The Moon Daddy

Lili and I get precious time together often on Sunday nights.

We walk home from our neighbor's house where she and 8 other kids get babysat while we have small group at our house.

I get the privilege of hearing her explain her evening in all it's 2-year-old vocabulary glory while she marches down the street with her backpack on...it's the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Tonight as we were walking, the moon was starting to come out and she noticed...The following is the conversation we had about it:

Lili: "Mommy!  The moon is awake!"
Me: "That's right!  Hi moon!"
Lili:"Da moon is helping us to walk to my house, Mommy"
Me: "Ok.  Thanks moon!"
Lili:"Keep helping us walk to my house Moon. The Daddy Moon."
Me: "The Daddy Moon?"
Lili: "Yeah. The Daddy moon is helping us walk home. Mommy, when the moon comes down and goes under, you will be a moon and I will be a moon in the sky."
Me: "What do you mean? What?"
Lili: "When it comes down and goes under"

I know it's naturalistic and probably pantheistic, but could this be a taste of Heaven from my sweet baby's mouth?  To my knowledge, no one has told her ANY stories about the moon...maybe a picture of what Heaven looks like to a two-year-old.  I don't know.  But really, neither do you.  :)

Good night Daddy Moon.

iPhone App Pick-Me-Up

Truett is growing teeth. 

I'm growing tired.

Waking up at night to deal with this feels worse than when he was a newborn...how quickly we grow to love our sleep again...and miss it dearly when it's gone.

Good thing Tommie has the Stache-Tastic iPhone App to cheer me up. 

It also comes in handy when one of us is "just resting our eyes" during the afternoon lunch-hour/kiddo nap time.

Enjoy. I know I do.

Elegance...

I just know these will make even my cereal feel elegant.

I have a lighter blue one than even this one and I use it for everything.  At $5 a bowl, you wouldn't believe they're from anthropologie, would you?

I hope I get this set of six for my birthday.  

Makeshift Mealtime

It's March 30-two days left until Tommie gets paid and we can go grocery shopping again.  We NEED to go grocery shopping.

I'm down to the wire with my meals, making the very basics work until we can do something a little fancier again.  Tonight, we had Zatarain's Jambalaya with some hamburger meat saved from last night's burgers.  It tasted delicious.  Tomorrow night I'm planning stir-fry with a veggie mix from Trader Joe's.  Finally, on Thursday, just in case we don't make it to the store that day, we'll have falafel with pitas.

These are some of my standby, freezer-type meals that can last and don't require too many ingredients to make them happen when we're in a small bind.  They are yummy, but that being said, I wouldn't mind spicing things up a bit.

Do you have any suggestions for delicious meals that take your family down-to-the-wire on your grocery money?

I'm looking forward to trying one of your recipes in the next two weeks and blogging about it...

Things That Make Me Ready for Spring...

Daffodils next to my mailbox

My Sweet Daughter continually asking to play outside

My Little Boy who stops crying immediately when brought outside

Little Feet in Little Flops with her chosen color of "black" toenail polish

$1 helium mylar flower balloons from Dollar Tree

Sun on my face

My neighbor's pretty pink flowers

Giraffey and Baby.

It's my pleasure to introduce you to Giraffey(photo-left) and Baby(photo-right).

They're important "people" at our house.

They sleep in Liliana's bed. They sometimes ride in the car. They make cross-country moves bearable.  They make vacation beds more familiar. They do not come into stores because we may lose them and may get accused of shoplifting them out of the store (at least that's what I tell Lili...the stains and matted fur would probably lend credence to our plea of innocence). They get hugs and kisses at nap time and bedtime and even occasionally practice going potty on the potty, though thankfully they never end up swimming in the potty.

I like them.  Truett is enthralled with Baby.  I think he can't quite figure out why Baby is the only person in our family who doesn't move...you should just see they way he looks into those little creepy doll eyes, waiting for them to move.  It's hysterical.

They're important people at our house because these two are important people at our house:

I thought you'd like to meet them.

Got any important "people" at your house?

Locking My Doors Extra Tight

We live in a great neighborhood.  I've told you, I think, that we even have the pleasure of living near some of our dear friends from church-the Coates Family.  They're so much fun and have a great sense of humor. I love them.

In fact, today, when I was driving home from Toddler Tuesdays at the Aquarium with the kids, I was pulling up to our neighborhood and had stopped to wait for some cars to pass before I made the left into our 'hood.  Well, I heard a honk behind me, and looked up to see Jimmy in a minivan behind me!  He was making such exaggerated gestures and faces that I had to laugh.  What a good sense of humor he has to be harassing me for being more cautious with the oncoming traffic than I maybe had to be.  So I turned around, made a face back and waited for the other two cars to pass.

