Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Arboretum Spring Fun

The family went to the Dallas Arboretum Saturday morning with donuts in hand. It was a beautiful day and the flowers were breath-taking. This is the time of year I love Dallas the most.

Amazing!

Jude and Liam made new friends, mooched some food off a nice Asian family and rolled down the big hill by the lake and the koi fish ponds. They had so much fun they didn't want to leave, but Liam was getting cranky.
Jude
Liam
Beautiful!
Oh my goodness, the blossoming trees are the most amazing things ever.  The sunlight was shining through them perfectly. God  definitely had an incredible imagination and His color palette is second to none!  When I see all of this beauty, hmm, well it is humbling.

Then I see these beauties and their silliness and laugh my head off, all the while grateful for the gifts that God has entrusted to me. Liam so badly wanted to roll down the hill like his brother, but couldn't figure it out so he scooted down backwards. Oh well, it's close right?
Dad and Liam
Dad and Jude
Dad and Mom


Monday, March 22, 2010

Eggs, Snow and Cocoa


This is what happens when you dye Easter eggs with your four year old...he turns into the Incredible Hulk! Later in the day he sucked his thumb and wouldn't ya know it - his mouth and teeth turned green too!

There's a saying in Texas, "if you don't like the weather...wait a while." This saying was never more true than over this past week.  We went from 70's to 60's to 70's to 50's to 30's with SNOW!  What?  We were supposed to get an inch and we got more like three on the first official day of Spring!


So, what do you do when it's Spring Break and it looks like this in your backyard?  Have snowball fights and homemade Hot Cocoa with lots of marshmellows and left-over Resurrection rolls! What else?



Adam made a pretty awesome snow angel and we ALL threw snowballs. Liam's were pretty tiny, but he definitely joined in on the fun! Who knew I would get to use my Target bag wellies again? ha ha ha

Friday, March 19, 2010

All In A Day's Work

Yesterday was a pretty incredible day:

Easter Egg "Hunt" at church.






Jude showed me that he knows how to blow a bubble with his gum now and he REALLY does!

Liam busted his lip AGAIN! This time the lip is pretty swollen, bruised and contorted. Poor guy, he's clumsy and a dare-devil. Not a good combo.

Today has been a challenge:

Liam slept poorly last night.

Mommy has a major headache even after two cups of coffee.

Jude is way too busy!

Target was a joke because trying to shop while your little one is screaming his head off is not easy.

Did I mention I have a headache?

Jude and I did Resurrection Rolls. I'm amazed at how simple and delicious and fun this was.


Next up, dying Easter Eggs. I must be a glutton for punishment today, but the show must go on!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Teachable Moments

Since becoming a mom I have tried very hard to meet each day's challenges with courage, humor and lots of prayer. I try to take the moments that make me crazy and turn them into "teachable moments." Let me just say that with 2 boys, four and one,  I have a lot of opportunities.

Monday was yet another gloomy and chilly day in Dallas. I had planned to take the boys to the arboretum with their Gramma. No go. Instead we went to the mall play area. As we were going home we stopped at a department store to get balloons for the boys and look a sneakers for Jude. He's in a Nike phase right now and pointed out a pair of $65 shoes that he wanted quite badly. $65 bucks? I don't even spend that much on my own shoes! Ok, I'm getting off on a tangent here. Anyway, Jude melted down because I wouldn't buy him a pair of shoes. I mean M-E-L-T-E-D! It was NOT pretty. We had a talk in the parking lot and soon the tears dried up. He's four! Geeze it starts so early these days.

To try and make a "teachable moment" out of this madness I took him to our church on Tuesday. They have a water pump like the ones Living Water International sets up in Africa to provide clean drinking water. We sat outside and talked about the kids in Africa, read a small book about their living conditions, schools and daily chores and then talked about our many blessings. I showed Jude the pump, asked him to take off his shoes and socks, told him he needed to pump water into his bucket and then carry the bucket all the way around the building (it's a big building, about a 1/4 mile walk.)





