Hey, over here!!!

So, Sunday night was the annual Hot Dog Banquet at church. One word: precious. The evening is used as a tool to teach all of the children about missions and missionaries. The evening began with a feast of hot dogs. Next, we split into groups and went from station to station learning all about each country and there specific needs. Claire was FABULOUS! She sat and listened the whole time. I was impressed... I think there were six or seven stations! After that event was over we headed back to our table to hear some Q and A from the missionaries and some really cute kiddos. After each missionary was interviewed the child would pray over him or her. My favorite prayer: "Dear Lord, please help ___ to not get poisoned". It was hysterical, yet SO sweet. Then came the best part... the song. Claire wanted to be in the "Hot Dog Choir" and I really thought it was something she could handle. When the music started Claire started turning around to see what all of the kids were doing behind her. I kept whispering "Hey, Claire, turn around... sing, hey over here... Claire!!!" To no avail, she had her back to the audience most of the time. Oh, well... I guess I could have dressed her up in a pretty dress. She might have stood there with her skirt over her head instead! In case you think I am exaggerating (which, if you know me... then it is entirely possible!) here is the video.

Her little friend Benjamin is the cutie in the striped shirt that comes in and out of the picture on the video. If you listen carefully you will hear him say "I've got something for ya!" He then jumps off the stage and brings his Mom a booger! (We had a great laugh over that one!) Basically, the whole thing was hysterical! I just love these kids. Here is a picture of Benjamin, Claire and Payton at the end of the evening.

Wow.

In our small group at church we are talking about how we can show Christ to the people around us. Sometimes this means using words, and sometimes words are not necessary. I have been thinking a lot about this topic, and I randomly ran across this short video online. I have not seen it any where else, and it is worth your time. I hope it inspires you to think about how you wear Christ for all the world to see...
The Simple Truths of Service inspired by Johnny the bagger.

Creativity

I had a very long conversation with one of my old roommates about creativity yesterday. Creativity can be discouraging. I love, love, love to make things... but if it doesn't turn out exactly the way it looked in my head, then I get discouraged. Anyway, I have been feeling this a lot lately about my projects. So, in light of others feeling the same way I am, I want to give some "shout outs" to my very creative friends... here it goes! (click on there names and check out there talent!)

Sarah Maxwell English- This girl is on her way to being a famous artist. No joke people. Right now she is designing children's clothing for JC Penny. Check out her work- amazing. I am very proud to call her my friend!
Sarah Carpenter- A very sweet friend, and a fellow stay at home Mom. Sarah and I share sewing and crafting as our hobbies. She is starting a new business selling Burpies and cute wall letters!
Sara Harrow (my Mom!)- Well, you might have already noticed the embroidery on the dresses that I make... My Mom has a great business in Colorado called By Faith Alone. She does custom embroidery and also has an etiquette column in Northern Colorado Women's magazine.
Andrea Spiceland- I met Andrea when I married Jeff. She and her husband are Jeff's long time friends! Andrea is creative in a different kind of way. She is very wise... right now on her blog she is teaching others how to save money. She does a better job than I could do talking about it, so go over and check it out! (this is one area of creativity that I am seriously lacking! :) )
Kelly- We have never met, but I know for sure that she is a great girl! Kelly is starting a new business designing blogs. I have mentioned her before in a previous post... but now she has an official site that you can go visit! She is also giving away a free header, so hurry up and leave her a comment so she will choose you... that's how I go this cute page! :)