Then, knowing he would appreciate it, I turned into our neighborhood as slowly as I could, looking at Jimmy behind me making faces the whole time.  As I turned and could see the driver window behind me, I looked to see if Jimmy was laughing as hard as I was.

That's when I saw a middle finger and a very mad face.

It wasn't Jimmy after all.

I had just assumed it was and hadn't much paid attention to actually "look look".  Haha.  SO, I made some other driver very angry. I then proceeded to pull in my driveway, come inside and lock my doors, just in case the angry driver was even angrier than their hands told me.

Oops! hahahahahah.  What a funny day already.

Passionately Passionate...

When you're a little kid (like me in the photo above)...you just do what you want to do.  In fact, really the only thing keeping you from doing what you want to do are your parents.

Then you keep getting older and everyone tells you to follow your passions and you start to realize that's harder than it sounds.  You start getting scared that maybe that's pretty hard and maybe you might not be able to for whatever reason and well, maybe you start thinking you don't even know what your passion is.

That last option is me.  I'm not sure I could tell you straight out what my "passion" is or what my longterm "goals" are.  Tommie asked me the other night what my goals for life are and I really had no answers other than "be a good wife, good mother, good sister, daughter and friend."  Those are great, but I think he meant personal accomplishment goals along the lines of completing a marathon, writing a novel, etc.  Ha.  So much for being a cooperative wife.

Anyway, I'm still trying to decide whether I want to find a concrete "passion" to pursue or to just continue to live adventurously as I pursue my goals of being the best person I can be in the relationships I'm in.

What do you think?  Do you have a concrete passion, and what is it?  How did you know what it was?  What are you doing to pursue your passion?  I could use some examples and some help thinking on this.

Thanks to my sister Brittany for inspiring yet another post...

So, the Dollar Tree...

Do you use Google Reader? I recently started to...it's a great way to check in on all of the blogs I follow without ever leaving the comfort of my cozy little gmail page. You should check into it. It's at the top left of your gmail homepage.

ANYWAY...

My sister-in-law, Brittany, shared an awesome blog with me via Google Reader. It's called Dollar Store Crafts. And, it's way better than you're thinking! For the most part the crafts are inspired by stores like Pottery Barn, Target, Anthroplogie, etc.(obviously there are some exceptions when you're working with a dollar.)

So inspiring are these crafts, that I made one already! These come from a crafter who shares her stuff with the DollarStoreCraft blog, but blogs more regularly here.

Check out my Easter-tastic Robin's Eggs:

This was the first batch I made. Here's the breakdown:

Blue and black acrylic paint-on hand, free

Styrofoam eggs, pack of 12(x2)-$2

Floral Moss-$1

Vase-$1

Not to bad! In fact, I liked them so much and had enough extra eggs, that I went back to the Dollar Tree and got another vase I liked. Also, this little yellow egg is how these robins' eggs started out. Here's the photo:

I want to be specific here though, these items are from the Dollar Tree, not any of the other dollar-type stores out there, I can't vouch for their goodness one way or the other. All I know is, my house has some super-cute Easter decor in it now thanks to this blog and the Dollar Tree!

I'm hooked and can't wait to see what inexpensive, easy, beautiful craft I make next. If you make any, post a link in my comments, I'd love to see!

p.s. If you're inspired to make more easter goodness that resembles the decor from Pottery Barn, check out "Dollar Barn Easter" in the following links: DBEpart1, DBEpart2, DBEpart3, DBEpart4, DBEpart5, DBEfinale -ENJOY!

Resisting....

This is me when Tommie and I first got married-probably a few months after. I got my hair cut short and LOVED LOVE LOVED it.

Now my hair is VERY long. I should take a picture with photo booth to show you, but....my hair is in a braid today cause I didn't take the time to do it!

Anyway, it's down to my shoulder blades and I want it just a little longer still. But I see pictures like this and almost call the hairdresser...

In other news, I'm off to Lynchburg today with my mom and the babies to see my sister, Kendra! Should be a blast! Tommie will hold down the fort with Maple and miss us so much he will do all of my chores and have dinner or lunch waiting for us when we get back on Saturday...(do you read my blog, Honey?)

When I get back, I'll show you my AMAZING DollarTree finds. I'm hooked!

1/4c Applesauce + 1/2tsp Baking Powder= 1 Egg??

Tommie wanted cookies. We only had one egg and needed two for this AMAZING COOKIE RECIPE. (if you want it, leave a comment and it's yours)

We had applesauce though. I had heard once that you can substitute applesauce for an egg...so I googled it and found multiple people suggesting 1/4c applesauce + 1/2tsp baking powder= 1 egg.

