you know you're a floridian if...

totally stole this off a friend's facebook page (hence, all the capitalizing)... but i had to share it. it cracked me up. if you're from florida, you will know what i mean.

You Know You're a Floridian if...

* You never use an umbrella because the rain will be over in five minutes.

* You think a six-foot alligator is actually pretty average.

* Every other house in your neighborhood had blue roofs in 2004-2005.

* “Down South” means Key West.

* You know that anything under a Category 3 just isn't worth waking up for.

* You know the four seasons really are: Hurricane season, love bug season, tourist season and summer.

* Your winter coat is made of denim.

* You can tell the difference between fire ant bites and mosquito bites.

* Anything under 70 degrees is chilly.

* You've driven through Yeehaw Junction.

* You know that no other grocery store can compare to Publix.

* You recognize Miami-Dade as 'Northern Cuba'.

* You dread love bug season.

* You've worn shorts and used the A/C on Christmas and New Years.

* You are on a first name basis with the Hurricane list. They aren't Hurricane Charley or Hurricane Frances. You know them as Andrew, Charley , Frances , Ivan, Jeanne & Wilma...Irene...Cheryl...Rita Mary... Alison.

* You know what a snowbird is and when they'll leave.

* Flip-flops are everyday wear. Shoes are for business meetings and church, but you HAVE worn flip flops to church before.

* You have a drawer full of bathing suits, and one sweatshirt.

* You get annoyed at the tourists who feed seagulls.

* A mountain is any hill 100 feet above sea level.

* You've hosted a hurricane party.

* You can pronounce Okeechobee, Kissimmee , Withlacoochee , Thonotosassa and Micanopy.

* You understand why it's better to have a friend with a boat, than have a boat yourself.

* You were 25 when you first met someone who couldn't swim.

* A good parking place has nothing to do with distance from the store, but everything to do with shade.

have a great weekend! looking forward to another floridian (translate: sweltering) soccer game tomorrow!

future NRA members!

cinderella and sleeping beauty may put on a delicate front... but what most people don't know is...

they're packin'!


you'd better watch that little girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead. when she is good, she is very very good... but... (well, you know the rest.)


ethan couldn't let the girls have all the fun!


bring on the wicked stepmother!

how many pictures does it take....

this picture from my father's day post is a sweet one, huh!? so natural, so peaceful... my two oldest cherubs in the lap of their daddy... quietly listening as he reads the well-penned words of c.s. lewis' classic story.

um, no. my little stinker of a three-year-old is not really into prince caspian. that's putting it mildly. she listened to most of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, but the second book just doesn't do it for her. we are working on sitting quietly and listening for a little while, but it's definitely a work in progress! so i couldn't help but share these outtakes from our little prince caspian photo shoot...

dancing like the fauns on the dancing lawn...



"ethan, you gotta little somethin' in your nose..."



"daddy is a super reader!"



caroline, don't look at me!



"yes ma'am!" (you can see that by this point, ethan is not amused!)



aaaaaand we eventually got some keepers! i think daddy will have to reread this chapter to ethan. without little miss distraction doing her thing!

he is risen!

Christ the Lord is risen today! hallelujah!


happy easter! our easter weekend got off to a wonderful start the other night when we had the pleasure of attending a local church's passion play. the whole production was not only impressive but incredibly worshipful! i found myself tearing up several times as the anthems of praise rang out from the stage. i also couldn't help but sing along to the familiar songs! it was obvious that ethan was really taking it all in-- he and his buddy joseph were as still as statues through the entire (over two hour) performance. afterwards, he told us, "i don't know what i'm going to tell gram!" (who was home with sleeping amelia) "it was too much!" caroline, on the other hand, was quite the little squirmer. i guess it was too long for her, though i really expected her to be wowed by the show. her favorite parts were "the kids, the soldiers, and the angels". caroline's other favorite part was getting to stand on the back the seat in front of her during the ascension of Jesus.... it was truly an amazing finale, much more so in person than i could capture in this picture.


