And the Dr said, "No more monkeys jumping OFF the bed!"

Well, just a few hours after I posted my last blog post, I was getting ready to head out for a first "girl's night" since Brinley was born and Ailey casually hopped off our bed to say goodbye and fell to the floor crying. It was the kind of cry that made Michael and I's hearts sink. After trying to walk it off and be brave, we headed to the ER early the next morning. After 3 X-rays, an MRI and hours sitting in waiting rooms, she is in a walking boot to heal 4 broken bones and a strained ligament. What a bummer of a way to end the summer! No swimming or other fun water plans for us for a few more weeks yet. She has been so tough though. If it was going to happen to one of our kids, she was the one for it to happen to. Each and every nurse and doctor we have encountered has commented on her toughness, positive attitude and overall happiness. She thinks the X-rays are so cool and although thinking the MRI was a bit too long, I loved listening to her hum along to the Frozen soundtrack while laying surprisingly still for a 3 year old! 

I have learned a lot about my sweet first born and myself through this process! First of all, she has a crazy ability to find silliness and fun in any situation. As she was telling someone about the MRI, she said, "I got to go in this big tunnel and they took cool pictures of my foot. It was so exciting!" Haha! It has reminded me that sometimes it's good to look at life through the eyes of a child as I was negatively thinking, "Oh no we can't swim anymore!" and "Ohhhhh the medical bills!" All while the person who it was effecting the most was giggling and asking for more pink Bubble Guppy stickers to make her boot prettier! 

I've also been reminded that although she can drive me up the wall with how hyper & silly she is sometimes, she also has a very sweet, sensitive side. Behind the tough exterior, inside she is also upset. Proven by the quiet sobs last week while she sat beside the pool watching her sister during swimming lessons. 

So for now we drink tons of milk and cross our fingers that all will be healed in time for our beach trip in a few weeks!! 

Let's Get Caught Up

Attempt at keeping a blog, Take 3! Haha! Wow has life thrown me for a loop lately! A good loop, but a loop nonetheless. Blog life took a backseat as we prepared for baby #3 and navigated the ups and downs of parenting a 2 and 3 year old. Not that blog life won't always take a backseat to more important life events, but the past 9 months or so have been non stop. 

So, in attempt to get caught up since the last post, here we go! 

Baby 3 arrived May 24. Another beautiful, incredible baby girl, Brinley Sue. We all adore her. She's two months old today, smiling like crazy and sleeping through the night, HALLELUJAH! 

We love having three girls. I can't wait to watch them all grow up together. From playing on the same sports teams, to developing their own interests and hopefully supporting each other to someday attending prom together! We've had more people than I would care to admit actually feel "sorry" for us that we didn't get a boy. Shame on them! I like how Michael put it, that there is a perfect, divine reason why we were blessed with three girls and who's to question God on that!? And coming from another dad of 3, Michael just has all the manliness that our family needs. :)

And that leads us to the exciting, yet more daunting task of attempting to successfully raise these three girls! I'm learning more and more that it truly takes a village to do it right. I won't lie and say that our plan was to have three kids in three years, but that's what we've been blessed with. And I do truly mean, "blessed". As a result though, we can't really fumble along with number one in hopes that we figure it for numbers 2 & 3 because we're kinda doing all of it at the same time! I'm a perfectionist people pleaser by nature, which is not a good quality to have as a parent. I have to fight the idea that misbehavior is a direct reflection of me as a parent. I have to fight the negativity that I can get from others, even though they may see it as encouragement from the "i'll pray for you" comments or the parenting advice columns sent to my inbox. Michael and I are learning to show grace to each other and to our girls and that God is the ultimate Father. A Father who not only daily shows us examples of grace and forgiveness, but then allows us to turn our failures around in ways to glorify Him. It's hard and embarrassing when your 3 & 2 year olds decide to throw tantrums at the same time, all while your infant is screaming and your back is burning from the looks of people around you. It's easy (for me anyway) to assume the thoughts of the onlookers are negative ones and get down on myself, down on my girls and turn a rotten situation into an even more rotten situation. Except that God, through some really wonderful friends and moms themselves are helping to teach me those are the exact situations where God wants me to show my children grace and to be an example of God's patient, merciful, but also firm love.  