Eagerly, we mixed it up and set it to bake!

Things were looking great.

Except I guess the sugar in the applesauce made them stick to the pan...and I think the baking powder makes them a little to fluffy for my taste.

One pan didn't stick though. And they TASTED GREAT! I don't think I'll use this substitute again though. So if you're wondering, the formula I used in my title is not entirely accurate in my book. But we did enjoy the cookies we got!

In other domestic news, I started quilting! Actually, here's a peek, I've got the front pieced together...now to trim my pieces and stitch the front together. I can't believe I'm quilting.

Here's to domesticity.

Dreams

Liliana to me this morning when I got her up: "Mommy, where are the people?"

Me: "What people, baby?"

Liliana: "My friends?"

Me: "Which friends, honey?"

Liliana: "The ones that came in my room."

Me (now alarmed): "What?! Which ones that came in your room? Who came in your room?"

Liliana: "Mommy, the cows."

Me: "What cows?"

Liliana: "The cows from Chick-fil-A with Aspen."

Me: "Oh, I don't know honey."

She's having dreams and can finally tell us about them.

Awesome.

Boys and Babies

We have some great guys in our family. I saw clear evidence of this last week while I was in Colorado. The kids made the most of the attention the uncles and daddies were willing to give, and those of us with the cameras did the same. Enjoy:

They look a little bit alike, don't they? We got this shot of Tommie and Truett hanging out at Chili's with Tommie's mom during her lunch break.

There is never an end to the request for Uncle Grant to "hold you?!" He almost always obliges, no matter the number of children...which of course, is why Grant is the dangerous/loving uncle. ;)

Uncle Mike is basically a second father to Liliana. Here she is in Idaho Springs with Mike and Aspen. We had just eaten lunch at our favorite pizza joint, Beau Jo's, and decided to snap some shots in front of the frozen waterfall/water wheel.

Here's to men who: aren't afraid to shoot guns, sleep in snow caves, look death and health in the eyes, rise to the occasion, pray for wisdom, pray for forgiveness, kiss their wives, plan dates, play airplane for way too long, befriend the friendless, cook, try new things, seek out adventure, hike an unmarked path, say bedtime prayers, tell bedtime stories, swim with babies, make family a priority, make God a priority and love life- all in front of the children who call them heroes.

Thanks for helping to make our vacation to Colorado amazing.

We're Baaack...

We're home from Colorado, where our gorgeous niece, Aspen, had her first birthday party.

We had more fun than we could have imagined! And now of course, we're gonna work on getting back in gear here in Colorado(and getting rid of a nasty cold the kiddos shared with each other....and Tommie). Stories and photos to come.

Losing It...

Have you ever lost something so great, it sits in the middle of your chest for longer than you could have ever imagined...sometimes making you catch your breath because it's just too heavy, and sometimes.... just seeming invisible? Have you ever lost someone and it made you feel the same way?

Have you ever woken up and realized a dream you had was dead now, lost and gone because the time for that opportunity had passed you by? Did you cry for it? Did you remember it later, much later, and still miss it?

Have you ever grieved for a loss you know is coming? You know you shouldn't think about it, but you know you will be bereaved soon enough and it just all seems too much.

Loss, and Grief...something I've thought about lately because of circumstances in my own life, yes, but also in the lives of those I know.

How heavy the burden of grief, how unexpected the torment it can make you experience even in times of great happiness and growth. Sometimes, without warning, you realize your loss and it stretches out your insides so tightly that you're sure if you open your mouth, nothing but a small cry could escape...you wouldn't even have tears, just a small, small cry.

Grief is relative I'm learning. We may think what we're grieving for is too small to matter. But you know, if it's something we're grieving for, that just can't be true-it must matter. It may be hard for others to understand, but after reading a certain book, I think I have a healthier perspective on the issue.

All that to say, I've had a hard time with this move to Virginia. My grief over the loss of the life (as a whole) that I had in Colorado is real and sometimes sneaks up on me.

I'm learning to move on though. I'm also learning that moving on doesn't mean I won't sometimes need to cry or remember what I've lost....and remember the blessings I have now. Virginia is becoming my home.

As I'm set to return to Colorado next week for the first time since our move, I'm ready to remember that Virginia is where God called us. It's where our new memories will happen and it's where adventure will call my name for now. So for now, that's home and I'm ready to love it.

I know you have something you've lost. Know that grief is good and the future is bright.

Beignets

Well, the way I made them they would probably be called DOUGHNUTS.

Either way, they were magnifique.

Anyone else out there been to Cafe du Monde and gotten hooked on their beignets, perfectly powdered with sugar in a brown paper sack? You just can't recreate that French Quarter feel at home...

