where did may go?!

wow. is may over already? whew. i am so glad! anytime i went to write down one more thing on my calendar for may, i longingly flipped the page over to gaze upon the emptiness of june. at that point, the only events on my calendar for june were nursery duty, father's day, and my birthday. it was going to be a nice, quiet month once we got there. i could make it... i could make it. even memorial day weekend was supposed to be an empty one, yet we ended up taking a (wonderful) last-minute day trip to see family. may just couldn't go out on a quiet note, could it?!

as busy as may has been, it has been a great month.

remember mother's day? yeah, it's been awhile, i know. we had a nice quiet lunch at a beachside restaurant with my mom. 5 seconds after i half-jokingly said, "i'm gonna sit at the other end of the table from the highchair for mother's day", amelia scaled the highchair and flipped backwards onto the tile floor. high ceiling+tile floor+hurt child= very very loud screaming. but after a few minutes and several packets of captain's wafer crackers, she was ok. before lunch, we attempted some precious, mother-child pictures. thanks to God's amazing creations of the wind and the sun, this was about the best we got.


we went back inside before the kids burst with excitement about my gift. ethan found an idea in an arts and crafts book earlier this year, and he'd bookmarked the page with great anticipation for mother's day. my mom helped the kids with their little project... and when they woke up mother's day morning, they were giddy. it was so so cute. here they are watching me open my present.


their gift was a little box with paper folded accordion-style. the kids decorated the sides of the box.... caroline's art was her signature rainbow-colored designs, while ethan's work was a couple of quickly drawn pencil depictions of the two of us. on the paper, ethan had written, "happy mother's day" and their names. it was so simple and so small... yet so big and important to them! which made it the perfect mother's day gift.


brian bought some beautiful lilies for mother's day, and they found a perfect home in front of my kitchen windows. do you love my vase?! nope, i haven't unpacked that box yet!!


may also marked the end of soccer season. which marks the return of our evenings and saturdays! yyyaaaaaaaaaaay! the kids had fun this season, and i hope to get some pictures on here soon of the season. hope you like orange. it's a lot of orange.

and since the summer is so wonderfully uneventful (mostly, anyway), we may just get this house in order. i can't believe i have hardly taken any pictures of the "during". i documented the "before", and i look forward to getting to the "after", Lord-willing! but we are most definitely living in the "during" at the moment. i won't lie... there were days those first couple of weeks when i felt like i was moving backwards in terms of progress! unpacking a house + a two-year-old roaming do not make for a pretty combination. but God is good, and i'm discovering missing things in random boxes on a daily basis. it only took us a few weeks to find those bunk bed bolts!

i need to snap some pictures of the "during". but for now, i will leave you with one shot of my kitchen windows. not the prettiest windows, but these bad boys let in some nice natural light! and they overlook a beautiful yard next door and the quiet tree-lined alley. it is my favorite view of all.


this kitchen needs some work, but i am happy to report that we no longer have the dorm fridge sitting on our counter! we are loving our new fridge... and i wish i could say the same for that vintage dishwasher!!

despite the full calendar this past month, we were still able to squeeze in some "slow" family times... like walks and bike rides around our new neighborhood. loving, loving, loving it. here are the kids as we were ready to go to our friend natalie's baseball game just down the street.


things with the short sale seem to be progressing. yesterday, the bank requested a copy of our escrow check ASAP, so that was a really good sign that things are moving right along. with every box that i unpack, i am praising God for our daily bread... and i'm praying that He will continue to guide us and keep us until we know whether this house will truly be ours. getting settled without getting attached is a real challenge. but by His grace and with His strength, we are taking it one month at a time! and this month looks to be a great one. :)

saying good-bye

dear first house,

thank you for the last seven years. we sure did cram a lot of firsts, a lot of memories, and a whole lot of stuff into your 1170 square feet. i moved in as an engaged girl... you were such a quiet house when it was just me! a couple of months later, brian and i got married, and he moved all his stuff into your garage. (a joke between me and brian-- he always said i made him put everything out there!) and less than 5 years later, we'd brought three sweet babies home through your front door.


amelia coming home from the hospital- january 2009
your quiet days were history! the pitter patter of little feet turned into the stampede of toddlers racing down the hallway or zooming matchbox cars from the living room into the kitchen.


your days with us were full of joyful noises.... laughter as ethan and caroline were tickled silly by daddy.... music as the children danced day after day in the living room... clanging of pots and pans as they all cooked up lots of meals and mischief in their play kitchen... and squeals as daddy would walk in the door each evening.

