Homemade mosquito repellent don't keep no mosquitos away (correct grammar withheld)

OBU has some awesome spots on campus.  I love this old bridge. This one in particular is great both for picture taking and for allowing the kids to roam and explore.  Let me say first that this spot which is close to the river has monster mosquitoes.  Second, that the homemade version of vanilla extract and water that we made before (which mosquitoes supposedly hate) didn't work.  I don't know if these are mutant mosquitoes or what, but they seemed to just swarm us.

Hmm...I wonder how long my kids are going to get along like this.  Better enjoy it while I can!

My son and his cheesy, snaggle-tooth grin!

This was a perfect sibling picture.  Both looking at the camera and semi smiling.  I can count on two hands, maybe even one, how many pictures I have of the two of them looking AND smiling.  But it's blurry!  Grr...

Well, this got close. 

E will be 14 months this week and to me looks SO grown up in this picture.  Where did my little baby go!?!?!

OK...so this one?  This wan acheived a smile not by me saying, Zoe, smile for the camera.  No...this one acheived a smile by saying, "Zoe.  Don't you show me your teeth.  I don't want to see them."

This is one of my favorites.  Look at E's face.  He is terrified at the fact that Zoe is behind him pushing.  It's priceless. 

And again, "Zoe, I don't want to see those teeth of yours!  So don't show them to me, ok?  Excuse the wide open legs.  We haven't exactly msatered the art of being a lady yet. 

Facial explosion

Wow - I am far behind!  I had a little bit on my mind this week.  I was asked to be the speaker at a women's ministry luncheon today, and had only about a week and a half to prepare.  It wasn't hard, but I had little on my mind other than that for a while. 

So...my daughter finds it funny to just make faces...weird faces.  She just explodes with all of these weird expressions as if you can't tell from the pictures below. 

My son LOVES to play in this little kitchen.  He plays with it even more than Zoe does, I think.  I dressed him in the chef attire that we have, and he looked like a little mini chef...a snaggle-toothed little chef. 

Sorry...this post is kind of lame, I am zapped of creativity today and short on time.  :(

High Seas Expedition

SBC just finished VBS for 2010. We had around 150 kids attend which means we had a ton of kids form the community. For the first time ever at some big event, I didn't think about taking a camera. So I'm having to bum pictures taken off some friends. Mandy Grimm, our nursery coordinator, and her husband took these pictures.


We did the curriculum High Seas Expedition this year. Stories all revolved around how God's word is (fill in the blank).


Zoe, unfortunately was sick for most of the week, so she only got to do two days. She just had the fever virus, but she still was unable to go. Because she wasn't quite three yet, she wasn't able to be in the 3-5 group anyway, so she didn't miss out on as much as she could have. The 2 year olds did a version of the story and had color time and snack time, but no rec or crafts like everyone else. I can't imagine why! :)

Darin and I were crew leaders for a group of mostly 5th graders. Because they were the oldest in the bunch, it was a challenge to keep them actively involved and enthused about things. But they did a great job overall.

Little Guppies

My kids are guppies. That's what I've decided they are. They are both water babies, whole heartedly.
We had our annual Night at the Waterpark to celebrate the upcoming VBS week.  Both kids had a blast. 

Zoe jumping to me from the side

My littlest water baby

These little guys are all a month apart.  The youngest is a month younger than Ethan and just turned a year.  They're the "boy chain" at church...much smaller than the "girl chain of about 8 little girls born every two weeks to a month.

And those same three babies about to jump off the side.

The "jump"

And the catch followed by three sets of giggles.

Random Thursday

I just found a bunch of pictures from the last couple of weeks on my camera that I haven't downloaded yet. So instead of doing post by post, I'm just going to throw them all together. See if you can keep up. If so, find me somewhere lost behind you...'cuz I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with myself. That may sound weird, but just let me tell you how lost my mind is today. I was pouring my child some strawberry syrup to go into her milk...a once daily treat. I had the sippy cup right by the milk carton. I'm sure you can see where this is going.  Yup...instead of pouring the syrup in the sippy.....I started to pour it in the gallon of milk.  Luckily for me, at the last millisecond, I realized my stupidity and yanked away just in time to have it dribble all over the carton.  Better than in the freshly opened milk, I suppose. 

This is our new housemate, well part of it.  The body continues for a while. Oh...you need a closer look?  Can't tell what it is yet?  Well, ok...here!

 

Is this close enough for ya?  Yeah, that's right.  A big, ugly, nasty, 3 foot long (or so I'm guessing) snake.  In.  Our.  Yard. 

Let's just say the poor husband was subjected to the "wife freak out syndrome" and was begged to go kill it.  So while he's using a hoe to try to chop the head off it goes up in the tree, and he's stuck doing this...trying to spray it out.  He even went as far as getting a camp chair and "camping" out until I came back out and told him that my research had come to the conclusion that it was just a big black rat snake and was not venomous.  Bless his heart...such a good husband! 

I made these for our memorial day dessert.  I initially tried to layer them red, white, and blue, but this is the result.  I like this better. 

Our little girl jamming to her barney songs.  I think she was attempting to sing over it and sing Jesus Loves Me. 

So sweet!  Daddy didn't know he got subjected to being the bed for "blue bear" and "lamb" till he woke up.

I have to snap away when she actually smiles at me and doesn't hurl at me this evil stare.

Cheese!

Mmmhmmm.  You got it.  She dumped an entire bucket of water on my poor unsuspecting son's head.  This was an accidental picture, but made for a funny one.  Let's just say he wasn't too fond of the pool after that moment.  Poor kid.   

