Honestly - PRAY!

Many of you have noticed on Facebook that my status updates have been less then chipper lately and have asked what's wrong, so here goes... The past few days have been more than a little rough in our house. Dan and I have been fighting because we were just informed that the children (Alexa, as well as our nephew and niece, David & Natalie) "are not welcome" at Maureen and Dan's wedding reception in September. A wedding, mind you, that we will be driving close to 20 hours round-trip to attend. My blood still boils just typing about it! Maureen tells me "there are compromises to be had," but when Dan (our Switzerland, lol) presented what Andy, Cathy, and I felt was a very fair compromise, Maureen responded in [what I thought to be] a rude and unproductive manner. I'm not entirely blameless in this situation, I have yelled and yes, been a bit "dramatic." The fact remains that this battle has been waging since Saturday with no end in sight... I know it may not be proper to air our dirty laundry on my blog, but guess what? It's my blog, and I can say WHATEVER I want to say. I was not raised in a house where we act like things are okay when they really aren't. And things are definitely not okay. I wasn't going to post all happy happy joy joy when that's not how I feel! I want to be honest and tell people like it is. Readers, PLEASE PRAY FOR US!!! Pray that Dan and I will not allow this to effect our marriage any further. Pray that Dan and I will come up with a solution that makes us happy. Dan and I love each other, our daughter, and our dog, and the rest of this should not matter.

Now I'm done with that tirade... one more prayer request before I move on to happier topics :-) Please continue to pray for Kyle and Sara Rusnak. Things have taken a turn for the worst since my last post about them, and they need all the prayers, thoughts, good vibes that people can send their way!! If you click here, you can read more about Kyle's battle with cancer and keep up-to-date (Sara is really good about updating everyone). It makes me sad that I'm wasting my time fighting with people... we should be thankful we are all healthy!

Our weekend and beginning of the week recap:
On Saturday, we played outside and then Pat & Becky came over for dinner. We had yummy chicken kabobs! They were able to see Alexa do lots of crawling and even eat like a big girl :-) She had chicken, peaches, and bread cut up really tiny.




















The highlight of Sunday was going to the Ohio State Fair with the Sip Family! Leylynn and Alexa loved looking at one another, and Leylynn kept saying "Daddy that's Alexa!" It was really cute :-) We saw lots of animals, went to the petting zoo, and of course ate tons of food!









































We didn't do much of anything on Monday except play, read, eat, and sleep. Speaking of eating, Alexa has returned to eating purees without a fight (***knock on wood). Thank goodness! I was a bit worried about her not getting enough nutrition. On Tuesday, we ran a few errands and spent the afternoon at home. Every day I've been continuing to work with Alexa on her crawling. She is now using both legs in the more traditional-style crawl. Her crawling has certainly changed things for me day-to-day. I have to watch her like a hawk now! True story: Alexa SURPRISED me yesterday... when I went upstairs to get her when she awoke from her afternoon nap, she was standing up smiling (in her sleepsack to boot). It was like she was saying, "Mommy, look at me. I did it!!" We lowered her crib last night, haha. Last night we also began to work with Alexa a bit on the walker. She gets pretty nervous, but if one of us is behind her and the other coaxing her in front, she'll eventually take a few steps. Once she gets the hang of it, we'll get a video to show you guys!

Here she is playing with Daddy last night (we try to play in the basement, in the family room, in her bedroom, and outside for variety).










Here is a video of Alexa crawling last night in her bedroom.


Well, that's all I've got for now. Alexa and I are headed out to Easton to have lunch with Stephanie (and to maybe do a little shopping). Tomorrow we are going to the Columbus Zoo with my friend, Sarah, and her two boys, Daniel and Joseph. And this weekend we are going to St. Brendan's Parish Festival (our old church) with Nick and Angie. I'm looking forward to these next few days - should be lots of fun! Ciao.