Santa Claus is coming to town!

Caroline visited Santa a little early this year...actually a couple of weeks ago...and I'm just now putting up the picture. She smiles with her tongue out just like her mama does in pictures. :-)

We did a little decorating around the house today. I can't wait to buy our tree and sit Caroline in front of it. I have high hopes that the lights and ornaments will distract her for hours minutes.

I hope to do a post about our Thanksgiving vacation soon but it looks like it's going to be a crazy week. We'll see...

Hilton Head!!!!

So this morning I find myself in Hilton Head, SC. We're growing fond of this touristy little island about 5 and a half hours from home. We're here with Brad and Lindsay and Ma and Vern, and the babies! We have a three-bedroom condo for the week and I've already been able to check a few things of my must-do list: see an alligator and eat ice-cream from this little ice-cream shop in the square. I can't wait for Caroline to tug on my pants leg to tell me what kind she wants. I can't wait until she spots a gator or until she's old enough to paint her own pottery (we did that too).

Thanksgiving is certainly a great week to come down here. The normal summer crowds are gone (we walked right in to the Sea Shack restaurant where we waited outside for 45 minutes in May). We were able to park right in front of the Art Cafe. You can't normally part within a few blocks of the square there.

So while the babies sleep, we read, watch a little TV, or sew (Nicole, not me this time). We'll be back on Saturday and will have a few less things on our minds!

Crafty

I have moved on to yet another new crafty, homemaker project. I asked Mark the other day if he thought that I was one of those people that started projects and didn't finish them. I have gone from cooking to knitting to sewing to bread baking and....my new goal... to become the next great smocker. Mark assured me that while I don't stick with a craft for long I always finish the initial project that I started. With a clear conscience I took a smocking class on Wednesday with my neighbors. I learned a couple of stitches and feel hopeful that I can get started on a project in the car on the way to Hilton Head this weekend.

After spending a couple hours learning to smock and then another hour with my neighbor watching over my shoulder and giving me tips I was feeling pretty comfortable. I showed Mark my masterpiece and he asked me to pass it over. I reluctantly handed the pleated piece, thread and needle to him. He took a quick glance and without a word of instruction from me, he duplicated what I had just done. Well, doesn't he know how to make me feel good? :-)

As always, I am truly amazed at my gifted husband and I'm sure I will be thankful when in a couple of days I come crying to him that I have messed up. He will reassure me and teach me how to get back on track all without being taught himself. He's so crafty. :-)

We're ready...

for the beach! We're going to be gone for all of Thanksgiving week! Yipeee!

Accessories

A girl has got to accessorize right? When I was working at Ann Taylor Loft they always told us that accessories make the outfit.


Caroline styling her new bow. I want to find some bigger ones!!




Caroline showing off the hat I made for her before she was born. I think I need to work on my hat style! Stripes seemed so cute and fun at the time but it's not as cute on! Don't worry little one, I'll try again soon! Maybe a really girly flower will do - Lauren?! :-)

Babies, babies everywhere

Just a few more pictures of cute babies. The other night Mark and I watched Kelsey so that Brad and Lindsay could go on a date. I was so surprised at how different they are. Even though we have spent a good bit of time with Kelsey I really noticed for the first time their differences. It's like their personalities are already starting to show. Who knows?!

This is a picture of Caroline and her friend Reagan from next door. Reagan's Mom, Grandma, Aunt and I are all taking a smocking class together on Wednesday. Hopefully, we will be able to make sweet dresses for our little princesses!

Yard Work

I might say that fall is my favorite season, except for it isn't. There is one reason I don't like the fall...leaves! I dread the fall at our house because of all the leaves we have to rake! They are piled high all across the yard. Today we went to church and raked and blew leaves for three hours and then came home and raked/blew leaves for another couple hours. Caroline didn't help much but her sweet smiles provided lots of encouragement!

The older we get...

the younger we act. Last night we had some couples from Sunday School over for game night. I only have two pictures from the evening and a couple of fun videos. We had a good time catching up with friends. We used to get together frequently but life seems to have gotten busy and it has occurred less often. We thought about getting a babysitter to watch the babies upstairs while the adults had fun downstairs. However, we ended up not having a babysitter and I'm glad. Both Kelsey and Caroline did great! We just set them in front of each other and they entertained themselves all night for two minutes. :-) Thankfully they both received lots of love from everyone there and they both slept for the majority of the night.

I thought I might post a video displaying our childish acts, which would explain the title/first sentence, but that may have to wait for another day.

