3 Part Day

Part 1

We met Eric at his work to help him mail merge some letters. It's very sweet. Eric insists that I need to come help him do this mail merge each year. I'm totally flattered and feel very needed and don't have the heart to tell him he could totally do it himself. It's quite straight forwards. But I don't mind one bit. Today, Eric even turned to me in the mist of the rush to get the document ready for me to merge and said, "You look great by the way." I seriously smiled for 5 minutes. I couldn't help myself. I felt like the most beautiful woman in the world.

Part 2

Totally spur of the moment we met my friend at Chutes and Ladders. It worked out perfectly because we were pretty close by and needed to stay in the area for Party 3 of our day. My friend and I always have great conversation and our kids couldn't play any better together.

Eisley has been biting lately. She bit my nanny boy yesterday, she bit my stomach today and then she bit my friend's son today. I've got to keep my eye on her. Hopefully it's just a phase.

I love this series of pictures.

Part 3

Somehow I'm lucky enough to have a father who will "hire" me to stain his deck while he watches the kids. So that's what we did this evening. I stained the deck while he entertained my two napless children. It was a selfless offer to say the least. It would have saved him money and energy to just stain it himself. Thanks Dad!

Dinner Table Talk

A quiet day at home with the four kids. We played outside in our driveway for a while. We also played at our neighbor's house for a little bit. It's always nice for the kids to have a change of scenery, change of toys and for me to chat with adults for a bit!

Just a few of the little things in the day that brought a smile to my face.

Some how the remote control car ended up in the bush. Who knows.

Emmett poured some of the water from the water table into one of my flower buckets to make his own pool. Genius.

Bandaids. $1.24 well spent.

Banana. Ice cubes. And her classic scrunchy nose. It kept her happy while I made lasagna.

A quiet day at home with the four kids... that is until Eric got home and we sat down to dinner.

Tonight over dinner, somehow the subject of premarital sex came up (I have absolutely no recollection how this subject even arose, but somehow it did). We've got to take advantage of those teachable moments when we can! Now, I am pretty confident that Emmett has no idea what sex is, but still we explained to him that you wait until you're married to have sex. That is how God designed it. He then told us who he wanted to marry....

"Eisley"

"Sorry sweetie, she's your sister, you can't marry your sister."

"Mommy"

"She's already taken. You can't marry anyone in your family."

"Wyatt" (his cousin)

"He's in your family, and he's a boy. You need to marry a girl."

"Lauren and Maisie."

"You can only marry one person. Whoever you marry needs to love Jesus. And you need to love Jesus too. You both need to love Jesus even more than you love each other."

I think by this point we had totally lost him. He was quiet. Trying to figure out what to make of this deep conversation.

"Mommy, please may I have some chocolate milk please?"

"Of course sweetie. Thank you for asking so nicely"

4000 hits

I was just the 4000th hit on my blog! Wow, that's alot of hits. My 13 followers must be really busy reading my blog! Good job guys! That's like 35 hits per post!

No pictures again today, sorry friends and followers.

Eric gave me two gift cards for my birthday - the gift being a shopping trip! I love shopping and don't shop for myself very often, so this was a perfect gift. I spent the afternoon shopping while Eric watched the kids. And by "watched" I mean hung out while they slept. They both slept until 1 hour prior to me arriving home. They never sleep that long when I'm home. So unfair!

Here are my observations from my day of shopping. First, it's hard to totally relax and just take my time. I felt like I was going to be needed at any minute. That they must really be missing me. That Eric was just sitting on the edge of his chair watching out the window for me. As I learned when I returned home, none of this was true. Second, $75 sounds like alot of money until you go shopping. Man, I blew through it with out blinking my eye! Third, I have a really hard time buying full priced items. I was struggling between getting 1 or 2 full priced items or more clearance items. I think I often make the mistake of getting more items because they're on sale when I'd probably get more use out of one full priced item. That being said, I walked away with all clearance items. Hopefully I made good decisions! Finally, I have a hard time shopping for myself. I actually came home with more for the kids than for myself. Their stuff is cheaper so it's not so scary to buy something when you can get an entire outfit for $10!

