Apparantly Hayley doesn't get enough to eat around here and gets some serious cases of the munchies.
Each of these pictures are taken on different days. I've got to give her credit for thinking to keep the floor clean.
The other day Hayley got very frustrated with me about something---most likely that I would not let her touch one of her new DVD's (or as she says, "DDD's"). She yelled and threw a fit on the floor. I went through the whole discipline routine and we went about our day. I'm going to be VERY vulnerable here and admit that I have a tendancy to lose my temper with her more than I wish. It is the thorn in my flesh that HURTS and I HATE it. I pray all the time for God to take this away from me. It is something that has been passed down for several generations in my family and I want to break the cycle. No one deserves to be talked to in an ugly tone of voice--especially my 2 year old daughter. So you can pray for me about this! But on with the story. . . I feel so guilty about this sin in my life so often and live under a spirit of condemnation and worry that she's going to have this picture of me in her head when she grows up being so ugly. Well, that day she came to me a little bit later and said in a sweet little voice, "Mom, I sorry I lose my temper." And the Lord spoke to my heart after she said that and said, "You are not perfect, nor will you ever be. Just make sure that you continue to model to her how to admit you are wrong and how to ask forgiveness. That is key for her salvation." One thing my mom was SO good about was coming to us after she did lose her temper and say, "I am so sorry I lost my temper. You do not deserve to be talked to that way. Will you please forgive me?" So that's something I have tried to do too, but now I will do even more of after that little conversation with God. Our kids, as much as we hate to admit it, really do need to see us making mistakes and asking either for their forgiveness or for others' forgiveness and especially God's forgiveness. Just thought I'd pass this along in the hopes I've used the Lord's encouragement to me to encourage someone else.
Quick funny story that my mom loves to tell about me---When I was 2 she came to me one night before bed and said, "Shelly, I am sorry I got so frustrated with you earlier. Do you forgive me?" I answered, "Nope, but God does."
An update on sweet Hayley. Sunday things went from good to really bad again. We were sent to the emergency room with her Sunday night b/c she was hurting so badly and hadn't urinated from around 10am until 8pm. Long story short, we took her over to the urologist's office in Dallas this afternoon, had to do ANOTHER cathedar to get more urine b/c the results from Thursday's culture were negative (just got those this morning). The nurse's words were, "She has a raging infection." It has been a very traumatic day for all of us. I believe God was merciful to Hayley on Saturday by giving her a day of relief from her pain. We are still, of course, praising His Name as much today as we were Saturday when we thought she was okay. I keep thinking of the story of the "fiery furnace" when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said to the king, "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
The Lord did not heal Hayley completely from her infection or (as far as we know) from her kidney reflux. . .yet. We believe with our whole hearts that He will. Our prayer is that He will heal her before she has to go through the surgery to correct her reflux. We believe He can. We also know that it could be His plan for us to go down the road of doing the surgery. Please pray for us to be in tune with God's direction and wisdom regarding that decision, and that we will use this as an opportunity to tell nurses, doctors, people in waiting rooms, about what a MIGHTY God we serve and that others will come to know Him or grow closer to Him after encountering our family.
On a lighter note. . . I have the most INCREDIBLE sister in law. I actually have 3 of them, but today I am talking specifically about Tara. She has come to my rescue with keeping Jack twice over the last few days while we have taken Hayley to dr.'s appointments at a moment's notice. She has totally dropped what she was doing to help us out and met us with a smile on her face at the door as we blew in and out like a tornado trying to get to the doctor and then home again. She never complains or acts like it is any kind of inconvenience to help out. What a BLESSING to have that sweet woman in our lives. (her husband and son aren't all that bad either) : )
She lives out the verse, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men," Col. 3:23
What a gift you are in my life! I love you, Tara!
Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits---Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercy. (verses 1-4)
Thank you for praying. We truly believe that the Lord has healed Hayley of whatever the problem was on Thursday. She was back to normal Friday and has done great all weekend. We'll get the results from the culture on Monday, but as of Friday nothing had started growing. All glory and praise to Jesus Christ alone!
