The weekend...

We had a good weekend this weekend. Jim hasn't been feeling well but we still had a nice time, mostly just family time but that is the best part. Friday we just hung out at home. Saturday we went out for a late lunch and went to the outlet mall shopping. The girls had the best time running around outside and the weather was nice enough that they just had sweatshirts on and they were fine. Gotta love the South!!!
Today, Sunday was our busy day. Sunday School of course and Jim was pretty sick this morning so he stayed home so it was just the 3 girls. It was a great morning. I had a great helper with the kids and they were all pretty good. And the sermon was a really good sermon. I would give you all the detail but I am afraid that I wouldn't do Peppy (our pastor) justice. It was his Christmas Sermon and it came from Genesis 3. The very basic of it was that Christmas was a solution to a problem that started in Genesis 3... Sin. Sin is the problem and Christmas, the birth of Jesus was the promise. It was just a wonderful sermon. I took great notes so if you do actually want to learn more just ask me and I will be happy to share my notes.
Tonight was Allison's Christmas Play. She was just adorable! All the kids did such a wonderful job. Elizabeth was such a good girl, every time they were done singing she would say "Mommy, it's over?" She also thought it was pretty cool that Allison was up on stage. Elizabeth did a really sweet thing tonight. We bought the girls 'Ho Ho Ho' t-shirts to wear since it had been too warm to wear the heavy Christmas stuff we have. I put Libby's on her tonight and asked her who was on her shirt (the shirt has Santa on it) and she looked down at the shirt and said very matter a factly "Pappy". Now just in case you don't know... Pappy is my dad and the last time Libby saw him he had his beard and so she really thought Pappy was on her shirt. How sweet. But the good thing about that is that she remembers!!! She remembers!!! Granted it was only August since she saw him but she remembers. That gives me hope that she might be able to remember my mom even if just a little. Allison seems to remember a little, mostly she remembers when we took them to the hospital to see mom, which makes me sad but she remembers coloring on the bed with mom and remembers mom getting them little stuffed animals that they were selling in the hospital. She also remembers helping me and Grandma Bev make 'Special Soup' to make Grandma feel better when she was sick. I don't know if she will remember that forever but I am so happy that almost 9 months since my mom's death she can still remember.
Sorry I became a little downer but again with the holidays I am starting to really miss mom again! I am keeping myself busy so that it doesn't become unbearable but the next 3 days will be a test for me. The girls will certainly keep me from getting down too much.
On a positive note... it just a few days until Christmas and Allison is so much more excited this year. She just a few minutes ago, about an hour after she was put to bed just called down to remind me that when she wakes up there will only be 3 days until Christmas...do you think she is excited??? I love this age!

As mom's why do we do what we do...

I often wonder why I do some things when it comes to the girls. For example, I just spend 1 1/2 hours decorating cupcakes with cute little christmas trees, christmas bells and snowmen for a group of 2 year olds. WHY??? I know they are not going to actually look at the cupcakes before they dig in. But regardless I still stay up late making and decorating cupcakes. Instead of take the easy way out and just buying them. Gosh that would be so much easier. The really good news is that I get to do it all over again on Tuesday for Allison's Christmas Party. YEAH!!!
I have to admit that I do like making the cupcakes and have a good time trying to figure out what new way I am going to decorate them. So I guess I don't just do it for the kids.
Ok...now I am off to clean up my mess and to get some sleep.

Angels, Cookies, and Mermaids... oh my...

