Sunday Song

FOREVER REIGN

(written by Reuben Morgan & Jason Ingram)

You are good You are good
When there’s nothing good in me
You are love You are love
On display for all to see
You are light You are light
When the darkness closes in
You are hope You are hope
You have covered all my sin

You are peace You are peace
When my fear is crippling
You are true You are true
Even in my wandering
You are joy You are joy
You’re the reason that I sing
You are life You are life
In You death has lost it’s sting


Oh I’m running to Your arms
I’m running to Your arms
The riches of Your love
Will always be enough
Nothing compares to Your embrace
Light of the world forever reign

You are more You are more
Than my words will ever say
You are Lord You are Lord
All creation will proclaim
You are here You are here
In Your presence I’m made whole
You are God You are God
Of all else I’m letting go


Oh I’m running to Your arms
I’m running to Your arms
The riches of Your love
Will always be enough
Nothing compares to Your embrace
Light of the world forever reign

My heart will sing
No other Name
Jesus
Jesus

Halloween 2012

We had like a million Halloween parties/events this year.

Ok, so maybe it was only 4, but still.  I was happy because I LOVE Halloween.

The first was a grown-up party at the Diaz's.  Justin and I went as gypsies, but everyone thought we were pirates.  Either way, we won the costume contest. :)

I had to work the consignment sale that night before the party so we didn't get to get dressed together.  He put this costume together all by himself and when I saw him I fell in love with him all over again.  Apparently the ability to put together and good costume and own it is my love language. :)

YoungLife Rockdale celebrated with our annual Llamaween event - a picture scavenger hunt around town in our costumes.  We are the BEST.  I love these people.

For actual Halloween we went to the Cardozas with the Mays for Chili and trick or treating in their neighborhood.  It was awesome but I didn't take many pictures.  Evie and I were Momma and Baby Jaguar.

Silas was Spiderman for everything - Trunk or Treat at church, his class party, and Trick or Treating.

There are no pics of Justin on this night because he came straight from work (and hitting a deer on his way) and didn't dress up.

Llamaween.

M & M Mountain Trip 2012

I have been a huge slacker at preserving our memories on this blog.  Life has been happening, ya know?

But I'm going to try to catch up today, but that means there will be lots of pictures in no particular order and that the stories will probably be short and sweet (which might be a relief to some!).

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A few weeks ago we spent a long weekend in Cullowhee, North Carolina with the Mays.  

We were able to stay at an absolutely incredible house that belongs to a friend and it was seriously one of the best trips ever.  The boys all played incredibly well together and they even all slept in the same room without any issues whatsoever.  I'm still in shock.  Not that they aren't always great, it's just that THAT much greatness all at one time was nearly unbelievable. :)

We spent a lot of time just hanging out and enjoying the house and the lake and the boat and the firepit.

The first night we had hot dogs and sausage for dinner and then we went down by the water to roast marshmallows in the firepit.  The boys had a blast with their flashlights (Uncle Zach taught them how to hold it up to their face and look creepy) and everyone enjoyed the marshmallows.  At the end of the night they started throwing whole 'mallows into the fire just to watch them grow and turn into Jabba the Hut.

After the kids were down for the night, the grown-ups got to play.

Zach and Justin were smoking a Butt the next day so they "rubbed" it and got everything ready. There was no shortage of jokes.

{RABBIT TRAIL: When I called to ask Sarah how many/how big of a butt I should get the day before we left, she said, "I think one will be fine for our family."  So I said, "So we need two?" and she replied, "No, I meant our big family.  I combined us."  And that made my heart happy and I wanted to write it down so I remember it.  We ARE family and I love it. END RABBIT TRAIL}

We played Settlers of Catan and I WON THE VERY FIRST GAME I EVER PLAYED. 

There has not been near enough talk about that fact, and when I reminded the guys of it this week they tried to pretend that the whole night was too fuzzy to remember specifics.  Wrong.  I REMEMBER.

We stayed up way too late, laughed a ton, and made great memories.

The next day when I got up to feed Evie, Zach was already outside manning the smoker. Sarah and Justin slept in for a bit (not together, just to be clear ;-) ) and then we made plans to go climb Whiteside Mountain.

While the babies were napping, Zach and Justin took the boys out on the pontoon boat and it was a huge hit.

