oh how i love our son!

hudson has the most amazing pouty face. it cracks us up and melts my heart all in the same moment. this isn't even the best of it...but it was what i captured yesterday. if he figures out how to use that lip when getting disciplined...he might just get away with a lot! ;)

seriously people

i have a problem today. i made 4, yes F-O-U-R pots of coffee today, and none of them turned out. what in the world!?!!?!? first one, i was only half awake so i couldn't remember how many scoops of coffee i had put in. i ended up adding too much water so that coffee didn't even taste like coffee. i then decided to pull out the big guns...so i grabbed my french press. guess i overcompensated...that turned into mud. i tried mixing the two...but it wasn't workin'. so both of those met the kitchen drain, and i started with a fresh pot. how could i ruin this one? i listened to the drip, drip, puff, puff of my machine as she brewed up some caffiene for me. i poured my blissful cup of existence into my Starbucks "I Love You" mug that Matt gave me last Valentine's Day...only to have grounds floating in there. WHAT?!?!!? yeppers, the filter folded during brewing causing black granuales of caffiene to pollute my blissful cup of existence. again, I poured that pot out...rinsed the pot, the basket, my brain and tried for a fourth pot of morning goodness. this one turned out drinkable, but then my daughter being the sweet thing that she is poured me some fresh coffee and added waaaaaaaayyyyy too much creamer. i couldn't drink it. i tried, really tried.

people, i need to know what the matter is that i can not make a pot of coffee today. i need you all to know that i was up for over an hour with my son last night. around 4am-ish i almost got out of bed to go make some coffee...i didn't. maybe i should have. i. am. tired.

i. need. coffee.

Nice Mommy!

OK, so really I am a nice mommy! We had a fabulous day celebrating. We went roller skating, went shopping, ate pretzels and orange julius, went shopping, oh and we went shopping! She chose a beanbag to do her silent reading in. She got to pick what we ate...all day! After coming home from shopping...we had chicken for supper and a movie night. She plopped herself down in her new beanbag right in front of the TV. My parents brought her a Dairy Queen cake. Half way through we came out with this cake and sang "happy birthday". When the movie was over, we surprised her with one last present...some super cute penguin earrings. (she loves penguins)--OK, side note, I have to tell you that I was shopping last weekend for some earrings for her. I saw all kinds of cute earrings...frogs, turtles, flowers, etc. I knew she loved penguins, so I searched high and low on the racks for penguins. Finally I prayed, "Lord, please help me find a pair of penguin earrings for her"...sure enough there was one little pair of penguins hanging on the rack. God is so Awesome!---

She spent last weekend with Matt's parents, making cupcakes, shopping, watching movies, taking pictures, going on bike rides, painting nails and shopping! She has another shopping trip planned with my parents. She loves to shop! She is doing something special with her auntie and cousins this weekend for her birthday too.

So just in case anyone was thinking we are bad parents...I just thought I'd clear things up on this. I actually do have a nice streak in me! But if the opportunity to play a joke presents itself...well, someone's got do it! :)

Mean Mommy!

Not only am I a naughty mommy (as seen in the post below), I am also a mean mommy too. Today is one of our dear daughter's birthday. So when she woke up today, we did the big hoopla of it being her birthday. I then walked her over to the dishwasher that Matt and a friend installed last night and said "Happy Birthday, Honey...here is your birthday present!!!!"



You see a few months ago our dishwasher started beeping ridiculously and stopped running. We tried numerous times to get it working again, but nope...it just wouldn't. We were forced to begin washing dishes by hand. Ok, so I say "we" very loosely, because mainly this became the girl's job. Now during the summer months it was ok for them to spend an hour or more washing dishes...splashing water on each other, blowing soaps suds around the kitchen, making up duets, and the occasional (or not so occasional fighting)...you know how the washer always tries to get ahead of the dryer. Well, now that school is running...that incredibly time consuming chore was getting really old.



Matt and I ran downtown to the appliance store to see what sort of deals they had. (Just so you know...I don't buy anything unless it is a deal, but I think you already knew that about me.) Anyway, the guy that owns the store also happens to be our neighbor. We tried asking him if he would give us a 3 for 1 deal...a new washer and dryer and dishwasher for the price of one. It didn't work. He did, however, give us a really good deal on the new dishwasher. They delivered yesterday and like I said, it was installed last night.



