What a difference a day makes.

Praise God for bringing people into my life that are so kind, considerate, giving, smart and who love Him!!! I am so thankful for so many things right now. I think that at this very moment I am most aware of the change that has been happening in Emma Kate over the last two days. I spent most of Monday morning with Jennifer Walker of Moms on Call and those 3 hours are already proving to be so valuable. It is amazing how changes in how I react to my very "brilliant and frustrating" 3 year old can completely change the feel of our house.

Here are just a few things we talked about that I have already tried to work on. - and YES - I/we are seeing changes already!

1. Stop putting "ok?" at the end of sentences when directing EK. So instead of saying, "Put your shoes on EK, ok?" I say, "EK, go put your shoes on right away." If I get pushback (which I do!) I just keep repeating myself. Eventually (after 3 or 4 times) she realizes that I am not going to back down and will get her shoes on.

2. BE CONSISTENT! I always thought I was consistent, but the truth is I would usually cave in some way or another. And that was just showing emma kate that she could get her way. Yuck. Of course, we are glad to let her have her way when it works for the family, but that was starting to rule our lives. Just to avoid conflict we were tip-toeing around her. SHE'S THREE and she was ruling our lives!

3. Stay positive! Stay positive. That is hard. However I am learning that it can become easier with time. I have been saying a lot of things like this, "You can do it!" "You're going to be great at that!" "I know you are going to do such a great job obeying today and I am so proud of you!" Stuff like that! So I am feeding her need for encouragement but at the same time restating how I want her to behave while staying positive. Sounds good, right?

I hope I am getting my point across - I know it has only been a couple of days, but I am telling you - things have changed. Zero tantrums in 2 days. A lot less stomping and whining (almost none!). Great attitudes for all 4 of us! Awesome!!! I just wanted to share how thankful I am! I know lots of you have been praying for me and Art and our girls. I know things wont always be perfect, but I just needed things to be BETTER! I can see now that through encouragement to persevere that we are going to have some more fun around here!!! Yahoo!!!

Another person I am thankful to know is LESLEY KERR. She is as kind as she is talented! She took the pictures of the girls (above) during a mini-session a few weeks ago! You can click on the top picture to see more of the photos she took. I am just blown away by how she can capture the spirit of each of our girls! If you would be interested in having a FREE mini-session with Lesley on Sat Nov 14, let me know. We are about to send out an ivitation for that!