Totally Worth It - Our Story

Ron loves gear lists. He works tirelessly on them. I had to take a picture of one of them. They are one many adorable things about my dear husband. This is his gear list for the three day bike trip he took last week. Seeing how excited he gets about planning for these kinds of outings makes the days of single parenting while he is gone totally worth it!

Who is this party animal toddler where my sweet baby girl used to be?

Next week this delightful little costume will be worn by our very own resident "ballet-er" in her long awaited "Big Performance." Sadly, she now prefers the term ballerina. Why is everyone growing up so fast around here?

We finally put our wonderful Christmas present of a zoo membership to use last week and the girls loved it so much I can tell we are going to be making up for lost time all summer long! Sissy was especially taken with the animals. She was glowing with love for them! She wanted to name each one. Her smile in the second picture melts my heart!

The kick me, steal my covers, toss and turn, drool on my pillow, breathe loud, sometimes even fall off of the bed and generally keep me awake all night long, but a day is coming when these chubby little cherubs will be young women and will no longer beg to sleep in Mommy's bed when Daddy is out of town, so until that day comes may no snuggles be left on the table and may I say yes every chance I get!

The Thunder are breaking my heart but I will stay up until midnight every time they play and I will cheer for them until the bitter end.

Piggies!!

There are no words...

Someday my coffee table won't be draped in a Disney Princess Snuggie everyday to be made into a "beautiful bed" for the likes of Tiny Sister, Buzz's head, Mulan, and Glow Baby but I hope that day is far, far away.

Our Story - 4.29.11

It is not often that the most exciting event of my week happens less than an hour into Monday morning but that is just the way it went this week. At 12:53 AM this Monday I had the honor and privilege of seeing this angelic little boy enter the world. Meet my newest little nephew:

I was smitten at first sight. I am pretty sure everyone else in the room felt the same. I know one little picture of this adorable child is not enough so you can find more here and then come back and hear about the rest of my week. Or don't. I assure you nothing else remotely that amazing happened. Let's see what did happen? Well...

Sissy continued to love Cattie with all her fiery little heart. Often a little too vigorously for Cattie's liking.
A castle or two was built then destroyed.

The yard was played in.

I arranged my iPhone apps.

We got new tires.

Sissy happened. She always does.

Ron enjoyed the Royal Wedding.

Our sweet baby Rose had her first real illness. Just a little bout with croup but still so sad for a Mommy.

Sweet tea was brewed. The least I can do for the man who does so much for me.

And the sand box was filled.

The week started out with a new life, the most wondrous everyday miracle of them all, and was filled with all the little sweet nothings that make life what it is. A precious, precious gift

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!

Ever.

Today my house is full of people I love and it's the best St. Valentine's Day I have ever known.

But Seriously...YAY FOR OUTSIDE.

We had some kind of lentil soup for lunch. It came from a can from Trader Joes. I realized pretty early on in soup season that making soup from scratch at lunch time was not the best use of my time. So cans it is. More important though is where we ate lunch. Right here:


Our brand new picnic table that Ron bought for us yesterday. I am so excited to eat outside with my family. I want to do it all time. Today after the girls finished their lunches they took their messy fingers and their messy selves to the yard and played. Ron and I just sat there and finished our lunches while watching the girls play and talking like grown-ups. Normally, when the girls are done we have to be done too because we immediately have to clean them up so they don't track even more yogurt and jelly and spaghetti sauce and yucky yucky all over the house. Not when we are outside. Yay for outside.

But seriously...YAY FOR OUTSIDE. It is glorious lately. Everywhere I look I see spectacular trees outside my windows. The air feels amazing. Afton asked me in the car today why God made fall and all I could say is that it was because He wanted to fill our hearts with wonder. Why else?

Anyway, I'm not sure what we are having for dinner tonight but I am pretty sure I know where we will eat it. God is showing off out there right now and I don't wanna miss it.

Systems were made for man, not man for systems.

