Jamie rocks out with Daddy

I'm still workin' on the Birth Story. In the meantime enjoy this video of Jamie during his "settling into bed" time. It takes about an hour of winding down after the older kids go to bed to get him settled, but then he sleeps till 7 with a few "dream-feeds". I am SO not complaining :)

I just love watching him stare into J's face. *blissful sigh*

Sir Tupperware Underwear and the Fairly Gentle Ogre

Judah is Weally good at Karate Kid

J is taking the kids to a special event at a dojo nearby where a neighbor child takes karate lessons. Judah has recently watched The Karate Kid with Daddy and Sofi and is very excited, with big plans about all the fighting he's going to do. I just overheard this exchange between Judah and J and laughed so hard I nearly snorted my Cheerioes out my nose...


No, Judah, you can't take your sword to karate class. they have their own swords at karate.

Can I... can I... can I...? (excitement renders him nearly speechless)

No, son, they're not going to let you use the sword.

Why???

Because you have to be very very good at karate before they let you use the swords.

But, but, but I AM reawwy good at kawate kid.

No, silly boy, you've never even had a karate class before.

But, but , but I am REAWWY good at kawate kid.

Judah...

But, but, but I kawate kid VIOLET. I karate kid Violet when she was Cinderella. Wemember??

Helping Daddy screw stuff up

There's nothing like little boys in Hero Underpants....

Spider Man versus the Bad Guy: Episode #537

Judah: "Daddy, you be Pidah Mayun and I be da Baaa Guy"

J: "Ok"

("Uh! Oh! Smash! Whaaaaa! Haa! Aaah! Psheew! Psheew!")

J: Hah! I webbed your gun, now what will you do?"

Judah: "Now I has CLAAAAWS! I will shash you wid my claws! "

(Slash! Slash!)

Judah: "I gwabbed you webs! Now you are runned out of webs!!"

J: "I runned out of webs? Uh oh, now I'm in trouble."

(grunting, groaning, huffing, puffing, more slashing)

Judah: "Now you are DEAD! Lie on you face, Daddy, that's how you die. Now you DIED on you FACE!!!"

TO BE CONTINUED...

Boys to Men

It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in the Shen Valley and I've been sitting in my living room watching Judah out the front window as he revels in the glorious sunshine and warmth. As I'm watching him, I'm reveling in the un-abashed Male-ness of the toddler boy. He runs around, brandishing his plastic sword and hollering; "I am STRONG! I am BRAVE! I will FIGHT and I will WIN! I will kill aaaaaall da Bad Guys!!"

I love it.

I will be sad when, as he grows, he begins to temper this Male-ness with an understanding of what society expects of him. The swagger will become a little hesitant. The bragging, more subtle and less pure. His drive to lead into battle will be scorned by sassy little girls in pigtails who will giggle at him behind his back. His confidence in his strength and bravery will be tested by real challenges and real fear. His ideas of bad guys and good guys will be shaken as he realizes that it's not always easy to tell-- the bad guy is sometimes the guy with the smile and the firm handshake and sometimes the good guy is in disguise.

But, please God, he'll continue to grow and mature. And by Grace, he'll learn to boast in Christ alone. He'll lead his family in the work of establishing the Body of Christ, and his community and church in rescuing the lost and hurting. His confidence will be in the strength of his convictions and his bravery based on an assurance of Grace. Dear God, purify him with fire and give him a strong heart and a clear conscience. Give him the wisdom to discern between the good and evil in this world.

Lord, make him like his Daddy...

Getting creative in the cold

I recently read a headline on Reddit (if you don't know, you don't want to know-- trust me.) where a man was asking for advice for keeping his two young children entertained during this cold weather when you can't just ship them outside to burn off some steam. Although we are still making sure the kids get plenty of fresh air, I thought I'd also share with you some examples of J's creative ideas for fighting the winter blues :)

Enjoy!

Balloon Volleyball



I really don't know what to call this one:

In case you were ever in any doubt as to why I married him...

...this morning J graced me with this email:

Linux Baby

Give it six months and Apple will come out with iRocker, available for $1.99 from your iPhone App store. It vibrates, it gently rocks, and it whispers soothingly that your baby is savvy and hip -- far cooler than those dowdy PC babies with their scotch taped pacifiers and unpleasant BO.

Two years after that, Microsoft will release Windows Napplication. Every fifteen minutes, Clippy will pop out and cheerfully offer, "It looks like you're trying to take a nap! Do you want some help?"

--J

Margaret Sanger is turning over in her grave right now...

Overheard today during play....

"Judah, you can be the prince and I'll be the princess. Here's your hat and your sword."

"Do pinces fight ba' guys wiv dere swords??"

"Yes, they do."

"I'n a pince!"

"Yes, and I'm the princess"

"Sofi, do pinCESess fight da ba' guys wiv a sword, TOO?"

"No, princesses just sit at home in their pretty dresses and weep for their princes."

J has always said I'm the worst male chauvinist he's ever seen. I reckon it's rubbing off on the kids now...

