It's Official

So yes. It is official. I am the world's worst blogger. (I would love to know what some of you first thought when you read "it's official", BTW.) Anyway, back to the reason for this post. . .

I have been so busy enjoying my family, my home, and the beginnings of fall, I have been trying to stay as far away from my computer as possible except for recipe searching and doing my dreaded transcription. The other night, however, I did come across a granola chic's blog (not sure how I got there). Anyway, I lost the link or I'd give her credit for her inspiring words. Here's what she wrote:

“…I’ve come to appreciate the importance of the many thousands of routine moments in a mother’s life, for it is in these moments that real greatness tends to be taught and caught…It’s the way I respond to my children in everyday moments that gives me the best chance of winning their hearts. If I have integrity and patience in the small moments of life that are so important to my children, and if I approach them with a servant’s heart, then I have a far better chance of influencing them in the larger and more critical issues of life.”

I loved this. It is so true that we can become so caught up in the day to day busyness of just being moms that we forget to stop and appreciate the "routine moments". I LOVE being a mom and I LOVE doing things with and FOR my kids. I think it is so important to appreciate and adore everything about the precious gifts that God has given us. We have the power to make or break them and the way we respond to them now is slowly molding them into the adults they will eventually become. I pray that we (Danny and I) are doing the right things and responding the right way and not taking anything for granted during this brief time that they are tiny.

Shannon's Quiz

Thought this looked like fun. . .

What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? Dove and Bath & Body Works Pineapple Body Wash

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? Yes

What would you change about your living room? I would get frames for all of the pictures I have purchased from Shannon and get them on my wall.

Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? Clean - just finished.

What is in your fridge? Milk, juice, 1/2 & 1/2, yogurt, cheese, meat, produce, mayo, salad dressing, ketchup, a whole chicken to cook for dinner tomorrow, pickles. . .should I keep going?

White or wheat bread? Whole wheat.

What is on top of your refrigerator? Dust

What color or design is on your shower curtain? Cream

How many plants are in your home? One

Is your bed made right now? Yes

Comet or Soft Scrub? Soft Scrub

Your closet organized? Ummm, no.

Can you describe your flashlight? No

Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home? Glass

Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now? No

If you have a garage, is it cluttered? We try to keep it organized but we really need a shed. Danny is a neat freak about the garage.

Curtains or blinds? Blinds but I want to add some "window treatments".

How many pillows do you sleep with? Two

Do you sleep with any lights on at night? No!

How often do you vacuum? At least once a week.

Standard toothbrush or electric? Electric

What color is your toothbrush? White and turquoise

Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch? Yep

What is in your oven right now? Oven racks

Is there anything under your bed? A few storage boxes

Chore you hate doing the most? Cleaning up the kitchen after I have cooked a huge meal

What retro items are in your home? What do we mean by retro? I have lots of old treasures I have collected over the years. The list could be long because a lot of my stuff is what some might call junk but I think is cool.

Do you have a separate room that you use as an office? Yes!

How many mirrors are in your home? 4

Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home? No. Remember that transmission???

What color are your walls? Red, blue, brown, cream, sage green, lime green (not all in the same room of course)

Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home? Not really for protection.

What does your home smell like right now? Some kind of B&B plug in - pineapple mango I think.

What kind of pickles (if any) in your fridge? Banquet Baby Dills

What color is your favorite Bible? Blue

Ever been on your roof? This one? No.

Do you own a stereo? Yes

How many TVs do you have? 2

How many house phones? 3

Do you have a housekeeper? Me

What style do you decorate in? My own

Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints? A mixture

Is there a smoke detector in your home? Too many to count.

What are the items in your house which you’d grab if you only could make one quick trip? My computers and photo albums

LOTS of New Posts

Okay. So if you're bored today, you can spend some time on my blog because I have put lots of new stuff on here (a total of 12 including this one). A whole summer's worth. . .Scroll way down and be sure to click "older posts" because there's a lot!!! All of September is new. And here are two random pictures of my goofballs at Mammy's shop after the first day of preschool last week. (And Ashley was in outfit #3 for the day I might add.)

Preschool!

