Adoption in the Works!

Yep - we're adopting!  His name is Alex, and he is 10 months old with curly hair and big brown eyes.  He also has 4 legs, a wet nose and dog breath. :)  We met him tonight and it was love at first sight!  After a fun meet and greet with this little toy poodle (albeit somewhat strange since it was in a Sears parking lot in Durham!), we headed straight over to the giant pet supply chain and came home with a trunk load of supplies.  We're waiting anxiously for Monday when we will head back to said parking lot to pick her up and bring her home (a dance recital and out of town wedding this weekend mean having to wait a few days).  Fancy is tha-rilled with the dog - kind of the same reaction we saw with Hi-Hat's new drum set.  She's the creature lover in the family and the main reason for getting the dog.  But I'm not kidding myself that she'll take sole responsibility for her pet.  She is only 4-almost-5.  Hi-Hat had no allergic reactions after handling the dog - we kept him allergy med free all day to test this - and he seems pretty happy with it, too.  Even little Rella, who is timid with animals, giggled and squealed and rubbed the dog.  More pictures to come after Monday.  I ga-ron-tee it.

 

look at them - they are going to be best friends!  He looks like he belongs to her already!

Living Water

I may be posting a lot of pictures this week.  Fancy's end of year class cookout was Sunday, several outings are planned for the week, Fancy's recital dress rehearsal, oh, and I'm playing wedding photographer this weekend...  Sometimes I feel like I spend WAY too much time with mr. mac, culling and editing photos.  It distracts me from a lot.  My prayer this spring has been that I find time to stay in the Word.  So. Hard. For. Me.  Too many distractions.  So I am grateful when God uses some of the images I capture to draw me back to His Word.  There's got to be some kind of ministry in this!  I'm praying about that, too.   So are you thirsty?  My girls found this trickling pump this morning, but Christ has something even better!

2 Cute 2 Bea 4 Gotten

August 2008 & June 1, 2009

(I think the only part of her that has grown is her hair!)

Little Rella is 2 today! I decided last minute to take her out for a little birthday photo session. We went to my favorite stomping ground (but don't stomp the flowers, please), and she put up with me for about an hour.

It's a bit bewildering to think that she's already 2! We tend to baby her, trying to keep her little as long as we can, but I suppose she does act like a 2-year-old these days. Here's what I love about this little thing ~

- she's a goof. She likes to tease and tries to make jokes, anything to get a laugh.

- she's still missing 4 very prominent teeth, so she still looks like a baby to me!

- she is very articulate.

- she loves loves loves her big brother. she likes to play cars with him.

- her current favorite saying is "i do it by myself."

- she can throw a tantrum with the best of them, but only if she knows you're looking.

- she loves loves loves her guys - a dozen or so animals and blankies that must be accounted for each night. she talks to them in her bed.

- she loves to accessorize. she often wears goggles around town, and she has been know to run errands with a pink baseball glove on her head ("ma pink hat").

- she has a very strong southern accent for some words. my favorite is when she says "ma ha-owse" (my house).

- she loves pizza, buh-shyes (french fries), hot dogs, and icees. she says, " i eat dem in ma ma-owf" [my mouth].

- she doesn't complain when I put her in a dress.

- she loves shoes. we have been spotted at wal mart with her wearing giant fuzzy duck slippers. nice.

- she likes to shop for clothes. she fingers them and says "oh, dat cute!"
- she is a pink and purple kind of gal.

- she has named herself "big girl." Is your name Rella? "no, I big girl." How old are you" "I big girl."
- when you tell her something exciting (like, " look out the window. there's a chick-fil-a!"), she makes a startled/excited face, forming a little O with her mouth and gasps. again, anything for a reaction.
- she is chick-fil-a's biggest fan.

- she loves jelly beans.
- she likes lions, zebras and ostriches. she pretends to be a lion eating the ostrich in her "big cats of the african plains" pop-up book.
- she loves maisy. I have become quite good at drawing maisy, charlie and "a-woo-wa."
- she totally runs like a girl - flapping arms and everything.

- her hair just keeps getting blonder and curlier.

- she wants to go to school. mostly so she can go inside with ms. jennifer and eat snack.

- she wants to wear "un-a-pess" [underpants]. over her diaper.

- she always decides whether I park in the driveway or the garage.

- she wants to buckle her own carseat straps.
- she will pretty much only eat breakfast using her Cars spoon.
- she talks nonstop and says everything that's on her mind. there's a lot on her mind.

When I was pregnant with her, I prayed for a round-faced, roly-poly little girl with red curls. I'd say 3 out of 4 is not too bad! She is so full of personality, and I can't imagine our family without her. Happy birthday to my sweet little baby girl!

Pages

Thought I would share a few pages I've worked on this week.  Maeve's lovely bridal shower and our day at the museum yesterday and Fancy with her snails.

(totally swiped the new signature from Beth!!)

Mid week musings

I think I'm on course for another random post. A college friend had this link posted on facebook, and I had to share: Awkward Family Photos. I honestly haven't vetted the site, but the first few entries cracked me up. I've taken a few lately that seem somewhat awkward to me, but after seeing these I feel much better! I'll take a stiff dad over these any day.

Bugs. Why is it that when we have these little kids that we love so much, we're willing to entertain thoughts we otherwise never would? Such as: "true, one child is very allergic to dogs, but surely we can make it work." OR "maybe I can find a secure habitat and Fancy could have [insert disgusting bugs other than ants here] as pets." Can you keep ladybugs or bess beetles as pets? I'll find out for ya.

