Pictures and thoughts and stuff.

We had our second round of Thanksgiving last night at my mom's.  We really enjoy spending time with Brad's kids and grandchildren.  This morning, much to Max's delight, Josh served in Max's sunday school room.  As we were just walking down the hall to his classroom, Max's eyes filled with tears and he started saying, "no...no...no..no..". Poor little guy.  I hope he starts enjoying his sunday school soon, or, at least stop being terrified!  Josh said that all of the little toddlers were glued to him the entire time.

Claire continues to grow up before our eyes.  Yesterday we had a playdate with the cousins at Jesse and Ben's house.  Afterwards, the four moms went out to lunch while the dads took the kids home to nap.  When we're home, I am always the one who has to put Claire to nap and bed.  I tuck her in and make sure to leave the door all the way open.  Yesterday, Claire told Josh, "I'll tuck myself in and I'll close my door, ALL BY MYSELF".  Sure enough, she closed the door (what?!) and he didn't hear a peep for a couple hours!  And, this morning, she ran right into her sunday school room all by herself, pulled up a chair, and started coloring.  Didn't need any help finding a spot from me.  These are big milestones for Claire.

Precious Bailey at my mom's house.


Max, Cambrie, and Claire.



Took some close-up pictures this afternoon, to capture the little details of her sweet face.






After an enjoyable visit from Auntie Heather and Uncle Sean, we put up the tree together.


Daddy, Claire and Stella


Taking a break from the tree to steal a kiss from my sweet boy.



It was such a wonderful four-day break.  Sigh.  I am feeling God's presence already this holiday season.  We just finished an amazing sermon series at church, titled "worship, grow, impact".  At the "Impact" service, all several thousand of us were individually anointed with oil on our forehead and sent out to impact others for God, in the name of Jesus Christ.  I'm praying that every day of this holiday season is a holy day. 30 days. There's only 30 days between now and Christmas Day, when this season is all over.  These days go by in a flash.  Especially the weekdays when we're in a crazy busy routine. I'm trying to be intentional about noticing each day and making each day holy (I love how holy means "set apart").  I have almost all of my Christmas shopping done, so I don't need to focus on the hustle and bustle of the stores.  I'm hosting a 2nd annual ladies baking day at my house next weekend and looking forward to attending our church's Women's Christmas brunch with my dear friend Rachel.  I'm looking forward to all of the little things with my children- baking, wrapping presents, driving around the neighborhood in the evening to stare at the lights in wonder.  Many different celebrations with family. Quiet evenings after the kids go to bed, sitting with my honey in front of the Christmas tree.  I pray that these 30 days aren't just a blur and soon a distant memory.  I love this season.

Thanksgiving (I'm back)

My blog slacking knows no end.  Once I found out that I reached my maximum capacity for photos on Blogger my motivation declined dramatically.  Because how fun is a blog post without pictures?  Everyone knows you read blogs for the pictures.  BUT- I am now hosting the pictures from Photobucket and just pasting the HTML code so we're back in business.

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving today.  We started off the day with a light breakfast at Chris and Becky's house.  One of the things I am most thankful for today is the birth of my two new nieces and one new nephew, all in the past six months.  Maverick Barrett, Mara AnnMarie, and Bailey Rose-- all three such a blessing to our family!

Claire is thankful for her new cousins too.  We both love to hold the babies.



The three cousins on "my side".  This picture doesn't do anything to lessen my yearning for three children.


Max just adores babies.  He talks about them even when they're not around. "Baby Maverit precious...baby Mara precious.... baby Bai-ey Rose precious..." he chants.  I think you're precious too, buddy.



My dad with his grandkids.


The beautiful new family!  More than ever, I love having them live just down the street, in the same neighborhood! (Did Becky really have a baby just seven days ago?  She looks amazing!)


Then we headed to the farm for our big Thanksgiving lunch with Omi, Papa and the Parks.


