Out with a bang

The tour is over and our Mr. is home, hurray! Well at least for a little while :) Overall I think my birdies and I did pretty well. I was able to keep us really busy and around lots of people which is always good for us. I poured all of my creativity into re-doing the bathroom to surprise the Mr. when he got home. I mean I am talking about stripping wallpaper, patching holes and lots of painting. I am really happy with the way it turned out and he was definitely surprised. I will post pictures soon. PrettyBird and LittleBird got haircuts. This was LittleBird's first one although I think I am the only one who can tell she got a haircut. Things went well for the 2 and 1/2 weeks he was gone, that is until 24 hours before he got home. LittleBird started saying her tummy hurt and about an hour later we all saw why her tummy was hurting, all over our living room recliner. Oh yeah it was bad. About two hours later PrettyBird said she wasn't feeling well and proved it on our living room rug. This continued every hour until about 10 the next morning. It was a looooong night. BabyBird got a small case of it and since she is still mainly nursing it wasn't too gross. So at the end of the stomach plague there were about 10 loads of laundry (shout out to my M.I.L.for helping with that), 6 pillows in the garbage and a recliner that is completely taken apart and still sitting on the front porch airing out. Not sure if the chair will be saved, but I am trying. So it is good to be healthy again and it is good to have our man home. I will leave you with a cute photo of the older birds. They are planning a Christmas tea with their little friends, this is the pic we put on the invitation. Spot of tea anyone?

Where?

Where did fall go? My last post was at the beginning of fall. It was just starting to cool off and I had all kinds of fun fall things planned for the blog. It is now freezing outside and I didn't put up a single fun fall thing. Oh man. Well here I am now. Fall was really good for us in a lot of ways but we also had several "stretching moments". You know those times when you are not sure how things are going to happen and you can feel yourself getting pulled and stretched like silly putty. Living out of your comfort zone and blindly trusting. Yeah those are always fun times. But seriously we had a great fall, our Mr. was home with us most of September and October. It was so great to just spend time together as a family. We went on a couple road trips and just enjoyed being together. Because he was home that meant he wasn't playing shows, no shows equals limited funds know what I mean. But the Lord was good to us and supplied all our needs including a new (to us) van when big red bit the dust. And once again I am humbled and repentant of all the days I had a bad attitude and questioned how things would work out. Lets see have I ever gone hungry? no. have I ever been homeless? no. have I always been given more than I deserve? yes. Some day this silly mind of mine will finally wrap itself around the concept that I am loved and provided for even when it seems the opposite.
So here we are, the beginning of November. The Mr. is on the road again and these three birdies are growing up before my eyes. I am actually staring to plan a first birthday party, eek! I am also setting several goals for myself for the next couple months, I should make a list and post it then maybe I feel more accountable. I also want to do a couple fall recaps. For now I will leave you with a favorite family pic from on of our little trips. How was fall for everyone else?

Goodbye August

Seriously cannot believe it is already September, summer flew by. I am very happy of the thought of fall though. I have always been a cold weather fan, not that fall is cold but definitely a step in that direction. August was a HOT month for us. I am a baby when it comes to hot weather, I just don't function well. Aside from the heat august provided us with some great memories. BabyBird started crawling which as I said before was a surprise since her sisters didn't start crawling until they were older. She also decided to end the month by starting to stand up! She looks so short when she stands up its adorable. LittleBird potty trained and I am a happy momma to only have 1 in diapers now. She was so easy, only took like 2 days. She would get a jellybean every time she went. It was really cute to see her running down the hallway bare bottom chanting, " I get a jelly bean." It was a sad day though when the jelly beans ran out :) My little brother also turned 18 this August. Now that makes me feel old. We just had a small gathering with family to celebrate. It was his first birthday without mom, so we just kept it simple. I did however manage to find the shirt my parents had made for me when he was born. It has his name and says that I am him his big sister, and I could fit into it! I was pretty excited that a shirt I wore when I was 10 still fit after three kids. And to wrap August up my sis-in-law ( who has an amazing voice) sang the national anthem at a local baseball game and PrettyBird got to go to her first football game with her daddy and grampy, she loved it. So thanks August, you were good to us. Here are some pics to re-cap the month.

