Friday, July 08, 2011

Sweet Refuge

While watching "The Apple Dumpling Gang" with the family, scary music started playing . . . Nicholas did a fast dive off the sofa and yelled, "I'm next to Jay!"

Friday, July 01, 2011

Mother's Will Have Their Way!

Maddie came over and sat right next to Nicholas on the merry-go-round. I overheard him say, "Go away!" 


Horrified, I sternly rebuked him and reminded him we are ALWAYS nice to little girls . . . which then led to this sweet little picture. 

Friday, June 24, 2011

Thinking Toward the Future . . .

Nicholas: Mom, I can’t wait to grow up and be a man so I can do stuff. 

Me: You mean like chop wood and fix the kitchen sink?

Nicholas: No. Like turn on the tv and watch the shows I want!

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Chilly Mornings Are Back . . .



                                                           Tweety Bird to the rescue!

Friday, October 08, 2010

Just Another Day Raising Boys!

Nicholas: Mom, I need to go down to the treehouse to get some wood for our lizard.

Me: Nicholas, is there a lizard in my house?!!

Nicholas: (realizing he had just outed his brothers) Ummm, never mind mom . . .

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Random!

I'm thankful for so many things today . . . but here's just a few—quite random at that:

• I have very sweet boys—at pre-school all the kids got to pick a "treasure" from the treasure box. The teachers told me Nicholas was the only one who came back and told them "Thank-you" . . . so he got to pick a second "treasure" from the treasure box! So blessed my heart!

• One can't see into my kids' rooms from the downstairs . . . thank you God!

• My daughter has started doing her own laundry without me even asking her to . . . wow, that makes a huge difference!

• I have REALLY COOL friends and one of them was a singer with Silverwind back in the day. This weekend David and I are heading to the 30 Year Silverwind Reunion in Dallas and it's going to be SO MUCH FUN!!

Hope you all have fun as well!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Too Bad He Can Only Count to Nine!


Nicholas:

"Mom, you're the best . . .

I'm going to give you a hundred million kisses!"

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

12!

Jonathan is 12 today!

Can't even begin to describe this amazing son of ours . . . but this is one of my former attempts.

What a gift!

Love you Jonathan! Happy Birthday!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Just Wondering


Hmmm . . . look closely. Should I be concerned about what my child is learning in pre-school?

Monday, September 13, 2010

Bits of My Weekend-Volume 11

On Saturday David and I realized we had a huge pool of water in our yard . . . had probably been there awhile (sigh) but was hidden by lots of overgrowth in a section we don't mow. This is most unfortunate as our water bill will likely be HUGE!

David quickly found the problem: Something had chewed through our line in an attempt to quench their thirst during our extensive East Texas drought. After a little trip to Lowes he fixed the problem and we are back to having just a normal dry yard.


For quite some time I've been looking for a hanging clothes rod that would work well in our laundry room. I found this one on Amazon and David went to work installing it.


I really like the way it turned out. I can use it like this when I have lots of clothes to hang . . .


Or like this when I don't need as much hanging space . . .


Or like this when I don't need any hanging space . . .


With this family of six I spend lots and lots of time doing laundry; I love a highly functioning laundry room!

On Saturday night we met up with our good friends Jeff and Cathy at a Chinese restaurant—good food and good fun! Their sweet little girls Sarah and Bekka joined us.


Life just seems to move at such a rapid pace, we're making a concerted effort to be purposeful in spending time with meaningful people in our lives—not always easy, but always worth it!

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Bits of My Weekend-Volume 10

On Saturday we headed out to Trade Days in Canton.



We endured the sights, sounds and smells of "Dog Alley" in order to find this treasure we came home with: A 10 week old Weimaraner.



My four kids (and husband) are ecstatic about this recent change of heart on my part—they are true dog lovers!

On Sunday our long time good friends Matt and Molly, along with their kids, Caleb and Kate, came from Tulsa to spend some much needed "catch-up" time with us. We ditched the kids and headed to Chili's for dinner. This is a pathetic picture our nice waiter took of us . . . unfortunately the only one.


On Labor Day we all headed out to David's parent's house on Lake Fork. This is a quick shot of all of us taking votes on the name of our new dog. Final choice: "Rain". With her beautiful grey coat and pale blue eyes, the name just kind of works. David and I figured our votes were much weightier since we ponied up the cash to buy her . . . but a few others liked her fitting name as well.


Sam and Lisa always bring great "toys" and the kids had lots of fun playing on this slip and slide. I thought I'd give out a few awards:

Bridget: Most joy!

Henry: Fearless!

Jordan: Most cautious.

Kate: Most like a gymnast.

Matthew: Best laugh!

Nicholas: Most likely to dislocate a joint.

Jonah: Perfect form (future diver?)

Jonathan: Longest slide off into the rocks! (ouch!)

Cole: Biggest splash!

The weekend finally came to an end and we had to say goodbye to our dear friends . . . but only after making plans to vacation together next summer in Branson—makes the goodbyes not quite so painful.


If you're reading this and have bits of your own . . . please be sure and let us know!

Thursday, September 02, 2010

That's What I'm Talkin' About!


So who needs to hire some cleaning help with this little guy around?

