Those sweet quiet moments where she follows me into a room and falls asleep somewhere. It rarely happens, and on this day it was while my mom and I were hanging curtains in our room and she wanted in her daddy’s spot on the bed. A few moments later we looked over and she was like this, quietly dreaming.
I was sitting at my desk yesterday helping my sis with some photos when something unexpected happened.
I looked over at the kitchen because I heard a banging noise. I didn’t see anyone but my eyes looked down and I saw some white powder and random crackers from underneath the pantry door. Time slowed. My eyes grew 5x larger and I slowly walked towards the pantry door. I opened it and saw the horror inside. I called Stephen over to the area and Sarah ran over with him. We opened the door to a site that was funny to Stephen, HILARIOUS to Sarah and sigh-inducing to myself.
She was so proud. Of course it also happened about 20 minutes before we needed to leave for churh, so in the tub for a quick bath and we were good to go.
After a lot of sweeping, wiping and moping my pantry is now the cleanest it’s ever been. So in that respect, thank you Elanor?!?
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Now that our kids are a bit older I totally get why cereal is so awesome. I know as an adult I love me some breakfast for dinner, but oh how the occasional mornings are easier when my girls make themselves a bowl of cereal and get the first meal of the day underway without me having to do it all. Her smile and the milk dripping down and off the chin pretty much sum up her feelings on the tasty freedom as well!
While I thought I would be posting a photo of Sarah today this one stood out to me. Elanor’s big sister turned 4 today. This girl could not love anyone more than how she loves Sarah. It is a love of admiration, respect, fascination and absolute selflessness. The girls definitely have their moments where they fight over toys or argue over nothing, but I have never witnessed someone give up their own desires or wants like when I watch Elanor with Sarah. She wants to make her happy and see her laugh. Sarah will never fully understand or see the ways Elanor loves her unless she one day has 2 daughters of her own. Having two girls is more than I ever thought I could want. Thank goodness the Lord ignored my idea of order for children and gave us these girls the way He did.
Watching children love one another, like I did today, is a beautiful gift to witness. Thank you Lord for allowing me this peek into your love for us.
We have a street down the road that I’ve always enjoyed walking. A neighbor (and his extended family) have a pasture that keeps getting new animals. When we moved here it was cows. Next they added some horses, then some goats, and most recently, donkeys.
I’m an occasional runner (in training). I practically have the couch to 5k program memorized. Or at least the first 3-4 weeks of it, I never seem to finish. One of my favorite strips to run is the area with these pastures. One of the best purchases I’ve ever made was our jogging stroller. It’s saved my sanity on probably 100′s of occasions. The girls learned to moo, neigh, baaaaa, and he-ha pretty early in life because we practice each time we go out. It’s a fun addition to our days.
I now keep extra carrots aside to take with us because we’ve learned cows don’t like gold fish, animal crackers, or cranberries. Apples and carrots though, big fans :)
I met the owner a few years ago when Sarah was a baby and we were out walking. He told me they loved the things mentioned above and sugar cubes. I don’t carry around sugar cubes, so we stick with the others. We’ve also learned that if your kid is eating a snack while standing at the fence, goats and cows will lick goldfish right of their hands and then look at you disapprovingly bc it isn’t what they wanted. Silly animals.
Here are a few photos from our visits to our four legged neighbors.
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and going way back to the start…
When I started this photography adventure I honestly had no idea if it would go anywhere. I’m not a self-marketer and a pretty big introvert, so putting myself out there was and is not natural to me. Far from natural, really. I will say that being an associate pastors wife has made that a bit easier on me, I have had some major crash courses in social skills in the past 2-3 years.
All that to say, things are going well. I am on call right now for a sweet momma that is due anytime in the next 2 weeks. I am on a constant learning curve with the business side of things, but thankfully I have had a few friends take me under their wings and it has helped drastically with goal setting and marketing.
With all of that going on I have had to learn to become a night owl in order to get job related work done. If you knew me in years past, I have always been an early bird. In high school I went to bed at 9, and earlier in the winter. The sun setting and moon rising were like my natural clock. Not anymore though. That changed a bit when we had kiddos, but has changed even more since starting this new venture. It’s been like body training, only not the workout kind that gives you muscle tone, but more of the late night snacking and sitting kind… thankfully I chase kids around during the day so exercise exists whether I want it to or not.