Sigh....

I find myself sighing a lot this morning, do you ever do that? Not sure why I am I guess maybe I am feeling contemplative. The Mr. headed off to Nashville this morning for some songwriting and the birds and I are taking it easy. I already had one gigantic coffee and since BabyBird decided to only take a 30 second morning nap, I think another cup might need to happen. We may or may not stay in our pajamas all day. No big deal, right? When Babybird was first born she slept like a champ, I couldn't believe it. However things have increasingly gotten worse. I know everyone says I should just put her in her bed and let her cry, but man is there anything else I can do. I know as her momma I need to teach her to sleep and how to go to sleep just as I will teach her other things. But teaching things at 3 in the morning is not too fun. And speaking of the BabyBird, she crawls now. The other birds didn't crawl until they were 9 months old, but I guess she feels the need to keep up with her sisters. She even pulled up to standing the other night so she could reach her sisters in the tub. I guess it is time to really baby proof the house. As I type I can see her chomping away on a wicker basket I have sitting on the floor. She also thoroughly enjoys chomping on toes and not just her own. It will probably really hurt once she gets a tooth, so watch your feet if you ever come over. (Please ignore the chipping off green nail polish, I promise she didn't eat any)

Little trip

Seabird had a show a few hours from home this weekend. It was an outdoor show so I packed up the birds and headed down. I strategically drove down early so we would do the driving during their nap time. Since the Mr. had some free time before he played, we headed over to the historical area of the town. There is a replica of a fort, a crazy awesome climbing tree and the original cabin that Lincoln's parents were married in. It was a lot of fun. I feel a little cheated in the area of American history, not sure if I just slept through that class or what but I really need to freshen up. There was a super old graveyard there. One of the tombstones had the date of 1793. It was the stone that belonged to the lady who brought the first spinning wheel to the state. The title put on her stone was "Revolutionary Patriot." What an amazing title to be remembered by, I found it inspiring. After visiting this area it makes me look forward to taking the birds on more trips to visit historical places. I hope they will develop a love for history and everything we can learn from those before us. Check out some of my favorite pictures of the day. Sadly the only picture I didn't get was that of PrettyBird dancing nonstop during the show, it was awesome.

New Things

The Mr. is home and we are loving it, we even got to go on a little date night last night. Some dear friends of ours have been working for several years on opening a salon and last night was the grand opening. Sam is an AMAZING hairstylist and the sweetest guy ever. His wife and I actually went to high school together and she is super awesome as well. Last night they opened thier super chic and beautiful salon called High Five Salon in the Cincinnati area. It was so exciting to see the dream unfold, they have been working hard for years on putting this together. It was very inspiring to me to see them living out their dream. It wasn't easy and they worked really hard and will still work really hard but how cool is it that they made it happen.


It encourages me as we continue on our journey of being a family while supporting the Mr. in his adventures on the road. It isn't easy and it seems like every other day there is another set back, but we are working hard and believe in what we are doing. I don't want our success to be defined by our bank account, rather success should be if we are keeping our joy in the midst of whatever is going on and loving each other more than we love ourselves. If we are blessing others around us and growing as individuals and as a family then I think we are very successful despite what the checking account says.
If you are ever in the Cincinnati area and want the best haircut you have ever had then stop by the High Five Salon. Make sure you call weeks in advance though cause this place is books fast!

Excuses, excuses

I really need to stop this once a month blogging. But once again the days turned to weeks and the weeks to a month. I have a pretty good reason though.... WE MOVED! Yay so excited to be in our own home again. We have been living with family and it was a really good thing for us but it is nice to be in our own home again. BabyBird's room is full of boxes and there is still wallpaper to strip but we are here and happy. And if that wasn't enough good news here is some more; the mr. is going to be home from touring for almost a month! So excited to have some good family time together, maybe even packing up the birds and going on a little vacay. I seriously need to do some back posting cause some really cool things have happened this summer. Thanks to the few of you who check in on me and please keep checking.