A Letter to My 4-year-old

I remember standing on the front porch of our house in West Texas with a pregnancy test in my hand. Dad was working in the yard. He came onto the porch to hear the news. We were excited. We were scared.

I remember the day I had to start giving myself shots. Twice a day, I gave myself a heparin injection and repeated, "I love this baby. I love this baby!"


I remember the joy that all of our family & friends shared awaiting your arrival and the outpouring of gifts and cards - 4 baby showers! We were not the only ones who were excited about your arrival!

I remember the overwhelming relief when you were born safely and Dad's tears as he saw his first born, a son, who would carry his father's name. I remember fear & pain in taking you in for jaundice tests in the first week and the blue light you had to be wrapped in.

I remember thinking, "How on earth did we get such a cute baby?!?!" I remember quickly realizing how much I didn't know!

I remember caring for you through really strange living situations, praying with you every night, teaching you, trusting God with you. To hear you talk & run now, no one would ever know that it didn't come easy.

You amaze me and entertain me. You keep me on my toes. You are so smart, talented, creative and inventive! I can't believe you're 4 already, and I can't imagine how dull my life would be without you.

I am so glad that God picked me to be your Mommy.

Happy Birthday, David! I love you!!!

House Update with Sprinkler Pics

The foundation wall was completed on Friday! We can now start visualizing the house & where things will actually be! The concrete had to cure for 4 days, then it rained & now (5/29) we're waiting for lumber to be delivered for the floor to go in.

MawMaw gave Elizabeth this cute Ladybug sprinkler on Friday, also. David quickly took it over Saturday night when Elizabeth went to bed!

Elizabeth has played with it in the living room, but she hasn't seen it squirting water yet!

The Splash Pad is Open!

We made our first Splash Pad trip of the summer on Friday evening. Elizabeth was too small last year, so this was her first time ever!

David had a ball running around, splashing, getting splashed & playing with the other kids. You never knew what water jet he would be sitting on running through, or aiming at himself!

Elizabeth was a little slow to get comfortable with the splashing water, but warmed up to the concept before too long. Then she spotted some kids playing basketball at the neighboring BB court. In this clip, she's watching them yelling, "BALL!"

Check my Flickr for more photos from the Splash Pad.

Pray for the Chapman Family

I don't really get into celebrities like some people. I've even thought it silly of people who do. But looking back over my life, I can think of no single musical artist that has had a greater impact on my life than Steven Curtis Chapman. I've got more of his songs on my MP3 player than any other artist. His music has touched my life when I needed a lift, it has encouraged me, it has deepened my faith. His ministry to assist in caring for orphans inspires me.

If you listen to Christian music, you have probably already heard the news, but if not I urge you to add his family to your prayer list as they mourn the loss of their 5 year old daughter, Maria. This is an extremely difficult situation for their whole family.

Visit Steven Curtis Chapman's website.
Get to know Maria on SCC's blogsite.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requests gifts be given to a special fund at Shaohannah’s Hope.

Tiny Talk & First Drawing

I have completely forgotten to post Tiny Talk Tuesday the last 2 weeks! Last week I intended to post these videos of David's non-stop talking:

Boy, does it take Blogger forever to load videos! In the following video, I was trying to get Elizabeth to sing EIEIO with me. When she does it, it's adorable! She ended up doing more peek-a-boo and David was singing with me in the background.

We've had to have some discussions lately about how we love our family, so we need to talk nicely to each other. Today, I heard David saying to Elizabeth, in a not-so-nice tone, "Don't get my cars, Sweetie!" I had to giggle. I think adding "Sweetie" was his attempt at talking nice to his sister.

Tonight during bedtime prayers, I paused, and David interjected, "The End."

I know it's not Tuesday, but I'm going to link anyway. Check out more Tiny Talk over at Not Before 7!

Elizabeth also had another first today - her first crayon drawing! I gave her small red, yellow & blue crayons and let her go.

Foundation Forms Are Going Up!

Monday Drilling All Around

Two drilling rigs were set up today at the house site. The taller one in the foreground is the water well truck. The smaller in the background is the pier drilling truck.

The water well was finished in one day! I thought it would take longer than that. Now if we ever get the electric service, we'll see how it works. Oh, how I long to be off grid!

All of the piers were finished today, too! Concrete trucks came in the afternoon & got them all poured, too! Shade made it hard to tell much in this photo because I waited too late to get a good photo. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

You can see how the site is progressing in my Flickr.

Friday was Exciting!

Nice weather finally dried up the ground (for the most part) and allowed pier drilling to actually make some headway on Friday!

The holes are so deep you can't see the bottom!

Then, about mid-afternoon, the first concrete truck arrived to start filling the piers!!!!! Yay!!!! They put the pre-tied rebar in the hole and poured!

The audience didn't seem to make them nervous.

Here's Dad & Mr. Builder talking about the "plan" for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we'll see lots of change in the upcoming weeks!

Drilling piers & filling with concrete is supposed to be finished Monday.

I love Indian Blankets!

I think the Indian Blanket is my favorite wildflower, so my blog will be sporting their blooms for a while. This photo, and the blanket on my border, are from Grandpa's yard/pasture.

By the way, I finally got photos added to Zoo Day! Don't miss them!

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!

First off, I would like to say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to my Momma and to my mother-in-law, Beth!

Now... I should be embarrassed to post this photo, which I just knew was going to look terrible. But when I saw it, all I could do was laugh! And it's still cracking me up! (though I was not laughing in the photo!) This was the first attempt at this year's Mother's Day photo. I think the part that gets me the most is the expression David & I are sharing. We weren't looking at each other and both ended up with exactly the same look of torture! I guess laughing about it is better than the alternative...


On a more pleasant note, David made this beautiful butterfly for me in Sunday School this morning. (And, by the way, he was so excited to go to his class this morning!!!)

He also planted seeds in a styrofoam cup last week that were starting to sprout. "Flowers for Mom."

Since the first photo went awry, I snapped a couple in the car while Dad was in Lowe's this afternoon, and was much happier with their turn out.

This evening, we spent a little time at the North Place and I got this cute "together" photo:

And finally got the dreamed of Mother's Day photo for myself. Oh, how I love my children & love being their Mom!

I just discovered that if I got paid for being a Mom, this would be my yearly salary:

Try out Salary.com's Mom Salary Wizard to see what you ought to be paid! (I'd be interested to see how much our friends who have 7 kids should be making!!!)