God doesn't give you any more than we can handle....

and then he sent us REESE!  Please don't get me wrong, she is a gift from God that I would never want to know life without, but as her mother, she tests me as well as her dad, daily now.  Since I am using this blog as somewhat of a family journal to remember stuff when I am too old to do it on my own, I figured I should write about not just the good, but the trying times too.

Ever since Eli was born when people come and visit I get the same question, "So how is life with three?"  And I think once you have kids it is fair to say it is eventful and then after you have more than one, it just becomes that much more eventful.  Now I know I haven't made it to the teenage years and people will tell me that I have no idea what is to come and I don't know hard yet, but I think it is fair to say that each age has its struggles.  Eli for example, being 10 weeks old, he I think is my easiest at the moment.  Aside from him being dependent on Casey and I for everything and not understanding concepts about how great it would be for him to sleep 10 hours at night, he is our easiest child these days. 

The second "easiest/hardest" kiddo would be Ashton.  He has his moments and can make you want to die of laughter and in the next breath pull your hair out, he is a pretty self-sufficient kid.  He is capable of doing so much on his own and sometimes just needs that extra push to remind him that he can throw away his trash, he can dress himself, brush his teeth, pick up his toys, etc.  But that is just it, he can do all of those things and really just wants/needs his mommy and daddy to do school work with him or explain something to him or just to hang out.  When I put Ashton and Eli together, it is amazing.  Ashton is so nurturing to Eli and will sing songs to him, hold his hand, and just love on him.

And then there is Reese.  The "trying twos!"  Lil Ms. Thing is a fireball in the making.  She is in to everything and this week she has just thrown us a few punches that all we can do is laugh at because it is not even worth getting upset over.  Here is a recap...

Wednesday afternoon Reese, Eli and I went to pick up Ashton from school at 2PM.  Between the hour of 2-3PM the following happened...kids ask for a popsicle as a snack, I agree and the color of choice is red.  Eli procedes to spit up his afternoon snack all over me.  I wipe it off and notice he needs a diaper change as well.  I turn on Max and Ruby (Not a fan of that show but that is another post) and leave Ashton and Reese in the kitchen eating their popsicles.  I take Eli to his room to change a dirty diaper and remove said diaper, only to be peed on...not on the already puked up shirt, oh no, in my hair.  What do I do?  Put my hair in a pony tail and just move on, oh well right??  I then walk into the kitchen to no longer find my kids, instead they have thrown away their red popsicles in the trash and moved onto the couch to watch tv.  I notice their oh so red faces and tell them they need to wipe their faces off as I am getting a paper towel and Ms. Reese decides to wipe it on the couch leaving a lovely shade of red.  I then start to clean up red popsicle off of the tanish couch (or what used to be) and the kids decide to start coloring at their table.  Perfect right?  Now I can start a load of laundry.  I get Eli settled on the activity mat and go start a load of laundry only to come back to reese coloring....with a GREEN marker on our stone fireplace.  Magic Eraser to the rescue!  I begin cleaning that only to then find Reese now coloring with a pink marker on my Iphone case, which is pink, at least it matched right?  And then I looked at the clock and it was only 3 PM....really???

Moving on to Saturday morning where Reese and Ashton asked to paint and did so outside.  Only Reese decided the paper wasn't as much fun as her blond hair.  Once again, Green was the color of choice.  So by 8 am she had green hair.  Later that morning Casey asked me if I had given Reese some lotion and I told him no, he just said hmmm.  I then walked out into the den and commented that it smelled really good and wasn't sure what that was.  "Oh, that would be pumpkin hand soap you smell"  said Casey.  Reese decided to take it out of our guest bathroom and fill all of Eli's bottles that were sitting on the counter.

Then we get to Sunday.  I started a load of laundry and stood there and folded the other load that was in the dryer.  I then threw the wet clothes in the dryer and went to feed Eli.  Sweet baby boy decided to pee on himself and me so I took my shorts off and went to the dryer to get another pair I had just washed.  I pull out my Khaki shorts and notice a little green and and then purple spots.  I start digging....thank you Reese, she oh so sweetly put in four markers, two purple and two green to go for a spin in the dryer marking all of the clothes in with it.  Thankfully they were washable markers and everything came out.

I know this may not sound like a lot but in a short time a short little girl made me want to pull my hair out more than once.  All I can do is look at those dimples and just love her and laugh because I know that this too shall pass and need to remind myself again, God will never give us more than we can handle and he created Reese so it must apply!