when we bought you, you were covered with white walls and old brown shag carpet. your front yard boasted two big beautiful oak trees and immaculate green grass.


june 2004
we painted your walls, replaced your floors, and killed your grass. but your trees were still beautiful! in the last seven years, those freshly painted walls have been written on and banged into.... that new carpet has been peed on, pooped on, and thrown up on... and those nice wood floors have taken the punishment of die cast airplane wings over and over and over. just a few days before closing, your living room wall met with a wooden cupcake, and the result was a nice chunk of wall on the floor. you were definitely lived in.


on any given day in your living room
i really imagined that we would stay with you forever... perhaps closing in the garage and adding on. but those little feet that once pitter-pattered down the hallway were now on the pedals of a bike. and you, our dear sweet first house, just have too many cars zooming past you every hour. our children had been content to play and ride in your driveway, but they will soon be old enough to venture out... riding down the street on their own, knowing how far they can go and what will happen to them if they go any further. we loved you, little house on the busy street... but i want my kids to venture out. and your street just wouldn't let them.

so we decided to get you ready to sell. let me rephrase that... i decided that we needed to sell you. i am a microwave. i pop an idea in... hit express cook... and a minute later-- you've got dinner. brian is a crockpot. you put a nice idea in there on low, and it cooks s-l-o-w-l-y. you may get a tender, juicy roast in the end, but you've gotta wait for it. (meanwhile, i'm snacking on my rubbery-microwave-cooked chicken nuggets.) so it was november 1, and i up and declared that we needed to move to a quieter neighborhood. (and i won't lie.... i wanted a little more square footage.) i was ready to rock-n-roll by the end of the week, and my dear mr. crockpot just needed to sit on low. for a couple of months. never mind there was the matter of caroline's birthday, homeschooling, thanksgiving, disney, christmas, the throw-ups, amelia's birthday and um, life. that is all beside the point. oh, yes, and then there was the list.

we were not finished making you our house, you see. the kitchen was smack in the middle of its update, and there was a long list of "should-do's" that quickly turned into "must-do's". we hadn't made time in seven years to finish these projects.... how would we get them done in time to list our house before the microwave exploded?! with the help of our friend david (or "misty", as caroline affectionately and randomly named him!), that's how. he tackled all of our projects, and before we knew it, our list looked like this


and my kitchen cabinets finally looked like this.


the best part is that david let us pay him in coffee and chick-fil-a! (just kidding!) :) seriously though.... david does great work if you need anything done at your house! i can hook you up!!

by mid-february, our realtor was calling weekly to see if we were ready to list yet. no, i said. but we're almost there. while misty was painting and fixing and drilling (all the while letting ethan help him and playing audience to the girls' latest performances), we were cleaning out and tidying up. closets got emptier, windows got cleaner. blinds got dusted (there's a first time for everything.). and this is when i started saying good-bye to you. i could take many things with me... the baby books, the blankets, the little clothes. but i could not take this with me....


can you tell what this is? it's a pair of grubby, dirty footprints on the wall in ethan and caroline's bedroom. i found it the day that we moved ethan's crib out of his room... and i couldn't bear to clean it off. it stayed there for the last 4 years, and i just about couldn't clean it off the wall a couple of months ago. but i got it together, snapped a picture, and off came the footprint. that was my first and hardest good-bye to you, dear house.

we finally put you up for sale on march 13. we didn't know how long it would take for someone to fall in love with you like we did.... i waffled back and forth between, "this house is adorable! it will sell in no time!" and "the market is horrible! it won't sell...ever!" but at the end of the day, we trusted in God's perfect timing, and we knew that if we were meant to move on from you, that God would bring us a buyer. once our house was on the market, i was so busy making sure everything was in tip-top shape every time we left the house that there was really very little time for me to feel sad about selling you. you probably really enjoyed that time on the market. you shined and you smelled good! there were no dirty clothes lying about, no toys strewn all over the place. the dishes were either in the dishwasher or the cabinets. and the kitchen floor was the cleanest it had ever been. i'll tell you a little secret, house.... i hated the stress of keeping everything picture perfect, but i loved coming home to you looking so good. :)


by the grace of God, we had an offer in 9 short days. it would take 5 more days to come to an agreement on the selling price, but suddenly, selling you was a reality, little house! i wanted to relish the last month with you, sweet first house. i wanted to spend evenings with my husband on the gazebo swing where he proposed. i wanted to take one more video of the kids singing and dancing. i wanted to have our precious neighbor, mrs. bonnie, over for dinner. i wanted to sit in each room, telling the kids stories of when they were babies and things they did in that very spot. but the last month was a busy one, full of organizing and packing and shopping for our next home. (and soccer every single saturday!) i did not do any of those things i wanted to do and before we knew it, it was moving day!



