Sunday, July 19, 2009

SPLASH!

Two of three very excited girls on their way to the splash pad.


One girl ready to jump right in!


One girl testing the waters.


And, another girl smiling pretty for the camera.







For the first time ever, Lily actually really enjoyed the splash pad. Usually she gets cold so fast, and then she'd rather snuggle under a towel. This day, however, was an entirely different story...






Elise getting dumped on....literally!

King Daddy gets in on the fun!





A fuzzy shot, but I like its sort-of mosaic style.








Friday, July 17, 2009

Flashback Friday

Look at this couple.  See how happy they are in their first apartment, in the process of unpacking all of their things, and lying on their brand new couch?  Their brand new, white couch.   After weeks and weeks of nothing to sit on but those hard, green plastic chairs, that couch was so luxurious!   


Ten years and three kids (two that were projectile vomiters) later....

What were they thinking?



**As I was going through some old pictures out in the garage the other day, I ran into that picture my cousin took of Mark and I the day we got our couch.  In the five and a half years since the twins were born, I've wondered many times over why on earth we thought white was a good idea!  Why?!  


Thursday, July 16, 2009

Self Portraits

I am not what I would consider a creative person.  In our family, my husband is the innovative/artistic one, and I'm happy to let him have that role.  

Nevertheless, smart mommies manage to have a few tricks up their sleeve.  That's why I love Google!  Recently The Crafty Crow (one of my favorite cool idea sites) posted about this idea for Chalk Portraits.  Well, why didn't I think of that?!    

The girls love playing with chalk, but after a few minutes, they end up abandoning their doodles to dig in the dirt around our tree - ahem - or something like that.  These self portraits kept them busy for quite awhile.  

First, they laid on the ground while I traced their bodies, and then they fill in the details.

Here is Elise's... 


And, here is Elise, jumping on her chalk trampoline!  


Here is another one of Elise's....ballerina style.


Lily 


Leah


Tuesday, July 14, 2009

God's Choices

God always has a plan.  At times, I have wished He would just let us in on whatever His plan is.  All I know is that His will is always perfect.  It may not seem that way at the time, but it is.  And, no matter what, we never have to walk the road alone.  He is always with us. 

The following article from Erma Bombeck brought tears to my eyes today.  I hope you enjoy it also.

God Chooses A Mom for A Disabled Child

by Erma Bombeck

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures, and a couple by habit. This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children. 

Did you ever wonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen? Somehow I visualize God hovering over Earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to make notes in a giant ledger.

"Armstrong, Beth; son; patron saint, Matthew.

"Forrest, Marjorie; daughter; patron saint, Cecelia.

"Rudledge, Carrie; twins; patron saint.... give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."

Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles, "Give her a handicapped child."

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."

"Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a handicapped child a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel."

"But has she patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wears off, she'll handle it. I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence. She'll have to teach the child to live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."

"But, Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."

God smiles. "No matter. I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness."

The angel gasps, "Selfishness? Is that a virtue?"

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes, there is a woman I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a 'spoken word.' She will never consider a 'step' ordinary. When her child says 'Mama' for the first time, she will be present at a miracle and know it! When she describes a tree or a sunset to her blind child, she will see it as few people ever see my creations.

"I will permit her to see clearly the things I see --- ignorance, cruelty, prejudice --- and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

"And what about her patron saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in midair.

God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

I have been greatly blessed...


...with these three lovely, sweet, funny princesses...



...and, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Trouble With Angels

**Let me preface this by saying that Im working on a keyboard whos performance is less-than-stellar at the moment. A couple of keys dont work, specifically the delete key, the apostrophe key, and my right shift key. Please excuse any obvious grammatical and spatial errors. I will fix the ones I can because they drive me nuts to leave them, but there are some I can do nothing about.**

Look at this face.  Almost angelic, no?  The pretty smile, the glowing blonde hair, the sweet, innocent eyes....almost cherubic.  There is just no way this little girl could possibly ever do anything  truly naughty.  No way!  I mean, look at that face! 

Its innocence personified....or is it?

Who?   What?  How?





Now, thats a mess!
Or, what about this?  Who would have done that? (and worse, on my dining room floor) 
Surely, not this girl, not this little angel.  

Look how sweet they are together.  I love doing fun, cute things in their hair, matching french twist piggie tails with bows, matching french braids, puffy piggies (AKA Heidi hair)...yes, I love that.  

I knew this day would come, but part of me was fooled into thinking they were too old for this.  Perhaps I was hoodwinked by my Pollyanna way of thought.  Perhaps I was deceived by the lure of Summer Magic.  Five-year-olds dont cut their own hair.....  

No, they might not, but their twin sister might!

Their twin sister might scale the bathroom counter, open the medicine cabinet, reach up high, and sneak out the scissors before anyone even notices what theyre doing.  Said twin sister might just, with the guise of putting clippies in her sisters hair, she might just take the scissors instead and nearly scalp her sister.  She might. 

Moments later their helpful older sister might run to find their mommy in the laundry room and announce:  Mommy, my sisters are telling me that Leah cut Lilys hair! 

Their mommy might calmly walk out to assess the damage, remove 20 little clippies and hair bows to discover one of two nearly identical girls with her hair cut almost to the quick in the back!

Their mommy might send the perp to her bedroom, for fear of screaming like the angry mommy she is completely losing it!

The mommy may see visions of Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap.  And the mommy might just call Kids Hair for an emergency appointment.  She might.  





The mommy might get a little tearful seeing all of those lovely blonde curls get whacked off.  Yet, the mommy reminds herself that its just hair, and she cannot cry over hair.  Nope, no tears!

But....
could this sweet little face have done something like that?  Could she? 



Maybe I should have taken a lesson from this girl!  What do those eyes say to you?

 

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Over the River & Through the Woods...

...to Grandmothers house we went (forgive my typos - my keyboard is not working well right now).

Here is the cake I made for my sisters groovy 29th birthday!  I couldve made it smoother with fondant, but buttercream tastes so much better...  



Here is the car my BIL got for my niece a couple of days before, completely unbeknownst to me...






Lily was totally uninterested in taking the car for a spin, opting instead for some snuggle time with Grandpa (the one who teases us).


My niece wasnt so sure she wanted to share her new car with all of her cousins, but she handled it pretty well.  This is also the child whos first sentence was:  I dont share with anybody!  Right in the middle of Thanksgiving with all the relatives!  You gotta love that honesty! 
 



An attempt at a group shot...and not a fabulous attempt, but at least its real!


Lily was finally brave enough to take a turn.  The Dora jammies mustve empowered her or something!  

Wordless Wednesday (or not so much)

Finally, a somewhat decent shot of My Three Princesses...


AKA:  The "Flour" Girls...


Pretending the be Snow White...


Anyone notice Lily's haircut?  Well, I'll save that for another blog post.