Things I love

The things I love about my babies!
Let's start with Avry:
I love that she is an extra sensitive, yet very strong willed little girl-she can stand on her own
I love her beautiful curls
I love that she loves to kiss her daddy and make me jealous!
I love how much she loves to immitate me-whether it is nursing or cooking or washing my face
I love her sweet sweet voice
I love that she knows who Jesus is
I love her birthmark hiny :)
I love the way she puts her hands on her hips and tilts her head to talk to Coen-like "are you listening to me"
I love that she loves her baby brother and wants him to be happy ALL the time
Coen:
I love his big blue eyes and gorgeous grin
I love that he is a mamma's boy
I love that he has found his feet and is so intrigued by him
I love that he only wants me to put him to sleep
I love that look he gives me when I get him from his crib-it is like nothing else in the world matters because mommy is there
I love that he is layed back and a very easy baby
I love his red hair and his goofy little toe
I love that he is my baby, my sweet baby boy!
Other things I love:
Greg and his way with me-he knows me-he knows my heart-
My parents, my sister, my niece
Weekend drives in the country
My in-laws
The smell of lumber
SNOW!!! I LOVE SNOW!!
I love my girls-all 3 of them!
I love that a day hasn't gone by in my life that I didn't know that Jesus loves me.
I love who I am, the life I am living and the gifts I have been given.
I love that I am fortunate enough to have a good job.
I love that Greg and I are starting to plan for the future (and our big move and big new house)
I love that someday I will retire with the love of my life.
Zoe-my faithful dog
I love that my kids have 2 great grandparents left
I love that I can drop my kids off at the sitters and know that they are well taken care of.

Sometimes, we don't stop and think about the things we love, the things that just make us giddy inside, the things that we look forward to, the things and people that are the most important to us. My friend Michelle and her 3 beatiful girls and husband had family pictures done recently,m as I was looking at them, I was thinking about how much fun and how much love they had for each other and how much love you could see in their pictures. It made me think about the things I love!
You know, I am so very blessed.....so so blessed! 2 beautiful children and a loving husband and a faithful dog(who won't leave my side b/c Greg isn't home). What more could a girl ask for?

just a blog

So, what is going on with the McClellands, I know you are all dying to know! We have traveled the last 3 weekends, so we are all exhausted. Avry has been at my parents house since last Wednesday and is finally coming home today. I have missed the little stinker! Absence sure does make the heart grow fonder. This last weekend, we went to San Angelo to help clean out the rest of Greg's grandmother's house. We found some amazing treasures. Greg's mom is full blood German. Which is amazing to me. It takes alot to be full blood anything these days. Me for example is like a hodge podge of 2 kinds of indian, some irish or something and who know's what else. Anyway, Greg's great great granparents came from Germany, and his great grandmother (Gros mama) and grandmother all spoke some german. We found a bible, song book, and a children's school reader in German. Plus, boxes and boxes of letters in German. I was amazed. Greg's grandmother was an amazing woman and had a very hard childhood. She was one of 12 siblings, and grew up working in the cotton fields. She wrote letters about almost having to sell her and some of her siblings because they could not feed them. We think times are hard now, can you imagine times then? We should be greatfull! Greg's granddad was a mechanic, Greg loves all of the mechanic stuff that he has inherited. For me, I will be treasuring an antique sewing machine and a few dishes. Right now, we are treasuring a cedar hope chest that is just beautiful. It will eventually go to Greg's parents house, but for now it is at home in ours. Furniture like this chest is not made the same today.
Coen has RSV, we had been doing a shot every month to prevent this from happening. (RSV is extra scary in preemies). Evidently it didn't work because he got it. He is so sick and there is nothing we can do for him. He just sleeps and coughs! I am home with him today and tomorrow and then Greg will take a day and we haven't figured out the rest of the week yet. I am sure my mom or Katie will be able to help out. I better go do something productive. I really wonder what I did all day before I went back to work, but I sure do love being home with my babies!

A beautiful sunset
Only in the panhandle!

Greggy playing Hannah Montana guitar hero with JJ

Avry and Jadan playing in Mimi's new room.