as Jesus rose into the air, everyone jumped to their feet and applauded... praise the Lord! Jesus is risen and is seated at the right hand of God! caroline was getting heavy, so i told her to stand on the back of the seat. and my daughter in all her egocentrism exclaimed, "look at me! look at me!" everyone else is focused on the living Jesus in a long golden robe, surrounded by singing angels... and i hear, "look at me! look at me!" just another reminder of how much we need Jesus. :)

as our easter day is filled with the busy-ness of dresses and church and lunch and time with family...may we be like these followers of Jesus, who could not help but celebrate their risen Savior!


ethan's been walking around the house this weekend singing bits and pieces of "Christ the Lord is risen today", and it took me back a couple of years to when i recorded a little two year old boy singing his favorite easter hymns... take a peek at little ethan singing about our risen Lord!

have a wonderful easter, everyone!

stumped....

ethan is quite into talking about things adding together these days. daddy told him that 5+5=10, so he loves that one. well, tonite at dinner, the little thinker announced, "a spoon and a bowl make 10!"

my brilliant response was, "huh!?" can anybody figure out this little riddle!?

briefly checking in

i SO want to be blogging about our wonderful christmas weekend!!!!! but instead, i have spent the last three days wading through the sea of new toys, new clothes, gift bags, and old laundry that are taking over the house. and in the evenings, i've been cramming in a bunch of online CEU courses to meet my SLP license requirements...due tomorrow night. ain't nothin' like waiting 'till the last minute, huh!? believe me, i'd much rather be blogging. oh yeah, and i've also been a little busy with these colored little blocks. every single day. with one very, very happy and occupied little boy.


this was definitely the year of the LEGO.

we did have a marvelous christmas, and i can't wait to share it with you.

monkey see, monkey do

roleplay: the acting out or performance of a particular role in accordance with the perceived expectations of society with regard to a person's behavior in a particular context

i don't know where on earth my kids learned to do this:


i love that ethan felt the need to scoot back to capture more of his sisters in the nonexistent frame.


amelia was relieved that caroline released the death-grip. the loving death-grip, of course.


caroline is saying, "ethan, i'm losing the midtones on amelia's face. i think we need to shoot at f4.0 for this low light scene."


look at my obedient baby... she is looking at the camera in every shot. :) we've got her trained already! ha!

(and i'm sorry to say that no f stop could compensate for my childrens' wardrobe in these pictures! it was obviously a pajama day around the house!) :)

rollin' rollin' rollin'

amelia finally rolled over today! i know most kids roll over before four months, but most kids' mommies probably remember to put them on their tummies more than this mommy does. it's just not near the top of my to-do list these days... anyway, amelia has been liking tummy time more and more lately, and yesterday she and i had a little 2 minute rolling over training camp. just for fun. i rolled her over and back and showed her how much fun it was. apparently, she is a kinesthetic learner because that is all it took. i put her on her tummy again this afternoon to watch me sort laundry, and in less than a minute, she was on her back. she looked stunned at first and then began to laugh and laugh. she smiled from ear to ear as if to say, "mom! i did it!" she seemed so proud of herself! i rolled her back over, and she kept laughing and laughing. and she almost immediately rolled the other way! so at that point, i had to go get the camera. :) the way she is laughing at the beginning of the video is not much compared to her initial reaction. and please, please, please disregard my chaotic cinematography and silly mommy voice. i was trying to flip her back over without stopping the video, and as for the silly voice... well, it comes with the job.

she rolled over several times after i stopped recording, and i could not wait for the kids to wake up from their nap and for brian to get home to see her. after the kids got up from their nap, i told them that amelia had a surprise for them. i sat them down on either side of her, and we waited. they cheered her on, and she did nothing. she just laid there, not even trying to flip over. it was kind of funny. ethan & caroline had no idea what they were waiting for, but they still kept saying, "c'mon, amelia! you can do it!" after a few minutes, ethan and i had the following conversation:

i asked, "what do you think amelia can do?"
ethan replied, "i think she can crawl."
"nope" i said. "she can't crawl yet."
"i think she's trying to fly."
"mmmm, no, honey. she can't fly."

and without missing a beat, ethan pointed at amelia and told her, "nothing is impossible with God!"

