Friday, October 29, 2010

I love fall...

I absolutely love fall. I love it when the air starts getting crisp. I love to watch the leaves change colors. I love watching the wind blow the leaves. I love the coolness in the air. I love that it is easier to breathe.

I love the smells of fall. Pumpkins. Pumpkin Spice Candles. Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks. Sweet Potato Casseroles. Fried Turkeys. Thanksgiving Lunch. Fall makes me want to bake muffins every morning... I love the smell of muffins baking in a cozy house early in the morning. I love the smell of hubby's coffee in the morning.

I love fall clothing. I love AG's cute little fall clothes. I love wearing skinny jeans and boots... and I love that AG shares this love with me. I love wearing sweatshirts. I love wearing cutsy long sleeve pajama sets from VS. I love snuggling with AG in her fun PJ's (that she chooses very carefully I might add) every night and morning.

I love the excitement of the fall holidays. I love watching AG get dressed up for Halloween and fulfilling her character to the max. I love seeing how excited she gets over the pumpkin patch at our church. I love how AG love love loves "scarecwows" and "pumpkins with lights." I love that my hubby doesn't play golf as much and we get to spend more family time together on the weekends:-) I love planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love that there is so much to look forward to from October til January.

I love fall...

AND

I love my proud little Jessie...

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

My Little Cowgirl...

"YeeHaw I'm a cowgirl!" She cracks me up :-)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Fun Treats!!

Yesterday after school Ava Grace and I made some fun treats!! She had a blast. Her favorite part was sticking the eyes on! Oh yeah - and eating all of the oreos and nutter butters! :-) I think she ate about 5 cookies and who knows how many M&Ms?!?! :-) But she had fun and that's all that matters! and she was REALLY PROUD when we took all of them to school this morning for her to share with her friends :-)




Have a good day! I think today will be a good day to carve a pumpkin :-)

Friday, October 22, 2010

Guess What?!?!?!?!

Ava Grace is going to be a big sister!! That's right! We are super excited! I know she will be a great big sister and a my big helper.

I am only 7 weeks and we just had our 1st ultrasound. So far everything looks good :-) We are due June 9th and couldn't be happier :-)

I hope you have a great weekend!!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Weekend Recap

We did a little singing and dancing...

We played dress up...


We played with blocks...



And Sunday was Ava Grace's 1st time to sit thru the entire church service :-)

Yesterday Ava Grace had her first field trip! They went to the pumpkin patch at our church and I was able to read to them during story time. Here are a couple of pictures!





Monday, October 18, 2010

Rest...

of knowing I have done everything I can in this situation.

of knowing the He loves me for me.

of knowing that He will fight for me, I don't always have to take up for myself.

of knowing who I am and who I am not.

of knowing where I am going.

in the Word that God has given me.

of believing that I am forgiven and I can stop repenting for the same sin.


We become servants to whoevers approval we are trying to get. The only approval I need to seek is from God.

So, some of you may or may not know this. Right now I am doing a Beth Moore Bible Study, Breaking Free. I look forward to this time every week and EVERY WEEK God has spoken TO ME directly thru this study. Honestly before I started this study I was completely blind to the bondage I have been experiencing in my life. Since I began this study I have experienced many not so pleasant situations. I kept asking God - WHY?? WHY am I feeling this way?? WHY is this happening?? Sept/October has been extremely stressful for me. As soon as one situation was getting better, another situation would arise. And I don't just mean little things... they were things that are a really big deal to me. During my study tonight I just wanted to cry. I mean, if I was sitting there by myself I would have prob just screamed out. I KNEW that God was speaking to me. I have been praying and praying to not let things bother me so much and to give it all to God. And for some reason it was still lingering in my mind and hurt. Literally I was hurting - like someone had taken a knife and stabbed it thru my heart. Tonight...as I type this... I truly feel like a different person. Like the weight of it all is being lifted. It is still there... a teeny tiny part... but I know that with God's help this hurt will be removed from my heart. NOW THAT MY FRIENDS IS WHERE MY REST COMES IN...

I have always been the type person to want to make everyone happy. I can't stand tension. I seek approval from several people in my life and strive to make them think good of me. I say YES sometimes when I am really thinking - No, I don't have time. Some might call me out on this because I know I have not always made everyone happy. And I am positive I have created lots of tension in my life. But... deep down I just want everyone to be happy. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EXHAUSTING THAT HAS BEEN FOR ME??