Heaven Conversations

My heart is heavy this morning.  A sweet, well respected man in our church lost his battle with cancer this morning, and his death will shake the very foundation of our church.  He was SUCH a picture of Jesus.  He saw nothing but good in anyone and everything.  To say that he had a servant heart barely scratches the surface of the legacy that he has created and left.  And although he is resting comfortably in the arms of Jesus this morning, there are a lot of tears flowing this morning from those he left behind. I can see his smiling face saying, "Hey!  Quit your cryin'.  It's all good!"  His sweet wife of almost 40 years is about to begin the journey of one of THE hardest things she will ever have to endure.  I pray for her heart, that it will somehow remain in tact through the loss of her other half.  They have a daughter who is just weeks away from the birth of her first grandchild.  I pray that the stress does not cause her to go into pre-term labor.  For whatever reason, Jesus saw that it was time to bring Jim home.  I trust that He will bring good out of this tragedy.  Jim, you will be missed for many, many years to come. 

As my husband called me this morning to deliver that news, I hung up and couldn't help but just let the tears come.  I was in my son's room playing with both kids, and my daughter who had just witnessed this sudden change of attitude stopped what she was doing to say, "Mommy, what's wrong.  Are you ok?  How do you explain to a little girl who is almost 3 what is on your mind at that moment?  I told her that mommy was a little sad.   She said, "When are you going to be happy again?"  Oh, the innocence of a child!  I started thinking with my mommy brain and said, "Well, I don't know that.  But it's ok for people to be sad sometimes."  She followed that with, "Why are you sad?"  Uh oh.  Now I have to beat around the bush about the subject of death.  "Well, Zoe, Mommy just found out that someone that she knew died and went to Heaven this morning.  Do you know who lives in Heaven?"  She says with a big smile, "Jesus does."  I said, "that's right.  And Mr. Jim went to be with Jesus in Heaven this morning."  She said, "Why is that sad?"  Inquisitive little thing.  Still in Mommy brain, I said, "Well, that means that mommy won't ever see Mr. Jim again here where we live.  One day, Mommy will go to Heaven too, and I'll see him again, but I'm sad that I won't see him until then."  She of course follows with this, "But I want to go to Heaven with you!"  Something about that just broke my heart into a million pieces.  I can't explain why, but it did.  I realized at that moment that I can't promise her that she will be in Heaven with me one day.  I want to, but I can't.  That is up to her when it comes time.  But I also realized at that moment (not that I haven't realized this before) that it is our responsibility as parents to make sure she is ready to make that committment when Jesus knocks on the door to her heart.  What an awesome responsibility...one not to be taken lightly.  My prayer is that if I do nothing else as a mom, that I help plant a seed that will one day sprout growth. 

On the upside...I grabbed these pictures about an hour after that phone call.  My son LOVES books.  We get one free book for each kid once a month on this program that Dolly Parton funds.  It has helped fill his bookshelf with tons of books.  This is what was going on during Zoe's and my "Heaven conversations".  Notice almost every one of them is open.

I don't think we have enough...do you?  :)

Step one in toddlerhood

Ethan, you are now 13 months!  I think you are growing up to fast.  I am your mother...and I'm telling you to stop.  Well, I guess it doesn't quite work that way, but a mom can dream.  So what are you up to in your official toddlerhood? 

*You are walking EVERYWHERE.  Crawling has been a thing of the past for some time now.  You walked when you were a little after 11 months old, but that was always prompted by me or your daddy.  Now it's all on your own.  You have tried to run a couple of times, but you always end up on your face.

 

*You have learned finally to stand and squat, though you still haven't learned how to get up from the ground without crawling and pulling up on something before walking wherever it is you want to go.

*You FINALLY have teeth.  Three, in fact.  You got them within a week's time.  Two of them (the first two) came in within 24 hours of each other. You, needless to say, were not a happy child for a few days.  We're still waiting on tooth #4 - and it is close behind. 

*You are talking up a storm.  You will talk to your daddy and me like you're holding on a full conversation, and as much as we'd like to understand your jabber, we just smile and nod, occasionally throwing in an, "oh, yeah?" and an, "is that right?". 

*You do, however have a repertoire of words built up.  You know Jedi, Daddy, Mama, Cat, "right der" for right there, "wat dis" for what's this, "a done" for all done, cheeto (we've grilled out a few times), "paise baby" for praise baby, and a few others I'm sure I"m missing.  You mimic a lot, but those are the ones I'm pretty sure you say on a semi regular basis. 

*When I ask what a lion says, you say "raaaaa".  When I ask what a cow says, you say, "Mmmmmm".  When I ask what a sheep says, you say, "a-a-a-a-a".  Those, so far are the only ones you can correctly mutter. 

*You LOVE being read to and have two favorite books that you want read over and over and over again in one sitting. 

*You make a bee-line for me whenever I call you and say, "Ethan, I have your milk!", even if you're in your room looking at books and I call from across the house.

*You are a water baby...most of the time.  You enjoy the lake, swimming pools, and your bath time. You don't however enjoy the process of getting ready for swim time. 

*You love giving kisses, slobbery ones on the cheek, and blowing kisses from across the room.

*You can point when asked to nose, mouth, and eyes.  We're working on ears, and not trying pull mommy's earrings out of hers. 

*You throw a lot of temper tantrums...ones where you butt your head on the ground (which is why you have 4 bruises in various places on your forehead right now.).  You get left alone a lot while you're throwing those. 

I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton, but your mama is tired, and can't think anymore.  Until next month...