I'm constantly amazed by the things Fancy can and can not see. Tell her to bring me my purse that is sitting right in the middle of the kitchen table, a pair of socks from her drawer or her coat that is hanging on the hook - "I can't find it!" Take her outside and within minutes she is finding snails 1/4 the size of a pony bead amid the flowers in the garden. Her eyes must have macro lenses.

These must have been brand new baby snails she was finding
They were so cute when their heads popped out.

Fancy was a little put out that one of the snails would not stay on the leaf. He must have had somewhere to be. He was really swift for being so tiny!

Hunting for more in the grass (which can I just say is quite green, finally!). She is starting to look so grown up to me, and this picture shows just how leggy she's getting!After much debating over whether or not to house her snails in her bug keeper or to return them to the garden, she decided they would be happier in the flowers. She's looking on after dispersing them. Quite content. Doesn't she look like a proud snail mommy? :)

And here's Rella.
She's just cute. And maybe this will be one of the last pictures of her in a diaper. She's showing interest in wearing her new "uh-ne-pess." Mostly on top of her diaper, which doesn't seem to help with preventing dirty diapers, but it's a step.

I think I'm being offered s'mores, so bye!

Big Surprise!

This was one of those things that makes it really fun to be mom and dad. Geof has been working with the guys at the drum shop on finding just the right drum set for Hi-Hat. The "big boy" drum set he got a couple years ago has just been beaten into the ground, and the more we hear him play on the big kit at his lessons, the more his set at home was sounding like a toy. So tonight Geof called Hi-Hat out to help unload groceries from the van, and when he opened the hatch, Hi-Hat found a shiny new silver Ludwig drum set waiting for him! He could hardly believe his eyes. He was so surprised and the joy on his face was priceless! He giggled, jumped, danced and gave us each big hugs and genuine thank yous. He has thanked us over and over all evening. It took a while to get the new one set up on the stage, but as soon as it was ready he had at it. What a difference! It's going to be a bit noisier around here from now on. I'm hoping to take a little video of him tomorrow. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity.

And I can't remember if I posted these pictures - we had a little photo shoot with Fancy's preschool friends who are all in the same dance recital together. Fun!

Wrap Up

Whew - it's Friday!  This week should have been a breeze what with my day off and all (and what a nice day that was!!).  I really have nothing to post about it, because I really did nothing!  I did get my hair cut, but if you're on facebook that's old news.  Here's a picture just in case. 

Anyway, on Tuesday Rella clung to my leg and whined all day.  I was thinking it was payback for sending her away with Dad on Monday (which I know she thoroughly enjoyed because she's been talking about the zoo all week and telling people she saw a "girr-aff" (which she didn't) and a "lion, he was seeping in the grass.  he need wake up!").  Wednesday she was still clingy and fussy and green gunky, and she said "boo boo my ear mommy." So off to the dr.  No ear infection, probably something viral, but came home with antibiotic I could give her later in the week if no improvement.  Yesterday, no improvement.  She has become my permanent fussy ankle weight who seems to be subsiding on icee pops.  So I gave her the antibiotic and she broke out in immediate rash.  So no more medicine, dr wants to wait until next week to try something else, and we're back to general fussiness.  Poor baby and I need another day off!

Fancy has benefitted from my discovery that Dillards has REALLY cute summer sundresses for girls at VERY reasonable prices.  It was like shopping in the sherbet section of the freezer case.  She's much more willing now than she used to be to wear dresses on days other than Sundays.  Yesterday I pulled out a skirt I bought online (not from Dillards, but very cute) that she had immediately poo-pooed, saying it was too big, too long and she would never wear it.  She put it on over her dance clothes and immediately fell in love and wore it the rest of the day.  I was loving it!  Totally different look for her.  I tried to get some cute pictures, but she wasn't really into it.  I did manage to come away with a few I liked. (hmmm.  I just realized that as I type, Rella is cleaning out my jelly bean dispenser.  Guess icees and jellybeans are today's specials).

  

(so hard to believe she only has 4 days of preschool left!)

We went to dinner one night this week - I think on Tuesday when Rella had been on my leg all day and I could do nothing to scrape together dinner.  I think we decided we are done with the big chain type places.  The food is always just ok, probably awful for you, and is always the same.  We've been trying to eat local more often when we go out, so next time we'll be heading back downtown for sure.  Our current favorite is the Flying Biscuit, which is actually a small chain, but oh, so good and feels local.  Here's the sign outside big chain eatery that cracked up Hi-Hat.  Oh, and another reason to go to the Flying Biscuit is that they have awesome murals painted on the ceilings, and they have all the paint cans of the custom colors they use for the murals on display.  Last time we just happened to be sitting under the color "the bees knees."

OK, this post is quite dull and even more random, so may as well throw in another random picture.  Thanks to the magic of the DVR I never ever watch commercials.  For some reason I caught the commercials last night and I was mesmerized by the flying m&ms.  And for some reason I had my camera on my lap.  I'm pretty sure I had a bowl of ice cream after seeing this commercial.

And now, little Rella, whose mouth is STILL full of jelly beans, and who is STILL wearing her jammies and will probably wear them to carpool in 5 minutes, is grabbing my arms and saying "stop it.  stop it."  Guess I should sign off this dull post and go get Fancy from school.

'bye.