After lunch we headed to the mountain and began our hike.  Evie was in the Ergo and napped most of the way.  Micah was usually just barely within sight because the rest of us were too slow for him. Connor and Silas took turns moving at a glacial pace and getting distracted by every.single.thing we passed. :)

We finally made it to a place with a view, and even though we were nowhere near the top, we told the kids that we were and they were super excited to have climbed a whole mountain. :)

Back down we went and then we stopped for ice cream before heading to the house.

The Butt was DELICIOUS for dinner, and now the guys are hooked on smoking stuff (meat, that is). They smoked ribs for us this past weekend.  This is a hobby that I am happy to support. ;-)

We were pretty exhausted that night (because staying up until 1-2am will do that to old people), so after sharing a huge bowl of homemade caramel corn, we headed to bed.

The last morning we had crepes and bacon for breakfast (mmmmm!) and then we took everyone out on the boat one last time before cleaning up and heading out. Justin stayed with Evie because she was napping (he was happy to do so because it was COLD and drizzly).  We all nearly froze to death, but the boys still had a blast.

We said goodbye and went our separate ways for the rest of the day before heading back to Conyers.

The Mays went to the Goats on a Roof, and we headed into Highlands to walk around their adorable downtown and have ice cream at Sweet Treats.  It was a great day with our little family. We headed home and had a little adventure on the interstate when our front bumber got destroyed by road debris and we had to duct tape it together to make it home. 

Sweet sweet memories.

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

Throwing rocks.  Hours were spend doing this.

 Justin learned how to fly fish.

View from the dock

Sarah and Micah (who was being a goof and refused to smile normally)

Before we went to Whiteside, Silas was convinced that THIS was climbing a mountain.

Preparing to fish (no idea why this required reading)

My love.

Breakfast with Daddy

THE Logi Bear doing what he does.  He loves to boop her on the head.  LOVES IT.

This one makes me laugh every single time. BOOP!

Riding the boat and freezing.

Driving

YAY! A family picture!

 At the "top" of the mountain.

 Besties.  (and a view from the porch)

 Top of the mountain

M & M Mountain Trip 2012

Spookiness by the campfire

happy

This past weekend I got a surprise little treat.

A hummingbird (my favorite bird) got stuck in the top of our garage and it was just flying around and banging it's head on the ceiling because it couldn't figure out that it needed to fly lower to find the exit.

As soon as I saw it I stopped what I was doing (which was cleaning up the MASSIVE mess that Silas made on the carpet with my entire collection of acrylic paint) and determined to help it.

I fixed some sugar water in a bowl and then climbed up on a ladder to try and catch it.  It flew all around my head for about 10 minutes before I even tried to get it because I didn't want to give it a heart attack or make things worse.  There are wires hanging from the ceiling (for the door openers) and one was right in front of my face. She would land on it every minute or so and I took that as a sign that I wasn't freaking her out too badly since it was so close to me.  I could tell she was running out of energy, and all of a sudden she flipped out and was flying stuck to the ceiling in little tiny circles.  I thought she was about to die and so I was freaking out too.  Justin grabbed a broom and gently pushed her over to me and she landed for a second on the wire.  I grabbed her (gently!) and immediately stuck her beak in the water.  About 2 seconds later her tongue started going ninety to nothin' and I was breathing a huge sigh of relief that she wasn't going to die. {seriously - I LOVE these birds and was very attached to her.}

I fed her some more and walked out of the garage and opened my hand up so she could leave when she was ready.  She stayed for about 2 minutes, just drinking and looking at me, and then she flew up to the top of a tree in our backyard.

I WAS SO HAPPY!

I love having up-close, wild animal encounters.

This is not the first time that I have loved on a hummingbird.

When I was about 10 I found one wrapped in a spiderweb on the floor of the gym at the Louisiana Lion's Camp.  I picked it up and ran to the cafeteria to get a bowl of sugar and water.  It was barely alive - lethargic and sad. I picked all of the web off of it (it was a super thick web...must have been a BIG spider) and stuck it's beak in the water.  After a few seconds it stuck it's tongue out and then very slowly it started moving. And then it moved faster, and faster, and faster. Then it stood up.  And then it started moving it's head.  A few minutes later it flew a few feet away and then returned to my hand to drink some more. And then another few minutes later it flew way up in a tree. My heart nearly exploded.

To this day that is one of my favorite memories.

