Yes, we sense trouble ahead…

If you are the baby of the family, I imagine it’s tempting to want to always be treated as the baby. You get a lot of attention and spoiling.  Well, when you are 2…you just flat out admit it.

Yes, we are totally raising our eyebrows at this and can see that there is trouble ahead for us. As my mom articulated, ”She has your number! Just wait till she’s a teenager and she wants that expensive prom dress. She’ll pull out this argument.” Little does she know that she has 2 first-borns for parents…and we can see through this completely.

But for now we will laugh and chuckle at her honesty. This is the on-going discussion we’ve been having this week:
“Don’t you know you are a big girl now?”
“No! I’m momma’s baby!”

And fake sneezing is hilarious.

for ashley

A little while back my cousin, Ashley, wrote a post including an old cousins photo.  She was shocked that I didn't comment on the incredibly flattering photo of myself.  :)  Well, here's my response.  Ash, as you enjoy the flashbacks that I can offer...just remember you opened this door.  Heehee.

The 4 of us grew up close.  I loved sharing childhood with my cousins and sister.  I'm still so grateful that they are close and we are still making memories.

this girl makes me smile

Last week was a hard week.  It was Bible club week, which is enjoyable & exhausting.  On top of that, every one of our 3 girls got a stomach virus all on different days.  It was a nasty bug.  There was a lot of laundry!  I'll spare you all the details.  I had 2 sleepless nights...that I still feel like I'm recovering from one week later.

I've been tired.  I took only a handful of pictures of club stuff.  So I went to go look through those photos and I found these.  I barely remember taking them...and I can't tell you what day this was.  But they made me smile.  I love bathtime pictures.

First of all, my toddler is contained...when else does that happen? Second, she's happy which sometimes (I'll be honest) feels like a rare moment in this fussy-toddler-phase.  Finally, for all of it's challenges I love this age.  I have a feeling that I will treasure these pictures more than most.  Her little chubby hand.  Her last baby curls (aka the rat tail...as my sister calls it).  Her fascinations with water & bath toys...which lead to water everywhere.  All of this encourages me when I stop to think about it.  And as one-tired-mom...I needed the encouragement and the smile that this little girl brings to my face.

backyard Bible club started today!

Tonight was our first night of Backyard Bible Clubs. This is our 4th year to have a team of teenagers from our church come and lead a club with our neighborhood kids. They play fun relay games, the team teaches them a lesson from the Bible, and shares the message of the gospel each night with kids. Our family looks forward to it every year!

She's two!

I have quite a bit of catching up to do on here.  I want to share trip pictures from our big roadtrip to Virginia + tons of other stuff.  There is one big thing that I need to do first.  We had a birthday over here recently!  Our "little bits" turned two on June 29th.  She's two!  That's crazy!

We celebrated with Adam's family...then some close friends...then my family.  It was just right.

panama city beach, florida :: june 2010

My sister and I traveled to Florida with the girls last month.  We got to tag along with our youth group's beach camp trip.  Adam was there with the junior high & senior high students acting as interim youth pastor.  (We didn't see him much that week actually).

It turned out to be a great week for us.  My girls loved playing with the teenagers.  They were all really sweet playing with them in the pool and on the beach.  I loved the time with my sister.  No joke, when we got back home...I went through Rachel withdrawals for a couple of days.  It was a blast being roommates for 5 days.

Our friend, Bobby, was the retreat speaker.  I really enjoyed the series he taught entitled Thirsty.  You can listen to the series here.  It was surreal going on the trip with Bobby & Amy because we went to beach camp with them many times when their kids were as young as ours.  This summer all their kids were on the trip & in the youth group.  It was such a visual to me of how fast these parenting years go!

One of our favorite memories from the trip...

Our 2 oldest girls got to go on a late night trip to a go-cart place with the teenagers (hanging with Dad a little in there too).  Everyone had glow sticks that night.  Our oldest daughter, the little entrepreneur, charms a bunch of the youth into giving her their bracelets.  On the ride back she attempts to sell them back to their original owners - "for a penny, quarter or dollar," she says.  She made over $3 in change...we were so proud.  Ha,ha.  She may be a bit of a swindler, but we praised her entrepreneurial sense.

Here is a glimpse of our trip.  No oil in sight at that point...we were elated.

Here are slide shows of how much fun the youth group had - here and here.