These children keep us on our toes and crack us up daily. So the next time someone says they'll pray for me and my parenting, I'm going to ask them if they could pray that I cherish every single good and bad moment with these three beauties. That I care only what God thinks of me and my parenting style and that more important than anything else, these girls might one day invite Christ into their hearts as well. 

Until next time...

A New Year

It's 2015 and no resolutions for me, other than maybe survive this winter at home with two cabin-fever filled kids (and mom)! Oh how I love Spring, Summer and Fall and pretty much despise all of winter except for the initial snow shower.
We're gearing up for Michael's travel to increase and our home preschool "take 2". We had a perfect Christmas. Michael had almost two full weeks off of work. We were healthy, happy, rested and together. We finished our Advent Activity Calendar mentioned before with a sleigh ride and visit to "Santa's House", Christmas cookie baking, a video from Santa and lots of Christmas movies.

 Not a good picture of the fam with Santa to say the least, but shows Callie's complete fear of him. She refused to take her eyes off of him, almost taunting, 

"Go ahead and try something. I have a blood curdling scream ready."

Christmas Eve is always my favorite. We start the day with brunch with Michael's family at our house and then nothing but lounging and playing with new presents until our Christmas Eve service. This year, Ailey was too old for the nursery and attended "big church" with us. She was skeptical, as were we, but I knew she'd love the candlelight singing at the end. Other than twice announcing, "what's next", during a silence, she did pretty well and did indeed love the candlelit songs, and much to our surprise did NOT try to grab the candle out of our hands. For the second year in a row, rain has squashed our tradition to walk down Main St and look at Christmas lights, but the girls were famished after church anyway. Shown here downing a bowl of blueberries while waiting for our Christmas tree shaped pizza to bake (a new Cmas Eve tradition we started). 

We snuggled and read books before setting out cookies for Santa and calling it a night! The girls got bikes, baby dolls, books and tons of other fun games and toys. Below Callie is playing with Ailey's singing Elsa doll. From now on Santa will be instructed to buy the girls the same gifts; same color, size, shape etc., Poor Elsa has been fought over and spent more time in timeout than she has being played with.

I am so blessed! 2014 was a year for the record books for our family! Excited for 2015 and next Christmas with THREE kiddos! :)

Oh, Where do the Days Go??

So, it's December and I haven't blogged since October. Hence the title, "where do the days go!?" Lately, they are being spent entertaining a now 3 year old and almost 18 month old inside because our Ohio weather makes it impossible to spend too long outside.

Despite our busy days, playing, pre schooling, running to ballet & art class and keeping two kids alive and fed, I would normally have nap time to catch my breath and occasionally blog. However, for the past 3 months I've had the flu. The longest flu of my life. The doctor called it....morning sickness! Yep, I'm officially baking surprise number 2 (baby number 3, but "surprise" baby #2, if that makes sense:) We are nervous, but thrilled and I have been so sick with this munchkin. Thankfully, as  I near the end of the 4th month, I am finally able to get through a day without the yucks. And I'm also now in the market for a new blog name....all suggestions welcome. :)

Life didn't stop, though, and we had a blast planning, decorating and celebrating Ailey's 3rd Birthday with a "Frozen" themed birthday party. This little girl is 3 going on 13. She is my buddy and such a stinker. Lately, she's been using her creativity to think up reasons to get out of bed at night. Some of my favorites are, "Mom, I need help with my sock" - as it hangs off her toes, or "Dad, can you clip my nails?" Oh that girl! She loves imaginative play, especially playing princesses. The two girls will dress up as princesses and lay down to "sleep" and ask me (prince charming, of course) to kiss them to wake them up from their slumber! Haha! She is such a good big sister and looks out for poor Callie almost too much sometimes. She shares with her, calls her "sweetheart", and will sing Callie's favorite song "Twinkle, Twinkle" as soon as she cries for any reason.  She's sure that mommy is having a brother for her because, "I already have a sister mom, her name's Callie, remember!?" We're working hard on letter identification and she's got about 6 of them down. I have to remind myself daily of the things I used to tell past parents of students. It's different when it's your own kid! I just thought for sure she'd pick it all up the first afternoon I introduced it...yes, I was that naive.

