Continued!

  I have continued my reading with The Five Love Languages of Children, and I feel like this book wants to just jump off my computer and hit me in the head! How many things am I going to read in here and say to myself  "oh my gosh, I so do that".  I feel like it is actually taking me a while to read this because I keep going back over pages and really understanding what is being said. When I read a page the second time its like watching a movie for a second time.  You always catch more and see things you didn't see the first time.

    After the long introduction into the book the first Love Language discussed is "Physical Touch".. Now if you are really close with me you know that I am a touchy feely person.  I love hugs! But I was so suprised when reading this how much affection I turn down towards my girls.  Here is a small insert of what was said:

Marilyn didn’t learn about the five love languages until her son
Joey was twelve years old. At the end of a love languages seminar,
 she turned to a friend and said, “Now I finally understand Joey. For years
he has annoyed me by constantly picking at me.
When I’m washing dishes, he walks up behind me, puts his
 hands around my face and covers my eyes. If I walk past him,
he reaches out and pinches my arm.
If I walk through the room when he is lying on the floor,
 he grabs my leg. Sometimes he pulls my arms behind me.
He used to run his hands through my hair when I
 was sitting on the couch, although he doesn’t anymore since
 I told him to keep hishands out of my hair.
 He does the same thing to his father,
 and the two of them usually end up in a
wrestling match on the floor.

I read this part and felt like it was me talking... Now I love giving my girls hugs and picking them up every now and then to carry them to bed or get them out of bed.. but I can't tell you how often they jump in my lap the second I sit on the couch, or jump in my lap at the kitchen table, grab my ankles when I'm walking so I'll drag them across the floor, or just come stand next to me while I am getting ready..  And what do I say to them "Get down, you don't have to sit on me at all times, let go of my leg before you make me fall, or do you really have to touch me 24/7!  Now of course everyone needs their personally space.. but is this a personal space thing to me or is this just me being exhausted from the day and I feel pulled in so many directions, therefore I'm taking out my frustrations on two girls that just want some of my attentions.  Now I am realizing that Haley is way more needy when it comes to Physical Touch than Jordan is.  So this might be Haley's love language, but I won't really know till I have read all of this book.  And of course I'm thinking I do not "fill" Haley's love tank with physical touch, therefore if its not full she will not be as resecptive as she should with discipline! (I'll hit on that more later on)  

The next Chapter is "Words of Affirmation" (my love language).  Already only 2 pages into this chapter I realize this just might be Jordan! For Example this morning I asked the girls to grab their trays so that I could get them their breakfast (morning routine, watch cartoons while eating breakfast on tv trays)  Anyhow I look up and saw that Jordan got up and got both trays and put Haleys down for her then set down at her tray.  I said to her "Thank you Jordan for helping sissy, that was very kind!"  She smiled so big and said "its kind to help others, right Mommy!?"   She reacted in such a positive way because I showed her praise!  

I so should have starting reading this book years ago! I do I realize that has you grow your personality will grow also, but I truely believe that your love language is decided at a very young age and I am learning now as I read how important it is to fill the love tank of a child as soon as you realize their love language.....

Some days being a Mommy is so hard!!!

        I know that we are faced with difficult times being parents.. but sometimes don't you just feel like you are experiencing things that no other Moms do? And these days you have to be very cautious of who you ask for advice or even their opinion.. Sometimes you just don't want to hear what another parent has to say.. Now a'days you can go to facebook and with in minutes you've got a slew of answers for your problems...  the only problem is everyone handles situations different and not everyone has two girls! Do you have any idea how hard it is to have two girls??!!  I guess I should have read the book Raising Girls that my Mom gave me years ago!  Maybe I wouldn't be standing here with my arms up saying I give up!

(Just a tiny insight into the past 6 years!)

    For the past 6 years we have lived in Burleson and I have worked full time driving back and forth to North Arlington..  I spend at least 10 hours a week in my car and most days come home exhausted!  During this time I have learned to balance a job, a home, being a mother, and most importantly still giving my time to Ronnie.  The only problem is I feel like 6 years have flown by and I'm still trying to figure out how to do it all!