Nicole the boxer

Mark is normally the analogy person but I was laying in bed thinking tonight and came up with one for myself at the moment. I think I am a boxer sometimes. I don't know much about boxing except for what I learned from watching Million Dollar Baby. I think I remember learning that boxers always have to keep their feet moving. When Mark is gone I have always got my feet, brain and much more moving. I have to keep everything together for myself and Caroline.

I also have my hands up in front of me to protect myself. I can't allow myself to show any weakness while Mark is away because I'm in charge. When Mark comes home from out of town (or after working 10 days in row, the last 4 of which were 14 hour days) I ask him to join me in the ring. Not to fight...just to join me in moving our feet, bouncing around trying to keep everything going. Can you wash the dishes? Can you hold Caroline while I do some work for the church? Mark gladly joins in and we work well together as a team.

The problem is that when we are both shuffling around there is no time for fun, laughter or relaxing. As I said we work great as a team but there is not the connection or intimacy (I'm not talking about just that) that a husband and wife should share. It then gets worse if Mark says something, anything really that doesn't sit quite right. I immediately throw a punch to keep him at a distance. The punch is not to hurt him. I'm not really angry with him at all. I realize that whatever he said is not really a big deal and is not really the problem. The punch is just a way to keep him at a distance, to continue protecting myself and to keep things going. I realize that the "punch" is not fair to Mark but I have a hard time letting my guard down when he gets home. I was trying to explain this to Mark tonight but I'm not sure I did a good job. I just kept telling him that I wanted him to come home and "be gentle" with me. In my boxing analogy I want him to be the one to bring me back to my corner and offer me some cool water. I want him to put a bandaid on any hurts from the days he has been gone, to give me a pep talk or rub my shoulders. The hard part is realizing that occassionally it would be ok to ask/hope that Mark would be that gentle and loving towards me. However, I need to learn to let my guard down more quickly without the extra help from Mark. I know that it makes our relationship more difficult the longer I put up the guard. I need to take it down the moment he comes home. The quicker I can relax, the more willing he is going to be to relax as well. The self defense is something I'm sure I learned long ago from when my Dad traveled so much. Although I recognize the problem and have since Mark and I have been married, I need continued prayers to let go.

"...just a mouth"

Today I was telling Mark what a good Dad he is to Caroline. "You're so sweet. You love her and play with her and kiss her. You always make her laugh and snuggle her..." Mark says, "Yeah, she probably thinks I'm just a mouth since I kiss her so much!"

I guess he has to get all the kisses he can while she will still let him. :-)

Perfection...

well almost, kind of, sort of, not. Another new lesson that I have learned since being a Mom - nothing is ever perfect or complete. I've heard older, wiser women talk about this before but it is a new reality. Before having Caroline, I could do whatever I wanted with my time. Nothing in our home was ever perfect. We almost always had clean laundry laying on our bedroom floor, there were dishes to be done and dust to be dusted. However, if I wanted my home to be "perfect" I always had the time to get it done, had I really wanted it done.

Since Caroline has arrived there seems to be less time. :-) I have a long to do list and it just keeps growing. I like to feel like I'm on the ball and I like to complete projects. As my faithful blog readers read in a recent post, I want to feel productive. However, it is just not happening these days and I have come to realize that I need to be OK with that.

Mark and I talk several times a week about how thankful we are for our family, friends, home, church, etc. Thankfulness has almost become part of our daily conversation because we both feel it so deeply. Sunday afternoon we were sitting around talking about what a great weekend we had and how we are so thankful. Our life seems "perfect" or almost. :-) However, I couldn't help but acknowledge that while I am so thankful there is still an unsettled piece of me. When I thought of why that might be I thought of the mess of clean laundry on our bedroom floor and the leaves out front that need to be raked and how it was such a beautiful day that I wanted to go out and play. There was still much to be done. Mark, being the sweet husband decided that we should take care of some of that. We went outside and started raking leaves. We raked and raked for about an hour and then realized we had to go. Lindsay and Brad had agreed to watch Caroline for us while we went on a date. Mark started putting the rakes away and I thought I might have a nervous breakdown (it really wasn't bad). We left 3 piles of leaves in our front yard, half the yard raked and clean and the other half still full of leaves! I couldn't believe that we weren't going to finish the project, that it wasn't going to be complete or "perfect." I decided I could go along with Mark since he didn't seem to care. We dropped Caroline off with Lindsay and had a great date night!! We came home and the leaves and laundry were still there but I had a calm heart. We had spent time together and had done our best. Mark definitely helped to reinforce a good lesson! In the mess and chaos of this world, my life is not going to be perfect or complete. There is always going to be work to do. I will always find something else to put on my list. However, I'm hoping with each passing day that I get better and better about getting the important things done first and that I don't worry about the rest.