we love you!

 

preparing for Valentine's day

We've had fun with Valentine's day this year [and it's not even here yet!].  We've never really been all that into the holiday, but the kids are enjoying it and it's always nice to have something fun to look forward to during the blah winter months :)  So we've embraced it this year, why not?  We even took some cute pictures and mailed out photo cards to the extended family.  As I was addressing the envelopes, Ryan asked if he could color on the back.  I agreed and this is what he did:

 



I love it!  It's great see him learning and being so excited about it.  We've also made Valentine's for their friends at school [Mommy was pretty excited about how those came out :)].

"I'm glad you're in my SCHOOL!"  Abby Loves goldfish.  And Ryan wanted a card with a car, so we decided on "I never TIRE of our friendship!"  More Valentine's day fun coming tomorrow!  Think heart shaped cheeses and pink lemonade pie :)

I needed that!

Yesterday afternoon.
Ryan and Daddy hanging with Nana.
Chloe taking a three hour nap.
I had Abby all to myself!!

We spent most of the time outside drawing all over the driveway with chalk.  Nearly 60 degrees in the sun with my Sweet Girl was just what this Mama needed!  We also played out back a little, sliding and swinging.  We then shared nachos before Chloe awoke and we met our boys at church for a night of worship.

Obviously I love Chloe dearly and I love that I have two daughters to be sisters and best friends for life.  But the baby stage can be hard sometimes and I really don't want Abby to get lost in middle-child-ness.  I was missing my Abby time and I am grateful for the perfect afternoon! 

I love you Princess! 
[I not a Princess, I an Abby!]

And night of worship was pretty awesome too.  The turnout was surprisingly small, but I enjoyed the more intimate setting and having the kids with us.  I heard Abby singing several times, although I'm not sure what words she was saying since I can't imagine she knew any of the songs.  I also love that she prayed out loud during our individual prayer time.  I can't recall exactly what she said, but we'd occasionally hear her say Dear God or Jesus or other appropriate words and phrases.  More childlike faith, awesome :)

the mysterious Poppy

Tuesday morning after dropping Ryan off at preschool, the girls and I headed to Kroger.  I hadn't quite finished my grocery list so we were sitting in the car while I copied ingredients from my recipes.  [ahhh, confined kids :)].  As we are sitting there, a truck pulls in next to us driven by an older gentleman.  I scribbled Abby's conversation down on my grocery list:

"That looks like Poppy!"
who's Poppy?
"I don't know."
about ten seconds later:
"I don't know who is Poppy."
I mumble something along the lines of you're the one who said he looks like Poppy and went back to my grocery list.

The man sits in his car a minute or so before getting out of his truck and walking in between our cars to the store.  As he passes Abby's window, she says again:

"That looks like Poppy!"

I didn't even bother to ask this time.  Most likely this is just the randomness that is two year old Abby, but if you have any insight into who Poppy might be, let me know!

I have two daughters :)

From Abby this morning:  "Chloe wants to wear the same thing I am wearing."  Mommy loves to match her girls and fortunately they are okay with that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

he loves me

My husband is awesome, be jealous. 
Thanks Dear, I love you!!

"loved the fancy Abby hair"

I've been enjoying trying new hair styles for Abby.  It's so much fun to play with her hair; I love brushing it.  So I was pretty excited when Ms. Shannon sent me an email a week or two ago saying she loved the fancy Abby hair, woo hoo!

the amazing bike rider Ryan!

After we got back from Snow Mountain, we finally took Ryan's training wheels off.  He's been asking for forever, but I just didn't have it in me last summer what with being crazy pregnant and all :).  I figured he'd do well with it, but I must say he amazed me!  On his first attempt, Daddy held him of course and Ryan turned left for awhile.  I guess he just had to figure out how to balance and steer all at the same time.  After that he was good to go.  No big falls, no nothing.  He just got on his bike, Daddy let go, and off he went.  It was that easy.  What a big boy and an awesome bike rider!  This is one proud mama  :)

Boys & Girls, Shoes, Trains, and Snow, phew!