our small group and family helped us move the majority of our belongings a couple of mondays ago, and then brian and i spent the next few nights gathering the last little things. we even remembered the baby clothes in the attic. it was strange to walk through your front door those last few evenings, knowing i was now calling another house "home". my last hour with you, dear first house, was just like my first. alone. quiet. cleaning the kitchen. when i finished, i jotted a little note to our buyer...


then i went back and forth from room to room, almost lost in the emptiness, saying goodbye. i surprised myself by not crying then (though i am now, as i write this). you were still a house, our house for a few more days. but without our familiar things, without a trace of my husband and my children... you were no longer our home. your walls themselves are not precious. they are just walls. it is the hands that touched them and the feet that dirtied them that are so very precious to me. so saying good-bye to you tugged tightly on my heartstrings, but it was not nearly as hard as i thought it would be.

it has been 3 days since we handed our keys to a young girl, a year out of college. i know she will take good care of you. she will give you some new paint, more wood floors, and you may even get your grass back before too long. i know one thing is for sure: she won't be hurling wooden cupcakes at your walls! you were a wonderful first house for us, and i'm excited that you are her first house, too.

don't worry, little house. we won't be strangers. we drive past your road several times a week, and we'll swing by often just to see you and say hi. you may not see us since we'll just be one of hundreds of cars racing down that street, so i'll be sure to honk. you were good to us, little first house. enjoy the peace and quiet. you've earned it.

love, emily

it wasn't so bad!

tomorrow marks a week since i had all 4 wisdom teeth removed. i was honestly more anxious about being completely sedated than the actual extraction and recovery. it's a simple, routine procedure, but my imagination and lack of faith would get the best of me... and i worried about not waking up. but at the end of the day, i rested in the truth that my God is sovereign and He knows my days.

the procedure on friday morning was completely uneventful, and within 30 minutes, i'd woken up to a mouth full of gauze and a totally dry throat. i was a lot more lucid than i expected to be, though brian says i was telling him how to pay the receptionist. i don't remember barking those orders... sorry, honey! i just really needed a glass of water! we got home, and i felt really good for the rest of the day. my male nurse gave me two pain pills for my first round of meds instead of one pain pill and one antibiotic... he was mortified once he realized what he did, but the pharmacist in my family told brian that he just made my day psychedelic. :) and it was indeed a pretty good recovery day! i slept a lot of the time and just enjoyed the peace of isolation for a day without being in pain! i didn't mind the ice cream either. unfortunately, the pain meds were too strong for my stomach to handle, and i could not hold food down while taking them. i was pretty worried that i would get dry sockets from the vomiting... so on friday night, i chose to go to bed in a little bit of pain rather than continue down the road i was on.

you can imagine my delight when i woke up saturday morning in NO PAIN! i was elated. i still stayed in bed and took it easy, but the kids were able to visit with me more. ethan and caroline giggled as they climbed up in bed with me to hang out for a little bit, and amelia joined them when she woke up from her nap. it wasn't long before she was trying to get situated next to me, and that little stinker elbowed me square in the jaw. OUCH! visiting hours were over effective immediately. when the ban was lifted later, the kids enjoyed snacking on pudding in my bed.


and i suppose this is a peace offering for clocking me earlier....


so after two days of hgtv and ice cream, i decided that i was glad i'd waited till now to get my wisdom teeth removed. i should've done it back in college, but it was just never a convenient time. and my experience was a breeze compared to postpartum recovery. if i would've had this done in college, it would have clearly been a seemingly rougher recovery, and oh the horror of having to stay in bed for two days. i would miss so much! now fastforward 10+ years to present day... some cuts in my mouth compared to birthing a baby?! bedrest where no one is allowed to bother you!? time to read a fiction book?! procrastination is not always the most horrible thing.

