A shadow of ourselves......Is that mysterious?

Please pray for our safe travels this weekend. Pray for Rob to be safe at home also. We'll be in Springfield for a couple of weeks. Don't you worry though....You'll just get pictures and stories from my parent's house.

Our Friends

We went to the Park today with the Thousand Kid family, I I like to refer to them. These are 2 of the 1,000. Ella and Elijah. Miles didn't make it into a picture with Lily or Ian....sorry. My blog...so you have to have Ian or Lily in the frame. :(

Wednesday

Desparation Paci.

Scary Period. Medium: Sidewalk Chalk

Ian isn't big on drawing, to my dismay, but while we were out last night he did a couple brilliant interpretations. The second image is called "Scary Ladder". It's part of his "scary" period. There was a series of many "scary" images.

The third image is called "Elephant with a whole lot of legs". As you can see the elephant has a whole lot of legs.

In Da Club

We go outside just about everyday and play in the clubhouse. We take turns who owns it and the other person has to go down and knock to get in. We come up and are very cordial to each other...sometimes sharing a pot of tea, other times having a birthday party.

Just another day....

We have to be creative by the time the afternoon rolls around.

I promise this will be my ony outwardly boring post.

This stems from Katie's comment on seeing Ian as a Big Brother....

Having Lily is such a pure joy that I can't really express. When you have your first kid, you are overcome by this crazy, strong love. I did know that that love would be none less with the second, but what I didn't know is how much it would increase my love for both of them. I can sit and watch Lily and remember to appreciate the little funny or awful things that babies do and more specifically, what Ian did also when he was little. It's so much more relaxed and hilariously funny with her. Then watching Ian interact and think the same things are funny and sweet is just about more than a mom's heart can bear. I am convinced that this is the closest we can get, on earth, to experiencing the perfect Love that God has for us and that HE is. I understand why we are left without this knowledge and feelings....I think we would all explode or implode or something.

The decision to have children is the greatest thing that God put on my heart to do. Being at home with them everyday and seeing these moments that won't come around again, in short hind sight, is the best decision I've made. God has blessed my life in so many ways with my family that I couldn't name them all. Here's a few recent ones though...

....husband who cooks
....ian who has a gentle heart when it comes to me and lily
....lily who makes me laugh everyday, mostly directly after I want to start spanking at a very young age.
....Ian who won't let me start spanking his sister at a very young age.
....husband who respects and believes in me.
....brother who is healthy (with OCD)
....sister who is strong
....mom who gives me an example of a wife and mother to strive to be like.
....dad who is a gentleman (with OCD) and would do anything I ask of him.
....nieces and nephews that love my babies
....nephew who takes care of his mother.
....the most talented nieces ever.
....cats that don't hurt my kids, but protect them from our dog
....dog that ...... nevermind
....in-laws that treat me as their own daughter and sister.
....mom and dad that lets me give orders and work them to death in sweat shops that I make at various life stages, in my home.
....husband who is very patient and never raises his voice.
....husband who gets me a drink when I'm sitting and don't want to move
....son who gets me a drink when I'm sitting and don't want to move.
....daughter who makes me get up from where I'm sitting to carry her around for no reason.


Is everyone soooo jealous now?

Playing Castle

If there's one thing I don't like about Tuesdays and Thursdays, it's the constant begging to play "castle". It's not that I don't or never liked playing with "boy toys", but I've come to realize after having Ian that no matter how much of a tomboy I thought I was... boys play much differently with toys than girls. For one thing, none of the knights have any sort of relationship. They don't talk to each other, they exist for the sole purpose of crashing into each other. Also, no matter how many times I ram my guy into the dragon or any other character that Ian is..... I never, ever under any circumstances am "allowed" to win a battle. My hands get really bruised up too.

He might look like he's saying something very knightly, but he's actually yelling "Yee Haw! and Yah Who!" This is a Alabamian Kingdom.

This Week in Lily's Mouth......