This week has been full of lots of things. First is the angels. I decided to do an angel project for with the kids this coming Sunday, so I have been trying to find a cute angel project. Well after finding it now I am trying to get all the prep work done for the angel. That means lost of printing and cutting of paper and paperplates. Allison is doing to decorate one as a test, I will have to take a picture of it and post it. I can't take the credit for the design. I actually took two examples and put them together to come up with what we are going. We shall see how it goes on Sunday.
On to the cookies. I have been making cookies and cookies and more cookies. I even did sugar cookies with the girls last night. They had so much fun! I rolled them out and then let them 'roll' them out some more. They picked the cutter and press the cutter and decorated them. They both even tasted their cookies after the cooled.
Last... Mermaids. Elizabeth has fallen in LOVE with The Little Mermaid. We let them rent it this weekend and since Friday night we have probably played it 6 times. Granted she doesn't watch all of it but she loves having it on while she is playing. The sweetest thing is when Ursala comes on she comes flying out of the room, "MOMMY MOMMY, fast forward Mommy, she scares me." She tries to say Ursala but it comes out something completely different. I would try to spell out what she says but I wouldn't do it justice. So we will have to see if Santa can bring her The Little Mermaid.
Another interesting thing that happened this week, well today was that we had a small Earthquake here in our lovely town of Summerville. If you are not from the area you may not know that there is a fault line in Summerville. Very few people know South Carolina is one of the most active earthquake-producing regions in North America. The last big earthquake they had in the Charleston area was in 1886. The earthquake was small in size. It was a 3.6. Jim said it felt like someone hit the house. I was in the car on the way to work so I didn't really realize what was going on, but there is a lot of people talking about it around here. No damage, just some cracked pavement.

9 more days until Christmas!!! The girls are getting super Excited!!! 5 more days until Allison play at Church, I am getting Super Excited to see her!!!

HOW DO YOU ASK...

Hello all! This week has been a pretty busy week. Work related mostly for me but still busy. At work each year we have a Christmas Party for some trouble children & the home that they live in. It was with week. I usually just get a gift and go to the party to help out but this year I stepped up an actually did some hard work. I helped office 'mama' shop for some of the kids as well as stuff for the party, and it was so much fun. I love shopping with other peoples money... lol! I also helped wrap the gifts as well as bake some cookies. Now I said hard work but really, I got to do 3 things that I love to do... shop, wrap, and bake. And the party was the best!!! It is wonderful to see the kids so happy and excited. I tried really hard not to cry this year and I have to say that I did a good job. Also this week, again through work, I was exposed to a program that I had not been a part of here in Charleston. There is a program here in Charleston through Children's Services where you can sponsor a foster child and get them Christmas Gifts. A group of us adopted a child and pooled our money together and got the child everything he needed and a few things he wanted. It was such a wonderful feeling to be able to help a child that may not be in the best situation due to no fault of their own. So that was my week in a nutshell.
The girls stayed pretty busy too. On Friday they had a Daddy/Daughter day! Daddy was off and the 3 of them seemed to have a pretty good time. They came to see me at work and went to the SW district office and one SW store and shopping. They ended the busy morning with lunch at Chic-fil-a with Mommy and Daddy! It was so sweet @ Chic-fil-a we were in the play area and Libby was pretending to get us food (chicken nuggets of course) and here is a conversation we had:
Libby: Daddy do you want Chicken Nuggets?
Daddy: Yeah, I will take some Chicken Nuggets
Libby: HOW DO YOU ASK???
Daddy: (with mommy rolling on the floor) Libby, may I please have some Chicken Nuggets.

I had a simular conversation with her too. Gosh they really do mimic what we do and say. We are working on manners (something that I think will never end) and when they want something I will say "how do we ask" and they are both learning to say "mommy may I please have..."
Another quick cute story about Chic-fil-a:
Allison had just came down the slide and went over to Elizabeth and moved her hair from out of her face and put it behind her ears. The 2 other moms there just watched and started laughing and saying how cute that was. I was so surprised, usually when she goes over to Elizabeth she will give her a hug or pat her on the head, I have never seen her do that before. Do you think I mess with keeping their hair out of their face too much? LOL
Proof (not that I needed more) that your children mimic what you do and say.

Update on us... mostly just random things that have been going on....

