Happy Latelys...

We have been going and doing a lot lately, so here are some of our happy things happening lately:

Noah hatched his first dinosaur :) We got him a plaster egg at the Discover the Dinosaur exhibit and finally got a chance to hatch it. It wasn't as easy as the directions said - and momma had to help some, but it was worth it when he saw it come out! The baby dinosaur glows in the dark too - so cute!

Noah and I went on a date :) According to him it was the "best date ever" and that was when we were on our way to the library for our date - he is easy to please! I took him to literacy night at the library where our local Junior Auxiliary read him a book and did a craft with him. He loved the book and got so excited when it was being read - he even clapped when the Pilgrims and Indians had their feast, it was adorable! Then he got to make a hand turkey and a place card for his spot on Thanksgiving. He loved it. This was also his first time to the library. We had to read 4 books before I could talk him into leaving - that promise of a Happy Meal usually works :) I plan to do this with him as much as I can and then with Ryan also when she is old enough to participate.

It has been 2 weeks and Ryan is not progressing much with her standing or walking. She did awesome for a few days and was standing up with her foot right and even took a few side steps holding on to the couch, and now she is back to not wanting to stand at all. I know she will walk when she is ready (which is what I am being told by a lot of people) and that is what I tell people in the same situation, but I can't let her get too behind either. Her aunt is a physical therapist and was working with her a little this week and agreed with me that she just refuses to use her left leg and she believes therapy would help her get it all worked out. I will be calling to get therapy started soon so we can strengthen up her left side and get her on track. Please keep those prayers coming - this is not life threatening or anything, but it is not pleasant making a one year old do things they are uncomfortable with and mommas don't like watching their babies struggle.

Nathan turned 32! I made him breakfast burritos and he opened his presents from us. We got him a chocolate chip cheesecake for him to blow out candles with and Noah was so excited to help with the candles :) That night we had about 60 people over for a birthday party in our shop. I got a sitter for the kids last weekend for a few hours, and I hate asking for a sitter, much less two weekends in a row so I decided to just keep the kids at home. So, I pretty much stayed in the house with them until bedtime and then was able to socialize after that. We had so much food and such a good time! So happy Nathan has so many people that cared enough about him to come help him celebrate.

Now, off to get some work done. I only have to work 2 days this week and then 6 days off with my babies - and I am so excited! We are making cookies, hanging Christmas lights, getting our tree, Christmas shopping with my dad, and who knows what else! I love the holidays!

4 Weeks...

Today is November 14th. That means Ryan has 4 weeks from today to learn to walk. In 4 weeks she will be 15 months old and her doctor said he wants her walking by then or she will need to start therapy. She was 12 months old and had just started pulling up good when he initially told me this so I wasn't worried. 8 weeks have passed and she has regressed and can barely pull herself up and can barely hold her own weight if we can get her to stand by straightening her legs for her. I wasn't worried at 12 months, but I am getting a little more worried now. With Noah I wanted him to walk and do everything so quickly, but then soon realized he was growing fast enough on his own and the quicker he walked, the quicker I had to chase him. So, I have not been pushing Ryan as much as I did Noah - I am still chasing him so I didn't want to have to chase her too. She started pulling up and I just assumed she would be "cruising" around the furniture next and then walking - but that has not happened.

Scooter in action :)

Someone informed me that it was my fault because I didn't make her crawl - she is a scooter. I am not sure exactly how to "make" a baby crawl. She has always hated being in crawling position and once she figured out how to scoot she never looked back. She can carry things while she scoots just like if she is walking so she is not missing out on anything really. She has scooted so long and always drags her left leg while she scoots that it is weaker than her right leg that she pulls with while scooting. So, when she stands, it is her left leg that is the problem. If she is laying down she can sometimes rollover and cannot sit up from laying flat at all.

This is how her left leg does most of the time while she is standing.

Ryan has always been slow on the milestones - she was 9 months old before she was able to roll over and I worked with her a lot on that because she was SO close for SO long and Noah was 6 weeks when he rolled over so it worried me that I was neglecting her since it was taking her so long, but that is just her style apparently - she is a last minute kind of gal!

Her right leg is extra strong though!

So, if you think about it, please say an extra prayer for Ryan to start walking soon. I know she will walk, in her own time like with everything else, but I don't want her to be delayed and as her mother I have to stay on top of things and make sure she is developing properly. I do need to brag on her a little too - she is doing amazing with her talking - she will repeat most anything I tell her to and she is learning to point to her body parts when I ask her where they are. Now, if we can just get her walking and talking she will be unstoppable!

A "great fun" weekend

My weekend started early on Friday when I went to Springdale to the NWA Boutique Show with my mom and sister-in-law. It was a bunch of local vendors selling everything from clothing to food to ornaments to home decor to jewelry - it was awesome! I went there with the intention of doing Christmas shopping but I didn't really see anything for anyone on my list - but did find a few things for myself. I found a lot of things I wanted - if money were not object :) I did get a new sign for each of the kids rooms made of found objects and a sweater and fleece lined leggings for me :)

The next day we took Noah and Ryan to Little Rock. Our first stop was All Aboard for lunch. My cousin takes his son there and it looked cool in the pictures so I wanted to check it out. A train on a track up near the ceiling delivers food to each table. Noah thought it was so cool and is still talking about it days later!

Noah was SO excited when the train dropped our food off and it lowered to our table!