It only seemed fitting to tell her that it was her birthday gift. She laughed and then realized that I might sort of be serious about this. As we sat eating breakfast, she said sheepishly, "so is that really my birthday present?" Of course, I replied with a "it sure is...isn't it really nice!!?!" Matt came down to leave for work and he gave her big hugs and wished her a happy birthday. She looked up at him and asked if the dishwasher was really her present. Matt went along with it and told her not to tell the other girls, but that was the most expensive birthday present we've ever given. He said, "not even mommy gets presents that expensive." She was so kind as to express her gratitude and thank us for the nice present.



She finished off her breakfast in a pondering sort of mood. Ok, so then I broke down...I had to tell her we were just kidding! Man, we're mean! She is now hurriedly finishing her school work so we can take off and go shopping. We are also going to go roller skating and have whatever food she wants today. So seeeeeeee, we aren't really that mean! ;)

sincere apology

Oh my goodness...I just realized that one of the songs I had on my blog had an explicit word in there. I am SO SORRY! I've deleted the song...but so sorry if any of you heard that.

bugs and boys

Hudson was mesmerized by this little thing today. He froze for a bit, then went after it full force. He kept crawling and grabbing for it. If I hadn't been there to stop him, that ginormous cricket would have been in his mouth in an instant. Ewww, the thought makes my stomach turn. As I was bug patrolling, I grabbed my camera to document his early infatuation with critters. I have a feeling this is only the beginning! :)

deep thoughts

sometimes my kids are weird...and then i realize they are just like me. hmmm...deep thoughts.

today we had a jam fest. i had my ipod turned up loud. really. loud. they cranked up the computer loud. really. loud. i was white girl dancing around the vaccum and they were dancing around the room behind me. i thought maybe they were making fun of me. shame on them. then i realized they were just doing their thing, just like their mother. weird. really. weird.

they even had their play cell phones waving in the air to enrique inglesias "hero".

i sure love these kids!

Field Trip

Yesterday we went on a field trip to a bee keeper and his "honey plant". It was very interesting, in spite of the fact that I had the time down as 4:00 and it actually started at 3:30. I checked my email one more time on the way out the door to make sure I had the right directions to get there, when I realized we were now going to be late. (and here I thought I was doing so good on time. Sheesh!) As we took off, I talked with the girls about my mistake with the time. We talked about maybe just skipping the whole thing. The girls put in a vote to go shopping. tempting. very. tempting. I didn't fall for it though. We decided to just go for it, and get in as much of the tour as we could. So we drove the 45 minutes to get to the place. It was a beautifully sunny day and country roads are always relaxing...so I was glad we did it. As we were driving I kept seeing places that would make great photo opps...knowing I had my camera with me. (I never leave home without it now.)

After the tour, the honey tasting, the bee queen watching, the visiting with friends...we hopped in the car to head for home. I knew I wanted to stop somewhere to snap some shots, it just wouldn't have been right if I didn't. I remembered seeing an abandoned building just off the road with a great setting around it. I spotted it again coming from the opposite direction and pulled off the road. The girls hopped out of the car and shifted into photography mode in a nano second. (they are so used to this now) We had fun snapping shots and laughing together. Matt called while we were shooting and was not surprised to hear what we were doing. :) I told him to start boiling some water for supper and we were on our way. We snapped our final shots and got back in the car.

We had only driven maybe 10 more miles when I started grabbing for my bag, telling my oldest to "get my camera out, get my camera out...hurry, hurry!" Just off the road in a field was this huge moose. We, of course, pulled over again! I turned my flashers on because I was just off the road this time. We rolled down the passenger window and I started clicking away. I didn't get out because I didn't want that ginormous thing to charge me...moose can charge you know that, right!?!? I wasn't the only one pulled over...another lady was trying to get pics with her cell phone. (the girls found it funny) I literally climbed across the car onto my daughter's lap so I could get shot of him. He walked a little bit, looked at us, and then decided to lay down right in the middle of the field. We were amazed at how disguised he was laying there in the sun. It was really a cool experience, and we decided that was the best part of our trip...better than the bee keeper. :) Needless to say...I am so happy that we made the trek even though it would have been fun to go shopping! ;)

Prayer

"PRAYER MOVES THE ARM

THAT MOVES THE WORLD."