I picked Hayley up from school today and she was burning up. I got her home and the fever was 105. She was just limp and wouldn't talk. She would only shake her head yes or no. THANKING God for Motrin!! It brought the fever down and she came alive again. Took her to the dr. and had her tested for flu (negative) and had the traumatic experience of cathedarizing her (I wasn't allowed in the room, but could hear her screaming down the hall----ripped my heart out) and the urine test was also negative. We will get results from the urine culture w/in the next 48 hours. I'm almost certain it is a UTI (urinary tract infection). She has kidney reflux and is on a low dose of antibiotics daily. It is hurting her to go potty SO badly. She just screams in pain. Thankfully tonight after she woke up in hysterics b/c she had to go to the bathroom and couldn't I thought about putting her in the bath (thank you, God, for that thought!) and she was able to go potty and feel better immediately.
So---please pray for the doctors' wisdom. Pray that her urologist can get her in quickly when I call in the morning. Pray for peace for Tra and me. It is SO HARD to watch your baby in SO much pain!!! And pray for COMPLETE HEALING. We believe God can heal her kidney reflux and we are boldly asking for that. I am so thankful that it is not something worse or life-threatening. But it is still gut-wrenching to see her hurt so badly. : (
Hayley decided this was going to be the week to potty train! I've been working with her on it for several months but I have let her just go when whe wanted to. My plan was to take year #2 to familiarize her with it and by this summer if she wasn't potty trained I would hit it harder. I think it was peer pressure at her school/BSF/church that led her to this decision. She has had dry pull-ups every day this week! Today she wore big girl panties all day (except for our trip to the mall---pull-ups) . It is a big adjustment for me trying to train myself to start asking, "Do you need to go potty?" everytime we leave the house.
Jack decided tonight was the night to start self-feeding! The boy will NOT put anything in his mouth on his own---until tonight. I put a piece of cheese on his tray at dinner thinking, "Maybe tonight will be the night." Sure enough, he just picked it up and put it in his mouth like he had been doing it his whole life! My jaw hit the ground! I gave him another piece and he did it again! WE CELEBRATED in the Willbanks' home this evening!
So that is 2 pretty major milestones all in one week. My children have this thing with wanting to do things their own way in their own time. We're not sure where they got that! : )
Jack's latest weird quirky behavior is wanting to be up on the couch and bury his face in the pillows. He is not happy anywhere else. He'll just throw his head in the pillows and lay really still for a few seconds and then pop up and look at us with this look like, "Am I not hilarious???" He'll occaisionally laugh at himself. What a stitch! Oh---he has also started crawling on his hands and knees over the past couple of weeks too! The army crawl is still his favorite, but if you watch him long enough he'll bust out into a full-on crawl! It is wild to watch the transition from baby to little boy!!
The other day, Hayley randomly said, "I like your earrings, mom." It was the first time I had ever heard her voice her own opinion on something. So cute! Actually, I take it back. One day in October or November I went in to wake her up one morning and she said, "I not like that shirt, mama! Take it off!!" I'm sure that won't be the first time in her life that she doesn't like my outfit! : )
Tra came home from work early today with a stomach ache. It has turned into an UGLY stomach BUG. I'm PRAYING it doesn't get me, Hayley, Jack, or anyone else at Anchor. YUCK.
I am several days late with this birthday post to Jack (it was on the 23rd) but better late than never. It is so hard to believe you are ONE year old! My memories of the day you were born are still so vivid. I remember being so surprised at how FAST you were born! I had Oprah on at 4:00 and I was visiting with Poppy and daddy and at 4:30 I started feeling LOTS of pressure. You I only had to push a few times and you were OUT by 4:57! I remember the fear in my heart as the nurses suctioned out all the junk in your mouth over and over and told us they needed to take you to the NICU. You just looked SO perfect and I just wanted to hold you and not let go!!! Daddy and I prayed over you before we handed you over to the nurses and as quickly as you got here, you were gone. The next 3 hours were so strange not getting to be with you. I remember being so thankful that you were going to be okay and crying for my friends who have had to give their babies back to the Lord for good. The Lord used that moment in my life to give me a window into the hearts of these friends. Although I have never had to experience giving one of my babies back to the Lord, I had a very small glimpse of how much it has to hurt. My heart hurt so much giving you to those nurses, and that was a fraction of what my precious friends have felt.
