Christmas lights

While looking at some Christmas lights Nat got the spirit and said very wistfully, "This is the spirit of the woooooorld." Meredith responded, "No, it's the spirit of Christmas."

Then somehow the kids got to talking about cows. Meredith announced, "There are real life pink cows. If there weren't pink cows we wouldn't have strawberry ice cream!"

Ryan asked if Natalie was asleep. She said, "No because I'm still talkin'!" That was an understatement. Copby said, "It sure doesn't sound like you're asleep." Agreed, son.

And the quote of the night. Natalie said, "I love Jesus when He was a baby." Meredith replied, "I love Jesus because He's my bestest, bestest, bestest, etc. friend." :)

Bama looked at the lights, too.

Lately Meredith and Natalie have been chasing caterpillars. Today they found one and have been playing with it. Ryan came inside and said that the 'callapitter' pooped on Meredith's finger and she looked at it and said, 'AH!' A few seconds later Meredith came into the kitchen with the caterpillar in a cup and said, 'I want to eat lunch with the callapitter.'

Today Nat and I saw some deer while we were driving. I had to stop and let all three cross the road even though a couple were debating it (b/c I have a fear of one running into the side of the van. This is actually not an irrational fear. From what I understand, it happens often). Natalie saw them and said, "LOOK! REINDEER! I love reindeer. They are so. beautiful.'

Then she started singing in Solfege.

Don't ask, I have no clue.

Last week Natalie decided she was going to spend the night with my mom and dad (which is a big deal; that girl doesn't like to be away from HER mom and dad). All went well and yesterday my dad gave a brief report on what they talked about (I hadn't heard his experience b/c he was out of town most of last week and went to the WKU/UK game all day Saturday (TOPS FOR THE W!! 32-31!!)). He told us yesterday that Natalie walked up to him that night and said, 'Make like a banana and split.' That girl is hilarious! I have no idea where she picked that one up.

Then Saturday morning before he left for the game, Natalie said she had a joke for him. Then she said, 'BIG TOILET.' Dad said he just looked at her, lol! Not sure where that one came from either.

*Sigh* That girl...

a couple of weekends ago was meredith's birthday. we didn't have a big blowout for her b-day party. we stayed home and hung out as a family. meredith told me it was the best birthday party ever. first, meredith went with ryan to the store to get her birthday meal, a frozen totino's pizza, per her request. the rest of us had pizza hut. then, ice age three, the movie meredith picked out to watch (with a little coaxing from her mother; i'm so sick of princesses) was put on the flat screen while i worked on birthday cake. instead of making a giant rapunzel cake like last year (as i said, i'm sick of princesses), we opted for individual cakes. i found a recipe on my new favorite website, pinterest, used some mason jars that hadn't been used for the tomatoes they were intended to preserve, and mixed color after color of cake batter. all the kids were impressed. meredith was right. this kind of party is the best ever :)

Also, meredith started school last week. she's a big kindergarten girl!

And to think, this is where it all started!

Meredith quote:
(After she saw me take some Aleve): Meredith: "I know how to get rid of a headache. Take some medicine, then you close your eyes and lay down and get some rest, then you wake up and look in the mirror, then you try to feel your headache, and then it's all better!"

Natalie quote:
(After I caught her in the band-aids this morning)
Me: "No more band-aids. If you keep putting them on pretend boo boos we won't have any for real boo boos. Where are the other two that were on your leg?"
Nat: "They're in the bedroom."
Me: "Why did you take them off (your pretend boo boos)?"
Nat: "They weren't working anymore."

Lover Boy

Colby is the sweetest guy with the biggest heart. Often he comes to me to give me a hug or tell me he loves me, or he climbs in bed with me because, 'I just wanted to be with you. I haven't been with you much today.' When he plays with our pets, he is so gentle and affectionate, even talking to them in baby talk. For some reason I always imagined having a rough and tumble kind of son, and he's definitely all boy with the running and jumping like a super hero, shooting his Nerf guns, and driving his matchbox cars all over the house. I just never imagined him also being so sweet, loving, and kind. I pray he finds the wife God intends for him to have, one that will indulge in Colby's affections and won't take advantage, a wife that will be grateful for his personality and won't take it for granted. She's gonna be a lucky lady. I know because I'm blessed to have Colby as my son.

