Growing up, I often said "I wished I had a corner," meaning I wanted a little hideaway where I could get alone and just BE. It got to be kind of a joke in the family, but they understood what I meant - a spot just for me; to read, journal, garden, enjoy music, meditate on life, or pray. The "corner" I longed for wasn't even an actual place, but more, the opportunity to do those things I love. So, welcome and see what is going on in our family's corner!
Our first daffodils are blooming and make such a bright spot in the otherwise dreary days here at the end of winter. Abigail and Elijah posed for me one chilly day, so we could document and remind ourselve that springtime really is coming!
Recently we have had some crazy rainy weather, but a few days of sunshine mixed in, which have helped keep us sane. We're so thankful for that! Last week we had a playdate with our school group, and Elijah taught himself to ride a scooter there at the park. It was amazingly simple looking for our sweet two year old. We were so proud and impressed! We also went to Aldridge Gardens as a family that weekend to soak up some sun and enjoy the beautiful hiking trail. Here are a few photos of our biggest kids. Owen stayed snuggled inside the Moby wrap the whole time, but he enjoyed it too. :-)
Yesterday we experienced a true March weather day in Alabama. We were at the farm belonging to a friend's family, and had sunshine, clouds, rain, drizzle, and wind, but thankfully no snow. It was a fun day despite the mud (or maybe because of the mud!) and the kids especially enjoyed riding the fun vehicles around the pasture. We cooked out over the fire, and generally just enjoyed awesome fellowship. We love the outdoors and spending it with friends and family make it even better!
I'm behind - way behind - on blogging. I miss it terribly, and think daily of things I want to document or share on here. Life is good for our family, but right now our youngest member isn't keen on my sitting at the computer. I even have to check email in record time, while standing! The only reason I'm blogging now is because he is asleep and I'm not falling over asleep myself - yet. :-)
This past week was James' birthday week (40th!), and I wanted to at least acknowledge that. I made a carrot cake at his request on his actual birthday, which we enjoyed, and Elijah especially loved the cream cheese icing with orange zest. I'll have to share a video of that. We decorated our house with handmade signs, had an outing to go bowling, and Abigail scored a strike on her first try! Friday night a few couples met up with us for dinner, which was a blast, and it was so fun to have a rare night without children, (except for Elijah of course). We also enjoyed a visit to Aldridge Gardens with my parents and yesterday was a visit with James' parents, sister, and brother-in-law. We are so thankful for the family and friends who love and celebrated my well-deserving husband. He is a treasure and though he's not the type to want a big ol' celebration in his honor, he sure is worthy of one. I wonder if I can list 40 reasons I love him...that would be a great post. I'll have to work on it. There are even more reasons than that, but I'm not sure if there is adequate time...
Anyway, in the meantime, here a few pictures of the highlights of the week, and the aforementioned video. Hopefully, I'll be back soon.
I was beginning to wonder if I could ever find time to blog about my sweet girl's birthday. It's been a busy last week and a half with two baby showers, Elijah cutting teeth and feeling poopy, festivities for Abigail on a couple of days, some family time, and VBS preparations for next week. I have to at least do a quick recap, because we had such fun celebrating Abi, and she is such a precious daughter and sister and blessing to our family.
We started her birthday morning-June 5-with a small gift: a Susan figurine, from the Chronicles of Narnia. Susan is her current favorite character, and she longs to be Susan, live in Narnia, be an archer like Susan, etc. You know, similar to the Laura/Mary Ingalls obsession of a few months' back. Anyway, she loved her Susan and Reepicheep from Isaac, and then we quickly got out the door to go blackberry picking at Petals from the Past in Jemison. These gardens are one of my favorite places anywhere, and Abigail is a nature lover like me, so enjoys going there and we planned to meet up with the Cottons and Gramma and Granddaddy. It was warm that morning, but we beat the worst of the heat, and had a great time gathering lots of huge, delicious berries. After that, we met up with some friends for a pizza lunch at Chuck E. Cheese. The girls played games and danced, and were silly and happy. And, we adults were thrilled to be in the air-conditioning, even if it's a crowded, loud, overstimulating environment. :-) She received some sweet gifts there and had doughnuts for dessert, which was big fun for her, and a break for me, since I had lots of cake to make later in the weekend.
We had time with just family Saturday evening, and ate dinner at Habaneros, like Isaac chose for his birthday dinner. As we were waiting on our food, Abi confessed she actually chose it because unlike her brother, she wanted the servers to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. After a few moments of waiting after our dinner, the band arrived with a shout, nearly startling us to death, and had us all giggling with their quick rendition of "Feliz Cumpleanos." She was very happy to be serenaded and we then shared a DQ ice cream cake for dessert. (Note to self: In the future, pick the cake up early so it can thaw to at least some, and enable the slicing of the cake to not break the mama's hand). There was an antique car show in the same shopping center, and we got a picture of an awesome old firetruck, but then looked at the rest of the cars from afar, since it was just too blasted hot to walk around on asphalt with bellies full of Mexican and ice cream cake.
I still remember many details from the day Abigail was born, and can't believe it has been 6 years since that day. She is such a passionate, joyful, creative little girl, as you can tell from the many "Kid Quotes" on my blog's sidebar. Her brain is always going, and she is very much a people person, with many strengths that will hopefully be molded by the Lord to glorify Him. She tends to be a child of extremes, and can be obstinate and overzealous at times, but also extremely giving and servant-hearted at others. Thankfully, she has a desire to love on people and please God, which is overriding some of her other not-so-great personality traits these days. It's awesome to see her maturing as a child, and also as a child of God. I usually use the word 'exuberant' to describe her. It means "joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic"and pretty much describes her 90% of the time. She is such a light in our lives. Abigail means her father's delight, and though she's always been sweet and wonderful, we are so thankful that she is learning to be even more of a delight to her Father, who gifted and shaped her to be who she is. Thank you Lord, for loaning us our precious Abi-girl!
We had a nice trip to visit with my parents this weekend, partly to enjoy time with them as it was my Dad's b'day this past week. It was also partly because I know the trips will get farther between for a while as my due date approaches and Elijah arrives, so I wanted to squeeze another one in while we still could with just the 2 big kids. We did our typical outdoorsy fun things, and enjoyed some bike riding, baseball, playing at a park, visited Mrs. Martha and Mr. Bill's farm, and took a visit to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens, to see their fun scarecrow exhibit. These scarecrows were very impressive, and were designed and created by different individuals and businesses in the area. We loved the Target-shopping family, Elvis, Jack Sparrow, and the Munchkins especially.
If you remember the story of Abigail the chicken-catcher, from last month, you'll possibly recognize Teeny, whom again pleasantly cooperated with my animal-adoring girl. Abigail easily caught and carried this little hen around for most of the afternoon while we were there at the farm. She would put Teeny down for a bit, and the silly chicken wouldn't scoot away, so of course, Abi assumed she wanted to be held more. That is one long-suffering bird, but thankfully, the kids are pretty gentle with them, so I guess that she didn't feel too threatened. Isaac loves being around the animals, but is slightly more reserved about capturing them, but he even got in on the action right at the end. There was also a mama hen with a tiny chick that we just loved hearing "peep peep" for its mama. We were blessed with nice weather again, and the fall breeze was so relaxing and enjoyable. Auburn's win over Florida really added to the enjoyment of the weekend, too! War Eagle!!
If you're new to our blog, thanks for stopping by! In the right column, you'll also notice our other blog's link, and on down the column, you can choose topics to read about, or follow our year's highlights in chronological order. We love to have visitors and comments, so feel free to let us know what you thought.
