New life through Easter

Easter was a little bit of a whirlwind for us this year since we had been travelling.  We got back to Emerson in Durham in time for dinner on Saturday night and then hauled back to Charlotte and tucked in bed around 11:00 before a quick sleep and quick wake up.  Terry and I both volunteer at church, which we have loved being a part of; it just means an earlier start.  Terry volunteers and leads in two areas - Connections and something called 'Next Level.'  He helps people who are new get connected at/in the church and praying with people after services.  He is made for this in my mind, and I love to see him being a part of this.  I do something called Band Hospitality which just means that I make breakfast for the band.  Our band at Elevation is incredibly talented, and it's an honor to get to serve them.  Thanks to Pinterest, I haven't even run out of new breakfast ideas.  Thankfully Emerson loves being at church and is comfortable and familiar with all the people she is with and easily hangs out there with us for several hours on the weekends.  Easter service was again amazing as it was last year.  It isn't posted yet as I write this blog, but hopefully when it posts for you, the service will be up on the website so you can check it out.  

One part of the Pinterest inspired breakfast, photo tweeted by one of the band members:

After church, we just hung out outside enjoying the fresh air as a family.  Emerson read the Sunday paper, mowed the lawn with a lawn mower she picked up from Caleb's house, and found a roly poly with her dad, which she thought was very cool.  She has a Scholastic video with a little show called "Bugs, Bugs, Bugs," which she loves.  It has a roly poly in it and she always laughs at it with Terry; so they were excited to find a real one and see how it rolled into a little ball!

No joke, when she picked up the comics, she said, "Here's the one for kids."  

We didn't talk a ton about Easter this year for several reasons - we weren't together the week before, and how do you broach death on a cross with a 2 year old?  We did read Easter books about Jesus, and if you ask Emerson why we celebrate Easter, she will tell you it's because we are celebrating that Jesus is in heaven - which we are, so at least we have laid the foundation in the right place!  Again, thanks to Pinterest, Emerson got to eat her Easter dinner out of Easter eggs (while in her pjs), which she thought was so great that we have been packing her lunch that way the rest of the week so far.  

Hope you all had a good Easter, and this little girl... 

wanted to tell you in light of celebrating new life at Easter...

Surprise!  Family of four in October, here we come!  Now you know why I let my ironing pile grow for several weeks.  I had been exhausted beyond reason but am back to the land of the living and we are all as excited as Emerson is in this picture!

Spring Break

I know you are going to be surprised that this is going to be another cell phone upload update...and that it is again long overdue.  Hopefully the exorbitant amount of pictures I'm about to post will make up for all of that.  Before I get into 'spring break,' I should back up a weekend to when Emerson and I took a girls' trip to Georgia to visit Kristi and Carver.  I didn't take my camera with me, but it was such a fun quick trip and you can read all about it here.  No really, you should, they had so much fun!

Last week was my mom's spring break from school - she is a 1st grade teacher extraordinaire.  It was also Beth's youngest daughter's spring break, and they took the week to go to the beach - I felt a little jealous but was so excited for them to have a week away, we all know she works so hard to help us raise our little girl so well and want her to have all the breaks and respite she deserves!  I am really sad to say that after an entire week with her Grammy, I don't have a single picture of them together from the week!  Mom came to our house  to keep Emerson Monday & Tuesday and while she was here, she did what she always does - plays maid!  I promise my house is clean, but she loves to clean, so I had inadvertently (maybe) been storing up a huge pile of ironing for her, and she totally knocked it out.  Gary Chapman might need to add a 6th Love Language, and it would be ironing...and it might be mine.  As in, iron for me to show me love, clearly not that I iron to show you love! :)  Thanks mom!  Meanwhile, she played and played and played with Emerson who chose her Grammy over her mommy the entire week.  That was okay with me though because that's how I want their relationship to be; I love how they love each other.  Wednesday, they went to Winston and then Friday traveled a little further to Durham to spend the night at Adam & Ashley's with Caleb.  Meanwhile, back home, Terry and I traveled Thursday-Saturday to Asheville for our 5 year anniversary trip.  How in the world 5 years has come and gone is beyond me - 5 amazing years!  We had the best time and are so thankful for all the people who love our girl so well to have let us go on our trip and feel so restful and confident that she was so well taken care of and having a blast without us!  Here's a photo tour of her week via my phone and pics sent to me from Grammy & Laura's phones:

While Grammy was here, we walked to Rita's and Emerson enjoyed 3 sample cups full of italian ice

Her hair had gotten absurdly long, so when they got to Winston, mom took her to get her hair cut with our beloved Ashley who cuts our hair - her little hair cut is so cute to me!  There was always a chipmunk, bunny, mouse, or other creature sharing a meal with Emerson at mom's house!

