I am having a garage sale/ yard sale tomorrow! I have been slowly adding things to my yard sale pile for a while now. It is time, my friends, it is time. Last Saturday I noticed some nice sturdy signs that simply said "Yard Sale! Lots of Great Stuff!" I went by the sale when it was wrapping up to ask what they were going to do with them to see if I might purchase them. They freely gave them to me, which was awesome! So last night I spruced them up a bit...meaning I just painted the backside of the sign and left the other side as it was. (As someone with a marketing and advertising background, I can appreciate a good sprucing.) Today I posted them with my hammer as my children stared at me bewildered from the double stroller in the blazing hot sun. I have been diligently pricing the items this week...while working around hosting a Mary Kay party, Young Women activities, playgroups, bringing dinner to two families, and trying to make my husband's birthday special.
As I have been working out in the garage just now while my children slumber, a scary thought just hit me. What if nobody comes?! That would be so lame! It makes me nervous!
**Just to clarify...this post is not to guilt-trip any of my friends in Gainesville...haha! (In fact, it seems people in Gainesville don't really do blogging nearly as much as my friends in Tallahassee and elsewhere, so it's likely no Gainesville peeps will even read this:) Plus, I don't play the guilt-trip game.**
I am talking the general public...what if no one comes? After all this work!
I still have quite a bit to do...and I want it to be all organized and pretty, but I don't know if I can do that with the limited display supplies I have (tables, etc.) It is starting at 7 AM. Holy cow. That is early. I don't do early. May as well not even go to sleep! ha;)
I needed a little break...a little creative release, so I gave the blog some attention. Back to the grindstone...
I love it. The man in the video is one of the bishops in London, England. He seems awesome. When I lived in London, I attended a Spanish/ Portuguese congregation. I had an awesome Bishop (branch president). He was young just like the bishop in this video. Crystalee...do you remember where he was from? Brazil? I can't remember. Anyway! Aside from the spirit this video brings, it is awesome to me because at one point he is standing in the foyer of the London, England stake center, right in front of the chapel doors. I attended church in that very building. Watching this video brought back great memories. My first Sunday in London, I met lots of new friends from BYU who were also studying abroad, right in that very foyer. Seeing them...seeing that building, walking inside it...it brought SO much peace and comfort to my soul.
I was home.
I was so far away from everything and everyone that was familiar, but when I walked in those doors...I immediately felt safe, secure, and SO happy!! I love how no matter where you go in the entire world, the church is exactly the same...the same gospel, the same hymns, the same lesson that will be taught in my Young Women classroom tomorrow in Gainesville, FL will also be taught in Accra, Ghana, Paris, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Australia, Taiwan, Tonga, etc. The same kind smiles and love is felt from the people around you, but most importantly, the same Spirit. It is so comforting.
Like the
cool Bishop in this video, the way the Book of Mormon has
changed me the most is it has filled me with a desire to become more
like my Savior, Jesus Christ. When I read it, I feel so close to my
Father in Heaven. I know both the Bible
and the Book of Mormon to be the word of God, as they both testify of
our Savior and his love for us. So many answers to my prayers have come
as I read the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon. I am so
incredibly grateful for this book in my life.
Lots happened between the time I turned 8 months and 9 months!
One funny thing I started doing: I put my little booty up in the air sometimes when I'm nursing on the bed, like so...
This month I have truly TAKEN OFF when it comes to crawling!
Why sit still when you can move?
In fact, she has really taken to crawling with her hiney in the air (see
pics above)...I'm thinking she trained herself to do this because she
is usually wearing a dress...dresses can provide a hindrance when crawling...but, she is able to roll with the punches and
make lemonade out of lemons...I like it...
When not playing with inanimate objects...
You can find her playing with one of her brother's cars...(I'm sure she'd be so happy to play with dolls...but cars are all over my house, and so cars it is!)
Her hair is continuing to get thicker and thicker. I love to run my fingers through her hair...so soft and sweet! And she loves it too:) Since she was a newborn, massaging her head has been a good way to calm her:)
Mommy is losing it. I got out all of my "___ months old" signs to put them in order, and then grabbed the "10 Month" sign and started taking pictures...and I took quite a few before I realized I had the wrong month! Seriously. I'm losing it. See video below.
Uhhh...Mom...you have the wrong sign over here...
I'll take care of this...
I will turn it around and save you some embarrassment...
That's better!
This month I got to hang with my girl cousins not one weekend, but TWO!!
One weekend we celebrated my Uncle Chris' birthday, and the next we all
went to Destin to see my new cousin Ahna's baby blessing.
This month she got to try pieces of fruit via this net thing below. She loves watermelon and honeydew!
We also went to Chick Fil A for breakfast on my birthday (just like last year). Last year we got a picture of Julian dipping his grape into ketchup, so we wanted to get a pic of him with his grape again (he no longer dips it in ketchup...phew!), and also one of Ella Grace with a grape. This was her first grape experience...she liked it, but obviously the taste test didn't go any further than what you see below because she has 4 teeth and grapes are serious choking hazards:)
That night we went to her Uncle Berkeley's high school graduation. The kids did really pretty great, considering the circumstances! I was pretty nervous. They lasted almost til the end! Here are Ella Grace and Pop Pop before & after graduation.
She started waving this last month, AND pointing. She loves her new tricks!
We got a ball pit on Craigs List, and Ella Grace & Julian have had a ball with it! Pun totally intended:)
She's such a feminine little girlie girl!
On our way to the pool! She LOVES LOVESLOVES the pool!
And the sandbox!
Remember a while ago I was saying I had an inkling she had abnormally tiny feet? And then my inkling was given some backbone when we held up her 6 month foot to her brand-spankin new baby friend Ayla's foot and they were pretty much the same size. Well, now there is absolutely no doubt. We took Ella Grace to the shoe store where I always got my shoes as a kiddo in Tallahassee. They measured her foot...SIZE 0! Size 0 is for newborns. Here is her foot in a size 0 shoe...