What a BLESSING you are, precious Jack. Your little smile appeared within your first month and hasn't gone away! You have such a sweet disposition. My favorite memories with you during the past year are lots of nights rocking you (one of the last things my grandma said to me before she went to be with Jesus is, "You rock those babies!!" so sometimes I even go in and get you after you are asleep and rock you some more!), watching you suck that thumb and play with your ear with your other hand, seeing your face light up when you see your sister and your daddy, hearing you take deep breaths and seeing that big smile when a cool breeze (sometimes a cold gust) hits your face, watching you army crawl EVERYWHERE (crawling on your hands and knees is SO overrated!), putting you to bed at night and having you be fidgity and fussy until I start singing and you immediately relax and snuggle up to me EVERY time. My list could go on and on. You are a joy to your dad, sister and me and to SO many others. God has such a great plan for your life. You will be such a mighty warrior for Him and I am confident that the Lord will use you to bring multitudes to know and serve our Almighty God. Like the scripture says on your wall, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6 The Lord will direct you and lead you in ways that are hard to understand at times. It won't always make a lot of sense in your mind and you might not want to follow His lead. Follow Him. Seek HIS face ALWAYS. TRUST HIM COMPLETELY. He is the only one in your world who will NEVER let you down. He will NEVER fail you. Take time to BE STILL before HIM, and LISTEN to HIM. As much as your dad and I love you, HE loves you even MORE!! 
I think I've finally found a hobby that Tra will not steal from me. . .online scrapbooking!! I have never gotten into scrapbooking. I tried when Hayley was born and got through her 8th month or so. I just have a really hard time really getting into scrapbooking---getting ALL the stuff out, making a huge mess and having to clean it all up before the kids get into it. Take it out, put it up, take it out, put it up, etc. For Jack's birthday (which was yesterday. . .birthday post coming soon) I made a Kodak Easyshare book for him on the internet. I did his whole first year in 3 days or so. It was probably a total of 5-6 hours that I spent on the whole thing. And I LOVE it. Well, my friend Ashley told me about a website that is online scrapbooking---backgrounds, tons of layouts, places to journal, etc. It is www.picaboo.com and I cannot begin to describe how excited I am about it! I've already started on a little 1st Birthday book for Jack and it is so much fun! No scissors, no bits of paper, no mess!! I was so excited I had to share! Also, you can email the books out on this website and you can't on Kodak's (as far as I can tell). So for anyone out there who is interested in this stuff (Courtney), you have to check it out!
I should be in bed, but was just looking through some pictures and had to post some of these. It's wild to think that this time last year we only had Hayley and at Christmas this year we had Hayley, Jack, Adalyn and Scout! These little cousins have so much fun together and love to play with and on each other! What a joy they are to us all!
"What are y'all lookin' at?" This is Jack's favorite thing to do with Scout (6 mos.)
Hayley (2) is reading everyone a bedtime story. We did not make this happen---we looked over and yelled, "Get the camera!"
This is what happens when we try to line them up for a picture. Notice Jack is crawling over Scout AGAIN. Will we even be able to make all 4 stay still long enough to get a picture of them together next Christmas??? : )
It was time for a change. I'm in a blue mood for 2007. Started out pink in 05, green in 06. I'm liking the blue. It is wild to think 2006 is over! Thinking about this time last year: I was LARGE pregnant and anticipating the arrival of our precious boy, Hayley had only been walking for 3 months, we had just moved to our new house, and so many more changes were ahead of us. I'm anxious (in a good way) to see what 2007 has in store for our family of 4. I was taking the ornaments off our tree today thinking about this time next year and how very different things will be around here. Jack will be weeks away from turning 2 years old and Hayley will be almost 3 1/2. It's hard to imagine!