Lucky for her...

Lucky for her she can smile like this....or I'd try to strangle her everyday. I'd have to get past her brother first though.

Tennessee Celebration Phoenix Style

The Four of us traveled to Lebanon, TN this weekend to help celebrate our newlywed friends from Phoenix. Our friends, Rachel and Shannon, were married in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago and came to Tennesse, where Rachel is from, to give the rest of us a chance to party for them. It was incredible to see a few good friends from our 3 years in Phoenix. Several of the little guys that Ian would be growing up with were there and he had a great time dancing and trying to turn their ways to violence with Power Rangering and Sword fighting. Of course, they know his mother just as well as anyone else....so they understood his behavior. Side note....who knew that my C of C raised son would take to dancing so much! Rob carried him off the dance floor yelling.."Just Let Me Dance...I Just want to Dance!!" The indoctrination hasn't reached him yet! If only we could shelter them forever.

We had a very good time catching up with everyone there and it made me sad to realize all that we have missed out on there. It also shows me how great God is in blessing us where ever we go. God has always provided us with lasting friendships every place we have lived....Oklahoma, Malibu, Texas, Phoenix and now Alablama.

This Week in Lily's Mouth......

My Niece....Isn't she adorable!

This is Kari's little girl, Harper. I haven't met her in person yet, but isn't she sweet?

Lily the Happy with Anything In Her Mouth

First Visit to the Office

Preschool is a stressful thing...Not for Ian, but to Ian's mother. I spent a lot of this past weekend thinking of how I was going to confront Ian's teacher about the visit to the office Ian tried to tell me about. For a couple of weeks now, I've been hearing about a "mean" boy named Brady at school. He was mean until about a week ago. Now they are apparently some sort of K3 gang. As told by Mrs. Branch...Ian and Brady have been playing guns at school since the beginning of the year knowing that it was not allowed. So last Friday they were taken to the office to have Miss Wallace explain that if they shoot guns again she would have to call their parents. So...I possibly am raising a delinquent. Really though, rather than worrying about his future, which I am still satisfied with my interpretation of...despite his time outs and office time, I find myself worrying if Mrs. Branch likes him or not! It's a crazy thing to be a parent. Whether or not his teacher likes him...there will be people that think he's annoying, a brat or (if you can imagine), Not Cute! I think that is one of the hardest parts in watching your little babies grow up....exposing them to people that aren't their family that don't think they are the smartest, sweetest, and best Power Ranger in the world.


I'm pretty sure he can totally take that Brady in a fight!

Lily Likes Crackers

Yeah.....She really is likes to eat these things...

These are my monsters. They may look innocent enough...but it's not true.

Pictures

How do I put pictures on this thing?

Second try

Hmmmm.... I'm thinking that Blogs are just for the person writing. As I try to think of something to write that someone will be interested in, I realize that there is nothing. I mean most blogs are as about as interesting as the Christmas letter people send out. I mean....I just want the picture of your family...not your year's history. There are a couple blogs that are fun to read, but really I'm just going to your site for the pictures. Sorry. Likewise, I don't expect you to like what I'm writing either. I guess all I can do is use this as a journal of some sort. I haven't journaled or used a sketch book in about 9 years, so I'll have to get used to doing it again. Even when I did that, it was mostly private and my thoughts were irrational usually, not some much a record of daily events but feelings that would come over me. Blogging isn't quite as spontaneous. Probably because I have to wait till the smallest monster is asleep at least. It would be better if both monsters were sleeping. Right now he is climbing up my chair repeating...."I want to sit with you...mom....i want to sit with you....mom...mom...please can I sit with you"

This week has been overwhelming for various reasons...nevermind....i'm being tickled to death....I'm really ticklish too.
...............
.....bye

My First Time

That's right...I'm caved to the pressures of blogging. Don't even think this will be entertaining or something cool to read. Time will tell if I actually continue with this. So that's all I have....

Sorry.