Veggie Tales Live

For the last almost four years, we have been going to Central Christian Church.  It is a non-denominational church that is really large.  At first the size of the church intimidated me, but we have slowly been finding our niche.  There are a lot of things geared for kids, and the last year and a half we have been going to a family Bible study on Wednesday nights.  I have also had the opportunity to volunteer in the class that Jaycee goes to and was able to start working for the church about 10 hours a week. 

Sometime in September, our church started selling Veggie Tales Live tickets.  There was a poster up by where we check Jaycee in, and she always wanted to look at it and would get so excited.  I asked about it, and to my surprise, the church was able to sell the tickets for $10 a piece.  I thought that was pretty good.  You know that I am all about getting a good deal.  We thought that since the concert was in October, that we would get that for Jaycee's birthday.  Since her birthday is at the beginning of October, we have had to wait quite a while before we could go, but tonight we finally got to see it.




 

 

 

We had a great time.  I was so glad that we got to take her to see it.  I was surprised though, b/c she sat on my lap the whole time except during the intermission.  I think that I actually knew more of the songs than she did.  But it was a lot of fun.

 

 

 

the Ehrlichs

Opportunities

Staying home full time has presented me with some new opportunities and challenges.  For the past almost month, I have been busier than I ever thought I would be staying home.  I think that I had a vision in my mind about what staying home would look like, but how quickly I am reminded that my plans are not always the way things work out.   So I am going to let you in on some opportunities that I have had since staying home this year.

First I want to start by saying that I chose not to pursue a lot of things that I could have gotten involved in this year.  I am the type of person who likes to have a few things I'm involved in, but not too many things.  It could have been so easy for me to dive into many activities and then have spread myself too thin.  I prayed about each new opportunity that came my way and chose the ones that I reallly felt led to be apart of.

Library
Once a week Jaycee and I go to the Library.  In Wichita, there are a lot of libraries with lots of activities, but the one that we have been going to is in a little town about 10-15 minutes east of where we live.  They have a great program, and Jaycee loves doing the craft at the end that goes along with the theme for that day.  Lately, we have been getting there a little early, which is quite the task for me, I seem to be running behind a lot these days.  When we get there I let her choose a few books to keep for the week, and I look up ahead of time some that I want to read.  Right now I am into a futuristic series called Uglies.  I'm not sure what I think about it yet, but I will let you know.  Sometimes the books we choose are not great, and sometimes we keep them for an additional week.  It has been one of the things that we enjoy doing every week.

BSF
Bible Study Fellowship.  Every Wednesday morning Jaycee and I go to Bible Study Fellowship.  It is a Bible study for women and their kids.  What I like about this program is that whatever lesson for the week that I am learning, Jaycee also learns too.  They give me a lesson guide as to what types of things she talked about and what kinds of questions to ask her.  This year we are studying Genesis.  I have never taken such an in depth look at how God formed our world.  It is pretty amazing the way that He had a specific order as to how he created each part of our world.  So far I am getting so much more about how much God loves me through reading Genesis in such an in depth way.  I can also tell a difference in Jaycee too.  They have been showing her how to have quiet times and interacting with others while learning about God's love for us.  I need to really do more follow-up than I do on the quiet times with her.  I think it is a great thing to teach at a young age.  We both are really looking forward to what God is going to teach us this year.

Church Days
This kind of fell into my lap.  One Sunday morning when we were picking Jaycee up from her class in church, there was a sign in the nursery looking for help.  Our church is pretty big, so they need help all the time.  I started volunteering one Sunday a month in Jaycee's class, and started to get to know the nursery workers.  I asked one of the ladies about the sign, and they said that they were needing some extra help some mornings and evenings.  They also said that this was a paid position and I could do as many or as few hours as I wanted.  The other really great thing about it is that I can bring Jaycee with me.  It gives me a scheduled time to get out of the house, while giving Jaycee time to play and learn with some other kids her age.  I never thought there was a job like that out there.  So once a week Jaycee and I go to church and have a "church day".  I also help out one evening during the week or weekend.  While these days get us both up and out earlier than I would like, I am glad for the opportunity to help, serve, and make a little extra cash for my family. 

A couple of days a week Jaycee and I have days just for us.  I like those days, because there are not structured activities and we can have fun doing things that we want to.  Some of our favorite activities lately have been playing in our new basement.  I borrowed a Mandisa cd from my friend a couple of weeks ago, and we have been singing and dancing to it.  I made up a game with her about some stars that I used for bulletin boards at school, and she goes up to the top of the stairs while I hide the stars.  Then she has to comes down and tries to find them all.  One day we played this game for close to about 40 minutes.  I couldn't believe how a simple idea that I came up with on the spot kept her attention for that long.