well, if faith can move mountains... :)

a wretch like me

ethan loves his sunday school class. his wonderful teacher, deb, is a faithful reader of tenlittletoes, and she does such a great job with all boys in her class! their sunday school curriculum has taken 3 weeks to flesh out the basic story of easter. they are hitting the key points that Jesus died on the cross, he rose from the gravy (according to ethan), and He went up to Heaven (as you can see in this picture of his last take-home paper). well, last week, deb was reviewing what they learned the week before...


deb: Jesus died on the cross for sinners. who in here is a sinner?
(ethan SHOOTS his hand up.)
ethan: i am! i'm a sinner!
timothy: i'm not a sinner.
ethan: oh, YES you are!

so we have some work to do on "speaking the truth in love"...but i think he has a pretty good handle on "there is no one who does good, not even one"!

sorry, son, mommy's already taken...

ethan tonite at dinner, commenting on the very plastic flowers decorating our table at the local pizza place...

"ooh, those are pretty flowers. mommy, when i marry you, maybe we can have those flowers."

i love that boy!

he read my mind!

a little laugh for all you fellow chick-fil-a fans! though i completely support the fact that they're closed on sundays, i will say that there have been many sundays that we have had a hankerin' for some waffle fries!



have a great week! :)

how we're doing these days

i think i've sat down to finish this post about 5 times. but it doesn't cry or whine or even politely ask, "mommy, please come play with me", so it has taken the back burner. and i think that's exactly how it should be. :) my 3 squeaky wheels are now in bed, so i'm gonna give this post one more shot!

friday, march 6
amelia is doing so wonderfully these days. she is back on a great routine during the day, so we are praising the Lord for that. and for the last couple of nights, she has stretched out the time between her feedings to about 5 hours! so this mom is beginning to feel slightly rested again! hallelujah!

last week, i was just about to write a post titled, "mama said there'd be days like this", inspired by my mother singing that song after i'd called her who knows how many times in one day to lament about something... the kids fighting, amelia waking up just as i was going to lay down for a nap, the kids fighting, ethan peeing all over the bathroom floor 10 minutes before i needed to leave the house, the piles of laundry taking over the house, my kitchen floor that could not even tell you the last time it has been mopped... but because it was "one of those days", there was never time to write a post about it! and i was exhausted. i'd been waiting for amelia to go a little longer between feedings at night, and it just wasn't happening. i knew it would come, but i really just needed to sleep. in bible study last thursday (where i was trying to go when ethan peed everywhere!), one sweet lady commented, "you look tired!", and i just cried, "i AM tired!" after some tears, i really felt much better! it's amazing what one good little cry will do for you. :) those ladies really must have been praying for me for the next few days because i had a very restful weekend.

this week started off with my incredible sister-in-law taking ethan and caroline for the day! THANK YOU KRISTIE! the plan was for me to get to sleep all day, but i felt so rested by monday that i actually got some things done around the house and just enjoyed a quiet house. it's funny how easy it seemed to take care of one child... though i don't remember things feeling that easy in 2005! by lunch, my quiet house seemed a little too quiet, though. it's amazing how quickly i start to miss those kiddos. here's my crazy bunch this morning... (ethan and caroline love watching amelia under her baby gym that we borrowed from cousin karina.)


so i'm getting some rest, and i even got my kitchen floor mopped yesterday during the kids' naptime! i really can't remember the last time i gave it a good mopping. now i will say that i have one of those floors that "hides dirt", but apparently, i can't hide it from everyone. when ethan walked into the kitchen after naptime, he immediately noticed that the floor was clean. he ran to hug me and exclaimed, "mommy! did you mop the floor?! (gasp.) mommy, thank you for mopping the kitchen floor!" and he then ran to tell brian the good news. so my three year old son's biggest joy of the day was a clean kitchen floor. wow. i felt like a really bad mom at that moment. for so many reasons. but anyway, my floor is clean. and my son is happy. and his wife better know how to use the mop! :) haha.

wednesday, march 11 (but i kept thinking it was tuesday)
ok, tonite i'm really laughing at where i left off on this post last week because this morning, ethan spilled his entire bowl of cheerios and milk onto my (still somewhat) clean kitchen floor. grrrrrrrrrrrrr. but it's just a floor. and it was just an accident. and i love that boy more than my floor (well, i'd surely hope so, given the evidence of how i take care of that floor!).

