necklaces from Uganda

Hello, friends!
We just got back from spending the week at Family Camp in the Ozarks of Arkansas! I'm dying to post some pictures, but I know it will take me longer than I should stay up tonight. Hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow. But for now, I wanted to post a link to Emily's blog so you can find out about the jewelry from Uganda she's selling to help African women. Pretty cool! You can contact her directly, or let me know if you want to help!

sweet luke

haircuts

The other night we took Luke to get his first haircut. He's 10 months old and has had a full head of dark brown hair since birth. It was getting a little shaggy so we took him into Cool Cuts for Kids to trim it up. He did really well! No tears! He wasn't real sure about the blue cape at first but he didn't mind it after while. His favorite part was sitting in the fire engine! I'm amazed that anybody could cut a 10 month old's hair and relieved I didn't have to do it. He was so squirmy! And she even used the trimmers at the end! The new cut looks really cute on him and makes him look older- more like a little boy.

before


loving the fire engine


smiling for Daddy


mohawk


after- (she was almost done at this point)


Afterwards we went over to our friend Kameron's apartment to get Lily's haircut. Kameron is an amazing stylist whose been cutting our hair for a while, and she gave Lily some layers all over and a long bang. Lily was shy at first, but as soon as Kameron pulled out the "princess" cape and the reeses pieces Lily was in heaven. She was so cute about it! Before she went to bed that night, she asked Josh, "Daddy, will my haircut get messed up when I sleep?" Oh my, she is ALL girl! Wish I had a picture of the after, but I'm sure I'll have some to post soon.


*update: I just showed Lily this post so she could see her picture. She turned to me and asked, "Mom, is my haircut still there?" :)

meeting the easter bunny

For the past two years, Lily has been incredibly fond of the Easter Bunny. She hasn't always taken to oversized costumes though. One year we took her to meet Bob and Larry (of VeggieTales), and she wouldn't go anywhere near them. She was content to wave from across the store. But for some reason, she LOVES the Easter Bunny and was so excited to see him in Nordstrom after our playdate. She is in Heaven! and Luke doesn't seem to mind it either! 

The past two years we've had Easter brunch with some of our family at a hotel in the area. The hotel has an Easter Bunny at the brunch to hand out candy and greet the children. Both years Lily has stalked the Bunny for the entire meal. The other day when we drove by the hotel, she exclaimed, "Daddy, this is where the Easter Bunny lives!"

playdate with jayden

A while back we had a playdate with Jayden Ogden at the Galleria. It was so fun catching up with our sweet friends the Ogdens and the Iveys while the kids climbed, jumped, crawled, and wore themselves out. 

birthday expectations

i know it's a little overdue, but i thought i'd recap the events of lily's birthday. let's just say things didn't go quite as i planned. oh, she loved every minute of it. but of course, i let my darn expectations get in the way and mess everything up. allow me to elaborate. 

this was lily's third birthday. and this year she really "got" what a birthday is all about. another year older, party, presents, cake, etc. even to the point that no matter what store we were in, she'd pick up a random item and say, "well, maybe i can get this for my birthday..." guess i wore that phrase out. anyways, the day was approaching and i was actually planning ahead. her actual birthday was on a saturday, but her party was the next day on sunday.  so i was pleased with the task lists i'd made and checked off as saturday came. (need i remind you who i'm married to?) so each year on lily's birthday, i've gone into her room the morning of, before she wakes up, and filled her bed with balloons. (i think i stole that from  hillary.) but this birthday i decided to decorate the night before since i had balloons AND streamers. ;) so i wrapped her bed posts in pink streamers and filled her floor with pink balloons. 

let me also say that our big present to her was a bike. not just any bike. the disney princess bike. i'm sure you've seen it, as all female toddlers possess it. and not just any disney princess bike. the pink one. NOT the purple one. she had made it clear. (this was funny to me because they ALL had pink AND purple on them. some were mostly pink and some mostly purple. she liked the mostly pink one- which if they weren't side by side i didn't think she'd know the difference.) still, i made sure to find the right pink (not purple) disney princess bike at toys r us and managed to keep it hidden from her. we moved the pink (not purple) disney princess bike into the laundry room for the big reveal the next day. 

and being the good mommy i am, i also bought a special birthday outfit for lily to wear all day saturday. a cute little pink and brown dress with a flower on the front, leggings, and a little mini sweater. SO cute. she'll love it, i thought, especially because it's pink.

everything was set. i would make breakfast cake in the morning so lily could blow out her candles. delighted with myself and my preparation, i looked forward to the next day like a little child anticipating christmas. 

the next morning we awoke to lily screaming out, "mama! mama! mama!" 

a little concerned, i ran into her room, knocking balloons every which way, to find her crouching in her bed confused at all the decor. 

