Kids Say the Cutest Things...

Zora has just been full of "deep thoughts" lately and today she said a couple more cute things that made me smile.

A song was on the radio with these words

"There is hope for every man

A solid place where he can stand

In this dry and weary land

There is hope for every man..."

She said, "Mommy, there's hope for women too!" Yes, that's right. I explained to her than it meant mankind not just men.

Another conversation that took place in the car today was about moving. She's been asking a lot of questions about moving because our friends just moved to Arizona and her Uncle Jamie is moving out of my mom's house and into a rent house. She also knows that Joel has lived here his entire life and has never moved, so naturally she's curious. She started asking me how many times different people in our family had moved and all the different places they had lived.

Then she said, "Mommy, I've moved before."

I said, "No, honey, you've lived in the same house we live in now since you were born."

"But, Mommy, I moved from heaven to earth when God put me in your tummy!"

Priceless... I love their sweet, innocent little minds :)

Photo Shoot!

Several weeks ago I took the girls for a photo shoot at Images. The results are in... I love them... see what you think!

From the Mouth of a Babe

Do your kids ever just put you in your place and teach you a valuable life lesson? I had one of those moments from Zora on Friday.

I woke up Friday morning with a smile on my face ready for a fun day with the girls. Our plans for the day were to go to playgroup for "Bike & Trike Day", then meet some of our little girlfriends from dance after lunch, and to end the day we were supposed to go to my dad's house for dinner.

Instead, Zora woke up with a tummy ache. Bummer. Should we stay home or will she be okay? Then, Lily wakes up with a tummy ache. Double Bummer. We sit down for breakfast and Zora eats really good, but Lily takes one bite and says no more - not a good sign, right? By now they are both begging me to stay home all day - another red flag! So, I decided to stay home from playgroup and maybe later in the day they would feel better.

Fastforward to 30 minutes later... I'm talking to another playgroup mom to let her know I won't be there and Lily starts puking all over the couch... nice! I hung up the phone, showered Lily, cleaned the couch, and started a load of laundry so that we wouldn't be spreading any of those nasty germs...

Fastforward another 30 minutes... Lily is back on the couch resting with towels and a trash can at her side, and I go to unload the dishwasher. I open the cabinets and I realize that overnight ants have invaded and are on a rampage in my kitchen. Frustrated, I instantly turn into a mass murderer. I'm killing ants like you wouldn't believe and as I'm standing there Lily starts begging for something to drink. I offer her very small sips, and go back to my killing spree. While I'm not paying attention Lily gets her cup and starts chugging it down. What happened next? That's right - puking episode #2. At least this time it's on the tile kitchen floor which is much easier to clean up! So, Lily gets shower #2 for the day and here comes load of puke laundry #2 for the day as well!

Then Joel calls to see how my day is going... poor guy... he got an ear full. Not that any of this was his fault or something that he could change, but he ever-so-sweetly decided to come home to help out a little. He came home with ant killing spray, so I quickly cleaned out all of the cabinets and let him spray them down. While he was doing that I'm running my mouth about how all MY plans for the day went south fast and I'm having a ROYAL PITY PARTY... then Zora humbled me with her life lesson... she very sweetly said,

"Mommy, sometimes life is just hard."

Oh....

Wow...

I now feel about 2 inches tall because my 5-year-old just totally put me in my place and reminded me that life is not always a bed of roses and that sometimes you just have to put on your big girl panties and deal with it!

I must say that after that my attitude about the day changed and we ended up having a rather decent weekend. Lily felt much better by that afternoon and I haven't seen a single ant since Joel sprayed. Life isn't so bad after all, huh?

Fire Station Field Trip!

A couple of weeks ago our playgroup took a field trip to visit the fire station in Prattville. We had a huge group show up for the fun and I think the moms and kids all had a lot of fun! Afterward we had a yummy lunch together at Mazzios. Here are some pics from our trip...

What a fun (and cute) bunch of kiddos :)

Standing by the firetruck with their buddy Kylan

In the captain's seat!

On the firepole

Zora taking her turn spraying the fireman's waterhose. Lily refused to do it :(

Mark Thomas spraying the waterhose... isn't he the cutest???

I absolutely love this picture. This is Zander wearing the fireman's coat.

Adoption

I have lots of friends with some great blogs (see my sidebar and enjoy!), but I want to share a new blog that I am reading. Waiting For Aamina is my cousin, Rachel's, blog in which she will be sharing her adoption journey on the baby girl they are waiting for who will be from Ethiopia. Also, she is handcrafting vintage jewelry and all the funds are going toward their adoption, so you'll have to check it out! She is working on getting her etsy shop up and running, so if you love jewelry you have to see this stuff...she is oh-so-talented!

Now, I have to share a cute little conversation that occured between Zora and I this week. She has heard me talk quite a bit about orphans & adoption because Joel's parents were actually both raised in an orphanage and spent some time in foster homes. We also have talked about some of our friends who have adopted children, and she is also very anxious to meet her new baby cousin, Aamina, from Ethiopia. On top of all of that, Zora and Lily both have been talking quite a bit about wanting another sibling (but Mommy says NO!). So, here is the conversation we had on Tuesday night...

Zora: "Mommy, what are we going to do tomorrow?"
Me: "I'm not sure. Why? What would you like to do?"
Zora: "I want to go to an orphanage in the morning and pick out a baby brother."
Me: "Well, sweetie, that's sweet, but why do you want to go to an orphanage. Do you not want Mommy to have another baby?"
Zora: "No, because God might give us a baby sister instead, and I want a baby brother!"

Joel and I were trying our hardest not to laugh hysterically while we explained to her that adoption is a very special process that can take a very long time and that there is a lot of paperwork and money involved. If only it were that easy, there would be so many more unloved children with loving homes!

