4 year old stream of thought...

E:"Mommy...I don't like to think about Jesus on the cross. It's gross."
Me: "It is gross.  He was hurt very badly."
E: "What did the bad men stab through His heart?"
(geez on the details Sunday School teacher!!)
"Wow.  They really told you a lot about Him on the cross didn't they?"
"Yeah. What was it that they stabbed Him with?"
 "A sword.  They stabbed Him in His side." (Side note: Daddy has corrected me.  It was a spear.  Not a sword.  Give me a little slack in that my 4 year old just asked me "what the bad men stabbed Jesus in the heart with?" I was in a bit of a shock. Spear.  It was a spear that they stabbed Him with. There.)
"Did He bleed?"
"Yes.  He did. Do you know why He died on the cross?'
"Yes. He died for our sins."
"That's right. We all sin.  We all make mistakes and do the wrong thing sometimes...when we do, it makes our heart feel dirty and heavy.  The dirt and heaviness makes us not be able to be close to His Daddy.  He wants us to be close to His Daddy.  So He died on the cross so we wouldn't have to. Jesus makes our heart clean and light!"
"Mommy? Where are our lungs?"
"Right here.  Inside."
"Well, how does He fit in our lungs?"
"We actually say He is in our hearts."
"Well, how does He fit in our hearts?"
"Good question.  I guess it is more His Spirit that lives in our hearts.  That's is how He talks to us in our hearts and in our minds...through His Spirit."
"So He's dead?"
"No.  He died and then he came back to life!"
"He was dead for 3 YEARS!?"
"haha...no.  He was dead for 3 DAYS."
"So where does He live now?"
"He is in heaven with His Daddy
"That's God....I don't believe Saul when he says we drink Jesus' blood. Blood is gross. Some boys like human blood...but I don't."
"No we do not drink His real blood.  We drink juice to remind us of His blood."
"And the crackers?"
"Those are to remind us of His body."
"I didn't get to eat any crackers."
"We wait to eat the crackers and drink the juice until we tell Jesus we believe He died for us on the cross and that we want Him to live in our hearts."
"Saul doesn't believe me that people drink cow's blood."
"Saul hasn't heard Daddy tell the stories about the people in Africa, has he?"
"No.  I have a new friend.  He has round hair.  He was nice to me.  At the other church there is a boy who is like his big brother...and he is NOT my friend.  He was not nice.  Actually...his hair is more flat on top."
""That's funny.  Did it stand up short on top?"
"Yep."
"They actually call that haircut a 'flat top'."
"That's a funny name.  Flat. Top." (giggle)
"You know the little girls on Lightening McQueen's team??  They say MA-TOOR! HAHA..they are funny."

The conversation trailed off from here.
But...Woah.  There is some heavy stuff going on in that head of yours, E.  What an honor and a privilege to be the one to share these Truths with you.  I love to hear what is on your mind. (Cow's blood, Lightening McQueen and all...reminders that you are, in fact, 4 years old...and alllll boy!) :)

We prayed together after this conversation...that God would continue to pursue your heart.  That you would continue to feel free to ask all the questions you have and that Daddy and I would have wisdom in answering.  Oh, how we want you to know Him!  To know that you are fiercely loved by Him (and us)
That He has made you for His purposes and that in Him is where you will find true life.  May you love Him while you are young and while you are old!!

And I quote...

"Do you know Rudolph means, 'I like your light on' in Spanish?"

This is the stuff E comes up with, out of nowhere, on our way home from getting our Christmas tree.

All bundled up in our matching Christmasie hats and scarves, with hot chocolate packed in a vintage thermos and picnic basket with coordinating wool blanket...taking to the woods...tromping through soft snow as more gently falls on our shoulders and eyelashes...in search of the perfect tree...all the while whistling Christmas carols...

OOOOORRRR....

High tailing it to Home Depot and Lowes after bed time... PJs under sweats...hodge podge of hats and mittens (because it really is cold here...at least to us)...over-working the nice Lowe's guy as we deliberate between which wonky tree we will come home with this year. We went with the fattest and the tallest.  Nice-Lowes-Guy gave it to us for the price of a short and skinny one.  He even handed the bottom part of the trunk that he cut off the tree to E...told him to write the year on it and make it into a tree ornament. (Dude?!?!  Have you been Pinteresting?!?!?)

 I asked.  He had not even heard of it.  What?!?

The Home Depot/Lowes scenario has been our tradition for the past seven years...while I would love for parts of my first description to be true...it could not be farther from it.  It works for now...maybe someday we will live where they have U-cut Christmas trees and I can have it together enough to remember to add some hot water to the hot cocoa mix and pack it along...either way...we are getting ready to have our house smell like Douglas Fir and lights are getting ready to twinkle...

Eventually...we are debating whether or not to unpack our storage unit to retrieve all our Christmas decorations...they are seriously at the very. back. of the unit. 

This is real. life.
Ain't it grand? :)

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a great Thanksgiving week down at Granna and Zeke's.  It was a house full!  Jamie and friend, Katie Beth from Florida, Uncle Dale, the Stones in and out, us and our dog, Sammy...all under one roof! 

Holidays at their finest!!

I just love my family.  We genuinely enjoy one another's company. 

And wouldn't you know...I did not take ONE picture.  NOT. ONE!