The weekend before we went to Ruidoso, we took a trip to Dumas to help my sis with wedding stuff-and well explore my parents new addition to their house. They added on around 700 sq. feet to the back of their house. My mom has her own room for her crafts now, the little girls loved the room. They ran and ran around and played babies the whole time. In case you don't know, Jadan is our precious niece-she is 6 1/2. Avry thinks she is the best thing since chocolate milk! They get along so well and Jadan is so patient with Avry. Actually, if you ask Avry who her best friend is, she will tell you J-J. The other pictures are of the sunset as we were coming home from Dumas. It was amazing!

Avry with her hat and gloves
The majestical view

The kids with their lizards

Coen's first sink bath

On top of the mountain at ski apache

This is a story of a girl who needed a vacation!

This weekend, Greg, me, the kids and our buddies Jerrid and Amy loaded up the car and headed for vacation. Ruidoso! We had the best time, no worries, no internet, no cell phone service, no x-box (ha ha). Just back to the basics. We rented a cabin for the weekend way up in the mountains-we are talking like hidden and surrounded by tree's. It was so fantastic. I marvouled at God's magic the whole weekend. It was definitly good therapy for me! I have been so stressed lately with work and friend drama and everything else. Vacations like these are why I went back to work-so that we could have quality time with our kids-to show them nature and God's creations! Tomorrow it will be back to the real world, but I will go back a little less stressed and a little more patient-relaxed-and rested!

dRaMA !!!!!

Oh life! Life around my house has been quite dramatic lately. We went to Dumas to do wedding stuff-which is madness I might add. I am so happy for my little sister though. She deserves the best, which is not always what has been delt to her, it is going to be so good for her to get married and start a new life-with someone she loves!
Satan seems to be working in my life more than God right now. It seems like there is a new battle in front of me every day. I have struggled as a mom, wife and overall person to fight Satan lately. I just don't see why these things keep happening to me sometimes. Let me go into detail, because I know that is what you all want to hear!
Back this summer I got very hurt by my church friends over a baby shower, which that along with a few other things has caused us to try to find a new church. Today, I got all those hurt feelings brought back to surface again-I am so hurt, and I know that it is satan. This whole thing, the whole church thing, I don't understand why I have to fight this battle. Why can't I just have a church home that I love that I can go and worship at without being hurt? Satan should not have that much control in my life. So, my goal for today is to spend time in prayer, with my husband, by myself and with my kids-I have got to get past this. It is hard to find a church once you have been burned like us. I am afraid to get back involved, afraid to make friends etc. I have to put up my armor and get through it.
I also didn't get paid on friday like I was supposed to. Tech had some flaw in the computer system and I didn't get a check. Again-why me?
Finally, Coen is sick with a stomach bug, massive diarhea. Avry fell at the sitter this monrning, and banged up her face. I am sure it will be black and blue by tomorrow! It never ends
On a better note. Avry has been asking us where Jesus lives and why she can't see him. We have had numerous conversations about how Jesus lives in heaven and how wonderful heaven is. Last night on our way home from Dumas, she started questioning again. We talked and talked and talked about it all. Greg had told her that Jesus lives in the sky-that's where heaven is. As we pulled into the garage last night. Avry says "Bye-Bye Jesus, I love you! See you tomorrow!"
The innocence of a child. I wish sometimes we all had a little less drama and soft hearts like children.

Coen's first Biter biscuit-man they are messy!

Coen loves to suck his thumb!

Avry really enjoys helping mommy-this time she tried to feed Coen! (sad for her she couldn't reach over the high chair)

Her red cowboy boots

I just love this little man!

My kids sure have brought fun to our house lately! Coen is growing so much, he loves baby food- and biter biscuits. It seems like he is much more self sufficent than his sister was, maybe it was that we did everything for her! He is so good at holding the messy biter biscuit and feeding it to himself! He also likes his thumb, ALOT! He would prefer that over anything else.....I guess it is better than him screaming!

Avry's cowboy boots! Avry has a friend at the babysitter named Ariah, they are the same age and best friends. Well, Avry has been telling us she wanted boots like Ariah. So, we started trying to figure out what kind of boots Ariah had. We think she has the "new" UGG style boots, but mommy and daddy aren't going to spoil her that much. So, we started boot shopping over the holidays. We tried on rain boots, snow boots, boots, boots boots. Finally, in Odessa I found these red cowboy boots! I figured we live in Texas and every little girl needs cowboy boots! The red makes them even better. (I did buy the dress first-its so precious too!)

I am off to watch a move and enjoy my last few hours before its back to work!