpkins. My friend Laurie took a picture of everyone's pumpkins after the party, but guess who refused to get in the picture and sat on the stairs inside?

Miss Sugar and Spice...

 On the morning of her birthday, I decorated her door...

Her birthday fell on Sunday this year, so we went to Chuckie Cheese's after church. She had fun...even though it was a small family affair:

Things to remember about Eliza:

• She still loves BABIES!
• She's expressive and makes friends easily.
• E is good a sharing. She's not a push over by any means...but will usually offer toys to other children to make them happy.
• Eliza loves to pray at dinner and she says the cutest things!
• She often will open her Bible and pretend she is reading. She'll say "Jesus loves me for the Bible tells me so."
• Eliza Ann is about 90% potty trained, but is still not convinced that #2 needs to be done on the toilet. She's highly opinionated about the matter actually. When we get some consistency out of her, she will get to start dance class; something she's DYING to do.
• Eliza loves to dress up in princess dresses. She's particularly hung up on a purple velour dress (that she wore to the BS Princess Party). 
• Eliza is strongly attached to her lovey and binkie. That's going to be the next big girl change...getting rid of the binkie. She only gets it when she sleeps right now and she happens to be the best sleeper of all three of the kids, so I hate to mess her up. I'll mess her up either way, so the Binkie has to go.
• Eliza knows many letters and their sounds...maybe close to 20. 
• Has a sweet tooth...that may be a bit of an understatement.

Funny "Elizaisms";

In the bathtub, "Mom, there's a pocket in my bottom!"

"Go Haychalks!"

"Swimming Soup"= swimming suit

"Grady has a penis. Mommy has milk (signing milk)."

Life

I'm busy...too busy. I can't keep up. Some days, I think I'm drowning in my responsibilities. Truly, I put myself in this position. I started selling Thirty-One to make extra money and now...it's almost too hard for me to keep up with. My kids should be my first priority, but since promoting to Director, I have a quota to keep and it's really hard to manage with three little ones. If I take a step back, however, I lose all the girls on my team and have to start over. I think I might have to look into childcare one day a week so that I can put energy into my job.


Once I start thinking about doing that, however, I think, "Ummm, my job is my kids, so what am I doing?" UUhhhgggg! Decisions, Decisions.

I must say, my favorite thing to do is home improvement. But to do that, I must make some money....which goes back to the PT job thing. So....here's what's going on at the house this week.

I've finished the hutch but then my table looked pretty beat up. So I finished off the table as well.

It used to have a stained top, but was chipped and damaged. Now it's distressed black to match my hutch. I poly'd the top so that it's more durable than the last finish. I'm not a huge fan of the shiny top, but at least I know  it's protected and can withstand my children's abuse. I found out, since finishing it, that I could have used a finishing wax to get a softer sheen. I'll store that in my memory for NEXT time.

I just finished painting my garage door black and putting up hooks for coats and backpacks in the garage. We don't have a mud room and I'm preparing for winter coats. I'm tired of them taking over the house...along with shoes and boots. Now we have a place to store everything!

Here are some pictures of little man...he's changing so much. Still not crawling, but sooooo close. This morning, he learned how to get from a rocking to a sitting position.

Here, Lucas is trying to get some lovin' from Grady.

 "I'm kind of a big deal."

I'm going to work on a rolling cubby/bench for the playroom next. It shouldn't cost too much and will hopefully provide a bit more storage. I'd really like to have my entire main floor painted: ceiling, trim, and walls. But---- the estimates I'm getting are in the thousands and I don't have the money for it. Of course, I don't have the TIME to do it myself. Someday soon...It will get done...I hope.

Princess Party

We attended the annual Blue Springs Princess Party this month. The girls had a blast...as they have in years past. I only have half of the pictures because some are on Micah's phone too, but I think you can see how much fun they had...regardless!

I don't believe myself anymore

When I say that I'm going to post regularly...I sort of believe myself. But, not really. I'm sure you don't believe me at all when I say it. Life is busy...I don't know how people keep up with blogging and family responsibilities (sigh).

Here's what we've been up to:

Grady turned 8 months old:

My days are numbered. This boy is going to be moving soon. Seconds after I shot these pictures, he turned around and almost lunged over the arm. He's no longer content to sit and play. Guess I better get that baby gate out of storage!

Addie is rockin first grade. She's excelling in all areas...from what I can tell anyway. She came home with these cool sunglasses and said she's the top Math Wiz in her class. Not sure what that means, but it sounds good. :)

Eliza Ann is almost three!!! She's such a delight! We almost had her potty trained a few weeks ago, but she wasn't embracing the toilet thing when she went #2 and I couldn't handle it anymore. So, I put her back in diapers until she turns 3. I don't want it to be a negative experience...for either of us. She loves to play pretend and is the most compassionate little girl----very mindful of other's feelings.

I've been keeping busy with Thirty-One...or trying to. It's one of those businesses where you can lose ground quickly if you slack off. I have three parties lined up for October, but things change and I'd really like to have more. Will have to carve out some time to get more scheduled. In the meantime, I've been working on an old hutch I got off Craig's List. I bought it for $85 and had all the paint needed, so I just updated it a bit. I spray painted the hardware too.

  

Micah is sick of my home improvement projects...but is dealing. You'd think he'd be used to it by now. I have so many ideas and NO MONEY to do it. I've had estimates to paint my main floor and about had an anxiety attack when I hear them. I haven't seen any less than $2000. The ceiling alone is going to take somewhere from $800-$1200. I would do it myself, but don't know how I could with small children to take care of. I already do too much anyway and need to spend more time "playing" with them. There's a balance somewhere, I just haven't found it yet.

Micah's "Flavor-Savor" works quite well, doesn't it?

Never a dull moment with this man...

Lucas is my sweet boy. You'd hardly even know he's here...except on Mon, Wednesday and Friday mornings when he whines on my bedside for me to take him for a run. I've started taking him with me and somehow, he can keep track of the days. It's very strange. He was a pain to run with at first, but we've gotten into a groove now. The only time I wish I didn't bring him is when he poops and I have to finish a lap with a bag of poop in my hand. Last week, I forgot a sack, so I had to use someone's plastic from their newspaper. I figured they would rather me use that than leave his poop in their yard. The trouble with a sack like that is that it's very narrow and I could hardly get it in there. I ended up having no handle to hold and had to carry the actual bag in the palm of my hand...all warm and squishy. Very gross. I cut that run short.



Other random, cute photos:

the girls at the Fall Fun Fest after church

our cute little man

on a walk with the little munchkins 

Our little man is 7 MONTHS now. YIKES! He's growing up too fast.


He sits up very well...

loves to eat his toes...

puts himself to sleep...most of the time, without a fuss.