Why am I awake at 3:30 in the morning? I am so tired, yet here I am, my mind is spinning of too many crazy things. I woke up about an hour ago trying to figure out where our camera was. I haven't been able to find it for the past couple of weeks, tearing the house apart to no luck. So I got up and went outside into the cold pouring rain to check the truck, and lo and behold there it was!! So I am here awake, still, went to get a glass of water, and the smell of dirty dishes is getting to me, ick. The unending chore of dishes... I am getting a dishwasher on Friday! Glorious! Our house has shifted. So some of our doors don't close all the way at all. Our bedroom door now does close. This all brings me to the main reason I am awake, or at least think I am awake - house renovations. We are planning on a pretty big project in March. We are redoing the den, and making it into two rooms, and my biggest fear is fire. A house down the street from us caught on fire. I am not sure of the damage, but it looks like it started in the garage. I really hope everyone made it out - I need to find out. So my fear has increased since this accident. My trust in the Lord is once again being tested. I confessed a while ago that I have a hard time completely trusting the Lord with my children. Can He protect my kids and our house from fire? Absolutely. Will he? Who knows?

Of course, what would a Norton blog be without an update on my children? Haha - once again this is for me mostly! I want to remember because sometimes the time just goes by so quickly, everything seems like a blur. This time I will start with the middle child :)

Our Gemma bean is growing, and I know she knows way more than she is letting on. She isn't quite walking yet, but is standing up, and can sometimes stand on her own. She can wave good bye. She knows the signs more, eat, and all done. She can say uh-oh, mama, and dada, and we think dog. She knows how to brush hair. And I think she was feeding her baby doll a bottle yesterday :) Her biggest thing is necklaces and this silly hello kitty purse. Now that I found my camera, I will get a picture of it. But she constantly has this purse on and the necklace. I love it. She has a really high pitched scream, and it gets pretty bad at the dinner table. I keep warning her once she turns 1, that the spanks will come and she better straighten up. I wonder if she is waiting until then...?

Baby Cal is growing, and I am feeling him more often now, which brings me relief. I was kinda worried there for a little while because I didn't feel him move at all. Taylor thinks he is going to be a little guy. I think he is just chill. I am so looking forward to meeting him. I know the time will fly by, especially with this huge house project we are planning on completing before he gets here. The preparation for that will make time go fast. I just can't believe its a boy. A boy. We are going to have a .. son... I am in awe. Strangely, I am looking forward to the few days we will be in the hospital, just us. It is getting pretty crazy around the house making sure I am spending individual time with each child, and it probably won't happen often that I will be able to snuggle him in without competition.

Ellie is growing my leaps and bounds! She is now 2 years old. Wowsers. We have completely given up on potty training, not that she was horrible, but after 3 accidents within 30 minutes yesterday, I threw in the towel. She is talking and talking and talking and I love it. Her "cuss" word is 'gosh'. I said it one time when I dropped something, and it stuck. So when she drops something, or something happens unexpectedly, its 'GOSH!' Haha. It could be worse. I can't even say everything she knows, because it is SO much. She knows the signs to the alphabet, and can recognize most letters. However, her colors are really weak. Oh well, we will work on it. It is just funny she hasn't picked up as fast as letters. She says "oatmeal" in a really low voice, and it cracks me up. When we were eating breakfast a couple of weeks ago, she was concerned that my cereal was to hot, and she would look at me with a concerned face and ask "is it hot again? Okay, I blow." and she would insist on blowing on my cereal. I love it. She recognizes people a lot better. On her birthday, she kept saying "Happy Birthday!" She did really good blowing out her candles on her "new years eve" cake that we bought because it was on sale. We are starting "school" where we work on the numbers, letters, colors, shapes, etc for a solid minimum 15 minutes a day and we are going to start increasing time of focus as she gets older in preparation for the real deal. She is a little mommy. Watching out for her sister mostly. Whenever Gems cries, she fetches her "keek".

Hm, I am sitting here trying to decipher how I am. I am good. At times I feel like I am not making an impact, but I try to remember my biggest impact I can make right now are the two little ones that I am having to give 100% care to, three to count the one in my tummy. But at the end of the day, I can't help but think about my little contact with the rest of the world. Let alone impact on it. I have my friends, whom I treasure. I know I don't call a lot of them often enough...

Anyway, on to tomorrow. Or today, which will begin in a few hours, and I know I need to get a couple more hours of sleep.