Perspective

Awesome quote of the day from Charli as we are riding in the car.....

"Mom, sometimes I see neighborhoods that have big gates in front of them. The gates shut behind cars to not let other cars in. We are lucky to not have those gates."

HA HA! So funny the perspective of a little girl. It seems gated communities aren't all they are cracked up to be to her. :)

I finally....

joined the ranks of the bazillions of facebookers. I now have a facebook. I have had many reasons not to in the past, but now I am in with all you people! Glad to do it and it will be FUN!

Splashing in the puddles

Spontaneity is not my forte. However, I have been working on saying yes to my girls more when I can because I have to say no so much. So today we were supposed to go swimming. Charli was looking out the front door at the rain and says very sadly, "Ohhh, I wish I could at least go jump in the puddles." To her surprise, I say, "Okay, lets go get your rain boots!" She was super excited. So we took a walk around the block and splashed in some puddles.

In the Meantime

Since I haven't been posting much, a lot has happened this summer with the girls. Most notably, Chloe has become very interested in the potty. She has now pooped and peed in her little "pooh potty." She tells people, "I peed in my pooh potty." It thoroughly confuses them because throwing the word "pooh" in that sentence throws them off. She isn't ready for structured potty training, but every day she will randomly decide she wants to go to the potty and then does. She usually does while I am not watching and then comes to tell me. I am happy for her and for me. My days of diapers are coming near an end. I do not want her to grow up.....Justin and I wish we could push pause on her little life, but being rid of diapers is appealing. :) She has become soooo funny these days. She is more fun and giggles than screams now and I love it. She is constantly a laugh for us. Yesterday we were driving back from OKC and she was singing as loud as she could while Charli was trying to watch a movie. So I kept asking her to sing quieter. She did not. I was looking at her in the rear view mirror, giving her the mom "eye." She would look at me, smile as big as she could with all those teeth, point at me in the mirror and say, "I SEE YOUUUUUU!" I was totally giving her the mean look and she kept giggling and saying that to me. I could not keep from cracking a smile and she kept singing. Occasionally, she would give me the stink eye back in the mirror and giggle. I've said before, I am in trouble. That is totally her daddy in her.

My favorite thing she is saying lately is.....
-Woot! Woot Mama! (Look, Look Mama!)

And Charli has learned to swim. She has amazed me this summer. This has been the summer of bravery for her. She has previously been very shy, cautious, and not adventurous at all. While she is still somewhat shy, she has really come out of her shell on the adventuresome side. She was a daredevil at Disneyworld riding all the big rides. Now with the swimming she has completely changed. She has always hated water in her eyes and has been terrified of going under the water. After one lesson, she was going under water and opening her eyes. I thought that was fantastic, but now she even dives under the water to retrieve objects and swims under water. I am so proud. I am proud she can swim, but even prouder she has conquered her fear and loves being under water. She is really growing up. I do love watching her learn and change into this precious little girl. It does pull at my heart seeing that tiny baby Charli is definitely gone. I do love the age four. There is a big jump in growing up from age three to four. And I know five is just around the corner. She starts Pre-K in just a couple weeks. We got the backpack to prove it. She put it on and walked around the house with it on and my heart just melted. She looked like a second grader! She just looked so grown up and was sooo happy to look like a big kid. Ugh!

We are trying to make the most of the rest of the summer. Hope you do too!

It Comes in Waves....

That has been the theme of this week. This has been one of the hardest and saddest weeks I have ever experienced. I haven't blogged because there have been no words to express the grief of this week. Some friends of ours lost their baby boy this week. His name was Alex. He was born on 7/21 at 2 lbs, 13 oz and almost 16 inches. Justin officiated the funeral yesterday. There were pictures of him at the funeral....his little feet, his little hands, his face. There was a tiny casket. It was a terrible, terrible day.....yet good at the same time. It was a good service, a good time to see friends and family. It was good to refocus on the goodness of God. The sadness of this event comes in waves.


As we finished the funeral and headed to the funeral dinner, Justin got a call from his dad. His mom just got out of surgery and it was not good news. It was hardly the day to get the second wave of bad news. There are many details, but the gist of the news is that her intestines are fused together in a big ball and there is nothing they can do to help her at this moment. She is being admitted to a skilled nursing facility sometime in the near future for about 3 months, and put on a feeding tube to see if the situation will resolve itself somewhat. We went to the hospital to see her after the funeral dinner and we were told she would know the prognosis the next morning. Someone said again.....it will hit her in waves. So this week, grief has been coming in waves. We are doing okay and trusting that God is in control even when it doesn't seem like it. This week has been harder on Justin than on myself for several reasons. He spent a significant amount of his week at the hospital with our friends. He had to watch things happen that no one should watch happen and bury his best friends' baby. Now its time to wait and pray for his mom.

Thanks to all of you who have called and especially those of you that have helped out with our children. We appreciate your support.

The Highlights

We spent the last week (a full 7 days) in Florida for our annual youth camp. This is our 7th year to do the youth camp and the first time I took both girls. I didn't get many good pictures of the scenery (it is BEAUTIFUL there) because I didn't take the camera into the sand and water much. But here are the highlights.....

-We spent the fourth of July in Florida with a few special friends and family setting up camp. Uncle Daryl took the girls on a LONG hike through the golf course that our condo was on to find golf balls. Charli and I made star shaped rice krispy treats. And we sat out on our deck on the water/golf course to try to catch some fireworks. It was nice..

-We also got to hang out with Justin's sister and her family at camp. They bring their youth group to camp every year. Gabby got to spend the night in our condo once and we ate at Mimi's condo once as well. We saw them at service and rode around with Mimi in her golf cart. I didn't get any pics.....Stephanie (Mimi) did, but I never brought my camera. Always forgot.

-Had a couple milestones for the girls. Chloe got to sleep out of a crib for the first time ever and sleep with Charli for the first time! They were so cute all huddled together in bed. The first night I thought we would have trouble because Chloe would not let Charli sleep. But after they exhausted themselves everyday in the sun (and by Chloe waking us all up at 5:45 am everyday) they fell asleep just fine. It was so sweet for them and they loved it. We also rode around the resort together in a rental car. It was the first time they didn't have car seats. They were free in the car. Chloe usually ended up in my lap driving. She reallllly drove too. She pulls that steering wheel hard! Now when we walk to the car, she says "I Drive?" Nope, not anymore. One major highlight for Charli was that Aunt Jan made her homemade blueberry pancakes with fresh blueberries every morning. Jan and Daryl made that all that for our campers and staff everyday and Charli loved her special pancakes. That's what she gets when she goes to breakfast with Justin and its her favorite!

We didn't participate much in the camp because we had to do what the girls needed to do (nap, bedtime, etc...) We did get to go to camp games once and go to the beginning of service every night. Charli got to worship with the big kids and she loved it. Shannon and the band sang songs she knew and she really clapped and sang. It was really special. She said once that she can't wait to go to youth camp when she's big so she can worship like that. She's really lucky to be exposed that. We mostly did family stuff. Every morning at the bayside pool they had preschool activities: sandollar and tile painting, cookie decorating, limbo, etc... Here's the girls decorating their cookies. I got one picture of us on our way to the beach. It was Chloe's first trip to the beach and she loved the sand and water. Both of the girls did. Tired them out quickly, but they liked it.

The camp went great...everything about it! Thanks for your prayers.