A Walk In The Country

I contemplated naming this entry, "The Bad Blogger Returns", but I thought that I'd go with something a little more charming.  That's just how I am.  ;)  Seriously!?!  What's been up with me?!?  Well, I could tell you... but then I'd have to kill you.  Or maybe that should be... but then the boredom would kill you.  Which ever.  Honestly, things around here have been far from boring, but they have been busy and crazy and overwhelming and stressful and tiring.  You know?  All that stuff that everyone lives through, but no one likes to talk about.  The stuff that seems huge in the moment, but really isn't when you step away from it and see that it is just a blip on the radar of life.  Anyway - I guess there was no time or energy for bloggin' in the midst of all that.  But here I am.  Today.  Finally.  A solid hour to myself. (since I banished the Bad Baby to bed until I have to go get the big kids from school... Don't worry, I don't really think he's bad.  {kind of}).  Let's see if I can get this blog entry finished before then.  

Last weekend - actually, the weekend before that - after Asher & Ainsley's Special Day, my kids and I spent the night in Oklahoma, so we could spend some time with my sister and her family. We didn't have anything on the agenda, and that was nice.  Sunday night Sara & I took the kids (except for baby girl, Ainsley) on a walk.  Not just any walk though.  It was a long walk!  Sara & Beau live at a church camp, so there is a lot of land that is available for walking around on and exploring.    It was fun and refreshing to be outside enjoying nature... and my sister and nephew.

~ Asher ~

~ Cooper ~

~ Jack ~

~ Allie ~

~ Sara & Asher at an overlook ~

~ a view of the lake ~

How incredibly cute is this?  Small, medium, and large boys!  And each one trying to keep up with the one that is just bigger than himself.

Allie took over the camera for a while and took some cool photos.

~ Heading Home ~

Stay tuned.  I am hoping - really, really hoping - that I can get a few more things posted today.  But remember that busy, crazy, overwhelming thing that I was talking about?  It kind of sneaks up and grabs me ever so often, so I am not sure when I'll have a chance to sit down face-to-screen with my computer again.  Until then...

Praying for Stellan

I know that many of you blog-reading-kind-of-people (like me) have kept up with MckMama (Jennifer) and her baby MckMiracle (Stellan) over the last few days.  In case there are some of you that don't read her blog, I wanted to tell you about this family and ask you to pray for them.  (I think I have the details of this right, but you can read the whole long story for yourself on MckMama's blog if you want to.)  Little Stellan is 4 months old.  When MckMama was pregnant with him a heart-defect was discovered in him, and he was not expected to live long after birth.  There was an amazing bloggy explosion of people that found out about them and prayed for Stellan, and by God's grace he was born without any sign of that defect.  This past weekend, out of no where, he began having heart issues - the same issues that he had in utero, and he has been very sick and in PICU since then.  Jennifer has been updating her blog over the last several days, and I have been checking in on little Stellan in hopes of hearing updates about him as if I know him.  I have gotten emotionally attached.  Please pray for this family with me. They have 4 children, 4 and under.  I know that they are all tired and weary.  Stellan needs a miracle today!  

Technical Difficulties

Some of you may have noticed a problem with my blog this week. Today, my techy- friend was able to take a look, and I think she solved the mystery. For now, she had to remove a post from last week. When I get a chance, I will correct it and put it back where it belongs, and I will catch up on several blog entries that I have rolling around in my head right now.

Until then... I'm off to drive kids from here to there.

Asher & Ainsley's Special Day

Saturday the kids and I headed to Oklahoma to visit my sister, Sara, and her family. On Sunday, Sara and her husband Beau publicly dedicated their babies, Asher and Ainsley, to God and pledged to raise them to know and love him. I was honored to be able to be there for their special day.

Before we went to church I gave each of the kiddos a special gift to remember this day by.

I gave Ainsley a little gold cross necklace. (She loves the box that it came in more than the necklace, at this point.) I love little girls in dainty little pieces of jewelry!

Boys are a little more difficult to get sentimental gifts for, so I gave Asher a book of Bible stories and wrote a note to him inside of it.

~ Allie & Ainsley ~

~ Cooper ~

~ Asher waiting for church to start ~

(look at his cute little hands!)

~ during the dedication ~

~ Beau, Asher, Sara, & Ainsley ~

~ Asher & Ainsley with their parents and one set of their grandparents ~

~ Jack ~

Downtown Dallas Day - Part 2

This original post was causing some trouble with my entire blog. I need to work on it and replace it, but I have not found the time or inspiration to do it. So, for now... just skip ahead. You can check back later and see if a post full of photos of our afternoon in Downtown Dallas during Spring Break has returned.

Amy
4/15/2009

Downtown Dallas Day - Part 1

This week the kids are on Spring Break from school, and it has been my goal to do a fun activity with them each day.  Today, we had decided to head downtown to The Dallas World Aquarium... but when we arrived, the line to get in was literally 2 blocks long!  I quickly began to think about Plan B and decided that we would go to Reunion Tower's observation deck and a nearby park instead.  I wound my way through the streets of downtown in the general direction of Reunion Tower (which was a big step for this used-to-be-small-town-girl), and finally found a parking lot near the tower.  Thankfully, I asked the parking attendant if this was the nearest lot to Reunion Tower, and he informed me that the observation deck was still closed for renovations.  Darn!  Plan C was now in order.  I had no ideas for Plan C, so called a friend for ideas as I drove aimlessly through the streets of downtown as I looked for something to do.  I came upon an area that I had been to about 13 years ago with life-sized sculptures of about 50 longhorns and cowboys on horses and there was even a little creek with steeping stones.  I found a place to park, and the kids and I headed for the sculptures.  We hiked around, took some photos, and ended up spending most of our time on the "creek bank".  