I need to REST.

I still want others to be happy but I need to get my priorities straight. I will serve the Lord with everything that I have. I will continually seek God and only God's approval. God has invited me to rest in Him and I have accepted. And it feels GREAT!

"Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads. I will give you rest. Accept my work and learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will find rest for your souls. The work that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is not heavy." Matthew 11:28-30

Friday, October 15, 2010

5 years ago today...

I married my best friend :-)








I love you Kyle!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Stormy Night

Last night was a stormy night here at the South Family house. Luckily we only lost power once for about 30 seconds so it didn't ruin our fun game of Toy Story memory Ava Grace was playing. Here are some pics from last night.



And for some reason this picture has white dots all over it. I read online that it was either bugs or dust particles in the air. It said that sometimes the flash illuminates them and makes it look like huge white dots. It looks a little scary to me!


On a completely different subject, for the past week we have been letting Ava Grace sleep in big girl panties at night. She really could have slept in them since she has been potty trained but I was just too nervous. I knew the first night that I let her go without pull ups that she would have an accident in the bed. Thank goodness she didn't! Well, we ran out of pull ups last week and I decided that I was not going to buy anymore. Let me tell you what she did last night... I woke up around 5am and saw that the hallway looked bright. I got up and saw that her light was on in her room. I went to her room and she was asleep in the bed so I just turned her light out and went back to sleep. I figured she was afraid of the dark since it was storming last night... When she woke up around 6:30 this morning I asked her why her light was on. And then she said "I had to go to the potty! I'm a big girl!" so I went and looked in the potty and she did! She got up without waking me up, turned her light on, and teeteed in the potty and wiped herself. I can't believe she didn't wake me up. She said "SEE!!" and was so so proud of herself! She is growing up so fast!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Randoms...

**Ava Grace’s conversation with a little girl on the playground per her teacher…

Little Girl: (Crying…)

Ava Grace: What’s wrong with you?

Little Girl: I want my blanky!

Ava Grace: Well, ask Mrs. Mochelle because Mrs. Mea will say No!

HAHAHAHA! She has it all figured out! :-)



**Ava Grace’s prayer tonight at bedtime…

“God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food Bed! In our work and in our play, God be with us everyday!”


**Another funny thing from the playground per her teacher…

Ava Grace to a teacher on the playground: Can we play Simon Says?

Teacher: Sure

Ava Grace: Simon says touch your nose… (AG touches her nose)

And per the teacher watching this, Ava Grace goes on and on and on with the game wanting to play and it gets to a point that I think it might be driving the teacher crazy…

Teacher: Simon says GO PLAY IN THE SANDBOX!

And Ava Grace runs away and starts playing in the sandbox!!


**Ava Grace is addicted to Oatmeal Crème Pies and I am addicted to Chocolate Peanut Butter bugles!


**Tonight I asked Ava Grace to clean up her toys ONE TIME and that is all it took! She put all of her toys away and then turned off the light in her playroom. She is such a sweet girl! :-)


**I am doing a Beth Moore Bible Study right now called Breaking Free and tonight was one of those nights where I just KNEW that God was speaking DIRECTLY to me. Isn't it amazing the words that God throws in our faces right when we need them the most! God is so good!


**Yesterday we went to Nashville for my sweet nephews 4th birthday party! I can’t believe he is 4!! Everyone had a blast and Daddy won Ava Grace a Hannah Montana pillow that looks like a boom box and has a handle on it. Earlier today it was her boom box but tonight it is her purse and she told me that she has lots of gum in it! And I can have some but I better not swallow it! She cracks me up!


I hope you all had a wonderful day!! Our week is off to a great start!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Family Day!

Today has been a GREAT day! It started with pancakes from McD's and then we all put together puzzles for about an hour! Ava Grace had a blast and she was really good at putting the puzzles together. We were amazed! Then she played with all of her babies and put them down for a nap so they could sleep while we went to buy some pumpkins to decorate. We bought pumpkins, a carving kit, a few other things and headed home. We had bagel bites, bananas, and strawberries for lunch then she napped for about 2 hours. After dinner tonight she painted pumpkins and had a blast!! Now she is snoozing in her bed...

She is now officially sleeping all night in her own bed!! YAY!!

Here are some pics from today!








