Finally!

I have been wanting to post FOREVER now! I have had so many postings in my head over the past few weeks, but have been very unable to get them out! First, our camera broke so I had no pictures to post. Then Josh got the flu and I was busily, though joyfully, taking care of him and the kiddos. Then I got the flu and I was not so joyfully taking care of the kiddos with a fever and cough. THEN, of course, the kids both got it, and had really scary high fevers that would go away. (not sure if swine flu or not, because we got the vaccine!!) Anyways, we've been busy. And tonight I swore I would finish putting laundry away, but instead surrendered to exhaustion, and am finally doing some catching up! So to catch you up;

Besides getting the flu we have;

• Given Gabe his first bowl of rice cereal! He likes it, and soon we'll add some real real food!


• Thought Grace broke her arm, again, and she still might have- jury's still out


• Decorated my house for Christmas......a week BEFORE thanksgiving! (Josh's suggestion- I love that man!)


• Went black Friday shopping with TWO kids intow! (I know I know- so not dox, but it's my mom and I's tradition and I LOVE IT!)


• Went to Costco like a thousand times


• Made the most perfect looking (and tasting) apple pie for thanksgiving - these are super out of order!

Another major reason my posting has been non-existent. Gabe has went from sleeping from 7 to 8 am to waking up every hour through out the night, to taking up nursing twice throughout the night, to finally sleeping through the night again but waking up at 5am, then to having the flu so back to waking up and nursing throughout the night again! I've said this before but Gabe, bless his heart, is teaching us that we know NOTHING about parenting. I still have no idea what makes him sleep and what doesn't. The past four nights have gone like this; Night1- had Josh get up with him when he cried so that it would be easier not to feed him and hopefully get rid of nighttime feedings, result- he cried and cried and cried! Josh was up with him for TWO hours in the middle of the night and then I broke down and fed him! Nite2- we let him cry, 45 whole minutes at 2 AM, then he went to sleep till 6:30. And then the past two nights he has slept through but waken up at 4:20, thus my exhaustion. And after the past month of not sleeping I will take 7 to 4:20! Apologies for the tired rambly post!

Dear Sleep

Dear Sleep,

We miss you very much.
You were so good to us for so long.
Please don't forget us, we will meet again.
With love, Josh and Leslie

Mommy Guilt

I just spent the past 60 minutes trying to get Gabe to take his nap. My head hurts and I'm sure his throat as the poor guy cried the whooooooole time. Grace was downstairs dangerously eating her choking hazard of a lunch, periodically crying (for real) screaming "I'm a baby too" since I've paid her no attention this morning. I spent the lunch hour litterally running from Gabe to Grace. Gabe to give him his binki and try and calm him down to Grace to make sure she wasn't choking, tell her she's a big girl, tell her mommy's sorry, and to find her when she once in a while wandered from the table to hide from me. Right now I should be desperately racing through my chores of the day, but I'm not, because I just have this burning on my heart right now. (and when I say chores I don't even mean trying to clean my messy house, I mean basic keep the fam fed and clean and alive chores.
I finally just shut the door to the poor little guy's room and let him cry it out. If I pick him up and walk, we walk for 45 mins sometimes still to be put down and crying. If I rock him he wants to nurse even though he's not hungry- and then I'm the only one who can put him down for his THREE naps and bedtime. He wouldn't calm down with the binki, so I let him cry. It took 8 of THE LONGEST minutes of my life, but he fell asleep, on his own. And then of course I have to cry myself. I cry because I feel like the worst mommy in the world, letting my 3 month old cry himself to sleep, I cry because I not only ignored Grace most of the morning but yelled at her very loudly to sit down and eat her lunch, I cry because the clean pile of clothes and the messy pile of clothes have finally creeped accross my bedroom floor to the point where they are now one pile, and I cry because, though some days are better, others feel like making dinner and not yelling at my children are nearly imppossible. But after a few minutes of crying, I remembered Pete's sermon, last night at Dox, and God's sweet love. His love for me has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with my capacity. My capacity to keep a clean house, make amazing dinners, be the perfect mother, or even to keep my cool at all times. He loves me because he made me, because I'm his. And now I am crying again!! God loves you for the same reason, not because you are great at something, are successful, have the perfect fam, or whatever, he loves you because he made you and you are his. It's pretty hard to mess that up! Because you can't! It has nothing to do with what you can or can't do!!

Pumkin Patch and Cousins

We had a fun week, filled with birthday parties, enjoying family, and going to the pumkin patch!

GRACE'S BIRTHDAY!!!

Gracie girl, I cannot believe you're three! It seems like just yesterday that you were just a tiny baby! Daddy and I were over the moon for you from the start, and our love has only grown! You are smart, funny, sweet and energetic. While sometimes you are reserved to begin with; you are confident, sometimes stubborn, but always lovable. You are such a good big sister to Gabe and are the best little girl we could wish for! Your birthday was a blast! We had two parties, one with cake and family and another with ice cream and friends. We love you Gracie Happy Birthday!

Last days of summer....

A true cowgirl.

My little stud!

Such handsome guys

We spent the last days of summer at the fountain, eating ice cream, bbqing every night for dinner, eating lots of fruits and veggies from Grammy's garden, and Grace potty training herself. We celebrated the official last day of summer by doing all our favorites in downtown Corvally, the fountain, the dream, and gellato. A great day!

stay tuned...........

Just wanted to put a note out there that we are still here! I have several blogs in my head; including Grace's b-day, the ever growing gabe, summer summary and family visiting that I want to post but not enough time to load pics! So stay tuned and I promise more posts are to come!!