the prettiest time of the day

This one is for you, Glenda!  :) 

Its gonna be long, but how do you decide b/t all these pretty pics taken during the prettiest time of the day. 

Oh, I've loved breaking out the side walk chalk this week.  There is something so wonderful about it!

 This is Lily's happy face when she sees her dog who she left outside the afternoon before...

 Lily checks out brown dog...

 But then she realized there is a "bug" on her dog... OH NO!  At closer look, it was a baby slug... gross!  

 But she recovers and watches Pete swing.

Going really high... do you see him?!  I've heard swinging is good for muscle tone, it sounds a little like a stretch but I can hope!!  We are also gonna try working on swinging sideways or straddling the swing to work on obliques.

 This is a picture of happiness for this boy's LIFE!  Bright sun on my face and a tight hug from my boy whose life has not been easy but IS a gift!  

(and sorta interesting/appropriate that the shadow is a thumbs up.)

 

 

 

 

And we've been working on "apart-togethers"... required in between your turns on the swing.

 We listened to "If our God is for us" by Chris Tomlin over and over in the van yesterday on our trip to Target (praying it, claiming it, singing it for us and those we love!)... I'm always trying to get them to "raise it up!"... here is Peter doing that at my request.  ;)

 And another side note... our girl is a monkey!  :)  This is one of her favorite things to do!

before work

Lily to Mike:  "Don't get-for hug!!"

Daddy, Mommy, & Baby

Will this be one we show at their weddings?!
Oh, how I love them!

Lent

As with Advent, Lent is a season that is somewhat new to my radar.  Our church is doing daily devotions again for Lent, like they did for Advent.  Here's the link.


The service last night was so good, like water to my soul, as we hear the Truth about our sin and God's mercy and grace in Jesus.  Here are some verses that I need to consider more:


Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  Genesis 3:19


Consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.  Romans 6:11


Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.  Romans 2:4

a conversation

This morning Lily and I were at the Clothes Closet (which I am loving!).  She was standing next to me, with her hands up...

Lily:  "Hold me, Mommy.  I want you to hold me."

me:  "I can't hold you right now, love."

Lily:  "Whhhhyyyy?"

me: "Because I have some work to do."

Lily:  "But Mommy... you're not a Daddy!"

OH, I love it!  :)   So I held her!  :)

A Helicopter

Hopefully, the video is working now... Turn your head to the side ;)

(probably not the best idea for a child with his history... but he is clueless of that... he only knows that he is passionate about vehicles and his imagination is wild.)

I felt certain that it wasn't "real", that he was being silly.  The silliness felt a little more justified when he explained  that he was being a helicopter.  I think it freaked out the coach a little, for good reason.
(Men or boy mamas, please tell me this is somewhat normal...)

In case you haven't met her...

You've met Holly and Baby Audrey.

Well, the other baby in our house is "Yellow Baby".

 Seriously, this girl is so precious.  Oh, my little Lil-yan, I love you!
The Lord must have known I would need her.  She is such a spot of joy in my days. 
She blesses me in SO.MANY.WAYS!
This morning she has:

*gotten gas for her car

*gone to the circus

*picked up the brother

*gone to the "sore" (store) and Dog Wood Park

("Yellow Baby" is the perfect name. Its the baby we gave to Peter when Lily was born.  Yellow is Peter's favorite color.)
And, how do preschool mornings go by SO fast?!

Circus Fun

There was such excitement in our evening... heading downtown as its getting dark, seeing all of the circus trailers lining the streets, glow sticks (!), all of the other folks excited as we wait to get in, the energy of downtown and the street musicians around us (and fun memories for me from going as a child!).  We went down for the end of the pre-show festivities.  Then headed up to our seats for the 7pm show.  The kids had taken good naps... but by 7:45, Peter was telling us he was ready to go home!  Aww, bummer!  We were able to push him til about 8:45 with a snack (that wasn't so kindly shared- see above), there was intermission and I was hoping the second half would be exciting but we headed out about 5 min into it.  Bummer for me, I was excited to stay... as was Lily!  She kept telling us she wanted to see more circus.  But we had to go.  Anyway, I guess it was mostly a success.

mid-feb

I saw this happy heart banner here and the kids and I made it over the weekend.  I love it!

