Quick review of our Easter.. We did our baskets on Saturday this year so we could enjoy a family morning. Then Sunday was an awesome Easter Service and quick trip down to Danville to spend the rest of the day with my family. Pics are sparse at best, but that's the way it goes these days :)


That's alot of baskets folks.


These bikes are amazing! My sister in law recommended them and so my parents got one for the twins for Christmas. Only problem? They both constantly wanted it instead of the second toddler riding option.. oh twins, I swore I wouldn't cave to the 'buying two of everything' thing but in this case.. it was WELL worth it, so we decided to use Easter as the excuse (same rational for needing a second pair of crocs since we only have Carter's hand me downs and they are basically the only shoe my kids wear in the summer!!) Macy and Carter were very put out that there was an old toy and old crocs being pawned off as new Easter gifts but we were going practical this year and the twins didn't care a bit, so I was pretty pleased with myself.


Carter also got Crocs which he was excited about..until he saw the Dollar Spot Bug Catcher. Completely stole the spotlight..this boy loooves his bugs.


We're huggers in this family... okay actually this was the only way I could get the twins to stand still to get a pic of the four of them.. you don't care that its of their backs right??




Come on.. so cute right? Okay so there's some sides of having twins that are just plain awesome.


Oh, THERE's their faces.. My Super Cooper and Jude Dude.


Carter-bot..with the Justin Beiber (except that he won't let me touch it with a single styling product so not so much...)/neglected child hair that he keeps begging us not to cut. It's not gonna last much longer I promise you, this picture is making me twitch. Oi.


Sweet Macy Grace.


Aand.. one last tid bit about Jude. This is his.. "I don't want to eat that face"


or his "I think I have everyone's attention and I'm going to keep it" face.


And THIS..is two seconds later when he can't keep the straight face any longer.


He had us in rolling on the floor flipping between the furrowed brow and his little grin that showed clearly how hilarious he found himself to be.

What in the world am I going to do with so many personalities under one tiny roof..?


It's going to be an interesting next 20 years or so...


(Sheesh...I just nudged Ryan who's sitting beside me and sighed, 'I look old'. It's happening.. so sad.) :)

Who is this girl?

It's a thought that seems to be running through my mind more and more these days. It's like I'm watching her unfold, almost hourly. These little moments, even ones that should be mundane and ordinary, like sitting waiting for a prescription at a pharmacy, can envelop me in emotion as I sit and chat with my daughter. I listen to her little mind and the thoughts and stories coming out of her are like that of a real person. One who is experiencing an existence separate from me, who is creating a life and perspective and personality all her own, and yet she came from me.

And it is too much. My heart can't ponder any deeper. I just sit in awe, and watch. And laugh as she gets sillier and sillier, practically drunk on my undivided attention. Which is unfortunately, all too rare these days.

So before another hour slips by, here's a little of this and a little of that. Snapshots of Miss Grace as she becomes more and more of her enjoyable self, each and every day.

Macy: You are quite the social butterfly. We just had your Open House at school and on your friendship flower the kids in your class had written kind, helpful, funny, artist, smart and caring. You ask for play dates every single day and you make a gazillion cards a day for your family members and friends always telling them how much you love them and how 'speshul' they are.


You and Carter make machines almost every day. They are your idea but he loves to help (most of the time). You are relentlessly determined to make something that 'works'. You can't understand why even though you put wires and batteries and buttons on them, they still don't 'come to life' and you are heart broken when {eventually} I make you disassemble them.


You are reading a mile a minute. The other day I overheard you read the word hemisphere...you barely hesitated. A couple months ago you determined to read a 400 page book and you did it in two days. Your teacher also just gave us your reading assessments. You're reading at a level that's halfway through the SECOND GRADE.

Girl. You be crazy.


You've been coming in to Bellybou' with me on Thursdays after your dance class. I can tell this thrills you to pieces. You feel very grown up sitting at the computer with me, counting money and folding clothes. The other day I was helping a customer and someone else walked in. You waited til they got further into the store and then in your most important voice you walked right up to them and asked if you could "help them find anything in particular". Everyone in there died laughing, you were pretty pleased with yourself to say the least.


And the other night when you met a friend of mine from high school and he asked if you were sure you were only 6 cuz you seemed much older, you casually replied,

"Yeah, people say that alot. Some people think I'm like, 14 or something."

Macy and I have spent the last couple months talking about Locks of Love. My dad (yes my dad) cut his obnoxiously long hair (love you dad!) last summer when my SIL convinced him he should donate it. Ever since then we've casually talked about how some kids get a kind of sickness where they have to take medicine that causes them to lose their hair.

Macy thought this was very sad. And I think she's struggled with a bit of a conflicted heart ever since. Because I think she really liked her long hair, but she also liked the idea of helping other kids.

I left the decision completely up to her, but told her if she wanted we could cut our hair together. (Turns our I can't donate mine cuz I highlight it...who knew?!)

And then one day she came to me and said she was ready. She said she was kinda scared because she worried people might think she looked funny. But she also knew that hair grows back and she thought this was a good way to show God's love to other kids.

Man does she blow me away sometimes. Proud doesn't even scratch the surface!