sunday night, i ended up in a good bit of pain... i worried that i was getting dry sockets, but the pain was quickly resolved with a heating pad and some ibuprofen. i woke up with the same jaw pain monday morning and ended up staying in bed most of monday. this was disappointing because i'd already been out and about a little bit, and we'd planned on having a fun family day together. instead, i slept most of the morning while brian dealt with the kids for the 4th day in a row. i was so thankful that he was home for that day. and i was thankful for the cash and cari marathon on hgtv. since then, i have figured out that i am just going to wake up in a moderate amount of pain every morning. i don't know if it's the way i'm sleeping or if i'm clenching my jaw when i sleep.... or if this is just a normal part of recovery.... but it HURTS. and it's not really a pleasant way to wake up. but we've got our routine. brian gets up, heats up my bucky, and i take some ibuprofen. i lay with the bucky on my face for a good 20 minutes and usually go back to sleep and dream about being somewhere really hot. (ha!) within 30 minutes, the pain is completely gone. for the rest of the day. i really wonder if this is normal or not... i have a follow-up appt. on monday, so i will be sure to ask about it then.

insert shameless infomercial:
i have never really been a fan of heating pads. i don't like being hot, so why would i want to put something hot on my body? i've used my bucky from time to time, and it's always been wonderful, but i've never just needed it. until this week. oh my goodness, do i ever love my bucky now. brian's mom bought it for me ages ago. probably before we got married... and that thing has been my constant companion this past week. it's warm, soft, and smells like comfort. it is worth every single penny. mine is an old-school version, so it is not quite as stylish as the ones you see to the right here. :) but when it's smothering my pain in comfy heat, i really don't care what it looks like!

so there's my first week as a wisdom-tooth-extraction survivor. it could've been much, much worse. i could've done without the barfing and the pain every morning, but compared to some stories i've heard, i'll take it. thank you for your prayers. now if i could just get the house put back together....

in the meantime...

hello august. i'm emily. nice to meet you. i'm stuck way back in july with all the posts i've been meaning to write and all the pictures i've been wanting to share. what's that you say, august? you're already half way over?! aw, maaaaan. i guess it's time to admit that things are not looking good on the catching-up-front. the overflowing laundry should've been my first sign. i am determined to catch up. i am determined to write individual posts about the last month of our life. i will not merge my girls' weekend, ethan's swimming success, his first dentist appointment, all the things amelia's doing at 18 months, ethan's first soccer games, our five in a row fun, how we're starting kindergarten this week, and how we finally got around to painting the rest of our kitchen all in one post. i just won't do it. but the next two weeks are bu-sy. till i can slow down for a minute, here's a couple of pictures to sort of tide you over..

caroline insisted on taking this picture when she and amelia were matching. amelia has really perfected the cheese... and she will not leave a barrette in her hair. no neglected child comments, please.


and here's my soccer man. i could just eat him- he is so cute out on that field. and if he ever has a game at midnight, we will not need lights thanks to his crazy bright uniform. it is truly blinding. and i'm thinking that ethan actually missed the ball in this picture, but his form looked so good i just tried to overlook the soccer ball on the ground that should actually be in the air. :)


i bet your august is flying by as quickly as mine. check back sorta-kinda soon for more. at least we can hope.

happy mother's day!

i'm making this quick because i have some mothering to do... but i wanted to wish all you moms out there a wonderful, wonderful mother's day. to my "mommy friends", thank you for your encouragement as we walk this road together. to those that are like mothers to me, thank you for loving me as your own daughter. to my grandmothers, i have been so blessed to learn from you for 30 years. to my sweet mother-in-law, what a joy it is to be in your family. and to my mother... what would i ever do without you!? happy mother's day to you all.

and to those three little munchkins that call me mommy (allllll dayyyy long!), what a blessing it is to be your mother. i take it for granted more often than i'd like to admit, but i praise God for the amazing gift of being your mommy...your caretaker...your first and your last hug each day. i love you.

perfect pictures of a far from perfect family

just a couple more pictures from hope...i love this shot of our feet! hope is so creative. look at amelia's little piggies... they are just the epitome of ten little toes!! :) i honestly did not think this picture was going to come out very well because by this point, caroline was done with cooperating. i mean, she'd done her faces. what else could there possibly be to photograph, right?! :) she was on the verge of a fit, and i was hoping she'd sit still long enough for this one to be sharp. i'm glad hope and her camera can act fast!


this marks the end of my hope mabry photography-athon. i have loved sharing the portraits of my three sweet children with you. this family picture is such a reminder of God's goodness. five years ago, we were getting ready to close on our house, and we were up to our ears in wedding plans. if you would have shown me this picture and told me that these three beautiful children would be mine in five short years, i may not have believed you. (but we may have bought a bigger house! ha!) God has richly blessed me with a loving husband, three precious children, supportive friends and family, and a wonderful church family... talk about GRACE!