For the past 3 1/2 years Ronnie has worked for a drilling company in the oil/gas field.  It has truly been a blessing in so many ways but most of you know it consist of him traveling for long periods of time.  When Ronnie is called out to a job we are unsure when he will return.  Most of the time it averages 7-14 days.  Then when he is home it might be for 2 days or 2 weeks.  So learning to adapt to his schedule has been challenging but at the same time we love when he is home for a long period! We kind of feel like we get more time together than if he worked Mon-Fri..

  So with that said you have crazy stressed out mamma that really wants to just give into everything in order to keep the young-ins happy! Then you have Daddy that travels quite often and definitely doesn't want to come home and be the bad guy.. Short version of this story.. We have two girls that run the show!! haha  Which is one of the huge reasons that we are taking the risk to allow me to quit my job and begin staying at home.. All of this is very scary for me..  I am afraid of setting my expectations too high and being this "stay at home mommy" isn't going to be what I thought it would be, or that I won't have this extra time on my hands to be more productive, or that staying home all of the sudden will create two perfectly well mannered little girls! Now don't get me wrong.. my girls are not bad all the time! haha I know that all children don't always make the best decisions and as they grow they learn to push their limits.  I also know that children soak in way more then us parents realize they do! Which brings me to the recent book I just purchased, The Five Love Languages of Children.   Some of you might be familiar with Chapmans other book,  The Five Love Languages.  I suggest you read it if you have not.. specially if you feel like you want to strangle your spouse! haha  Anyhow I know it is surprising enough that I am reading at all (something else I plan on doing more often) but I had stumbled upon this book and really felt like it was a sign! It was kinda of like a "duh" moment for me.. if the initial book I read helped my marriage then of course this should give me some insight as to how to deal with the unique personalities of my two precious ones! How selfish of me to think they don't have a "love language" and that we should all learn understand and do our best to keep it full! So I began reading this last week and managed to get pretty far the first day..  Here are a few inserts to what I already read!

By speaking your child’s own love language, you can fill his
“emotional tank” with love. When your child feels loved, he is much
easier to discipline and train than when his “emotional tank” is running near empty.

Of course, it is necessary to train and/or discipline our children—
but only after their emotional tanks have been filled. Those tanks can
be filled with only one premium fuel: unconditional love. Our children
have “love tanks” ready to be filled (and refilled—they can deplete
regularly). Only unconditional love can prevent problems such as resentment,
feelings of being unloved, guilt, fear, and insecurity. Only
as we give our children unconditional love will we be able to deeply
understand them and deal with their behaviors, whether good or bad.

     These two inserts were taken just from the introduction and it already hit me so hard! You don't realize how much damage you can cause by rewarding your children only when they do good things! Yes, I love my girls unconditionally but do I show it 100% of the time.. NO! What an eye opener this is going to be for me!

     I look forward to sharing more of this book with my fellow Mommy's! And.. please...I want your feedback and if any of you have read this book already..








   

  

You might want to sit down for this!

...only because this might take you a while to read! haha

  I didn't realize that it had been a month since my last post.. Crazy how much can go on in just 31 days! First off Happy New Year to everyone.. I really hope all of you set some realistic goals for yourself this year! haha

I have to say this Christmas was one of the best ones yet! I love the holidays and getting to see all of our extended family.  Specially with knowing that we wouldn't be saying goodbye to any of our family in a few months.  Just being surrounded by love really assured us that we made the right decision to stay!

 Just like everyone else we have our traditions around the holidays.. We were a little nervous Ronnie wasn't going to be home but God willing he walked in the door at 5:00am Christmas Eve morning!! After some much needed sleep we all went our separate directions to finish up our preparing for Christmas Day!  Literally, the girls went across the street to make cookies with their sweet friend Taylor, I went to finish some shopping, and Ronnie of course made his quick dash as always on Christmas Eve to get me a gift! Funny thing is I walked into the same store about an hour before he did to grab him a little stocking stuffer! Little did I know the girls behind the counter would tell him I was just in there!! uuggh... He always picks out the best stuff for me!! Love him!

