Ready for Bed

Somedays you just never know what you're gonna get when you tell three little silly girls to get ready for bedtime! 

Days like these are soon to be gone-- so rock out those crazy socks and underwear-- you make your momma smile! 

Friendship

In the fall of 1994, the year I was in 8th grade, I was accepted as a participant for a Girl Scouting canoe/backpacking trip to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. As I attended training for this event, I met a girl named Shannon. And truly, the rest is history. 

In our early years we had some AMAZING adventures together... scuba diving in Florida, 2 week New England camping road trip, 5 years of camp counselor fun... we really did a TON together considering we didn't even live in the same town. 

I remember our trip to Cherokee quite well, where she really first got to know Mark. I remember the trip we were on when she first told me about Kevin, her now husband. We were in each other's weddings, our husbands became great friends, and then for two glorious years, we lived in the same town. 

And while time and space often have a way of separating friends-- our friendship withstood both. And life continued right on as it always had. We got our first dogs the same year, Eleanor and Gus probably still remember the good old days of QUIET. I barely can. Because since 2008, our lives have drastically changed... the noise has infinitely multiplied, the footsteps running through the house can no longer be counted, yet the adventure has rolled on just the same! 

NEVER in a million years, would I have guessed way back when that we would each have three kids each. NEVER would I have been able to imagine the chaos and noise and clutter that our two families can make when we are together. It is absolutely a beautiful MESS! We yell at each other's kids, we wipe whomever's rear end or nose end needs it, and our biggest arguments are over crappy coffee. True friendship. 

These are some of Shannon's pictures from the weekend-- and they are beautiful. 

 

I can't IMAGINE making it through these last years without my precious friend! I am SO incredibly blessed to always have her just a phone call away. (Thanks for always answering, Shannon!!) 

But you know what?! We still have SO MANY adventures on the way! Watching these precious babies grow up together, sending them off to college (sniff, sniff), having our own grandbabies, and finding a retirement community crazy enough to let all 4 of us old crazy people in!! 

So, Shannon... these first 22 years have been pretty amazing. And I LOVE our "Party of 10" more than I could have ever imagined... but it's time... time for a "how it all began" reunion tour. That's right... it is about dang time for the mommies to escape! So check that calendar because we are headed somewhere warm, with no clocks, bottomless wine glasses, where the word mommy is banned... and for a little while we will remember what it was like to just be a "Party of 2!" 

Love you Chesneys... thanks for another amazing weekend of nothing really special... but everything still amazing! 

Photo Shoot Practice

For a few weeks now, I have been kicking around the idea of doing spring mini-photo sessions. I had a great fall season with some amazing customers, and I have had some requests for spring. So, today we tried out a new location with some fun props and my favorite kiddos that always put up with being my guinea pigs.

Since it was the middle of the day and the sun was WAAAAY to bright, the spot wasn't ideal and my photos didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped... BUT I still ended up with some precious pictures of our sweet littles. What can I say Shannon... we just have cute kiddos!

Look how big Liam and Oliver are getting...

And sassy sister Charlotte... 

And my three cuties holding their baby chicken friends...

They were all super patient and had fun playing while I snapped away. 

Thanks Michelle, for letting us come explore your city farm, play with your chickens, and enjoy some fun in the sun. 

Those of you that are local, I will be debuting my Facebook photography page in the next week or so, along with the official details on my spring mini-photo sessions. I hope you will consider letting me take some shots of your kiddos in their cute Easter wear! 

Waffle Fun

Aunt Rachel bought Madeline a waffle maker for Christmas and we have loved trying out all kinds of new things on it. Waffles of course... but also cinnamon rolls, muffin mix, and tonight cake batter!! 

And since I didn't have frosting for our "waffle cakes" we set up the dessert bar with all our favorite goodies... marshmallows, ice cream, syrups, sprinkles and more!! The girls were SUPER excited to try out something new. 

The Chesneys are down for the weekend too, so Charlotte was in HEAVEN because her mommy never lets her have this much YUMMY sugar at once. 

We've heard quesadillas and pizzas are good on the maker too-- we will certainly be giving those a try soon too-- as the girls LOVE being in charge of cooking.

Brazilian Food Night

When Mark came home from his two week trip to Brazil back in January, he had lots of fun stories to tell but what seemed to stick most with the girls were the stories about the food. So last night, Mark cooked dinner!! He grilled steaks, made the Brazilian cheese ball mix he brought back with him, mixed up Brazilian "tang" mix, cooked up some rice, beans and veggies-- and we had a fun dinner experience.