i feel like i need to follow up these "picture perfect" posts with a bit of a disclaimer. these pictures may be flawless, but we are not. a blog can pretty much serve as a photoshop for life. ya know what i mean? look at these pictures of us. you can't see my zit(s) or ethan's scabs on his forehead that he won't stop picking at. you don't see the scratch above caroline's lip that she got the day before our photo shoot. (good job, hope!) now translate that to the blogosphere. it's so easy to only tell the funny stories and show the cute pictures and recount our vacation memories. no zits. no scabs. no scratches. cover 'em up and just show the good stuff.

i know i am guilty of this. my friend melanie wrote about this very thing last week, and her post really got me thinking. what does my blog portray? i don't want to come across as if i have it all together because i don't. i am really not even close. i am not that great of a housekeeper. i don't feel like much of a fun mom these days. i would much rather be blogging than cooking dinner. i get incredibly impatient with my husband over incredibly silly things. i am horrible about inviting people over for dinner or to play. and i let my kids watch way too much playhouse disney. BUT i am a daughter of the King. i have been bought with a Price, and i can rest in the fact that the grace of God covers my greatest shortcomings as a wife, mother, and friend. His grace is greater than all my sin.

i want to be transparent, but i also want to keep the mind of Christ and not use this blog as a vehicle for discontentment and an ungodly attitude. discontentment is a struggle for me, and i am aware that the more i concentrate on the blessings that God has given me, the less i focus on what i don't have. another issue is that so much happens around this house that i cannot blog about everything. i've got to pick and choose which events and stories i share on this blog. my prideful instinct is to of course choose the fun and great stories, not the ones about me losing my patience with the kids or the ones about where i put off folding laundry all week and my husband has no where to sit in the living room! i also tend to blog about whatever pictures i have taken recently. and i don't ordinarily have pictures of me yelling at the kids or the piles of laundry on our couches. :)

woah- i did not mean for this to be a dissertation. you just wanted to see the rest of hope's pictures! haha! i'd better end this and go fold that laundry that has been waiting on me. i will end by saying that i want this blog to be an encouragement to you and one that brings glory to God. if it is anything else, i have no reason to write. thank you for taking an interest in our far from perfect family. :) it is really a joy to share our family's happenings with you, and i do hope it blesses you. have a great weekend!

(please do not use these pictures without the written permission of hope mabry photography. thanks!)

writing it down

my kids say funny things every day. i'm sure yours do too. some of their quotes are down right hilarious, while other things are really only funny if you truly know the child. but as a mom, i want to remember them all. they're all funny to me. :) i usually share the downright hilarious ones here on my blog, but i could not keep up posting the one-liners spoken in this house. one day, in my blog-hopping, i came across this great idea from another mom! the mom has a weekly day planner for each of her children each year and keeps track of her kids' quoteables in the planners. with a line for each day, there's plenty of room to record the precious and hilarious things spoken by your children. this mom said that as her kids have grown older, they have enjoyed going back through and reading the silly things they said when they were younger. she also mentioned that when a child is having a bad day, it's a good way to cheer them up...with their own words. :) (i cannot for the life of me remember where i saw this idea. i would love to give this woman credit for her idea, so if that was you and you are happening to read this, please let me know who you are!)

i waited until after the new year and bought a planner for $1 (really, a result of procrastination, but it paid off this time!). i just have one for ethan and caroline to share, and it's working fine so far. some weeks have lots of blanks because i forgot to write things down, and some weeks are chock full of ethan-isms. the planner stays in the same place on my desk, so i know right where to go when i need to jot down a quote in a hurry.

i'll leave you with my favorite ethan quote of the week... we'd come home one afternoon, and my bedroom door was shut. i distinctly remembered leaving it open, so i asked the kids if they shut my door (hoping one of them had vs. the other option of there being an ax murderer behind it). ethan said that he'd shut my door. i asked him why, and this was his answer:

so your stuff won't fall out.
huh? (trying to keep a straight face)

if our house tips over, and your door is shut, your stuff won't fall out.
as if this was worrying me, he went on...

but houses don't usually tip over because they're strong.
and i immediately ran to my planner and wrote that down...

song for a fifth child

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

~Ruth Hulburt Hamilton, 1958

i'd heard the end of this poem before, but i have just fallen in love with the whole poem. i feel like i'm living in that house right now, and i just need to remember that babies do not keep. they become two. and two year olds do not keep. they become three. and three year olds do not keep, either. and well, that's as far as i've gotten so far. but i'm pretty sure he's not gonna stay three for very much longer. so i think i'm gonna find a print of this poem and hang it in my kitchen. you know, the one with the clean floor!?

