The Avonlea Way: Maggie 14 months old, Jacob 2.5, Logan 4

Agh... more technical difficulties. I have been trying to upload my pictures since Tuesday. I finally googled it and had to do some "run" and then "install" feature on the computer, but I got it!!

Here we go!

It's been another good month. Just waiting and waiting for some warmer weather! We had more of a tease in February than we have had in March for some sunny, warm weather.

Logan is still a wonderful big brother and as sweet as can be. He's funny too and he will crack himself up, which cracks me up. He has been enjoying "reading" his Bible and devotional book. So, that's been fun for me.

Jacob is doing well. On somewhat of a whim, Justin asked Jacob if he wanted to put some "reminder stuff" (yucky tasting nail polish that is made to help with stopping sucking your fingers) on Jacob's fingers and Jacob said yes. Huh?! So, we rolled with it and Jacob didn't suck his fingers at all for 5 days! I thought we somehow got lucky. Then on Day 6, he started sucking his fingers again, mostly just at nap and bedtime. We are trying to stick with putting his "reminder stuff" on his fingers, because he is still sucking his fingers less than he was. The doctor isn't concerned about it at all, but coming from someone who sucked my thumb forever, I'd rather try and get him done with it. But, we shall see. While we were on this no-sucking-fingers thing, we keep trying to go with the potty training thing too. I have no intentions to push him, because we kind of had to with Logan (because he needed to move "up" rooms at preschool) and that was so so hard. I am hoping that Jacob will get on that train soon. He will now tell me when he has a poop. Logan was never to that point. Other news for Jacob- he has some eczema on the back of his legs. The doctor has given us a steroid cream, along with a number of ideas, so I want to try and stick with it. Sensitive bath soap, bathing daily (instead of every other day), lotion twice a day, etc. Anyway, I want to keep on it, because he then picks at this leg and it looks like it hurts so bad. Jacob is still our little goofball. He just cracks us up.

Maggie is a little stinker. She has more teeth coming in. Now, on the front bottom, she has 4 teeth, plus a few molars. I don't even know how many teeth she has.... with the boys, I always knew their "teeth status". She "winks"(really it's blinking) .... Justin got this whole thing started. It is the cutest thing when she blinks at you. She scrunches her whole face and is just a total cutie pie. She's not running yet, but she has some good hustle to her walk when she wants to. She can go down the stairs by herself. We still supervise the stairs, but she doesn't really need it. This is definitely ahead of the boys. Her laugh is more of a grunt. She does NOT have a cute little giggle. It cracks us up though.

WE GOT FISH! On March 1, we got 3 fish and 1 snail. Each kid got to pick out a fish and I picked out the snail. We picked out a pink fish for Maggie, named Rosy. Logan named his fish Rainbow and Jacob named his fish Romsey. Romsey already died. Jacob seemed okay with it until I flushed him down the toilet. I was trying to prep him with what I was doing and I didn't have him watch the actual "disposing" of Romsey, but he cried hard for about 3 minutes. Then he was okay. We went that day to get Jacob a new fish, Mickey Fish. Then a few days later, we went to get 2 more.... Flash and Peeky. We planned to get between 5 and 7 fish, but I guess you don't want to get them all at once, so we spaced it out. The boys alternate who feeds the fish each night. We have been having so much fun with it. And this fish tank thing is all me.... Justin doesn't want any part of cleaning the tank or whatever, and I knew that going in. I just wanted to have some sort of pet and this is about all I could commit to :-) I know the novelty will wear off soon, but we are enjoying it more than I thought we would! Oh, and Logan named my snail for me.... Slime :-)

Justin has been busy at work, but I think it has been a good busy. There is a new district manager at his office. Her name is Lisa. I think it is a good switch up for everyone.... and Justin too. I think it will be good for him. So, Lisa is now his boss.

Our Thursday night Life Group has been going really well. We really enjoy it and have been growing closer to God because of it. I ended up sharing at my Tuesday morning women's study a few weeks ago. I felt like God was telling me to go for it. I was pretty nervous, but it was so great. I spoke for maybe 8 minutes or so. God is so good. I am thankful for this season of life right now and trying to enjoy the small moments.

