Talking To God

There is an auction going on at the fairgrounds down the street from us.
Kitty Lou and I were walking down the sidewalk to go her friends house. The auction guy started to speak, and Kitty Lou stopped and looked at me and said, "I think that's God talking to us! He talks to us you know!". Made me laugh and I didn't really want to bust her bubble and tell her it was a guy at the auction.
Later I looked outside and she was talking to someone and I asked who she was talking to and said 'God'. How precious. And I'm sure He got quite a chuckle out of that one.

Being A Mom

It is 11:22pm. We got home from visiting with Grandma and Papa Nicholls. I was tired and the last thing I wanted to do was mommy/wife stuff. I just wanted to go to bed. But both girls needed baths, formula needed to be made, laundry needed to be folded and I wanted to make sure Ty had something to eat when he gets home.

Everything gets done and I am turning off lights, checked on VJ, picked up a few things and putting them back in their place.

I walk into my bedroom and see Kitty Lou's Polly Pockets on my bed and a book. She chose to play with her toys in our room on our bed. Not her room, or the living room. But her mommy and daddy's room.

I then realized that I am so thankful that I get the privilege of being a mom. One day my children will be all grown up and it's the little things like the toys on my bed that I want to remember. I do not want to see my job as a chore. Ty and I were given these children on a loan from God to take care of them to the best of our abilities, and to raise them the way we are told to raise them. To love Him and praise Him and always know that He loves us and will take care of us.

I am in love with my girls.

And one more thing that made my heart sing:

Kitty Lou loves to sing. She makes up any song and just sings about things she see's or where we are going. Today we were sitting at a stop light and I heard her singing. Nothing new, but I love to stop and listen to what she is singing about this time. This time I heard her sing "I love my mom.....she is so nice and beautiful......she knows all about the birds....." I have never heard her sing about me. I thought it was so sweet and it brought tears to my eyes.



She also always thinks about daddy. If we go anywhere, she grabs an extra something special for daddy. Daddy is always being thought about and getting treats. Sometimes I complain because mommy never gets thought about. But I know she doesn't mean anything by it. And it's really not that big of deal. I was the one that taught her that we need to do special things for daddy because he works so hard for us to eat, live here, go shopping, buy toys, etc....
But today she was doing crafts with her friend. I was not sure what kind of craft, I thought they were just going to paint or color. But she brought me home this special craft and told me that she made it special just for me. And this I will always treasure.

Friday

Today Kitty Lou and I got ready to go hit some Garage Sales. Kitty Lou ran and got her purse and of course, some money. Today will be the first day this year on going to garage sales. There are not too many things that I need, and we are holding our own garage sale next week. But we thought it would be fun to go drive around Marshall and see what treasures we could find.



Also, Kitty Lou has a new friend. She lives 2 doors down and is a year older than Kitty Lou. We watched her run down to her friends house and knock on the door to see if she could play. Then they both got on their bikes and rode and sang and laughed. She has a new best friend and has a look of pure joy on her face. The rest of the afternoon they ran from her house to our house and back again. I had the hardest time getting her to come eat lunch. We got half her lunch down her before she shouted good bye and was out the door again. Our little girl is growing up.
I took a shot of the bikes. The girls park them so nicely when they go inside to play.



Speaking of lunch, today we had tacos made with homemade refried beans and they were super tasty. Also, I picked fresh lettuce from my deck garden! This was my first pick of the year. We also have spinach, green onions, and radishes. We did have cucumbers, but we have a family of raccoons that like to hang out on our deck at night and they decided to tear up my cucumbers. I am not very happy with them.




Later, I stepped outside on our deck and saw a deer hanging out by our shed. I'm pretty sure it is the same one from yesterday because I saw it walking past our house on the sidewalk last night too. At least this deer uses common courtesy and uses the sidewalk!




Now you have gotten to see shots of the deer and the raccoons, all that I need to get now are the muskrats and the groundhogs. The groundhogs are not my favorite since they are destroying our yard. I have even tried to get some shots of the fish that swim in the river in our backyard.
But I did get some shots of the river for you. We love our river and at night when it is quiet out all you can hear at the bats and the sound of the water.
The river and the yards are most beautiful in the summer.

Vivien Jane Lucretia ~ 3 1/2 months old

Healthy Market Day

Today was a trip the the health food store, or as Kitty Lou calls it 'The Healthy Market'. One thing we can't ever forget is our market bags and KL has her very own so she can do a bit of shopping for things that catch her eye. Her favorite treat to buy is Panda Licorice.