She loves to pull up on her own! This girl is SO busy, I tell ya!
She also started giving kisses this month!! And they are the sweetest kisses I've ever received, aside from her brother's, of course!
We went to Orlando with Stace's family to wrap up Ella Grace's eighth month. It was so fun and Ella Grace soaked in every second of extra loves and smooches she got and takes after her mama when it comes to her love of relaxin...
This baby girl LOVES her Pop Pop! It's so adorable how she turns to find him whenever she hears his voice. One day he walked in from work and walked past her to put something on the kitchen counter, and she let out this little grunt of "what the heck, Pop Pop?! Where'd you go and why'd you leave me here?!" haha! It was pretty cute:) My mother-in-law says Pop Pop is crazy-crazy for this little baby...and that's there's just something about grandpa's and granddaughters:)
Ella Grace loved getting to spend time with her Aunt Candace & Uncle Berkeley too! I don't have any pics of her with her Uncle Berk, but I'm pretty sure Grandmama does from his graduation...so I'll add those soon!
Again, she loves to play with anything that happens to be in front of her...lipgloss bottle, shampoo bottle, hairbrush, anything...
Baby girl was so cute playing by the pool one afternoon!
Here is a little video of her doing another one of her favorite tricks! I tried to get her to share her other tricks, but she wasn't interested. Also, Mommy is REALLY losing it. I definitely said it was April 14th...it was June 14th...what's up. Also, it's blurry until you get to second 37:(
Sweepy baby with pretty eyelashes:)
We got home from Orlando and went straight back to the pool! She would splash on the shore of the pool all day if she could!
Many times I post happy little stories on my blog that I want to remember and cherish always. If you want to do nothing on my blog but read stories such as those, you may want to click away from this post. This is a tale of heart break, and it makes me want to cry just thinking about it. At the same time, I see the sweet little heart of my little boy shining & lining the gray cloud that is this story, so I have decided to go ahead and document it.
A couple weeks ago we were at a local park complete with little crooked houses, a sandbox, a mini golf area, and a tree house. Julian, Ella Grace and I were playing there all by ourselves, when a sweet little girl came over and asked if she could play with us. "Of course!" I said, and she stepped into the sandbox. I asked her how old she was and she informed us she was five. Julian likes little girls around this age because he has three girl cousins all around this age and he absolutely ADORES them, and the feeling is mutual. (Last time we left their house, the girls' mother --my sister-in-law-- commented as the girls all hung on Julian and doted on his every move "he is like a celebrity at our house!")
Julian, the little girl, Ella Grace, and I went into a crooked house and my baby boy and his new friend made me some food. Then the little girl ran out and said "oh! I've got to go to the grocery store!" she then ran up the tree house, with Julian following close behind echoing "I've got to go to the grocery store!" Then the little girl ran out of the tree house and said "I've got to go to work!" Again, Julian echoed her and went off to work with his new friend.
Remember, this girl has 3 years on my son, so she was running quite a bit faster than my toddling little Julian. Soon she put together that this little boy must have been chasing her (when really he was just trying to keep up with her), and soon another little girl joined in with her and the two of them ran away from my sweet baby boy. They went into a crooked house, and Julian caught up to them and tried to come in, but the girls were pushing on the door so he couldn't get in, laughing hysterically. Then they ran out, leaving Julian in the dust, & scrambling to keep up. He couldn't understand why they wouldn't let him play. As he ran after them, he plead so sadly in his little 2-year-old voice
"but I'm a nice boy! I'm a nice boy!"
By this time I was in tears (behind my sunglasses). One girl's mom was completely oblivious and the other looked at me and laughed and said "oh, they think it's a game!" I gave out a little chuckle to try and hide how completely heartbreaking this was for me, and hurriedly tried to distract my son. "Julian! Let's go to the gym! Let's go to Kids' Club!" and "Julian! Come play with me! Come play with Ella Grace!" Julian turned to me with tears in his eyes and yelled "but I wanna play with those girls!"
My sweet boy's feelings were legitimately hurt. That hurt so badly. It was the first time I've seen his feelings hurt/ him be flat-out rejected and it truly crushed me. Oh, my sweet boy. We soon were see-sawing without a care in the world, and soon after did make it over to my gym's Kids' Club, where he had a great time. But if something like that never happened again, it would be too soon.
and knows just what to do to make his babies laugh...
who plays airplane on a regular basis...
and helps them see things from a different view point...
a Daddy who they can look up to...
yet who can get down on their level...
and finds joy in seeing them deliriously happy...
a Daddy who keeps his babies warm and snug...
and who has never shied away from diaper duty...
a Daddy who can play along...
a Daddy who can snuggle...
a Daddy who not only reads to them,
but who makes the voices when he reads to them...
a Daddy with strong arms...
and shoulders...
who has a gift for making stuffed animals come to life!
who "gets into it"...
a Daddy who tosses...
and leads, guides...
and walks beside...
a Daddy who jumps...
a Daddy who adores...
a Daddy who dotes...
a Daddy who swims,
swings,
pushes,
and who lets push...
a Daddy who paints...
a Daddy who plays...
a Daddy who loves...SO much...
who holds the weight of the world in his arms...
with joy and determination...
a Daddy who knows how to make his kiddos feel special...
a Daddy who dances...
a Daddy who, I know, one day our son...
will aspire to be just like...
a Daddy who possesses qualities our daughter
will surely look for when she decides the kind of man she wants to marry...
I've heard it said that the most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. If that's true, and I believe it is, then all three of us are very lucky. I am so blessed to have the love of this man.
