Where have you been for so long Lexington?

The last weekend in March, the kids, mom, and I went to Lexington for an annual Farm Bureau Women's Meeting.  When we arrived, the tour buses were loading to head out to the Kentucky Horse Park...we quickly checked in, got in the caravan, and headed out.  We had lunch there and got to hear some live bluegrass-the band was wonderful-then we were off.  Grace got to ride in a big tour bus w/ mom while Noah John and I followed behind in the van. 

It was a crisp beautiful spring day.  (Sidenote:  On our second visit there, mom put Noah John down in the grass for the first time and he didn't really care for it!  I find this funny since we are sod farmers.  :)

Nonna and Noah

Anyway, the weekend trip to Lex was packed with lots of fun, although I'll admit it was very, very tiring and I will probably not travel like that w/ the kids for quiet some time.  On Saturday, after I attended a workshop, Grace and I rushed off to Rupp at the last minute to catch Disney on Ice.

As you can see it would not have been complete without cotton candy....ha ha.  Good thing nobody took a pic of me downing a personal pan huh!  Anyway, we ended up with wonderful seats and at a fraction of the cost, about 12 rows from the bottom, center stage.  Sunday a.m. before daylight, I was up and walking in the rain to meet a friend to do a 5k (did I mention it was raining and before daylight?  this whole weight loss thing requires entirely too much work, lol) 





We even squeezed in a trip to Delta Gamma, where I lived for 2 years and made some wonderful memories.  Grace and I had our picture taken at the anchor, which was way cool and brought back mannnny fond memories for me.  In so many ways, I had the quintessential Kentucky college experience...great times, made lifelong friends, a little learning, a #1 university, BASKETBALL games (I'm a blue blooded Kentuckian!), horse races (Keeneland), and oh, oops!  I met Shawn there! :)  Can you sense how happy I felt in this photo?

The trip to Lex was tiring, but worth it.  My mom should get some sort of medal for all the ways she travels to help me.  In the end, though, I think she enjoys the helping-out ;D.  Grace even gets free lessons...yep in the hotel room strummin' away!  Kentucky born and bred, to the bone.

Quiet

The house is quiet.  Noah John is napping (and hopefully recuperating from a viral illness that caused him to spike a 103 temp) and Grace is with Shawn for a couple hours.  In this rare time, I am reminded of God and his goodness. He seeps in like water-under the doors, filling the room-when I'm still enough to realize it.  I almost feel I'm drinking Him in.  Too many times I don't get quiet enough in my spirit to let Him fill the room...fill my life...fill me.  I don't mean it has to be quiet like it is now, either...I'm talking about a peace & quiet in the spirit that I am searching for...something that is there when things are loud all around me.  Sometimes I find it but it often slips away fast (my fault).  I'm convicted lately of spending too much time on the computer when the 'downtime' I have should more consistently be spent regrouping, drinking in Christ, in different forms--prayer, Bible study, being still enough to hear Him.  This song says it all, "I have been blessed and I feel so much more than I deserve."  So instead of FaceBook, which frankly kinda annoys me anyway for some reason (sooo narcissistic, yes?), and instead of email, I'm giving my time to God.  Whatever there is left, whatever time after Shawn and the kids...then I can veg out on the computer (or whatever).  Priorities.  I read something recently and it has been on my mind ever since and I'm so glad because that means it affected my view on life!  It said life should be like a jar of sea shells...put the big shells in first, then the medium sized shells, then the tiny ones and the sand...the sand will sift through and fill in the spaces...but if you try to put the shells in any other order-such as putting the sand in, then the little shells, then the big shells on top...they won't fit as well.  This is like life should be, right?  Put the big stuff in first--GOD.  Put the important stuff in next--family and friends and the things that are involved w/ them such as loving them, listening to them, praying for them, spending time with them.  The smaller, less important things last--for me that is computer time.  I have told Shawn several times I would do away w/ the tv if it weren't for him.  Funny though, I don't say that as easily about the computer.  We each have our "sand"/ small things in life we can waste too much time on huh?  For Shawn-he likes tv.  For me-I write...I read...that's what I do...I like communicating on email, etc.  I'm not suggesting it's bad.  Just bad for me when it's out of sync priority-wise.  Thank you to a friend of mine who posted something she had been convicted of recently...it opened the door to my heart so that I could examine my priorities because I have been burdened too lately.

March, finally!

Sidewalk chalk and castles....and my girl's happy.Finally a snapshot of Noah John's two bottom teeth (but you have to look close :o)=.  He cut 3 teeth in about 5 days!!!  #4 is trying to poke through right now.  This was his first time in the swing on our front porch and the expression he's making is one he does several times a day when he is happy or gets excited...funny huh! :-[]  I'm looking forward to many sunny days this spring and summer (plugging my ears to the rumor of COLD weather next week).  We go outside (pool, sandbox, playset) and over on the other side of the farm about once a day when it's warm...sometimes less, sometimes more.  Noah John might even take his first steps outside!!!

