Little Personalities

Monday, July 18, 2011

Sweet Weekend

It was a lovely summer weekend, full of deep breaths of refreshment!

My parents offered for Peter to have a weekend at the farm house, full of tractor rides and lovin' on his best dog friend. So we took them up on it.

The other 3 of us slept all night long and until 9am (!!!) on Saturday. I can't remember the last time we did that... maybe 15 months ago (probably not that long, but we thoroughly enjoyed it)! My internal clock didn't even wake me up in the 5's. We had a leisurely morning...

Mike and Lily took at bike ride (at Lily's request!) to get us bagels :)

(sweet, low-maintenance Clovey, the under-photographed member of our family)

...then a trip to Home Depot. After some hemming and hawing, we decided to tackle scrapping, sanding, and painting our shutters. So we worked on that in the afternoon then had an evening out b/c Lily had a date with Gram and Pop. We had dinner at Chipotle for $14.96 (our goal was to stay under $15) and then just sat there. We kept sitting and sitting til the sun went behind the trees. The weather was per-fect... the perfect mid-summer eve! We said we were plugged into our charger and waiting for the charge light to turn green... it was lovely. :)

Then we did a little shopping... I found some babyGap deals for PT. Mike browsed the Apple store. ;)

And our fun treat yesterday was that Paw drove Peter back then stayed the afternoon and night with us!!!

We all went piled into the van...

Paw was the clown in the car, not suprising I know!!!

then Lily's turn!

Big Bro was more into his book than clowning around!

We got a drive-thru dinner and headed to the pool!

It was a fun evening to re-live fun pool memories with Paw! My kids got to enjoy pool time with him, just like I did so much growing up! It was a blast and just good for all of us!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Raw Emotions & Yesterday's Exciting Old Navy Finds

We went to Peter's speech therapy yesterday. Lily came along. While I am so thankful for everyone there and the services, I've decided I hate that place... I hate going there 3 days a week. I hate that it has to exist. I hate seeing all of the kids (big & young) who also have to come, I hate the bumper stickers of "Autism Awareness" and all the other "disorders/conditions" they serve. It shouts in my face three times a week that things aren't right. I hate that we are a part of it and I hate it for all the other families who have it far worse than we do.

So while Peter had his speech therapy, I decided to leave (for the first time ever in 6 months!) for my own therapy. (Don't worry, I left my # with the receptionist.) Lily and I got milkshakes, then headed to HomeGoods for some retail therapy. We didn't buy anything but it was just good to be out and away.

When we got back to Children's, I got weepy for his therapist. Just talking more and more about his tone issues (esp with his mouth, tongue, jaws)... and the same old ones that we've been struggling with for years... some days I'm just weary and over it all. His therapist is lovely and was so reassuring and kind. And I want to just shout... how did this happen? Where did this come from? How is it all related (seizures & tone)? How long will we struggle? No one can tell me. And that's OK, I guess. You can pray that God would give me the ongoing grace to TRUST HIM. He knows how & why and He knows how He'll carry us thru. And I know that somehow in his sovereignty, He has deemed this as part of his perfect plan.

Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me (& Peter) completely.

1 Cor 13:12

So afterwards, as I weeped in the van for our drive home, I decided that I just wasn't ready to go home. So we headed to Old Navy. And here come the fun deals...

2 new workout tank tops: originially $14.50, clearance for $3.99
Pack of underpants for Lily: originally $7.50, clearance for $2.99
All for $12, less than the original cost of one for the items! SCORE!

And it also did my heart good to listen to the JOY of Peter and Lily's squeals as they played so cheerfully together under clothes racks and in front of the dressing room mirrors!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Rompin' Birthday Girls

On Saturday, we had a joint party with Lily's besties.

We have been in church small group with their families for 5 years and had lots of our babies together.

Susan, Emily and I found out we were pregnant on the same day.

Our due dates were July 8, 9, 10.

The girls' birthdays are: Ruby (July 1), Lily (July 6), Fields (July 8)

So I have the feeling lots of joint parties are in their future!!

They really are sweet friends and we are thankful to the Lord for their friendships and pray they'd love, encourage and point each other to the Lord as they grow.

Fields is on the left (Lily's R) and Ruby is on the right (Lily's L)

The youngest Dennis was there!

My handsome Peter had fun!

Everyone enjoyed cake!

Then there was bubble FuN!

I love this pic of Paw & Peter!

July 6, 2011 Our Girl Turns Two!

Birthday Breakfast compliments of Paw

It rained off and on all day on her birthday... and several days last week, so there was some inside fun!

Our gift to Lily is that pink "bubbleicious" balance bike... but she's not quite tall enough yet :(

Of course, she got her afternoon beauty rest!

That eve we went out for pizza.

Mike headed back home Wed eve and the Lily Bug was quite sad to have her Daddy go so got some extra birthday snuggles!

Then snuggles with Tayloe!!

And silly evening fun!

Celebrating our Girl!

We celebrated Lily's birthday a few days early on Sunday, July 3rd.

Lily loves bunny rabbits so I wanted her to have a bunny cake for her birthday cake.

I baked it and Aunt Jane kindly decorated it for me! It turned out cute!!

Peter had this "3D" BUS cake (that someone more talented than me made) for his 2nd birthday so I wanted Lily to have a "3D" bunny, not just a flat one ;)