The Lackey Life

Words from a friend

2011-02-04T10:48:00.001-06:00

My "forever friend", Melissa, sent me this prayer the other day. It spoke to me so deeply.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

— attributed to
Sir Francis Drake, 1577

It was written by Sir Francis Drake? I only remember learning about him in history books and historical novels I've read, but never anything about him being a believer. I quickly ran a search on his name and noticed he had a really bad reputation as a pirate, politician, and slave trader. Just as Melissa reminded me, even Paul was a Christian killer before he started his ministry. I wonder what was going on in Drake's heart when he wrote this? What kind of change was happening in him and how did it affect him and others who are influenced by him? Regardless, what he wrote over three centuries ago, still rings true to this day. Jesus is timeless!

My Long Story

2011-02-01T22:23:00.001-06:00

If you know me well, you probably know that I'm not a fan of telling long stories or wasting the time to divulge details. I'm a to-the-point kind of girl and lose all my patience when telling (or listening to) such stories. But right now we're at a place in our lives and doing things that are getting lots of "What's" and "Why's". I thought I'd just scribble it all down here so that I don't have to keep repeating myself and so that I can journal this journey for my own growth. So here goes!

Remember this????

Remember how much we couldn't stop talking about it and how it was the best thing that ever happened to us? Yeah? Well, we're about to put it on the market and sell it. We've been living in it for 3 months and 10 days.

That's the big "What"...now here go the "why's".

Recognize him? He's my sweet, loving, hard-working, incredibly handsome, funny, best-friend of a husband, Ryan. He has worked for Verizon Wireless for 10+ years now. He started out in Columbia but then spent about 8 years in Cool Springs. We lived in Spring Hill and missed him so much while he was at work or driving on his commute, we thought it would be a great idea to move to Franklin, so we could be close to him! This way, he wouldn't spend an hour and a half every day on top of work, commuting. Also, he could come home and have lunch with us on his breaks! We signed our contract to build our house last April. Construction started in June. July 1st, he was unexpectedly transferred to the Columbia store. Here we are in our new house in Franklin, five minutes from his Cool Springs store and he works an hour away. That, my friends, is one reason.

Reason number 2 - Our girls. When we were justifying the price increase on this home, we threw my Real Estate income into the pile of "excuses". We have never been dependent upon my income before. You just never know when your next paycheck is coming and I was always afraid of depending on something so very undependable. After five very successful years in Real Estate, we chose to purchase a house and start depending on my income for the first time. I even made crazy excuses in my head like "if the real estate market goes down hill and I need to make money, worse case scenario is, I can get a job and the girls can go to day care". Which brings me to now...bad real estate market. I cannot choose this house over being home with my girls. They are too precious to me. Soon enough, I will be crying and sending them off to school every day. I cannot give up these precious moments with them for a house...for stuff.

And although those 2 reasons alone are enough already, I've got two more for you

Reason number 3 - Our hearts have changed. Neither Ryan nor I are the same people who signed that contract almost one year ago. Funny thing is, this heart-change might not have happened if we had not bought this house (I have no regrets!). Last June, after attending Grace Chapel for four years on-and-off, I bit the bullet and signed up for a small group in Franklin, since we were moving there. They discussed the second week that we were there that it takes about 18 months for a small group to "click" and to see whether it's going to work or not. Fast forward seven months later and these strangers are our best friends.

We beat the odds! God, so obviously, brought seven couples together with so many similarities, sweet children, and a desire for Him. I went to the women's retreat with some of the girls and my life just changed. I started looking within myself and seeing all of this excess that was weighing me down (hello, house). I finally realized that we are created for BIG things! It was clear to me that I was made to live a life for Jesus. I was so very intrigued by what it would feel like to actually live how I was created to live. I mean, it's gotta feel so good, so right! So I started studying Paul and his ministry, while our pastor started preaching on Jesus and the Beatitudes and the sermon on the mount. My sweet new friends were seeking the same things. My family was moving in the same direction. Ryan was running along right beside me the whole time. It was as if God had all of us on hold our whole lives and this Fall he brought us together and "activated" us for His purpose.