I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Abraham's Offering by Danielle Rose

Have you heard this song before? It is AWESOME! A sweet friend of mine emailed me the link earlier this week and I can not stop listening to it. I hope you have a great day!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Nanny 911

So... when I was preggo with AG everyone said "Oh you are going to be so sleepy!" "a newborn is so demanding" "it's hard but you'll get the hang of it"

Well folks - Let.Me.Tell.You. - taking care of a newborn is NO PROBLEM compared to PARENTING a toddler. Seriously. For the past week everything that comes out of Ava Grace's mouth is NO and she wants to do the opposite of everything that we tell her. Now - in her defense she is not like that all of the time. She is such a sweet and fun loving little girl. Her personality is like none other and she will CRACK you up!! She will have you laughing so hard you won't be able to stop!!

I know it's just a "phase" - or I think it is. But, I still can't let her constantly get her way and think she rules this house. So... who did I turn to??

NANNY 911 OF COURSE!! I mean that woman KNOWS HER STUFF ABOUT PARENTING!!

I watched several episodes online today and this is what I learned. It really is common sense but it's kinda hard to stick with it when the going gets tough.

1.)STAY CALM - this is super hard for me and the hubby. But we talked about it and we are going to try really hard to just keep an even tone with her when we she misbehaves.

2.)TIMEOUT - we are already doing this but I found some new techniques with the timer and everything.

3.)BE CONSISTENT - this is SUPER IMPORTANT. I think we just couldn't find something that immediately worked with her so we jumped around from incentive charts and stickers, to timeout, to the sad spoon. So we decided that we were going to strictly do TIMEOUT for an entire month and then evaluate how it is working.

4.)BEDTIME - she needs to go to bed on her own in her own bed. She does sleep in her own bed but gets up at 3 and comes to our room like clockwork every night. And I have to lay down with her until she falls asleep and half the time I end of falling asleep at 8 with her and I never get to spend time with the hubby.

So... do you wanna hear my success for tonight?!?!?!

She got put in timeout twice. Once for backtalking and the other for refusing to wash her hands before dinner. She sat there for 3 minutes each time letting me know that she did "not like the timeout chair!" - which was perfect with me. I stayed calm and set the timer. Then when the timer went off I explained why she had to do timeout and if she was quiet then she could get up. She got up and went straight to the sink, washed her hands, then came to the table and ate 2 plate fulls of food! Yes - 2 plate fulls!! I praised her for her good eating and she got her 4th sticker on her Good Eating chart! (Only a few more and she gets a trip to ChuckeCheese and she is SUPER EXCITED about that!!)

So... How did bedtime go?? Well let me tell you I AM STILL SHOCKED AT THIS MOMENT!!

Nanny 911 said to just put the child in their bed over and over again whenever they get out and eventually they will get the point that you are the boss. Well, that's EXACTLY what I did and it only took 30 minutes and she is ASLEEP in her bed by herself!! She got up about 4 or 5 times and turned her lights on. I just kept turning them out and put her back in the bed. I did find her nightlight and turn it on just in case she was afraid of the dark. Now - she might get up at 3 tonight but I feel like we are on the right track. She really didn't have a tantrum about going to bed. She just kept getting up and standing at her door saying "Mommy will you come back?" Talk about BREAKING your heart! She's such a sweet girl! The last time I put her in the bed I think she was finally just giving up and she said "Night Night I lub you!" and that was it. Now she is snuggling with her Dora Pillow and her blanket! :-)

The hardest thing is being consistent!! But me and the hubby are both on the same page and that is really our main goal right now! :-)

And Ava Grace is not the only one comfy in her bed. Look at this sweet baby! She played hard outside with us this afternoon and is one tired puppy!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

I feel the need...

Right now I am feeling the need to have a better schedule. My laundry, dinners, routine, house cleaning, etc... It is all going downhill. So - that is my goal for this week! To get caught up on laundry first and foremost and then plan a better schedule and routine for the South family. What kind of cleaning schedule do you have? What kind of schedule are your kids on? How often do you cook?

And here is a pic of Ava Grace and her B.F.F. Dora! This was at her birthday party a few weeks ago! I love that sweet smile! :-)

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Sassy Girl!

I am BACK!! I can't believe it has been more than 6 months since I have posted. Thanks to Leslie at Lamberts Lately I have a new blog design! YAY!! Thank you Leslie!

So, I thought I would start back with some recent pics of Ava Grace. I took these yesterday evening. She was outside playing with her Barbie jeep and I managed to get her to stop for pics... with a little bribery of course :-) M&Ms do the trick every time... and they have to be "lellow" to work!



