brian snuck this little video onto my computer today and wrote an automatic script so that when i signed on, the video would automatically play. he's so cute. :)
(argh! for some reason the audio and the video aren't matching up.... i've uploaded twice to youtube, and it's still not syncing... it's a youtube problem and i don't have time to mess with it... so just use your imagination...)
happy anniversary to YOU, honey!! i love you!
we were all playing in the living room this afternoon after the kids' not-long-enough-for-me-naps, and brian helped himself to a bowl of his newfound obsession, blueberries. ethan has tried blueberries in the past and liked them, but for some reason, he has not really cared for them lately... until DADDY had blueberries! so brian gave ethan one, then another, then another, and ethan loved them! so of course, he kept asking for more...
"more boo-beeeees!"
"that's a big boooo-beeeeee!"
um, yes, i'm a speech therapist, and yes, that's a perfectly acceptable way for a two-year old to say "blueberries". but brian and i probably had way too much fun with that this afternoon. especially on the Lord's Day. but ethan loved saying "blueberries" over and over. now if the next time he's driving the "green dump truck" cart at the grocery store, he exclaims "yook mommy! big booooo-beeeeeeees!", then we'll have us a little home-grown speech therapy. :)
ethan is my little helper in the kitchen these days. he has learned how to put away the silverware (after i've put away the knives), and he gets a huge thrill out of throwing things in the "cash" (trash--it used to be "cash tan" for trash can...). but above all else, he comes a runnin' when i put the words "make" and "cake" together in the same sentence. after all, he is my son! today, he helped me make that yummy chocolate cake i keep talking about, but i think y'all get the point that it's pretty darn delicious, so i'll move on to another one of my favorite desserts to make (and devour!). i was first introduced to this oreo dessert when i was in graduate school in memphis. i made it one time while i lived there, and for some crazy reason, this recipe lay untouched in my files for about 4 years. (well, if you saw my "files"--laugh, laugh--you'd understand why i'd overlook anything!)
ethan made his "happy birthday cake" making debut a few weeks ago by helping me construct this fabulous treat. it's especially great for kids to help with b/c there's no baking and no eggs to deter the accidental dipping of fingers into the bowl (though that has never stopped me!). you just put the following layers in a 9x13 pan and refrigerate. (i think it might also look neat in a trifle dish. but you'd probably need to double the layers...)
1st layer:
stir together
-1 pkg. crushed oreos
(save a little bit of oreos for the topping)
-1 stick melted butter
2nd layer:
beat together
-1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese
-1 cup powdered sugar
-1 small cool whip
3rd layer:
whip together
-2 small pkg. instant chocolate pudding
-3 cups milk
topping:
-1 large cool whip
-sprinkle oreos on top
and there you have it! one happy, sugar-hyped two year old boy, one messy kitchen, and one yummy dessert to share with lots of friends! (oh yeah, and one happy, sugar-hyped mommy...) here is what the final result looks like... 
i'm sure it would have turned out more aesthetically pleasing if ethan had not been helping smooth out the layers... oh! i almost forgot! here's my little chef so proud of his creation...
tada!
what do you mean i can't eat this whole pan before my nap?
so for all of you who did not heed my advice to go out and buy this today earlier this summer, here is a chance to be rewarded for your procrastination...
family christian stores has this wonderful children's storybook bible on sale for $8.50 this week! that is SUCH a great deal for a wonderful portrayal of the Gospel story on every page. trust me, trust me, trust me.... you will love it and so will your kids.
here's a great look inside this book if you're curious.... but i'm telling you, it's great.
so what are you doing still reading? i said GO! :)
(that's "lydia and steven's house", for those of you whose toddler-ese is a little rusty!)
yes, our last stop on this seemingly neverending road trip was to kristi's house. oh did we have so much fun!!! it is hard to recap like this. first, there is so much to tell...and second, i've been home for 2 weeks now! kristi recounted our 10 days together by way of several posts making a "meal", so if i am going to tell about our time together in such fashion, i guess i would characterize this post as one big all you can eat dinner with one HUGE plate! :) and yes, by all means, get dessert!
in fact, let's go right to dessert with a little slideshow! just click on the big picture to go to the next one...
