A Walking Wonder

I knew it would happen, but I wasn't ready for it. Anabelle started walking this week. She's done everything earlier than Sarabeth did, primarily because she has a big sister to keep up with. She's been taking a few steps here & there for a few weeks but only if we're coaxing her to walk towards us. This week she started going from one place to another on her own. Crawling is still faster, so if she trying to keep something away from Sarabeth she opts for the quicker getaway. Here are a few pictures of her on the move.

My New Hobby

I've always had a creative "itch" (for lack of a better word.) I used to do all kinds of crafty projects (when I had time!) but lately it's been much harder. Teaching used to give me an outlet for my creativity, but since I've been away from that for a year now, I'm having to find other ways to fill it. While reading this, please don't confuse the word "creativity" for the word "talented" because they're two very different things. I love to create, project, paint etc. but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a talent of mine. Just something I enjoy doing. What I've discovered lately is floral arranging. I always wanted to work for a florist and went as far as getting an application to work for TCU Florists while I was in college. I have no idea why I never filled it out. Anyway, moving into our new house and decorating it has brought back an opportunity to do that. I've made 3 arrangements for different places in our house and love doing it. They'd probably look much better if I bought the already-put-together ones from Hobby Lobby, but that wouldn't be as much fun. Here are my latest creations...

Anabelle's tubes in...

Yesterday was the day. Anabelle got tubes in her ears and did great! It was very fast and easy and I'm glad it's behind us. We had to be there at 6:45am (fun with an 11 month old who can't eat before the surgery) and we were home by 9:00. She was such a good baby all morning! She got a little fussy (I'm guessing hungry too!) about 20 minutes before they took her and they gave her some drops in her nose to sedate her. This was also to help when they had to take her from us so the separation wouldn't get her all worked up. Within 4 minutes of getting the drops she was loopy- looking at her hands and feet as if she'd never seen them before, laughing at everything- it was kinda sad but really funny too! Josh tried to buy a case of the nose drops to keep at home (kidding!) Anyway, we handed her over and about 10 minutes later they called us in saying she was done. The anesthesia was starting to wear off by the time we saw her afterwards and she was very groggy but not upset at all. She really didn't cry at all through the whole ordeal. By yesterday afternoon she was completely back to normal and was playing with Sarabeth like nothing ever happened. Thank you all for your prayers. We're so thankful!

My little beauties

Here are some recent pics of the girls. I've been kinda lazy when it comes to taking pictures and sending them out, so today I got caught up.

Something about pigtails just makes you want to smile, huh?!My bright-eyed beauty.

Sarabeth is growing up more and more each day. I look at this picture and wonder where my baby went- (but she'll always be my baby!)
Those eyes tell us everything. She hasn't been feeling well lately and we haven't seen the little twinkle in her eyes...I'm so thankful the twinkle is back!

Strike One

We started the oh-so-fun process of potty training Sarabeth this weekend. If you read the title of this post, you'll have an idea of how it went. Let's just say we're going to put it on hold for now and try again later. Enough said?!

The only reason we even had the opportunity to start potty training this weekend is because we weren't able to go to Austin. We had plans to go meet my parents, sister & brother-in-law and aunt to watch my uncle swim. I ended up taking Anabelle back to the doctor on Wednesday because she'd had a fever on and off for a few days and wasn't eating very well. Yup. Another double ear infection. She ran a fever from Tuesday night all the way to Saturday morning. We didn't think it would be a great idea to leave town with her feeling like that. We also have her surgery scheduled to get tubes in her ears- Thursday May 15th. I'll let you know how it goes!