...and love the festiveness it adds to our mantle.  (Its the small things!)

Yesterday, I took the kids for yogurt during naptime (our first time ever) as a V-Day treat... 

 And, today is a BIG DAY... one that we've been looking forward to and talking about and counting down to for a few weeks!...

 Yep, we are going to the circus tonight!  We are all so excited!

(fyi, for other Richmonders, its 1/2 price the first night so that's why we are going tonight)

I've wanted to go for a few years but this is our first.  I hope its FUN!
Its bound to be better than Feb 15th last year!

(I bribed her with the candy so she'd talk to the camera.  Thanks, Aunt Joy!
We are excited about the elephants and clowns too... but I think its cute how she does her fists when she says "roar!"... and ironic that she most often talks about the lions and what they say b/c in reality, that roar may be really scary... So there will be lots of happily holding her!  :)

under-estimate

After doing Valentines at school today, I thought I would teach Peter a verse on love... so I went for a short one...  I was asking him to repeat after me, "We love because He..."
Peter finishes it for me... "He first loved us.  1 John 4:19"  Thanks, Pete.  I had no recollection of what the reference was for that one... thanks for letting me know (and thanks to everyone who teaches Truth to my child at Preschool, Sunday School, and Wellspring!).
On a lighter note, before naptime, Peter was going to the potty.  I asked him to hold "it" to aim.  He said "I don't need to hold it, it can work by itself.  I can move it when I move my body".   Oh.  

this week

Best of friends, these kids are best of friends.  I love it!

Peter went out alone one eve to Speech (thanks to Gram and Pop).

Lily MISSED him and was so glad to see him when he returned.

 So they went for a ride together.  Lily had been the baby so her chair was in the back, but then she said she was the Mommy so she moved her chair next to Peter's and got her purse.  They are a trip... I love it!

 Such good friends that now that Lily is in her big girl bed she likes to wake up early with her bro.  So she feel asleep in the van one day, which is so not like her!

 We went to see Baby Isaac for naptime fun this week.  Lily loved it!!

 Peter got new artwork sent home today... His projects have been the same or similar this year since he is repeating the 3 year old class... but we get to see improvements!  Like this!

Of course, its yellow.  (I sorta liked the green color better to match his room decor.)

 and it went up to update a frame!  Yay, Pete!

Paint Update

This was the winter to paint our bedroom!  Yay!

(2011 was the dining room)

(2010 was the family room)

Before:

The crown molding was even a different color from the rest of the trim.  :P  I chose the most painful part first and did all of the trim to match the other "updated" white trim.  I am down to only two remaining rooms after this that need fresh trim paint... yea!  I had been thinking for a while that I'd do a gray on the walls.  I wanted something sorta neutral and calm but different, not a color we already had in another room.  I ended up trying 5 sample colors... the walls were a big mess.  I narrowed it down to two of those samples and then got "votes"... everyone picked the darker of the two... "French Silver".

 Lily Bug and I went to the store to pick up the paint last week while P was at preschool

 Lily found this paint card and told me, "I just love these little puppies!"  How sweet is she!

I came home and worked and worked on it...

I asked Mike if he thought I could convince Behr to sponsor my blog  (!!!) since their paint covered my dark blue walls with ONE coat... I had to do two to edge it in, but only roll ONE. 

 I still have to re-hang things on the wall so I'll leave it with just pics of the painted walls...I do like the way it turned out.  Its darker than I was initially thinking but its good.  It has been good for my sanity too. :)

Naptime Fun

Last week I decided to let the kids skip naps and we headed to the Children's Museum for some fun.  There was some motives for ME mixed in.  I wanted to get out of the house during the pretty afternoon hours instead of hibernating here... a change of routine was needed.  

{they played dress up}

{and puppets}

Peter was a farmer again.

Lily was his helper.

{planting}

 {watching it grow?}

 {time for harvest!}

 {getting the last of the crop}

{and fun the the sandbox... looking for treasure!}

And we did pretty art work also (the BEST place to do art/painting- not at home).

This may be a new part of our routine.  It got me motivated to take advantage of this season where they are now old enough to skip naps... it gives us a bonus chunk of free time in the afternoon for fun activities if we decide to go out.  :)