We got the girls ready to go and Kitty Lou and Vivien Jane both had on a pair of their new sunglasses.
Kitty Lou and I went shopping yesterday for a 'big girl' day out. She is such a great helper to me that we love to just have mommy/daughter days for a big thank you. Yesterday was extra special though since Tyler and I both took her out to eat before he had to leave for work. Her favorite food: Chinese. After he left for work, KL and I hit a few stores together and she got a new shirt that says 'Big Sister 4-Ever' and we got both girls a pair of sunglasses. I just could not resist taking some pictures and posting them for you to see.

Tyler decided to take some different roads to the market. It is about 30 minutes away so off we went driving through the countryside and looking at all the beautiful land surrounding our drive. Along the way we passed a lake that looked like it might have some great bass fishing in it. I thought of my dad when I took this picture.

When we got home we saw a deer meandering through our neighborhood eating our neighbors plants. So we got some great pictures. I'm so glad that we take our camera everywhere we go since we never know when we will get a great picture.

Wordless Wednesday

Riverwalk Photos

We took a long walk on the Riverwalk tonight and decided to take some pictures and share them with you!

This picture was the reflection of trees off the river.

The Riverwalk

At least once a day we try to take advantage of the Riverwalk that is by our house. It is a very long boardwalk built right by the river, or you could take the sidewalk that runs next to the riverwalk. There is also a train tack that runs by it and sometimes we are lucky enough to be right there when the train goes by. If KL waves, the conductor toots his horn for her. She loves it! VJ is still getting used to the horn, so sometimes it really takes her by surprise and her little face scrunches up before she starts crying. It is so hard not to laugh at her adorable face.

Kitty Lou took her bike on the Riverwalk for the first time today and had a blast! It is a beautiful scenic trail with lots of flowers.

Kitty Lou got off her bike every now and then to pick flowers and pine cones. She is our nature child and loves to collect anything! So needless to say, we have a whole basket of baby pine cones at our house

I love to see my girls getting fresh air and enjoying the world outside. Kitty Lou is very much into learning about Jesus, so everything we pass she will ask if Jesus made it. And then she will look up to the clouds and tell me she can't see Him, but He can see her. It is very sweet and we love hearing her talk about Jesus, and answering all the questions she has about Him.

The Nicholls Girls

Well, I have decided to start a blog for friends and family that live afar. It seems that phone calls and quick emails don't really keep you up to date on our family.
This particular blog is just to catch you up on our girls.......

Kitty Lou just turned 4 on June 6th. This was a hard birthday for me. I cried harder on this one than any other. She is so excited to grow up though. We had 2 birthday parties for her this year. May 25 she shared her birthday with her daddy, and cousins Brock and Hannah. The whole family made it, and we hosted it at the church. Tyler grilled, everyone brought a side, and we enjoyed a full day of family fun. Her birthday theme this year was Strawberry Shortcake. So Tyler made her birthday cake and put a big strawberry on it. I think Ty will be taking over doing the birthday cakes for his girls since he really enjoyed it.



The 2nd party was on her birthday with Ty and I and VJ, and Grandma and Papa Nicholls. We bought a small cake and opened some gifts. She enjoyed this party as well.
I can't believe she is 4 yrs old now. She is potty trained, and has very few accidents throughout the night. She also just learned to ride her big girl bike, so she spends as much time as possible in front of our house riding. She is an animal lover and Monday is milk day so she gets to spend quite a bit of time playing with the goats and kittens and baby chicks.
She enjoys baking, and shopping and is so very much in love with her little sister. I knew she would be a helper to me, but not to the extent that she is. She loves hugging and kissing and holding Vivien. VJ just loves to smile at her sister and tries to laugh. We can tell that those 2 are going to be the best of friends.
We take many walks on the Riverwalk, and I let KL play in the river. She loves water. We also have a pool on our deck, but I think she much prefers the river. Silly girl!



Now on to our youngest...... Miss Vivien Jane. She is now 3 months old. And she is so very happy. She smiles all the time, tries to laugh, and drools more than I thought a baby could. Bibs are on at all times! She loves her bouncy seat, her family and her food. And when she wants food, she wants it now. After trying for 6 weeks to get her to breastfeed with the help of a doula, lactation consultant and our doctor, we decided to put her on homemade formula. Thanks to my mom for all of her help. She is now on a healthy goats milk formula and she is getting all of her chunky rolls. I am excited to see how healthy this child turns out to be. She is also sleeping through the nights now which is a blessing. She co-slept with us for many weeks, and then we realized that she loves her carseat. So that is where she sleeps and she is happy as a lark!
Vivien is a beautiful little baby and she also looks very much like her daddy. We are pretty sure that she is going to be a blue eyed beauty. And now we will have one blue eyed and one brown eyed girl.



I think that is all with family up-dates.
I will try to write some every day and let everyone know happenings, or just funny things worthy of writing down.