That evening we went to celebrate Christmas with the Beaty side of the family! I enjoy so much going over to Nana's house! Her cooking is amazing!! I look forward to it every year.  Its been a tradition for the past 4 Christmas's that Ronnie's dad comes and stays with us Christmas Eve, that way he gets to see the girls open their presents the next morning! We love it and the girls love it! We prepare for Santa, the girls go to bed, I shortly crash...then the craziness begins when Jordan decides to wake up! I really limited the gifts under the tree this year..only because I really didn't want the girls to focus on how many they opened but what they actually received.. It was such a great morning! We hurried up, got ready, and headed to Mimi's house to have Christmas with Mimi, Papa, Aunt Mae Mae and Uncle Danny!

Just a few pics of the girls 

Love this one of Jordan haha

I have tons of pictures but most likely you are reading this off my facebook page.. So you probably saw most of the pictures already...


That afternoon and evening was spent hanging out with more family!! My moms side of the family all came to her house for dinner! I love getting to see all of them, specially the new addition to our family! Sweet little Kaden.. He is so stinking cute and such a good baby! It was several hours of crazy kids, playing spit, and eating some yummy food!

So before I lose most of you and make this way too long.. I want to add this....  With the year ending and going through two major life changing decisions I came to this News Years Resolution: Don't complain about anything that blesses you! That can be something as tiny as a piece of gum, cuz I'm sure you blessed the next person with some much better breath! Or as large as the life that God gave you... Just think about it.. how much do you complain on a regularly bases about something that could be taken from you in just an instant.

PUT GOD FIRST! ITS AS SIMPLE AS THAT!

What!!!

Well its about time I made it official and let everyone know! WE ARE NOT MOVING!! The following things took place when we found out we were going to move:

• put the house on the market
• I turned in my notice to work that I would be leaving end of Feb (and we hired someone)
• Contacted a realtor and begin looking at homes in Colorado
• My husband official turned in his notice to Scientific Drilling and left for Colorado
• Cleaned my house like crazy and had an enormous garage sale!
• Begin telling everyone they better make vacations plans to our house!

Now you ask..what now? Well during the time Ronnie was in Colorado and 14 hours away from his family he started to question rather it was the right thing to do..  Was move his family 14hrs away from everyone they know and start a new life in CO really worth all of this??.. In the meantime I began having many meltdowns..Which I kept to myself! I honestly didn't want to tell him how scared I was because at the same time I was so proud of him for taking such a leap of faith! Well about 10:00pm on a Monday night we both decided this was not what we needing to be doing.  Its like God actually spoke and said "rethink this!" haha  So the very next morning Ronnie drove home! We had to keep it a secret for a while till he got home and we really knew we were making the right decision. 

What do kids do when they are in question "turn to their parents".. With great support, many prayers, and endless conversations we made the decision to not move.. But what would we do! I had already quit my job and so did he! A few days had passed and Ronnie decided to contact his former company.. lets just say his old boss jumped for joy when he found out Ronnie wasn't leaving.  WHAT A HUGE RELIEF!!  Not only did they except him back with open arms but with more pay!! I Love how God works! Soooo long story short.. :)  I still get to be a stay at home Mom started February 29th.. I can't tell you how excited I am about this.. yes the nails, hair, and endless online shopping might have to go but the important thing is I get to be with my girls and they don't get to have an overstressed mamma all the time! We are taking the house off the market for now and will eventually rethink moving, possibly to Mansfield!! So moral to the story.. never forget that God is in control and things could take a turn any minute! We couldn't be happier with our new journey!

Let the fun begin!

This morning Ronnie left for New Mexico where he will begin his training as a Direction Driller.  I am seriously very excited and proud! We had a talk with Haley the other day about what to expect when daddy leaves.  At this point Haley is used to daddy being gone for weeks at a time, but this time is a little different.  There is a chance that he could be gone for over a month.  This is where I have to be stronger than ever..not just for myself but for the girls and Ronnie.  I very seldom let Haley see me sad or upset that daddy is gone.  I think Jordan is still a little young to realize how long Ronnie is gone..  She mentions every now and then "were is daddy", but I just tell her he is working and she is content with that answer.   I know that this is what God has chosen for us right now and I am very blessed that Ronnie has been given such a wonderful opportunity!  All he ever wants to do is make sure his girls are taken care of....no matter the consequences..

