Ballet and Bicycles

Our biggest news of the day is that Lela slept all night last night.  Not 5-6 hours like baby raising books call all night, but 7:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m!!!  She fed at 6:30 and then went back to sleep until 8:30.  Woo hoo!  I have felt like a new woman today.

On Thursdays, Neely has "ballerina class".  It is by far her favorite thing to do.  Which is a good thing.  I use this as a motivator for good behavior all week.  Bad behavior = no class & we have yet to have to miss! 

Each week, the teacher picks a queen for the week.  They basically get to be the line leader & the little girls get so excited about it.  This week was Neely's turn.  Here she is dancing through the leaves.

When we got home from class, Neely wanted to ride her bike which has also become one of her favorite things.  I am usually not an outside girl, but it was absolutely beautiful today.

Now that I'm looking at these pictures, I realize that her handle bars are backwards.  No wonder she was having such a hard time steering.  oops.  I just thought it was because she was so un-athletic.

The last couple days have been rough for Lela.  Either she is extremely happy or extremely grumpy.  Can babies be bipolar?  In her happy moments today, she started laughing out loud, which has to be one of the sweetest sounds in the world. 

One of those days

Whew.  Today was one of those days.

If you are a mom, you know exactly what I mean.

Well heck, even if you're not a mom, you know what I mean.

Today was supposed to be an easy day.  It was going to be such a fun day that I was going to do a "day in the life" post.  Well, then life happened.

At around 4 this morning, I woke up with Neely standing by the bed, her face about 2 inches from mine.  I can't argue sleeping arrangements in the middle of the night, so she climbed in bed.

Then sweet Lela woke up at 5:30 ready for the day.  If you know me at all, you know that I don't do 5:30.  All I could think was:  I am so tired and 10pm is so far away.

My alarm went off at 7, even though I was already up.  I turned it off & then somehow fell back asleep.  All 3 of us then woke up at 8.  That would have been great except Neely is supposed to be at school at 8.  grrrr.

Here are the girls waking up for the day.  At this point I hadn't given up on my "day in the life" post.

About 5 minutes later, I gave up on taking any more pictures during the day.

After a super quick feeding, we took Neely to school.  Then to McDonald's for a large Dr. Pepper and a sausage biscuit.  1000 calories that I didn't need, but sometimes it's so worth it. 

For the rest of the day, I battled a baby that must be going through her 4 month growth spurt.  I think I fed her every 2 hours all day & she took 2 30 minute naps.  Bless my soul.

We picked up Neely from school & she talked non-stop for the rest of the afternoon.  I am so so so glad that she is so social, but oh what I'd give for 5 minutes of complete silence.

At 5:00, I realized that I had not cooked anything for dinner.  I emailed Brad that I had a coupon for free dessert at Chili's, so we met him for dinner.  After eating way too many calories, I headed to the mall to try on pants.  Huge mistake.  Should have thought about that before I ate an appetizer, meal, and dessert.

Luckily, both girls went down fairly easily & now I have an hour to relax before Lela's last feeding.

So thankful that God lets us start fresh each day!

If you are still reading, bless YOUR soul.  This is possibly definitely the most boring post ever.  I apologize and promise to be at least slightly more entertaining tomorrow.  :)

It's Only a Season

One of my favorite phrases has become "it's only a season".

Lela wakes up all night.  It's only a season.  Someday she'll sleep.

Neely whines or pouts about something.  It's only a season.

I get to the end of the day & feel at my wit's end.  It's only a season.  Things will get better.

"It's only a season" was the phrase that was getting me through the hard times.  The knowledge that I could get through hard times & another season would be coming.

And then I have a day like today.  A wonderful, perfect day full of sweet babies, wonderful friends & lots of laughter.

And then I get it.  It's only a season.

Our babies won't be babies forever and our sweet toddlers will grow up.  And it makes me sad.

I know that the next season in life will be just as wonderful, but it makes me know I have to slow down to enjoy the season through the good and the not so good.  I can't rush away this season because too many good things come with it.

No matter what the season brings, I am thankful for the friends that I have to share this season with.

A Busy Summer

  

Our last picture as a family of 3

  I know that I am officially the WORST blogger ever.  I truly do have good intentions.  I think about lots of good things to blog about, but then never sit down at the computer to actually do it.

That said, we had a wonderfully busy summer.

We started the summer by adding this sweet baby to our family:

Lela Claire Vestal was born on June 10^th at 6:47.  Another easy delivery that I was so very thankful for.

Neely loves loves loves her baby sister.  Lucky for her she has 2 baby sisters.  They are both named Lela.  Meet Lela #2:

It has become a little better, but for a long time every time every time someone asked Neely about her little sister.  She would tell them that her name was Baby Lela and that we left her in the car.  That is fun to explain 100 times a day.

I had scheduled lots of fun activities for Neely to do once the new baby came.  Great idea for her.  Dumb idea for me.  Do you know how hard it is to get to ballet at 9am with a 2 week old and a 3 year old?

Neely and 2 of her BFFs at ballet class:

We took an overnight trip to Little Rock on our way to Blytheville.  We watched the ducks march at the Peabody:

Rode the trolley and Neely got to ring the bell.  I know those shorts are entirely too short.

My best friend and her little girl visited us for a long weekend.

I turned 31.

We went on a train ride, which might have been the longest, hottest 2 hours of my life.

We took a long weekend and went to St. Louis:

Went to a Cardinals Game:

Went to Grant’s Farm and the zoo:

And finished the trip with a visit to our family.

I know, I know. You're surprised there's a post!