And just like that...


My baby girl suddenly became much much older in my eyes.

He wants turkey without the bread, she wants it rolled in a tortilla. Little bro swats turkey away and wants PB&J all.the.time. while other little bro will eat anything thrown at him. She wants the orange cheese and he wants the cheese stick and she'll eat the PB but she wants it with honey, he will turn his nose up at either but if push comes to shove, he wants the jelly. He needs BBQ sauce with his chicken, she can take it plain, boy #2 will poke and tear til it disappears but never eat a bite, boy#3 will fill his mouth til he chokes. She hates chicken nuggets, he likes the dinosaur ones best, mac n cheese is touch and go with the big kids but a slam dunk with the babies every time. One twin likes frozen peas, one likes them cooked, big bro eats every bean on the planet, sister panics if they touch her plate. The boys will eat apples, oranges, grapes and berries till their eyes pop out. The girl will tear up in offense at the suggestion of any one of them, but she'll eat a whole bag of carrots. They will ALL eat bananas. And broccoli.

Praise the Lord for bananas and broccoli.



*deep deep sigh*

This coming from the family that is swearing off pets, mind you. And we still are. Atleast until every member of our family can feed and dress and go to the bathroom, BY.THEM.SELVES. And then a big long time after that too :) I am keeping people alive right now folks. And somedays just barely. Heh.

Our stance has been made known to our children time and again. And yet they can not let go of their love for the creepy crawly creature. Daily they are out in the yard finding new bugs and critters to put in jars and call their own. Each one gets a name and a sad little environment made of grass and sticks and flowers. There are atleast 10 lined up on the shelf in the garage at this very moment. A museum of rolly pollys and ladybugs with the occasional caterpillar and grasshopper thrown in on a special day. It is quite the sight.

But there have been a few new contributions lately. That somehow snuck their way into our lives despite my very best efforts. And now all of the sudden I feel like I blinked and our home (or garage atleast) became Andy's Amazing World of Bugs. (Parenthood is my new favorite show btw.)

Meet Petrie.


Petrie was a sad little lizard that was given to Carter on his last leg of life. Carter and Macy nursed this little guy back to health. I told them they could keep him as long as he stayed out of the house and I never ever EVER had to touch him.

Aren't I the best mom ever?

They made him quite the elaborate little mansion in the storage box in our garage.


And then daily went out to the garage to create obstacle courses for him to run on.


They'd take him out in the sunshine every day because our 11 year old neighbor Michael told them 'that's how lizards get energy'. (and according to Macy and Carter, Michael knows EVERYTHING.)

But then we hit those miserably dreary stuck-inside-all-day rainy weeks and well, we all kind of forgot about Petrie.. and now.. um, Petrie is buried in our backyard.

This is reason number #1098273543 why our family should definitely not have pets. RIP Petrie.


Next. This little contraption is currently residing in Carter's room right now.



Macy came home with an egg from a real hen house she visited during a birthday party at her friend's ranch. Macy and Carter are absolutely, 100% positive that this egg is 'fertiling'. This is because I tried time and time again to explain to them that Avery's mom assured me that it indeed is not fertilized and therefore most definitely will not be hatching...ever. But no no, my 4 and 6 year old's think it will. And they would like to 'wait and see'. Because they are sure they know that if you keep a light bulb by it (and apparently bread crumbs and crinkle wrapping paper in it's cage) it will in fact become a chick eventually. So this has sat there for over a month now.


I am using it as a lesson to explain to the kids that they will actually have control over what advice and wisdom they choose to listen to in their lives. They don't always have to believe that Ryan and I are telling them the truth, they can (and will) try things out for themselves sometimes (quit a bit I'm sure..). But hopefully through a little trial and error, they will see that most of the time, listening to advice and wisdom from those who love you and have gone before you, might actually save you some wasted time and disappointment. We shall see.

Aaand finally, the big leap for us as a family.

Some friends of our found hundreds of tadpoles in a nearby creek, they are raising some and asked if we wanted any. Macy is learning about the lifecycle of frogs in school right now and Carter's preschool class just ordered some different insects from BugLore and he had been begging me to do something at home. The excitement and pleading in my children's eyes, it was just too much. I still can't believe I caved.

Our garage stinks. And I am shocked how much boiled lettuce these little guys eat. But the kids absolutely love the 'bap bowls' as Cooper and Jude call them.


They sit out in the garage and watch them swim, they bang on the glass to get them to skirt around like crazy and Carter has been thrilled to pieces to help me boil lettuce every single time. He takes the twins each by the hand and walks them out the garage for viewing sessions, its adorable.


I am still pretty skeptical if we will actually be able to keep these guys alive and healthy enough to turn into frogs. But we got our very first encouraging sign the other day. We discovered this little guy.



LEGS! Can you believe it?! The kids were beside themselves. And then Macy went ahead and recited the entire rest of the cycles and phases that will occur while Carter listened enthralled. How in the world can I deny the educational payoff? Sigh. I believe my critter days are far from over.



But we're STILL not getting a dog.

does anyone even remember? See I told you, distant memory :)




***still haven't changed his birth certificate though...oops***