Ryan and I are on a mission to live the lives we were created for. We are going to raise up little disciples in Harper & Saylor. We don't want the real estate income that God blesses us with to pay the bills for more stuff. We want that extra income to be able to be given. We want to have the financial freedom to not "need" that money so that we can bless friends who are adopting, friends who are going on mission trips, and amazing charities like Hope Clinic and Brightstone. We don't want to hoard anymore. Did you know that 30,000 children around the world die every day of starvation and preventable illness? We want to be able to sponsor some of these children. We just want to change our minds, if we can. We've had a taste of this beautiful dream house and now we want to have a taste of living full and meaningful lives. That is our heart's desire.

Last but not least....

Missions! It wasn't until my heart changed that my desire to practice medicine turned into a desire for medical missions. And funny things is, it wasn't until then that God opened those doors for me! I'm going on a medical mission trip back to Belize this year over Easter. I'm studying (prayerfully!) for the MCAT daily and plan to take it in March. I haven't had a pre-med course...or any school for that matter...in six years. It is truly miraculous that I am doing as well as I am on my practice tests. At the rate things are going, by God's grace, I will go to medical school with the sole intention of giving it all back to Him. I don't know if it means serving full-time and moving to a hut in Belize or doing non-profit work right here in the states. Since I am completely unworthy of doing this on my own, it will be used for advancing the Kingdom. It scares me so much yet it excites me every day, God can use "normal" people like me to do big things and I'm putting Him up to the challenge! I have to pray really hard before I study a physics or organic chemistry chapter and ask God to help me comprehend and retain the information...and He does! The last time I was intimidated by the current topic of the day, I reminded myself that it's God himself who created this awesome science. Who better to give me the knowledge than the Creator Himself?

So, will I get into medical school? I'll wait and see, but I'll do my best and keep praying. If I do, we won't be settled for a long time. A piece of me hopes I was wrong all long so that I can just settle and stay here with our family but God never said the life following Him would be easy. He does promise that it will be fulfilling and he'll hold us through it.

So that's that! My sweet new bff from small group texted me this lyric from Hillsong's "Mighty to Save" tonight:

"I give my life to follow everything I believe in. I surrender."

I just love it. It then brought me to this verse in 2 Corinthians 5:15. It pretty much sums it up.

"He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them."

So here we go. We're picking up our crosses and following Him. It's going to be the hardest thing we've ever done. We're guaranteed to have an enemy fighting against us, but it's worth the fight.

Yummy AND Healthy!??!

2011-01-17T15:56:00.001-06:00

Over a year ago, completely on accident, I bought this cook book from Whole Foods called Nourishing Traditions. (Awesome reviews on Amazon AND it says something about "Challenging Political Correctness" right there in the title...what could be better than that?)

It really was an accidental purchase. Things find their way into your shopping cart when you have small children. Anyways, after months and months of it being in my trunk, ready to be returned, I brought it into my house far beyond the return date and set it on my cook book shelf.

Here I am, with my girls, at the grocery store...before reading the book...

We ate sugar all the time, fried foods any time, rarely a vegetable, fruit was a chore, snacks were constructed in a lab with chemicals and dyes....you get the gist. Anyways, to keep from too many details, I decided to get me and my family healthy (much to Ryan's dismay). I didn't want a "diet" that said crazy things like fat is bad or carbs are bad. I've had enough courses in cellular biology to know that we need all of those things for healthy cells/healthy bodies. Lucky for me, Nourishing Traditions seemed to be everything my Great Grandma Balkovitz would tell me! Bring on the butter and lard! (For now, I'll skip the organ meats....but I must say, sweetbreads are quite delish and totally chic).

I have absolutely no desire to educate anyone on the why's and the the science behind what I'm feeding our family now. I would rather just share with you a recipe that I made today with the girls that is healthy and delicious! Now, keep your comments to yourself if you are a vegan, vegetarian, butter-hater (ahem, Tony Horton), etc. I'm not interested ;-)

Here's my recipe and a picture of this fab-tastic treat. FINALLY, a sweet snack I can treat my girls to after dinner without feeling bad!