That's all for now.

Emmett loves Garage Sales

Have I mentioned that Emmett loves garage sales. Whenever we're in the car leaving church or leaving Target he'll say, "Mommy, I don't want to go home. I want to go somewhere." "Where do you want to go honey." "I want to go to a garage sale." "Ok sweetie, we'll look for one on our way home." So, today we did. We spent $2.25 and got 2 books and a movie for Emmett. And a book for me. The only hard part is tearing him away. Both tearing him away from the garage sale, but also tearing him away from the toys that are laying around... not for sale! It's pure torture. We went to one sale that had ride on toys strewn all around their front yard. Emmett wanted to ride the red tractor SO badly. "Sorry, sweetie, that's not for sale. That's not ours. We can't ride on it." Doesn't go over very well with a 2 year old. He does a pretty good job and I get an opportunity to exercise my patience and calm speaking.

Have I mentioned that Eisley crawls both up and DOWN the stairs now! She finally learned how to lower herself backwards down the stairs and I'm thrilled. This is kinda old news, she learned sometime last week, I just forgot to blog about it. She also lowers herself off the couch. The accomplishment of this skill makes my life so much easier. I love it! I still get a little nervous, but I can handle a little nervous.

Sand Balls

On a hot, windy, summer day I can't think of anything I'd rather do than watch infant/toddler/preschooler friendships develop... at the beach.

Emmett and Kieran threw "sand balls." We had to applaud their ingenuity. They found the "no throwing sand" loop hole.

Stellan was surprisingly patient with Eisley's advances; kissing, taking away his toys, pulling his hair, holding his hand. This girl is not shy.

Cullen and Emmett "swam" in the water. They were surprisingly adventurous. They would dip their faces in the water, come up with slightly distressed looks in their face, see that the other person wasn't complaining and then go on with their swimming. Way to go peer pressure!

Maisie was being a good little Mama; making sure Eisley felt loved by sprinkling her with sand. I pulled out my camera just seconds too late to capture Eisley sitting between Maisie's legs, both of whom looked quite content!

And finally, Emmett making sure that Eisley knows who her number one fan is.

Bells and Blossoms - Eisley's 9 mo Stats

Eisley's 9 month Stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 4 oz - 10th%

Height: 27 1/4 inches - 50th%

Head: - 40th %

And she got her 4th tooth today

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It may or may not be news to you that I have a wedding flower business named "Bells and Blossoms by Alyssa Theisen." I have only done 1 of 2 steps to legally register a business name, hence the "by Alyssa Theisen" part. Business names do not need to be legally registered if they have your full name in it. "Owning a Small Business in MN 101", more classes to follow in future posts.

Anyway, so I have wedding on Friday which means that I've been working all day on wedding flowers. I realized you really can't get anything done while caring for 2 children so we took a little break to "bike" actually trike to a couple garage sales in our neighborhood. Emmett LOVES garage sales. He sees it as an opportunity to "play with toys." After nap my mom came over to entertain the kids which was a huge help.

Emmett watching a movie.

Eisley ripping apart a dahlia. I hope they're not poisonous!

Some of the fruits of my labor.

If you had been...

If you had been...

...at our house today, before our play date, you would have seen the kids "sliding down the water fall" into the pool. They just couldn't wait to get it outside.

If you had been...

... at the first 30 seconds of our play date, you would have seen Emmett wet his pants and my friend graciously clean it up.

If you had been...

... at our "water park" today, you would have seen 5 kids smiling, splashing, screaming with delight and soaking up the sun while slathered in sunscreen.

If you had been...

...at our lunch today, you would have seen Eisley flaunting her adorably chubby thighs as she crawled onto the picnic table. I think we need to teach her some manners!

And if you had been...

... at our dinner table today you would heard Emmett declare, "Mommy, you don't eat the presentation," as taught to him by his father regarding the lemon and lime placed on top of the deliciously grilled chicken.

And if you had been...

...sitting in the rocking chair in my son's room reading a book while he drifted off to sleep, you would have been bubbling over with love and adoration at the amazing privilege it is to be his mom.