Friday, May 6, 2011

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter celebration. A celebration of our resurrected Christ. He is risen. He is risen indeed!
After worship in our church we went out to Grandma Janet and Papa Skips house.




One of the most exciting things we got to do (besides celebrate a risen Savior, of course :)) was meet our newest niece/cousin Piper! Tyler's "little" sister Marie and her husband Brian had their first baby just 2 days before Christmas. Brian is in the Navy and they are stationed in Kingsville, Tx. Because it's so stinkin' far away we hadn't been able to meet Piper yet. But we loved on her plenty over Easter weekend.




Margo loves to hang out at the sliding glass doors and watch the big kids outside. It's cute and makes for funny pictures.



Hope you had a wonderful Easter!

May Birthdays

Brennan and Charlotte were born exactly 4 years and 1 day apart. And that one extra day almost didn't happen. But thankfully my doctor agreed it was okay for me to be pregnant a few more hours. So the first weekend in May is always a crazy one around here. We make a big deal out of our kids on their birthdays but we don't make a big deal out of the parties. Does that make sense? It's just how we do things. I'm thankful that both Brennan and Charlotte are still okay doing a joint birthday party. We try to make their actual day special for each of them. But as long as I can get a way with a joint party, I will!

So we went to the park and invited our family and friends from our small group at church. These are the people we share life with, so whether of not they have kids the same ages as our kids, it just seems right to share our joys with them. These are the people who we want to be the most influential in our kids lives!

Enjoy the pictures:


(all the kids)
(Brennan 8 years old)
(Charlotte 4 years old)
(totally into the whole "make a funny face" picture thing)
(Aunt Lisa seems to be holding court here. I wonder what story she was telling?)

(Margo enjoying cake)
(Char on her actual day)
(The gift Brennan wanted the most? Shoes.)
(When you think food coloring is from the devil {grin} you have to get creative with cake decorating)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Wacky

Things have been a little wacky around here lately. This picture pretty much sums it up.

Stay tuned for lots of updates. We had a wonderful Easter with family and celebrated 2 birthdays in a weeks time. Brennan turned 8 and Charlotte turned 4. I also have a really big announcement to make :)

Thursday, April 21, 2011

What A Day

I've often said that the devil prowls around my house on Sunday mornings.

Since my husband works in a church Sundays are a "work day". He leaves early in the morning usually before anyone else is awake. It's my job to get all the kids (and myself) fed and dressed and out the door by 9:10am. This isn't that big of deal. *Unless* the devil is prowling around your home.
If it's going to go wrong, it goes wrong on Sunday mornings.

Proof:
Last Sunday we were actually doing really well getting out the door. I had laid clothes out the day before (Saturday: the day of preparation). Everyone was happy with effortless cereal for breakfast. Nobody fought me on the clothes selection (albeit, my standards have fallen drastically). And I was having a pretty good hair day. We were heading out the door by 5 after 9. Woohoo! Did I mention I teach Sunday School? I can *not* be late. There's a rather large group of squirmy 2nd graders (and their parents) relying on me.

Out the door we go. I go to the side of the van where Margo sits, open the door, buckle her in, and put my purse on the floor of the van. *My purse contains my keys and my phone.* I shut the door and walk to the other side of the van.

Meanwhile, Brennan and Charlotte are playing on the driveway and Calvin is trying to open the sliding door on his side of the van. He's having trouble opening it and assuming it is locked he opens the drivers side door and hits the unlock button. But he actually hits the *lock* button. Before I can stop him he slams the door shut. I swear it happened in slow motion. Him slamming the door, me saying "Nooooooooo!!!".

So, if you're still reading, my keys, my phone and Margo are all locked in the car.

I should also mention that we have no home phone. Only cell phones. Only cell phones that are now locked in vans.

Tyler has the only other set of keys. Now would be a good time to tell you that Tyler leads the worship music on Sundays for our church. Because he doesn't want his phone to accidentally ring while leading music he leaves it in his office.

So I instruct the "free" children to sing songs to the "trapped" child while I go neighbor to neighbor looking for a phone to borrow. Apparently many of my neighbors go to church or sleep very soundly because I had to knock on quite a few doors to find someone home.

But I found a phone to borrow. Am I the only one who no longer has a single phone number memorized? Seriously. I can recite 4 of my best friends numbers from grade school, but that is it. Well, that's a bit of a lie. I have Tyler's number and my sister's memorized, but that's it! I left several panicked messages on Tyler's phone and then decided to call my sister. My bro-in-law deserves an award for the number of times he's saved the day for me (always on Sundays!!). He drove up to the church, got the keys and brought them to us.

Singing songs to Margo on the opposite side of the glass worked for awhile. But after about 30 minutes I'm pretty sure she thought we were crazy. And maybe a little mean for not unbuckling her and getting her out when she started crying. The whole thing lasted about 45 minutes. Poor thing. We really tested her laid back personality. Turns out she has about 30 minutes before she gets really mad.

One more thing. I see now I was thinking in panic-mode, but at one point I thought I would just try pulling REALLY hard on the door handle. I don't advise this. I pulled so hard that I pulled it off. Which sent me flying into the trash cans behind me. Remember that good hair day I was having? Not so much anymore. However, this move alone has made my kids look at me in a whole new light. Once at church they didn't tell anyone about Margo getting locked in the car. But they did tell everyone "My mom pulled so hard she broke the door handle!!!"

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

One Year Pictures

Our friend and photographer Kiana did it again.
I'm in love with these pictures of our sweet baby girl.
(when I read that sentence above it sounded like Kiana was our friend and OUR photographer. But I do kind of feel like we have our own personal photographer and I love it!)









Monday, April 11, 2011

Dream Vacation

Yes it's true. I got to go to Mexico. With this guy.


And these friends. The guys (Tyler, Rob and Chris) were all in a band together called The Pool Boys. The 6 of us lived in a bus together and ran a business for many years. We know each other VERY well. And we love them dearly.
We are now spread across 3 states (KS, TN, NE) and we don't see each other near enough.
The guys decided recently to sell some equipment that they'd been holding onto. And what do you do when you sell stuff that belonged to a band that is no longer together? You take the money and run...to Mexico!

It was everything we had hoped it would be. Relaxing, relaxing and more relaxing.

We tried very hard to not move for the majority of the day. We'd pick our place by the pool or on the beach and then stay put for hours. When you chase children all day long in real life, vacations should be about being STILL.

The time with friends was wonderful. We talked for hours and laughed HARD! It's easy to laugh hard when you're reminiscing about spending your newlywed years sleeping in a bus about 14 inches from each other ;)

I missed my kids terribly, but it was so great to have Tyler all to myself for a week. Of course I love this guy, but I also LIKE him a lot. We had so much fun together. We finished lots of sentences while looking at each others faces. Both are uncommon in our home these days.




The tan has pretty much faded, life has resumed its normal pace and no one is bringing me a margarita in the middle of the afternoon. Was it all a dream?

Friday, March 11, 2011

One Year Ago

One year ago we watched the first half of the KU basketball team on the way to their 2000th win, then headed into the hospital at halftime. Seven hours later Margo Mae arrived. Our fourth baby, our second, sweet baby girl.

One year ago I was doing this...



And then we were doing this...





And then there was plenty of this...





And finally there was this...



I can't imagine our family without you Margo Mae. You're the cherry on top. Happy 1st birthday!