 I'm ready for blackberry picking!!!!!!!!  I hope it's a great year for them.  I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually anticipating summer. 

The Kids

Noah John is 9 months old.  This is a big deal in my opinion.  It means he's crossing over the 'baby' bridge.  He can stand now while holding on to something and can very briefly let go before he falls down on his bottom ;D.  Before long, he'll be taking steps. Again:  sigh.  He is beginning to show an interest in books and will sit through one pretty well now, as long as I'm holding him and being animated (which is easy for me -- being animated that is ; P)  He is still a happy boy and a nursery favorite...so long as he is full.  He has no patience when it comes to eating!  He has started eating table foods, mostly bread torn into pieces, also corn, mashed potatoes, etc.  He likes drinking V8 juice and it only took one exposure to it to get him used to it.  He loves nonna and poppa, mamaw, papaw, and sissy.  Aunt Dana is his favorite baby sitter :) aside from Miss Taylor who is the only person I will leave him with outside of family.  I rarely leave the kids, although I have begun to leave Grace for 3-4 hour stretches.  He sleeps all through the night, although he has cut 3 1/2 teeth (one is alllmost there) in like 5 days and it was ROUGH on him (okay, and us).  He was up more than normal at night so I found myself sleepy several days there.  But now he is back to himself and slept 11 1/2 hrs last night...up from his normal 8-9 per night.  I'm still breastfeeding but he's beginning to taper off...down to about 4 1/2 hrs between feedings and none at night.  He doesn't like getting his diaper changed one bit (wiggles and kicks and 'fusses' at us) and as a lady in church put it, it takes an act of congress to change him...ha!  We are blessed and we know it, if that is our biggest problem. 

Grace is also changing a lot these days.  Her vocabulary continues to impress us, as does the complexity of her sentences, stories, and her thought processes in general.  She told Shawn he was annoying her the other day.  I keep saying I'm going to write down her quips but I forget more times than not.  Anyway, she communicates clearly, and well, and is a natural born leader.  She has a plan and wants it followed (where does she get THAT!?)  She told me the other night..."Mommy come pray!"  I said no because she was being bossy.  She said, "Mommy, Jesus will be disappointed if you don't come pray!"  (Ok, so, needless to say, I prayed).  She can write the first letter of her name, when she tries.  She can also verbally spell her name.
"G- R- A- C- E, Grace"  She recognizes numbers 1-8 and we are working on putting her princess number tiles in numerical order.  She can do with minimal help.  She can sing almost any song you can imagine (literally) and does so on-key.  She likes playing with her doll house (that she's had for about 2 yrs now) and the little dolls with it, her little people princess castle and carriage, her Hello Kitty from Build-a-Bear, and loves helping me in the kitchen.  She plays with her Barbies some now-I decided to let her have Barbies even though I contemplated not for awhile.  She really likes dressing herself including picking out her outfits, and her favorite shoes for a loooong time now have been crocs.  Dang those ugly-cute things, lol.  They are so easy to slip on and off, they've even won me over so I have let her wear them constantly for probably at least a year now!!!  She also likes to dress and undress her Barbies, her baby dolls, and her stuffed animals.  She is a sharp little girl, if I do say so myself ;).  She doesn't watch tv a lot, although during my class, I slipped up and she watched it everyday.  It bugged me-she'd get really grumpy and insistent that she watch it and LITERALLY she lost interest in her puzzles and even ones she could do, she'd struggle with lots during that time period, to the point that she'd leave them unfinished and I'd redirect her and we'd wind up finishing it together after a little squabble.  Thankfully the class is over and we're getting back to normal.  Grace is a great helper...she gets diapers, wipes, etc for me.  She initiates hugs and kisses for me and her daddy (and her brother).  She likes to sleep in her big full-size bed and will tell me to get out after story and prayer time at night.  The other night I was beginning to doze off after story time ... she said ... "Momma!  Get out of my bed please!  It hurts me when you're in here...it hurts my arms, hurts my feelings, it just hurts me all over!"  Can you imagine? 

Shawn and I enjoy the kids at this stage SO MUCH!  It's one of the best so far...NJ can't walk so he's still easily contained and Grace is mature enough to reason with, sit for extended periods of time, etc.  Sweet!  This period is going to whiz by though, because our boy is going to be walking soon.  But for now, we will enjoy this time...these moments...both precious and fleeting.  I lift up a prayer for them both now-- for their salvation, Godly friends, their safety, and that they will know true peace by following God all their lives.