so how are we doing 5 days later? well, i know why i didn't get to finish this post last weekend. because late friday night/saturday morning, amelia woke up every ninety minutes. so much for the great routine, huh?! she did ok the rest of the weekend, but by tuesday night/yesterday morning, it was obvious that she was 100% in the middle of a growth spurt. once i realized that, it made a lot of sense, and i just fed fed fed that baby girl yesterday. last night she did great, and today she was only awake to eat (another post-growth spurt indicator). i am just hoping that we are about to turn the sleeping-through-the-night corner. that would really be a wonderful thing. but as i've said before, i canNOT complain. amelia is such a good baby. she is so content when she is awake, and she is so tolerant of The Siblings. she usually does very well going to sleep on her own in her bed, and we are just incredibly blessed. but sleeping through the night would just be icing on the cute little amelia cake.

we've been loving the wonderful weather. i've even been taking the kids outside regularly! ethan and caroline are getting so good at swinging on the "big kid swings" on our swingset. we're working on pumping their legs, so hopefully, by the end of the summer, they will be self-sufficient! (just in time for amelia to want to be pushed in a baby swing!) i found another infant swing just like ours at a consignment shop, so i can keep one in the shed and easily bring it out if amelia is awake when we go outside. she loves to look around and listen to all the outside noises. i just have to be super vigilant when ethan decides to play t-ball. or soccer. or paper airplanes. here are the girls showing off the swing...


oh, speaking of the consignment shop, i have a funny story. our favorite little children's consignment shop is on our way to church, so we pass it a few times a week. evvvvverytime we pass it, ethan (and now caroline) says, "there's where we got our trains!" (super huge bag of wooden trains and track for $10!!!) and now it's also "there's where we got amelia's baby swing!" (they also do the same thing for "where we got our bunk beds" and other key locations around town.) anyway, the day i bought the swing, i also found some very nice stride rite sandals for ethan for dirt cheap. so brian's mom was commenting on them the other day and asked where he got them. ethan responded right back with the name of the store. i was kind of surprised that he actually knew the name of the store vs. "the place where we got amelia's swing and my trains". i said to ethan, "i didn't know you knew (name of store)!" and without missing a beat, he said, "i know (name of store), i know church, and i know Jesus!" (in no particular order, of course...)

i'll close with a 6 week shot of amelia. i guess i'm just gonna be a week behind on pictures-- she turns 7 weeks old tomorrow. she looks as if she's brushing up on her gang signs... in her smocked get-up. ha!


we continue to have much for which we should be thankful. God is so good, and if i end up saying that on every post, well... it still would not be enough. God uses these three little blessings everyday to draw me closer to Him and to remind me of His grace. have a wonderful weekend counting your blessings!

you gotta write these things down...

ethan and caroline have come down with a little cold, and we're doing our best to keep the germs away from baby amelia. (and praise the Lord for breastfeeding and the wonderful immunity it provides!!) well, tuesday night, ethan woke up at about 3 AM complaining of a hurting ear. after doing everything i could to try to get him to go back to sleep, he ended up in our bed. (i must also mention that amelia had woken up to eat at 1:30, so i had just gotten back to sleep in the last hour when ethan woke up.) anyone who has shared a queen sized bed with a restless, sick child knows how the rest of our night went. i really don't think ethan slept at all that night. i know i didn't. well, brian's alarm went off around 6:45, and as he crawled out of bed on very little sleep, ethan sprang up in the bed for about the 600th time. i told him, "ethan, you have got to go to sleep if you want your body to feel better..." and he adamantly proclaimed,

"but mom! it is so hard to go to sleep with people in the bed!"

well, what do you say after that?! :) after ethan was given more room in our bed, he happily slept till 11:00 yesterday and is thankfully feeling much better.


in cute baby news, amelia had her newborn checkup yesterday. she weighs 9 lbs, 9 oz and is 21 1/2 inches long. so her weight is in the 50th-75th percentile and her height is in the 90th percentile. the 90th! it will be interesting to see if she ends up being our tall child. (it wouldn't take much!) and i'm very hopeful that her feet will stay long and skinny so she can fit into all those shoes that caroline's chubby feet would not. (insert imagery of cinderella's wicked step-sisters trying to cram their feet into the glass slipper...)

