Early

Yep, it seems as though we have entered the "terrible twos" a few months early!

40

My latest pathology reports came back yesterday and my HCG levels are at 40. That's down from 140 two weeks ago. I have to be honest that I was a little disappointed...I was really hoping and sort of expecting that they would be at zero this time around. But the number still dropped quite a bit so I will choose to be content with where I am at now...and hope that in two weeks when I go back for more testing that I don't get the same guy who drew my blood the other day (I've never had someone jab me with a needle quite that hard before...and I hate needles)! But God is good...all the time.

"How quickly I forget, I'm Yours.

I'm not my own...I've been carried by You... all my life.

Everything rides on hope now.

Everything rides on faith somehow.

When the world has broken me down...

This Love sets me free."

-Addison Road

Blue Hill State Fair!

Last week on our day off we went to the Blue Hill State Fair! It was our first fair this year and our first time at this fair in particular so I was excited! I have to admit that I was a little disappointed at first- the fair was a little more "carney" and a little less country fair than I was hoping. But in the end we had fun, we splurged on the sort-of-scary (and very expensive) carnival rides (two of them at least), and enjoyed the fair for what it was. Lily insisted on riding the merry-go-round (even though it was our 3rd one this summer) and Eli LOVED the ferris wheel. And...you should have seen the delight on Lily's face when I handed her the biggest stick of cotton candy either of us has ever seen!:) Our favorites were the flying dog disc show (those dogs are crazy talented) and the Timber Tina Lumberjack Show! We've seen the whole lumberjack show before down near Acadia National Park (before we had kids) and we've been wanting to take the kids so this was a fun treat (though we still want to go see the whole show- this was just a glimpse)! During the show one of the "lumberjills" carved a cute little chair out of a stump and choose a little one from the audience to keep the chair. Yep, she picked Eli. I'd like to believe he was picked because he's the cutest little boy ever, but it may also have had something to do with the fact that we were in the front row right in front of her!:) They brought us up front and of course Eli refused to sit on the chair (he was a bit scared I think) so they made me sit on it (quite funny as it is quite a little chair)! Good times, good times! And once we got home Eli loved sitting on his chair...and a few days later I was able to snap these pictures of my all too adorable little ones! So the fair may not have been all we were hoping for, but it was a fun time none-the-less!

A Day In Our Life: Mondays

Most of the time when I blog I share the good things and the hard things, but not as often the everyday life things. So I thought it would be fun to share from time to time about what a typical day in our family life looks like (which will be fun for me to look back on years from now too). So, I don't know if any of our days are exactly "normal" but here is a somewhat typical Monday for us. Monday is Joe's only day off normally during the fall so this is our family day. Today started off at 7a.m. when Lily came down (this is what the living room looked like this morning when we woke up...guess I didn't clean it last night)!:) I put in a Kipper video for her to watch when Eli woke up. The two of them watched Kipper for a bit while I laid back down for a little while (and fell back asleep while I was praying). At 7:30a.m. Joe and I got up and Joe sweetly made the kids breakfast and took them for a walk with the dog while I took a shower and checked my email (what a great husband)! Shortly after Joe was cleaning out the van when Eli ate one of the hosta berries from our front garden and we had to call poison control to make sure that they weren't poisonous (they are but only if you eat a bunch of them)! After that little scare we headed out for the morning first to the bank then to our newest favorite local bakery for some yummy doughnuts!

Initially we planned on apple picking this morning, but then I heard from a mom in my mom's group that the place where we normally pick raspberries during the summer is doing pick-your-own fall raspberries- so we decided to wait for apples and go for raspberries! And the picking was good! Eli loved it at first (this was only his 2nd or 3rd time eating raspberries because we just discovered in August that he is no longer allergic to them)- but after a while he simply preferred to run around the fields. I believe that in the picture above he was sword fighting with the two pieces of grass!:)

And once again Lily was a GREAT berry picker...until she decided to dump one of her buckets of raspberries on Eli's head for fun (shortly after I took this picture of her)!

A friend from my mom's group was there too picking so I got to talk with her for a few minutes about the new playgroup that I'm starting (while Joe wrangled all three of the kids, her's included, through the pumpkin patch). Yes, there was a HUGE pumpkin patch (the biggest I've ever seen) and you can pick your own pumpkins for only $1.50!!! Oh my, I could have happily wandered through the pumpkins for an hour finding just the right ones, but the kiddos were getting tired and thirsty so I settled for just a few minutes (with a vow to return next fall armed with lunches so we can pumpkin hunt longer)!