Emerson worked hard to help mom plant some new flowers in her planters by the front door and water them in true Emerson fashion - half naked.  She prefers this way because she loves to have her little body sprayed with the hose!  Hope this isn't inappropriate...do I need to make this blog private??

Every good gardener deserves a popsicle for their hard day's work!

Or maybe they just get ice cream because they are at their Grammy's house.  See all the little creatures again?  The chipmunk is the infamous "Chippy" who likes to live in her armpit, as she and Caleb sang about in a previous video post.

The two silly cousins before bed one night - I am told they had an absolute blast together and played hard together Friday & Saturday!

Eating a muffin the size of her head for breakfast one morning

Meanwhile, we, the parents, were still off enjoying this (ah, Asheville, how I love you...)

And when we got back to pick Em up in Durham, after a delicious dinner at Adam's house, the kids had a quick pajama egg hunt before we hopped in the car

More on Easter coming up later this week!  Thanks Grammy, Laura, Adam, Ashley & Rocky-Pop for playing with and loving on our little girl.  Especially you Grammy, we all love you and are so thankful for you and ALL you did for all of us this past week!

Sleepovers and Cousins

Long time since I've been here on the blog, just here for a quick video upload.  Emerson and I had a whirlwind weekend in Winston while Terry was at the beach on a guys' weekend.  We went and spent the night with Aunt 'Betta' at her parents' house which I feel mostly certain I haven't done since highschool, and I decided that grown ups should have more sleepovers at friends houses, we had a great time.  Emerson especially who was quite smitten with Rebecca's dad, Wayne, who all children call Wee-Wah, unless of course you can't say your 'w' in which case (as is Emerson's), you call him Lee-Lah. At bedtime, she asked me where Lee-Lah was and when I told her he was in the den, she paused a minute and then just said, "I like him."  Sweet girl.  We had dinner and Emerson spent her first whole night in a big bed (which she does at nap already), went out for a yummy breakfast, took her to play on the playground at our elementary school, had a great lunch, and dyed Easter eggs.  This was Emerson's first egg dyeing experience, and she did great!  Somehow it is possible that neither Rebecca or I had our cameras with us this weekend, so these are all off of Rebecca's cell phone.  

(We have been working on our 'regular' smile for the camera - I think this one is her best to date! 

I do adore her cheesy little grin!)

That afternoon, my mom was keeping Caleb, so we went to her house as a surprise and spent the afternoon with them.  While it was a great surprise for my mom, Caleb & Em, and while my mom might argue, it was best for my heart and soul to just get to spend a day at home with my mama!  Em and Caleb do have such a great time playing together these days which is so fun to watch.  We got to have an anatomy lesson at bathtime during which Caleb suggested that maybe Emerson would grow a penis later because "his mom says his will grow," - which still has me laughing.  Later we took the kids to the playground at my mom's school and to play in her classroom; had a relaxing dinner around the house and then sadly had to hit the road back to Charlotte.  Emerson loves to play with this little chipmunk at my mom's house, "Chippy," and several times ago when we were at mom's house, Emerson hid Chippy in her armpit, which is now her favorite joke on earth.  She and Caleb had a great time jumping and dancing to their made up "Chippy in my armpit" song which you'll see in this video.  Listen to Caleb turn the song into something about "his butt" halfway through the clip - he is so 100% boy right now and it is hilarious how he wants to turn all conversation in this direction - little boys will be little boys!  And let's be honest, Emerson probably would have joined in had she realized what was going on! 

A picture is worth...

