Avery loves bible stories, so tonight she and I rented "One Night With The King", which is a story about Esther. It's an "adult movie", and was a little over her head, but she still enjoyed it! Avery and I don't get much time together anymore, just the two of us. Daddy was kind enough to watch Liv so we could have a "date night" in mommy's room...

Here we are enjoying some cuddle time, and of course, POPCORN!

How funny is this? I found these pictures in Avery's album, and just laughed. These were taken at her Aunt Holly and Uncle Jon's wedding reception in A-TOWN when she was 3 1/2. She didn't want to be there, obviously. I just couldn't resist sharing...

Someday they'll be mad that I liked to match their clothes.

I know I thought the matching photos of Josh and I are pretty silly.

But for right now, I'm in charge, and darn it...I LIKE IT!

I sometimes wonder if this is why I am the kind of mother that I am. I'm WAY TOO overprotective, I tend to shelter them, and I don't let them out of my sight. Do you think that if Avery would have been "normal, healthy" that I wouldn't be the crazy-anxiety-obsessed-mother that I am? Who knows.

When Liv was born, we were pleasantly surprised that she was totally healthy. It was very odd being able to have our baby with us in our hospital room, and not have to go down 2 floors, have a pass, do a 3 minute scrub, and put on a gown to see our child.

Every day, when the task of being a mother seems to never end, and get old...I have to remind myself of what I went through to have these girls. (What we went through to get Liv will be for another blog entry...)

Oh to be a mother...a lady on Oprah once said "Motherhood is about finding the rest of your life inside of you and giving it to someone else" Isn't that the truth...

When Avery was around 3 months old, I began to realize that clumps of my hair were coming out in the shower, and while I was brushing my hair. At first I was kind of freaked out, but with some research, I found out that after giving birth it's normal. I remember when the hair was growing back the little annoying 'baby curls' that I would have in the front of my hair. I hated these with a passion.

Well, I guess I forgot about this "normal" occurrence that happens until last week. Liv is now 4 months old, and my hair has begun to come out in clumps again. I guess it's a small price to pay for the precious girls that I have...

I measured how many inches of snow are in our backyard today...15! We have been in a Blizzard Warning for a couple days now. School is cancelled, man...even Subway was closed last night! We're supposed to get another 2-4 inches today! Let is snow!!!!

Avery's imagination was at work tonight. She watched her 'night night' movie, "Duke and the Great Pie War", from Veggie Tales. She has this thing inside of her, where halfway through a movie, she immediately has to 'play' the movie. She can't watch the whole thing, and THEN come out and play, but has to right in the middle. Tonight she came out and told us she was getting married to Duke. Duke...being played by Simba our stuffed Lion King lion.

It was bedtime, and Daddy was saying "Avery, time to go to bed." She says, "Not yet...I have to get married first". Daddy says, "You have 2 minutes to get married then". So, here goes Avery over to the stuffed Lion (who has an Easter egg on his head as a crown) and hugs and kisses him. Then, we hear her say "Okay, we're married now!". To show his devotion to her, Duke gave Avery a seashell (played by an Easter egg), as a "symbol of true love" as Avery says. She then says that now Duke has two wives, her and Petunia. We then go on to tell her that Duke can only have 1 wife, and she says Duke picks her 'cause he loves her the most...

Bedtime comes, and Avery decides that Duke doesn't sleep in her room (thank God), but he sleeps in the living room, "'cause that's where Lion husbands sleep". Before she goes to bed, she plants another kiss on him, followed by a "goodnight Duke"...I hope she didn't hear me laughing.

I don't know whether this is cute, or just plain weird that my daughter plays getting married to a stuffed Lion...Lucky for me, I found a photo that I took back in October of Avery and her Lion husband...

Liv learned how to roll from her back to her tummy last week...

she no longer likes to lay on her back anymore...

All 4 of these ladies were amazing! I'm kind of partial to Sabrina now that I know she's from Rick Warren's Saddleback church! But, man...Stephanie and Lakisha are AMAZING too!

