Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Lock-In!

We loaded up the Tahoe a week ago and headed down to College Station for our annual "Lock-In". What started 5 ish years ago with 4 couples who would meet and spend quiet days together doing whatever we wanted (!) has now grown to a loud (and immensely fun!) weekend of 8 adults and 9 children (age 4 and under) living for 36 hours under one roof, sharing a tiny slice of life together. Unfortunately, of those 17 people, 10 of us punctuated our time together with a stomach bug. Not so fun, especially since Micah's made its debut IN THE CAR ON THE WAY HOME. Repeatedly. Let it not overshadow the wonderful time we had, though!

The adults ditched the kids got a baby sitter on Friday night and had dinner and conversation. And we stayed out late! Whew. I felt 29 again! ha ha. Unfortunately, my dear Elizabeth had to leave us for the weekend because she was sick. We missed you EB! Then the rest of the weekend, we took time to laugh, have deep conversation, play with the kids etc. It was nice to not have an agenda, just to enjoy each other. Good times. Then Sunday we cleaned up, packed up and hopped around town to see the other College Stationians (?) that we love. It was so good to see Jess, Josh and the Alfords. Thank you for spending time with us! Luke especially loved playing with the turtles and cats with J/J and asked repeatedly for "Mr. Rick" to run him around the house and play swords together. We loved it!



In the picture above : Davis (2), Sam (3), Luke (3), Murphy (3), Greyson (4). Not pictured: Eli (17 months?), Lily (7 months), Judah and Micah (10 months).

LOVE LOVE LOVE these kids and the sweet friendship they already have. We are blessed by that same kind of friendship with their parents. DeVores, Stricklands, Moffitts, you are all such a deep well of sweet, sweet blessing for our family. There are friendships that you just can't explain why, but your heart is in it for life and we consider that to be true with you guys. What a source of encouragement, fun, community and genuine friendship you guys are! We love you!
Does anyone have a picture of the adults?

Let's see how many kids we can have this time next year! Ready, set, GO! Kidding. A lot of kidding.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Luke is always, ALWAYS in costume these days. His repertoire includes, Buzz Lightyear (which is already tattered and torn from just 3 months ago), Batman (a Christmas must-have) Superman, Larry Boy, a frog, and a slew of masks I picked up at the party store (as above).

I LOVE his imagination and how he is eager to use it. He tells stories of his adventures with such enthusiasm. Get that kid an acting contract! No, scratch that. I'm not a good stage mom-- and its all about me, right?

We all know who's kidding, I hope.

Luke and Joseph have been reading through the Chronicles of Narnia. They finished "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and are half way through "Prince Caspian". I'm so surprised how much LB is retaining. He's really getting it! JB will read a little, summarize, then rinse and repeat. I'm so thankful for such a sweet and engaging Daddy for my boys.

Let's check in on "Brothers" as they are affectionately called around here:

Judah on the left, Micah on the right.

This photo is about 2 months old, but it's the best i can do right now:)

Truly, just put a tiny bit more hair on them in your mind and its really accurate for today.
They will be 11 months next week! HARD. to. believe. It is still so busy and we still stay up until 11pm doing chores (because its impossible to get much done during the day) but I am having so much fun.

Judah is intent on learning how to walk. He's very focused. Also, he is experimenting with words such as "all done", "down", "dada", "mama", "bubba", "dat" (that), "ba" (bath) and a rare "pup pup" for dog. He also got his very first tooth last week!

Micah is enthralled with books and words. He even said "gook" the other day (for book) He also says "all done", "dada", "mama", "bubba", "dat" (that), "ba" (bath) "pup pup" for dog, and "did it". He is also trying to walk and likes to point out all the lights in a room. (judah does the light think too, just not as often) Micah got his first tooth 2 weeks ago and his second this week.

A side note: what a blessing that we have not gone through teething until now! I CANNOT imagine the discomfort and fussing of teething on the babies (and us!) during the previous months that were so labor intensive, and (for lack of a better word) hard. Don't misread "hard". "Hard" can be wonderful, it can be rewarding, it can really be priceless and precious and that is how I mean it in this case. Three small children (with twins in the mix) has been hard but WONDERFUL. I got a glimpse recently of how all too soon this stage of life will be over and I am clinging to the day-to-day with all I've got. I love this time of life!

I always pictured this stage of life a little cleaner and more organized. And my hair was always done and I never had my PJs on until 4 pm. But, though reality is much different than the "picture", i wouldn't change a thing. I revise, if Alice from the Brady Bunch could move in, I could deal with that change.

Well, that's all I've got for today. I've already broken the family rule of "blog brevity" so I must sign off for now.

LB has been knocking it out of the park with funny things to say lately and we just took a fun trip to College Station to see friends last week, so I'll try to write that up soon.

Just wanted to pop in and say hello!

Until we meet again...