So Fresh From God...



Makayla after applying her eye shadow...

Charles Dickens once said "It is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us".  I love it.  So Fresh From God. 

And sometimes, I find myself repeating that quote over and over again in my head...but just adding on to the end a few of my own words.

It is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from god, love us...

...and want to wipe us. - Yes, if you're a mama, you know how exciting it is to go to the bathroom alone. Tonight, as I was going to the bathroom, Makayla asked me if I went poop or pee.  I told her pee and she took some toilet paper and told me "Okay.  I will wipe you".  Of ourse, I didn't let her wipe me.  I thanked her but told her that I was a big girl and could do it by myself.

...and end every single day looking like a tattoo addict. - Mason thoroughly enjoys covering his entire body with stamps and markers - every.single.night.  I could just throw the markers away, but what fun is that?  I'm convinced that he is surely learning something from covering his body in art.

Between my wiper and tattoo artist, Makayla and Mason are continually making me smile and reminding me of how incredibly blessed I am.  I can't even begin to imagine how much more exciting life is going to be at the end of this year.  Going from a family of four to a family of five is going to bring us more joy than I can possibly dream of.



From Dinner to Believing In Miracles, And Every Song In Between

For dinner tonight we had pancakes and scambled eggs. We ate in the living room and watched Max And Ruby. After dinner, the tornado hit.

The kids got crazy, baskets of toys were dumped, tents popped up, tunnels were built in the hallway, balls were bouncing, clothes came off, this mom laughed, and the music came on.

And the music came on…

“Sweet Caroline” blared over the stereo echoing off of the walls and wood floor. Mason was laughing uncontrollably and Makayla was spinning circles in the kitchen - carefree…“Haaaands, Touching haaaands, Reaching oooout, Touching meee, Touching yoooou, Sweeeeet Caroline, Good times never seemed so good”…Yes, Good times never seemed so good.

Then, I started singing along to “I Will Survive”. Sounding just like Gloria Gaynor, I belted out “First I was afraid, I was petrified”…and you could totally tell my kids were petrified. I think. I don’t if they were scared of my singing or freaked out because I was so good.

Then it was time for “Ice Ice Baby”. Makayla tried the entire song to form a gangster sign with her fingers while Mason stood, grinning ear to ear, beating his hands to his thighs with the beat. The boy impressed me. He definitely doesn’t get his rhythm from his mama. I was in band and could play the flute beautifully, but for some reason, have zero rhythm outside of the flute. I’m the person in the crowd clapping OFFbeat from everybody else!

I tried to slow it down a bit with number 5 on the CD - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole’s version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. You know, that beautiful island version that always makes me teary-eyed because it’s that one song I played for Makayla when she was in my womb. But no. The little ones were not up for “slowing” it down.

So we quickly moved on to…

Jason Mrazs “I’m Yours” (It’s Our God Forsaken Right To Be Loved)

Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” (That Makayla HAD to sing all by herself)

OAR’s “Hey Girl” (Allowed for a quick reminiscent moment of my high school years)

Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” (Had Mason “snapping” away. Sooo not the snapping song, but he was concentrating so hard with his little fingers)

A couple Zac Brown Band songs (That made me feel so good)

…And we ended our crazy escapades with Mason walking the obstacle course of toys, gates, and tents while Makayla and I played catch (with her catching the ball every single time causing her to beam brightly), listening to Hot Chocolate’s “I Believe In Miracles”…and yes, I do believe in miracles!

You Wanna Know What I Love

The other night Makayla was sitting on Grandma Allen's table putting a puzzle together.  After every piece she placed, she smiled and clapped her hands together. She was excited and happy with each step of the way, not just with the end result. When I see her do things like this, I can't help but wonder how much better this world would be if adults carried on even the tiniest bit of these characteristic from childhood.

I also love how much Makayla loves her brother.  When Mason and I take Makayla to school on Tuesdays, we always have to enter the doors by pushing the automatic handicapped button.  What makes me smile is when Makayla says "Buddy, you can push the button this morning"!  As much as Makayla loves to push the button herself, she always lets Mason do it.  And when I try to talk Makayla into letting herself push the button, she always tells me that it's alright - Mason can do it, he loves to do it.  And what makes me smile even more is when Makayla gets mad when another kid pushes the button before we can.  Why does it make me smile?  Because I love to watch how mad she gets that somebody took that away from her brother and then I love to watch her "calm" Mason down, as if he was upset.  She tells him that it's alright and we'll wait for the door to close so he can push the button.  I love how much she cares about making Mason happy and I love how good it makes her feel to let Mason do the honor of opening the doors for us when that is something that she loves to do so much herself.  She's a good girl.

And you wanna know what else I love?

I love that Mason has to hug me and cuddle me and bury his body into my arms when he is getting in trouble.  Whenever I have to scold Mason or be stern with him, he'll immediately begin crying, run to me, and hug me.  I love it.  I love how it's his sweet little way of saying "I'm sorry, mommy".  I love that he is so sensitive.

 

What I also love (and hate) is our exchange of good-nights.  Every night, after tucking him into bed, as I walk out his door, he'll sweetly cry out "byyyyyye" and when I look back I see his little hand waving in the air by the glow of his night light.  Oooooh, it makes me want to cry.  I love it because I love the sound of his tiny little voice and I love that it's his way of telling me good night.  I understand.  I'm leaving so he thinks he should say "bye", just has he has learned over the past year...but geez!  There are only so many "good byes" a mother can take at bedtime.  It's time we start working on "night night"!