Then it was off to the Discover the Dinosaurs exhibit - or the "Zooseum" as Noah calls it. Noah LOVED the exhibits! His face while looking at the exhibits was worth the money and admission! The exhibit was not exactly as it was advertised and I figured it wouldn't be - but the most important part to Noah was good, so that is all that mattered. Noah likes the exhibits the most and they were awesome - then you walked through the store. It was a little pricey - but not as bad as I figured it would be. I told Noah he could get one toy - and he is always good to go with that and he picked a stuffed long neck - which he keeps thanking me for and telling me how much he loves it :)

Ready to go in!

Ryan pointed and growled a lot :)

After that we got in the lines for the "dinosaur rides". I imagined it would walk across the room or something - but it was just like a quarter machine at the store. Noah was fine with that - I was a little disappointed though. After waiting in line for an hour to ride two of the three dinosaurs Noah decided he didn't want to wait in line anymore for the third one - which was fine by me. Next he "dug" for dinosaurs and found some fossils. The only other things were bounce houses and mini golf and the lines for those were VERY long so I just told Noah we could bounce at home. He said "Ok, lets go" and we were done :)

It was just one of those nice weekends full of family and love that I really needed - as Noah would say it was "great fun" :)

Heaven CAN Wait?

I call myself a Christian. I am not a perfect Christian and I do not know anyone who is but thankfully God is very forgiving. I was talking recently with a friend about how I am not ready to die, not because I am going to Hell, just not ready for Heaven. She said "oh I am, Heaven will be great!" I totally agree that Heaven will be amazing - but I have not seen and done everything I want to do yet. There are things I really want to see and experience that I do not think will happen in Heaven. I understand it that Heaven will take up from where we are in our lives when we die - only we will not have pain or struggles. While that sounds awesome, there are some things I just do not want to miss!

This friend I mentioned has no kids and is not married - I think this is a big part of the difference. I want to grow old with Nathan. I want to raise our kids together. I want to travel and see things with him. I want to be grandparents with him. I want to watch his hair turn gray. I want to reminisce on our amazing life we had together. I just want a long life with him.

I want to watch Noah and Ryan grow into an amazing adults. I want to watch them grow and learn new things every day. I want to see them learn to tie their shoes, write their names, count to 100.  I want to watch them play sports (or try to). I want to teach them to drive. I want to watch them graduate high school. I want to make sure Noah knows how to treat a lady. I want see Noah fall in love with a woman and make her his wife. I want to watch Noah's whole world change when he sees his child born. I want to make sure Ryan is a strong independent woman who is not afraid to ask for help. I want to see Ryan get swept off her feet by her prince. I want Ryan to feel her child in her stomach and feel that bond. I want to watch them have a happy life. These kids are going to be life changers.

I know Heaven is going to be the most amazing place - but not getting to see and experience these things honestly would break my heart. If God came right now, I believe I would go to Heaven - but I honestly do not want to go right now, not yet. So, I literally start my prayers every night with "thank you for giving me another day". Another day with my friends, family, husband, kids - another day for more memories.

Our Halloween 2013

This was the best Halloween I can remember in a LONG time, and for sure the best as a mom! Noah was all about dressing up and going Trick or Treating - and anything that excites him, excites me! Our town does a Safe Treat at the fairgrounds, but that had no doorbells to ring and that is what Noah was really excited about! We went to that last year and it was nice, but the lines were very long and there was only one bounce house and two horses and a ton of kids - little kids get bored and cranky with lines, but running around going house to house was perfect!

The kids dressed in skeleton pj's for their daycare Halloween party :)

This year Noah wanted to be a dinosaur - go figure. I told him he could be any dinosaur he wanted - and he picked a triceratops - it was adorable! I like trying to do a theme with the costumes until they get too opinionated for that - so I went with Pebbles for Ryan :) She has Pebbles hair most days after all :) My mom made her costume and did an awesome job!

We started our night making our stop at Nathan's grandparents house so his family could see the kids. We attempted a picture of Noah, Ryan, and their only Stillwell cousin Paxton - but that wasn't happening. Ryan didn't want me or Nathan to put her down, so she was throwing a fit and Noah was in the line of fire and poor Paxton was just sitting there watching! Maybe next year :)

Our next stop was at Happy Meal (that is what Noah calls McDonalds) then on to my moms. This is my moms favorite holiday and she always cook chili and brownies for any family that stops by. She also lives in a neighborhood so that was where we decided to take Noah for his first time to Trick or Treat. Noah LOVED it! He said "Trick or Treat" at every house, except one, I heard him get so excited when they opened the door he yelled "I want candy!" Which is funny because he doesn't even like candy - won't touch it. He started telling people he was going to share all this candy with his momma :) I didn't tell him that - but I am not against sharing either :) Noah would run back to me after every house yelling "I dot more candy momma"! I would ask him if he said "thank you" and if he forgot he would go back up and ring the doorbell again and tell them before I could stop him :) There was only about 20 houses (if that) in all of my moms neighborhood and the neighborhood beside it. I pushed Ryan in the stroller - she was happy to just play with her glow stick and watch the kids run around - such an adaptable baby :) We decided to take a short-cut back through the woods up a hill to my moms house - sounded like a good idea, but Ryan got heavy and Noah only wanted to hold my hand. Nathan had the flashlight and the stroller and the candy - my brother Eli was behind me with his two kids and my dad. We all were sweating and out of breath when we got to moms!

"Momma! I dot more candy!"

We got to see the fireworks show from Safe Treat at moms house and went home shortly after for baths and bed! Noah was so happy with his day - and thanked me over and over. Apparently it was "so cool" :) Music to this mommas ears :)