I am grateful for the many blessings and opportunities that God has brought my way.  Had I not been obedient in quitting my job, I would never have known that what I really needed was a slower pace for myself so that I could better serve my family without stress and deadlines.  I believe that God has been working on my heart and is teaching me so much about myself and the way that I see him.  I do miss the adult interactions at times, but I enjoy how I am seeing my daughter learn and grow.  We do have our moments where we need time apart from each other, and that is when Tom steps in and takes over or at least gives me a little break from being mom for a while, but the positive things I see far outweigh the challenges that I face. 

the ehrlichs

Ice Cream Birthday Party

Today we had an Ice Cream Social Birthday party for Jaycee.  I got the idea off of Pinterest.  About a couple of months ago I started thinking of what kinds of things to do for her birthday.  I was really wanting something laid back and fun for both the kids and for their parents.  Hopefully that was the case.

I began by researching different games and ideas that involved ice cream.  Once I had that theme ideas in my head, I was able to find a lot of things to go along with it.  I found a sticker scene game/ placemat and a bean bag toss game on Oriental Trading.  This was a site that I used a lot for things for school for my class, but I typed in ice cream party and found some neat ideas. 

I started by sending out evite invitations to our family and some of Jaycee's closest friends that she plays with.  I liked using the evite invitations because it was less paper and I was able to give updates as to the location change.  We were originally going to be at a park near our house, but the weather was a little colder than I had expected, so we ended up having it at our house.  You can view the invitations here.  After that, I started checking into some ideas for ice cream toppings.  I also began to think of some cheap ways to decorate.  So being the bargain hunter that I am, I found some really neat table decor at Wal Mart that had some bright colors and designs that I liked.  I kind of based the rest of my decorations on that.  My awesome friend Meagan let me borrow some of her dishes that were ice cream cones, I used those to hold the toppings in.  I also got an idea from my friend Jenn to prescoop the ice cream into muffin pans and just set them out when I serve it.  That was a huge time saver and made it a little easier for people to just get what they wanted.


Here is the table with the ice cream buffet.  I had a lot of balloons that I had bought for school a while back, but have just been sitting in my basement.  I decided that I would blow them up and use as cheap decorations. 

As you can see there were a lot of toppings to choose from.

The first activity for the kids to do was to create their own bakery.  They each got a placemat empty bakeshop and a sheet of stickers.  Their job was to use the stickers to create their own bake shop.

 

 

They are all so hard at work.

So glad that we ended up getting our basement finised just in time.  Since the weather turned out to be so cold today, we had time to test out the basement Jaycee's new playroom.  It seemed to be a hit, and this was a great way to see if it could stand the test of lots of kiddos.

Jaycee and her cousin Everett

 

 

 

 

Cone Races
As I was researching game ideas for an ice cream themed party, I ran across this game.  It's called an ice cream cone races.  Tom got some extra butcher paper from work, and I turned them into ice cream cones.  Then each child got a balloon and they ran across our front room floor to race each other to the other end of the room. 

 

 

 

Then it was time to open presents.  Jaycee posed for her cousin Kelsey who was taking some pictures for me.  I think she was just so glad to get some new toys.  Tom and I don't buy her too many toys other than special occasions.  Our gift to her this year was to go see Veggie Tales Live which our church is having a concert later in the month.  If anyone wants to join us let me know I would be glad to get some tickets for you through our church.  Check with me if you want to do that.

She is really into Toy Story this year

 

 

 

 

Leapfrog Laptop

Uncle Caleb, Aunt Casey and cousins Everett and Eloise know that she is a big Jayhawk fan.  Such a big hit.

 

 

 

Then it was finally time to eat.  We made up a brownie with some ice cream and toppings of her choice for her.  Then we lit a #3 candle and sang to her. 

 



 

The day turned out great!!!  Jaycee had a fun time playing with her friends and cousins.  We were all so glad to everyone who came to help Jaycee celebrate her birthday. 



the ehrlichs

Twenty Questions Birthday Interview

Well, yesterday was Jaycee's birthday.  She was feeling a bit under the weather and we just decided to take things easy.  I saw an idea of asking your kids questions on their birthday and taking a picture of them.  I thought this would be a great way to see the changes in her over the years and to keep a birthday scrapbook of these questions every year.  You can see the idea here.

I decided to ask Jaycee twenty questions and then took a picture of her today.    Since Jaycee has been a little under the weather this week, I wasn't able to ask her these questions on her actual birthday, but I was able to get some of her answers today.  I'm not sure how accurate these answers are, and I had to give her some prompts as to how to answer the questions, but I think she enjoyed the time I spent asking her about her favorite things.  Enjoy getting to know a little more about Jaycee as a three year old.