Peanut Cookies

1 1/2 cups crispy peanuts (there is a recipe for these but I just bought roasted, unsalted peanuts)
1/2 cup butter, softened, or coconut oil (I use organic, grass-fed butter...not the butter, the cow. )
1 cup arrowroot (Gluten-Free & Easily digested)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup Rapadura
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place peanuts in food processor and process to a fine meal. Add remaining ingredients and process until well blended. Form into walnut-sized balls and place on buttered cookie sheets. Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes. After 5 minutes in the oven, press cookies down lightly with a fork. Let cool completely before removing to an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator.

They are SO yummy! No chemicals, organic, gluten-free, yumminess. See how much happier my girls are, now that they're healthy???

Walt Disney World!!!!

2010-05-17T22:36:00.002-05:00

We did it! We went to Walt Disney World with a 1, 2, & 3-year old. Call us crazy (true) but it was fun (& not so fun all at the same time).

Eric, Rachel, & Mason had to fly out at 7:00 in the morning, or something crazy like that. Our flight didn't leave Nashville until 10:00 so we got to "sleep in". I had a trunk show Friday night, the crawfish boil Saturday, and then packed last minute the night before (as the storms rolled in). I am amazingly surprised that I didn't forget one thing & when we came home, the house was much cleaner than I remembered. That's quite an accomplishment!

Our drive to the airport came on the 2nd day of torrential downpours and devastating flooding. It wasn't raining when we left, but the storms were rolling in so we headed out as quickly as possible. As soon as we hit the Interstate, the storm let loose. It was the scariest ride of my life. We literally could not see out the window ahead of us. It was as if someone was dumping bathtubs of water on our car over and over again. Ryan tried to pull over and stop on the Interstate but the water was rising so quickly, we had no clue how deep it was getting and if/when we would get swept off the road. I just kept picturing the cars that I saw on the news the day before. They were on the Interstate, almost to their roofs in water, when a trailer came floating down the road next to them. When did they get out? How did they know it was "time" to bail? What about the people who didn't leave in time? I kept praying with the girls, asking God to surround our car with angels. I am so thankful Ryan was driving. He did an amazing job of staying calm...and on the road. I had packed the girl's life jackets and seriously thought about climbing to the back to put them on the girls just in case we had to bail or got swept away. As we were exiting I-65 for I-440, the cars ahead of us on 65 were stopped due to flooding ahead. They were just piling up on top of one another and then we started seeing reverse lights. I was praising God that we didn't go that way but couldn't get over thinking about what was going through their minds as everyone panicked and tried to reverse out of the flooding. I hope everyone was safe. We finally made it to the airport and had just a 50 minute delay. I have no clue how the airplanes take off in rain like that b/c it never let up. Only an hour or two after we left Nashville, Southwest canceled all flights in and out of Nashville. By then we were in 90+ degree sunny weather. Our timing couldn't have been better! We're just so glad we made it safely.

Our travel agent, Bryan Harris at Operation Destination, had everything ready for us. Itineraries were mailed to us in advance, our magical express was scheduled, and he even checked us in on-line. I'm normally a total control freak and get obsessed with vacation planning but I let Bryan take the reigns this time and it rocked. I will let him plan my vacations from now on. Why wouldn't you???

Harper was more excited about flying in a plane and riding on a bus than she was about Walt Disney World. (oh, and getting to sleep on a bunk bed too). She and Saylor were amazing on the flight. They loved taking off, got a little bored on the flight, and a tiny bit scared during landing. Saylor even pooped in the airplane potty. Speaking of airplane potties....how in the world can anyone become a member of the mile high club in one of those?? Have you ever tried to take a 2-year old potty in one? That's impossible enough! Anywho...

Here's a shot of Saylor on the plane.

We got to the airport pretty much starving, so we ate there and then hopped aboard the magical express. We never had to get our bags, it was sent straight to the hotel. The bus did not disappoint Harper. She sat across the aisle with Ryan and after a few minutes riding she said "mommy, I can't believe this" with the biggest eyes and cutest smile on earth.

We could have turned right around and gone home. Here's Say Say on the bus...

We arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge around 5pm. Ryan & I had stayed there 8 years earlier for our 1-year anniversary and I was surprised that it was still great condition! It was just as nice as it was back in the day when it was just newly opened. Impressed. We checked out our room....a queen bed and a bunk bed (yeah for Harper!) and then met up with Eric & Rachel to head to the parks.