Tuesday was Ashley's first day of preschool. She LOVES it! She was probably ready for preschool this time last year but she was only 2. I thought I was ready for her to go but when I turned to leave, I really choked up and had a hard time not losing it. I really had to fight back the tears. It was a good thing Zach was with me or I probably would have had a good, long cry. It seems like just yesterday these kids were only a dream. We tried for so long to have them thinking we never would. (Anybody remember that one in a million chance we were told we had??) Now the time is going by so incredibly fast. This past few months, even more than ever, I have been cherishing every second with them and realizing that the messes, toys all over the place, loads and loads of kid laundry, crumbs on the floor, spilled milk, will be gone in the blink of an eye. I am loving every (well almost every) moment of being a mom to these little ones and I am having a very hard time this week realizing that it won't last forever. My cousin's "baby" is graduating from high school this year and that is not helping me. It seems like about five years ago that we were at the hospital waiting for him to be born on my Grandpa's birthday. Yikes. Time does fly by. What am I going to be like in two years when Ashley starts kindergarten and Zach starts preschool? Oh my. Anybody know any good therapists? I also can already tell that I will NOT be a good empty nester.


Really she wasn't sad even though she looks like it in this picture. I promise.


Okay so maybe I'm a little out there but I had to cut out the preschool name in case any "crazies" come across my blog.


Somebody was PRETTY excited when she found this box of Toy Story toys! She is on a mission to find a Jessie for it, though.


And the baby that she says she will play with "every day of preschool".

Music in His Genes

This boy is musical. Ashley is artsy/dancy - Zach is very musical. He was born with a beat. He loves to get up on the piano and play quietly and really listen to the sounds coming from the different keys. He dances in his car seat and always to the beat of the music. Most of my family is very musical so he comes by it naturally. I play the piano and pretend to play the guitar (I know a few chords) and once upon a time I played the saxophone. :) This morning Zach got up on the piano bench and called "Mama! Mama!" until I came. He pointed to my music so I would play for him. He sat and watched me and watched my hands and kissed my several times. Ashley tried to climb in between us and it broke his heart. He loves to listen to me play and try to figure out how to do it himself. This piano was my grandma's. I learned how to play on it and I am sure Zach will too, and Ashley too if she wants to. :)

Stranded

We went camping over Labor Day and well, our transmission went out on the truck so here are some pictures of our stranded-ness. It all ended well, other than the $3000 for the new tranny on a truck we just paid off last month and whose warranty was up a short 9 months ago. :( :( :(

Coloring

Ashley loves coloring and drawing, and is getting quite good at her letters and drawing actual pictures. Well, Zach is starting to love to color with her. Here are some pictures of them.

Tea Party

Ashley LOVES to play. Here is a tea party she set up a while ago with her "Toy Story friends" and Daddy. (P.S. The jammies she is wearing are a size 3T Dora jammies that she swears still fit perfectly. She refuses to give them up.)

Beautiful Ladies

Here are pictures I took of Lindsay and Nicole. They did the whole skin and makeup regimen when I had my Arbonne party in July and they looked so beautiful, but then again, they always do!

Swimming Lessons

Ashley did swimming lessons this year and loved it. We also did the parent/tot class with Zach. He LOVES the water but got CRABBY if he couldn't do his own thing. He actually growled several times in his class. :)

Random Car Seat Pictures

Just because they are so stinkin' cute. . .

Zoo

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this stuff. I am the worst! Anyway, here are some pictures from our zoo trip back in (how embarrassing) the first week of July. This is the trip that was cut short when Ashley got sick with her nasty stomach bug. Thank goodness she has been healthy ever since! (Other than the little cold we all have right now, along with the rest of H-town!) Zach loved the zebras. He said, "hi zeebas!" He thought the polar bears were dogs. Ashley loved the elephants. Actually, those are her favorite animals but the pet she currently wants is a piglet. She wasn't so wild about the dinosaur walk. The t-rex scared her but they both liked digging for fossils. We went to the children's museum, too, which was a lot of fun. Ashley's favorite part of that was the pretend ambulance and Zach liked the waterworks. Ashley didn't care for that so much because she doesn't like getting wet unless she is in her swimming suit.




Driving the ambulance Watching the "zeebas"

Art

One fine morning in July, Ashley decided to decorate Zach and herself. . .You can't quite see the details from these pictures but it was beautiful, let me tell ya. See what happens when Mommy doesn't take her shower BEFORE the kids wake up???