Speaking of chasing kids around, these girls of ours are growing at a rapid pace! They are both so much fun.
Sarah has become such a little girl, loving art projects, playing in dress up clothes, and anything that has to do with cooking and baking. Elanor is talking up a storm, learning new words all the time. She is my independent player, loving to just do her own thing (minus when she’s teething, then she reaches human-leech status). I am so glad that I get to be their mom. Stephen’s new job has made for a lot of changes, and thankfully one of those is that he gets to see them a bit more. With him traveling he does a lot of his computer/office work in the morning, so he gets to have time with them before he leaves for the day. It’s so nice seeing them have morning-play time rather than just before bed time and post-work Stephen during dinner/bath rush time. They all love it, and it’s a joy for me to see and watch their relationships grow.
Okay, Elanor is waking up from her nap so that is the end of computer time.
A photo of each before I sign off…
Sarah left for a moment and came back to Elanor eating her cereal.
That’s definitely not a title I thought I’d write, in relation to our normal day to day at least.
All this crazy cold weather has taught me something I never thought I’d say – bring on the heat! Guys, it is so much more work getting kids dressed, comfortable, potty-trained, diaper changed, bags packed, and carseats buckled when it’s freezing outside. Not to mention all the mismatched shoes and socks tossed about in the back floorboards of the car. Why do kids hate shoes so much?!
This past week the temperature dropped nice and freezing. It seems no matter how many blankets and shirts I wear my temperature does not rise. Our poor heater hasn’t stopped running in almost 2 days. Not looking forward to that electric bill. Yikes.
Stephen’s office closed early on Tuesday so people could get home before the roads iced over and/or closed. Crazy thankful for that foresight because all of Stephens paths home closed later that day. Before we put Sarah to bed that night Stephen took her outside to play with icicles. She loved it. The only way we could get her to go to bed after all the excitement was telling her about how fun it would be to play in it in the morning with Elanor.
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The next morning we made plans to meet our neighbors out front. I was surprised and excited to see they had real sleds! We pulled the girls up and down the driveway and they loved it. I quickly had to go back inside and search the house for gloves. I don’t think my hands have ever been that cold. Thankfully Sarah was recently gifted a pair from friends at church, so one kiddo was covered. Elanors tiny hands were still gloveless so I found some fuzzy warm socks and she never knew the difference.
Our long driveway was perfect for sledding. All the rain made for a super long iced slippery slide.
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Elanor had a BLAST!
sock-gloves are where it’s at
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Sarah pulling her sister
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Playing with icicles in the backyard
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Icicles
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Sarah has such an adventurous and curious spirit
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Love my little E
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who also has gotten very curious and adventurous
(click here if video isn’t working)
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This last clip was pretty much how our day in the snow and ice concluded. Sarah told me she wanted to pull me on the sled so I got in. She pulled me about 10 feet and pronounced “Mommy, you’re too heavy” and then headed for the front door.
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(If the video isn’t working, click here to watch )
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After this we headed in, got Elanor down for her nap and Sarah and Stephen cuddled on the couch while watching Tangled and drinking hot cocoa.
It was a great day at the Ringl house.
On Thursday we took Elanor to see her doctor. She’s had a runny nose and a cough that quickly grew since last week. With all this changing weather, cold one day, hot the next, we’ve been running a humidifier in their room to give their respiratory systems some balance. A humidifier can only do so much though.
Feeling like something just wasn’t right I made an appointment and all 4 of us made the visit. Sarah hasn’t been to the doctor in a long time, so she was excited for the trip. I think Curious George helped her fascination grow bc any episodes with a doctor are her favorite.
Elanor was a lot more relaxed with having Sarah there. I will remember that for future visits.
Our wait was really short and our doctor came in pretty quick.
We had Ella’s 1 year appointment just one week before and she clearly remembered that she was just there and had gotten some boosters. She is just like most little ones at the doctor, not her favorite place… She didn’t even want a sticker from the Dr. Sarah, however, loved getting a Christmas Tree sticker!