Monday, March 22, 2010

Fun Fun Weekend!

WOW! We had such a fantastic weekend! Aunt Caroline was here to visit and Saturday Ava Grace had 2 friends over to play. Her cousin, Colin and her best buddy, Parker. They had a blast!! We were outside from 10:30 am until 4:30 pm. We had a picnic lunch, played with bubbles, sidewalk chalk, bounced in the Sesame Street Jumpy, played with the Barbie Jeep, Parker brought over his tractor, and they played and played and played! We also dyed eggs for Easter Time and they had a blast!

Sunday we went to church and then to a wedding shower for a friend. Then we met up with Daddy and ate dinner with Pop Up.

Here are some pictures from this weekend! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!







Friday, March 19, 2010

I LOVE SPRING!!

It is starting to get warm outside and that makes me really HAPPY! I have played outside with Little Bit for the last 2 afternoons and she is loving it! This morning she woke up at 6:30 and said "I want to go outside!"

I have a feeling that we will be spending a lot of days outside this spring and summer. So, I think we need some more outside toys to play with. I know what you are thinking... "That child does not NEED any toys!" - well, guess what? I am about to justify that...

Right now this is what we have to play with...

Sesame Street Bounce House: It did have a tear in it but we found the patch kit and I fixed it up yesterday.

Barbie Jeep: Maybe when she is a little older she will drive this. She will not push the pedal. She gets in it and puts her 'baby for the day' in it and then gets out. She is afraid to push the pedal. :-(

little Swing Set - and when I say Little I mean l-i-t-t-l-e. It is for ages 1-3. She can not fit in the swing anymore and she is taller than the slide. But it is great for her 'baby for the day'

Tricyle: She had a tricyle but it is made so strange. It is a retro looking tricycle so it looks really cute but she is too short for it and I think when she is tall enough to use it she will be riding a regular bike.

That's it right now. I know what you are thinking... "THAT'S IT!" - I know it is a lot of things but she can only really use a couple of them and I would much rather her be outside playing nonstop instead of sitting in front of the tv... So here are some things I am thinking about!!

What favorite outdoor toys do your kids/grandkids love?!?!





Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Dora's #1 Fan!!

It's official! Ava Grace is Dora's #1 Fan! We stood in line to see Dora yesterday - not once... but TWICE! The first time we waited in line for about 30 minutes. The 2nd it was only for about 10 minutes - and IT WAS WORTH IT to see the SMILE on little bit's face!!

The first time we got to see Dora - they were only allowing you to take 1 picture and were rushing you to take it and go... well, that didn't really work for us. When Ava Grace had to leave Dora she was SO SAD! :-(

So I thought maybe I could take her to another section and play - WRONG ANSWER! Just when she thought I was not looking she took off in a SPRINT towards Dora. I caught her just as we got to the door where Dora was sitting and Ava Grace let out a "I WANT DORA! MY DORA!" So - that is why we decided to go thru the line again. And by the way it is REALLY HARD trying to explain to a 2 year old that she has to wait in line AGAIN to see Dora. The first time standing in line she was extremely patient. The 2nd time - notsomuch but she tried really hard!!

Then at lunch I realized where Ava Grace gets some of her impatience... ME! The line was SO LONG for pizza and it was taking forever and I caught myself getting so frustrated and impatient. Then I remembered that I had been telling Ava Grace to be patient for the last hour... So, God gave me a little lesson on patience standing in the Pizza Hut line. Being patient really is hard - so I guess AG and me can just work on that together.

Here are some pictures from our fun day! If we didn't live so far away I would take her every day this week - THAT IS HOW MUCH FUN SHE HAD!! The only time she stopped smiling is when she had to sit down to eat lunch... and when Dora went night night.


On our way to see Dora. She had to take 2 Dora's and Super Why came along for the ride too!


She was a little star struck in this picture! But this was our 1 picture. She has a look on her face like "this is MY Dora!"


This was our 2nd time thru. She first ran up to Dora and gave her a big hug and said "I LOVE YOU DORA!" - It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. And then she was trying to show boots her little Dora that she brought from home.



Having fun playing on the Butterfly Wall!


My nephew Roman on the NEWS! This was so cute!


My other newphew, Gavin - loving on Dora too!


Me and my sweet girl! I love taking her to do fun things like this!


After playing hard all day - she passed out with her new Diego and Dora doll.