We read that quote yesterday during our devotions for school. We are using the book When Families Pray by Cheri Fuller. I thought it was so fitting to post this, because I have been asking you to pray for this upcoming election. Thank you for joining me in praying for our country and our world.

Another Installment of Cuteness---

goin' political again...

I've lost all respect for Charlie Gibson. His attitude, body language, and tone of voice were despicable while interviewing Sarah Palin. (I am referring to the interview on Night Line last night.) I thought she handled herself very well in spite of his demeaning attitude towards her. He couldn't even acknowledge her as a human being, an American mother who just sent her first born son to war that very day to protect his freedom. He couldn't even acknowledge it. He just continued on in his pious barrage of questioning. It's fine with me if we ask all of the candidates the hard questions that need to be asked, but good grief have some class and respect while doing it! Obama gets media coverage of dancing with Ellen, or joking about his grandma and DisneyWorld with David Lettermen...while Sarah Palin gets this. Unbelievable! Please join me in praying for our country during this time. Please, please, please stand firm in prayer through these coming months!

Visions in my head...

Yesterday I saw my friend who is oh-so-very pregnant right now. I drove home with visions of belly shots in my head. So as I was heading out to run some errands, I swung into her driveway and said..."can I take some shots of your belly"?!?!? Weird, I know! She was kind enough to let me and this was the results of our 10 min. photo shoot. We went into her backyard and I climbed up on their playset with a pic in mind. While I was up there out of the corner of my eye I caught her shadow in the yard. I knew I had to hop down and capture that. Can't wait to meet your baby girl someday soon, Chastity...and thanks for being a good sport with me and the visions in my head. :)

Take a Leap?!?!?

Have you ever really wanted to do something, but were just scared to take the leap? My entire blog is about stepping out in faith...I know, I know. But what about when the something depends on a big part of *you*? Our adoption was so out of the realm of rational sense...that it made perfect sense. It was obvious it was God working...so we just went with God! We believed it was a mandate from God and we had no choice but to obey. Even with our homeschooling...I was scared, but I knew it was about being obedient to what the Lord was asking us to do. It is so much easier to take the leap when it is clear that's what you are suppose to do, isn't it!?!? Now I sit here wondering, pondering, going over scenarios...over and over again. What I'm dealing with isn't any sort of mandate from the Word of God that I need to obey. It is a choice that I have to make. I get really close to the edge but then I chicken out. It all comes down to this...I'm working on getting the courage up to do something. Will you please pray for me?

GO BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Introducing Mrs. McBee in the Pollyanna Production

It was so fun to watch *our Mrs. McBee* in her performance last night. All of the kids did a fabulous job! I sat in amazement watching them, because this acting group was started by a 16 year old homeschool girl. All of the kids are homeschoolers and they took responsibilty to put this production together. The kids led the practices, came up with costumes, did hair and make-up, etc. I felt so grateful that our daugther could be a part of this group of kids and have this acting experience. She was sooo cute...but don't tell her I said that! ;) She has another performance tonight, which I will be at taking more photos...but don't tell her I said that either! ;)

Prayers for My Dear Friend!

I'm sorry that I have not updated...this week has been a crazy busy week (and I was thoroughly enjoying the political discussion that was taking place). It started last weekend when we began preparations for my friend to come home from Ukraine with their two new daughters(the two on their laps in the picture above). I did shopping, stocked her cupboards, blew up balloons, made posters...and got a little giddy. Saturday it was off to the airport we went. It was so exciting to meet these girls that I had already fallen in love with through their blog. Sunday and Monday we relished the last warm days of the summer and all went swimming. Our girls are great buddies with their boys and since they have been in Ukraine for 6 weeks, it was so fun to enjoy the last days of summer together.

We started our schooling this week as well. We're off to a great start. I just have to tell you how incredibly much I love being able to learn with my girls. During off school times...I have been enjoying helping Karen out with whatever she needs me for..making food, listening, going to Walmart, and playing with the girls.

I ask you to please cover their family in your prayers. They are in a time of adjustment that is so overwhelming none of us can really even wrap our minds around it. It is hard to see a friend struggle through the vast emotions that arise during this intense time.

(This weekend our daughter is in a production of Pollyanna...I hope to get some pictures for you.)