Since we were planning on an indoor activity when we left home, I was not prepared for my kids to get dirty (I know!  Call me crazy.), so I did not have any extra clothes with me for them to change into if they, say, fell into the creek and got wet and muddy.  So, I spent a lot of time saying: 

"Be careful."  

"Don't put your feet in the water."  

"Okay - you can put your toes in the water but not your feet."  

"Don't jump from rock to rock - you're going to fall in the water!"  

"Obey me!"  

"Come sit down by me until you can obey me... I said, DON'T get wet!"  

"Yes, you can look at the minnows in the water, but you cannot try to catch one."  

"I SAID, don't try to catch one."  

"Obey me!"

"I know that you are faster than a fish, but DON'T try to catch one!"  

"Okay, you can put your feet in the water, but THAT IS IT!  Nothing else."  

"You're getting all wet!"

"Come sit down by me again.  You must obey me!"  

It didn't help when a sweet elderly man walked up and said to Cooper, "Don't fall in that water.  I bet it would go over your head.  Show me how deep that water is if you stand in it."  I wasn't sure how to handle that - and it all happened so quickly - but I secretly hoped that my saintly 3-year-old would tell the older man that he was sorry to disappoint him, but his mommy had asked him to stay dry, and he planned to obey her.... I can dream, right?  But he jumped at the opportunity to show that sweet old man just how BIG he was, and that he COULD stand up in the creek and not fall under the water.  At that, I lost it.  He was wet!  His khaki shorts were now brown with mud!  Yelling his full name in public, I told him to get out and began the process of washing him off and marching him to the car.  Between the old man and the young one I was pushed beyond "nice mommy" status.  

Unfortunately, that happened a few times today.  The losing of the status.  There is something about a kid that just will not obey quickly (especially in public) that will do that to a mommy.  Fortunately, I was able to regain my composure (over and over) and give my kids a good day doing something fun and new.  We really did have a great time, and I was proud of myself for navigating the unknown with three kiddos and finding entertaining and unusual things for us to do. 

Stay tuned - there's a lot more to this day that I will share later.  For now, I am off to the bathtub to soak this tired old mommy body.  :)  Happy  Spring Break!     

Crafty

Last night I was crafty!  I went with my sister, Emily, to her friend's house to make cards.  I have not made many cards before, but I really liked it.  It was a lot of fun to just hang out with gals, relax, follow someone's directions and not think too much on my own, and walk away with something that I think is cute - something that I made with my own 2 hands.  

I'm not sure what I will do with my cute creations.  I am not much of a card giver.  I don't even know the current price of a postage stamp.  I like the idea of sending cards, and I am glad that I have friends that will drop a "just because" card in the mail for me every once in a while, and I just did a "note card swap" that was fun... but honestly, based on my history, I doubt that I will send one of my new cards anytime soon.  But then again - maybe I will.  After my card crafting last night, I feel a little inspired... A little.

Being crafty.  I vaguely remember an Amy that was crafty.  She scrapbooked often.  Made jewelry when she could.  Loved "craft time" at MOPS.  That Amy has been MIA for a while.  It's funny how we can go through long spans of time without tapping into a part of ourselves that we like. A part that "used to be there". A part that got lost in the chaos.  Last night, I think I started unearthing a little part of me that I remember liking.  A crafty part.  

A Day At The Park

This time of year things are blooming and there are places that you can pay to go walk on beautiful paths, see lovely flowers, look at pretty fountains, and see goldfish swim under you as you stand on a bridge above them... and then there is this.  A beautiful city park that is open to the public.  While I love to go to the larger arboretums and gardens, this one is a lot closer to where I live and is a better value... it's free!  So, today I got the kids dressed in their Easter clothes, and we headed to the park with my sister and niece.  We took photos for a while then the kids changed into their play clothes and climbed, swang, and slid at the playground, and Jack even went exploring down by a creek bed and found a "fort".  The weather was wonderful for our Spring-Break-activity-of-the day.  

~ my beautiful girl ~

~ Jackson ~

I think that this in my new favorite picture of my big boy!

~ The Wild One ~

He made me work for my photos today!

~ My 3 ~

So, getting a good picture of all of my kids at the same time still proves to be very difficult, but this one turned out okay.

~ Allie ~

Really - she makes me want to cry when I look at her and realize how time is flying.

Jack won the "easiest award" today.  

He was such a good little subject and came up with most of his poses on his own.

~ Cooper On The Go ~

~ Allie ~

~ Jack ~

~ Cooper ~

~ a candid shot of the kids looking at fish ~

~ Allie Cat ~

~ My Buddy ~

~ My Baby ~

~ Jack, Claire, Cooper, & Allie ~

~ the Big Kids ~

~  little buddies ~

I love the look on Claire's face in this one.

On the way home, Allie sighed and said, "I needed Spring Break."  I think that we all did...