Photo Dump: Goin' To the Fair!

Though the weather outside was frightful





The fair was quite delightful!

Summer Projects

I know it seems like I'm still here, but due to the magic of Blogger, I've simply scheduled posts to keep y'all busy and out of trouble while I'm gone. Trouble like removing me from your readers out of sheer boredom. However, there is, as of yet, no way to auto-comment. Hence my silence on all of your blogs. I apologize. In my defense, my parents have dial-up.

Nuff said.

For your enjoyment, a project undertaken by J and the kids to transform this:



...into something useful and fun!














I found that idea on someone's blog ages ago and I'd totally give credit where it is due, but I have no idea whose blog it was! Speak up if you recognize it...

Another reason I like this town

What says summer better than this??












Hope you're having as good a summer as we are!!!

Today the Mailman is my friend

Looky what he bringed me!!

The fabric for my porch swing:



My favorite magazine:



The girly movie J owes me ;) Tomorrow is Stayte Night, yay!!



And while the mailman didn't bring this, there really wasn't any other place to stick this information, so here. Our onion crop is in!! Over ten pounds of vidalias! Glory be!! I am sooo stinkin' proud of myself.

I may be a wee tad bit fickle

I know I was just claiming a new BFF the other day, but now.... I dunno... This lovely lady and her Etsy Shop, Blog and Playlist may be my very newest, bestest Internet BFF. Go ahead. Go check it out. There's nothing to see here today anyways....

I've been un-blogspired (oo look! I just made up another word!) around here these days. I need some quiet time in a cafe with wi-fi to recharge the muse. That's what we do to muses in the digital age. We recharge them. Bronte and Austen probably fed their muses with food celestial, but we recharge ours with caffeine and wi-fi. At least I do.

But today, instead of a quiet cafe and wi-fi, I have bored children and a messy house. The messy house is my fault, but the bored children is totally J's fault. He's at "guy's weekend" in Manassas for the weekend. Every five minutes I have to answer the following questions:

"Where's Daddy?"

Out at Mr S's house

"Whyyyyy???"

He's having a fun weekend to visit his friends

"But why does he have to go sooo long??"


Well, his friends live far away. We visit our friends too, right? But our friends live close by so we have short visits. But Daddy's friends live far away so he has to take a longer visit.

"Whyyyy??"

*sigh*

Not that I begrudge him the time. I really don't. These are good friends from college, and I love it that we are all still in touch. It's great to have friends that we've known since we first got married. It keeps us grounded. Gives us perspective. And besides, J always comes back feeling bad for having left me over the weekend with the kids all by myself and it's good for a few shopping trips without the kids in the next week or so ;) And oh yeah, he owes me a girly movie, too since I watched this one with him the night before he left. So I've got a girly movie night and at least two trips out without the kids coming to me in the next week. I can handle a day or two with bored kids and a messy house.

Oh yeah, baby!

A spectacularly boring post to put you to sleep on a Saturday night, which could be nice, so go ahead, read it...

Notice how my attention has seemed to wander from my dear old blog the last few days? Fear not! I have not forgotten you, gentle readers, nor do I neglect you! It's just that Jeremiah's laptop died and he, laptopless (which sounds slightly risque, but isn't), has commandeered our faithful PC, leaving my with my creakingly archaic (and slooooow) latop and no photo editor. He assures me that his new laptop will arrive safe and sound on Monday and I can have my PC and my Photoshop back. Just in time to do some cool new things with my photos!! Just wait, it's gonna be awwwwwsome!

Cute story:

Judah, while carrying around a play phone, "I gonna call Gwammy. *pause* Gwammy? I gotta booooguh ih my nose!"



See y'all Monday night, if the USPS doesn't fail us!

For Jeremiah and Ben, with love, remembrance and a LOL

Scroll

All

The

Way

Down...

to the last pic.


Not even the jungles of Honduras....

ROFLMAO

Random things

Can any of you explain to me why the boy who would cheerfully climb into a dark, scary box to be mailed to China is so deathly afraid of a housefly that he'll burst into tears when one lands on his p.b.j. and then spend the rest of the evening frantically asking, "Fuhyii bichew?" in a teary voice and asking "Daddy killim?"

Overheard in the F house this evening:

J: I was going to, but then you made that whiny face, so now the answer is no.

S: Well, that wasn't really a whiny look. It was more a pleading look.
!!!

Well. Jeremiah threw me a surprise party. Who'd a thunk it? It was awesome. And today I am feel very cat-who's-eaten-the-cream-ish. That is, sleek and contented. An evening of friends, good food and lots of laughter does that to me. As does the fact that my husband planned this whole thing out weeks ago and orchestrated babysitters, food, drinks and the most awesome cake EVER. All because he loves me.

Doesn't he rock??

He's simply dreamy :)

From Herb of Grace

J-quote of the day

J speaks on the principle of a large and distant Government's inability to adequately provide for small, individual justices.


"As the distance from the problem increases, so does the stupidity of the solution legislated"