the first order of business when i arrived at kristi's was to attempt to fit all of us in one vehicle. she lives across town from most of the places we'd be going, and that is some good fellowship and expensive gas wasted if we were to take 2 vans everywhere we wanted to go! SO we put lydia, steven, and ethan in the back seat of my van (lydia was in a booster seat-- no, 3 big car seats won't fit.), and meredith and caroline reclined in the captain's chairs in the middle. this was quite a task to get everybody in and buckled everytime, and i commented several times that this would NOT be possible with a pregnant belly!! but it WAS so much fun to ride together. while we drove, kristi got me up to speed with some good new worship music, and i introduced kristi's kids to hide 'em in your heart, which lydia absolutely loved (and can now quote in full!). it's bible verses put to cute little tunes, and several days into my stay, i overheard lydia singing "let the little children come... do not forgive them, do not forgive them..." so we had a lesson on forbid vs. forgive. :) 
early into my trip, we decided to join eric at the beach as he was leading worship for the young adult group from their church. we took sandwiches to eat before worship started, which sounded like such a fun idea... until we arrived at the windy, windy beach!!! we had the babies in my double stroller so they'd stay put while we ate, so we couldn't wheel it very far down the beach. we were stuck, literally, eating our pbj's with our eyes closed. this experience gave a new meaning to the word SAND-wich!! the other kids were walking around while they ate, so they were doing ok, but of course ethan wasn't going to budge in that sand... i really wanted to get a picture of my poor little boy covered from head to toe in sand trying to eat, but i knew brian would kill me if i got sand in the camera... so i committed that picture to memory instead. this is the only way i can describe what ethan looked like... it's as if i smeared glue all over his face and then poured sand over his head... his face was completely sandy, and he just dealt with it. i was pretty miserable, so i know he was too!! after that, we had the sense to walk down to the wetter sand, where the wind was hardly picking up any sand. i think we would have done this earlier if it had not been for the double stroller 
with all our junk (and babies!) in it. we ended up having a wonderful time of worship and enjoying a beautiful evening. the kids played in the wading pool, and kristi's friend heather and i had fun taking pictures... her children are gorgeous! so the cute kids in the slideshow that don't belong to kristi or me are heather's children. (no, kristi and i did not pick up children on the side of the road! i mean, where would we put them? my van was full!!)
ok, i'm realizing this is going to be quite the long post. just check out the pictures if you don't want to hear my silly stories! (but kristi, you have to read all of this. you're required!)
the kids loved playing together. ethan loved loved loved having friends to just run around with and chase and be silly with day after day, all day long. they perfected the art of trashing the bonus room (their playroom/guest room where we stayed), as well as acquiring as many bug bites as possible by being out in the backyard for 10 minutes! they had a ball chasing kristi around as she attempted to fly a kite with NO WIND, and then the next day, we went downtown and enjoyed a wonderful breeze with no kite. go figure! yes, kristi and i took all 5 kids downtown, and no one got hurt (steven's cast is pre-our visit, just for the record). :) we also took all 5 kids to goodwill when naps were just about overdue, but we still managed to come out with some great deals. ya gotta love goodwill!!
kristi and i loved playing together, too. :) we managed to escape and have some girl time, thanks to sweet, wonderful, servant-hearted eric!!! we shopped a couple of times, ate a fun lunch, and got our haircut all sans children. oh and we sat in traffic for an hour too... which by yourself can be really frustrating, but it wasn't so bad with my best friend sitting next to me! it was my last day in town, and we were on our way home to relieve eric from his 3+ hours with all 5 kids (yes, we should have been bringing him a HUGE dessert home!)... we got stuck in traffic twice, once on our original route home and again trying to escape the first standstill.... so maybe God just slowed it all down so we could enjoy just a few more minutes laughing and soaking up our time together...
and then there was the cooking together, the throwing together of meals like we used to do so often as neighbors. i love kristi's ability to look in her pantry and fridge, find 5 or 6 things that really don't belong together, close her eyes, pour them in the crockpot, and voila! 4 hours later, you have an original concoction that really tastes good! and i mess up with actual recipes.
we were going to bathe all the kids together until i proved how maniacal caroline is in the tub. it's as if we covered her bottom in butter and put her in. it's absolutely crazy, and kristi (who usually successfully proves her point of "oh, emily, it's not so bad...") agreed that she is nuts in the tub! so caroline got a bath first, and then the other kids got in. :) once we got all the kids in bed and the house was quiet, we sometimes played games with eric and sometimes just co-computed and talked. we stayed up too late and ate way too much ice cream. 
(sigh.) and here i sit missing my friend. our time together was so wonderful and so busy and so long but so short. it felt so normal to be in her home and to play with her kids and to unload her dishwasher that a part of me forgot that i had to leave, and that i could no longer drive 30 seconds home only to return the next day. it is a long, long drive from her home to mine now. i think we did a pretty good job of enjoying our time together and not worrying about how quickly it was going. i think we talked about every topic under the sun, and probably most of them twice. talking with kristi is not just small talk... it is usually deep, help-me-out, climb-this-mountain-of-sanctification-together talk! and i love it. i love kristi for her focus on the gospel in all things. she mothers her children with extreme love and extreme grace while at the same time reminding them of the severity of sin and of the reality of the things of this world. she talks often of her concern for her neighbors and others she meets who do not have Christ, and she really means it. she and eric dream of overseas missions one day, and their eyes sparkle and their smiles widen as they share this dream! kristi is one intense person, she'll tell you that herself... but her intensity is for the Lord, and it spills over into everything she does. i always, always, always come away from my time with my sweet friend longing not only for more time with her, but for more time in the Word, more time with my God. thank you, dear kristi, for pointing me to the Cross!
i can think of no better way to end my road trip chronicles than on that note! this trip review is officially OVER! we had a fabulous time visiting loved ones, but i sure am happy to be back home! it will be a long while before i get the urge to pack a suitcase again... well.... at least a month or two. :) 
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