Here's a synopsis of how the week went....

Rachel & I almost cried when we got to the Magic Kingdom for the first time. We got there just in time to see some parade go by. It was so "Disney" and festive and happy and the kids were in awe...I cry very easily. (It happened again when I saw The Festival of the Lion King....no clue why but Broadway shows always make me cry). Here are some shots of the kids watching their first parade!

Note to parents - no matter how much you want your 1, 2, & 3-year old to love fireworks and staying up late, they won't. Especially on your first day of travel when no one has had a nap. Bad, bad, bad idea. We basically tortured the kids trying to keep them up to see the fireworks at Magic Kingdom but finally left just before they started because hell was breaking loose.

That night, around midnight when we were all finally in bed, I told myself that never again would I keep my kids off their schedule to make them do something they didn't even ask to do. The next morning my alarm went off at 6:00 am for the princess breakfast at Epcot. I wanted sooooo badly to skip but this was the one and only event that Harper was looking forward to...plus, we pre-paid crap loads of money for it.

The girls were SO tired when we woke them up at 6 am (5 am our time!)

The bus ride to Epcot was exciting for minute...then they got tired again.

Waiting for breakfast with the princesses!

Harper put on her prettiest princess dress (Rachel bought it for Saylor a year before for $1 at a garage sale) & we headed out to Epcot for the Princess Storybook Breakfast at Akershus in Norway. Now, I tried my best to get reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table in her castle but that apparently books way in advance. Akershus in Norway was the best I could get (several months in advance). From the reviews I read I knew not to expect any top-of-the-line princesses like Cinderella or Snow White. Every time Harper mentioned going to meet Cinderella, I told her Cinderella probably wouldn't be there but maybe another princess would be. To our surprise, when we went in to the breakfast, Belle was there waiting to take pictures with the kids!!! We totally had no clue Harper would be perfectly color-coordinated with the princess. It was perfect. Harper couldn't take her eyes off of Belle. And Harper, who normally does not smile for the camera, was all smiles herself. It was like she turned into a tiny little princess for the morning and just oozed smiles. There was a professional photographer taking pictures of the kids with Belle but they let me take some shots too. (Our oodles of money for this breakfast included the professional shots and an 8x10 & 4 5x7 printouts in a keepsake folder....which I left in our hotel room upon departure).

The breakfast was great...the best hashbrown casserole I've had yet (even beating out the Inn at the Biltmore Estate!). But the best part of all was the princesses. Top-of-the-line princess after top-of-the-line princess came through the door right by our table one after another.

We saw Ariel

Aurora (sleeping beauty)

Snow White (my favorite)

...and CINDERELLA!!! (look how Harper won't take her eyes off her)

Saylor isn't nearly as impressed.

We had purchased an autograph book & pen for Harper and she just loved getting all of their signatures. When Cinderella came in, Harper would not take her eyes off of her. She even stared at her while smiling and saying "cheese" for the camera. This breakfast was literally, the best moment of the trip. (p.s. Saylor didn't have much interest in the princesses so she kind of kept to herself).

The rest of the week was full of fun, swimming, rides, and food. I've told the good stories and will condense the rest in the photo captions from now on :-)

Some family shots

Riding on Aladdin's carpet

It's a Small World! Both girls were fascinated. As we were leaving the ride, Saylor finally spoke in her little munchkin voice and said "bye bye, baby dolls".

I was so surprised at how receptive Harper was to meeting the larger-than-life characters! She really enjoyed getting each of their autographs.

Here's a shot of Saylor & Ryan on the Finding Nemo Ride. Harper is petrified of the movie & we quickly found out that she's also petrified of the ride. So, we have no shots of her on this one b/c she was crying and I was covering her eyes.

Daddy & Saylor are silly

A Great way to cool off!!!

Hanging out one night at Downtown Disney

Saylor did great sleeping on the bottom bunk with rails!

and Harper still talks about wanting a bunk bed.

Another night at Downtown Disney, the girls didn't want to stop taking pictures with the Cinderella statue.

The girls loved cooling off in this water fountain. They had a great time trying to "catch" the water!