So, if you know someone that you want to add to my list, leave a comment so that we can all enjoy there work! Don't be modest... add yourself! :)

play time

On Sunday night the kids and I went to church for small group (Jeff was at the Cowboys game). All of the women in our group met and had dinner while the kids played in there classes. I am very blessed to have such wonderful friends... we had a great time talking! After we picked the kids up we let them play in our churches new play area. It is HUGE. The play "area" is a two story jungle gym structure with a giant twirly slide attached. It has been finished for a few weeks now but Claire has been ultra cautious of it. She has not been able to go above the first level, but on Sunday night her sweet friend Payton helped her go all the way to the top and slide down the slide. He was so encouraging... he kept saying "your really doing a good job Claire, you can do it!" She was very excited about her accomplishment! She couldn't wait to tell her Daddy what she had done! Luke was feeling a little left out, so I decided to take him all the way to the top and slide down with him! Wow, what a work out that was!!! He loved every second of it! All of the other girls in my group did the slide too... I've got some pretty funny pictures girls! :)
Here are a few pictures... the last one is random. Claire likes to pretend that Luke is her baby. He plays along. I wonder how long that will last? :)

Mommy and Luke coming down the slide

Claire and Payton Claire pushing her "baby" around the house.

Luke

Luke's surgery went well! Thank you for all of your prayers. More later...

calm (part 2)

Calm yet... NO. Luke and I had our normal Thursday morning while Claire was at school. He took a short nap, we played, and then we ate lunch. After lunch we played some more, but he was acting funny. He kept licking me, licking his arm, licking the couch. At times Claire likes to pretend she is a cat, this includes pretending to give herself a bath, cat style. Luke loves to imitate his big sister, so I just assumed he was licking everything because he was also pretending to be a cat. I was wrong. This went on for an hour. Finally, we got in the car to go pick up Claire . I was putting Luke in his car seat and I saw a flash of something on his tongue. It was a FIRE ANT!!! It was latched on to the tip of his tongue, and it was thrashing around. I tried to pull it off, but it wouldn't let go. Finally, after many attempts I succeeded. Poor Luke, his tongue is swollen, and so is his cheek. He is even drooling! The weird thing is, that he never cried! I think I would have been screaming if that had happened to me... Anyway, he is fine... but I am still not calm.
Some thoughts that are going through my head: How did he get a fire ant in his mouth? Where did this fire ant come from... we never went outside! There are lots more thoughts, but I won't bore you.

On to Claire... Every time she comes home from school, she complains about a certain girl. It's always the same girl, let's call her "E". "E pushed me." "E hit me." "E threw a rock at me." Today's complaint was "E hurt my lip." Normally I just listen and then discuss with her what we do when others are not nice to us, but today she really did have a mark on her lip. Here is the funny thing: There is no child by the name of "E" in her class. Does the so called child exist, or has Claire made up an imaginary bully? So, all you Moms out there... What would you do? Would you ignore it? Would you say something? I am apprehensive to say anything because I don't want to be one of "those" moms that will tell anyone that her child is perfect. Believe me, Claire has her moments! :) So, speak up Mom's I really do want to know what you would do.

calm

This piece is by Alyson Fox... I found it on my friend Sarah's blog.
I'm not calm. So, this is a great reminder for me today.

My blog...

Do you LOVE it? I do! Kelly made me a new header! She is a friend of a friend of a friend... we have never met, and she made me a header that really fits me! You should go check her blog out! She also did Allison M.'s new blog look! THANKS Kelly!!!

In other news... Luke is having surgery on Friday. He will be having his sinus passages cleaned out and also having tubes put in. The poor little guy just can't get over those ear infections. Hopefully this surgery will help!

Tonight Jeff and I are going to dinner with some of our awesome friends... just adults, NO kids. Can you believe it? I am SOO excited I can hardly contain myself! Claire and Luke are SO excited too, because they get to play with KJL! It's a win- win situation! :)

Also, thank you so much for all of your sweet comments about my cake! You really made my day! :)

I will leave you with a picture of Luke wearing Claire's sunglasses... he thought he was pretty funny!

Eat your cake.

I think I have a new hobby (like I needed another one)! I made this cake for a friends baby shower. It came out way better than I expected... I can't wait to make another one!

Silly girl...