Our Christmas was wonderful. It started out w/ Tra's family and ended up with mine. It was the first time since 2003 that I had gotten to be w/ my family for Christmas at my parents' house. It was SO good to be with everyone again. 2004 Tra was too sick to travel and 2005 I wasn't allowed to travel. It was fun w/ Tra's family to see all the kids. None of them were terribly "into" Christmas this year. I thought Hayley would be more into it, but she so was not. She IS enjoying her new toys though---even if she seemed like she could care less at the time she opened them. One of my favorite memories of this Christmas was being at Richland Hills on Christmas Eve morning for the candlelight service and there were about 5 baptisms afterwards. Hayley always goes to her class during service times but the kids don't have classes at the Christmas Eve service, so she had never seen a baptism until then. It totally left a huge impact on her. I think she has talked about it every day since. She'll randomly say, "Remember when that boy got ba-tized? He just JUMPED in that water and got soakin' wet!" And I'll say, "He said, 'Hey everybody!! I. . " and she finishes w/ ". . .love JESUS!!" Last night she brought it up again and she said, "And then it will be Hayley's turn to jump in that water!" I told her I couldn't WAIT for it to be her turn! SOOOOO precious. I can't believe it has been so long since my last post! This time of year is too crazy. I'm finding myself looking forward to the new year and slowing down a little! But at the same time I want to savor every moment of this Christmas w/ my 11 month old and 2 year old! Hayley is understanding a little more about Christmas this year but not 100% into it, of course. She loves decorating and re-decorating the bottom half of the Christmas tree. Most of the time half of the ornaments are missing. I'll find them random places like under couch cushions. : ) We've finally made the successful transition to the big girl bed. Grant it, we do lock her in her room for now, but it works and we all get sleep. We've had lots of family time this month w/ my side of the family. One of my cousins got married 2 weekends ago and last weekend was our family Christmas lunch w/ my dad's side of the family in Dallas. It was interesting as usual.
Jack is going to be 11 months on the 23rd. I can't even believe he is almost ONE! He is an absolute JOY in our lives. He is the happiest kid I've ever known. He LOVES his sister and vice versa. He is happy w/ his style of crawling (army crawl) and has no desire to do things like everyone else does them. He loves naps, wheels, and playing outside!
I'm assuming I won't have a chance to blog again before Christmas, so Merry Christmas everyone!
Yesterday at naptime Hayley mastered the art of climbing out of her crib. She did it over and over and over. It is actually very impressive---she can get out of it in a matter of seconds! So as of naptime yesterday she is officially in her big girl bed! Once she went to sleep last night she stayed in bed until 6:30am! I know it will just get easier and easier as the days go by. Hard to believe I have such a big girl already!! I'm so proud of her, but not nearly as proud of her as she is of herself! : )
From Judy (my mom):
I have officially declared November 7 "Peggy Baldwin Eat-More-Pie Day". Mom would have been 82 tomorrow--what better way to celebrate than to give ourselves permission to eat a big old piece of pie and make a toast (with a cup of coffee, of course) to her on her day!
Anyone who has been craving a bite of something sweet, here is your chance to indulge with no guilt! My mom sent this email out yesterday. We will be having my grandma's infamous Chocolate Merangue Pie over here this evening. She is dearly loved and missed terribly, but oh what a time she is having right now with our Jesus and the other saints who have gone ahead of us. I don't know if we will celebrate our earthly birthdays in heaven anymore, but it is a sweet thought that this is her first b-day with her mom in a really long time. So join us in having a little pie today in memory of my sweet grandma!
