My favorites

Summer dinner outside.

The beginning of self-feeding.

Our Daddy Rocks!

Today we celebrated Dave by the girl's wearing, 'Our Daddy Rocks' shirts to church. He thought it was so great. Lily even got super excited when she saw him after church and she yelled, 'Daddy' and ran as fast as she could to jump into his arms.



I love these shirts. The one Lily has on was worn by Eloise on Dave's first father's day. The one Eloise is wearing was given to us by my friend Katie. Her daughter Langley wore it (at age 2) to celebrate her daddy Cory who died 3 years ago next month. It reminds me to be thankful for the wonderful husband and father I have in Dave. I appreciate all that he is and strives to be as a dad. We feel honored to have this shirt in memory of Cory.

Langley now has a father in heaven and her daddy bill here on earth. We hope she, and all the other little ones had a great time celebrating their daddy's.

Confession

I've never taken my kids to the grocery store. Just thinking about it right now makes me anxious.

When my friends tell me they just went to the grocery store, I always ask shockingly, "Did you take your kids?". ummm, yeah. I guess, what else would they do.

Dave is home during the day so it makes it easy to do things without the girls. I just picture major meltdown's if I take them to places I really need to get things done, like the grocery store. My friends are starting to tell me that I can't come meet them for errands without bringing my kids. I think they are bitter.

Ladies, I'm just not ready. We'll stick with our Target play dates, but the grocery store, we won't be gracing those isles anytime soon.

A family Vacation

We went to the beach this weekend with my parents. Don't think Hawaii beach, think Northwest Oregon beach. Cold, rocky, very frigid water, crab, rainy weather, and sometimes a beautiful, rare sunny day. It was the most perfect beach weekend. The kids had a blast and my parents enjoyed the one-on-one time with the girls.

We stayed at our favorite little beach housing community. We played at the beach, played in the grass, took trips to the playground and even visited the aquarium. It was a fun filled, busy, little sleep, ate way to much weekend. And here are some great pics to prove the fun.

(I had grand dreams of adding music and making this look really great, but it's late and I would rather sleep. I'm letting go of the perfectionist in me, at this point.)

Let's hope this works

Can you tell me why...

...toy makers put two volume settings on toys that make noise? Normal and slightly louder. Do parents really need to turn the volume up louder on the offending, catchy, annoying tune a toy or fridge magnet plays? And is the volume increase there to help children who can't hear well? The switch just becomes a point of contention between parents and toddlers once they figure out how to turn the switch to the highest setting.

...you get shocked to death when you take your child(ren) to the local playground? When my kids come down the slide and I see their hair standing up straight, I know I'm in for it. I brace myself and take the shock for the team so my child doesn't bail off the slide and end up crying. And even then, I think I still get shocked.

...children eat crayons? Are they really that much more tasty than carrots?

...dino bites? Okay, so I don't want to offend anyone here. My kids have eaten these, my friends buy these, but why a dino? Is this a gender neutral animal? Why not a chicken b/c it's chicken? or a horse? And don't most parents cut them up resulting in the child missing out on the cute little dino anyway? There is something that totally creeps me out about shaping chicken into the shape of a dino.

...when your children wake between 5:45 am and 7 am it often throws off the entire day? And if the early waker makes it to 5:45 am you wake up slightly nauseous and can't think of anything besides when you could possibly squeeze in a nap. This early wake up also means you get to watch all those Disney shows that drive you crazy, i.e. the Wiggles and Jo Jo's circus.

...children playing so sweetly together often results in crying or yelling between them 15 minutes later? And the fact that they played sweetly for 15 minutes, is a huge success?

...it's June, 50 degrees, and my heat is coming on at the same rate it did in March? I've been eager to get some walks in with the kids, but I feel like i need to bundle them up in fleece before we venture out. Where is the sun?

These are just some questions milling about my head. I know there are no answers, but sometimes I really wish there was a wikipedia for moms.

wee wee's and nu nu's

Eloise is obsessed with boys and girls and their different "parts". If there is a baby within 10 feet of her getting their diaper changed, she is right there to make sure the mama knows what anatomy that baby has.

Here in our house we call the girl parts, nu nu. This is taken from the Davis household.

Boy parts are called wee wee's. This just happened.

Tonight as I'm putting Eloise to sleep we were talking about the baby brother's and sister's of our dinner club. I then started talking about how she is a big sister and her friend Jack is a big brother. This is her response.

Eloise: "Yeah. Jack has a wee wee and I have a nu nu."

six years

Six years ago today, Dave and I, and our newly married selves, packed up a U-haul and moved from Bellingham, Washington to Portland, Oregon. It's been a crazy ride ever since.

We had no idea what we were jumping into, let alone who we were as a married couple. I knew this was the move God had for us, but I didn't know how I was going to cope without my wonderful friends.

The moment we pulled into town, I sobbed. Uncontrollable sobbing. The "Ugly Cry". I didn't stop for 9 months. It was a LONG nine months. And just today, as Dave and I were talking, he told me for the first time, he knew the job wasn't right and had to hold it together for me. Man, that must have been tough.

If you would have asked us that day where we thought we would be in 6 years, I'm sure we would have told you that high school youth would be the center of our life. I pictured kids but didn't think much beyond that. I just pictured bliss and that's the way ignorance works.
Today, we sat in almost the same pew we sat in when we arrived at our church, and watched the high school seniors graduate. They were the entering class when we left. The pastor made reference to the fact that they didn't want to be the class that was forgotten and it stung just a bit. I loved those kids and desperately wanted to minister in whatever way I could to them, but I needed to be first to my husband and he was being called away from his position. They have made their mark and will not be forgotten.

What the last 6 years here has brought I would never want to go through again, but I would never trade it for anything. We suffered through some of the rockiest times yet in our marriage and we came out 100 times stronger b/c of it. Our faith grew in ways that it needed to for us to be compassionate to those suffering in ministry. And we developed a stronger sense of God's direction in all areas of our lives.

Beyond ministry, personally, we have many friends now. Friends that enrich our lives and our children's lives. In those 6 years, we have developed a dinner club with four other families that has continued to meet every Thursday for 5 years. We are approaching baby #13!

I can't say that we haven't pursued moving back to Bellingham many times. We dearly miss our friends there too, but for now, God has said, stay. And here we are living day to day in Portland. We are learning more about what it means to love God daily and most of all, Love others and teach our children to do the same.


To our friends here, we love you and thank you for your support. To our friends in Bellingham, we love you, miss you and thank you for your support too. We'll see you this summer.