Man Oh Man

It's been so long since I've blogged! Honestly....I haven't missed it. I don't have enough complete sentences in my head so how am I supposed to get them written down! Last night I got over 8 hours of sleep so I'm feeling a little more spunky today :)

The Trobough's have been keeping busy lately. I keep the girls entertained at the gym, playdate, MOPS, church, and various outings around town just to stay out of the house. Tantrums from the girls and mental breakdowns on my part tend to happen the most when we are at home, so for now, I am choosing to stay busy :)

Chris is busy at work. Long hours but at least he has a job and he enjoys it!
WC still LOVES MDO at Fairborn First Baptist. Her and Natalie go on Wednesday's from 9:30-2:30 and it's the best five hours. Ever.
Natalie is walking like crazy and has almost mastered a slow run :) She has to keep up with WC!
I somehow got pregnant. Seriously I have no clue how it happened. HA! We were told by doctors that I wouldn't be able to have any more kids since Chris's chemo and WHAM! I get pregnant with T3. We were expecting it, but oh how blessed we are! So here's my Christmas present from Chris since we couldn't fit 3 carseats in the Mariner:

 

It was such an awesome surprise!

I may spend most of my days cleaning up explosive poop, pee accidents, and breaking up cat fights, but my Loves are my life!!!! Aren't they just the cutest?  :)

Go Bulldogs!

 It's that time of year again!!! Our family loves this time of year. College football has begun and we're going to be busy every Saturday for a long time :) It's a fun thing that we all enjoy! We're looking forward to a great year watching the Bulldogs win victory after victory (or hoping at least)!!!

Life Lately

I feel like I go through blog spurts....I am actually proud of myself for not consuming all of my time on the computer. However, I wish I could say it was because of better things, but darn it! I've just been to lazy and tired :)  Actually, I've been crocheting a lot. A LOT. I've just launched my own little "mini business" called Baboo Baby. You can find me on Etsy and I have a FB page www.facebook.com/baboobaby. I have just recently noticed there is another Baboo Baby on FB (don't know why they let me create the page if the name was already taken) and I am the page with the yellow sign :) NOT the home and garden page! I have also been reading like crazy about different discipline techniques using the Bible so that has been a new interest. I've finally realized that I needed some Christian guidance so these books have helped reference a LOT in the Bible that I've always wondered how to preach it to my kids. I felt at the end of the ropes with Miss WC....this last book is called Don't Make Me Count to Three and it's wonderful. It actually gives examples of how to discipline your kids using scripture. So far, it's effective. Now I just kind of feel overwhelmed. Thankfully, I'm not supposed to be perfect and I have been given a lot of grace!

 

 

Check it out! Totally worth the money! All nine dollars of it :)

Chris has started a new position at his work. He's the new Executive Officer for the Commander. Which means long hours but at least he's keeping busy! Chris has also been a rockstar at physical therapy! He told me last week he was able to shoot some hoops with his therapist. Which hasn't happened in almost 2 years. Huge accomplishment! 

We've launched a new small group within our church with another family that meets at our house on Sunday nights, so we've been busy praying and planning for that. This is an exciting thing because our other small group wasn't so small anymore. We miss all of our friends from the other small group, but we're looking forward to what God will be doing with this group!

WC is keeping busy with playdates, Mother's Day Out, and Gymnastics. She is such a social butterfly. Just the other day I asked why she was cleaning and she told me, "I'm cleaning for my friends come ober (over). To play...". This was news to me. I hadn't invited anyone! Ha! She is always surprising Chris and me with silly sayings and she repeats everything we say...She loves to call me dude which is kind of funny now, but it's on the line of being disrespectful. Chris and I are learning about boundaries with WC and what to let her do because everything is a challenge. We are starting to reap what we sow with her though.....lately she's been using her manners without being prompted. It's just taken so darn long!

Natalie is just happy being Natalie :) She loves to play and any kind of social interaction. She loves dogs and little babies (I think she forgets she is one!) and everything that sister does is HILARIOUS. She's going to be walking soon.....she is cruising from one piece of furniture to the next! Nat's a great eater too. She eats with such force that I have to really keep an eye on her. Everything just tastes so good! Which I can relate too.....

All in all, everything is great :) I am so blessed!

Date night of the year!

Let me just start out by saying that since Natalie has been born, I haven't been away from my kids for more than 4 hours at a time...it's been 9 1/2 months. Needless to say I was doing a little jig allllllll the way to Cincinnati!

We started off our date night at The Montgomery Inn Boathouse. We enjoyed ribs, shrimp, homemade potato chips, and broccoli (at least I did anyway!). This was such a pretty place. The restaurant had a great view of the river but too bad it was not pleasant outside!

 

Then we headed over to the Reds game and drove around looking for the closest handicap parking. I have got to hand it to Chris...he's a champ on those crutches!! I can barely make it down the drive way walking with those things. Let alone walk long distances in a ball park!

  A really nice ballpark!!!

 Our view from our seats!!

The Reds and Braves played a great game and in the in the Braves won! YAY!!! There were very few Braves fans around...... We stayed for the fireworks after the show and it was so beautiful!!! They were right over the river and you could see all the boats gather around for the show too. We can't wait to take WC sometime. She would love them!

 

We ended our evening with a quick stop to the Hofbrauhaus.....this crazy German bar where half of the menu I couldn't pronounce. They had a polka band and everyone who worked there was dressed in your traditional German garb. It was just a crazy place!! Inside there were long wooden tables with benches and you just sit with everyone! People were dancing on the benches and acting a fool! ha! I was definitely enjoying people watching and I realized that half of the people there were under the age of 25. University of Cinci was not too far away so I'm guessing that is this bar's main clientele :) We had a great time here.....it was nice to hang out with friends for about 45 minutes!