Audrey's favorite part was the meat cutting. A lot of you have probably eaten at the Brazilian steakhouses-- where they have TONS of meat on swords-- and they cut it off at your table and you continue to eat until you have the meat sweats. Mark says this is accurate for EVERY meal he had in Brazil. And so, he skewered our little steaks on our fondue forks (we couldn't find his sword... lol) and cut them just like at the restaurants. 

In general, we don't eat much red meat, rarely EVER a steak-- both Kayla and Audrey were good sports and tried everything but Audrey actually LOVED it ALL! So much so that she even ate steak and eggs with the leftover steak this morning at breakfast and had the leftover cheese balls in her lunchbox. (If you look closely in the above picture you can see how much fun picky eater Madeline was having, she couldn't even sit straight at the table! Sigh.) 

Here is Audrey, giving meat cutting a try: 

Never a dull dinner event at our house, that's for sure! 

Faithful Families: Eat Smart, Move More

There are a several “domestic tasks” I am very poor at doing… just ask my husband who has to iron his own clothes… but cooking has never been one of them. From a very early age, I remember always being in the kitchen with my mom, who is a phenomenal cook. I don’t remember her actually giving me lessons or teaching me specifically how to cook, although she might have at some point, I just always remember spending time with her, watching her, and as I got older cooking things with her.

As a result, I have always loved to cook! And now that I am raising up three little girls, I think it is important for them to learn their way around the kitchen too. They love to help me with baking already, but getting them to buy into cooking food they don’t always like has been a different story, especially for my picky eater Madeline.

Our church is hosting a “Faithful Families” class where families meet together each week to learn how to eat and cook healthier as well as move more. We may have initially agreed to be part of the class because we were being supportive of the wonderful ladies from Mark’s office that teach the class, but since being in the class for 5 weeks now the girls have absorbed TONS of great information about eating healthy and have gotten to try out all kinds of food prep skills. 

And as a result, I have some super enthusiastic food helpers almost EVERY day now. Having someone ELSE tell them about the importance of fresh fruits and veggies other than their parents, has meant an added interest in shopping... check out our trip to the produce department this past week: 

No, they probably won't try ALL the things they picked out, but seeing them excited to do it and MAYBE try something new, is good enough for me. 

Then at home, I had some AWESOME helpers with all the prep work: 

They LOVE the new cheese grater that Morgan gave them in class last week to grate cheese, that is until I busted out my favorite Kitchen-Aid attachment and we grated blocks of cheese lightning fast. 

So, a HUGE shout out to Morgan, Angie, and Michelle. You girls have done amazing things reinforcing what mom and dad have been preaching for years. I'm excited to report that ALL THREE girls ate salad for dinner on Tuesday night! 

Seed Starting

Kayla and I did some seed starting last week! We are giving some herbs and lettuce an early try with our two-liter coke bottle method from the Chesneys. 

For those of you that don't know, Kayla is our OCD clean hand girl. She MUST wash her hands at least 30 times a day. So this was a HUGE deal!! 

We wrapped our seeds up tight and put them in the upstairs window to sprout. 

 We'll let you know how they do!

The Long Awaited Battleship Visit

In case you didn't know... I am not a history fan. My husband is. When we went to Washington DC two years ago, I had to start talking myself into being excited about a month before we went. He was thrilled the moment "museum" was mentioned. So the thought of a museum, on a boat, with below deck touring, and no air conditioning... just makes me want to barf.

We have lived near the Battleship in Wilmington for almost 5 years now. MANY of our out of town friends that have visited over the years have suggested it as something to do. By now most of them know my response... "Y'all let me know when you ALL can come on the same weekend and we will all go because you can bet you're only going to get me to go ONE time." And so, we've never been.

Well, today my life motto "Never say never!" surfaced again.

Madeline and Audrey were out of school so my plan was to make the trip to Wilmington and hit the Children's Museum (we have a year membership) and then get Chick Fil A for lunch. BIG treats for us small town folk! Well wouldn't you know, I didn't check the museum schedule and they were closed today. BOO!! The big girls were a little disappointed but Audrey quickly asked, "Hey, can we go to the Battleship?"

I won't even tell you the words that went through my head! They weren't nice. I never felt bad about not going to the battleship before, but the KIDS have never asked to go. And I am not about to ruin my children's love of history with my own snarkiness on the subject, so I grabbed my phone and double checked the info, before departing to destination USS North Carolina.