i know i should have tons of pictures to post of our daily life, but i honestly haven't really taken that many these days. i know, you don't believe me. but it's true. amelia is still sleeping so much of the day (to quote ethan, "she's going to sleep again?!"), and she is doing so well falling asleep on her own in her bed. so most of the day, she's not available for photo shoots. :) she is starting to look around and brighten up those eyes when we talk to her, and i've even seen her sneak a couple of adorable smiles. so maybe i can catch a smile on camera soon. the kids are doing so well dealing with having to wait for my help if i'm busy with amelia. i was thinking today that one of the benefits to having a small house is that even if i'm in another room changing a diaper or feeding amelia, the kids don't feel too far away from me. i can usually still deal with a fight breaking out or a request for something without having to stop what i'm doing since there's no "other side of the house". :) of course, there's some drawbacks to having a small house, a sleeping newborn, and two very vocal children... but that's what white noise machines are for!

and the topic of the month seems to be "who does amelia look like?" the general consensus is that she looks like ethan, but every now and then, she will look like caroline. so the other day, my mom and i were in the living room with the kids, and i said to my mom, "see? right now, she kind of looks like caroline." and i followed that comment with, "no, she looks like amelia!" and without missing a beat, ethan replied, "that's because she IS amelia!" thanks for clearing that one up, son!

here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks at home...

ethan and caroline greet amelia with great excitement every morning. here they are on a lazy saturday morning in our bed. the bed with all the people in it. :)


amelia made her church debut at 10 days old. it was so wonderful to introduce her to everyone who had been eagerly waiting her arrival! even if half of those people just talked to her instead of me. :) ha! here we are at church on amelia's first sunday.


the kiddos have their favorite things they like to do with amelia... ethan loves to rub her head, and caroline insists on pushing her swing (that is already swinging, of course). here are the kids at their posts!



i wish i had a camera on my forehead to capture those wonderfully sweet moments with just me and amelia. the way she sleeps on my chest after a good meal is forever ingrained in my mind--her chin resting on her little folded arms... and those precious looks she gives me right before i lay her in her crib, as if to say, "nighty night, mommy!" well, i obviously don't have a camera attached to my forehead, but here is one shot of "my view" of amelia. oh, i could just eat her!


and who can resist a baby sleeping on her daddy?!?!?!


here are a couple of pictures from amelia's first bath at home a couple of weeks ago. the kids were a little confused when we didn't just plop her in the bathtub!



and here's our sweet baby girl showing off the adorable hat and blanket that aunt kristie made for her...



we continue to praise God for His goodness in our life. these children are a blessing, even when they do hog our bed. :) have a great weekend, y'all!

if you can't say somethin' nice...

fellow mommas, please tell me if you can top this one...(kristi, i'm counting on you!)

i ran to the grocery on saturday to just pick up a few things. i saw an old friend as i was walking in the store, so we stopped and chatted for a few minutes. i noticed this lady waiting to talk to me, and as i said good-bye to my friend, the lady approached me. and this is what the complete stranger waited to say to me...

you couldn't hide behind a tree if you wanted to, could ya!?

um, well, if it was a big tree!

let everything that has breath...

ethan is now old enough to go to sunday school, and he LOVES it. every week, he comes out with a slew of papers and a grand ole' bible story to share with us... whether it's a big fish that spit jonah out on the sidewalk or david who put one stone in his ceiling to kill goliath (did you catch that one??), he is full of excitement about the history of God's people. he also has a memory verse, which has been the same one for the last several weeks:

psalm 150:6- let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. praise the Lord.

he memorized it quickly, and we've been using it at every applicational angle possible... one evening, he asked what the crickets (or frogs?) were saying as their songs filled our trees... they are chirping praise to the Lord! we are also using this verse to remind him that you cannot praise the Lord and complain/fuss/whine at the same time. (james 3:9-12) ethan was surprised by the new angle on my very frequently used "do everything without complaining or arguing" (phil 2:14)! this is a good reminder for mommy as well. :)

anyway, here's a little video of ethan saying his memory verse, plus some other demographic information. :) i was actually trying to get him to tell some bible stories, but that was a huge flop!! haha! he liked bouncing on caroline's bed too much!

