Movin' on up!

I've moved my blog! Now follow at http://completelystrait.blogspot.com !

Growing up

It's been a while because my computer hasn't let me upload pictures because it's old and full apparently.  I had it cleaned up a bit, but it's not letting me upload anymore pictures.  I'll see what I can do.

Anyway... My girls are growing up.  Hayden is a mere month away from 2! Ella is 3 months already! Hayden has been such an amazing big sister to Ella.  She's so loving to her, most of the time! :o)

A little recap on the girls:

Hayden is now 22 months old.  She's probably about 26lbs.  She's finally eating!! She actually ate a peanut butter sandwich for dinner! (I know, great dinner.) She's in speech therapy once a week and is "talking" a little more now. She said "na na" for "knock knock" today! She's also starting to say "Amen" after we pray.  It's so cute! She looks so cute when she prays.  She closes her eyes and bows her head.  I love to see that she is starting to know Jesus.  She's still not potty trained, not that she "should" be right now, but she is starting to acknowledge when she goes.  She still doesn't want to sit on the potty yet.  I'll ask her and she says "nope!"  She's funny.

Ella is doing really well and I believe she's finally up to 10lbs! I don't know for sure, but she feels like it and definitely looks like she's filling out.  She's so beautiful.  I'm trying to get her to nurse more.  Somedays she wants more bottle than she wants me.  It sucks.  Today was a good day and she only took one bottle, and the rest was from me.  I'm emotionally not ready to give up breast feeding her.  I know it's the best milk for her, and I don't feel like it's fair that I nursed Hayden for a year.  A year is what I want for Ella too, at least.  I think she just needed the boost of calories from the formula.

I can't believe she's 3 months!

Is this not the saddest look you've ever seen? :o( Hayden was messing with her.

Happy girl!

We took the girls to the fair!! We had so much fun and I got my foot long corndog! Yum! A nice, once a year treat! Hayden and Will rode the elephant together! (Pics of the fair to come, they are on the other camera!) Hayden had the BIGGEST smile on her face the whole ride! She also rode the big slide with her Daddy, and did NOT have the biggest smile! Ha! She had a terrified look until they got to the bottom! Then, she wanted to go again! So funny!

Life with a Toddler

I saw this and just have to pass it on! It's from SuburbanSnapshots.com!

Why life with a toddler is like being at a Frat Party:

10. There are half-full, brightly-colored plastic cups on the floor in every room. Three are in the bathtub.

9. There's always that one girl, bawling her eyes out in a corner.


8. It's best not to assume that the person closest to you has any control over their digestive function.

7. You sneak off to the bathroom knowing that as soon as you sit down, someone's going to start banging on the door.

6. Probably 80% of the stains on the furniture contain DNA.

5. You've got someone in your face at 3 a.m. looking for a drink.

4. There's definitely going to be a fight.

3. You're not sure whether anything you're doing is right, you just hope it won't get you arrested.

2. There are crumpled-up underpants everywhere.

1. You wake up wondering exactly how and when the person in bed with you got there.

Stella & Dot

Well I've jumped back into my Stella & Dot business! I'm SUPER excited!! It's so fun! I'm having my Launch on Thursday, March 31st at 6pm!! I'd love for all of my followers on here to join me! I already have 6 shows booked and a stylist signing up on Monday! It's really a super business and party hostesses get amazing jewelry for free!! The average hostess gets $350 in FREE jewelry!! Whether you like to make a statement with your accessories or you like something delicate and understated, there's something for you!! You really shouldn't miss my Launch because I'm borrowing my director's jewels, so there will be a TON to come and try on!!

Check out the goods!!
www.stelladot.com/stacistrait


If you want to order but can't make it to the show, look at the top right corner where it says "Can't make it to the show? Find your hostess." Put in my name!!