I have to share another quick Lily moment as well...

We were sitting in service on Sunday night and the preacher was talking about Christ's crucifixion and how much He truly suffered for mankind. As he was describing it Lily crawled up in my lap and whispered, "Mommy, why did Jesus get nails in His hands and feet?" I said, "So that some day you would get to go to heaven and live forever with Him." She thought about it and then she said, "Will I ever have to get nails in my hands and feet?" "No," I said, "Jesus did that so that you would never have to because He loves you so much!" Upon hearing that her face broke into the sweetest, biggest, and most sincere smile I had ever seen. I could tell that even at the tender age of 3 she was truly amazed and grateful that Someone would do that for her. Think about it... He did it for you, too!

Field Trips!!

We aren't really able to go on a vacation in the summer because it is Joel's busiest time of the year, so I've been trying to make this summer as fun as possible with some field trips. We've just been doing things locally that are fun for adults and kids alike. Some of our favorite spots this summer have been Big Splash, bowling, the zoo, and the free movies at the Riverwalk. This week we tried some more places and had a blast!

On Monday Daddy came home early and we went to Incredible Pizza. We ate all the food we could possibly hold and then went to play some fun games. After cashing in all our tickets for prizes we went back to eat some super yummy desserts! I don't care how young or old you are that place is awesome!!!

Tuesday was a very, very long, fun-filled day. We left home at 8:30 in the morning and met up with Nana Betty and cousins Nate & Alli. We all traveled to Seminole together to visit the Jasmine Moran Children's Museum. It was absolutely fantastic! My mom and I were both so impressed with it (it by far outweighs anything T-town has to offer) that we ended up buying memberships. It will be a place we visit very often throughout the year and the hour-and-a-half drive is completely worth it! The entire museum is set up like a little town where the children can pretend/role play anything they could imagine!

School Teacher

Emergency room... I loved this part of it because the children could ride the bike and the skeleton next to them would mimick their every move so that they could see what their bodies' look like on the inside while riding a bike... how clever!

Firefighter

Dentist's office

Caboose

Stars in a movie!

Ambulance driver

This station let children experience what it would be like to have a handicap or disability.

Indoor playground

Fighter pilots

Doctor's office

Dinosaur bones excavation site

News broadcast

Kiddie Homeland

Outside maze

Alli and Lily make a huge sheet bubble

Judge Lily :)

Is it just me or did any one else out there not know that there are such things as black swans??? These beautiful birds were in the museum's pond out back. Rather than being white with a black beak they are black with red beaks. Absolutely gorgeous and graceful!

After all of that fun we drove to OKC to visit our Granny Bea and didn't get home until 10:30 that night! What a day :)

We tried to take it easy on Wednesday but then Thursday we went all out again on a field trip to the Aquarium with Mamma and Papa. What a cool place! The highlight of the day for the girls was getting to touch the stingrays and sharks.

Check back soon! We're sure to have some more fun to share again next week :) Have a great weekend!

Silly Lily

So all of you parents out there now how your heart just explodes every time you look at your children. Sometimes you feel emense joy & pride and at other times you feel sorrow, but your children make you overwhelmed with some kind of emotion on a daily basis.

I have to say that Lily is my child that always makes me laugh. I cannot even begin to tell you how funny she is ALL THE TIME even when she's not trying to be funny. The child just has a wit and sense of humor about her that crack me up!!! I truly wish I could remember all of the funny things she does, but if I were to record them all I would run out of paper quickly. I'm going to share just a few that have happened recently...

The above picture is on a day that we were playing in the yard without water. She just happened to want to wear both of her water rings. Then she started making these absolutely ridiculous faces that she now loves to do and calls it her "chubby baby face". Here's a couple of videos of the same day. She was full of humor that day!

One day we were in the car and she asked me to play a song off of my MP3 player. I asked her which one she wanted and she said, "Fritos in my heart". HUH? I'm totally confused because I know without a shadow of a doubt that I do not have a song with that title. After her continuing to request that song over and over and over and over and over (you get the picture) we were both getting a little frustrated. She was irritated with me for not playing this song and I was irriatated that she kept asking for this song and would not let up! I finally realized it was this song.

A couple of weeks ago we were at the dinner table and Lily let out a very loud burp. While I was getting ready to correct her and take this instance to remind her of proper table manners she said something that made me laugh so hard I threw all edicate out the window. I had her repeat it for the camera because it's much funnier to hear her say it...

Yes, that's right, she "burped-ed like a fat old man!"

She also pulled a stunt recently at church that made all people present laugh. The service was over and we were in the lobby waiting on Daddy to shut all of the sound system equipment down and I hear her little voice say "I need to go pee Mommy!" I was talking to 3 or 4 ladies of the church, so I turned around to see her waddling into the bathroom with her clothes down around her ankles and her little hiney shining bright! It's so hard to scold her for things like that when I'm laughing uncontrollably and tears are streaming down my face!

While she can be extremely funny she is also very sweet and tenderhearted and sometimes just the things she says make me laugh out loud. She loves to tell people that they are handsome or beautiful, and on a daily basis after I get dressed she tells me how pretty I look. The words she uses are so cute when she says them (I'm going to try to spell them how she says them). Imagine her chubby little hands stroking my cheeks as she says this in her soft, tiny little voice:

"Mommy, you go-jus (gorgeous)"

"Mommy, you bootie-full (beautiful)"

Hmmm... that one could have a double meaning :)

"Mommy, you just pwe-shus (precious)"

And that one by far is my favorite because that is the perfect word to describe her...

Absolutely PRECIOUS!