At 3:00am last night I put Hayley's crib back together. Let's just say thunderstorms and a yucky cough do not mix with transitioning to a big girl bed. And sleep deprived mamas are just no fun. We're all looking forward to a good night of sleep this evening. Stay tuned for round 3---whenever we get gutsy enough to give it another try. : ) I'm open for any suggestions from other moms out there who have had smooth transitions, or rough ones that ended up working out eventually with no one harmed in the process. : )
I have a very hard time getting into Halloween. Part of it is that I was raised with a mother who talked every year about how SHE hated it. I didn't understand what the big deal was as a young child, but now I totally appreciate her perspective on the "holiday." I really don't want my kids participating in a holiday that promotes evil. I have some friends who don't participate in any way during this holiday---no parties, no Fall Festival, nothing. Tra's family didn't trick or treat when they were little. We did, but we never wore scary costumes. I'm glad the churches in the area do Fall Festivals so that there is a safe place to go where Christian music is playing and there are not SUPPOSED to be scary costumes. ( I saw one this year and wanted to ask the guy to remove the mask.) It is fun to see the little kids in cute little costumes. This is one of the first years that I not only understood completely why those who choose not to participate don't participate, but I have great respect for that decision. I guess the bottom line is that you have do do what you feel convicted by the Holy Spirit to do with your own family. And to my friends who do not do Halloween---you know who you are---I am very proud of you for sticking with your convictions and graciously declining all parties, festivals, etc. The Lord has enabled you to do that without anyone else feeling judged in any way--at least from my perspective.
Anyway--on to another subject. HAYLEY!! We have had a huge weekend over here. We removed the front rail from Hayley's crib and tried the big girl bed again! This time, IT WORKED! She kind of has a hard time getting comfortable with going to sleep, but once she's out, she's out for good! The first time we tried this she was up ALL NIGHT, literally. It was awful. This time, she has slept w/o tears until 7am for 2 nights in a row!! We are so proud of her and are excited about this new transition and how smothly it is going.
One more funny Hayley story---one of her new favorite words is Hallelujah! We were watching "God Made Christmas" (DVD) the other day and one of the songs on it is Handel's Messiah and I, of course, sing along with it. So later that day we were strolling through Target (getting a new blanket to put on her big girl bed) and she was singing, "Halle-loo-uh! Halle-loo-uh!. . . " over and over and over. It was so precious! Christmas is going to be extra fun this year! I can't wait!
Is anyone else out there tired of waiting in LONG lines at the post office? If you live in the Keller area I have found a GREAT solution. . .More Than a Mailbox in the Albertson's parking lot off of 377 and North Tarrant is the GREATEST place ever to mail packages. I walked in, there was no line, the lady politely asked how she could help me and SMILED, I handed her my item to ship that was not packaged, she took it and immediately went to find a box and carefully packed it FOR ME without any grumbling, I paid, she gave Hayley a lollipop and we were on our way! It was almost too easy. And as a bonus for all you scrapbook lovers, there is a ton of scrapbooking stuff in there---a whole wall of paper, stickers, etc. It's no Scrapbook Warehouse, but definitely has a good selection of stuff. They also have a table with books for kids to play and some toys. I will never go to the post office again!! This place is incredible!
My baby boy is 9 months old today. I do not have any pictures b/c my camera is broken and is the item I shipped off today. I REALLY hope we get it back by Thanksgiving!! Anyway---back to Jack. He seems to change every day lately. Last week he started crawling. He does the army crawl thing where he pretty much drags his legs behind him. I saw him do it for the first time and started boo-hooing! I have not been too emotional at Hayley's milestones for some reason. Jack's, on the other hand, I just can't hold myself together. I think it is b/c it just doesn't seem like he should be this old! Time has gone SO much faster with him than it did with Hayley when she was at the baby stage. He is such a JOY to all of us and I can't imagine my life without my happy baby boy!
Anyone else not looking forward to the time change this weekend? Before children, it was GREAT! Fall back--you get an hour more to sleep! But to my dismay last year, I realized Hayley got up at 7:00ish in the mornings, which is now 6:00ish after the time change. Her little body clock didn't automatically change. So this Sunday could be the first of many days for awhile that we are eating breakfast by 7:00 and it feels like it should be naptime at 9:00am! : )
Speaking of naptime, ours is over. : ( Time to begin the 2nd half of my day! Thank you, God, for naptime!!