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” 
― C.S. Lewis

Phone Photo Upload

Things we have been doing which have not included blogging...or yoga.  Moving on...(again, sorry these pictures are all from my phone)

Living in a tent.  Had no idea this 2 man tent would be so big when we found it on sale for $14 at Target.  Set it up for fun, and it stayed up all weekend.  Clearly, there was nowhere else for it to go as it took up the ENTIRE living room.  She would have lived in it.  Her fun dad added the ambiance, aka rope lighting.  We even Skyped with Caleb, Laura and Beth while in the tent - Emerson's new favorite past time!  if you use Skype, tell us, she would love to Skype with you!

Ate a red cupcake at church on Sunday which she is proudly showing you all over her mouth here.  This dress is a current favorite of mine - a beloved hand me down from Bella, which she somehow never wore.  I think Emerson couldn't be cuter in it with her red polka dot shoes!  I know she is mine, but I think she is kind of the cutest thing ever.

Shot some hoops while with our cousins celebrating 3 out of 4 boys from one family's birthdays.  Emerson LOVED being there, and ran right around riding bikes, playing basketball and jumping on the trampoline right in the midst of the hub bub of all the boys.  (Oh to have a flat driveway and yard....sigh.)  She even spent the night there last night - thanks Jen for our Valentine's date! - and couldn't have been more excited for her sleepover.  

And we prepared for Valentine's day with heart shaped cherry scones.  They were great and we had a fun time all making them together.  Emerson loves to be in the kitchen.  I still have more pictures I need to share from the daily mailboxes leading up to Valentine's day; she really loved doing that and it was so sweet to hear her go get Terry every morning to see if he was ready to open his mailbox with her.  We will all be a little sad for the mailboxes to get packed up until next year.  

Hope that brief catch up holds you over until I get myself together to plug my camera in, work on the cute pictures of Emerson & Bella, and catch back up!  We have been having so much fun family time over the past two weeks, and Emerson has been cracking us up with her energy, words, and funny thoughts.  Tonight is Music Together class, one of her favorite things.  I'll try to snap some pictures of her in there to share also!

January Continuum, Yoga X & Knoxville

If this is any indication of how hard it is for me to carry over January's goal and add in February's while maintaining my life...well, y'all just hang in there with me when I get to March, April and all the way through December.  So far so good though at least in checking off my decluttering list.  This week I had to catch up on my weekend decluttering tasks because we were out of town.  Saturday's activity was cleaning out the fridge.  Remember when I said I dreaded doing this?  It was of course, not as bad as I had feared - but I did take every shelf and drawer out and Emerson helped me wash them all off in the sink.  She was a good helper, and we are all loving how sparkly the inside of our fridge is! February's 'goal' is yoga everyday.  So far, so good - even while out of town!  I am doing the P90x yoga DVD - Yoga X which is intense and long and good.  I have really loved it.  30 days in a row of it seems a little daunting, and I'm still balancing when the best time is to do it - but some days have been morning and some have been night.  Have any shorter favorite yoga DVDs you want to share/pass on to me to try?  30 days of this same thing could get monotonous!

So this weekend, we were out of town in Knoxville for Bella's baptism & dedication at church.  Emerson was looking forward to the trip all last week, and I was looking forward to being there - but not about the drive.  I have gotten crotchety and like a cliche woman in my old age.  I never drive on trips anymore, so I don't love driving on trips on my own at night anymore, it makes me a little anxious.  This feels comical for me to even write considering how many countless hours I logged in my car in college and beyond in long distance relationships and on random weeknight or weekend adventures.  No wonder my mom always worried about me!  Point being, I don't enjoy the drive to Knoxville at night because of the stretch through the mountains between Asheville and Knoxville.  Clearly I had prayed plenty about my anxiety with that part of the drive because there was a rock slide that afternoon that closed that stretch of I-40.  Awesome.  Note to self: remember to pray for safety and the Lord's will instead of detours.  I took a back detour that wasn't the one the highway patrol was suggesting and it made it not as out of the way, which was nice.  And I wasn't anxious, which was really nice.  The girls had such a great time together.  Saturday morning, they lounged around the house in their robes, reading their Bibles.  Yes, seriously.  All by choice.  They started in Bella's room with Jingle, the new puppy, moved the couch, and then followed me into the bathroom while I dried my hair.  It was really fun to see them excited to see each other, wanting to play together, and really loving on each other on this trip.