Jaycee's Three Year Old Twenty Questions Interview:

1.   What is your favorite color?  green
2.   What is your favorite toy?  Elmo
3.   What is your favorite fruit?  strawberries
4.   What is your favorite TV show?  Super Why
5.   What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Peanut Butter Sandwich
6.   What is your favorite outfit?  my pretty dress
7.   What is your favorite game?  no comment
8.   What is your favorite snack?  dinosaur fruit snacks
9.   What is your favorite animal?  elephant
10. What is your favorite song?  Bingo
11. What is your favorite book?  Finn Throws A Fit
12. What is your favorite movie?  Cars
13. What is your favorite cereal?  Lucky Charms
14. Who is your best friend?  Parker and Foster (our neighbors)
15. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  play in the sprinklers
16. What is your favorite drink?  pop
17. What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas 
18. What do you like to take to bed with you?  blanky
19. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  toast
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  no comment just a blank stare


Well, there you have it.  You now know a little more about Jaycee.

Three Years Ago

October 3, 2009

 

Three years ago, I stayed home from school with some pretty intense contractions, then all of a sudden late in the afternoon they completely stopped.  I thought it would be a good time to rest and get ready for our little girl to arrive.  We had been having our roof worked on because of some hail damage earlier that year and they had finished that afternoon.  Our friends Travis and Meagan had called and wanted to have us over for dinner.  I was ready to get out of the house and was feeling pretty good. 

 

I will never forget that night.  Travis and Meagan made spicy fajitas for us for dinner and then we spent some time talking and catching up.  About an hour after eating, my contractions started up again.  I thought that it was just like the contractions earlier in the day, and so I decided that I wasn't going to let anyone know how really intense they were.  My contractions started to get even more intense and closer together, but I still thought that it was like before and didn't really worry about it.  Meagan noticed that I was gripping the sides of the couch really hard about ever 10 minutes or so.  I tried to pass it off as nothing, but these friends know us too well.  Eventually I decided that we should probably go home, but we never made it.  As we were driving home, the contractions started to get even more intense and closer together.  We went ahead to the hospital and were admitted in.  At about 4:28 am that night or morning, however you look at it, Jaycee Loelle Ehrlich was born. 



 

 

Two days after she was born

 

 

 

One year

Two years

It is so hard to believe that my baby is three years old.  It hardly seems possible that this tiny person has been apart of our lives for three years now.  It has been three years of some adjustments in parenting, learning how to walk with bumps and bruises, and the every changing moods of a two year old. 

Now she is three

 

Who knows what this next year will hold for our family.  I am looking forward to seeing Jaycee grow and learn new things everyday. 

 

 



the ehrlichs

Sad

Well, I'm not quite sure how to share this, but I will do my best.  I just want to say that lately I have been a little sad.  At first I didn't know what in the world could possibly make me feel sad.  My life was taking a new turn, and there have been some major adjustments, but nothing that I felt was too overwhelming.  The summer came quickly and once it hit, we were off and running.  We had a lot of things going on and projects that we wanted to get accomplished.  I think that I loved that sense of accomplishing something and that I knew I would be able to see the results of the projects we were working on.

I also had a lot of time to spend with Jaycee.  She has been such a huge blessing to our lives.  I thought that after losing Caden I would never truly be joyful again, but somehow and someway, I have been able to get a little of that from just being part of Jaycee's life.  She does have her moments and even days.  She has a genetic disposition to being stubborn, and it doesn't help that both of her parents have the same disposition too.  So naturally that trait flares up quite often with her and it is one of those parenting moments where you wish you could just crawl under a rock.  But eventually those times pass, and I even am able to forget that she has that quality about her until it flares up again. 

Taking a trip to California was a dream to me.  I hadn't been back there since I was 16.  Seeing Los Angeles through a 30 something year old's eyes is a lot different than seeing it through my naive 16 year old eyes.  Also having a 2 year old with us made it a different sort of trip.  Having my parents there to occupy and help with some of the tantrums Jaycee had made the parenting load easier too.  This trip helped me see how beautiful our world is and just how much I want to see more of it.  Traveling has been great for us and we always seem to find inexpensive things to do and ways to travel.  I am so thankful that we get that opportunity.

When we got back from our trip, I thought things would slow down, and they did for only a bit.  We had birthday parties, then school started (at least for Tom), and  Jaycee and I were trying to find our groove and new routine.  It wasn't until just about a couple of weeks ago that I began to feel really sad.  I kept asking myself "Why?"  It just didn't make sense.  I was staying home with my daughter, I was involved with some activities that we both could attend.  I was going to start going to a Bible study, and I was helping out at church a little more.  What could possibly make me sad?  It was shortly after reading an email from a friend about how life sometimes gets in the way of some of the really important things, that I began to realize what was really the root of my sadness.

At the end of the school year last year, I decided to stay home with Jaycee, but not only was I planning on staying home with her, we thought we were going to have another member join our family.  It made me a little scared, but also very much at peace with God's plan.  Just before our trip to California, I found out that I had a very early miscarriage, but my body continued to produce hormones as if I was still pregnant.  It is called a chemical pregnancy.  I had never heard of this before, and thought that I must be the strangest person in the whole entire world for this to happen to me. 