I gave Mark a call on my way there knowing he had a busy day but also knowing he wasn't going to believe where the kids talked me into going. And I was right, there was dead silence on the phone when I told him where we were headed... followed by hysterical laughter. He's been to the battleship several times before but he had somewhere to be in Wilmington for work today, so he did manage to swing by and do a level of the ship with us. (Must be nice to know someone who works there and will let you in free for a half hour. Seriously?! For not being a politician he sure knows people everywhere.)

And so here we are!! 

This is where I temporarily lost my credit card before we even made it into the ship-- I am NOT allowed to stick things in my pocket, I always lose them. Luckily Audrey is super awesome at keeping up with me and finding all the junk I constantly lose. 

Finally, on the ship! 

I didn't have Mark there to SLOWLY read ALL the signs, and make me remember why I hate this historical stuff so much but I still had Madeline who loves to read everything too. BUT then again she's a speed reader--so she summarizes and tells me the cool stuff that she knows I'll like. LOVE THIS KID!!

As you can tell we had the place pretty much to ourselves. And when Mark did get there, we got a private behind the scenes tour of the new dining hall area they are currently renovating.

This is my FAVORITE picture from below deck! The girls could not stop giggling that we were in the boys bathroom. 

I am not going to lie! I really had the BEST time with my girls today. All three of them were SO good... agreeable, excited to try out everything, explore, and learn lots of new things. (This is probably what they told Mark about me today, now that I think about it!! LOL!) The temperature and the few people there also helped. Do I dare say, I'd like to go back sometime?!

Who knows, maybe it took having kids to truly gain an appreciation for the fine history of our country!

Celebrating Kayla Hope

When Kayla's "GOTCHA DAY" came only a few days before Christmas, we knew we would have to postpone a big celebration until after the holidays, so after the new year we started debating what we should do. We had put off having a child dedication at church until her adoption was final, so we knew we wanted to add that into our celebration as well. We were texting dates back and forth between our out of town family and friends and the first date we picked wouldn't work with our pastor at church being out of town. Then Shannon text me... "How about Valentine's Day... it would be very fitting for Little Heart." And how right she was!!

So we got to planning her dedication service at church (HUGE shout out to Pastor Neal and the amazing family we have at Shoreline Church) with a potluck luncheon of all our friends and family to follow. For weeks Kayla has been hearing me talk about her adoption party and she quickly picked up on it and would ask everyone, "Are you coming to my dolphin party?!" Only took us about a week to turn "dolphin" into "adoption." LOL!

Today was her big day, and she was ready to celebrate! Oma and Opa got her a beautiful new outfit for the occasion. (Everyone was supposed to wear red, pink or hearts in her honor!) All day long her face was lit up with this amazing smile.

Mark and I had prepared a good bit ahead of time to tell a shortened version of her story during the church service today but when we arrived at church and I saw ALL the amazing people that had come to celebrate with us, I knew that holding it together was going to be tough.

BUT then the service began. And as we all sang about God's amazing love for all of us, I let my eyes wander... to my left sat my parents and my sister-- Kayla right in the middle of them; in front of us with their friends were our two oldest singing right along with the songs; next to them my in-laws; behind me I could feel the presence of my sweet friends that are at the beginning of their adoption journey; next to them our friends like family from back in Gastonia; down the row my lifelong best friend and her precious babies jabbering away; across the aisle co-workers from Mark's office; to our right numerous preschool families and co-workers that watched and followed our journey from the beginning; leading worship our girls' favorite babysitter who has become like family, home from Liberty for just a day to celebrate with us; our church family; and right next to me holding my hand- my husband.

Tears just streamed down my face and as everyone kept singing I leaned over to Mark and whispered, "There is NO WAY I will be able to talk today." And as he looked back with tear brimmed eyes, he simply said, "I know."

But we made it, I managed to make everyone tear up a bit with a video of pictures I made of Kayla from her journey and then we (and I mean mostly Mark) were able to share a little of our story.

Our pastor did a phenomenal job preaching on the adoption we have into Christ's family and His amazing love for us. It was simply an overwhelmingly emotional day... in a good way of course. 

And afterwards... we celebrated. And it was great to be surrounded by SO many people from this journey. We couldn't ask for a better church family or community to be in. 

Every detail was perfect... from the beautiful cake my friend Beth made... 

To the banner that hung across the cross as a reminder to ALL of us... 

To the thumbprint tree everyone signed... 

To the generous donations everyone gave in Kayla's honor to benefit other foster kids in the county...

Simply put... it was a beautiful day of celebrating this sweet girl!

And so... at the end of the day, it was perfect. Everything I had imagined. And if I had been able to hold it together and actually talk during the service, this is what I would have added...