On to other things, we decided to try an Advent Calendar this year. Our calendar is filled with Holiday Activities to do each day. So far, we've made Christmas crafts, watched a local light show, saw the lights at the zoo, went to a story time with Santa at the Library (where A told Santa not to be hurt that C was screaming bloody murder, it was just because he looked like a monster with that beard), picked out new ornaments and are soon headed to see a Live Nativity scene at a local church. I'm very much looking forward to this one and hoping it leads itself to some good conversations about the real reason for the Christmas season. We have some great activities coming up in the last 10 days before Christmas!!! So my plan is to be back soon to share more of those!! I love this time of year and have loved it even more being home everyday with my sweet kiddos and having more time to listen to Christmas music and enjoy the tree!

Preschool and Painting and Playdates, OH MY!

Preschool, painting and playdates is what our life has consisted of for the past, well, MONTH! I'm not really starting this whole blogging experience off on a good foot, am I?

I've been really excited to start a little home preschool with Ailey. I sorted through all of my past teacher stuff and pulled out anything that I thought we could use. Now, I don't intend to make it crazy structured and take out the fun and relaxed atmosphere of the day. I'm a huge advocate that we need to let kids have fun learning and then when they naturally ask questions, teach them how to dig deeper. So I thought we'd start easy, basic and just have fun. And what better place to start than with the letter "A", right? We sang an "A" song, made an Alligator hat and practiced writing A's in our moon sand and colored rice.

Then, at the end of the week during our "review" I asked her what letter we learned about and she stumbled a bit before yelling, "G"! -sigh- Back to another week of letter "A"! :) 

                 (A paper plate crab craft in honor of grandma and papa's New England state's trip)

In other, more boring news, we're repainting the outside of our house. Same color, less peeling is the plan. After 5 gallons of the wrong color we found the correct color and got to work. Like any project on a house built in the 40's, we're running into a bit more than we bargained for, but we keep chugging along, hoping that at least phase 1 of this project will be done before our Ohio winter settles in. And as I blog cuddled under a blanket in my 62 degree house looking at the gray sky and howling wind, we may be there sooner than we think. Boo!!

In the past month, Michael and I did find time to hit up an OSU game together and squeeze in some fall activities with the girls. I do love Fall, I just wish our "6 month" Winter wasn't right after it. 

Stay tuned! We've got birthdays, milestones and other events to share from the Gill's soon! 

Reflections

I was recently asked to look back at experiences in my adult life that were life-changing. I get fuzzy feelings inside even writing about them, because it's been such a cool excercise for me to be reminded that God sees the whole picture. He is filled with mercy, grace, compassion and plain and simple, He knows what's best, Amen!?  So here they are, the top 5 experiences that have changed my life and brought me to where I am today. 

1. Giving My "High-School Sweetheart" a Second Chance :) 
Way back however many years ago, as a Sophomore in HS, I reluctantly said yes to a date with my now husband Michael. I was the goody-goody girl and he was the rebellious fball player. We went on a double date with friends of ours and it was...let's just say, not love at first sight. :) I told his friend to let him know not to ask me out again. 
A year later, after developing a friendship through late night AIM conversations (anyone remember that??) I was finding myself falling for him. We gave it a second chance and the rest is history. He is the most amazing husband. I adore him and thank God everyday that that first date wasn't the last. 

2. Receiving a "false diagnosis"
I was a 21 year old college student, recently transferred and commuting from home, visiting the above HS sweetheart almost every weekend and loving life. And then during one of those weekend visits I passed out, seized and my health began to be in question. After two more passing out scares I was referred to a neurologist, who quickly and haphazardly diagnosed me with a seizure disorder. In a whirlwind of events I had lost my license, was put on icky meds and feeling rotten. To make a long story short, after a second opinion it was not a seizure disorder, but a much more simple explanation and life returned to normal. I can't even remember now how long I was without a license, but what I do remember is that I had to rely on God big-time and it really shaped my spiritual life. I also spent an amazing amount of time with the most wonderful grandparents a girl could ask for. Since I was a commuter, they drove me to and from college. They brought me treats, waited willingly for hours while I went to class or had group meetings and showed me the greatest example of self-less love. We lost grandpa this past June and just a week later, lost grandma as well. Those memories I have with them as a 21 year-old college student are truly treasured. 

