nothing says summer like watermelon

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

We are having a great one - nice and relaxed.

Actually, yesterday wasn't so much relaxing - but it was FUN!

I'll have to share more about it later.

But we have nothing to do the rest of the weekend - just play, relax, and enjoy our time together.

Part of me wishes we had a boat and camper.

It's weekends like these it just feels like we should be at the lake,

swimming, skiing, camping, eating.

But that's actually the plan for NEXT weekend!

But for now we'll just enjoy our own backyard.

Baby pool, Elmo sprinkler, slip n slide...

and WATERMELON!!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend!

pictures with nana

We stopped by and spent some time with Dave's mom on Thursday night for her birthday!

We were all enjoying the beautiful weather out on the deck.

I had fun playing with my camera settings and trying to get some good shots in the dark.

The only light was from the 2 candles at the table, and I think I did pretty good!

I don't have a photographer's eye - so who knows if they are really that good.

But they are good to me!

I was impressed with myself.

For anyone interested - I was just shooting in P - and had my ISO at 6400.

Probably not the RIGHT way - there is still so much I don't know.

But that's all I could figure out for now.

Everything else I tried was blurry.

All you pros can send your tips my way if you want!

picking up

We were headed to bed last night and did our usual "picking up" routine before we went.

I picked up 8 pairs of shoes in ONE big room.

Does anyone else have this problem? 

Actually I'm sure you do.  I only have 2 kids.  I can't imagine having more kids and more shoes to pick up.

If you add in shoes that belong to my husband, I think the total was 10.

But seeing these shoes that I put in a pile outside the kids' bedroom door was just funny to me.

It made me smile.

Such little feet.

Little people who are making decisions on their own, gaining some independence to choose their own clothes and shoes each day.

A reminder of the number of times a day Mason goes sprinting through the house for another pair of shoes so he can go outside.

A reminder of the way that Taylor has certain shoes for certain places/activities.

"Mom, should I wear my church sandals?"

"I think my running shoes will be best with this outfit"

So although it was quite annoying to pick up this many pairs of shoes.

I found some joy in it.

And it made me smile.

first harvest

2 nights ago we harvested the first thing from our garden.

Last year my lettuce didn't turn out, so this is the first time we've ever had lettuce.

Quite handy actually.

Quick and easy salads.

Quick and easy BLTs - YUM!!!

They were SO yummy!

I wish I didn't like bacon as much as I do.

Now we need some warm weather so this garden of ours will start to GROW!

the cousins are here!

Our house has been full of laughter tonight.

Every other month we watch our niece and nephews,Tyler, Jaden and Paige over night so their mommy and daddy can go on a date, or have friends over or whatever they want to do!  Tonight's our night!

On the other months - our kids go there.

It's a pretty good deal we have worked out.

Every other month - the kids gone overnight.  We can go out and not worry about picking them up and getting them to bed.  We can sleep in (although so far it's always been a Sat. night we get up for church anyway).

After some time at the park, we had 5 really sweaty, yucky kids.

Our bath/shower arrangment was pretty funny.

Tyler, the oldest, took a shower with Mason (by Mason's request)  Dave stood guard and helped, but Tyler did most of the work and got Mason all washed up!

The others took a bath.

And here they are afterwards...

It was quite funny until all but one of them (thank goodness the oldest) decided to drop their towels and run naked through the house as Dave and I tried to round them up!

Okay, so I guess that was still funny too.

Such fun times.

We are glad for these and are excited about all the times to come.

bye bye lightning

Do you see that black spot in the sky?

There, maybe you can see it better in this one...any guesses what it is?

Do you know now??

Maybe this picture will help?

Yep - last week we said goodbye to Lightning McQueen - after almost 3 months!!! 

It was not an intentional goodbye.

It was very unplanned.

But what do you expect after he has remained safe inside our home for 3 months and then one day a certain 3 year old decides to venture out in the back yard with him.

 He escaped.

Yep.  After 3 months, he still had enough helium to take him far far away.

Glad to know those balloons are worth the money - for as long as they last.

And this is how these two felt about his departure.

Taylor felt especially bad.

She knew how bad her brother loved that balloon.

He liked to sleep with it near his crib - floating above him.

He loves Lightning McQueen and this balloon had a special place in his heart.