Bus Ride Shots

Saylor at the pool

Harper sat w/ Ryan on the flight home. It wasn't a full flight, so they got two seats and so did Saylor and I! Ryan & Harper colored and then fell asleep for the rest of the flight.

Saylor slept the whole flight. Thank the Lord for that extra seat. She was begging to go to sleep.

Silly Girls

2010-05-17T14:21:00.001-05:00

I thought I'd share a few of my favorite "around the house" shots from Spring!

Saylor is loving my lasagna!

My best friend, Lisa, came to stay with us for a few days and brought sweet Jackson with her. He's only 5 days younger than Saylor and they had a blast together!

Hanging out on the bed with daddy.

Dressing up in mommy's fur wrap

Harper found the biggest strawberry on earth! (and she's still, obviously, rocking the self-cut hair style)

My Yaloo

Here are some Easter shots.

Mason came over for lunch & play time!

Ryan's 33rd birthday (I had to edit that, I had 32nd...he's a lot older than I thought)

Crawfish Boil

2010-05-17T14:11:00.000-05:00

Here I go, trying to catch up with past events that I've pretty much already forgotten about!

Ryan and Adam are in a band that was asked to play at a big Crawfish Boil/pre-Jimmy Buffet concert party. That day is also the first day that the huge storms hit Nashville. The turnout was pretty good and we had a blast, completely oblivious to the fact that Middle TN was shutting down due to flooding.

I'd say 20% of the people invited braved the storms and it was worth it. The guys sounded great, the crawfish, shrimp, & jambalaya were delicious and there was more than enough beer to go around.

Here are a few shots of the festivities!

It was impossible to get a good shot of Ryan, but he is definitely the cutest on stage ;-)

Landon took his shirt off...

Eric & Brody

Me & Jennifer

Adam turned 30 the next day so Lauren surprised him with a cake

...and Dave & Jennifer surprised him with a t-shirt that says "Thirty & Still Flirty!"

Ryan played football in the downpour and lost his wedding band.

Drew played football too & was super excited about it.

Cleaning Off My Desk

2010-03-05T12:53:00.000-06:00

Harper & Saylor's teachers give me little notes every day they are at school to tell me how their day went. Did they eat their lunch? Take a good nap? Did they poop? You know, all the important stuff. Then there's a place to fill in extra comments and I've got a little stack of some of the good ones that I wanted to remember.

Harper: "She is so smart and determined to do the activity at hand on her own!"

Harper: "She is a favorite friend to many :-)"

Saylor: "We were so proud of her going poop on the potty!"

Saylor: "She went potty twice for us. We are so proud of her!"

These are sweet little moments when people outside the family get to realize just how special they are :-)

All of this and it's only 11:00 am?

2010-03-05T11:27:00.000-06:00

Today is just one of those days. I'm on my second cup of coffee and I'm still not awake enough to comprehend what just happened.

Last night, I got in bed "early" and took some Night Time Robitussin because I've been feeling a little cold-ish the last few days. I wanted to get a good night's sleep so that I could have the energy needed to be a good mom for my girls today.

I fell asleep by 11:00 but at 11:30, Saylor woke up crying. I was in such a deep sleep by that time, I was like a zombie going upstairs to check on her. She wanted to "rock a minute". So we rocked a minute and I put her back to bed and then put myself back to bed. I fell asleep instantly.

At 12:30, Saylor woke up crying again. This time she was crying b/c one of her "babies" was across the room and she wanted it. I got her her baby, then she said she had to go potty. I put her on the potty (she didn't go) and then put her pj's back on and put her in bed. She kept crying so I told her to stop crying and go to sleep. Thankfully, she did. She slept the rest of the night.

I went back to sleep until 1:30, when Harper woke up crying. I don't even know why she was crying. I settled her down and went back to bed.

At 2:30 Harper cried again. I drug myself back upstairs and she told me she wanted ice cubes in her water. I told her she doesn't need ice cubes in her water, tucked her in, and went back to bed.

By now my heart was racing so fast from stress that I couldn't fall back asleep. I'm pretty sure the Robitussin had just worn off by then.

