Then What Are You Going To Celebrate?

I love Easter. It's long been my favorite holiday. We haven't really put any umph into celebrating it since we got married and started our family. I'm not really sure why. I'm mean if you aren't going to celebrate the conquering of sin and death and the triumph of good over evil then what are you going to celebrate? Anyway, we decided this year that we had gone long enough without celebrating the greatest event in human history and it was time we did it up a little around here. So we put on our Sunday best, filled some baskets with delectable goodies and beloved little notions, threw a ham in oven and some other yummies on the stove top, hid some plastic eggs and gathered together with family to party like it was AD 33.

Of course no human party could ever be party enough to be worthy of what our Savior did for us on those blessed days so many years ago and what He is still doing all around us as He works so masterfully to make all things new in this broken world that He redeemed on that day. But He knows that. That is what is Easter is about partly...Jesus knowing what it means to be human. He knows that when we humans are happy about something we throw a party. I know Jesus enjoyed a good party.

We are really happy around here that God loved this world even though it was full of sin. That He loved us humans even though we hated him. We are happy that He sent His Son down here to live among us. To know what it is like to be frail and small and weak and surrounded by loud and fearsome temptation. We are happy that His blessed Son lived perfectly among us, knowing all of our temptations but never once giving in to them. We are so humbled and happy that this sinless Man, God's own Son, laid down and died at the hands of sinful men for the sin of the world. For our sin. For our sin upon sin. And we are really happy that this Prince of Life didn't stay dead, but rose from the dead three days after His beautiful sacrifice crushing the power that death and evil have over the world and that since we believe in him we are no longer subject to those terrible tyrannts. We have a new King. A good King. A King who is making all things new. We are really, really, really happy about that. So today we had a long overdue party to celebrate.

And for me it was my best Easter ever...

Well, except for maybe that one seven years ago when this man among men...

...took me to the top of a mountain at sunrise and gave me this:

Our Story - 4.15.11

One of the two main reasons I keep this blog and allow myself to spend time on it is because I want my children to have something to look back on when they are grown and to remember these sweet days we had together. I want to be able to look back and remember too. So, this week I came up with an idea I am pretty excited about.

A little over a year ago Ron bought me a real fancy phone and since then it has been not only my phone but my go to camera. Any given day there are anywhere from 10 to 150 pictures on it. It is handy because my phone is usually with me and my actual camera usually is not. Anytime something precious or unbelievable happens I can quickly grab my phone and immortalize the moment. I have noticed that the pictures on my phone tend be a pretty good portrayal of exactly what is going on around here at a given moment. Those pictures tell our story quite well.

I have decided to take a little time and the end of every week or so and let the pictures on my phone do just that. Tell our story. The parts of story that I know I will forget unless I find a way to make sure I remember.

So here we go:

I have been pretty concerned about whether or not Rose is growing enough. She is such a scrawny little thing and anyone who knows our other girls knows we don't make scrawny babies. At her one year check up the doctor said she is doing fine. She is just 25 percentile weight and 75 percentile height. So no worries as long as she is eating and growing which she is. He said "You can always fatten em up later, but once the fat is there it is had to get rid of it." Don't I know it.

Speaking of Rose there's a new kid in town. Look who is too big for her britches standing up and snacking like her sisters!

She is still our little Baby Rose though too.

The Babingtons upgraded to the seven quart crock pot this week. We have five real eaters now!

My nine months pregnant sister in law graciously did a photo shoot of my girls last weekend. The pictures are glorious! I am going to cheat and post one here so you get the idea. This picture is obviously not from my phone but is just to prove the point. She is really quite talented.

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What is even more remarkable than how adorable Afton looks in those flowers is the lengths Judy Kay was willing to go to get shots like that from her three...shall we say... spirited models. Yes, at one point you see her pregnant belly (housing a full grown baby who could live outside the womb) practically resting on the sidewalk. And it wasn't all that cool outside that day, people. We often get strange looks when we say that we moved here for no good reason other than to be near Ron's sister and her family. Maybe if the people who think that is odd could see the pictures below the would begin to understand.

My mom stitched this picture when I was about 12 years old. She recently asked me if I wanted one of her old cross stitching pieces. Of course I did! I have such fond memories of watching my mom work through many such pictures. I finally got it hung in my bedroom and it warms my heart every time I see it.

Things have been moving at a pretty break neck pace for us since late February with no sign of stopping until the end of summer. I get overwhelmed easily. I am not an especially neat person but chaos really gets to me. Ron recently took all three girls to Afton's ballet class (no small feat) and then kept them out on errands for an additional two hours so I could catch up around here. I would thoroughly clean one room and then sit down and read a chapter of my book and repeat. It was so relaxing and rejuvenating. Not sure what this says about me but I enjoyed it about as much as I would have enjoyed a day at the spa. And I missed my girls. There is something good for your soul about having the opportunity to miss your children. By end of the evening I remember thinking someday (someday too soon) my house will be this clean all the time and then, oh, I will long for the days with my sweet baby girls.

My sweet baby girls (well, the two biggest ones) played an actual board game by themselves for the first time this week. They had a lot of fun and actually followed the rules of them game instead of just messing with the pieces. May seem like a small thing to you but it's quite huge really.

