Up, Up & Away!

Love these pictures. Especially love how Ben looks worried, as if his daddy might not catch him! After each catch, Ben would (purposefully) tumble to the ground then jump up for another round, screaming for "Moren". Yes, he has added the letter "n" to the word more. Milk is also known as "Nilk" in our house. Silly boy. Be still my heart.

Tea Party

One of Paige's favorite things to do is have a tea party with Big Daddy. Ben jumped right in, and served lots of 'hot tea' to his customers. He even blew on it for us so that we wouldn't burn our tongues!

Promised pictures

Getting back in the groove

We're home! HOME!! And I'm a home-body, so I'm delighted to be back. The power was restored Friday, but Greg already had plane tickets to come spend the weekend with us in Midland, so we had a final hurrah before scooting back.

Our trip to my hometown was so wonderful. Really, really a much needed vacation to my home-away-from-home. We had such a good time. Many, many pictures to follow.

We're getting back in the groove. The fridge is slowly but surely getting re-stocked. The giant piles of laundry are shrinking. The front yard, well that's another story. But soon it will be cooler, and maybe this is the time to plant a crepe myrtle. Always wanted one.

Pictures from the storm. The sweet squirrel hunkered down (sorry, couldn't resist) for the second half of the storm in his little house right outside our breakfast room window.

Hurricane Ike

Well, we're still here. But not in The Woodlands. Nope, I think Benjamin and I could have survived living on dry goods and sweating it out sans air conditioner . . . But Cameron, she's an indoor girl. So, it goes a little something like this:

Stay put for the storm. Prep, prep, prep. Hunker down!! Wonder for a good twenty four hours why we decided to stay put. Hunker down some more.

Survive our first official hurricane. Otherwise known as Ike. We made the most of it, had a picnic, some Hurricane Ike birthday cake, and spent countless hours on the bathroom floor playing with Play-Doh. Then it started to get hot. Really hot. And weird spiders and bugs (oh, and lizards, too) started moving in . . .

So, we evacuated. To Dallas. Aunt Linda and Uncle Bobby took us in, so graciously, and we ate wonderful food and enjoyed all of the modern conveniences we have come to love. Mainly air conditioning.

And now we (the kids and I) are in Midland. A landing spot. A home away from home. I've never been so happy to sit at a laptop and just type. The A/C is cranked down, the kids are sleeping away in their little beds, and I've just downed a bunch of M&M's and an Izze. Not too shabby.

I'll not stay for another hurricane, no matter how good the cake is. When I get back to The Woodlands, I'll post pictures of the giant tree that now resides upon my roof. And hopefully Entergy is wrong. Hopefully we'll get our power back before October.

My fingers are crossed!

Love to all of you . . . I'll be in touch. Am praying for each of you, for safe trips back to your hopefully fully-functioning homes.

Ben's day at the park

Ben does so love his grandparents! And I can't say that I blame him. They take him all kinds of wonderful places. The latest adventure, North Shore Park. Thanks for the great pictures, Papa!

Rice Cereal

Okay, you're going to give me rice cereal and I'm going to wear this bib.

This stuff is good right, Mommy?

What in the world did you just put in my mouth???

This. is. so. gross. You're going to pay for this.

Okay, praise the Lord, I can spit this out. I will be a picky eater just like my brother.

Baby smiles

New Ben pictures soon, well, as soon as I get him to sit still. Oh, and how cute is her watermelon outfit? Thank you Missy Sherry . . . Ain't nothing sweeter than a baby in summer whites!

Big love

I don't know who is more in love, Cameron with her Daddy, or Daddy with his Diva. Either way, it's a big, big love. Undescribable, the love of a child, the love for a child.

Paige is 3!

How can this be? The little darling (my only sister's only daughter) turned three on Saturday and we had a "Birday Pardy" at my house. My family flew up from Midland, and we all partied like rock-stars. Well, okay, Cameron still went to bed by eight every night, but she tried to hang with us! A couple of fun pictures from the weekend . . .

Mama said there'd be days like this . . .

Actually, my mother NEVER mentioned anything quite like life with a two year old and a new baby. And she has been there, my sister and I were a mere seventeen months apart. When I ask her how she did it, how she managed, this distant look comes over her face, and she smiles and says, "I just don't really remember those days".

Today began around one a.m. with the first of several wake-up calls from Cameron. That girl. I fed her, returned to bed. Between four and six I got up with her four more times. At six I started kicking Greg in his shins and begging him to have mercy. He got up and by the time he got to her she had settled back down (this NEVER happens for me). At seven I fed the little booger again, and started the day as Benjamin was now bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The rest of the day gets fuzzy, but it went something like this:

Change Ben (note that diaper contents are a little frightening).

Change Cameron.

Start breakfast. Notice that my feet stick to the kitchen floor, probably due to the massive bottle of cranberry juice that Ben poured over his head yesterday morning.

Get Cameron down for a nap. Sadly, it's a thirty minute nap.

Change Ben again. Uh-oh.

Change Ben AGAIN. Oh no.

Niece shows up for a play-date. Play date commences. Another Ben diaper. Cameron doesn't nap. Play-date ends.

Clean up kitchen, and wonder if I have brushed my teeth. I have, thank God.

Put Benjamin in for his nap. Oops, diaper check reveals the need for another change. Begin the day-long thought process of wondering what he ate with milk/soy in it.

Change/feed Cameron, get her in for a much-needed nap. Thirty short minutes later she demands my company. Then poops. Change her again.