Want to book a show and earn free jewelry?  Email me! staci.strait@gmail.com

One beautiful month of Ella

Ella,
You are now 6 weeks old! I can't believe how fast time has flown! You are such an amazing joy! I love you so much! You love to snuggle and don't like to be set down! You are such a good sleeper! You usually go to sleep about 8pm, then I wake you up to take your medicine at 10pm.  You'll eat and then go back to sleep.  Then you usually only wake up about 3am to eat again, then not again until about 7am.  It's really nice! You HATE riding in the car.  Grandma was thinking that maybe it's because of the ambulance ride that you had to take by yourself.  Maybe you were scared and now don't like riding where you can't see Mommy or Daddy.  I'm going to try putting a picture back there with you.  It breaks my heart to remember you riding in the ambulance by yourself at only 3 weeks old.  I was so scared and brokenhearted that I wasn't in there with you.  I thank God everyday that He had his hand on you throughout the whole scary experience.

You are wearing newborn clothes and newborn diapers.  You're still so tiny.  At your one month appointment you were 21 1/4 inches tall and 7lbs 13oz.  You've had such a hard time gaining weight with all of the issues with jaundice, RSV, SVT, and WPW.  I'm so thankful that you're finally gaining weight with just Mommy's milk.

I love you my sweet Ellabug,
Love,
Mommy

Patience

Two kids is hard on a marriage.  I was thinking about my husband tonight while he's at work and I knew that one thing I'm really lacking with him is patience.  The sermon at church was about patience with God last Sunday, I know I need that too, but right now, I really need to give patience to my husband.  Life is stressful.  Marriage is stressful.  I need to show more love and patience.  I'm going to restart the Love Dare and really try to commit to it.  

I want to get back to a place where our love was the strongest.  When we made time to really show each other how much in love we were.

Day 1

Love is patient

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient,

bearing with one another in love. —Ephesians 4:2 NIV

Love works. It is life’s most powerful motivator and has far greater depth and meaning than most people realize. It always does what is best for others and can empower us to face the greatest of problems. We are born with a lifelong thirst for love. Our hearts desperately need it like our lungs need oxygen. Love changes our motivation for living. Relationships become meaningful with it. No marriage is successful without it.

Love is built on two pillars that best define what it is. Those pillars are patience and kindness. All other characteristics of love are extensions of these two attributes. And that’s where your dare will begin. With patience.

Love will inspire you to become a patient person. When you choose to be patient, you respond in a positive way to a negative situation. You are slow to anger. You choose to have a long fuse instead of a quick temper. Rather than being restless and demanding, love helps you settle down and begin extending mercy to those around you. Patience brings an internal calm during an external storm.

No one likes to be around an impatient person. It causes you to overreact in angry, foolish, and regrettable ways. The irony of anger toward a wrongful action is that it spawns new wrongs of its own. Anger almost never makes things better. In fact, it usually generates additional problems. But patience stops problems in their tracks. More than biting your lip, more than clapping a hand over your mouth, patience is a deep breath. It clears the air. It stops foolishness from whipping its scorpion tail all over the room. It is a choice to control your emotions rather than allowing your emotions to control you, and shows discretion instead of returning evil for evil.

If your spouse offends you, do you quickly retaliate, or do you stay under control? Do you find that anger is your emotional default when treated unfairly? If so, you are spreading poison rather than medicine.

Anger is usually caused when the strong desire for something is mixed with disappointment or grief. You don’t get what you want and you start heating up inside. It is often an emotional reaction that flows out of our own selfishness, foolishness, or evil motives.

Patience, however, makes us wise. It doesn’t rush to judgment but listens to what the other person is saying. Patience stands in the doorway where anger is clawing to burst in, but waits to see the whole picture before passing judgment. The Bible says, “He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly” (Proverbs 14:29).

As sure as a lack of patience will turn your home into a war zone, the practice of patience will foster peace and quiet. “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute” (Proverbs 15:18). Statements like these from the Bible book of Proverbs are clear principles with timeless relevance. Patience is where love meets wisdom. And every marriage needs that combination to stay healthy.

Patience helps you give your spouse permission to be human. It understands that everyone fails. When a mistake is made, it chooses to give them more time than they deserve to correct it. It gives you the ability to hold on during the tough times in your relationship rather than bailing out under the pressure.

