Baby

We're having a baby!!!  We are beside ourselves with excitement!  Our newest member is due to arrive on February 24th, 2011.

Tara will be 10 and Blake will be eight when the baby is born.  They can hardly wait!  The funny thing is that Blake will turn eight in November which will finally age him out of the car seat.  So we will happily drive around car seatless for the first time in 10 years . . . two months before we put a brand new one in and start all over again!  Crazy!  But we are a wild and crazy family.

Like American Idol

Let me share my favorite all time quote by Tara.  The setting was that she was about two years old and for whatever reason we took her into the church service with us instead of putting her in the nursery.  Afterward we asked her what she thought of "big church".

She said, "The boy sing, the girl sing, it's like American Idol!"

My girl has always been beautiful, inside and out.  She is sweet and strong.  Lovely and creative.  She has a gift of compassion.  She is innocent and carefree.  She is wonderful and we adore her!

If you were a fly . . .

If you were a fly on the wall in our house today you would have heard this conversation.

Me:  Hate to break it to you, Son, but you're not going to break the world record for longest fingernails because mom is going to cut them right now! (honestly, he has been telling me for weeks that he is trying to break that record so I couldn't cut them)

Blake:  No!!!  But I can do all sorts of cool things with them!

Me:  Sorry, Charlie.  (I respond with fake sympathy while the clipping commences. Then realizing he really is bummed about this, I try to cheer him up.)  You'll have to break a different record like how many times you can jump off the stairs before you scare your momma to death! (Understand that he is a little guy and he jumps from eight stairs up and lands at the bottom -- with amazingly no broken bones yet to speak of!)

Blake:  The record is probably like 50 million. (sounding defeated)

Me:  Nah, it's probably way less than that.

Blake:  Then I'm totally going to break that record! (a sly little smile creeping across his face)

And that is why we love him.  Because he is so . . . him.

Blake says a lot of funny things.  I try to write them down on whatever random piece of paper is close by so we can remember them.  I found this yesterday.

       Telling Blake he was funny and crazy like his Dad.  Blake said, "Yeah, because I wasn't very funny  
        as a toddler but then I saw Dad being funny and I learned it from him."  February 3, 2010

Track meet

The kids had their last track meet today.  After the last track meet took 11 hours, with eight long, hot, miserable hours in between their second and third events.  We decided to be those kinds of parents and convinced our kids (by any means necessary) to sign up for the 400 meters instead of the 200 meters (the second to last event of the day) since it followed the 100 meters that they always run (which is early in the morning).  We figured this would eliminate eight hours of enjoying that lovely heat and humidity -- we were right.  Whew!  Turns out they have good endurance and also did well in that event.

 As we were praising ourselves for having this brilliant idea, we were headed home and drove into some of the worst driving conditions we have ever been in here.  The rain was coming down so hard I had to just follow the taillights because their was too much water on the road to see the lines.  (Mom, if you are reading this, don't freak out!)  It was crazy!  About a mile from home the hail started and I thought the window would break -- but it didn't.  It was scary.  Tara and I were both shaking for a while after.  But since it all turned out ok, I'm still glad we got out of there eight hours earlier!!

So the funny part of the day was that this one track club has a bible verse on their shirts.  We wanted to look it up to see what it said.

Tim:  I'll look it up on my phone.  What was the verse?

Tammy:  Ecclesiastes 4:11

Tim:  Umm, are you sure?

Tammy:  Yeah, pretty sure.  Do you doubt me?

Tim:  Ecc 4:11 says, "Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.  But how can one keep warm alone?"

We bust out laughing!

Apparently it's Ecc 9:11, "The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong . . . "

Grandma Ice Cream

Tim's mom (our niece calls her Grandma ice cream)  was just here for a visit.  We had a great week of catching up,

goofing off,

celebrating everything and nothing,

eating very "healthy" (gotta live up to her name she said!),

and tearing up the town.  Come back soon, Grandma!

Double Rainbow

We had the most beautiful double rainbow after our recent storm.

The kids said they wanted to go see if there really was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  

There is . . . and I am looking at it.

Memorial Day 2010

We celebrated Memorial Day by enjoying our freedom.  The daddies enjoyed their freedom to pursue the career of their choice aka they were working.  So the mommies decided to enjoy their freedom to shop . . . I mean clothe their growing children.  The kids decided to enjoy their freedom of expression and saturated the public with their uncontainable joy. . . no, seriously they were actually really good for a seven hour shopping trip!  So Aunt Meo and I took five children or six including the one in the belly (not my belly) and had a wonderful day.  In fact, at the end, Blake said it was the best day ever!  Below are the highlights, but other memorable things that I did not get pictures of include Blake's dancing while trying on clothes, the girls hiding amongst the clothes racks, maneuvering a double-wide stroller around, and my favorite was when Meo was trying on maternity clothes and the kids sat in a line outside the dressing room cheering for her outfits and taking turns trying on the "baby pillow".

Throwing flower petals in the air!

Cousins . . . who think they are siblings with two sets of parents.

You wouldn't believe how the promise of this fountain play time got us through many a store!

Pure bliss!

You couldn't wipe those smiles off their faces!  Well, until the security guard told us we weren't supposed to be in the fountain.

Even the littlest joined in on the fun.

getting cold

At some point the stroller always becomes the cart.

Doesn't this just make you want to jump in there with them?! 

It's going to be a great summer!