Typical Summer Evening

Bow is discovered...

...and promptly removed.

Gee Mom, I can't believe you keep sticking this thing in my hair.

(This child refuses to wear bows in her hair or shoes on her feet.)

Thank you ThermaCELL! for another lovely evening outside!

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Dinner conversation:

Anna Cate: "Daddy, next year, when I am bigger, will you marry me?"

Me: "Anna Cate, if you marry daddy, what will I do?

long silent pause...

Anna Cate: "I know Mama, when Caroline gets bigger, she will turn into a boy and you can marry her!"

An Explanation

Yikes! I can not believe it has been almost two months since my last post. All I can say is that having two children changes things. You have twice the work to do in half the time. (Please try hard not to laugh if you have three or more). I look back at life when it was just Anna Cate and wonder how I got so much accomplished!

Remember the Friends episode of Pheobe and Rachel running in Central Park?

This is pretty much how I've felt the past few months. Like a totally out-of-control, spastic, crazy woman. And the harder I tried to get a handle on things, the faster they would unravel into a mess. I felt the Lord urging me to give up my busyness (blogging, sewing, crafting, decorating just to name a few) to focus more on my family, but I was so reluctant to do so. I'd find myself spouting off excuses to Him (and myself):

"If I just stay up later, then I can get more accomplished in the evenings."

or

"After I just finish up _________ (fill in the blank...this bathroom, this sewing class, the girls' summer dresses, etc) THEN I can focus on getting back on a schedule and the house back in order."

However, something else would always come up that I thought was just too important to pass up.

Then one night as I was browsing through the archives of one of my favorite blogs, Kisses from Katie, I stumbled upon this post. She is a 21 year old girl from Alabama who is living in Uganda with the girls she has adopted...all 14 of them. Can you even imagine? No husband or mother to call when she needs the help. No network of support or girlfriend to meet for coffee when she needs the support. Her blog is incredibly challenging to read and makes me embarrassed for all of the times I think that I've overwhelmed with my responsibilies in parenting.

But in this particular post she was describing how one of her daughters came to her. If you have the time, you should go and read the post because it is amazing, but to summarize, she wasn't interested in adopting anymore children, but felt the Lord telling her her next daughter's name would be Sarah. Several days later, a crippled 3 year- old was brought to her door. Her grandmother had carried her 7 miles to Katie's house and when Katie asked her name, the grandmother answered, "Sarah."

Chills.

And I as read her testimony, I was convicted of how I've never heard the Lord speak to me so clearly. And I realized it is because I stay so busy that I don't give Him the time in my day to show me what He would have me do. I come to Him in the morning with more of a laundry list of "needs" that I ask Him to supply me with to get me through the day.

But I was packing so much into my days that I left no room for anything the Lord had planned for me to do.

As Miss Lula would say I wasn't protecting my margins. I was filling up my pages from end to end and my family was suffering for it.

So what started out as what I had hoped to be a short blogging hiatus, turned into several months of silence. I've let waaaaaaay too much time go by without an update. I had no idea how much time blogging consumed until I let go of the expectations of posting. I've enjoyed this new found "free" time; however, I do regret that I haven't been documenting our family's life for the past few months. I was reading some of our old blog and really enjoyed being able to look back over Anna Cate's first year.

All that to say...I'm back.

I'll be better about updating, but it may just be pictures.

We'll see what happens!

Our computer has been sick and we just got it back. I haven't had time to wade through all of the photos I've been taking while it was away, but here are a few photos for all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other family and friends who have been requesting updated photos of the girls!

Easter

Christ the Lord has risen today

Alleluia!

Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!

Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!

Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!

Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter!!

What I Would Have Said...

Because I'm sooooooooo behind in blogging this past month and a half, I'll just do a quick recap of what I would have said if I had been keeping this thing up to date:

Will sick

MC sick

Caroline & Anna Cate sick

Everybody sick sick sick

Registered Anna Cate for pre-school for the fall and watched this video that same night - bawled my eyes out because she is growing up too fast.

Had three fabulous sewing workshops! I met so many new friends and had fun catching up with old ones I hadn't seen in a while. In all three, I never once remembered to take any pictures, but I've got some pics to share soon of all of the amazing projects these ladies have made...adorable outfits, shower curtains, dolls, window treatments, etc!!

Will sick with the flu...

Anna Cate sick with the flu...

Celebrated turning the LAST year of my twenties in the doctor's office with a dehydrated Anna Cate.

and then Caroline sick with the flu.

And if turning 29 wasn't enough to make me feel like a full fledged adult, saying goodbye to the car I've had for the past ten years and hello to my new mommy mobile definitely did the trick. I also realized that if I drive this car for as long as I had my blue blazer, I'll be *gulp* 40 (!!!!) when I get a new car. weird, weird, totally weird.

Took my first road trip with the new car to Charlotte for a long awaited IKEA trip with my sister!

Anna Cate sick again with the ever dreaded stomach bug...

and last, but not least...

my baby sister got ENGAGED!!!

Needless to say, we've been busy and sick (or just busy being sick) this past month. In fact, I looked at the calendar and realized that since the last week of January, we have all four been healthy for a grand total of only 8 days. I'm ready to say hello to warmer spring weather and goodbye to all our germs!

And for all of you who have sent e-mails and left me messages, I apologize that I have been so slow to respond. I've been treading water just trying to stay afloat taking care of my family and the house, and I promise to get back to each of you very soon.