You know sometimes you just find a perfect book and want to read it over and over again. Well mine is a child's book. LOL
Last year on a whim I bought the girls a book about the First Christmas. We read it once or twice last year and I thought it was a pretty good book but this year we have read it 3 times already. It is such a good book. It doesn't just talk about how Jesus was born in a manger but it goes through the detail of how the angels came to Mary and Joseph as well as why they were in Bethlehem. It also goes on about King Herold and how Joseph, Mary & Jesus went to Egypt until it was safe again. It is so good and Allison seems to really enjoy it. Elizabeth is still not sure but again she is only 2. Tonight Allison got really upset when I got to the part here King Herold dies. I had to explain to her that he wanted to hurt Jesus, Joseph and Mary. So sweet! I just love her.
This weekend we went to see the Christmas Lights here in SC. It is so much fun. They have a Santa's Workshop. It is huge. They have a handful of shops as well as "train" that you can ride around too see the lights. They also have fire pits going and a carousal and a rock wall and vendors selling all kinds of yummy things. You can buy Smor kits, or funnel cake, or cotton candy. The girls had so much fun! We had a little bit of trouble when we first got there because of the line of cars waiting to get in but when we got in and parked the girls had a BLAST. We rode the 'train' which is actually a golf cart with cars attached. We also got to ride the carousal twice!
Allison has an exciting week this week... oh what we consider excited now that we have kids. Allison had gymnastics today and tomorrow she has practice for Christmas Pageant at Church, then on Thursday she has a field trip to the Library. She is SUPER excited. I am sad because I will not be able to make to this trip. I went to her first field trip to the Pumpkin Patch but this time I already have a commitment at work that I can't get out of.
On to Elizabeth, she is still in the Wipe stage. I forgot to get her one tonight before bed and she got very upset and I had to go in and get her one so she would calm down. Also her newest thing and something I am very PROUD of is that she is now singing the Days of the week song!!! She sang the entire song. I can't believe that she is already starting to learn the days of the week. Now granted she still has trouble with colors, but hey there is no set way that they have to learn something. If she can learn the days of the week before all the colors that is fine with me.
Jim, my sweetie, is now helping me with Sunday School. The teacher that is usually in the 3 year old room with me is out for the month of December to be with her youngest daughter, who had to have heart surgery last week. Please pray for Melissa and Kailey and the rest of their family. But back to Jim. He is so sweet to help me with the kids (we are in the 3 year old room in for our Church). Jim, the lucky devil, also has the rest of the Fridays off work for the rest of the year so he can use up his vacation. I on the other hand use every little bit of Vacation as soon as I have it. LOL
You will all be happy to know that I have sent out all... well most of my Christmas card out yesterday! I still have a few that I need to get out but for the most part they are out!!! YEAH! I am doing pretty well this Christmas. House decorated... check, Cards out... check (well almost check), gifts... check except stocking stuffers and Jim (but he is usually pretty easy). The only thing I haven't started is my cookies. Yeah I was supposed to start them tonight but I decided that updating my blog was more important... may Thursday night! : )
Well I am going to go enjoy a quite house. Girls are sleeping and Jim is at a late basketball game through his basketball league and won't be home until late. I think I will go read a book or maybe fold some clothes...
Have a good night! WOW... I wrote a lot this time didn't I...

A busy weekend...