We spent the weekend just hanging out with no real plans, which was really nice.  We helped get things ready for Bella's party on Sunday by making crafts and taking a trip to the grocery store where we all got our own carts.  Sunday was exactly 2 years to the day that Molly brought Bella home.  What amazing timing to get to have her dedication and to celebrate her life.  I am so thankful for that little girl, and truly adore her.  We were thankful to get to be there to 'stand with' Molly as she committed to raising Bella up in truth and love.  While in the grocery store, we saw one of Bella's friends from school and it melted my heart that the kid and the mom both knew who "Emmy" was as Bella proudly showed off her best friend as she called her - to people who have already heard of my Emerson because of how Bella talks about her.

(Sidenote: look at the determination in Bella's face here!  She took her job very seriously!)

Saturday night, before Gigi, Molly's mom, came over so we could go out to dinner, we gave the girls a bath and got them ready for bed.  Emerson LOVES when she gets to take a bath with Bella because we always let them close the curtain and splash to their hearts' content.  Their is some serious belly laughing that goes on during this splash fest.  But this time around, she learned a new reason that she might like taking baths with Bella - popsicles.  I guess I have never given Em a popsicle before, because when Molly gave it to her, she tried drawing on the tub wall with it and running it under water until she realized she was supposed to eat it, and then...well - you see how excited she was: 

Don't worry, Bella was equally excited - I think she was just trying to figure out why Emerson had been painting with her popsicle in the first picture.  And then once Emerson caught on, she was much too busy to take time to look at the camera:

More pictures and a continued post later when I get the rest of the pictures from Molly off her camera of the dedication and some priceless ones of the girls together from Sunday.  These were all I had on my phone and needed to be done separately from the ones I got of the girls after lunch Sunday anyway - you'll see that they deserve a post of their own!  

Here's to finishing up week 2 of the January/February challenge and to better balance with the rest (as in respite/relaxation) of this weekend and a fresh start of next week!  By the way, the 'pattern' I am trying to follow of my monthly goals is to remove something one month and add something the next.  I'm also trying to alternate that these be things for my family and things for me.  Decluttering was 'mostly' for my family...but equally for me.  Yoga is mostly for me...but hopefully my family is going to benefit from me taking this time for myself also!  Emerson did do a few poses with me last week which was precious and hilarious - another time I'll try to get her on video with me!

Little Things

Here I am, Wednesday morning, reminding myself to be filled with joy in little things.  I've never been one to make much of a 'deal' of Valentine's Day - or really holidays in general, but I am trying to be more crafty and creative with this for Emerson to have memories and traditions.  We found a cute mailbox in the $1 section at Target recently that we are using for love notes until Valentine's Day.  More on that later in a separate post, but I hope it will remind me to be intentional and purposeful, and to really think on why we celebrate love and how we love others.  Semi-along those lines, here are things from my phone, from my day yesterday that I loved:

1. The spring weather in January that let Noah's Ark meet the farm animals for outside playtime.  The farm (which used to be mine as a child) comes with a feeding trough - Emerson lined all of the animals and people up to wait their turn to have something to eat.  And she made a munching noise as each of them took their turn.  She is at her heart, a turn taker, such a nurturer, and loves animals.

2. 3 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than this, than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."  I know that this isn't her choice yet, but her childlike faith fills me with such joy and I expectantly wait and hope for the day that I can speak this verse over her.  Given a choice of 10 things to do, her number one choice every time would be to read her Bible.  Unless, maybe one of the choices involves a sucker.  That might win.  I had the door open as I was making dinner last night and the gate up on the porch, and she and Salem walked outside with Raffi and her Bible and sat down and hung out and read for quite awhile.  Precious.

3. Speaking of dinner, here is Terry's dinner from last night.  After a hard week at work, I was happy to spice up his life with bacon on his sandwich - I know, again, living on the edge - and we love our panini maker.  It could change your life, just ask my mom.  We gave her one for Christmas and I think she has used it 3-4 times/week since then!