It was when I was technically 11 weeks pregnant that this discovery was made.  To say that I was disappointed was an understatement.  All of the emotions from losing Caden came flooding back and I just didn't know how to handle it.  So what did I do.  I buried it and tried my hardest to move forward for my daughter, husband, and family.  I wasn't going to let this be a setback in my life.  For a while I did really well, and felt that things would really and truly be OK.  Phycically my Drs. said everything was fine and that I just had to get back to normal which could take a little time.  I opted to not have surgery where they would clean out my body from the miscarriage, but decided that I would heal faster if I just let nature take its course.  And it did.  Most of it happened while we were on our trip and I was terrified, but was given lots of medication for the pain and just continued to enjoy the trip as best as I could.

When we got back things didn't slow down and that may have been a good thing.  But now that I have time and my life is a little slower, I find myself being really sad.  This time it is a different kind of loss, and I don't know how to deal with it.   I find myself crying b/c I thought that things would be different right now and that we would be preparing for another child to enter our lives.  I find myself thinking, "Why did this have to happen again?"  "Haven't I been through enough?"  I also find myself thinking that I must have done something to make God angry.  So what do I do, I drown my sorrows in things that will take my mind off of that pain.  And for a while they do, but then the feelings come up all over again and I dont' think that I am handling that so well.  But I also begin to think that it hasn't been that long ago, and it is ok to allow myself some grace.  I also know in my head that God is not angry with me.  I think that my perception of God is beginning to change.  I have always thought of Him as waiting for me to make a mistake and pound me with bad stuff, which I definitely deserve, but I am starting to realize that He isn't that way and just b/c I am going through another difficult season of sadness that doesn't mean He doesn't care about me.  In fact it is the opposite.  He is trying to draw me closer to him, but while I think to protect my heart by burying my feelings, He is reaching out to me.  I wish that I could see those things more clearly earlier on, so that I do draw on His strength when I feel lost.

This is a subject that I never wanted to talk about and am a little scared that I am even sharing it right now.  But I started this blog when my whole world was crushed and God has blessed me through His insights and new friends along the way.  This blog was a huge part of my healing process after losing Caden, that I thought it would help in this instance too.  I don't know why things have to happen the way they do and why some things work out while others don't, but I do know that God is watching out for me and holding me close even when it hurts and when things get hard.  I continue to pray for clarity and hope that He will deliver me from such a burden that I was not meant to carry alone.

Mira

Life As We Know It (At Least For Now)

Here is a brief glimpse into our lives, at least for right now.  Things have been a little unorganized these days.  I am ready for a little more simplicity and organization.  Anyone who knows me will know that I try to find little ways to organize my life all the time.  I think that I have a small obsession with it, and it makes being home, at least in my project ridden house a little nuts.  At least nuts in my eyes.  So for this organized-challenged girl, I have been taking pictures to document the reason for my cluttered mind and house.  To tell you the truth, I don't even start cleaning for fear that it will just be there again tomorrow or that there will be a new mess to clean up.  My organized mind just wants one big cleaning time and then to be done.  Hopefully that will come real soon.

So I am sharing some photos of the things we've been doing.

Race track in our driveway.  Jaycee loves to have her cars race each other.

 

This was the first beautiful day of the fall.  We had to take advantage of it.

 

The basement saga continues.

Enter the basement. 

 

And we have carpet!!!
 

Baseboards and Trim

Still have a little way to go, but looking good.

 

For the last two weeks, the fair was in town.  My youngest brother and his family came to visit and we had lunch with them at my parent's house.  It is always a tradition (or at least it seems like it is) to have some sort of BBQ or to grill out.  It was an awesome day for everyone especially the kiddos.

 



Wide Open Spaces

Basketball

Grandma and the cousins
Ethan and Jaycee

 

Can't believe I got them both looking and smiling at the same time!!!

 

Can't forget the dog, I mean horse.  He is taller than most average sized men.
 

 

 

 

Go Ethan Go!!!

 

 

The whale bubble machine was a big hit!!!

 

I think that I finally figured out my problems with posting photos.  So hopefully there will be many more to come soon.  But for right now, this is it.  The basement has completely occupied a lot of our time with Tom being so busy getting it done and I am watching over everything else while he works.  We are having a slow start to adjusting to me being home full time, but some very part time opportunities to work for my church's nursery have kind of fallen into my lap.  I'm hoping that will give me a little more structure to my week and keep my creative brain working.  There are so many more things that I want to share with you and when or in my organizing process I might let you in on our disorganizational lives to see hopefully the beauty that comes from waiting for some things to settle down.

the Ehrlichs