"mama! why is all this stuff in here?" 

not quite the reaction i was going for. 

but, nevertheless, we made a big deal of her birthday as she climbed out of bed. and now for the first present of the day! i handed her the box containing the birthday outfit. she tore into it and then stopped when she saw it. 

"what do you think, lily? isn't it cute?" 

"i don't like it."

(another dagger in my heart)

"what? but it's so cute! and it's PINK!" 

"i don't like it...it's too small."

josh must have been able to sense my frustration at this point as i pleaded with my toddler to wear the special birthday outfit i had especially picked out. he said we should let it go and let her wear what she was wanted. i went into the kitchen to cool off and start making the breakfast cake. so far, i was 0-2. but that's ok because we still had the pink (not purple) disney princess bike to make a big deal of and video her reaction. 

at least i thought. minutes later josh came in with "that" look on his face and explained that when he opened the door to the laundry room looking for her "other" dress, lily said, 

"hey, is that my bike?"

to which josh answered,

"uh, yeah."

to which lily replied,

"but...it's purple."

and so my last ounce of birthday bliss expectation was squeezed from my defeated heart.

0-3, my friends.

thankfully, lily wasn't bothered by any of this. she was having a great day. and so i had to confess my control issues, apologize for my bad attitude, and let go of my expectations. i was able to laugh about it later that morning, and josh and i recounted the whole thing on video. 

and just to top it off, the candles completely melted in the breakfast cake leaving pink rings of wax behind cause i stuck them in before it cooled. of course. :)

all in all it was a great day. it just reminded me of how caught up i can get with the little stuff. my focus was on the wrong things and my hope was misplaced. Lord, help me. we'll see if He has soon - luke's one year is coming up in august! ;)  

blowing out her candles

ready to dig in

luke watching from the floor

loving every bite

moving on

life has been full lately. this summer would have been 5 years in our first house. when we moved in, we always said we'd be in that house for at least 5 years and then reevaluate. i say "that" house because about 3 weeks ago we sold it, and it became another young couple's first house. crazy? yes. especially crazy because we haven't yet found a new house. looking? yes. my parents have graciously allowed us to move in with them until we find our next home. so it's as good of a scenario as it could be considering we are homeless. ;)

the decision to sell came on fairly quickly. we thought we'd probably move in a couple of years when we started trying for our third child. but the more we talked with our realtor and loan guy (sorry, jerry, what's your title?) the more we thought we should try now with the rates as low as they are. so we thought we'd put it on the market and see what happened. within a few hours of listing it, we had a full price offer! we were excited and shocked and still trying to convince ourselves that this was really happening.

i'm not quite sure it's totally sunk in. i mean the fact that we will never go back to that house again. there were lots of memories there. we brought both of our babies home from the hospital there. we had lily's first two birthday parties there. we had countless couples over for dinner. game nights, "24" watching marathons, cook outs, book clubs. not to mention the little things like being half asleep while hearing lily's door open, followed by her little footsteps on the laminate floor, knowing it would be just moments before she'd climb into bed with us. and transforming both bedrooms from office and guest room into nurseries when we found out we were expecting.

my friend carri warned me of the flood of memories that would rush back as i peered into each empty room one last time. she was right. i was overtaken with emotion thinking about all the wonderful things that had taken place within those walls. but then i was struck with the thought that I could take all those memories with me; what i was leaving behind was only the sheet rock and plaster.

probably the hardest aspect of this move is wondering how it will affect lily. that house has been all she's ever known her whole life. and in the past she hasn't dealt with change all that well. i remember when i was pregnant with luke and we were getting his nursery ready. i planned on moving the rocker i'd had with lily into his room. well, when it came time to move it, she had a serious meltdown for the next 30 minutes. so going into this i wasn't sure what her reaction would be. but she's handled it great. we've tried to really pursue her heart and how she's feeling/ what she's thinking about all this change. she says she's sad that we're moving. and she kept asking if she could take her bed, dolls, toys, etc. with her. :) so sweet. i reassured her that we'd take everything to her new room.

i'm still not quite sure that she gets it though. just hours before we turned over the keys, we took one final walk through with the kids to say good bye. it was emotional for josh and me. we teared up again and again as we recalled with lily the fun or silly or special things we'd do in every room. it has proven to be another opportunity to teach her (and be reminded myself) that God is in charge of everything (one of our little village foundational truths) as every night we ask God to provide us with another house. He is in charge of where we'll live next. He's in charge of the sphere of influence we'll have with our new neighbors. and the new memories we'll create as we do life and ministry in our new home. that part gets me excited.

good bye, 2609. we had a good run.