While I buzz about for the next hour or so, I listen to Ben not-nap. Is that a real phrase? It should be, it's a real condition in this house. Happens about once a week now, and scares me that the immediate future could possible no longer include a napping two-year old. Shudder. So I get Cameron down again and check on Ben. CODE BROWN!!! Time to clean the boy and all of his bedding. Not to mention change him again.

Give Ben a banana and pray it helps. Turn on the TV. Start more laundry. Change Ben. Change Ben. Change Ben some more. Call Greg and tell him that I could be scary when he gets home.

Dinner, change Ben (by this time he cries with every change). Clean up kitchen. Nurse Cameron, who doesn't want to eat, and would rather talk about the milk than drink it. Bathe her while Greg takes over Ben-duty (more like Ben-doodie). Get her jammies on, try to finish the feeding. She won't eat, but when I sit her up to burp her she spits up all over her fresh jammies. Change Cameron, put her to bed.

Take a hot shower and shave my legs (this was the highlight of my day).

Kiss Ben goodnight.

It's officially time for a good old internet glut and some dark chocolate. Lots of dark chocolate.

And tomorrow will be new. Shiny and new. And I think I am beginning to understand my mother a little better. I think she has a form of post-traumatic-motherhood-syndrome.

Bumbo Ben

Yep, folks, that's right. At 30 pounds he still fits. Like a glove.

Mind your manners . . .

This morning Ben came in as I was changing Cameron's diaper (the trouble always begins when I'm busy with her). He was carrying some of her little bibs that I keep by a chair where I feed her. Why he's obsessed with these bibs is beyond me.

I said to him, "Ben, you need to go put those back right now."

He looked right back at me and said "Say please."

I did as he asked.

The Diva

Otherwise known as Cameron. And she is, most definitely, a diva. She requires (demands) hands-on constant attention. We oblige her. As I find myself falling further and further in love with her, I am constantly whispering thanks to my Heavenly Father who created her. No, designed her. He planned her long, dark eyelashes. He knew just how perfectly they would frame her noticeably wide, dark eyes. He actually knows the number of hairs on her sweet little head (he's also keeping count of mine as my once-gorgeous-due-to-pregnancy-hair falls out all over the house). He put that adorable cranberry birthmark right on the top of her head, where I can kiss it any time I want. People call it her 'angel kiss'. I wonder if God let the tiny baby I lost early in my first pregnancy plant that sweet kiss on her noggin before sending her my way. Her hairy back, his plan. I'm just relieved that she's not as hairy as Ben. Designed by Him, knit together in my womb, a most precious gift, my Diva, Cameron Elizabeth.

Face-lift!

BLOG-OVER! I started my little blog just before Benjamin joined us, and I have so enjoyed posting sweet news about him. Now Miss Cameron joins the fun, and well, it just seemed like it was time to spruce things up a bit. Maybe the fact that I'm completely sleep-deprived and unable to be my normal Type-A self lead me to seek help in 'perfecting' my blog. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it. More soon. For now, it's nap-time in my house, so I'm off to join my little ones in dream-land.

Sweet Pea

Isn't she darling? She's even darling at midnight, three a.m., five a.m., and six a.m. At least she was last night. She's rolling over like a pro, at three-and-a-half months, and continues to delight us with her smiles and giggles. Even Ben gets regular smiles from her now. Ben still scares her silly sometimes, he's yet to decipher what 'indoor voice' means, but we're having fun, and that's what matters.

When Mommy's away . . .

What about you?

i am: a blog junkie

i think: about my loved ones, near and far, all the time

i know: i am incredibly blessed

i want: my children to know and love Jesus

i have: a wonderful husband

i wish: i could clone myself to meet all of the immediate needs of my little ones, and have a clean house at the same time

i hate: when the kids in our neighborhood are unkind to Ben

i miss: my niece Paige terribly

i fear: loss

i feel: tired, but happy as Cameron keeping me up all night must mean she's a healthy, thriving girl

i hear: sweet silence, as Ben is playing at his grandparent's house, and Cameron is napping

i smell: my lavender & rosemary diffuser

i crave: dark chocolate

i search: for Ben's sippy cups constantly

i wonder: sometimes, if I'm getting through to Ben (he's two, he's very two)

i regret: not having my children earlier

i love: hearing my kids laugh, it's a magical sound

i ache: for my friend Sarah, her little boy is so sick

i care: about what my family eats

i always: organize things

i am not: good at letting the little things go

i believe: that this is the best time of my life

i dance: with my silly Ben when we watch the music scene in Cars, and with Cameron when she needs some soothing

i sing: (terribly) "Lullabye" when I rock my babies

i cry: almost never

i don’t always: get the much-needed daily shower

i fight: the aging process

i write: on my blog and via email, rarely a real note

i win: most arguments

i lose: sleep when I'm anxious

i never: go a day without chocolate

i confuse: my words, now that sleep deprivation is at it's highest level

i listen: to Greg reading Ben his bed time stories

i can usually be found: in my sweet house, with my family

i am scared: of big gross bugs

i need: to vent when the day has been long and hard

i am happy about: the sweet, small moments that remind me why I'm here at home, being their mother, and that this job is so worth the hard times

What about you?

Fourth of July

No big Fourth of July pictures . . . Ben ran a fever, so in we stayed. We did have yummy tenderloin for dinner (thanks Mimi and Papa), and enjoyed a quiet Friday together.

Sleeping Beauty

Guess who slept 8-1/2 fabulous hours last night?