Max learned today that his daddy knows how to drive a tractor. Max got to go on a long tractor-ride, lucky dude.


Can you believe we're adding a fifth newborn cousin to this daycare clan in a couple weeks?  God bless Omi!


After naps, the extended family came over for dessert and a playdate.  The kids are so lucky to grow up not only with their immediate cousins but with their second cousins (or is it first cousins, once removed? I can't keep that straight for the life of me) and great aunts and great uncles too!


After the playdate, we went to my mom's house to have dinner with her and Grandpa Brad.  She made a delicious pork roast with potatoes and carrots.  This was my first attempt ever at using the self-timer on my DSLR.  I love Max's cheese face.


We got home at 7:00PM, skipped bath and put the kids straight to bed!  We're all exhausted but happy to have ate so much amazing food  spent the day with our incredible families.  So thankful, for so much.

And we have Thanksgiving, round two on Saturday!

I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30 

Three

Claire, to me, is incredible.  Claire also happens to be three.  And three years old is a tough, tough age.  Age two has got NOTHING on age three.  And Claire's incredible-ness and her three-ness can do 180s on you like nobody's business.

I have a hard time articulating to grandparents, friends, etc, who aren't currently parenting a three year old themselves (you understand this though, Rachel!) why Claire can be so challenging and make my blood pressure go through the roof in a split second.  Because, in reality, she's wonderful like 92% of the time.   She's affectionate and playful and tender-hearted and mostly obedient and hilarious and smart and creative and observant and helpful most of the time.  Which is why her three-ness outbreaks cause the world to spin until the three-ness gets under wraps again.

Let me illustrate this.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the mall (as you may have read in my previous post).  Both children behaved wonderfully.  We enjoyed our time together and I was proud of them.  Claire and Max were talking sweetly to each other in the backseat and I was enjoying listening to them and the music on the radio.  A song came on that both Claire and I like and I turned it up just a notch.

Claire: "Mom, is this our song????"

I didn't know we had "a song". 

Me: "Sure, honey, this is our song."

Claire: "NOOOOO!! It's NOOOTTTTTTTT our song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (while whining, screaming, and kicking the back of my seat repeatedly) 

Me: "Ok! It's not our song!"

Claire: "BUT MOM!  MOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!   BUT IS IT OUR SONG?!?!?!?!?!"

Me: "I don't know if it's our song!!  Do you want it to be our song???"

Claire: "IT'S NOT OUR SOOONNNNGGGGG!!!!"  (still whining, screaming, and kicking my seat) 

Me: "I understand! It's not our song!"

Claire: "I WANT OUR SONNNGGG!!!!"

Me: stop talking.  There's no beating three-ness. Deep breathes.  In and out.

And just like that, it was over.  And back to flying unicorns, puppies and rainbows.  And that, my friends, is three.

Shoe shopping

I HATE shoe shopping (#firstworldproblem) but I had to find shoes today that I can wear with a suit on Tuesday for a work thing.  The only thing that makes shoe shopping less painful for me?  Bringing my children along.  So this afternoon I loaded up both the toddlers and the double stroller and left Daddy at home watching the football game in peace, to head to the mall to shop for shoes.

They are such good little shoppers.  I've trained them well. They both sat quietly in their stroller, each holding and munching on a banana.  And then just looking around and observing all the people.  I received several compliments from various shoppers on how quiet and patient they were and of course a couple questions on whether they were twins.  (This was starkly different from the scene after dinner tonight when Max got THREE timeouts in a matter of 15 minutes for throwing a tractor at Claire's head, biting and pinching me, and hitting his father.  So, yeah, #NOTperfect).

On the drive home I was decompressing while listening to Casting Crowns and overheard this sweet conversation in the backseat between Claire and Max.

Max: "Puppy get you.  Puppy get you".  (He means: puppy get ME) (He's scared of puppies)

Claire: "Max, a puppy won't get you....  I will always keep you safe....  You have nothing to worry about..."

And that was my reward for suffering through shoe shopping.