Now that Ron works from home (Yeah, he works from home now. It's been a pretty eventful three months since we last spoke.) the pathetic lunches I had been making aren't going to work. I mean they weren't that pathetic for a one and two year old which is who was eating them, but they simply won't do for a grown man. What have I been eating all this time? Spaghetti. I have eaten spaghetti pretty much everyday for lunch for the last three years. Weird? A little. But I like spaghetti and eating it after my kids were asleep while catching up on the news was sublime. Eating spaghetti for lunch everyday would probably be a lot less sublime for my husband. So, now that he eats with us (which we are LOVING) I have started a new lunch regime. I had no intention of getting to the most hectic time of my day and then having to scramble to figure out what I could make for lunch for an entire family. I also had no intention of getting the least bit fancy with cooking right in the middle (and most hectic part) of the day. So I came up with an old fashioned rotation of simple lunches. The way I always envision people in the fifties did with dinner. "Oh, it's Tuesday. It's spaghetti night!" Don't tell Ron I got the idea from the fifties. He hates the fifties. Anyway here is my rotation:

Monday ~ Peanut butter sandwiches

Tuesday ~ English muffin pizzas

Wednesday ~ Wraps

Thursday ~ Grilled Cheese

Friday ~ Turkey Sandwiches.

Okay, they are still a little pathetic, but I am getting no complaints. I have such peace of mind not having to think something up everyday. Wednesday is the only day I will get the least bit fancy. I want to try a new wrap recipe every week. Until winter comes and then I will switch Wednesdays to soup. So, what kinda wrap did we have today on Wednesday? We didn't. We had English muffin pizzas. Systems were made for man, not man for systems.

Be Here Now

In honor of St. Valentine's Day I wanted to post my favorite love song of all. I haven't heard another song that captures the unique beauty of the stage in life we and many of our friends and family are in right now. We can swing back and forth so much between the mundane repetitiveness of everyday and looking forward and working to the next big thing that it is easy to miss the splendor of love that is all around us. I love this song and how it makes me remember how much I love my life. Listen to the words and I think you will too. (You can get rid of the annoying Google ads in the video by making it full screen and then xing out of them.)

1. Ron won a free lunch for 10 at Chipotle for dropping his business card in a bowl by the checkout. Today the girls and I met Ron and his co-workers there for lunch and enjoyed his winnings.

2. Here is our pumpkin that I told you about last time. We named him Simon. Afton kisses him every time we leave the house and assures him that we will be back soon. When we do come back Ponder greets him with a smile and a wave and a special little "Hi!"



Also, Happy Birthday in two days to my sweet husband who did such a good job carving it and who does such a great job being the man of our house and the delight of all our hearts around here.



3. This time of year someone around here always a runny nose or a cough or has had a one off vomiting episode or something. I think that is true for most households with young children. The colder months are fun months, but they are also the months of the sickies. If you are like me you spend a lot of time guessing and trying to figure out if the symptoms du jour are a big deal and especially if they are contagious. I can't tell you how many Sunday mornings we have gone back and forth over whether or not the symptoms one of the girls was showing was reason enough to keep them home from church. I hate to be the mommy that spreads germs around the town so many play dates and trips to the library or play ground have been scratched due to what were probably innocuous little symptoms. I just know how hard it is on the whole family to have a really sick kid so I never want to be responsible for someone else's family having that fortune. More than often I err on the side of caution so we spend a lot of the sickie months indoors. In our own doors. Anyway, this year, the nursery at the church where I attend Bible study handed out a sheet at the beginning of fall listing the symptoms that preclude a child from attending their nursery. To me it has been so helpful! I thought there might be some other mom's who spend their time waffling on just how sick or contagious their child is and would find this list helpful too. A child is likely too contagious to be hanging out with other kids if he/she has any of the following symptoms: 1.) Has vomited or had diarrhea in the last 72 hours. 2.) Has had a fever in the past 24 hours. 3.) Currently has a yellow or green runny nose.

I hope that list will be as liberating and informative to you as it was too me.

4. Speaking of sick little cuties H1N1 made a visit to our house last week and hit our precious little Ponder pretty hard. If anyone ever wondered what swine flu looks like one year here is a picture taken on day three of her bout with it after her fever had broken and she was on the upswing. As you can see she is still look pretty rough!


We are all doing fine now. In fact thanks to Tamiflu none of the rest of us got symptoms at all and Ponder was back to herself about four days from the onset. There are all sorts of rumors and bad press going around Tamiflu and for all I know some of them may be true, but all I can say is it seemed like a miracle drug to us during that week and I am sincerely thankful to God for it. We are so blessed with health in my little family and it humbles me and makes me truly grateful.