It Starts Early!

My Crazy-Haired Princess!

I have struggled with my curly hair most of my life. I can remember being so frustrated that I could not get my hair to "feather". My hair and I are finally at peace with each other. I think I am just a bit too busy to really think much about my it!

Two of my sweet daughters have been blessed/cursed with curly hair as well. Anna Grace, who is not quite three and a half, is already very interested in her hair. She refers to curly hair as "crazy hair." She has been spending lots of time in front of the mirror, wetting and brushing her hair. Yesterday, she momentarily succeeded in brushing out some of the curl. She announced, "I look like Emma!" A few minutes later, much to her frustration, the curls were back. She said, "I do not want crazy hair!" She is also very concerned about messing up her hair. She wears her pink headband constantly (I have to sneak in and take it off after she is asleep). She was very frustrated with me yesterday because I would not turn off the ceiling fan. She did not want "the wind" to mess up her hair! She also warned Mark to be careful with her hair when he gave her a hug.

We do our best to reassure her that she is beautiful, but she is quite an opinionated little critter! I pray that she makes peace with her hair, and with her appearance in general. Teaching our daughters to spend as much time making sure the inside is as beautiful as the outside, is quite a challenge. For now, I am enjoying watching her early attempts at primping. We are a little afraid of what she is going to be like as a teenager!

Ten Years and Counting!

This picture was taken the day we met.

Mark and I celebrated our tenth anniversary earlier this month (I am a little behind on my blogging!). I was thinking back over our first ten years of marriage, and I was amazed at how busy we have been. I made a mental list of some of the big events in our first decade, and I thought I would write a few of them here.

In the last ten years --



-- We took a wonderful three week honeymoon to California.

--Mark finished his dissertation and graduated with his PhD.

--I had Mono and Shingles in the first six months of marriage. I was beginning to think I was allergic to marriage!

--I taught at an inner city school for the first year and a half of our marriage. My last day was a Friday, and Isaac was born on Sunday!

--We have been blessed with five children, born in three states. This means that I have been either pregnant or nursing eight of the last ten years!

--We have lived in one apartment and four houses in four different states.

--Mark has worked at three different companies, doing three different jobs!

--We had to say goodbye to Mark's dad, three of my grandparents, two uncles and a special aunt. We miss them greatly!

--We have survived ten seasons of Tennessee football, (if you know us, you know that is a big achievement!).



Reading this list makes me a little tired! It also makes me very thankful that God has sustained us through so much transition and stress! I am thankful to be married to such a wonderful man. I am looking forward to the next ten years (and praying they are a little more settled!). Praise God for the blessing of marriage!

I'm Feeling Old!

We are getting Bailey an American Girl Doll for her 7th birthday. It is quite a bit more than we usually spend on a birthday present, but I am really excited about getting it for her. She has been getting the catalog for a couple of years now, and she has saved every one. She pours over them during quiet time every day, and she has them all memorized! I asked her which one she wants, and she told me to surprise her. So now, I have been pouring over the website trying to pick out the perfect one for her. I have finally decided to go with Kirsten (Shh! Don't tell her!), because we are going to be reading the Little House books in school this year, and she looks like she would fit right in with Mary and Laura. I can not wait to give it to her!

One of the dolls in the Historical Collection, is Julie. She made me feel quite old since she is from the 1970s. Having been born in the '70s, it just does not seem that long ago! My favorite quote from the catalog is, "In Julie's day, lunch boxes were made of metal..." It is kind of funny that the clothes you can buy for the doll do not look all that different from the clothes people are wearing now. Styles do come back around!

Eli

Eli is changing so quickly! It is so hard to believe that he is already almost eight months old! He has learned some new "tricks" in the last couple of weeks. He is now able to sit by himself without toppling over. He can also get into a sitting position all by himself. Just this week, he learned how to put one knee if front of the other and crawl! He is not too quick on his knees yet, but he gets where he wants to go. My life has changed a bit, because I now get to follow him around, picking up treasures (trash) that he finds. Thankfully, he has not discovered the stairs yet, but I am sure that it is only a matter of time!

I was taking pictures of him performing his new trick, and they reminded me of another little critter who was performing the same tricks about eight years ago!

Eli, almost 8 months old

Isaac, 9 months old

Our Son is Our Brother!

Isaac decided that he wanted to become a Christian. Mark talked to him to make sure that he understood what he was doing. After a great conversation, Isaac wanted to be baptized. He did not want to wait, so Mark baptized him that night in our bathtub. Praise God!