There are so many things I love about each of my kids.  They are two individuals that bring more to my life than I ever thought possible. 

Cat Baths

 Last night I was laying on the floor in Makayla's room admiring Mason as he was applying Makayla's lipstick to his face/cheeks/nose/chin.

I looked behind me for Makayla and she was up on her bed, in only her underwear, LICKING Rascal. Vomiting up all over the floor, I frantically asked her what she was doing. She looked at me as if I was crazy and said she was giving Rascal (our cat) a bath.

Tsk Tsk. I thought she knew better than that...

After scaring the daylights out of her and telling her how disgusting it is to lick a cat, I couldn't hold my laughter in.

...and I'm still laughing about it today.

Ray Of Sunshine

Coming in at 2.5cm long and a heart rate of 175 beats/min, baby is due to join us on November 9th!

*************************************

You Are My Sunshine...

and I can't wait to add one more ray of sunshine to our lives!

Babies will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.

Easter 2012

Happy Easter!!

What a beautiful day we had!

• In the days leading up to Easter, we participated in several egg hunts and tried to get used to the Easter Bunny.  We had a lot of fun with the egg hunt, but no such luck with the Easter Bunny.  I don't blame the kids, though.  The Easter egg hunts have been fun to watch this year.  Mason woud run for the first egg, pick it up, and put it in his basket.  He'd look around for us and start telling us about the "ball" that he had.  At that point, he'd be done with the egg hunt.  He would sit down and play with the egg, aka ball.  He's satisfied with his one egg.  Makayla, on the other hand, runs wildly around until you remind her that she needs to pick up the eggs. She'll finally bend down to pick up an egg, shake it vigorously, and put it in her basket.  She'll take her time with each egg to make sure there is something in it before she puts it in her basket.  She's also the kid out there that finds the broken ones and stops to put them back together.  She's definitely not competitive, yet, when it comes to Easter egg hunts.
• Today, we enjoyed a great church service with our family.  We then headed out to a cookout at Grandma and Grandpa Allen's for lunch and then went to Grandma and Grandpa Curry's for a traditional Easter dinner with ham, potatoes, and the fixins'.  We're blessed to be able to spend Easter with our families.  The cousins got to have another Easter egg hunt together at Grandma and Grandpa Curry's -  Makayla was getting eggs for Kyleigh, and Kyleigh was getting eggs for Mason.  It made me smile.
• The Easter bunny left Makayla some Cry Baby (filled with extra sour flavor crystals) gum.  If you like things sour, check it out!  I put a piece in my mouth as Makayla was going through her Easter basket and, of course, started going into convulsions and rolling on the floor.  I couldn't finish it and had to clean up a puddle of saliva and tears after I spit it out.  Seeing that it was horrible, Makayla immediately said she wanted to play a joke on Grandpa Allen and give him a piece in church.  So...we brought some gum to church.  Of course, grandpa didn't want any gum - but grandma, Aunt Nina, and cousin Holly did!  And like I said, I recommend buying and sharing some Cry Baby gum to find the humor in this story (but be sure to find some with the extra sour flavor crystals).  Makayla then wanted to share her gum with Kyleigh and Kole...and Aunt Jenny and Gage.  Thanks to Cry Baby gum, we had an abundant amount of laughter today - the type of laughter that brings tears rolling down your cheeks.  And what makes it even a little funnier to me is that Makayla is the one who wants to play this joke on people by giving them her gum, yet she makes the statement "I want to break the Easter bunny's hips for bringing me this gum".  I, of course, was shocked at what she said and told her that is not a very nice thing to say at all.  I asked her where she heard that from and she told me that the Easter Bunny taught her to say that.

Not only did we have a wonderful weekend with our family celebrating Easter, but I volunteered some time raising money for Relay for Life.  Our team had a bake sale and sold rib-eye and porkchop sandwiches at our local grocery store.  Those who know me, know I don't really "bake", so I had a great friend from Fudge-N-Things donate some yummy fudge to put in our bake sale.  Is that cheating?  I don't know, but what I do know is that we raised over $450 just this weekend and that's what is important!

Let the resurrection joy lift us from loneliness and weakness and despair to strength and beauty and happiness. ~Floyd W. Tomkins

Mason...And His Drinks

Mason - he's quiet, shy, loves his mommy, and is very smart!

The other day we went to McDonalds, a McDonalds we had never been to...

And as Makayla was playing up in the tubes and slides, I frantically searched the play area for Mason. 

Where did I find him?

Hiding under a bench drinking gulping his sister's Sprite...

He looked up at me out of the corner of his watery eyes with a look of "take it away, I dare ya".  I smiled at him, let him finish his little act of sneakiness, and helped him out from under the bench so he wouldn't hit his head.

I love it.  I love his thinking.  And I love that I got to experience this, something I never would have been able to see my child do (sneaking a siblings soda under a bench) had I only had one baby.

I'm thankful.

I'm blessed.

Here's another picture of Mason in love with his drink.  The other night we had Dairy Queen for dinner and took it the park.  Forget the slides, forget the swings, forget running around and playing at the park.  Nothing was more important to Mason at this moment than his very own blue raspberry Arctic Rush.  He stood in that same spot, like a statue, chugging down his drink.  He didn't move until it was gone.  He cracks me up!  He already knows - when you got something good, you better hold onto it with all you got!

A son is...

Author: unknown

Trust with dirt on his face,

Beauty with a cut on his finger,

Wisdon with bubble gum in his hair, and the

Hope of the future with

a frog in his pocket.

I love my little boy so much!