So a list of favorite memories:

- Sitting around the kitchen table in the mornings drinking coffee and chatting it up.
- Sitting around the living room simultaneously Facebooking and Pinteresting.
- Breaking Dawn with the fam. (Thank you, Scott, for not wanting to see the movie and for watching the kids! YOU ROCK!)
- Kid day at the movies to see The Muppets. (great to share childhood memories with our kids...I remember watching The Muppet Show most Sunday nights over McDonald's and our TV trays.)
- Shoe shopping at Shoe Carnival. (We were trivia champs!)
- 3 out of 4 grandkids got light up shoes from Granna and Zeke.  It was fun to watch them light up our row at the movies. :)
- Looking over at Chloe during the movie and seeing her tear up about Kermit's feeling forgotten...I reached over and took her hand, which she squeezed and then let out a heavy sigh. (such a tender heart!)
- Hearing Eli sing, 'Manamana.'
- Taking my first shot at the leaf blower to help Dad defend his grass from the constant onslaught of falling leaves.
- Coffee date with Kev.
- Golf cart rides through the neighborhood.
- Hearing more of Uncle Dales life adventures.

Great memories! Thank you Mom and Dad for always welcoming one and all into your home; loving us, feeding us, enduring our noise levels...YOU ARE AMAZING. YOU ARE LOVED!

"Don't You Just Love This Day?"

The sweetest things continue to flow from Eli's mouth these days.
He will crawl into bed with us in the morning, "I love you, Mommy."  "I think you are so special."
After eating break-n-bake cookies: "Thank you so much for these cookies, Mama. I really enjoyed them."

Today has been no different.
We got some flowers yesterday to replace our impatiens that would seriously hold on until Christmas if we would let them.  (They just don't look very Fall-ie, you know?)

Well, Mums were on clearance and pansies were affordable...and since our house is on the market, I thought we should Fall-ify the house. (what? you didn't know our house is on the market...SURPRISE!)

Back to Eli.

After another episode of Umi Zumi we headed outside to plant the flowers.
He was giddy about the gloves that were just his size and could not wait to help.

Throughout the entire process, he is asking questions about soil, roots, stems...
"what are those white ball things in the soil for?" 

In the middle of all the questions he would interject his sweetness:

"I LOVE doing this!"
"This is so great!"
"We should do this every day, all day!"
"Don't you just love this day?"

Oh. My. Heart.

Yes, Eli.  Yes.  I love this day because you are a part of it.  And I just love YOU.

 Sweet Boy in action.

 Boppi and GrandBob, we have a gardener on our hands!!

He will be a happy helper this summer if you have any need of it!

 We did get some water on the flowers too.

Is it just me, or do you see a phantom Great Blue Heron head in the mist there??

Trick Or Treating Numero Tres

Our third and final Trick or Treating outing...

good grief...the CANDY!

 Mia, Abi, Chloe and Ali

 The Moores and the Williamses (and Butterscotch)

 Thursday Night Small Groups...Unite!

We all loaded into the trailer and hit the neighborhood.

Oh. Yes. We. Did.

Chloe had a plan for rigging Butterscotch up on a board with wheels

and dragging her behind her whilst trick or treating...

Daddy and GrandBob worked on it.

They even removed wheels from an old suitcase.

In the end, this was easier.

And waaay funnier.

* All photos courtesy of Jamey Moore

Positive Affirmations for Parenting: You win some. You lose some.

Last week I was at Target and saw these spider twinkle lights for sale in the Halloween section.  They were $12. 'Tis not the season for spending $12 on frivolous spider twinkle lights, so I passed them up...feeling a wee bit sad about it, because I thought they would be super fun to string in Eli's room. 

You know, 'cause nothing says 'boy' like spider twinkle lights.

Fast forward to yesterday...it was one of those days that felt like the only way to survive was to load the kids up and wander the aisles of Target.  (do you have those days??)

So I did.

And guess what was on sale??  50% off, for that matter?!?

THE SPIDER TWINKLE LIGHTS!!!

Glory, Hallelujah!

So we sat on the floor and pontificated on which spider twinkle lights were the best and decided on the larger ones with glitter and multiple colors.

Because nothin' says 'boy' more than spider twinkle lights with glitter.

I brought them home and was super excited to hang them.  Kevin had the brilliant idea of stringing them from under Chloe's mattress on the top bunk!  Fabulous idea!

Well...this morning was a bit bumpy (to understate my frustration) as I got a certain precious and strongly opinionated girl ready for school...I was feeling like I was losing.

So, when Eli asked to do something with the spider lights it felt like a 'win' was in my near future.

Off come the blankets!  Off comes the mattress!  Off comes the wood plank that supports the mattress!
And ON go the spider twinkle lights!!! I made a fort with the blankets and even made a secret entrance. 
I was rockin' the Mom thing!

I was seriously chanting positive affirmations in my head,
"you are a cool Mom." 
"you are so. fun." 
I. was. WINNING!

Then Eli attempted to enter the fort through said secret entrance and proceeded to slip through some stinking crack that had escaped my attention, possibly giving himself a shiner.

True. Story.

But for a split second...the positive affirmations were working!

You win some.  You lose some.

Halloween 2011

With Halloween falling on a Monday night, the Trick or Treating schedule was all over the place in our community...bonus...more candy. (or is it a bonus??)

Here are a few pictures of our second candy hoarding.
Granna and Uncle Dale scoured the town to make Chloe's vision of being an English Rider for Halloween a reality.  A HUGE thank you to you both for all your effort. 

I would say she was a SPOT ON English Rider and she was so proud of her costume.

Eli was a little less committed to his costume.  This night he was a pirate...Hook to be exact.  But he was also a Wild Kratt and Spider Man.  Whatev.

GrandBob was in town for the weekend!

He stayed over a couple days after a conference in Atlanta!

So fun to have you here, Dad!

Thank you for running crazy with us and just enjoying the ride!

 Chloe had just taken a tumble...still recovering, but being compliant.

We do not really know any of these kids, but aren't they cute?

I am partial to the pirate. :)