God did NOT pick us for this task because we have it all together. We are far from perfect most days, SHOOT... any day. So, please don't put us on pedestal or hold us in high regard for what some deem as honorable or brave. God called us away from a life of comfort and "easy" about five years ago. We stepped out in faith and made ourselves available and God put in our path exactly what we were to do to LOVE His people. No, foster parenting and adoption aren't for everyone, but when you align your heart with God's and seek hard after Him to do His will... He will point out quite clearly what your mission is to be. And in YOUR story as well as OURS... I pray that God's glory is what shines right through.

And so today, from our little family of five, thank you for loving us, supporting us, and celebrating in person and from afar. We couldn't (and wouldn't want to) do life without you all and we look forward to where or what God might be calling us next.

Jeremiah 29:11 

For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to make you prosper and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. 

And as for you Kayla Hope... you belong to us. You are our daughter and we love you in every sense of the word. Thank you for teaching us how to love bigger, smile brighter, and live everyday with greater appreciation. WE are blessed to have you!

Unplugged: Lessons Learned

In case you're wondering where I have been... my month long media hiatus (click HERE to read all about it) was up on Sunday night. And now I am "allowed" back into the world of all things technological. Except... I have a problem... I can't seem to snap out of it.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT: Does this mean I actually learned something and set a few new habits?

So, let's break things down a bit for you. I did some restrictions on TV, internet usage, electronic book reading, Pinterest, texting, blogging and Facebook. Yup, 7 areas. Some got cut entirely... others just extremely limited.

The very FIRST day I learned I was addicted to my phone. WHAT?! I knew some of you all out there were, but me?? Really. That first day, I remember that I wasn't using my phone for ANYTHING yet from the moment I got up, I still carried it around like a middle school egg babysitting project. (You remember those right? Take it everywhere because it's a pretend baby.) It just had to be near me. And every once in awhile, I just had to touch it. Like it missed me somehow. And if for nothing else, I'd push the home button so I could see what time it was. Because really... there were no other perfectly good clocks around. WOW!! INTERVENTION!!!

But it only took about 4 days and then I started missing phone calls and text messages like crazy because I didn't even unplug it from the charger in my bedroom. It was like the dark ages. I remember the first day I actually left home and FORGOT my phone. I was about 5 minutes from home and I almost went back for it by telling myself that the school could call about Madeline or Audrey and they wouldn't be able to get in touch with me. HA! I talked myself off the ledge knowing I had two good responsible moms on my emergency call list that would have their phones, and so we left it behind. And then began the old school method of needing something from a friend but not having a way to call while I was out and about in the car, so I would just swing by their house unannounced. WOW! I haven't done THAT in ages. And that was just the beginning.

You just don't know how bad your habits are until you make BIG changes. So... what did I learn?

1. Cutting back on the noise of technology allowed me to relax and enjoy the moments. Moments with my family and friends, but also moments of quiet.

2. I didn't miss Facebook much at all EXCEPT that I was out of the loop for all my in person conversations. Who knew that I learned so much "news" on fb that is rarely spoken elsewhere?! Deaths, babies, current events, etc.

3. I have a lot of fb and blog friends that don't often communicate with me, but they still are royal readers. Love y'all, even if I have had to hear your complaints this month.

4. My kids noticed that I put my phone away anytime they were present and that they became more important than whatever I was doing on it. They have become EXCELLENT accountability for me because now, if I am going to use the phone in front of them, I am going to tell them what I am doing on it... who I am talking to on text, what I am looking up... because if it is more important than being present with them, I should have to voice that in words. And so my phone time has cut itself WAY back. They need to know they are more important ALWAYS!

5. I use the Bible app on my phone frequently for morning devotions, to look up scripture, and to read when I have a free minute. NEWS FLASH!! My kids don't know that really exists yet-- and I've never told them-- they only use electronic devices for games so when I started using my paper Bible for everything this month, they noticed. And THAT is important and therefore becoming a new habit that will stay. They need to see my hands on the pages of scripture.

6. While technology makes things happen faster-- it takes out the "people factor." I made more voice phone calls this month, sent more personal emails, had more face to face conversations, and even asked for directions once... all because I unplugged just a little.

And so, the transition back has actually been weird. Although I like knowing the weather with a click of a button, I don't want to go back to having a phone glued to me like a third arm. Technology with boundaries, I think it's my new way to go.

And so the Media Month is complete.
What's up next on our 7 journey, you ask?
Spending.

I have a week off before we begin. I'll keep you posted. Maybe.