So Thanksgiving is over and went well, nothing burned, nothing forgotten... All was well. Then came the craziness of Black Friday. I was one of those crazies out before dawn. Not that I was looking for any of the big ticket items but because there was a few things on sale I really wanted to get and because Jim needed to go to work on Friday so I needed to get back early. Either way OMG! What was I thinking! People are CRAZY. Thankfully I decided that I would stay cool calm collected and not get all wound out with everyone else. Walmart at 4:45 am on Black Friday... not for the weak. There was pushing and shoving and ugly looks and so on and so on, but I got was I went for and got out of there, with no battle wounds to see.
We are trying to stay little this Christmas, trying to focus Christ's birth instead of all the presents. I am really going to try to stick to that. I have pretty much decided that what we got this weekend is it aside from a few stocking stuffers. Now Jim just has to make me stick to that. : )
As a kid I never knew how much 'stuff' our parents did for Christmas. And I often forget until it is time to do it all over again, I guess that is why we do it every year. The decorating, and the cooking and the cleaning and the shopping and more decorating and christmas cards and wrapping gifts and more decorating and more cleaning and baking cookies and more baking and more baking and then cleaning up the baking. LOL It is making me tired to think or type all that.
Oh, and I have to say that I would make Bev so happy. We let the girls put the decorations on the tree and I haven't moved any of them!!! We may have 3 ornaments on one branch but the girls are so proud of their work that I am not going to rearrange them. I am working on letting go of the idea that everything has to be perfect, if the girls are happy and proud of their own work then so am I!!!

She does the strangest thing...

Elizabeth that is. She has gotten into a strange stage... well has been in a strange stage. First for some time now she has to have a 'wipey', aka a baby wipe, all the time, even at night. She wants one for bed. Sometimes she will clean things but a lot of the time she just holds it. I don't know if that means she wants to be clean or if that means that we use wipes too much. Either way it looks like a wipe is now her security blanket... lol. The other stage is not so funny or cute! It is a stage that we have seen over and over again and frankly are a little tired of, literally. It is waking up at 1 or 2 am in the morning and not wanting to go to sleep. Now this has been Libby's MO... why I am ever shocked is beyond me. Ever since my sweet little child has been a baby she has been a horrible sleeper. 2 1/2 years later we thought we were out of the woods but Libby still has some tricks up her sleeve so if you see me or Jim and we look tired, it was probably a bad night with Miss Elizabeth.
The other day I was talking to someone about babies and they asked me if I missed having one around or wanted another and I said 'no, I still have a child that doesn't sleep through the night why would I want another'. Either way I still love my girl, just a little more at 2 am on a Tuesday night and we have work in the morning.
Elizabeth is growing up in so many other ways! She is talking so much although I think I am the official Libby interpreter, sometimes she talks a little fast and runs her words together and it sounds Greek. I love it when she makes 2 words into one. Like, grandma-grandpa-they are not 2 people they are one. Another favorite, Yes-No, I just love when she tells me yesno. lol The life of a 2 year old.
She does so many sweet things, like always wanting to be your helper, or being your 'doctor' to make you feel all better, or saying 'God our Father' prayer before bed, she says Amamen instead of Amen, or saying 'I Love you' with out someone saying it first.
Well now it is time to go put my sweet non-sleeping, wipe carrying, greek speaking 2 year old to bed and Allison too of course.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Amazing Kids & A season of firsts...