The drive home was loooooooooooong. After a few wrong turns and hunting down an open ATM, we made it back home to relieve our AWESOME babysitter, Becca (who conveniently lives across the street). She's only 14 (or 15.....can't remember) and she is one of the few teenagers I trust with my kids. She tells me everything that happens and was a real trooper dealing with Natalie who went TEN HOURS without nursing. Becca is GREAT!

This date night was a real treat. It's not something we can afford all the time.....but TOTALLY worth it. Chris and I needed this date night B-A-D. 

We didn't get home until 1:45 and didn't go to bed until about 2:30, so needless to say I was really tired when the girls woke up!! I think WC was up a whole hour by herself before she realized that Chris and I were home....I walked in to the living room and all her toys were out there and she looked at me with this big surprised look on her face then asked where Becca and Sarah (Becca's little sis) were. Poor baby thought she was home alone!! Well...poor baby nothin'.....she was probably LOVING it. HA!

I am so blessed to be able to share these kinds of moments with my husband!

Here's to date nights!! HIP HIP HOORAY!  :)

Strawberry Pickin' at Fulton Farms

We had a great day! This Ohio summer weather is absolutely gorgeous and we went to Fulton Farms with a few friends this morning. We have never done this before since our move here almost 3 years ago. WC is at the age where she would actually enjoy something like this!

We loaded up a few buckets of berries and now I have lots of things to make :)  I'm going to make jam, strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, and a few other delights along the way! The berries are so sweet and now I'm not so sure I could ever buy store bought again....

 WC kept yelling, "Straw-da-berries mom!!!!" She tasted one, but quickly spit it out. She said she was going to eat it but I knew better..........

 There were so many strawberries to be picked! I don't see how people do that for a living. My back was killing me after only 30 minutes.

Natalie at 8 Months

Sighhhhh....my 2nd offspring is now closer to one than newborn. She is growing so fast and I really have been trying to just soak her up before she looses the "baby" part of her.

She's our "smiley girl" and "boo head" (a random nickname...) and she really does light up a room with her smiles. Natalie thinks that everything WC does is HILARIOUS (which I don't find so funny sometimes) but I love the bond that they already share. They're favorite time with each other is in the car. WC will just act a fool and Natalie always lets out her belly laughs...so of course I can never get a video, because I'm driving!

At 8 months, Natalie is completely on table food and breastmilk. It's been about 2 months of her being on table food after only doing baby food for a few weeks (following her sister's footsteps here) and I can never give her her food fast enough. She wants everything on your plate and she wants it now!!

She is low-crawling and will regular crawl for about 3 feet. But she's really slow at that so she just flops down on her belly to go really fast :)

I think she will be giving up her 3rd nap soon.....but she's a really good napper now, so I am very thankful for that! I haven't even begun night training yet for sleep. I have a tender heart when it comes to crying it out at night. She is waking every 4 hours and every now and then I'll get a 6 hour stretch. I know she can do it...and she's ready, but I'm not I don't think...almost there though!

Natalie is really easy to be a mom to. You can give her a bucket of toys and she'll entertain herself for at least an hour...then she'll move to the entertainment center and pull out all of the DVD's. Rosie is her pal, and she loves to eat her food and her hair. Lovely.

Natalie has made such a happy addition to our little family :)  She is the spitting image of Chris, but definitely a momma's girl!!

Parenting by The Book

I've been very convicted lately by my newest read, Parenting by the Book, by Dr. John Rosemond. He is one of the "old school" docs along with Dr. Dobson and Dr. Lehman :) And much kudos to my awesome brother-in-law for surprising me with this book through the mail :) It was a nice package to open!

Before reading this, I had never thought about how parenting has drastically changed since the late 60's early 70's. I have wondered, "Why in the heck was it SO easy back then to parent? Why were children much better behaved?". It's because of  "psycho-babble" and "ADHD" and all that other nonsense. Post-modern Psychological Parenting (PMP) is the term he has coined for the way parents parent their children now a days. Long gone is the advice from "Grandma" and how quickly parents send their kids to therapists for "behavior" issues when the real issue is parents don't know how to parent. Not to say I do this perfectly. HA HA is what I have to say about that if you know my amazing but stubborn 2 year old.

I'm not going to keep babbling about the book...because I could bore you on things that may not be of interest. But I do have to mention 10 verses that Dr. Rosemond pointed out about "what the Bible says" about discipline. I am not afraid to spank. I'm not afraid to discipline. I'm doing it out of love and out of obedience to My Heavenly Father.

1. Discipline and love are two sides of the same coin.
         The Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in  (Proverbs 3:12)
2. Punishment is NEVER pleasant but produces great benefit for the person punished
         No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of    righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it  (Hebrews 12:11)
3. Punishment is essential to proper discipline
         Because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son (Hebrews 12:6)
4. Proper discipline validates a child
        If you are not disciplined....then you are illegitimate children and not true sons (Hebrews 12:8)
5. Obedient children are pleasing to their parents
       Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul (Proverbs 29:17)
6. Children are to obey their parents
       Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord (Colossians 3:20)
These six stood out to me. And I copied everything he said...so yes I'm plagiarizing but I'm admitting they are not my own thoughts!

God has really been working in my heart about turning to the Word for EVERYTHING. It's a good practice to start and I've seen a dramatic change that He's made within me.

I highly recommend this book. It is biblically sound...a little old school, but hey.....I would rather be "old school" than considered part of the generation now that I am in. Parents have it all wrong....I wish I could just tell everyone about this!