Thoughts

I can't figure out how get the pictures off of the camera I borrowed from a friend so I'm going to post some thoughts instead because they are piling up on me. Here they are in no reasonable order:

• Warm weather is wonderful and exhausting. My house is begging me to clean it.
• I never realized how shocking losing a grandparent would be. Things seem so unfinished even though God decided they are finished.
• Kate and I touched Gram in her casket to say goodbye and I'll be forever glad I did.
• I twirled up the isle in my friends wedding on Friday and it was like I was made to twirl at weddings. Meg Ryan would have been proud. :-) giggle. I love weddings.
• I love Google: how to keep a cocoon, how to fold a paper airplane, what do humming birds eat, what does whooping cough sound like, how to cover blue berries.....and on and on....
• John Patrick turned 4 today. Another shocker I wasn't ready for.
• I've cried more in the last week than I have in a looooong time. I've had lots of headaches from trying not to. :-)
• I LOVE watching green bean plants pop through the ground, they're huge!
• My big sis is now 30, woop woop! It's all down hill from here Kia. :-)
• GO REDS! (nothing says summer to me like Marty at 7:10)
• My 5 year anniversary was last week too. I love my husband and appreciate him more now than ever. Here are a few reasons why: he is the hardest worker I've ever met, he loves to learn and is incredibly smart, he is so cute with our kids, he treats me like a queen even when I don't deserve it.
• Could May be any busier? seriously. whew!

In Loving Memory

My mom's mother passed away early Monday morning. Please pray for our family and especially my Grandpa John and my mom as we grieve Grandma Edna's unexpected death. She was a wonderful grandma and great grandma.

Here are just a few of the fond memories I have. I wish I could post pictures of the images in my memory, you would all love to see them. For now, just try really hard to imagine the fun!

• My grandma and I shared a love for coloring and she had LOTS of coloring books and would color with us for hours if we wanted.
• Never did we go hungry at grandma's house!! I loved meals in between swimming him in her pool: lunch meat sandwiches, chips and dip and popsicles. Don't forget to wait 30 min.(or at least 20 if we were really driving her bonkers with begging) before swimming again. :-) She also made the most wonderful fried chicken you've ever had and always served with homemade noodles. These are my next project to learn. I had a lesson once that I recorded in my journal at the time so I plan to dig it out soon.
• My grandma was the queen of Christmas decorations and her tree was at least 9 feet tall in my memories. :-) I definitely heard Santa's reindeer on her roof at least once in all the years we spent Christmas night at her house.
• Riding bikes to the Dairy Queen in town. We could order anything, and i do mean anything, we wanted.
• Playing on her front porch for hours. she would help us set up an "office" and we would pretend to do all kinds of doodling and phone calling on all her scrap paper.

I could go on and on and on. This is the first Grandparent I've lost and what a strange feeling. The funeral is this Wednesday and Thursday. Thank you for your prayers.

Nells Bells

Anella has fine-tuned the art of rolling. She has a balancing trick with her legs and slowwwwwwwly rocks on her side, over and over again until she hits something. And the funniest thing is her thrilled face the whole time. I LOVE this little Angel.

Distracted by the sun rays.

Bouncy seat was the end of the line.

content to be typical

I admit it, I often skim verses. Don't. This is so good:

"God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore as it is written, Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

Sometimes I realise my "notness". Like this week. Nothing new, just one of those weeks.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these verses. They make an ugly week something that it would never be outside of Christ. A BLAZING tribute to his power and sufficiency to forgive and use days that otherwise would have been lost as... yucky :-) and make them a picture of his grace. I can't worship him enough for paying the price for this selfishness of mine.

I'm trying not to be wordy but I have to quote this song:

"When Satan's accusations, make my poor heart afraid, I hear my savior saying, Father that debt is paid!!! Jesus my only hope my only plea, my righteousness, my great high priest, who intercedes for me before the throne. Jesus I trust in you alone!"

Anyhow, in light of being "just plain us"-nothing more- here is a tribute to being typical-to our Redeemers praise!!

Typically silly typically boy

typically adventurous


typically spring

typically beautiful and typically dora (notice the singing- it goes something like, "laaaaaaaaaaa")

crunched for time

I'd like to know how a girl is supposed to get anything done around here with all the excitement going on outside all the time?

This is just a snap shot of what made us late to some appointment Tuesday. These were taken after we had closed the door and were almost in the jeep.

John Patrick spotted this naughty bird trying to make his way around our cheese cloth to our blueberries. He got a little more than his brass button caught. Lucky for him I was much more forgiving than Mr. McGreggor and was to busy to make him into dinner. I think I'm going to have to try the fake owl approach with the bushes. Cheese cloth isn't cutting it. Then John Patrick spotted and snatched up this caterpillar. He's quite taken with bugs right now. I think you'll be seeing a buggy birthday bash in the near future.

Brace Yourself for Cuteness

Some of the beauties we took for our Mother's Day gift for mom.

BFF's in the making.

Things around here

How would you like it for one of your first tastes in life to be amoxicillin (sp?)? Nella doesn't like it.

But in no time she's happy as ever.

We are loving these beautiful days.

We called this dish "John Patrick and Dora Mexican surprise". We made it for dinner one night after we had played outside way to long to work on a long dinner. It included leftover chicken, beans, tomatoes/salsa, corn, cilantro, avocado and cheese on top. We ate it with chips as spoons.
It was yummy.

Anella's first piggy tails.

We're baaaack

The kids and I went to Naples FL with Noni last week and of course had a ball. They both love the ocean and Noni's pool. I'm a little bit of a fish myself so the kids and I had a great time together.
I didn't realize that Dora wouldn't remember the beach from last year so it was cute to see her reaction without me even telling her before hand what to expect. We were coming over the little dune when she started saying, "OH! LOOK MOMMY! LOOK AT THAT!!"
She LOVED it. We collected lots of shells for art projects in the future.

You can't tell it but our volcano has a tunnel running through it. so cool.

I had to take this picture because I ordered a chocolate chip pancake for Dora when we went out for breakfast one morning and it was about the size of a regular dinner plate. She was thrilled!

Don't you just love baby chub in a bathing suit!!

I know this is hard to make out but it's a yellow and black baby shark still in it's egg!! We were at a type of children's museum and they had it on display. It was about the size of an avocado and translucent on one side. We got to see it squirm around a little in the egg. It was kind of like getting a glimpse of what God does in secret.

Anella is happy to be chillin at Noni's.

Baking with mommy.

Who knew blueberries made such sweet little flowers before they made delicious berries? I'm really hoping we can actually eat some of them this year. The birds got them first last year.