Taylor was SOOO sad that she accidentally let it go.

So we talked about where it was going.

And we decided that Cora needed a Lightning McQueen balloon in heaven.

I was going out on a long shot here - not sure if this would make them feel better about the situation or not.

And it did help.  They both stopped crying.  Taylor even smiled and said - "will she know it's for her?"

So we sure hope Cora is enjoying her new balloon.

new hair do

We had church pictures for the directory on Friday night and I was trying to figure out what to do with Taylor's hair.

She pretty much lives in ponytails.

And when she doesn't have one, because of all the curl in her hair, it just seems frizzy and poofy all the time.

So I decided to see what would happen if I brought the curl out more.

The only way I knew how to do this was getting it wet and scrunching it up with some curling gel.

This is the end result.

Plus a few extra shots because she was having fun.

Dave's comment..."I'm just not a big fan of the greasy look"

Well then.

I wouldn't call this greasy.  It IS still a little wet, so I guess he meant the "wet look"

As it dried more and more he liked it a little better.

But seriously, what else do we do?  I don't like the idea of putting product in her hair all the time. Is that the only way to really get the curl to come out and not just look poofy?

I think we'll get it trimmed soon and see what that does.

Otherwise, I guess we'll just stick to the ponytails.

jaden

I've taken LOTS of pictures with my new camera!

Lots are just trash, as I've been playing with settings, exploring as much as I can.

Obviously I still have lots to learn.

But I figured I'd share some with you.

But I'll be honest...I've been a little nervous.

Nervous that you've been waiting for some super amazing looking photos.

But even though my camera is new and AWESOME.

The operator is still just little old me.

Just trying to take in and learn what all I have at my fingertips now.

And waiting for some great "photography" friends to share some expertise! :-)

So enjoy these cute pics. 

CUTE because my subject is so cute. It's our nephew Jaden.

He came to eat lunch and play this past week while he was staying at Grandma's a few blocks away.

I was playing with my camera while the kids were playing and I asked him if he wanted me to take pictures of him, which he willingly and excitedly said YES!  I wish my kiddos were that easy to photograph!

Jaden is almost 5.

And headed to Kindergarten in the fall.

He is so good with Mason.

It was so cute watching them play.

Thanks for coming to play with us Jaden!

And thanks for being my model while I played with my new camera!

he surprised me

I got my wish.

After waiting and waiting for it since last fall - Happy Mother's Day to me!

Neither Dave or I are good at keeping surprises.  When we buy each other something we just want to tell, or give it early.
I knew he went shopping for a gift for Mother's Day with the kids - which is not typical.  I had just joked with a friend that I would probably get a card and my favorite candy bar.  And I'd be happy.
And honestly I TRULY would. 
I'm not happy when I don't get anything.
I like gifts, and I have tried to tell him that even if it is little bitty - it means a lot for me to get a gift from him that I knew he put thought into.  Even if it's my favorite candy bar.
Gifts aren't that important to him - and if you've read The Five Love Languages, you know that it's hard to show love in a language that is not your own. 
Gifts is not my main love language but it definitely ranks up there.

He had told me that what I was getting was NOT on my "wish list".  So I had no idea it would be the camera since that obviously WAS on my wish list.  But he was just trying to throw me off.

The night he bought it he almost gave it to me 3 times.  He debated for a few hours if he would or not.
I'd say "no, just wait till Sunday" and then I'd say "okay, give it to me now"
But he ended up waiting.
And I got it Sunday!

He doesn't wrap - that's okay with me.  He just put it in a big bag and had me open it!
My eyes were watering I was so excited! It wasn't a total shock that I got it. I knew we'd be getting it soon because we had been planning for it.  But it meant so much that he went out on his own to get it and planned it around Mother's Day. 

It just so happened that the camera we were getting was in a packaged deal - it came with a bag and an extra zoom lens - sweet!

So needless to say I've had lots of fun taking pictures lately.

But guess what else he got me.

Check it out...

Nope, not the laptop
but look in the bottom, right corner...

See that little box?
Those are my pictures downloading from my camera - wirelessly.
He got me an Eye-fi card.  I had mentioned these to him awhile back, but I didn't know much about them. I just knew they sounded cool.  I hate always looking for my camera cord to download pictures.