I finally fell asleep. At 3:30, Harper woke up crying again. This time, I went up there and she had taken her pull-up off because it was wet. I put another one on her and told her I was very very tired because she was crying all night long and asked her to please not cry again. Thankfully, she obeyed me. I slept until 7:00 when Harper came in to my room and watched Curious George while I tried to keep sleeping. Unfortunately, this episode was about some crappy dog that just yipped and barked non-stop for half an hour.

We were up by 7:30. While I was making my coffee, Saylor found the Sharpie pens and did this to my desk.

This is a hand-me-down desk from my parents, so it's not a huge deal but it is our only desk and it is now even uglier than it originally was.

I took a shower while the girls were playing upstairs. They were playing so nicely up there, I thought I should take the opportunity while I had it! After I got out of the shower, I heard Harper coming down the stairs crying a really strange cry.

She was saying "there's hair in my mouth!" If you know Harper, that's not a weird thing for her to say. She wakes up crying at night when she gets a hair on her paci (my princess and her pea). So I just figured she was sneaking her paci upstairs and got a hair in her mouth.

When I kneeled down to see if I could find the hair in her mouth. I froze. My hands were on her shoulders and I realized my hands were now covered in hair. I looked closely at Harper and noticed hair all over her face and body. Harper had cut her hair.

My first reaction was to spank her but I told her that instead and I think seeing the horror in my face and hearing that I thought she deserved a spanking was enough for her b/c she started crying really hard. I grabbed her hand and took her upstairs and started cleaning all the hair off while she cried and cried. I finally got her stripped down and all the hair off her body and made her go into time out while I looked for the rest of the mess. Saylor showed me right where it was.

Apparently, Harper had set a hair salon up in her bedroom. There were trails of hair going from her "salon" all the way down the stairs. Sweet little locks of hair that we have been trying so hard to grow out for three and a half years. I turned around, looked at Harper, and started sobbing. So did she. I said something like this in between my sobs of exhaustion and despair "Harper. WHY? Why would you do this??? Your hair is NOT coming back. Your hair is NOT going to be cute. You know better than this. Daddy told you not to cut your hair. Why did you disobey him? Hair doesn't just GROW in a day, especially yours. Look at your hair. That is how it is going to look for a long long time. Awful".

Was that mean of me? I then went to get some clean clothes on her and when I pulled the shirt over her head more chunks of hair kept falling out. I started wiping all of the cut hair off her head. She cut right down the top middle. Long on the sides, short in the middle. Some sections are bald, some are 2 inches long, some are 1/4 inch long. There's no fix to it.

I called my sister crying. She suggested that I make a little pin for Harper to wear in public that says "I Cut My Own Hair".

The light spots you see are bald spots, not bright spots from the flash.

Happy Friday! I wonder what the rest of my day will be like....

Catching Up With Christmas

2010-02-26T15:51:00.003-06:00

I'm going to try to paste a little slide show here with all of our Christmas photos. Just so that I can feel good that I'm all caught up with my blog!!!

Saylor Turns TWO!

2010-02-26T11:33:00.000-06:00

I was pretty sad yesterday morning absorbing the fact that my girls are 2 and 3 now. They are no longer babies. They really do grow up before your eyes. My sweet little Saylor turned 2 yesterday.

I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. What a fun day her birth day was! It snowed the day after she was born, making the hospital room so cozy and glowing. At 6 pounds and 7 ounces, she was so tiny. The first few weeks she would only sleep on my chest at night. I knew to do whatever it took to get some sleep. Now, those memories are so precious to me. I was reminded of them last night when Saylor woke up around midnight crying. I went upstairs and I let her "rock a minute", cherishing her snuggled up to my chest just as she was two years earlier. Awwww, now I've gone and gotten myself all weepy here at my desk. I am just overwhelmed with love for these fast growing girls. I would include a photo her of newborn Saylor but I still haven't gotten my data recovered from our hard drive crash.

Here are some party shots from last night! We had a couple of Saylor's friends and parents over and Luckily for Harper, most of them have older siblings who are her friends as well! I lost my camera for most of the party (8 kids under the age of 4 is chaos). So, I'm missing many photos I wish I had, like one with me and Ryan and Saylor! I'll be sure to get one of us tonight.