Yesterday when I got out of the van a hummingbird flew in front of my face and hovered there for a few seconds.

I like to think it was my friend from Friday coming to say Hi.

:)

{and I have a feeder hanging right in front of my kitchen window.  there are 2 that come around quite frequently.}

Wherein we attempted to sleep in the same room as our 2 year old son

So, in JANUARY we decided to take a little mini-vacay with Silas before Evie arrived.

We went to Charleston, SC and got a hotel room.

This was supposed to be super exciting, as Silas had never been to a hotel before.

It was exciting (for us) for about 5 minutes and then we discovered that Silas could unlock the deadbolt on the door and let himself out.

It was a regular hotel room with a King bed and we asked for a roll-away for the kid.

Mind you, I was 8+ months pregnant and hadn't been sleeping well for a few weeks already so WHAT MADE US THINK WE WOULD SLEEP IN THIS SITUATION is beyond me.

Bedtime on the first night rolls around and it is apparent that Silas is way too excited to be away from home to go to sleep at any decent hour.  Also, he didn't want to stay in his awesome bed with wheels.  He didn't want to STAY in our big bed with us either.  He wanted to CATAPULT himself from one to the other over and over and over again.

I had just picked up my Rx of Ambien (thank you sweet baby Jesus for this wonderful drug!) but was afraid to take it in case it made me sleep so hard that I couldn't hear Silas trying to escape the room.  I kept having visions of him getting out into the hall, then in the elevator, and then finding his way to the pool. 

Yeah.  No sleep happening with THAT going on in my head.

The first night he finally fell asleep around 11pm but since we had never slept with him before we didn't know that he is a mover.  I mean, the kid rolls and kicks and flails.  Again, no sleep happening for the grown-ups.

I was MISERABLE.

So miserable, in fact, that I had decided that we were driving home first thing the next morning.

I don't do well with no sleep so no sleep + 8 months preggo + not being at home = very cranky Mommy.

I just wanted to cut our losses and head out before anything got worse.  

After eating a bit of breakfast, we decided to go on with the plan for the day and if we still were miserable (because Justin was too) then we could drive home later in the afternoon.

We had lunch with Jason, one of Justin's friends and a groomsman in our wedding, and then we all went to tour an aircraft carrier that is retired and docked in the bay.  It's been so long that I can't even remember the name of the thing.  Wait, yes I do, it's the USS Yorktown (thank you Google). It's been turned into a floating museum and it was very interesting.  Silas LOVED getting to see a real life "hopterdopter" (helicopter) and even though there were about 1092384610293864 stairs (and by stairs I mean nearly-straight-up-very-narrow-staircases), me and my belly managed to do just fine (though my sciatica made quite a fuss later that day).

We decided to go ahead and stay there that night.

I decided that Justin was going to be on Escape Prevention duty and I was taking an Ambien.

Apparently Ambien makes me do weird things.

Things that I do not remember AT ALL when told about them.

This night I asked for 8 glasses of milk (and I was serious) and kept asking if there were more people on the TV than were really there.  

But DANG did I sleep!

_____________________________________________________

Rabbit Trail:

Another time that I took Ambien I stayed up for another 2 hours watching zit-popping videos on youtube on my phone. In bed. Justin finally took my phone away and when he told me about it the next morning I thought he was lying. And then I checked my youtube history.  

He wasn't.

_________________________________________________________

The next day we met Kristi and Avery (Jason's wife and daughter) for breakfast and then we went to the beach to play before heading home.

It ended up being a fun (yet exhausting) trip and one that we can laugh about now.

Here's a ton of pictures in no particular order (but what did you expect? It's nearly September and I'm just now posting a trip from January.)

Enjoy.

Silas and Avery

I forgot to mention that we went to the beach by ourselves the first day there.  Silas IMMEDIATELY ran into the frigid water and so the next day we had to buy him new shoes.

Picking up shells with Daddy

Last picture as a family of 3

Freezing (because he was soaked) but trying to pretend he wasn't.

I love this one.

The USS Yorktown aircraft carrier

HOPTERDOPTER!!!

A big gun.

  See that boy scout in the background? There were about 500 of them there that day and they were super annoying.  I wanted to push a few of them over the side of the ship.

WHAT?!

Hormones.

I can't remember what part of the ship this was. Classroom?  War room?