Now, the Eye-fi card in my camera connects to our wireless network and the pictures download as I take them!  I was outside taking pictures while the kids were playing and by the time I got inside to my computer - they were all already downloaded into nice organized folders by date.  If I turn my camera off when they are downloading, it picks right back up where it left off when I turn it on again.

So cool.
What a fabulous Mother's Day!
Not just because of the gift.
But because I had a wonderful day with the kiddos that I am so blessed to be a mom to.
And I got to be surrounded by some of the wonderful friends I am blessed to have, as we celebrated this little guy's Dedication Day!
And I got to enjoy a yummy steak dinner - cooked by my wonderful husband I am so blessed to have too!
I feel truly blessed.

i never want to forget this

Being a mother...

to these two precious kiddos....

is the greatest gift I have ever been given.

I have no idea how this picture actually turned out.

I'm sure it's one of those once in a many many years kind of picture.

I guess I just caught them BOTH in a good mood, at the perfect time.
I normally have to BEG for them to smile, and usually that is NEVER together.
I usually have to ask them to do it again and again, trying to get one good one.
But this happened on the first try - in the parking lot of Applebees, taken with my phone.
I'm sure it helped that they were extremely excited to be carrying home balloons.
Or maybe they were just excited about their evening alone with Mom (Dave is out of town for a bachelor party until the morning).

And the very instant I looked down at my phone and saw what I had just captured - my eyes filled with tears.

These 2 precious, precious kids are actually mine.

God entrusted ME to be their mother.

He is allowing me to experience some of the greatest joy that can be experienced on this earth.

He forgives me when I mess up.

They forgive me when I mess up.

He gives me another chance over and over again.

And so do they.

 Although this job is FULL OF JOY - it is definitely the hardest job I've ever had.

There are days I just get down and think that I am far from a great mom.

That my life is just not all that worthy.

I was reminded today, at a women's conference I attended with Dave's mom and sister,

About how to live a worthy life.

And today I am thinking mostly about how I can live a worthy life as a mother.

I was reminded that when my mind wanders to those thoughts that get me down...

I need to return to this verse..

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." 

Phillipians 4:8

And then once I get my thoughts turned around...

I need to stand firm on this verse...

"To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me."

Colossians 1:29

 I am reminded that I do not have to do this alone.

When I look at myself and wonder how on earth I can be the mom that Taylor and Mason deserve,

when I know that I naturally lack patience

that I am quick to anger when I shouldn't be

when I speak harshly

when I am selfish

when I have so many sinful things about myself to deal with...

and wonder how on earth I can be that gentle, humble, compassionate and loving mother that I know they need, and that I am called to be - ALL the time, not just when it's easy for me.

I am reminded that just like MANY things in my life,

I am not required to do these things on my own.

As a Child of God, He promises me that HIS energy will POWERFULLY work in me.

Not my energy - thank goodness.

But His.

That gives me a hope that allows me to know that I CAN do this.

I can be the BEST mom that I could ever even dream of...

because of the ONE who's energy is at work in me,

because of the ONE who is molding me and making me into what HE wants me to be.

And THAT is exactly what my kids deserve.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms!

May you feel like the BEST mom in the world today because of God's energy working in you.

a great accompishment.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was training to run a 5K.

My training was approximately 3 weeks long.  Not really what I had planned.

Dave said, "man, if you trained in 3 weeks for a 5K, think what you can do if you trained for months."

Glad to know he was impressed.

He wouldn't run a block - even if someone was chasing him.

And really, that last week before the race, I think I got one run in.

It was a bad week.  And the hope of being able to run a 5K at the end of the week was not looking promising.

Colds, sore throats, ear infections, vomit and a somehow hurting my back enough that I couldn't move for a day, and it hurt to breathe - took over our week.

And then to top things off - I accidentally slept in my contacts the night before the race.

My eyes KILLED when I woke up and they were red and burning all day - sunglasses were a MUST.

I was thinking I'd have to end up walking the 3.1 miles - because of my back.

Even after warming up, I just wasn't sure how far I could deal with the pain.

I was also VERY nervous - the furthest run I had made up to this point was only 2.25 miles.

A group of girls from our Sunday School class all signed up together.

Here's our BEFORE picture...

Jess, Kendall, Lori and I ran together for most of the way.