I didn’t actually take this picture . . . Jonathan caught him in the act and couldn’t resist.

Nicholas loves to help out.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Bits of My Weekend-Volume 9

We had such an awesome weekend!

David organized several babysitters and kid transporters to enable us to go to a Christian conference in McKinney over the weekend. I have seen David Herzog on Godtv as well as several episodes of Sid Roth. His meetings are WILD!

Wasn’t sure I could get David to go with me, but with a little bribing he gave in. He would agree with me—we were both so glad we went. It was amazing! Some typical things that happen at his meetings are healings, gold fillings, and supernatural weight loss. All of those things happened in our midst . . . as well as awesome worship and great teaching. Very fun to be a part of it all.


This was the view from the really great hotel we stayed in. Maybe I'm a dork but I just loved the quaint rooftops and church steeple.


For the record I have only twice stayed at a hotel where I loved the mattress more than the one we sleep on at home. I asked at the front desk what kind of mattresses they were, but all the girl could tell me was that it was a pillowtop Serta. Knowing there is a huge range of pillowtop Sertas, I should have just pulled up the mattress and looked for myself. She did mention that they get that question all the time. Que serra serra.

It was just a meeting on Friday night and another on Saturday night, so we had all day Saturday just to have fun in Dallas . . . and we did!

We had lunch at a great little Chinese place—truly it’s my goal in life to figure out how to make really great Chinese food. It’s my absolute favorite . . . and healthy!

We hit a great furniture store, did some outlet shopping, got my hair cut and even had time for a pedicure. Fun, fun, fun.

We didn’t get back until 2:00am Sunday morning and still got up for the early service . . . so we were totally wiped out. Our new babysitters kind of missed the bedtime goals and both Cole and Jonathan were up until 11:30!! So following the service and a quick lunch at Chili's, we all took an afternoon nap! (except for Ashley)

Sunday evening we gave Ashley her first taste of driving down the driveway. This is a picture of her in all her elation.


And this is a picture of the passengers in the back.


Drama, drama, drama.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Break This Mama's Heart!

Nicholas started pre-school today.

Even though he will only be going two days a week, it would be hard to find a kid more excited than him. He has been jumping up and down for days in anticipation.

With Buzz Lightyear backpack and Buzz Lightyear lunch box in tow, he hopped in the van with great exuberance.

On the way to school I prayed for him . . . and then he prayed for me,

"Dear Jesus, please help my mom to not be sad without me."

Monday, August 23, 2010

Bits of My Weekend-Volume 8

On Friday we headed over to Henry's house to drop Cole off for a sleep over. He had such a great time. Hanging with Henry is one of his favorite things to do. This is a picture of Cole on the left, Henry in the middle and his neighbor, Blake, on the right.


On Saturday I said my goodbyes to Nicholas' sweet little baby room as David FORCED me to go shopping with him for a "Big Boy" bed. This was very hard. When did my baby grow up?!


Nicholas was absolutely overjoyed with his new bed. He crawled right in and hasn't stopped talking about it since. I still need to come up with a new theme as he has kind of outgrown little yellow ducks . . . but for now he is loving some old bedding I had stored away from when Jonathan was younger.


You might notice in this picture (and in most all pictures of Nicholas of late) that his arms are crossed with his body turned slightly to the side. My son Jonathan pointed out that Nicholas now poses for every picture in the same way that Alvin does on the cover of "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" . . . which looks like this.


Which would also explain this picture of him taken on his birthday. I'm starting to see a resemblence. You might also notice his new bike in the background. He took one look at it and said, "I'm not getting on that 'cause I'll fall on my head!" So, he's been sticking with his tricycle . . . maybe he'll be ready in a month or two.


On Sunday after church we headed out to visit some friends of ours who live in Henderson. Because they're moving off of their 30 acre farm, they are parting with their two white pyrenees, Michael and Angel. They are wonderful dogs and our children are really hoping we make them ours . . . a decision we're weighing very carefully.


We made a final pitstop on Sunday late afternoon to buy last minute necessities for school which started today. This was tax-free week-end in Texas (which I try to avoid at all costs because the crowds are overwhelmingly chaotic) . . . but we braved the madness for the sake of desperately needed volleyball shorts (or so we were told) for our daughter. Every pair of shorts in the store were $5.99 . . . except for the pair required for the team which were $25.99 . . . whatever!


Nonetheless it was fun trip as The Sports Academy is quite close to my sister's house . . . so we got to pop in and say "hi" to sweet Lily Faith—which made all the driving worthwhile.


My friend, Michelle, is the inspiration for so many of us to be sharing "Bits of our week-ends." Be sure and check out what everyone else has been up to at Six in the City.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Celebrating Once Again!

My little Nicki-bop turns four today!

Such a wonderful, unexpected, amazing gift to our family four years ago. He is just like a burst of sunshine lighting up the world everywhere he goes.

On such a special occasion I thought I’d totally copy my friend Danielle’s post on her sweet Isabelle born just a few days before Nicholas.

Nicholas @ birth


Nicholas @ 8 months or so


Nicholas @ one


Nicholas @ two


Nicholas @ three


Nicholas @ four—today!


Love you sweet baby. God so overwhelmingly, so unexpectedly, so amazingly blessed us with you. You are such a joy!