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!

not so crazy after all...

so we got all kinds of "you're crazy" looks and comments when we announced that i was pregnant when ethan was just 8 months old.... now fast forward two years later. with caroline being 18 months old, baby number 3 is apparently considered "better timing" to the general public. ha!

when ethan was 8 months old, he was not yet crawling or talking, and he was still taking two naps (which meant two naps for mommy!). what peace! but now with this "better timing", sweet little caroline is perfectly capable of climbing onto. and bouncing. and bouncing. and bouncing. on nauseous mommy resting on the couch. at least till brother warns her not to crush the baby. :) thanks, ethan. :)

don't get me wrong. i am 100% thankful for this pregnancy and am confident that God has ordained the timing of it for His glory and for His purposes. and i know that we will see many positive things about having 2 years between caroline and this baby. i'm only halfway through the first trimester! but it just makes me smile to think about all the hidden jewels of having ethan & caroline "so close together". i know that list will just grow and grow as they get older, and right behind it will be my list of "great things about having kids 2 years apart". :)

as of right now, i'm making a mental list of "ways to pseudoplay with your 18 month old when you feel like you're about to lose your lunch"... any suggestions!?

mother's day blessings

what a special mother's day we had yesterday!

i was blessed to share mother's day with several mothers: my mother, brian's mother, kristie, & her mom, cindy, who is like another mother to me! we (and all the husbands & kiddos) enjoyed lunch at a beautiful, shady park and then relaxed and played with our little blessings who call us "mommy", "gram", "nana", and "yiayia". i am so blessed to be surrounded by these and other godly women who encourage me to stay at the Cross in my mothering... some older and wiser and some who are walking this road of motherhood right along with me!



my little blessings have grown so much since last mother's day!
i don't usually get very many pictures of my mom with my children because when we are together, she is usually helping this busy mom fold laundry, bathe children, or unload the dishwasher...or she is happily playing with her grandchildren while i am attempting to frantically accomplish the aforementioned tasks! my mom is such an example of a quiet servant. she joyfully helps me throughout the week, especially by coming by after work to lend a hand until brian gets off work. (the kids LOVE greeting her at the door when they see her car pull up!) so, yesterday, i was SO HAPPY to capture these pictures of my mom with caroline! ethan was off getting sweaty with daddy and a soccer ball, so caroline was the subject of most of yesterday's pictures!





brian and i are so blessed to live in the same town as all of our parents. i say often that we are "blessed to the point of being spoiled"! our children are growing up at the feet of their grandparents, and we LOVE seeing them so often! i am so thankful for my mother-in-law. she treats me and kristie like the daughters she never had, and our children simply adore her. most of all, kristie and i are indebted to her for the years of love she has given (and continues to give) her sons. thank you for being a loving and godly mother to our husbands! here is nana with her sons and her grandchildren.


as soon as we pulled up to the park, i laughed when i saw the slogan on the side of this ice cream truck.... i grabbed kristie and glenda for a picture-- we LOVE our mother-in-law, and feel quite the opposite from this slogan about her!!! we all got a good laugh on mother's day about that truck. i hope the ice cream man's mother-in-law lives FAR away from him!!!


the blessings just keep comin' and comin'! i am also thankful to call one of my most dearest friends in all the world my SISTER! thank you, jeff, for marrying kristie!! it is such a joy to share in-laws and a last name with my sweet maid of honor. she is an incredibly fun aunt to my kiddos and a wonderful encouragement to me. i am humbled when i think of how blessed i am... we love being together and still talk about the fact that we can't believe we're family! what a blessing. thank you, Lord! here is kristie with caroline in their matchy-matchy reds.




this picture of little karina just makes me melt! look at those eyes! she and caroline are becoming such sweet little friends... holding hands and getting so excited to see each other!


cindy (kristie's mom) and my mom walking with caroline down to the water... i love that we can share family and that we all end up feeling like family even though cindy and my mom aren't technically related!


as you can see, ethan was on the move the whole afternoon and rarely stopped for pictures. but he cannot escape his mother altogether!!


one more picture of caroline... she was more understanding of her mother's need for numerous pictures on mother's day!


i hope your mother's day was a wonderful one. thank you for the encouragement that all of you are to me as a mother. may the Lord bless you this week as our contemplations of motherhood blessings linger a little longer...