I have noticed that Claire is beginning to learn tricks from other kids. She most recently has learned how to make silly faces. While Dale and Janis were here visiting Claire, Daddy and Papa Dale had a silly face contest. It was beyond funny... I laughed so hard. Unfortunately I didn't catch any of Papa's funny faces on camera, but we did catch Daddy and Claire. So who do you think is funnier? (Isn't Jeff a good sport?!)

To much to write about...

Well, when you wait to long to blog, it seems like there is to much to write down. I will try my best to condense it all.

Claire- Last week at school, Claire got the "star of the week" award for "praising God" in chapel! I am SOO proud of her. Next week Luke and I get to go to chapel with her and see her in action... can't wait!

Luke- The little guy is STILL having ear problems. We are taking him to the ENT tomorrow. Luke is also saying a ton of new words... Diego, bubbles, balloon, nana, papa, touch down, football. And just yesterday he learned how to sign "more"!



Besides all of the fun kid stuff, we have been really busy. Our air conditioner got replaced on Wednesday. On Saturday we all went down the the Stock Yards to see the daily cattle drive. Claire and Luke loved seeing all of the steers, cowboys and even an Indian!


Nana, Papa, Claire, Luke and Jeff with the Indian.
Mommy, Daddy, Claire and Luke (the steers name was Pecos Bill) :)
Claire wants to go to Billy Bobs!
Luke just wants to see the horses!

That's hot!

Not much to post about... just a few quick things.

1. Our air conditioner died (again, but this time it could not be resuscitated). It's hot. It has been hot for 5 days now. We are getting a new one tomorrow.
2. Claire and Luke LOVE having Nana and Papa here.
3. Luke can say "touch down" while throwing his hands in the air. SO cute!

...more later.

Luke

I am having a lot of fun with little Luke on Thursdays. Today we went to Target, played, he took a nap, and then we ate lunch. At lunch we made faces back and forth until he was laughing so hard that he was having trouble eating! He is the sweetest...

This and that...

I'll warn you, there are no pictures at the end of this post. The kids are non stop, so it makes it hard for a photo- op! Here is what we have been up to lately:

1. Yesterday I excepted the fact that I needed labeled tabs for my Bible. Confession: I can NEVER find the book I need to look up. Most of you have heard this confession from me before, so you may find it shocking that I am just now accepting it. I went and bought those cute little tabs yesterday. While I installed them into my Bible I watched "The Hills". Is that OK? Probably not! :)

2. Luke STILL has an ear infection. After 10 days on antibiotics you would think it is gone. We went to the pediatrician today and she said that it was worse. Now we have a very strong antibiotic, a referral to the ENT and a promise that he will probably be getting tubes in the next month. Poor little guy!

3. While at the pediatrician I voiced my concern to her that it seems like my kids are sick more than the average kid... she responded with "Yes, it seems that way!" She explained that they were prone to get sicker because of the allergies and asthma... then she said "Your kids are just high maintenance!" Well, at least someone else recognizes it too.

4. Jeff's parents are coming in to town this weekend. Should be a fun time!

5. My 10 year high school reunion is this weekend... I won't be attending due to the above event. For those of you that were just dying to see me (sarcasm) I'm so sorry to disappoint!

Well, I'm sure I left a lot of riveting information out, but I hope that will do until I can get some pictures taken.

School

Claire had SO much fun at school. Literally, we walked up to her classroom, she walked/ ran in and never flinched when we said goodbye to her. Actually, I'm not even sure she was listening when I said bye to her. When we were pulling into the church parking lot she said "Um, Mom, THIS is church. NOT school!" (Try to imagine her saying it with a very sassy voice, you know the one, the one you use when you are 16.) I guess I failed to mention to her that "school" would take place at "church".

Claire and her cool lunch box

Luke and I had a fun morning. We played, and he took a nap. I was able to get a lot done around the house. Amazing. The only thing that made me sad was Luke trying to find Claire. When we got in the car after dropping her off he kept saying "uh oh! Sissy go?" He was VERY concerned that she was not in the car with us. SO cute! So, I guess you were all right. The first drop off is hard, but guess what folks... I can't wait for next Thursday!

