Giver

We recently started paying Savannah for doing small chores around the house. She can earn 25 or 50 cents at a time depending on the chore.  When she gets them done she has a little magnet board we keep track of them on.  I saw the whole deal on Pinterest - it's working out great.  She gets paid about once a week and the most I have paid her at one time is $2.50.  When she wants something now - like candy or dumb toys or stuff at garage sales - we are trying to make her spend her own money. 

A couple weeks ago our church took an offering.  This has never been done in Cornerstone history!  We asked Savannah if she wanted to participate and she was pretty excited.  She ran to her money box (a pink princess plastic container) and got out HALF of her money.  It was only 4 quarters, but all she knows at this point was that she had 8 moneys, and she wanted to give 4.

A couple days later I remembered that we still needed to send money to our friend for her missions trip to India.  Savannah had asked me something about being rich - like she thought it was a really bad thing to be rich.  I explained to her that it's okay to be rich, just not greedy.  I don't remember the conversation (I'm sure it was incredibly spirit lead and impressive) but we ended with her wanting to send money to our friend for her trip to India too.  So I told Savannah she could give whatever she wanted.  She went to her money box and got out 6 quarters - leaving herself with 3.

I was really proud of her for so easily giving so much both times and was beginning to be challenged by her generosity.  The. I thought "we'll of course she can give so much.  She knows her parents will always make sure she has everything she needs - and still get her some of the things she wants. What does she have to worry about?"

And then it hits me - childlike faith.  There it is again.  Thank You Jesus for continuing to use this girl to teach me your ways and your heart.  May I have the same faith in You, the King of the universe and my Father, that she has in me, a sinful creation! 

The girl

Now, Charlie is constantly changing and growing, but we can't let him have all the blog love! 

Savannah is going to be five this month - she's so so so much fun! I think these pictures say a lot.

She is pretty thrilled with herself for being able to go down poles all by herself.  I'm pretty thrilled too.  It's kind of awkward standing under the pole helping her do it. 

She dresses herself every day.  She's pretty creative. 

Another first this year - pumping on the swings completely alone.  She can get on, get going, and keep going for a LOOOONG time.  All by herself!

I think she took this one by herself.  I don't know why that face :) 

Other note worth Savisms:  Loving super heroes right now.  We watch Xmen almost every day.  She'd love to have a super hero birthday party.  Savannah dresses herself up like a super hero almost every day.  It's always a different outfit though. She is talking a lot about cutting her hair short - but we're going to sit on that for a while.  

This is her - always finding something new to do where ever she is. 

Four big months

Charlie Baylor Pierce turned 4 months old this week!  Crazy! Relieving!  There is something momentous about his being 4 months old now - I feel like we can all relax a little.  He can sit up in a baby chair and hold his head up by himself.  He can grab toys from in front of him and put them in his mouth.  He can lay looking at something for several minutes straight.  So much independence! And boy does he laugh a lot!

We had his 4 month check up and here's the stats: 

15.10 pounds (52%), 25 inches long (45%) and I don't remember how big his head is, but it's in the 72nd percentile for his age :)

Here's our monthly monkey picture: not quite as adorable as last month but they can't all be winners. 

Look at the chubs on those legs!

Here's something noteworthy - we were given the okay to start giving him rice cereal so we did!  It's pretty optional at this age, but since we've had so much trouble with him as it is, we thought it was worth a try.  He loved it.  So much that at dinner he was getting visibly upset watching US eat and not giving him any.  AND....are you ready for this? HE DIDN'T EAT ALL NIGHT!  He slept from 10:30pm until 6:10am!!!!  First time ever!  It could be the cereal, or the probiotics kicking in, or the fact that we were outside almost all day yesterday or maybe the vaccines messing with him.  But we'll take it.  BIG FINGERS CROSSED!!!!  Let's do THAT again!

Sup-date

Want to know what's 'Sup with us? Craziness!  That's what!

- Charlie is ... almost 4 months old.  I don't count weeks anymore. No one (besides doctors) really cares how many weeks your kid is.  If you go by months they get a general idea.  He may be like 15 weeks now?  I should probably figure that out.  Anyway, he had his first ear infection last week.  I've seen enough of those before that I knew what was up so I got him to the doctor quick!  I think it's all better now.  Being sick caused him to sleep more and heavier for a few days and he's actually been sleeping a little better since.  I'm kinda hoping that the sickness "reset" him in terms of sleeping and crying.  He still isn't sleeping through the night, but he is doing much longer stretches between eating.  However, we are still waking up 4-7 times a night to resettle him and put that darn pacifier in his mouth!  At four months (in a couple weeks) we will officially start sleep training - or the "cry it out" method as some call it.  It'll be rough, but I look so forward to him being able to self soothe!  

- Savannah is amazing.  She has been so patient, helpful, encouraging, and delightful.  I thought she was a gift before we had Charlie, but now I know she is the most amazing gift we could have been given in a daughter.  One great thing I am noticing about her more and more is that she never lies.  She is becoming a very trustworthy girl. Every so often she gets wrong ideas, or even a little confused - and like a lot of us, she is convinced that what she believes to be true is true.  That seems like lying, but actually, it's just ignorance and we're all guilty of that at some point.  