Anyway, happy Wednesday morning to me and Liliana!

Terrifyingly Awesome

On Sunday night in Virginia Beach, Tommie and I were home. We didn't have small group because of the snow, so we were looking forward to an early evening, trying to catch up on some sleep. We watched some shows and hopped in the shower, ready to head to bed as soon as we got out.

We got in and had just gotten our hair wet when, THE POWER WENT OUT!!!! There are no windows in our bathroom, so it was DARK. Tommie, without missing a beat, hopped out of the shower to walk through the house and make sure all was safe. Meanwhile, I'm still in the shower...in the DARK. Tommie was still looking around and the kids were sleeping, so I didn't want to yell for him, but after a minute or two, I started getting nervous. If someone was in the house, surely they would know exactly where I was cause the shower was running! But I didn't want to risk getting out in the dark either, especially if the boogeyman was already in my bedroom!

So I did the only thing I could think to do, I crouched down in the shower and looked for a weapon. I saw a shower pouf, a bar of soap, a shampoo bottle...and MY RAZOR. Obviously, I then unsheathed my trusty razor and laid in wait for whatever villain would be sorry enough to cross my and my Bic Soleil's path.

Thankfully, it was about 30seconds later when Tommie got back and did NOT surprise me and my weapon. He said the lights weren't out on the street (which made me glad for choosing a weapon), and that I should get out and follow him as he got a different weapon I will not name and searched the house more thoroughly-by iPhone flashlight. And I grabbed a candle. I was pretty nervous at this point, but the house was clear and we checked on the kids multiple times.

In fact, a piece of decor that my sister Kendra gave me came in quite useful as I checked on the kids and made my way through the house:

It's a blown-glass candle holder and candle from Williamsburg. You know, the kind with the little fingerhole and tray that pilgrims used. It rocked.

Anyway, crisis averted, Tommie and I called the power company and found out our side of the street is on a different circuit than the rest of our neighborhood, which is why all the other lights were still on. We also found out, at 10p.m., that our power would probably be out until 2a.m.(it was). So we put some extra blankets on the kiddos and our bed, sat by a fire in the fireplace for a while and then resumed our plan of going to bed early.

And I dreamt of killing people with my razor....no, just kidding. I didn't really have dreams at all that night. Thank Goodness.

Snowy Weekend!!!

This weekend we had a welcome, but long-forgotten, unexpected visitor: SNOW!

We heard there might be some snow, but we were really only thinking flurries. Much to our surprise, we woke up Saturday morning to 6-8" of the lovely white magic maker! Liliana played outside with the neighbor kids and then Tommie, Wayne and Kendall had a MASSIVE snowball fight in the backyard. Even Maple seemed to be happily reminded of our former snow glory in CO...she played outside for probably 20min with Tommie and the boys despite the fact that the snow was up to her chest!

What a fun weekend. And there's still snow outside!

Also, for no reason, this:
p.s. I have a great story about something terrifyingly awesome that happened last night that I don't have time to post right now. So check back later for a post that will surely make you laugh...

I Will Finish This Project!

Okay, so recently my dad sent me money to complete a craft of my choice. Knowing how I am, I was concerned...I have a bad habit of starting something only to never truly complete it. When someone is being so generous, well, it made me labor over the choices for far to long. Finally, one night, I decided to make a quilt. My sister Kristin has made a few that are too cute for words and I decided I CAN DO IT! (don't you think I can too?!?!)

Here is a picture of the quilt I'm going to make:

The fabrics shown are gorgeous, but both very expensive and very scarce nowadays. That line of fabric has been out for a while and it's not being printed anymore. So I scoured the web looking for good substitutes. I found a great fabric site and chose the following fabrics:

I had a difficult time picking coordinating fabrics, so I got what they call a "Fat Quarter Stack" of coordinating fabrics. I LOVE them.

The most daunting part will likely be the ruffle, which I've never done before, but Kristin seems certain she can direct me through it, even at a distance. So I'm crossing my fingers and chose this fabric for the ruffle(although it will have to be combined with another to make enough fabric to go round):

So, time to dig in my heels and COMPLETE a project for once! I'm going to do this one and I'm going to post the results, hopefully sooner rather than later! Actually, I'm hope to get a lot of it done before I head out to Colorado in a few weeks. That way my sister can help me and then I KNOW I'll get it done! Wish me luck!

NFC Championships

Tommie isn't always into NFL football, but the championships are here and we've been watching football all day.

Lili liked it though because Daddy let her stay up late and cuddle while watching a little bit of the man .vs. man .vs. pig ball. She said, "Mommy, silly football. They fall down!' Yes, Liliana. Yes they do.