6.24.11 flowergirl

Getting ready for the big day... well, not Caleigh's big day, but sweet Marcy's!  We can't wait for September 24th to get here so we can celebrate with her and Adam as they join their lives together forever.  

6.19.11 my sweet 2 year old boy

potty time

Andrew's adventures on the potty - in May he had several successes (this picture with the happy face is from May), both #1 and #2.  So I got really bold and tried to potty train him in June, before he turned 2.  That was a mistake.  He can tell me he needs to go and can go on the potty but he was going through a very defiant phase - and our potty training looked like me telling him it was time to go potty and him throwing an all out tantrum, including falling on the floor saying over and over, "I don't want to."  That combined with the fact that he didn't care about soiling his undies was the straw that broke the camel's back.  After the first #2 in the undies we gave up on potty training (something I said I would never do) and decided for the sake of our sanity that we would go back to diapers.  And it was amazing how as soon as we put the diapers back on all my stress and anxiety just melted away.  Hopefully we will wait and try again in a couple months.

6.6.11 bad idea

With preschoolers/toddlers lotion is never a good idea.  I should have known that, but I was all about them putting lotion on my legs... until I turned around and saw that it also covered their faces, every inch of their bodies, and the carpet.  Adam was not so thrilled but it was fun while it lasted!

the halcyon years

We just got back from the beach where I read Water for Elephants.  I loved that book.  I especially love this quote that comes at the end of the book, as an old man in his nineties looks back at his life:

"Those were the salad days, the halcyon years! The sleepless nights, the wailing babies; the days the interior of the house looked like it had been hit by a hurricane; the times I had five kids, a chimpanzee, and a wife in bed with fever. Even when the fourth glass of milk got spilled in a single night, or the shrill screeching threatened to split my skull, or when I was bailing out some son or other--or, in one memorable instance, Bobo (the chimpanzee)--from a minor predicament at the police station, they were good years, grand years. But it all zipped by. One minute we were in it up to our eyeballs, and next thing we knew the kids were borrowing the car and fleeing the coop for college. And now, here I am. In my nineties and alone." 
~excerpted from Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen 


The salad days (which I had to look up because I had no idea what it meant) refer to a time of youthful inexperience.  The stage we are in right now! The halcyon years - the prosperous years, the golden years... I love this quote - it his reminds me to slow down.  To enjoy these crazy busy days where I have more to-do lists than time.  It reminds me that I will look back and miss these days - I hope to sit and look at the end of my life and say that these were good years, grand years.  Teach me Lord to number my days, that I may gain a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12).  Teach me Lord to enjoy each day you have given me - to know that this stage won't last forever.  I am so thankful for these salad days, these halcyon years!

6.1.11 beach wrap up - rides and family photos