LOS ANGELES (PD) — Sabrina Sloan, one of 10 girls left in this season's American Idol competition, grew up singing at Saddleback Church.
"She's incredible and we want her to win," said Rick Warren, Saddleback's pastor.
At recent worship services, he joked with his congregation: "Don't even think of coming back to Saddleback next weekend unless you've voted for Sabrina 100 times this week!"
Warren considers Sloan like a daughter; in fact, he officiated her wedding to Chip Sloan. "Of course, I'm about to pop with pride over Sabrina, who has been like another daughter since she was tiny," Warren said.
Sloan's mother, Mary Scherff, was a long-time staff member at Saddleback Church and a friend of the Warren family.
"Mary is one of my dear friends and was an indispensable long-term staff member at Saddleback for years," Warren said. "She ran all kinds of ministries and orchestrated Saddleback's huge 25th anniversary celebration in Angel's Stadium in 2005."
Stand-out performerIn last week's competition, Sloan stood out among the 12 girls. After her powerful performance of "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," judge Randy Jackson said: "We've finally got ourselves ... a competition. That's the way to put it down!"
Sloan, who calls Studio City in Southern California home, says she's been singing since she was 3 years old, when she stood on a table at Chuck E. Cheese and sang "Tomorrow" from Annie.
Sloan – known by her maiden name of Scherff at the time – is a 1997 graduate of Mission Viejo High School in Southern California, where she starred in school musicals. In 2001, she graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., with degrees in theater and communications studies.
With faith, anything's possibleOn the American Idol Web site, Sloan says that her greatest obstacle in life came just one week after 9/11, when she moved to New York City and lived in a cockroach-infested closet apartment to pursue a singing career. There she landed a role touring the country in the Broadway musical Hairspray. After the Hairspray tour, she moved to Southern California, and then traveled to Minneapolis for the American Idol auditions.
"I'm now living my dream and am confident that anything is possible with faith and diligence," she said on the Idol site.
Sloan says that her mother is one of her heroes because she has lived her life by faith. Sloan's grandfather, Leroy Anderson, served as pastor of Prince of Peace Church of God and Christ in Buffalo, N.Y.
On the Idol site, Sloan listed her personal goals: "To provide for my family, to be able to support those in need around me and around the world, and to make music I am proud of."
Though American Idol contestants are prohibited from performing elsewhere during the show, Warren says he hopes Sloan will sing at Saddleback Church the first Sunday after the show ends – and he has faith that she'll be singing as the new American Idol.
"Of course our entire family, our entire small group, our entire staff, and entire church is TIVOing every episode and praying for her," Warren said.
Sloan will perform with the other Top 10 girls this Wednesday on American Idol at 8/7Central on Fox.
This article includes reporting from The Orange County Register and WGRZ-TV Channel 2 News.

Liv had her 4 month check up today!

She got 3 shots, and did pretty good with that.

I think the Tylenol helped!

Here are her stats:

Weight: 13 lb 6 oz, 50%

Height: 24 in, 25-50%

Head: 15 33/4 in, 25%

Here is Liv resting after her shots...

the Tylenol DEFINITELY kicked in at the right time!

Now that Liv has learned how to use her back and tummy muscles more,

she doesn't stay laying in her papasan chair anymore.

Here is what she does...

I was pleasantly surprised with the guys this evening.

Here were my favorites...

Sometimes I really think they look alike, and other times, very different.

But, all the time....I think they're priceless

This photo hangs in one of our hallways. I was bound and determined to get a good photo of Avery when she was 2. On one of my trips back to Onalaska, we went to JC Penney for a photo shoot. Avery was not very cooperative that day. This is about all she wanted to do...cuddle with blankie, and have her sucky. At the time, I was frustrated that she wouldn't sit up and pose for the gal. Now, it hangs in our hall as one of my favorites...

Before we had Olivia, Avery would play in her room a lot of the day. Since Olivia has come, I spend a lot of time in the living room now. I guess this means that Avery can no longer be alone in her room playing, so she daily brings out toys to the living room and plays out there. It makes for a HUGE mess, and since Avery is not the greatest at picking up, mommy ends up cleaning up her room, and her "living room" too...

My sweet baby Liv turned 4 months old today. This last month has brought a lot of changes for her. She has officially grown out of the 'newborn' stage. As sad as it is, I really enjoy this stage of her life. As a baby, I often felt like she was just a 'blob' that was in our house, demanding everything out of me, and giving nothing in return. It is hard to adjust to another person, with whom you just met, that is completely reliant on you. It's very overwhelming, and takes a little while to get used to.

As she grows, I feel my love for her growing and deepening. There is nothing like the feeling you get when your child wakes up from sleep, looks around for you, makes eye contact with you, and gives you a big smile, as if to say "I'm so glad to see you. You make me so happy." Man, there's nothing like being a mommy...

Why is it, that up until today,

every time I tried to use the nose aspirator on Liv's nose,

she cried and threw a huge fit?

Today, she decided that now it is funny, and it makes her laugh...

I just don't get how it can change so quickly...

So, today I reluctantly registered Avery for preschool for the fall...I didn't have a lot of time to think much about it, because this school fills up really fast. I had to immediately sign her up as soon as the papers came in the mail. The director did tell me that so far her class has 9 kids, 8 of which are girls...YIPPIE!

**"After Jesus got done doing His miracles, God gave Him children. He didn't have a wife, 'cause she died. He has a boy named Lauren. Lauren wears a bath robe."

**"Mom...we're from the movie 'The Vengeance of the Cow Snackers'"...(I have no idea what this means)