We found out that Elanor has both RSV and a double ear infection. Poor girl must have a high pain tolerance bc she has not acted anything like a sick baby. She’s been a little extra cuddly and wanting to be held, but that isn’t abnormal for her tender personality.
I’m so glad that we took her in “just in case” something was wrong. On Friday she was definitely showing signs of being uncomfortable. I am so thankful for family and our small church family. Our friend Melissa came and got Sarah so I could give Elanor some extra attention. Sarah got to go decorate cookies and play her heart out.
Melissa asked if she could have her for the afternoon without me ever thinking about asking. My independent and quiet, introverted personality doesn’t ask for help, or even think about asking (except from my mom, haha). It is truly a God blessing to have people like that in your life.
(they went to the store and Sarah got spoiled for a bit)
This morning Elanor woke up in good spirits and she and I have had a quiet morning cuddling in the couch while Stephen and Sarah sleep in. I love quiet slow weekends.
Please pray our little one has complete healing and that she doesn’t get any more ear infections. She had just gotten over having one 2 weeks ago.
Also, thank you to my husband for teaching me to openly ask for prayer. I am not good at asking for things, especially prayer, and he is continually teaching me how to be a better servant and to open my heart to others. To be real and true.
I hope you all have a great weekend and that your Christmas shopping is compete. And if it isn’t, good luck
We had a great time celebrating Elanors 1st birthday this past weekend. Her actual bday was the day after Thanksgiving, which we enjoyed by getting our Christmas tree and decorating the house. We had a simple party at our house that Sunday with family. A few people ended up not getting to make it, so we had lots of leftover food and dessert. We all had a fun afternoon celebrating our sweet girl turning 1. She and Sarah both loved having their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and a cousin come over for a visit.
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We 4 Ringls with our birthday girl
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I love this sweet girl!
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Showing off her skills
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Food was simple. We grilled and had chips, apple slices and cheerios. For dessert I decided to try something new.
I love the taste and texture of cupcakes, but the liners drive me crazy bc I feel like they’re so messy & crumbly. Thank you pinterest for solving my ridiculous avoidance of delicious cupcake goodness. Enter the cake-filled cone. Conecake?! Cupconecake?! I don’t know, all that is certain is they were delicious! Although Stephen mentioned they would have been even better with chocolate in the bottom.
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Elanors Cupcake
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I made a special plate for all our birthdays
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Love them!
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I also made a gallery/kids art wall in the kitchen. I look forward to Elanor having her pieces hanging on the wall with Sarah’s :)
(thank you for the encouragement card Aunt Vicci, it meant SO much)
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Sarah & Aunt Kelley
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Little Addison had fun too!
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Uncle Stephen loves holding cute babies
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pre-cupcake snaking on cheerios
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Sisters: We think so alike we both braided our hair.
That, or we are both too tired and busy with kiddos to blow dry our hair most mornings
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Stephen cried and it made Addison upset, so she joined in too ;)
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Sarah made this face after she discovered that I ate her lunch (which I thought she was done with).
(In case you didn’t know mom lunches are usually their kids leftovers)
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Sarah was more than willing to teach/help Elanor open her birthday gifts
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Cupcake Time!
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One of Sarah’s MANY desserts. I found 3 or 4 cones with just the icing licked off. Silly kid.
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Sisters
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The chocolate icing was a HUGE hit!
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She was the ideal 1st birthday cake eater. Made a delicious mess in her hair, ears, nose and all through her fingers.
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Gooey sprinkled fingers
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the remains
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Uncle Jason
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Ri & Jeff
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with Papaw & Nana
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Ringl Fam
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Aunt Ri
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Why play with the toy when you can play IN it?!
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Sarah telling Grandma an important story
Grandma & Grandpa came later that day after mom got back in town
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the girls have not stopped playing in the ball pit they brought
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We had a wonderful day with our sweet girls. In another 3 months we will be celebrating Sarah turning 3 and then I know I’ll blink and Ella will be 2!
We live a crazy beautiful life.
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