Trevor

In June, our nephew (it's a long story to explain the relation - Danny's ex-step-dad's grandson. . .) from Kentucky came and visited. He is 15 (will be 16 in October) and lived with Danny's family as a little boy. He was a part of our every day lives until moving to live with his dad six years ago. It was quite an adjustment but he seems to be doing well. It was wonderful to see him. There was a time we tried to get custody of him but then realized him being with his dad and sister was where he should be. It was a crazy time in our lives. . .Ashley LOVED meeting him and said "Trevor is a good man".

Camping

We went camping up at Anthony Lake over the weekend. It was SOOO nice (other than the mosquitos). Here are a few pictures.

Mean Girls

So last night we were at Danny's softball game and Ashley started playing with a little girl (a BOSSY little girl I might add) who was probably about 6 or so. They were rolling down the hill, playing duck, duck goose (just the two of them which was pretty funny), etc. The little girl wanted her to do backwards summersaults down the hill but Ashley didn't want to so I called Ashley over to me and told her that if a friend asks her to do something and she doesn't want to do it, she doesn't have to do it. Anyway, then another little girl (also about 6) came and joined them and I think this was a pretty good friend of the other 6-year-old (Ashley is 3). They were all playing but Ashley was obviously the 3rd wheel. They were looking for bugs and then they told Ashley to go away, they didn't want her to play with them. She hung her head down and came and sat on the bleachers with her face in her hands and tears in her eyes. She asked me why the girls didn't like her. My heart broke into pieces. I wasn't ready for this yet. About 5 minutes later the bossy little girl came back over and said, "I'm not playing with my friend anymore so you can play with me now." Ashley said "No thanks." ;) That's my girl!

Ashley's Wedding

Here's an e-mail I got from my mom last night. She watches the kids on Fridays. . .

Did I tell you about Ashley and her wedding? When we were playing outside she was showing me all of the things she can do on her swingset and telling my how big she's getting and that someday she'll be all grown up like Mama and she'll wear Mama's wedding dress and marry..."Who did YOU marry, Mammy?"

"Papa" I say.

"Who did Mama marry?"

"Mama married your daddy."

"Oh. When I grow up I'm going to marry..... uh.... uh.... uh.... (llllloooonnngggg pause) See! I told you I can do a flip!"

Early Birthday Surprise

So for the last week, Danny has been telling me that he needed to go help a guy from work and asked if there was any way I could be home from work by 3:30 on Thursday. So, I got home about 3:40 yesterday and he tells me, "Well - you'd better go get changed because Angela will be here by 4:00. You guys are going out to dinner and going shopping." He had birthday money for me, watched all four kids and had the whole night arranged. He had even bought pizza ahead of time for him and the kids! What an amazing husband. My birthday is not until this Sunday but what an early treat!! We had a great time and I found some fun things. And I even still have a few bucks left!

Happy First Birthday, Zachary!

Can it really be that a whole year has already gone by since you entered our lives on a beautiful, sunny Thursday evening - April 26, 2007? I can hardly believe it! You are so wonderful - so full of energy - such a bright spot in my day. I love your sparkly blue eyes and your absolutely priceless smile. One of the first things I noticed about you was the little dimple in your chin and I still love it. It is so cute!

Nothing makes you light up quite as much as seeing your daddy. You say, "Hi Dee!" and dive into his arms.

You just started walking a few weeks ago and each day you crawl a little less and a little less. You are walking about 70% of the time now! The day before your birthday, you fell coming out of your sister's room while carrying one of her kitchen pans and got a cut right below your left eye. :( A shiner right before your first b-day! Good thing your 1 year pics aren't scheduled for another week!

You say Daddy (Dada or Dee) Ashley (Aa-Ee), Mama, Sit (because you always try to stand up in your rocking chair), shake your head for no, Mammy, Hi, Hello (ha-oh), Banana (nana). You make some sounds for drink and eat but I can't figure out how to write them. :)

You just cut your fourth tooth a few days ago. I love your top chiclet teeth. :) You have a hard time getting those teeth in and get a runny nose (and runny something else) with every tooth. :(

You are the happiest baby I know. You are my sunshine boy. (I didn't realize that I called you this all the time until the other day but I do.) I love your chubby baby hands and legs. I am sad that you are growing so fast but I love every minute of it. I love you Zachy!