Just riding a missile.

when he finally fell asleep the first night

barefoot because we weren't about to ruin a 2nd pair of Nikes

Jellies!

 (probably the number one reason I do not swim in the ocean)

Charleston, South Carolina

January 27-29, 2012

Then and now

 Silas 5 1/2 months

Evie 5 1/2 months

exact same computer cord.

1st day of school!

Silas is at his 1st day of preschool EVER right now. {Zion Baptist}

The past 24 hours have been absolutely CRAZY for my brain and for us.

We had his Open House yesterday and everything went smoothly as far as Open Houses go, except that there was a HUGE shock for us when we were reading the handbook and it said that 3 year old preschool was Monday - Thursday.  You see, when I went up to the school to tour it and met with the church secretary to get him registered, I was told it was Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Honestly I'm not sure we would have put him in it if we knew that it was 4 days a week, but it is what it is now and I am sure that he is going to be happy with it - I just was NOT prepared for that and spent the rest of the time there and the  evening trying not to spontaneously combust into a puddle of tears from being overwhelmed with it all.

We also found out that he is only allowed to wear athletic tennis style shoes (no other closed toe shoes are allowed) and since he didn't have any we had to spend 2 hours trying to find some that fit.  Shoot me.  That would have been nice to know a couple of weeks ago instead of less than 24 hours from when school started.

So, as you can tell, I'm a little irritated about it all.  But I am trying to get over it.

He has been very excited about going to school and I think he is going to love it.

In the car on the way there he started saying that he wanted us to stay with him so I was worried about him having a meltdown when it was time to leave, but he did great. We walked him in this morning and he took his little bag straight to his cubby and hung it up and then got his snack and went and put it in their snack cubbies.  There was a bubble machine blowing in his classroom so he immediately started jumping in those and we took a picture and hugged him and then he said bye to us and we left.  No tears from him!

I'm going to pick him up in 30 minutes and I can't wait to hear about all of his adventures!

Silas, Age 3

Evie {5 months}

 Evie girl is 5 months old!

She is 24 1/2 inches long (25th %) and weighs 12lbs 6oz (10th %).  Apparently she is tiny (as EVERYONE insists on telling me) but she is healthy and happy and beautiful. :)

At 5 months she is:

*eating rice cereal like a champ and getting reading to make the switch to oatmeal cereal

*taking a morning nap (if we are at home) for an hour or so and a lunchtime/afternoon nap for about 2-3 hours

*loving her Johnny Jumper

*feeding herself a bottle when someone else feeds her

*turning in circles on her tummy to get to toys

*starting to inch forward to get to toys

*laughing a lot (especially at Silas)

*ticklish on the bottom of her feet (and that's about the only place)

There's probably a ton of things that I am forgetting (I'm certain there are) but Silas started preschool today (!!!) and my brain is a bit mushy.

Here's her 5 month picture and then a recap of the last 4 months. :-)

Silas {3 years}

Silas is 3 years old.

THREE!

He is 100% three year old boy.

Running, jumping, climbing, diving, splashing, messing, talking, singing, imagining all day every day.

He loves super heroes and saving the day.

He sings all the time and sometimes makes up songs to narrate what he is doing.

He can be the sweetest little encourager and never misses an opportunity to say "good job!" or "I'm so proud of you!".

He can also be a little turd and make me want pull my hair out some days, but I suspect this is true of all kids at some point (I know a few!). ;-)

We're learning each other daily.  It's great fun and I love seeing the little boy he is becoming and getting to know his heart.

He starts preschool in a few weeks (3 days a week) and I can't wait to see how he does with it.  I think he is going to thrive.

Memory lane...
24 hours old

1 year

2 years

3 years

The kid got 3 birthday celebrations this year.  This was the 2nd one and it was in LA at my parent's house.
He can't blow out candles to save his life.

Fishin' at Mamay and Pops' house. He caught about 20 in 15 minutes.

Party #3 - See?!  He didn't get any better with practice. :-)

Nice.

I gave him an old thing of shaving cream that I found today and he was entertained for quite a while with it.

I wanted to do one of those "interviews" with him to see how his answer change every year, but when I asked him questions tonight he just took a sip of milk and proceeded to swish it around in his mouth for 3 minutes.  I gave up and will try again tomorrow.

We love you Silas and can't wait to see who you become over this next year!