We drove home with the kids happily watching Diego. We ate lunch as soon as we got home and Eli stuck his whole hand in his yogurt. Let's just say that he needed a shower when he was finished eating (not unusual). Joe gave him a shower while Lily and I finished eating. After his shower I put him down for a nap (about 1:15p.m.). I came downstairs right after that to find that I thought Lily was down with Joe and he thought she was upstairs with me. We spent about two minutes searching the house for her (and trying not to panic)...when she jumped out and surprised us from our bedroom closet (she was playing hide and seek)!:)

Then Lily went upstairs for her naptime/quiet time. I checked my email, Facebook, looked up a recipe, and posted on my blog. Then Lily came back downstairs and I set her up with her V-Reader while I switched laundry and folded and put away two loads (while I prayed and thought about how and where God might be asking me to say "Yes" to Him in my life). Then Lily and I started making raspberry oatmeal bars (with our freshly picked berries).

We didn't get very far on the raspberry bars before we saw Joe washing the boat (it was in need of a serious cleaning). I started dreaming about taking the boat out for one last ride or two before it get's too cold (hmmm...wonder when we can make that happen?)!

Lily, of course, wanted to help wash the boat!

After the boat washing Eli was still sleeping so Lily and I got to finish making the raspberry bars!

Then while Lily was coloring I hung some laundry out to dry.

And right as I was taking this picture Joe snuck up behind me and pulled my pants down (he seriously did this- I was wearing loose fitting cotton pants)!:)

Then Eli woke up and I unloaded and loaded the dishwasher while he had a snack. Then the kids and I played a book game and picked up the living room a bit. Joe came in from outside and played "Monster" with the kids (their very favorite game) while I started making dinner. They started watching a few minutes of an IMAX movie about beavers (oddly this was Lily's request) while I finished dinner. We had a fairly relaxed dinner (and Eli stayed pretty amazingly clean)...and we had this yummy cheesecake (with a chocolate chip coconut cookie dough crust) that I made yesterday!

Feeling a little full we went for a family walk around the neighborhood. But right before we left Eli started breaking out in red blotchy hives on his face (reacting to something he apparently ate at dinner, but we don't know what). We gave him some Benadryl, grabbed the Epipen just in case, and headed out to enjoy our walk. After the walk I switched the laundry while the kids played t-ball with Joe in the yard. Then Joe had to quickly head out to his firefighter training (he is a volunteer firefighter in the town next to ours). They had a small fire tonight that Joe ended up going out to instead of the training (his first actual fire)! When he was gone the kids and I finished the beaver video, read a bit, got PJ's on, did Lily's devotional with her and prayed, and then the kids hit the hay! Knowing I might not get up again if I sat down I unloaded and loaded the dishwasher (again), cleaned the kitchen, and then...

cleaned the living room so that this "after" picture looked a little better than how we started off the day!:) I then finally sat down to check my email, looked up a few things online, and enjoyed my piece of cheesecake. Joe came home from training and sweetly gave me a back rub (which was especially nice since I had a bad headache at the time). Then I edited these pictures and now I'm just about to finish up this post!

So there you have it...a somewhat typical Monday in the Cousins family! There are so many little discussions (like whether we should get Lily a pet bunny), diaper changes, laughs, time outs, and cuddles that I didn't share...but this gives a window into our day (and will hopefully give me a good laugh when I look back on this years from now). Oh, did I forget to mention that at one point in the afternoon Lily and I played a game where she pretended to be a spider that wanted to climb into my mouth (oh the imagination on that one)! And yes, we did have to call poison control, give our son Benadryl (for a totally different reason), and think briefly that we lost Lily all in one day! Yesh...I'm tired (and happy)!

Me

I'm not in pictures very often...which makes sense since I'm usually the one taking the pictures. Every now and then Joe will snap a few of me and the kids (just so they know that I WAS around when all of these pictures were being taken)! Truth be told though I would really like to be in more pictures with my kids (and Joe too). It's not that I love seeing myself in pictures (I don't) but I do love seeing myself with my family and having that memory. So, the other day I sort of remembered the remote release I bought for my camera a little over a year ago (and only used twice)...and now I am determined to use it to get more pictures of the kids and I together. So here's my first attempt yesterday of the kids and I playing on our bed. Eli was not in a good - mood but he was slightly interested in my camera remote (you can see in picture #5 that he is looking at the remote- and he actually took that picture)! These are far from technically great, but I still can't help but love them a bit simply because I'm with my little loves!

Blankie

He's always been a blankie boy (as I say), but for a very long time it didn't matter which blanket he had (he had about 5 he was totally happy with). But those days are gone and now only this polka dot blankie will do! He doesn't need to have it with him ALWAYS, but he does need to have it if he's tired, upset, hurt, nervous, or going to sleep (the pacifier too)! Ahhh...it's hard to resist a cute little boy with his blankie!

P.S. He's so cute you just want to squeeze him, don't you?!

Bath Time!

Maybe the reason I don't mind my kids doing things like painting themselves with pudding is because they love getting cleaned up just as much!:)