Boyfriend

Elena's "boyfriend" visited from Indiana over the weekend.

Let me explain.

Brion and Beth had baby Isaac exactly 2 weeks before we had Elena. They were fond of each other from the very beginning. When Beth and I would both happen to be standing in the back of church swaying our fussy babies, they would reach out and hold each other's hands. When they got a little older and we had playdates, they would just look at each other and giggle. They were friends. So we started to call him "boyfriend" and they started to call her "girlfriend". Not that we are in any way encouraging any sort of dating relationship at age 2, but we are hoping that one day they will get married and we can be in-laws with people we already know and love! (not really, Elena is never going to get married. or date.) :) Here are some sweet pics from their trip.

The Most Awesome Day Ever!

When I picked Elias up from school on Friday, he informed me that is was "The Most Awesome Day Ever!!!!" It was his 6th birthday and he had taken multi-colored cupcakes to school to share with that class. That alone probably would have been fine, but we proceeded to drive home and open presents with Daddy.
Unbeknownst to Elias, I had combined ALL his and my birthday money and purchased a Wii. He has been asking for a Wii for months and I had told him it would probably be Christmas before we could get one. So, thanks Honey & Raun, GrandDad & Oma, and Grandma-Great for contributing to this great gift! Thanks Brent & Jenna for the LeapFrog book and to GrandDad & Oma for the flight suit! He loves all of it and concluded the night telling us that it was the best birthday he had ever had. And we haven't even had his party yet!

Change of Plans

This morning when I got up I had great plans for the day. I was going to clean the house a little and then go to my mentoring meeting with our senior pastor's wife. She meets with me and 3 other young pastor's wives every other week, and I always look forward to that time! Then I planned to wrap Elias' birthday gifts and make beef stroganoff for dinner. Funny how we tend to make lots of plans and sort of live in the future by thinking we have it all figured out.

Then I got Elena up. She has had a cold for about a week now, which was preceeded by a high fever and the throwing-up-in-the-car incident last week. But it seemed like just a cold. Runny nose, cough, fever, etc. This morning her breathing sounded really crackly. I called the pediatrician to see if I could bring her in tomorrow morning if she wasn't any better. Because I already had plans today. The nurse heard her breathing over the phone and said I needed to come on in. So I packed Elena in the car and we headed to the doctor. All the while I'm thinking of how it is going to end up just a cold and I will have wasted a copay. Turns out Elena has pneumonia!! I know- crazy huh? Some great mother I am! She had a breathing treatment there and we were sent home with antibiotics and more breathing treatments and instructions on when to go to the ER if she gets worse this weekend.

She is in bed napping now and I am off to wrap presents and hopefully get a nap in myself!!

Happy Birthday Elias!

Elias is 6 years old today! That's right- SIX! I can't believe it! It seems like yesterday I Adaryll and I were staring into the beautiful eyes of our new 6 pound, 5 ounce scrawny little wrinkled boy. And to think that those are the same eyes that I look into each day now just amazes me.

Elias is such a blessing to our family. He is extremely caring and sensitive and loving. He has a great sense of humor and loves to make people laugh. He makes friends easily. He is just such a cool little boy!

There is just something special about a monther-son relationship. I am learning more about it each day. So, Happy Birthday to my favorite little boy in the whole wide world!

(This pic is actually a couple of years old, but I love it!)

T-Shirts

My mom is selling Mccain and Palin t-shirts. There are about 11 different designs on the website below. I really like the "Weepublican" one for babies. :)
Let me know if you want one. They're $14 each with shipping. Also, feel free to forward the site to anyone you know who would be interested.

www.mccainpalinshirts.blogspot.com

Feelin' the Love

WOW! Ya'll sure did make yesterday feel special with all the birthday comments!!! Between the blog and facebook and phone calls and text messages, this was definitely the well-est wished birthday I have ever had!
Which brought me to thinking about something. In this age of technology, with blogging and all, it is kind of funny how lots of comments = feelin' the love. There are sometimes days when I post and nobody comments at all! Not that there is anything wrong with that really because my main purpose of this blog is just having a record of these days as our kids are growing. A big perk is that it allows me to stay in touch with all of you! But other days, like yesterday, everyone seemed compelled to leave a comment. It's like getting a big hug everytime my email box says "New comment on Texans and Hoosiers"! So thanks for all the warm hugs and encouraging words!!!
Now, about the new haircut- because SO many of you have mentioned it now!!! I will post a pic when I can, but please know that it is not that spectacular!! I feel like I need to go get another haircut to somehow live up to the expectations that are out there now!
I has posted something in my "Texan and Legal" post about needing to look a little older, since my current driver's license picture is not that different from my 16 year old one. I suggested that maybe I needed a "mommy haircut". When I went to women's retreat there was a lady in our house who cuts hair, so I got a haircut a like midnight that Saturday. It is super-cute and I felt like it made me a little more 30-ish. So I went into Elias' Kindergarten room the next day to drop him off and said to Lissie (his teacher), "I did it!" (because she had commented "resist the haircut!" on Texan and Legal). Then the assistant teacher, Jana, walked over and said how cute it was and how it just took 10 years off of me, just like that! I explained that I was actually trying to add a few years and not lose them. We all had a good laugh when I asked if I now looked 5 since I started out looking 15.
So it really doesn't look all that different from other "short" haircuts I have had before- it is about chin length. But it had gotten pretty long, so it was a change for people who had seen me recently. Sorry for all the hype!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Today is Mommy's birthday!!! She is 32 years old today, but not a day over 9 in her heart. :) (and she still looks 15, even with the new "mommy haircut")

Wordless Wednesday

The Birdies

Everyone out there in blog land knows how much Elena likes birds, right? Remember the prayer from a few weeks ago when she thanked God for each individual bird in her room? She really has a great appreciation for these wonderful creatures!
Last night, as the Cowboys were about to lose to the Arizona Cardinals, Elena crawled up in Adaryll's lap. After she got a good look at the helmets of the two teams, Elena exclaimed, "I like the birdies, Daddy! I like the birdies!"

Reading

I have been on a reading kick the last week or so. I got the latest Karen Kingsbury book last week, Sunset. It is #14 in a series of books I started about year ago. I read the first 10 in about a month and then had to wait in between the releases of the last few. Such a bummer to have to wait for a book to come out!!! Her books are such easy-reads that it only takes a couple days to get through them.
Then I decided I would finally read The Shack. Having read what it was about (a little girl being abducted from a campground and her father's struggle with God about that), I had decided I would not read it. I have too many fears as a parent already. Why expose myself to such a story? But as weeks went by, more and more people told me that I need to read it. I finally borrowed a copy Saturday, started it yesterday afternoon and am finishing it today. WOW! Seriously, everyone needs to read this book. It has way more to do with who God is, what our presuppositions about Him are, how we put Him in a box, etc. than it does the actual little girl's abduction. My mind has been expanded on so many levels. I now need my own copy to go back and write in (when is the last time you wrote in a fiction book???! I don't think I EVER have!).
Anyone else out there read it yet? What are your thoughts? What were your favorite lines (or paragraphs!)?