sorry it's been so long. so much has been going on that i haven't had much time, so i'll give some highlights and silly stuff really quickly. a couple weeks ago we got a dog. his name is Bama. he's a lab/chesapeake bay retriever mix, and he's super awesome. he's already housebroken, which is very important to me, and he is so good with the kids. we're happy to have him here :) natalie has been going on about black cats for the past several months. she keeps telling us how they're bad and they scare her. i asked her about black kittens and she said they are only a little scary, but she still hates other black cats. i'm not sure where all this is coming from, but whatever. also, all natalie can talk about (other than black cats) is God. she wants to know what He looks like, what color His hair is, and where He is in heaven right now. then the more complicated questions come, like 'why did God make heaven? why did God make earth? why does God like us?' we go around and around with these questions constantly because the answers that are age appropriate aren't satisfactory to her, but i can't expand much more because they'd fly over her head, so i had gotten to answering her with 'you can ask Him when you meet Him.' then we get into a discussion on going to heaven and dying, which brings up questions of my maternal grandmother who died of cancer, and questions about death, etc. thankfully these questions happen most often in the van, and by the time it gets to this point, we pull into the driveway and the conversation is over. i think this is proof of God's sense of humor; He HAS to be laughing at the questions like bullets coming from the back seat and my desperate attempts to answer every one without losing my mind before we get to our house. and i admit, sometimes i look up to the sky out the windshield and cock an eyebrow. God knows it's my way of saying that He better be glad He has all the answers because He's gonna have a lot to field when natalie gets a hold of him, lol! it's hot. but i know you know that. colby and meredith are good. not as much on that front as on nat-nat's. thank goodness, ha! i'll try to post more of their little quips as they come. they're all so hilarious!

cows

Meredith: "Is there milk in ice cream?" Me: "Yes." Natalie: "Do cows drink milk?" Me: "Water. Baby cows drink milk that comes from their mommies." Nat: "What do they eat?" Me: "Grass." Meredith: "Hay!" Me: "And feed." Nat: "Where does our milk come from?" Colby: "Cows." Meredith: "No it doesn't." Colby: "Yes it does. You squeeze one of those things that hangs off the cow and it comes out." Meredith: "No, the milk man makes it!" Me: "No, the milk man delivers it to the store after the milk comes out of the cow." Meredith: "Well then who puts the milk in the cow!?" *sigh*

Battle of Wills

I'm currently in a standoff with Natalie. She got angry at me and threw her cup of milk on the floor. When I told her she couldn't go anywhere or do anything until she cleans it up, she had a come apart complete with crying, screaming, and stomping. As irritated as I am, I'm confident that I will win this battle because 1) I'm the mommy, and 2) I'm bigger than she is. Now the task is not laughing at her tantrum while I wait and keeping Flint from licking the milk up. I told her I could wait all night, and secretly I hope it lasts for at least a few more minutes because knowing I'm gonna win isn't something I get to experience everyday, and I need the confidence boost, haha!

Also, I posted new pictures in the gallery to the right. Check them out ")

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Everything I Need to Know, I Learned in Preschool

After repeatedly trying to encourage her NOT to talk after her day at school because Natalie was asleep in the van with us, I gave up and let her subtract from her 20,000-words-a-day quota (she's such a girl like that). Here are a few little gems I picked up from her on the way home:

"Mom, I want to save some of my french fries for Natalie to eat when she wakes up. Can I have, like, six more?" (They were my french fries)

"Mom, do you know what Grant found at school today? Grant found a giant black bug at my school. Everyone was scared of it except for me and Grant. It was dead."

"Mom, can you hurry but just a little bit?"

"I learned that there's a planet that's really close to the sun but it's tiny."

"Mom, there's a bug on my back pack."

"Mom, what do bugs drink?"

Let's see, what's new...

Not much going on in the Sewell household as of late. March Madness has hypnotized Ryan but it's not anything that we aren't accustomed to (and not something he doesn't deserve, either). It happens every March. However, Ryan has been cutting back a little at work, and in combination with "springing forward" a couple weekends ago, he's getting home earlier AND before dark, so now I can get a break from the kids while they go outside and play with their dad and they're getting more homemade meals because I'm not constantly refereeing their come-aparts. Bliss!

Also, I shaved the cats. Yes, I know, that sounds strange, but our long-haired Macy needed it desperately as she was riddled with fleas, so someone had to do it, and because Ryan doesn't like cats, the job fell to me. I feel bad looking at her because she looks so goofy, but we've all had a poor haircut at some time in our lives, why shouldn't a cat have to suffer with humans in that area?

This is before I got started on her tail, which is bare besides a puff ball of fur at the end (which I secretly love. She'd make a great dust brush):

Last Saturday my brother and his family came over for my birthday lunch at Mom and Dad's house. The kids did some bird chasing while the cousins were in town.

And here's a little random nugget. Ryan filling out his NCAA Tourney bracket. He gets serious about it.