T'was a busy, busy weekend!!

Ryan went with Daddy to work on Saturday morning.  I think he really enjoyed hanging with Daddy and being his little helper.  Coleson got a new office at work, so he and Ryan spent the morning up there putting together furniture and hanging stuff on the walls, things that would be hard to focus on during regular business hours.  Plus Ryan got to go this way :)  While they were there, the girls and I went shopping and to a birthday party. 

After the boys and girls met back up, we headed to Northpoint Mall to meet Grandma and Grandpa for shoe shopping and train riding.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

 

Sunday was our much anticipated trip to Snow Mountain.  We had decided to give Ryan and Abby an experience for Christmas this year [esp since Santa was getting them bikes ;)] and booked a Snow Mountain adventure.  Thanks to my bout with pneumonia, we had to reschedule and thus the long delay.  But we finally made it!  Unfortunately it wasn't all we had hoped for, but I think the kids still had fun.  The tubing lines were pretty long and the tubing itself just a little too scary for the kids.  We spent most of the time playing in the snow zone at the bottom of Memorial Lawn.  While much more ice than snow, we still managed to make a pretty cool snow castle [Coleson and I tried to close our eyes and pretend it was sand.  Didn't work.  It was still cold and icy.  Oh well].  We also threw snowballs and the kids rode on a much smaller and tamer tube.  It was a fun family day and we enjoyed being together, but I doubt we'll ever bother with Snow Mountain again :)  Oh well, at least now we know, we'd been wanting to go for awhile!  [Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for spending the day with Chloe]. 

 

 

Childlike Faith

Disclaimer, this is a bit deeper than my normal posts :)  I've been trying to keep my blog more about family, our experiences, almost superficial if you will.  I've chosen the route of scrapbook more than journal.  But I wanted to share this, or at least attempt to share it. While I like to think I'm a decent writer, I am still not sure if I conveyed the emotion I was trying to.  I've read and edited this several times and I'm not convinced that I explained it right. But here goes, read it with awe and wonder and longing I suppose [not awe and wonder of me or this post!  of our Lord!]. 

Today's been a good day.  I got an email from a friend saying he had committed his life to Jesus in the wee hours of this morning.  What wonderful and exciting news!  And I loved his story and his honesty and openness.  It was so refreshing and encouraging, a good reminder that we aren't all perfect and we don't have it all figured out [and we don't have to!].  He shared of growing up in a Christian home, knowing all the answers, and yet still feeling so lost and confused.  I know I can be guilty sometimes of looking at someone else's life and thinking they have all the answers and what's wrong with me.  Why do I occasionally doubt this or struggle with that?  Celebrating my friend's story this morning, while remembering that we're all imperfect humans, was good for me.  

Shortly after this, Ryan was building legos while I finished washing some dishes.  He said something random about Jesus walking on water.  We went back and forth a little about that, yeah that's cool, wouldn't it be fun to walk on water.  Then he told me when he gets to Heaven he's going to walk on water with Jesus.  Trying to be the good mother and spiritual elder, I played up the being with Jesus part, but he was pretty insistent about the walking on water part :)  Then he tells me that when he goes to Heaven, he's going to meet Hazen and won't that be fun.  Wow.  There was just something about the way he said it and his total confidence and a bit of excitement about one day meeting his great-grandfather-middle-name-name-sake in Heaven that really touched me. 

So it was a good morning.  A chance for a much needed reminder of the day I asked Jesus into my life.  It's been almost seven years now, wow.  It doesn't feel like that long ago; I still think of myself as a new Christian.  And yet in those seven years, there have been ups and downs, mountaintops and valleys.  And while I know that's normal and I know everyone experiences these same human realities and emotions, I still much prefer the mountaintops!  So thank you to my friend and to my son for these pauses and reminders of what it's all about and to God for working through their stories to stir something in me.