A little past the 2 mile marker I had to get up close to Jess so she could push me the rest of the way.

My brain was saying it was time to stop.

Of course you reach a point that you know you can't stop, you're just TOO close to making it!

 And having a friend at your side makes it much easier.

I was proud of us that last mile.

And especially that last stretch - we pushed it HARD.

It felt like a sprint, but I'm not sure how fast we really were going at the end of 3 miles.

We made it!  We ran the WHOLE thing!

Dave took this picture (actually all of these pictures)-  he and the kids were right at the finish line to see us!

Unfortuneately, we also hear that a local newspaper snapped a shot of us near the finish line too, and posted it in the paper.

I had to sort through about 6 different shots to get one of us that didn't look absolutely horrible.

I am going to guess that the newspaper photographer did not do the same, and didn't really take our feelings into consideration. I think a picture of us at mile 1 would have been much better.

We still haven't seen this picture that we've been told about.

And maybe that's a good thing.

Jess and I finished 295th and 296th out of 969 people.

Dave reminded me that was almost in the top 25%!! Yeah!

Here is our AFTER picture - with our nice red, patchy faces.

The best part of the race - food afterwards!

Dave brought Taylor and Mason to the race to watch.

They were pretty much in awe of all the people.

Taylor had to wear her running clothes that day. She was upset she had to wear her shorts under her sweatpants because it was a little chilly.

And then back at home afterwards, she wanted to wear my number and do some running for herself.

I should probably cherish these days in which she admires all that I do.

I'm afraid one of these days she's not going to think I'm so cool anymore.

But for now, she's a good self-esteem booster.

I need to get signed up for another race to keep myself running.

It's been 2 weeks since this 5K and I haven't gotten a run in YET.

I'll blame it on a week of being sick.

But now it's time to get my booty in gear again, before the summer heat gets here.

Anyone know of any good races in the area this fall?

5K and under please.

added to my wish list

I have my eye and heart set on this.

Sometimes I dream about it.

It's the newest Canon Rebel.  The T2i.
I am NOT a photographer.
I pretty much know nothing.
But in the last few years I've really started to enjoy taking pictures, trying to capture that "perfect" shot and doing some simple editing, and really have taken an interest in trying to learn the basics.
I DO know enough to know that I am SICK of my flash on my current camera.
So many times I wish I could take good pictures without the flash ruining them.
And there are a few other things that annoy me on it too.

I've wanted a DSLR for a few years now.
But Dave said I should maybe know a little bit more before we jumped to that level.

I'm trying to be patient.
Our new way of handling finances means we don't just run out and get what we want all the time.

The old us would have just gone out and bought it when we felt like it.

No planning, little to no saving for it.

But I know that the new us is SMARTER.

The old us would just grab the money out of savings and go get it.

The new us knows that every dollar in our savings is already named to something else.

The new us knows that we should save for this specifically, instead of "borrowing" from something else we are saving for and then paying that back later.

It feels so much better when we make purchases when we do it this way.

There's no buyers remorse - "oh man, maybe we shouldn't have done it....maybe we should have kept that money for something else....we sure hope nothing happens to the car since we just depleted our car maintenance fund to buy our camera"  HA!

Yeah, we probably would have done that a few years ago.

But we're a little wiser now.

And we've learned some great things over the last 2 years with our finances.

We are grateful for that.

So...I'm being patient.

Knowing that we will be glad we planned for it and saved.

It will make it that much more fun to finally be able to get!

I am STILL holding out and crossing my fingers that maybe I'll get a little surprise for Mother's Day!

how to keep the dog out of the garden...

Well, there may be other solutions, but when you have a handy husband, he can whip this out in a few hours.

We got everything planted.

Taylor LOVED helping.

We love our backyard in the spring and summer.

Especially this corner, complete with the sandbox Dave put in for the kids last summer.

I'll be sad when this tree isn't purple anymore.

And we added flowers to our hanging pots.

I went with PURPLE and WHITE this year.

Taylor and Mason both got some Easter money from Great Aunt Barb and Uncle Jim.

Taylor used her money to buy some flower seeds.

She picked purple zinnias.

And Daddy let her have her very own pot.

She planted the seeds...

and watered them...

and several days later she decided to dig them all up and stir the dirt all around.

Maybe we'll try again in a few days.