My children on a regular basis amaze me. Even if it is how quickly they pick up on things. This week they amazed me by truely understanding the meaning of Operation Christmas child. As a family we filled 2 shoe boxes and I wanted to involved the girls so I had them help me fill the boxes with all the stuff we got. Before doing it I showed Allison all the goodies we got for the boxes and I asked her if she understood what we were going to do with them and she knew exactly. She told me that we had to take them to church b/c they were going to give the toys to little kids that don't have toys. And this evening Elizabeth amazed me by being a brave little 2 year old. We had to run to the mall to pick up their pictures and we decided to take a walk around the mall because the girls wanted to see the Christmas Decorations. During our walk of course we came upon Santa. Well Allison pretty much crawled up daddy and wouldn't let go as soon as she notice Santa. Elizabeth on the other hand wasn't too sure. I asked her is she wanted to just say hi and she said "Yeah... No." Then she thought about it a little more and decided she wanted to say hi so we walked up to Santa and she went right up to him and sat on his lap! I couldn't believe it, typically because of Allison's reaction she would not do that, but she did. The helpers looked at me and said 'Do you want a picture?'. Well, YEAH... I don't know when this might happen again. So we got Elizabeth's picture with Santa!
This was just so wonderful!
I always want to keep my blog fairly upbeat and about our family but the reality is that sometimes not everything is upbeat and sometimes we are just sad. Today was one of those days for me. I have been doing... well for the past month or so but today was just one of those days. I know why, it is because tomorrow would have been my moms 52 birthday. Each month I have had trouble, realize that another month has passed without her. But now with Allison's birthday and her birthday we are starting to go through a lot of first. Alli's first birthday without her Grandma, mom's first birthday after her death, our first Thanksgiving without her being around, our first Christmas without her, my first birthday without my mom...
Actually, what first triggered me realizing that I have staring to go through a lot of first again was when we took the girls to JC Penney's for their pictures. OK, you are thinking, 'This woman is crazy, what does that have anything to do with anything.' Well, the last time my mom was down to our house before she found out she was sick was Thanksgiving and she took us all to Penney's so she could get pictures of the kids, Allison, Elizabeth, Colton & Broc (my sister's boys). And this was the first time that we had been to that store or that studio since we were there with her. I was fine until we started picking out pictures and I realized that I no longer had to get her pictures. Strange right? But anyone that has lost a parent understand that the littles things will stop you in your tracks.
With all these things coming up in the next month or so I know that she is going to be in my heart a lot and I may be sad often. First's are always interesting because you always want to experience your first. Your first kiss, first child, first love, first steps... I could go on and on but the reality that some first are just not as fun. But they are things that you have to go through and it can only make you stronger by going through them. I am so thankful that I have a wonderful husband and two very sweet girls to walk these steps with me. Even if I don't want to talk I know that I can count on my sweetie to just give me a hug.
Sorry to end this blog on a sad note. Happy Birthday mom, we love and miss you.

Happy Birthday Allison!

Ok, so first things first. Disney on Ice was so much fun. Both of the girls could barely sit when Mickey, Minnie and the others came out on the Ice. They both had ear to ear smiles pretty much the entire time. Elizabeth was having a blast eating Popcorn. She really enjoyed that daddy gave her the tub so she could just put her hand in and get it herself. At one point I looked over and the tub was over her head. I guess she wanted to make sure to get the very last morsel. I couldn't get the camera on fast enough to get a picture but trust me it was very cute!!!
So today is Allison's 4th Birthday! I can't believe that 4 years ago I was just meeting that sweet girl for the 1st time. That 1st day was kind of a blur. I remember at about 4 am that morning after I had Miss Allison I was a rush of energy so I wrote in my journal about my experience. Granted it was not the greatest experience and at that time still feeling all that pain the only thing I could think about and write about was this sweet precious little girl that had the sweetest and softest cry that even the OB commented on it. Actually, my OB was the first person to ever call Allison 'Alli Cat' because her cry sounded like a little cat. I also remember having lots of friends that afternoon and evening coming in to visit and Jim running back and forth from home to take pictures and then email them to the Grandparents and other friends and family. Since then our little girl has really grown up on us pretty quickly.
Here are a few little random things about Allison that make me smile:
1. She thinks that when she has her purse or necklace she is a mommy.
2. She won't let Libby kiss her because Libby 'slobbers on her'.
3. She wrinkles her nose up when she smells a flower.
4. She has told me that she doesn't like corn because she is too small, she will like it when she turns 5 years old.
5. How she concentrates so hard when you are reading to her because she likes to be able to 'read' it herself and she tries to remember what you are saying for each page.
I could keep going but I won't. Someday I will have to type a list of little random things that make me smile about Elizabeth. There are a lot of them.

A Saturday Morning/Allison's Birthday weekend...