But can your spouse count on having a patient wife or husband to deal with? Can she know that locking her keys in the car will be met by your understanding rather than a demeaning lecture that makes her feel like a child? Can he know that cheering during the last seconds of a football game won’t invite a loud-mouthed laundry list of ways he should be spending his time? It turns out that few people are as hard to live with as an impatient person.

What would the tone and volume of your home be like if you tried this biblical approach: “See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:15).

Few of us do patience very well, and none of us do it naturally. But wise men and women will pursue it as an essential ingredient to their marriage relationships. That’s a good starting point to demonstrate true love.

This Love Dare journey is a process, and the first thing you must resolve to possess is patience. Think of it as a marathon, not a sprint. But it’s a race worth running.

Today's Dare

The first part of this dare is fairly

simple. Although love is communicated

in a number of ways, our words often

reflect the condition of our heart. For

the next day, resolve to demonstrate

patience and to say nothing negative

to your spouse at all. If the temptation

arises, choose not to say anything. It’s

better to hold your tongue than to say

something you’ll regret.

Mishmash

Well, Hayden knows her potty seat.  But... thinks of it as a nice little seat in the bathroom.  We've I've tried getting her to sit on it naked, but she screams! She does NOT like sitting over an open crevice naked.  Really, who can blame her?!  Here, she came and sat on it while I was getting ready.  Note: She has khaki shorts on.  There's no trying to go potty here. :o(

But, she is the light of my life! 

She's rediscovered the swing that she HATED as a baby.  Now, it makes a great seat to enjoy some Disney Channel in.

Here's the other light of my life today.  She's really coming into her own.  She's looking more like a beautiful little girl than just a newborn. I can't say she's a "happy" baby yet. She's definitely feisty. She's a snuggler and doesn't like to be set down for long.  She's also a car screamer. She does NOT like to be in the car at all.  Screams the WHOLE way most of the time. Hopefully she out grows that... soon.

Yes, this is a little intimate.  Sorry if it makes you uncomfortable, but I love it.  I love that this is the beautiful view I have of my sweet Ellabug most of my day. I love having her curled up on my lap, holding tight to me.  It's even more special having experienced what we did with her during her third week of life.  Trying to nurse her through wires and needles all throughout my precious angel, was hard, emotionally and physically.  I knew she needed me and that I was her comfort when she was so little and didn't know what was going on.  All she knew was that Mommy was there, Mommy was trying to keep her calm, and comfortable.  I love her.

Hayden is 20 months!

Well, this post is a little overdue. Hayden turned 20 months on the 20th!

Hayden,

You are turning into such a big girl! I love being around you and your blossoming personality! You are definitely a feisty little girl! You love to read books and I often find you in your room with all of your books off of your shelf! You startle very easily which makes me laugh! You jump out of your skin if I walk in and you're doing something you shouldn't! We're still working on getting you talking. We took you for a speech evaluation and you were marked as severely delayed.  That worries us, but we know you understand everything, you just aren't saying words.  You'd rather sign.  And, you are picking up new signs very quickly.  I just can't wait to hear you really talking and saying "Mommy."

You LOVE your baby sister! It's wonderful to see you loving on her and holding her hand as we all snuggle on the couch.  You give her the best kisses!

You are 24.2 lbs, I'm not sure how tall you are but I'm guessing around 32 inches.  You are wearing 18-24 month clothes and size 5 shoes.  You're in size 4 diapers, but wear cloth diapers most of the time at home.  You're hair is getting so long! I love it! You finally started to eat more! You actually ate spaghetti the other night! I was so proud of you! You have 9 teeth.  The front top 4, bottom 2, and 3 molars.  I think you have a bottom front tooth coming in too.  You are an excellent teether because I never know when your teeth are coming in!

I think our next challenge is going to be potty training! I have no idea how to do it and you don't want to yet! In time... in time...

I love you big girl!
Love,
Mommy

My girls

Amber came over and took pictures of the girls when Ella was 2 weeks old.  These are some of the raw, unedited pictures of the girls.

 Hayden was signing "hurt" after pointing to Ella's foot that was bandaged because she had blood drawn for her jaundice check.