watch till the end to get ethan's predicition on the gender of baby #3 (which we find out on september 10 at 7 am!!)... he has always insisted it is a boy, so i was quite surprised by his answer. he never ceases to make his momma laugh!


have a great week!

this girl loves her glasses

and this momma loves her girl!

interview with a 3 year old

i've been keeping a running list of funny things that ethan has said lately. i have forgotten several, but here's the ones i managed to jot down before they escaped my mind. in a week, i'll probably have another list this long! ethan, like most 3 year olds, keeps his family chuckling! one minute, something comes out of ethan's mouth that makes him sound so old and grown up, and then the next minute, he says...well, some things like these! :)



one day after breakfast, we were talking about heaven. thinking about the verse in matthew 6 that he knows, ethan commented, "there are treasures there!" i went on to talk about how we can't wait to be in heaven, and we will worship God forever there. ethan said he wanted to go to heaven, too, but "let's get dressed first."

anytime we see a drain in the floor, like in public restrooms, ethan exclaims, "nemo lives in there!"

ethan has been answering questions in complete sentences, such as "yes i am", "no i do not", and "no i ant" (no i am not). it sounds like i have sent my son off to boarding school, but really, we just require "yes" instead of "yeah". he's done the complete sentences thing on his own.

a very common one these days- "i am so exciting about _____"

one day, we were discussing how daddy works 5 days a week, and then he is home two days. i said, "saturday is a family day, and where do we go on sunday?"
"africa!"

anytime we see a man with a farmer's type hat on (like at sam's and the grocery store the other day), ethan yells at full volume, "there's an old macdonald had a farm man, mommy!"

if ethan says he's cold, i'll tell him that i'm going to go kick the air up. i can only imagine what he is picturing in his head because he always says, "kick up the air with your feet!"

after a yucky rainy day the other day, the next day was full of blue skies with a few clouds. as we were driving, i commented, "it's a beautiful day, isn't it?" ethan replied, "yes! there's room for the clouds!"

this first trimester i've been taking naps every day when the kids take their naps. as i put ethan in bed, he usually says, "have a great nap, mommy!" well, one day last week, he said, "have a great day sleeping, mommy." oh, if only! a whole day to sleep! :)

today, caroline did something to disobey, and she was upset after being disciplined. i was holding her, and ethan immediately brought her little pink Bible to her. in the most caring, brotherly voice, he said, "caroline, here's your Bible to read to obey."

that sounds like a good place to end this post. :) check back soon for 4th of july pictures!

say it like it is, son

last night after dinner, we showed the kids the video of my sonogram, and ethan was more than thrilled to see the baby's heartbeep... again and again and again! i think he actually understood that the chicken nugget-shaped black mass on the screen was the baby in my tummy! i wanted to show him how it would end up looking more like an actual baby as it grew, so i whipped out caroline's 20 week sonogram video. we hadn't watched it since the day we brought that video home 2 years ago--how neat to watch it with that little baby sitting on the couch with us exclaiming, "baby! baby!" ethan loved telling her, "that's YOU, caroline! that's YOU!"

anyway, after we watched her heartbeep several times, i reminded ethan that this baby would get bigger and bigger and that mommy would also get bigger and bigger. as i put my arms out to show him how big i would get, he replied so matter-of-factly....

yes. fat.

from the mouths of babes....

tonite, ethan was spending time with brian on the couch while i put caroline to bed. when i came back in the living room, ethan sat up and exclaimed...

i am listening to daddy's heartbeep!

a "muver's day" giggle

ethan delighted in wishing me and all the ladies he saw yesterday a "happy muver's day!" over and over. he even walked up to kristie's mom unprompted and offered her the sweet greeting, and i think it made her day. :)

well, after a wonderful but long sunday, we were getting the kids ready for bed. brian and ethan were in the bathroom, and i was changing caroline's clothes. the house was silent for just a moment, and then coming from the potty, i heard...



"ha-ha-happy muver's day, daddy!"

i'm still giggling about it...

update: monday, 10 pm
i must add that tonite as we arrived at bible study, one of our wonderful elders, "uncle jay", came to the van to get ethan out of the car for me... as soon ethan saw him, he perked up and told him "happy muver's day!" if jay's love for that little boy could grow any greater, it did at that very moment!