Saturday mornings are usually pretty fun in our house. Jim has brain washed Allison into asking for Pancakes, but that is ok with me because my sweet husband is busy right now emptying the dishwasher so I can make pancakes. This is a typical Saturday.
Next we attempt to do some cleaning while the kids take every toy out and play with it for about 2 min. LOL Today is a rainy day so there will be no outside time today but after nap we are in for a great surprise. Disney on Ice! Allison and I went to Princess on Ice last year and loved it so we decided to do Disney on Ice with the entire family. Hopefully it will be lots of fun for both girls.
Allison's weekend of Birthday stuff is in full swing! Last night we went to Applebees for her birthday dinner, her choice not ours, and they sang to her and brought her ice cream. Then we were off to shopping so she could buy something with Grandma & Grandpa Habeck's Birthday money. She got her very first Barbie Doll! She was pretty set on a cupcake maker but daddy quickly pointed out that she had one... me! LOL But when she made it to the Barbie isle she quickly knew what she wanted. I will have to post a picture of her and her 1st Barbie, after Pancakes of course...
Well off to make those Saturday Pancakes!

Children-Random Thoughts

Children... They are so amazing, @ least mine are. HAHAHA
It is just amazing how quickly they grow up. Strange things have been coming to my mind lately, it might because the holidays are coming up but I am guessing it is because my 1st baby is going to be 4 on Sunday. 4, FOUR, QUARTO! What the heck? Where did the time go? I remember the day I brought both the girls home from the hospital. I thought I would never see the day I got to sleep 7 hours straight let alone see the day when my kid turns 4! Or see her write her own name, Allison's new talent.
Writing your name... how simple right??? But this seemingly simple act has me turning in circles. I am insanely proud and if you haven't heard me say it a million times consider yourself lucky, but she can write her own name. That means that she is growing up. I have been thinking of all the things that she now longer needs me for... and as much as it is liberating to know that both of my girls are able to walk now, and get out of bed on their own, can feed themselves and are closer than ever to not needing me to change their diapers. It makes me sad that I am going to lose those moments too. Like carrying them everywhere and going into their room and seeing their eyes pop open and me being the first thing they see, like looking down at them while they nurse, doing 'airplane' to feed them or laugh at the mess we made the first time we tried s0lids, or using the 'tickle monster' when they are on the change table. These are all wonderful moments that you get during the tiring and sometimes overwhelming times when you have a child that needs you at every moment of every day. Gosh am I going to miss those days.
But now I am trying to think of some of the new things that we are getting to do. Like answering Allison many questions about what ever she might see that day. Like a police man helping someone or a bird flying in the sky, or a flower wilting, or someone crying. Or like playing with Elizabeth and helping her realize the names of colors and shapes, or singing a song with her and her telling me "I DO IT!!!" : )
Just think in a few years I am going to be looking back and saying how much I am going to miss the things that I haven't even got a chance to experience yet.
God knew what he was doing when he gave me those girls, correcting, when he gave us those girls. Because for every sad moment we have with them we have a million happy wonderful ones! God is good!

Hello Everyone

Well, I might be a little behind the times but I am trying... Slowly.
This blog is meant to be all about our family. Just in case you don't know us let me tell you all about us.
We started out as Jim and Jamie Habeck, we got married back on September 2, 2000 in Charleston, SC. Then just over 4 years later we added a wonderful, beautiful and might I say smart little girl, Allison Grace, to our family on November 16th, 2004. And being a slightly crazy family, Jim and I decided to give it one more shot so 19 months and 3 days later we added yet another wonderful, beautiful, smart and busy little girl to our family, Elizabeth Lyn aka Libby, to our family on June 19, 2006!
I have to add that during this time we and our girls were quite the mobile group. Since Allison's birth we have moved from Charlotte, NC to Lake Park, GA to Valdosta, GA to Summerville, SC and that is where we are now. Allison has had as many houses as she is years (well will on Sunday, 11-16). Libby on the other hand has been in the same house since birth. We have had a busy few years but we have loved every minute. Now with the girls getting old, we are going to continue to have busy lives but it is going to be a slightly different kind of busy. So there is the history in a nut shell.