3. Moving to NC 
After Michael and I were engaged we began discussing where we would live once we got married. I was working on my teaching license and teaching jobs were scarce in OH. Michael was going through some family stuff and had no problem "getting out of dodge" for awhile. Some family questioned our decision, but I quickly got a job teaching 3rd grade in NC. In a three-week timespan we graduated from college, got married and moved to Greensboro, NC. It was the best.decision.ever! Our first year of marriage was a honeymoon. We knew no one else so all of the friends that we made, we made together. We avoided a lot of the sources of tension that arise with individual families, friends etc., We found a great church and made great friends. Michael talks about moving back to Greensboro at least once a week. :)

4. Moving back to OH
So even though we were loving life in NC, I was hating my job. A job back in OH opened up where I had student taught and so with several hundred other applicants I threw my name in the hat thinking for sure I wouldn't get a call and that would be our easy answer. However, that's not what God had planned. I unexpectedly got the job and we found ourselves moving, through our tears, back to OH. It took SEVERAL years, but after being back in OH for almost 7 years we can now see that this was totally God's plan for our life. He has blessed us beyond what we could have even imagined. I'm so thankful that we took that step to move back, despite our hesitations. 

5. The riskiest decision of all...
I vividly remember having conversations with friends back in the day and saying things like, "I could NEVER be a stay at home mom", or "I would go NUTS being at home all the time"! Humorous to me now that I am that stay-at-home mom that I said I would never be, and I am seriously happier than I have ever been and feel contentment unlike anything I could explain. After a three year fertility journey to have our first child we were happily surprised to find ourselves expecting a second child just 9 months later. Soon after that we began questioning how in the world we were going to keep up our schedule. We both worked full-time and the few hours we got to spend with Ailey in the evenings wasn't cutting it. Here lies the problem...I do NOT take risks. I won't even take up a new hobby unless I know I will be good at it, no, GREAT at it. I'm a tad-bit competitive. So for a full year I convinced myself that since "so and so" could do it, so could I. But God kept poking, prodding and showing us that although teaching is clearly my gift, it was not what He was calling me to do at this time. For me to quit my job didn't make sense according to "the world" and it's standards. Financially, it'd be tight. We became a one car family and have other sacrifices we'll have to make, but we are doing it to invest in our family for this season of our life. God showed himself to us through this decision making process unlike anything I've ever experienced. I fell asleep crying one night and told God that He was going to have to send me a letter telling me what to do because I was lost. Well, the very next afternoon, a good friend of mine sent me an email explaining to me that she felt like God had laid it on her heart to tell me to take a step of faith. (God hears our prayers!) It wasn't an easy decision after that, and I do miss my job and colleagues, but wow was God laughing at me back in the day when I thought the last thing I would do was stay at home. Currently, it is my dream job. Thank you Jesus for showing us that your plans are so much better than ours!!! 

Jeremiah 29:11  "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, 

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

The Beginning

So here it goes, my first attempt at a blog. A "blog" in it's truest sense, an online journal, scrapbook, documentary of our life - for us. A place where we can keep track of milestones the girls make, memorable events and those daily happenings that we don't want to forget. 

As I contemplated whether or not I wanted to start this blog I thought, why not!? What a perfect time to start as our family enters this new stage of life. A stage that finds me as a stay-at-home mom. Quite a different title than my former one as "elementary school teacher" that I've had for the past 8 years. A stage where Michael attempts to find balance between his purchasing job, the travel that goes along with that and of course us, the three girls (and the dog).  And more importantly, a stage that finds our sweet, energetic , strong-willed, lovable girls at age 1 and 2. They are literally growing up before our eyes and I don't want to miss a second. I am incredibly happy and so blessed to have this time at home with the fam. 

                                       So here's to the journey of the blog!