Second thoughts...

OK, so I'm not having second thoughts on sending her to school. I am having second thoughts on being excited about it. Last night Jeff, Luke, Claire and I went on a hunt for a new lunch box for Claire to take to school. She is beside herself excited about this lunch box. She has been playing with it all morning. She will pause every ten minutes or so and ask me if we can put her "sanich" (sandwich) in her lunch box. She also keeps asking me if it is time to go to school yet. Seeing her so excited is making me excited for her!
So, I will join you in thinking how silly I was being yesterday. I thought about deleting the post from yesterday, but then I rethought it. It will be funny to read that when she is in high school.
Speaking of re-reading things... I am in the process of editing and fixing up my blog... Not for computer use, but for book use. I found a great website that "slurps" (that's what they call it) all of your blog entries and pictures into a book format. I am so excited about it because I have been blogging for over 2 years now. In a way it will be like a giant scrapbook/ journal. The website is called Blurb. I will let you know what the finished product is like... i still have over a 100 pages to edit, so it might be a while.

Body parts

Luke is beginning to learn his body parts. It is pretty cute, but you can tell he gets annoyed with me asking him to point them out all day long. This is a video of Luke showing you his favorites.

In other news... Claire starts Young Children's World (pre-school/ mothers day out) one day a week on Thursday. I get teary thinking about it. I can't even read all of my friends blogs right now, because they are all about first days of school. Can Thursday get here any quicker... I am dreading it, and I just want it over with. Don't get me wrong... it will be nice to have some time with Luke. I am just not ready for her to be in school. One more thing... I cannot get over her taking a nap at school. It is breaking my heart. Why? I don't know! It's silly... I'm sure you are all reading this and thinking how ridiculous I am being! Just plain ridiculous.

Anyway... enough already. I will put pictures of Claire up on her first day of school in my next post.

The Band

On Sunday night our friends Kelsey and Lisa and there kids came over for dinner. Claire and Luke have SO much fun playing with Ezra and Kaylen. Here is a cute video of there first music video. I love how distracted Claire is in the middle of it. Kinda reminds me of someone... me! (Can you guess what Claire's favorite song is? Go back through my archives and I think you will find at least four videos of her singing it!)

Since poor little Luke couldn't climb up onto the swingset and join the band, here is a video of him. He is getting such a big personality, and this is just a glimp of it.

Labor Day

Happy three day weekend! Jeff went to San Antonio to see his old roomies for a few days, and I am hanging in there with the kiddos. Yesterday Allison, Hudson and Baby Harper came over to play, and today we all went to the mall and hung out. Thanks for making the day go by faster guys!!!

A few random things...

1. The really, really, hip, trendy, eccentric girl at the M.A.C counter told me I had on cool shoes. I kinda feel cool now! :)

2. I love a good labor day sale.

3. Cookies are a magic tool that can be used when you want to shop in more than one store with two children.

4. When Jeff is out of town I do not cook. Looks like we will have pizza for the next 4 meals! :) (corn free pizza of course.)

5. Last night we watched "The Pickup Artist" on VH1. You should go check it out if your into watching people publicly humiliate themselves on national TV... it's really a good laugh!

Well, that's all for now. I wanted to post because I knew you were all getting tired of looking at that horrible picture!

Here is a better one...

Random things in my head...

No, this is not a cute picture of my kids, I know. This lady celebrated her 100th birthday by smoking her 170,000th cigarette. Happy Birthday too you!!! I can think of 170,000 other things that I would rather do on my birthday! On an even crazier note... I have a question for you. The English language can be confusing for those who are just learning the language, especially when it comes to "sayings". So which way is correct? Head over heels, or head over hills? This is random, I know, but in the last few weeks I have heard several different people use the expression "Head over hills." Now, I am the confused one... I thought it was "head over heels"?! So which is correct? Anyone know?
P.S. NO, I do not have a hearing problem... I have even seen it written this way.