- Travis got his motorcycle running last weekend.  If you didn't hear, he got this older motorcycle from a friend last fall and road it for a couple weeks and then it got way too cold.  He took the bike out last weekend one day ( think it was like 50 degrees out) and he came back freezing!  Seems that the air gets to be about 20 degrees colder when you're going 40 miles an hour.  We're all tired of the cold weather here, but that motorcycle in the drive way is just taunting  him!  

- I've been busier lately. I started working more hours at church.  We're in a weird time of transition in our ministry.  Our high school pastor is heading out in June to plant a church in Cedar Falls, IA and our new guy doesn't start until a couple weeks after that.  Lately I have gotten to spend a lot of time meeting  with all kinds of high school girls, leaders, potential leaders, and potential interns.  In June Travis and I are leading a trip with some students to Minneapolis for a few days.  Another reason we'd like Charlie to sleep better - so he doesn't give my parents so much grief when we're away!  And did I mention that I picked now to start running again? 

PICTURES: 

Laterblog:Easter

I just noticed that I never posted this.  I've seen people on instagram using the term "latergram" - so here's my "laterblog" from about two weeks ago. 

We had fun celebrating Easter again.  It's really my favorite Holiday.  I think because the older I get the more I realize my need for a savior.  He DIED.  Completely.  And on Easter, he defeated Satan's power over me!  We should celebrate Pentecost too.  I think that might be my favorite too - if we celebrated it. 

The last couple years we have done this count down to Easter thing with Savannah.  Starting 12 days before, Savannah gets to open up an Easter egg that has something in it representing a story about Jesus.  We read the story to her and talk about it as a family.  It's been so fun for all of us to remember how great Jesus' presence on earth was.  And how far his power extended.  

This is Savannah praying on the 11th day. Love it when she prays. 

Here's our kids on Easter day.  They're cute. 

Savannah was trying to "help" Charlie smile. 

I always try to get a good picture of us on Easter - when we're all actually dressed up.  But this year was another fail. Come on people. Savannah says she was making some super hero face. I guess this is what our family really is :) 

Yo guys - check me out! Easter stud. 

So for this special Easter breakfast I reheated pancakes from the day before (because Saturday is the only day I might ever have the chance to actually cook breakfast) and garnished it with strawberries and yogurt covered raisins.  The one ear that is missing is the only part of the pancake Savannah actually ate.

Our church is great. Always. I doubt you will ever hear me complain about the services at our church.  

No pictures for the rest of the day, but we spent it at my parents house stuffing our faces with Easter ham and then not really doing much.  Rest is worshipful too.  But that's a blog for another day.  

Sleeping Probs

Savannah slept through the night when she was 9 weeks old.  Not this new guy! 

You can possibly imagine how exhausted Travis and I are becoming since we fully expected baby number two to mimic baby number one.  Here we are, three weeks later, and still not even close to sleeping through the night.  Charlie has something going on in his tummy that is making it hard for him to sleep.  A couple weeks ago we had the good fortune of chatting with a pediatrician friend of ours who helped us rule out his formula as the source of his issues.  We were so so blessed by her willingness to talk to me during a really stressful week.  The next week I finally caved and took Charlie to the Chiropractor.  The following 24 hours were the most peaceful hours of his life!  He has had a dramatic improvement since then - but he still wakes up from naps and night sleeping often and has to be soothed back to sleep.  We are sure it's stomach/gas related. 

Anyway, here he is taking a nap right now.  See if you can identify all the "wrong" things in this picture :) 

#secondbaby #whatworks

Answers: 

Stuffed animal in crib with baby

Blanket on baby

Blanket under baby

Pacifier leash attached to baby

Baby laying on sleeping wedge

Sleeping wedge with side sleeper pillows attached

Heavy wall decor above crib - I do plan on taking those down asap

Broapalooza

You probably heard that we had company from India last week.  It was great!

We finally finished our attic space up so they could stay up there, which gave us ample space for everyone to live and play and sleep.  The girls spent 4 days non stop playing pretend -

"Let's pretend I'm the princess and you're the dog"

"Let's pretend I'm the teacher, and you're the student, and you're the mommy"

"I'll be the horse, and you be the queen and the monster"

Stuff like that.  

When Greg and Shannon and Lani and Maggie first got here, the first thing Maggie wanted to do was make snow angles.  The girl is almost 4, and has lived in India for two years so her experience with snow is pretty limited.  

Soon after they arrived, the other adults went to work out with Travis at Surefire - leaving me with these three characters.  :)

As Travis and Greg get older, and our families grow, it really is more and more fun to spend time together.  It was a really fun visit for all of us I think. 

Toward the end the girls started getting restless.  Come on Iowa!  It's spring already!  

So we took them out to the church just to run around for an hour.  Another day we took them to Walmart just to walk.  They did great playing in our house, but you really just have to run sometiems. 

Oh, and this guy was around for all of it too. 

Shannon left a day early to spend some time in Florida, so Travis and Greg and I met my parents for some Karaoke on Friday night.  It's been a while since we've been down there so it was really fun.  Travis and Greg sang the song Double Vision - which was so ironic.  

Aren't they cute little twins? 

Why is Travis posing like that and why are Greg's eyes shut?

Sorry Shannon, no pictures of us.  Mommas get no love from cameras.  Oh well.