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Quote from last night (on the way to bed):

Natalie: why did you turn off the kitchen light!?

Meredith: the kitchen needs to rest, too.

Natalie: no, it can't! It doesn't have any eyes!

And today where Nat colored all over herself with a marker (please ignore the laundry).

Seesters:

And Colby pretending to be mad

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Last Thursday Colby attended a 'banquet' with his basketball team for the end of the season. After eating pizza, the coaches gave out trophies, which Colby promptly broke. Out of three trophies Colby has received, this was the third to be broken. we should take out stock in super glue.

And, as most of the Midwest and South knows, a system of heinous storms came through on Friday evening. We his in our bathroom for about 45 minutes while the storms passed over us, but I got a couple shots of the back end of it. We are very blessed that minimal damage was done in our neck of the woods (Bowling Green/Warren Co/Allen Co) because, from what I understand, it was predicted that we would get the worst of it.

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Natalie conversation of the night: "I need more medicine. I have a frog in my mouth. I can't tell him to get out. He's mean. He's black, and I don't like black because it isn't my favorite color. I only like colors of the rainbow. I wanted to see a rainbow."

No more cough medicine for this girl!

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Longest. Day. E.V.E.R.

For those who read the last post, I have an update. Yesterday I had my 11 week appointment at the doctor's office. Both the doctor and the Med tech did ultrasounds and unfortunately came to the conclusion that our baby's heartbeat had stopped and he or she had passed away at 8 1/2-9 weeks.

This morning I had a d&c to finish a process that my body didn't start on its own. For those that don't know, it is an out patient procedure but requires being put under general anesthesia, and although I had the procedure with no complications, pre op and recovery were both time consuming and took the better part of the morning and early afternoon.

All that to say, to add insult to injury, both girls ended up getting pretty sick while I was at the hospital (they were somewhat ill the night before, but took a turn for the worse; Colby had been sick enough to stay home one day earlier in the week, so we know where the germs came from). So when Ryan and I came to my parents' house to check on them, we ended up taking both to the doctor. Guess whose house has a case of the flu. Thankfully it has been caught early and seems mild, both girls have started perking up a bit, and while they have some of the same symptoms neither has ALL of them. So we take what tiny blessings we can get today.

This has been our day. Prayers are appreciated ")

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New Addition

To anyone that has been on this blog the last day or two, this may come as no surprise. To the rest of you, this will probably come as no surprise to you also. This September, we are cautiously expecting a new little Sewell to make his or her appearance! We are very happy and excited to welcome another little one. Ryan and I both believe that children are a gift and a blessing sent down from the Father of Lights (James 1:17) and while we are usually surprised by any new additions (really. The best laid plans of mice and men, right?), we are always willing to accept any gift from the Father whenever He sees fit to bless us ")

Of course most people can't look at an ultrasound picture and distinguish up from down, I'll give you a head's up; there's not really much to see in these pictures, even in real life, so don't sweat it. Regardless, here is the proof. The bottom picture has a reading of our Little Jiaozi's heartbeat (Jiaozi is a Chinese dumpling, more commonly known as a pot sticker, but authentic Chinese dumplings were the first thing I craved during this pregnancy, hence one reason for the nickname. Oh, and it's pronounced jou-suh), 182 beats per minute.

Conversations at bedtime

When Meredith was still pretty little (before she was 2) she had to be rocked to sleep every. night. I always reminded myself that those were nights I would never regret, and I don't. (Colby has been a champion sleeper ever since he was born.) Natalie has to be talked to sleep. Some nights are not easy, especially when we're so tired we can't stand it, but there are a few nights where I can't help but laugh and enjoy the conversational topics Nat picks.

Tonight was Dragon Tales, Natalie's go-to show. Honestly, I'm so sick of hearing about dragons that I could scream, but she's all about them. So that's what we talked about tonight. And blackberries. And how red berries are spicy but when they turn black they taste good. I also made a hollow promise to buy some blackberries at the store tomorrow with the hope that it will be forgotten, (have you SEEN the price of a teeny container of blackberries?) but Nat will probably remember.

Some nights are so tough to get through with a child that refuses to lie down and rest (even after bribes of fun-filled tomorrows), or rest when she finally lies down (she dozed off three times just to wake back up talking about berries again), but it could be so much worse. At least we can have fun three-year-old conversations while waiting for sleep to finally come. ")

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The last few months in pictures

Since I've fallen behind (new phone, no good android app to publish posts), I'm gonna do the last few months in some pictures I managed to snap. Colby's first basketball practice, his birthday, Christmas, Natalie's birthday, some cookies, some silly things, and Colby's first game (2 points!).

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