journaling the funnies.

My friend, Pat Gibbs, ALWAYS reminds me to write down the funny things that Reilly (and one day, Braxton too) says. This is something she has done for EACH of her grandchildren since they were of talking age and it's amazing to look back over the countless CDs she has, full of journals she has written about her favorite children. It's something I've tried to do informally, in a small sprial notebook I keep in the kitchen, but I'm sure I don't do near as good as job at it as she does!! But, in an attempt to remember the funnies, here are a couple that Reilly came up with yesterday:

1. With the ridiculous 40+ MPH winds we were having this week, we pulled in the driveway from running errands one day and Reilly was intently looking out the window. All the sudden she said, "mommy, I think that tree over there is dancing." precious.

2. I am ALWAYS cold. Always. My hands and feet are always feezing...even when we're inside! And, according to the following statement, I must always be complaining about it! Reilly is NEVER cold. She takes after her daddy, apparently. So, one day this week, as I was routinely complaining about how cold I was while we were playing in the living room, Reilly finally looked at me and said, "mommy, go stand by the HEAT!". Thanks for the advice, sweet child.

the boy who never stops laughing.

Its true. Braxton Thomas laughs all day long. The other day, I am certain that every single sound he made all day was a laugh, chuckle, or snicker about something (mostly random things, but who cares!). Here are a few video clips of the silliness...

try again!

for some reason the "family night" video I posted the other day wasn't working....I think I have resolved the issue. Try it again!! (it's two posts down below....)

recent happenings...

We haven't really had anything too exciting going on lately, but I have snapped a few photos of the kids doing random things....


Braxton's new favorite activity...standing at the bookcase and pulling everything out of the cabinet. fun times!
The other morning, Reilly played in some "snow" (flour in a pan!) and had a blast!!

a "first" tonight...Reilly was cooking in her kitchen and Braxton crawled over and pulled up next to her like they were cooking together!

his new thing is to just suck his thumb and lay his head down wherever he is, whenever he's tired. sooo cute!

then Reilly put her arm around him while they were cooking....totally spontaneous! precious.

Family Night...done right.

When Mecklenburg Community Church does "family night", they really DO family night! It's done several times throughout the year and this was our first time attending. We thought that Reilly would LOVE it...and we were right. They start off with kid-friendly worship lead by some amazing Middle School kids, throw in several hilarious skits, some family relay contests that involved ice cream eating/donning frozen t-shirts/batting ice balls, and then ended with our pastor's daughter giving a very kid-friendly message. It was so awesome. And I just can't wait for Reilly to really get the full experience as she gets older. To have such an incredible event planned entirely for kids to experience Christ in a real, FUN, COOL, unique way is just ONE of the reasons why we love our church!! Here's a 3 minute video I put together with some clips of the night. We went with our good friends Keith and Alli, and their son Evan who is Reilly's bestest bud.

Valentines Love

I took some "Valentine-y" pics of Reilly last week...wanted to post them here for those of you that aren't on Facebook or don't follow my work blog:)

daily dose of wisdom

Shawn and I are taking a journey through the Bible this year and so far, it has been amazing!! My awesome friend and mentor, Melissa Gibbs, launched a challenge at the end of 2009 for all those wanting to walk through the Bible in 2010 to get the One Year Chronological Bible and start reading "with" her on January 1st. Since this is something we've both tried before but just can't seem to accomplish, we decided to give it another shot! The One Year Bible is set up with a daily reading plan and each day you read about 3-4 pages...TOTALLY doable. Since this is the Chronological Bible, it is organized by actual date that the scripture was written. So the books or passages aren't in the same order as the "regular" Bible, but instead they are ordered like a timeline, which makes reading it SO much easier....it's just like a story! Melissa started a blog and has committed to writing a blog post with EVERY daily reading!! I am continually blown away by the amount of wisdom and insight she is bringing to my daily reading. It's as if she is writing her own commentary...and it's awesome! I am learning so much. There are over 100 people that are following her blog now and posting comments/questions/responses.

Friday's reading was about Moses parting the Red Sea, "one of the most spectacular of all recorded miracles in the Bible". In Melissa blog post that day, she gave us a link to a website with pictures of artifacts that have been found at the bottom of the Red Sea (chariot wheels, bones from humans and horses) that prove this incredible miracle. It's stuff like this that makes reading the Bible so intriguing! If you have a spare 15-20 minutes each day, I STRONGLY encourage you to jump on this journey with us! It's been so great so far.

Here is the link to Melissa's blog: http://chronologicalbiblein2010.blogspot.com/

and here is the link to that site with pictures from the Red Sea: http://www.bereanpublishers.com/Apologetics/parting_of_the_red_sea.htm

the "joys" of naptime intruders!

For the past three days, I have spent lots of time starting at our video monitor, watching Braxton STANDING in his crib, crying, fussing, jumping, and not going to sleep. Yesterday, he cried of and on for one hour b/c he was standing up and apparently did NOT want to get down. He knows how to because I've also watched him do that on the handy-dandy video monitor, but for some reason, he just wouldn't! So, after 30 minutes of standing, he finally just decided to put his thumb in his mouth and attempt at falling asleep while standing. I took a picture of the video monitor to show Shawn b/c I knew if I went in there with a camera he would only get more upset....

Of course, makes sense, right?! This is something that Reilly NEVER did. I made sure that during her awake times, we practiced the art of getting down from standing so we wouldn't have this battle during naptimes! Well, I guess I haven't spent as much time teaching this valuable skill to Braxton! Ahhhh....good naptimes, where have you gone?!