Oh, so I have my half marathon on April 28. I have been kicking it in to gear the last few weeks and it feels good. Soooo, I signed up for the Columbus Marathon, which will be October 21. I would have preferred to wait until June to sign up, but registration rates keep going up, so I went ahead and did it. The training plan that I have chosen, begins training on June 9. About half of the girls that I run with have run a marathon. It has been a bucket list item for me for a while. I kept thinking, oh, our kids are too young and I don't want to be away from home on Saturday mornings. All of that is still true, but in a few years, our Saturday mornings will be filled up with soccer games and other activities. Right now they don't have much going on. This morning, I met some girls at 4:52am to squeeze in one mile before most of the crew showed up at 5am. And I ran 8 miles and was home by 6:15am. So, I will do that as much as I can. I'm definitely nervous for it, but I think it's good to do stuff that really challenges us.

Super heroes!

At the Highbanks Nature Center for a (free) class on birds

They got to make pine cone bird feeders at the class

With our friends Leah and Evan- showing us their bird feeders

Justin's Christmas present... Blake Shelton in concert.... it was so much fun.

Love this kid.

I come in to the laundry room to find Jacob like this. Haha.

St. Patrick's Day run- 8 mile training run

Running friends

Justin, Maggie and Estelle

Maggie and Estelle

Cuties

Kids everywhere!

Jacob in the orange hat, Logan and Justin- first fishing of the year. No luck.

Magnet sticks

All fitting on the tray.

First time trying to make Salisbury Patties.... I need to make them more flat. They tasted fine, but looked funny.

Maggie

Running this past Wednesday- it was snowing and windy.... a bad combination.

Snow angels at the end of our run! Haha

At playgroup... Jacob found a Captain America Monster truck.... jackpot!!

Maggie doing her adorable blinking :-)

At the Polaris Mall

Polaris Mall yesterday

Life group last night.... we did our service project- making care packages for college students

Meet our fish!! Rainbow and Flash (Logan's guppies)

Peeky (Jacob's fish)

Rosy and Mickey Fish (Maggie and Jacob's fish)

Slime

Jacob brought his dog to breakfast this morning, haha!

Maggie and Mama Day!! This is today!

Love my Tuesdays and Fridays with this girl.

Last night at Life Group

I don't think this pic made last month's blog. Dad in town!!

Maggie loved this slide!

You can see Logan behind me... but Jacob is behind me too! The video is so funny, seeing them pop out.

Maggie playing basketball.

Liam's birthday party- Jacob's first time bowling.

Hard to get a pic of all 5 of us.

Liam's 5th birthday party

Matt, Liam, Estelle and Lisa Martin

Evening show time (Maggie is wearing Jacob's jammies)

At Grandpa Vic's memorial service

A cropped version of this pic is what I submitted to the church for Maggie's dedication which will be at the end of April.

At Quaker Steak and Lube for St. Patty's Day

Logan worked hard on this and did it with little help. He loves these Lincoln logs.

Batman boots, Batman cape and Batman slap bracelet (and of course, no clothes) for J-Bake!

Our Fish Tank!

Hey girl!

Jammie day at school! We just realized we had these hand-me-down matching jammies!

This is on the door at Jacob's school- haha!

Home Depot has a free building workshop on the first Saturday of the month!

They are painting their periscopes

Yay!

At Jaxson's 4th birthday party!

Bowling!

Liam, Logan and Bryson

Maggie (eye Estelle's cake pop), Estelle and Hattie

:-)

Story time about pond animals at the Nature Center

Nature Center

Mama/Maggie Day!

Cheese!

Jacob never wants a picture at the counter

This was from cleaning Jacob's ears after he put one blue marker and one green marker in his ears. Who does that?

5am run :-)

O'Charley's after church on a Sunday

It was my week to lead the kids bible study in the basement. We sang and did motions to "Open the Eyes of My Heart"

Jacob after his fish, Romsey, died :(

I hope I never forget this as long as I live. Logan asked for a heart, when he was doing some coloring at the counter. So I made a heart on a piece of paper and gave it to him. He then, colored it in and cut it out, all by himself. A few minutes later, he came over and gave it to me and Maggie. I thought it was the sweetest thing. I asked what made him give it to us. He said, "I know that girls like hearts." My heart melted. I was so excited. Then a few minutes later, he asked to go upstairs to his room to get a book. He came down and showed me this book that he read in bed last night. The little guy made a heart and cut it out for his mama. It made my heart melt that he would think to do that for me. Love this little guy and his heart so much.