So what are the plans from here?  Well he was told that he will have several weeks of training that will consist of hours on a rig sight, class hours, and I'm sure several safety courses.  Ronnie has been in the oil field for a little over 3 years now so hopefully he will have an advantage during some of his training.  We have prepared ourselves already that he will be gone over the holidays just so that if it happens it doesn't come as a shock.  This is not the first time for us to not be together on Thanksgiving or Christmas.  The important part is that we keep telling ourselves that this is just temporary and that it could be way worse and at least he is not being shipped over seas for years! At this time I will continue working till the end of February.. So please excuse me if I seem a little stressed out..Working full time, running a home, taking care of two girls, and also trying to have a social life can be a little stressful sometimes!  I have a whole new respect for single parents....

I also want to want to say how much I appreciate all of my family and friends for their support.  I would lose my mind if it wasn't for my mom and sister! So many times they changed their plans just to help me out and I hope they know how much I appreciate everything they do! I have the most amazing friends that let me vent, cry, and complain to them endlessly! I realize that in less than a year I will be 13 hours from everyone and I pray that I keep these same friends for life! Just know that my doors are always open for visitors!! I see many ski trips in the future with all my friends and family!!

Vegas Baby!

It finally happened!  We made our first trip to Vegas... Was it everything I expected?  Yes, pretty much! The main reason we went to Vegas to was to attend the PBR Finals! Ronnie has several friends that are bull riders and its always fun to go watch them at a PBR Event.  We try to attend the one that comes to Texas but going to the Finals was our goal! We have decided this will be our yearly trip.  

Now I am pretty much against the idea of gambling and losing hard earned money.  However I did want to experience how it felt to win big! haha  At least I went into it thinking "how hard can it be?" I'm not gonna lie the first few nights we lost a few hundred! We took some "fun" money with us and agreed to not feel bad if we lost it!  Its the whole experience we were going for!  The evening after the PBR and the after party we decided to go back down and give the slots another try! Well that extra try got me $735.00!!! Mind you this was off a $20 bill at a penny slot machine so I was pretty excited!!  I guess you could say I had a great experience doing a little gambling ;)

Here are a few pics from the trip.. I would have so much more had my camera not decided to crap out on me!

Great timing for the screen to change behind us just as the waitress was taking the picture!! hahaha

For those of you that have never been to a PBR Event or even been interested in going... you should really think about going to at least one event! They are so much fun and a fun experience for kids!

My Country Critters!

One minute the girls are playing dress up and the next they are riding ponies! I love so much how my girls have such different personalities! Its so clear even by looking at the picture how truly different they are! Who rides a horse in silver glitter slip-on's!! That would be my Haley!

....and absolutely never get on a pony with out your pink Hello Kitty purse!


Before we left for Pa and Granny's on Saturday Jordan insisted on wearing her boots, as she always does! (she would have worn them Easter Sunday if I had let her)... Jordan has always been my outdoorsy- lets get covered in dirt as quickly as we can-wears her food on her shirt kind of girl! At first this drove me crazy because of how neat and proper Haley always was. I never had to clean up messes, change her clothes, or worry about her getting covered in mud! I guess I could say Jordan has given us a little taste of how it would be if we had a boy! haha

...this is before her jeans were covered in mud and her chocolate milk spilled down her shirt! Atleast she still lets me stick the big girly bows in her hair!! (her daddy thinks her jeans need to be tucked in her boots! apparently that's how true cowgirls do it )

The girls have had years of fun out at Pa and Granny's! Here are a few more recent pics and some of my favorites over the years!



The girls riding "mamma" as old as she is, she still lets the girls ride her!


Best Tree Swing Ever!!



I love this picture!
Haley was so tiny!!



Here is Haley feeding "little john" when she is 4 yrs.. Look how little they both are!

...and here she is last summer feeding him! They have both grown so much!