Oh and this little big girl had her first raisins this week. She was fan!

Happy Birthday Baby Rose!

Ron summed her up best when he said recently, "She's been sweet every day of her life."

He's right. All 365 of them.

Where I Am From

My friend Martha made me do this. I wish I saw her more often so I could still call her Marth Brooks like I used to when we were young and we could still sing country songs super loud together. I could use some fun like that in my life. She has a precious blog called 50 Sticky Fingers which is the best blog name ever in my opinion. Anyway her post today told me to do this and I decided to listen to her. I will let her explain exactly what it is I am doing here. It was a pretty fun diversion. I hope you'll try it too and if you do I hope you will leave me a comment letting me know where I can read about where you are from.

Where I Am From

I am from a round dinette table and four chairs with white metal backs, from Kool Aid and love.

I am from the dark, cool living room with Little House on the Prairie turned on.

I am from an Aloe Vera plant making boo boos better and the morning after a storm.

I am from pizza on the coffee table and stubbornness, from McCoys and Andersons and Braggs.

I am from excitement first and thinking later and fierce loyalty and shyness.

From who loves you baby and accidents happen.

I am from the church altar and going forward at the invitation..

I'm from Oklahoma, fried Chicken and Wacky cake.

From Dad bringing me chocolate milk everyday after Kindergarten, playing at Mom's office while she worked, and Master Lee's Karate center.

I am from a park in Virginia, Make A Wish day, good grades are important but not as important as love.

From family being all that mattered.

Happy Fall Ya'll

Seasons change, children grow up, we grow older, the world stays on track, all things pass, time marches on. God is so good. He's so good to me.

If you were just wondering where the best place to get boxes is... now I feel silly!

A friend of mine recently asked me for moving advice. I moved a lot when I was a kid. I have had three major moves since I was an adult. Adults are a lot less adaptable than kids so I actually think in a way moving is harder for an adult than for a child. I feel like I have learned a few good lessons about moving the hard way and decided to share what I told my friend about them here to maybe save someone else a little trouble:

I have one big piece of advice about moving that I had to learn the hard way about three times before I finally figured it out. It may seem weird but here it is.....decide you are going to love it before you go and realize that just because you love where you came from doesn't mean you can't love where you are going. What I mean is for two of my three big moves as a grown up (one to Virginia from Oklahoma and one from one town in Virginia to another where I didn't know anyone) I was so busy thinking about the place I had come from and how awesome it was that I wouldn't let myself see all the good things around me in my new place. It was kinda like I was afraid to love the new place because I already loved the old place so much. So I spent a lot of time focusing on how much I missed the old place and no time enjoying the new place. Then after a lot of time had passed I would wake up and realize that this new place isn't bad at all and actually has a lot of good about it. I always regretted spending so much time being sad and miserable at the beginning of new place that I would eventually end up loving . Anyway so when we moved here I decided ahead of time that I was going to love it from the beginning. It didn't mean I wouldn't miss Virginia and all the memories I had there. It did mean I wouldn't set my new town up for failure by constantly comparing it to where I had come from. I would find things I liked about it right away and start enjoying them. More importantly, I would start treating it and thinking of it like home not some strange new place. Those are hard things to do for someone who is sentimental like me, but I made a decision to do it and this has by far been the best move ever. I have realized through all my moves that you can truly love more than one place with all your heart and that makes opening my heart to a new place much easier because I don't feel like I have to turn my back on other places. Places that in their own way are still very much home to me. I don't know if that makes sense but I hope so! Also, I hope that is the kind of advice you were looking for. If you were just wondering where the best place to get boxes is... now I feel silly!

One other thing I had to learn the hard way. Making new friends as an adult is a lot more challenging than it was when we were young. Adults have their own routines and ways of doing things. They aren't really worried about making new friends. They don't have to meet all new people every year in classes like kids do. So my advice for when you move is don't wait to start making friends. Jump right in. Find a church and maybe hobby or something and start meeting people. Don't wait for them to ask you over or out for dinner. You do it. The quicker you jump in and make it happen the quicker you will have friends and the quicker you have friends the quicker you will feel really at home. I didn't do this in my last move and I found it hard the entire time to make friends. I learned though from watching a few military families come in and out of town that when you are the new person the responsibility for making friends lies with you. If you put forth the effort people will happily open their hearts to you. You just have to jump in and do it. If you are shy like me that is hard but totally worth it.

One awesome thing about moving when you are our age is that you you get to take your best friends with you. Having Ron and my girls with me means home is anywhere I am!

Goal Post

I went on a date once in college and my date asked me what are your goals, after a pretty long silence I said, "I don't have any."

My Goals For September

1. Reach my pre-pregnancy weight.

2. Get up by 6:00 on 80% of weekday mornings.

3. Exercise at least 20 times.

4. Pray for my children everyday.

5. Brush my children's teeth at least 5 days a week. Don't judge.

6. Make an action plan for my yard.

7. Get a SC driver's license.

8. Get a library card.

Twenty Poohs.

I never want to forget that when Afton has little she used to call Winnie the Pooh "Twenty Poohs" and I almost did.

Love her.