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Totally un-related, but just thought I'd share:

"If I had my child to raise all over again,

I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.

I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less.

I would do less correcting and more connecting.

I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.

I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.

I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.

I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.

I'd do more hugging and less tugging."

Diane Loomans

That's all for now!

Crickets

If you've checked the blog this past month, you know that's all that has been going on around here...

the sound of crickets chirping.

Nothing.

Nada.

Zilch.

I just checked the date on the last post and realized it has been almost an entire month with no new post. We have been so busy this month and I have so much to share - thoughts, projects, pictures.

Now to just sort it all out and write it all down.

This is the only picture I've taken in the past four days which I think is some sort of new record for me. Anna Cate has been really sick with a virus. You can see from the picture that I have a little "helper" who has been trying to play nurse all week to her big sister. I have had my hands full trying to take care of Anna Cate while keeping Caroline away from her and her germs.

Hopefully we will all make a full recovery (both physically and mentally) by the end of this weekend! ;)

Snow, 'Lymics, and more snow!

Like everybody else in the southeast, we heard that snow was in

the forecast for Friday afternoon. Sure enough, it started snowing around 3:30 in the afternoon and we were lucky to already have Will home from work! After a little had accumulated on the ground, we took the girls outside for a minute to let them walk around in it while it was falling.

The girls' first reactions to the snow on Friday afternoon:

Caroline was not all that impressed...

and Anna Cate was...

well, what would you call that look?

Perplexed?

Excited?

Let's just say a little giddy mixed with apprehension.

But all apprehension quickly disappeared as soon as Caroline started chasing her through the snow.

Will had already promised Anna Cate a "camp out" in the den earlier in the week to watch the opening ceremonies to the Olympics (or the 'Lympics as Anna Cate likes to call them) on Friday night. How perfect that it was also snowing outside!!

This was a family first, but something I'm sure will become a tradition because we had so much fun! :) We pulled our mattresses out into the den and cozied up by the fire for the night. Needless to say, Anna Cate LOVED it.

Caroline joined us until it was her bedtime and then she slept back in her crib. The girls had a ball playing on the giant bed in the middle of the den floor.

We thought Anna Cate would crash by 9:00 but this little stinker was still going strong at 10:30! Finally she feel asleep waiting to see them light the Olympic Torch.

When we woke up Saturday morning, we had SNOW!!! We quickly ate breakfast and then bundled the girls up to go play outside.

This was the only picture I took of the house as we were driving up to my parent's house to get the sled and 4-wheeler.

The girls and I watched as Will tried the first attempt at sledding. (This isn't the greatest picture, but the only one I have with all three of us).

First he tried the hill beside the garden, but it wasn't big enough.

So then we loaded up the gator with the sled, saucer, and Silar and rode around exploring the "compound" and looking for a bigger hill. (For those of you who do not know, we live on the same street as my parents, along with two of my aunts, my grandparent's lakehouse, and the family garden so we jokingly refer to it as the "compound." And yes, life does get interesting around here. I'm currently taking notes to write a book one day. Just kidding! Well, maybe not...) ;)

We rode down to the lakehouse...

and I could have stayed there all morning just sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee looking out at the snow on the water, but everybody else was ready to move on.

Silar pouted as we made him wait in the gator so he wouldn't go swimming in the lake. See his little head poking over the side?

We rode down the street to check on the donkeys. No not ours, just some random farm animals that live on our street that the girls love to stop and talk to when we go walking.

We then rode over to my aunt's house to try sledding on the big hill overlooking the pond.

Anna Cate's first attempt.

Will she like it...?

Yes, I think she LOVED it!

Caroline got to try too!

There is a little smile on that sweet face!

After awhile the snow started melting from the trees and the girls were getting hungry so we headed home for some grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. We spent the rest of the afternoon thawing out by the fire, enjoying a long nap and watching some 'lympics.

Busy with Friends!

Hannah and James (and Bert too!) were in town this week so we took the opportunity to all get the kiddos together for a playdate at the zoo!

Just look at this cutie! Does she not have the most amazing eyes? Darrell, you better watch out in about 15 years! ;)

This little stud muffin who is about to become a big brother in a few short weeks!

And these two silly monkeys.

Anna Cate's favorite animal to see:

We should have known better than to try to get a picture with all four of them:

This one was about the best we could do...

Seriously? No explanation is needed.

Then today, we had a few friends over for a little Valentine's day pizza party.

the yummy cupcakes AC helped me make this morning for dessert.

making her heart shaped pizza (that she doesn't eat).

Mmmmm...must be good!! :) Every other picture I snapped of Miss Carlysle this morning she was talking very expressively, with her hands. She is a mess and hands down the funniest toddler I have ever met.

Miss Mason looks like a little valentine herself with her pink shirt and bow!

And we are loving these things:

This time of year is so hard to find interesting things to keep AC entertained since we can't play outside. I bought a package of these at Hobby Lobby with my 40% coupon for $3.50 and we have played with them everyday for a week and haven't started to put a dent in the box yet.

They are fun AND a great learning tool. You can do all kinds of activities like patterns, addition & subtraction, grouping colors, etc. Not to mention they are quiet and clean. Two nice qualities to have in an afternoon activity while I'm trying to get dinner on the table! :)