Last week was a monumental one at the Willbanks' household. Hayley bid farewell to her paci after never sleeping a night or a nap without it for 2 solid years. She has a chipped front tooth (a whole blog entry in itself) that is now very sharp. She gnawed halfway through her paci after her nap the other day. I hadn't planned on weaning her from it yet, but when I saw she could actually bite through the thing and potentially swallow it, I realized I had no choice but to tell her to throw it away and say good-bye for good. I have been AMAZED at how easy this transition has been. She still asks for it at bedtime but doesn't pitch a fit when I tell her they're all gone and we had to throw them away. She goes to sleep just fine. It has been wonderful to have it be this easy! She'll say, "I want paci and blankie! (And then looks at me with a silly face and says in a silly voice) Not paci!! Just blankie." I told her she could keep blankie when she sleeps as long as she wants. It will be interesting to see how long she holds on to that. My baby is growing up! I have a feeling Jack's thumb will be another story. : )
To read about a real-life encounter with an angel, click on Courtney's Blog.
Summer has a similar story on hers too.
I LOVE it when the Lord reveals Himself to us in such sweet, wonderful ways. He must know we are all needing faith-building this week. It is so hard to see friends hurting!! Our sweet friend Christine has been in the PIT over the past couple of weeks. It is very hard to pray for God to heal and have to wait and wait and wait on His timing. But we all know that He is Faithful. He loves Christine and Matt and Jack, the Tyndalls and the Pinsons. He will never leave them or forsake them. He does hear our every cry to Him about precious Christine. He has provided her with this new team of doctors in Dallas who are hopefully as I write this finished with her procedure and she may finally get on the road to full recovery. We love you, Christine!! We love being available to help you and your family out during this time too. So many of us have talked about it and what a complete JOY it is to get to cook for your family, sit with you, keep Jack, or whatever we need to do. You are loved more than you know and you are prayed for multiple times each day (if not each hour of each day!!) I have no doubt that the same angels (if not Jesus Himself!) that Hayley and Ava have talked about this week are just as visible to your sweet Jack---especially during this time while you are away from him. As God is healing you, He is also providing your baby with a peace and a comfort we can't even begin to see or imagine! Praising Him for who He is and thanking Him in advance for answering our prayers for you! He's got you and has already begun to lift you out of the pit. We will be anxious to literally hear the new song He puts in your mouth, dear friend! May this time be used to bring others to fully know the Lord and His power and strength by seeing how He works in YOU!
WE LOVE YOU!!!!
Psalm 40:1-3
I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
Lots to catch up on for the month of September. We had a small group over for Hayley's birthday this month---it was originally scheduled for her actual b-day on Aug. 30 but she got a stomach bug the night before, so we had to reschedule for later. I was glad we did---it was a fun day. 
It is strange to me how blogger has good days and bad days with uploading pictures. Today is apparantly a bad day.
Anyway, on with my news from the month. Tra had a routine CT scan and all looks great! Praising God for another good report!
Jack had surgery Thursday to remove the cyst above his eye. He had to go under, but the surgery was only 20 minutes and he was an angel waking up from it. I was prepared to have a very unhappy baby, but he just snuggled down and ate his breakfast and went back to sleep! He is recovering really well too. The big bandage came off Sunday and the tape covering the incision comes off next Thursday! Thank you, God for a successful, uncomplicated surgery.
I am so excited that I get to keep my nephew, Scout, every Wednesday morning starting next week!! Tara is going to start BSF and Scout gets to come play with his cousins! We are all very excited and can't wait to spend Wednesdays with Scout. It is a perfect set up---they only live 3 miles away from us.
Tra is going on a work retreat this Thurs-Sat. and I am taking the kids to Austin Thursday through Sat. to see my parents and Papa Jack and Betty (my dad's dad and stepmom) They haven't seen Jack in person yet! Should be a great week! More pictures coming soon. . .
I love these kids! I love it that they not only look close to identical, but that they also have similar facial expressions! It cracks me up. They are watching either BOZ or The Wiggles on tv in these pictures. I promise they don't do this all day. In fact these pictures make me want to limit the tv even more than I already do. : ) 