WWBD -- Digging Holes!

The rainy season began shortly after we moved to Arkansas. We had an enormous amount of rain in a couple of weeks, and our yard was overwhelmed with water! Unfortunately, it began to dribble into our laundry room through a pipe that comes up through the slab. Mark and another guy dug a hole in the back yard to give the water a way to get out. Mark had to go out periodically and pump the water out. Our new house honeymoon ended quickly! After everything is dried out, we will pay someone to put in better drains to solve the problem. As my dad said, "Into every life some rain must fall!"

WWBD -- Gardening

We left our square foot garden boxes at our old house, so we built some new boxes. Isaac helped with the hammering! We put out four boxes. I have a large box, Isaac has a medium one, and Bailey and Olivia each have a small box. I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers and watermelon. I am trying out several types of tomatoes this year. Dad planted lots of herbs while he was here. If all goes well this year, I plan to expand next year!

WWBD -- Buying a New Dining Room Table

When Eli was born, we officially outgrew our dining room table. We could have made do, but we like to invite people over for dinner, so we decided to splurge on a new dining room set. Mamaw wanted a picture, so here it is! There is one more leaf not pictured, so it will seat ten.

WWBD -- Building a New Room

Well, we did not actually build the room, we hired someone to build it! The upstairs bonus room opened into the attic, and the previous owner had done some of the work of finishing it. We decided to hire someone to finish the space to make a bedroom for Isaac. We knew that if we did not do it soon after we moved in, we would never get around to doing it, so we called a contractor the second week we were here. They finished the room while we were in Baton Rouge, and Isaac and I moved his stuff in the day after we got back. He was very excited! He does not like the noises from the unfinished attic space on the other side of the door, but overall, he is very pleased with his new room.

View from the playroom.
Isaac's new bunk beds

WWBD -- Landscaping

Before: This picture was taken on our househunting trip.
After: You probably can not tell a big difference from this far away.

We have been working on adding some flowerbeds to the front of our house. The house had no landscaping when we moved in, which was new for us. We have been blessed with established flower beds in our other houses, so this has been a learning experience for me. The house looked naked to me, so I jumped right in! My parents helped our a lot when they were here visiting. It has taken a lot of topsoil and mulch (and elbow grease). I would like to add bushes, trees and maybe more beds around the yard as time goes on. It is a project I will be working on for years to come!

What We've Been Doing (WWBD) Part 1 -- Visiting

We have been doing a lot of visiting the past two months. My parents came the weekend we moved in, and Mark's mom came a few days later. They blessed us so much by helping us get settled in.

We made a trip to Baton Rouge on Memorial Day Weekend, and had a great time visiting with a lot of dear friends. We were able to catch a baseball game (no pun intended), have an informal birthday celebration with Olivia's friend Hudson, have dinner with special friends, go to church and see the amazing changes they have made in the children's' facilities, eat at On the Border (yum), celebrate Memorial day with dear friends, and spend time relaxing at the Morris' "retreat center" swimming and fishing. We stayed up too late, ate too much, laughed a lot and visited a bunch. Our time in Baton Rouge never seems to be enough to get to see everyone that we love!

A few days after arriving home from our trip, the Callahans (friends from Baton Rouge) came for a visit. It was great to get to see them two weekends in a row! The children had a great time playing, and Mark and I loved visiting with our dear friends!

The day after they left, my parents came for a long weekend visit. It was a blessing to have them here! I loved being with them, and they were a huge help! Mom did all of my laundry while she was here (that is no easy task), and Dad helped my tremendously in the flower beds. I missed them the moment they left!

We are now on "regular schedule" for a few weeks before we head to Tennessee to visit our family. I am so thankful for the blessing of friends and family!

Catching Up

Things have been busy here in our little world. As of Saturday, we have now lived here two months, and it has been quite a whirlwind. I think that my brain is still trying to grasp the fact that we now live in Arkansas and that Mark has a new job! Sometimes I think about the fact that on New Year's Day, we were enjoying life in Alabama, without a clue that in a matter of months we would be making a move to another state! It is enough to make my head spin a bit. God has been so faithful to us during this time of transition. Our new place is beginning to feel more like home, and we have had many people give us a warm welcome! I want to blog a bit about some of the things that have been keeping us busy during the past two months. So, I am going to start a "blog mini-series" about What We've Been Doing (WWBD). These are probably details that only a Mamaw really wants to read, so please feel free to skip these posts (except for you Mamaw!)!