While walking around the church he cried the entire time. He stubbed his toe lightly three times and the crying got louder with each small stub. I continued to tell him about the children in Africa walking to their pumps to gather water for their family. I told him to pretend he was one of them and that if he didn't get the water back to his village, he and his family wouldn't be able to bathe, cook, drink or eat. He just kept crying. Once we finished I told him to dump that water back into the pond and put his shoes on. He said, "I don't ever want to do that again." We went inside to have a snack and talk more. I asked what he'd learned and he said, "nothing." Great! Oh well. I had, at the very least, planted a seed.




(Above are pictures of our church. You can see why I like to just hang out there right?) I let the boys run around for a bit and then we went home for dinner.  Over dinner Adam asked more questions about what he had done that day. And then I got affirmation for a hard day's work. Jude said, "I wouldn't want to have to go get water because I would be scared to have to leave my family and walk all that way. I would be scared to have to go away and get the water." Praise the Lord! If he learned nothing about materialism, at least he learned that he has been very blessed by the Lord and others are struggling.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Life with Boys


There's always more laundry to do than I can ever get done. (Jude changes at least 3 times a day.)


This is what I find in the bathroom if I leave the door open. (Thank you very much Liam.)

And this is what I hear when playing outside with Jude and a big roly poly. "I kill roly polies sometimes." Me: "why?" Jude: "So they can see what heaven's like." Duh mom... what was I thinking?  Obviously that's why you would kill one!  Hello!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Update

It's been really nice outside and we've been spending a lot of time in our backyard.  Thank the Lord for our home! The boys have been great and challenging.  I guess that's how it goes with raising kids! I came across the above photo of Liam from last year as I was going through old photos. He is growing up so fast! Where does the time go?

Here's a couple of photos I captured of the boys during their few moments indoors last week.
Oh gosh, they are so sweet.  I sure do love them.  Yesterday was a busy day for the family. We had a birthday party, washed the car, played lots of basketball, went on a bike ride to the track (only to have our plans thwarted by a flat tire on the jogger and Jude's bicycle chain coming off!)

Jude's allergies are giving him a really tough time right now with swollen eyes, lots of sneezing and a drippy nose. Liam was plagued with lots of falls yesterday. He's a brute, but clumsy. To start the day, he fell off our back patio right onto his head (face/head first). At the birthday party he wanted so badly to play with the big kids and busted his lip open while playing basketball. Blood was everywhere and all he cared about was getting back on the court. Then he fell off a scooter right onto the back of his head - bonk!  Poor little guy; he had a rough day. But, we ended the day strong with lots of sliding in the backyard, showers and a pancake dinner with eggs and bacon followed up with some bowling.  It must have been a successful day because Jude went to bed at 8:00 and didn't wake up til 8:00. Wahoo! I guess that's what it takes these days to wear this guy out. Lord, give me strength and energy please!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Sunny Dayz

It's been a crazy winter here in Dallas, Texas. The sun finally decided to peek out the other day and bring temps into the high 60's. Unfortunately Daddy had to work. What's a Mommy to do when it's beautiful outside, she doesn't want to spend money, doesn't have much time, needs to get her kids exhausted and wants to relax too?  She takes her boys to the Dallas Arboretum!



We ran a bit, looked at the frogs and their water spouts a lot and then went to the Japanese water gardens.  The koi fish were a little lazy - I think the water is still cold. But there is this amazing patch of grass right by all the water features that was perfect for laying in the sun and rolling around with the boys. It was so wonderful.  I was having the time of my life.  The sounds of laughter and waterfalls all around was such a delight! Then a guy came up and asked if he could take some pictures of me and the boys enjoying our day.  Sure!  I know what it can be like for budding photographers, right?!

The boys did so great that they got suckers to eat on the way home.  All in all, a pretty successful outing.

Spidey: The Sequel

Watch out all you villains.  There's a new Spidey in town!


Yup, he's finally done it. Liam is so big that he can wear his brother's old costumes. Kinda makes me sad.  It's happening so fast! The good news is, we've gotten a lot of miles out of that $20.00. Jude is super excited. He is asking all the time if Liam wants to put on his Spiderman costume.  And of course Liam says, "yeah."