That's all for now! The girls and I are headed upstairs to watch the Disney Princesses Sing-A-Long DVD that Ryan & I got her. :-)

(As I was just finishing this blog, I heard Saylor sitting behind me sucking on something saying "mmmmm...ice cream". I turned around and there she was, sitting on the floor, sucking what was left of the cake and icing off of the minnie mouse that was on her birthday cake.)

Welcome Home

2010-02-01T13:21:00.000-06:00

We had such a relaxing trip to Asheville, but it didn't take me long to realize why God blessed us with such a peaceful getaway...the stomach bug had hit our house and was waiting for our return.

Here's a shot of Ryan driving home...he looks like he might have an idea of what's to come!

Let me preface this story by saying that we get the stomach bug at least twice a year. ("We" meaning everyone except Ryan.) If I get word that someone has it on the other side of Nashville, we will have caught it 32 minutes later. The stomach virus loves us. I wish we could say the same for it (although the easy and very temporary 5 pound weight loss that comes with it is always a great consolation benefit for me).

It was great to get home and see the girls again but less than two hours after our return, Saylor threw up. Unfortunately, she's not to the stage that Harper is at where she can direct herself to the bathroom or a trash can in time. To make a long story short, I was up all night with Saylor and washed 4 loads of laundry between 8 pm and 3 am in the morning.

This went on for two days and two nights. Some how, God spared the rest of us from the virus, but I think poor Saylor got it bad enough to make up for it.

Harper was worried. She didn't understand why her sister just laid around like this.

I would leave the room and literally find her laying anywhere she was, the couch, the dinner table, the floor...it was so pitiful.

I don't know how I would have dealt with it had I not had that little refresher time before it hit! I am so thankful for God's planning. I had plenty of energy to give lots of hugs and comfort, no matter the time of day or night.

Asheville Getaway

2010-01-29T17:20:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, I surprised Ryan and booked a mini-vacation for two nights at the Inn on the Biltmore Estate. Ryan's parents kept the girl's and we headed out for the 6 hour drive! (Even a six hour drive is fun when there aren't kids in the car!)

We had an amazing time. The Hotel was gorgeous and had such great service. It definitely deserved it's place in Travel & Leisure's top 500 hotels worldwide. We catered to hand and foot. We had the best breakfast buffet every morning (the hashbrown casserole was way better than Cracker Barrel's). We had free admission to the Biltmore house so we took a tour of it and also took a tour of the winery and did a wine tasting (leaving with a case of assorted wines to stock our wine cooler).

We had the best dinners ever in Asheville at The Admiral and The Red Stag Grill. Really all we did was relax! We slept in both mornings and took a nice long nap, too!

Here's our view from our hotel room. We were lucky to wake up our first morning to snow!

The drive home was fun. We took the scenic route through the mountains. I stopped and got some Minnetonka moccasins for myself and the girls in Cherokee and then I had to get 3 pairs of cowboy boots in Pigeon Forge. All the boots in the store were 1 Get 2 Free! It was Ryan's idea to go in, he said he wanted boots...so I picked out two pairs and waited for him to pick out one. And I waited...and waited...and waited. Ryan couldn't find any that were perfect, so I went home with 3 pairs of boots :-)

Here are some photos we took on the drive home through the snowy mountians.

Snowed In!

2010-01-29T16:58:00.001-06:00

The forecasters were right! We're snowed in! And even better, Ryan didn't have to go to work today because of it. Ryan and Harper got some cuddle time in on the couch to watch a movie. Ryan chose The Neverending Story, which was really scary to me when I was at least twice Harper's age. I didn't say anything to him but when I heard the scary storm rolling in and that huge limstone dude on the bicycle come rolling through the forest, I went to check on them. Harper was under the blanket, crying. Needless to say, I quickly changed it to something a little more age-appropriate (Veggie Tales).

Once Saylor woke up from her nap, we bundled up and got ready to head out in the snow!

Brrrr!!! It's so cold out! Harper immediately tried out a snow angel. (someone tell me how to rotate this picture!)

I was looking back at my blogs from last winter and there's a photo of Harper and Saylor last January. Harper is wearing the coat Saylor has on today! I can't believe she was Saylor's size a year ago.

I called every store on earth yesterday looking for sleds, but no one had any. So, we had to get creative. Here are the girls sledding down the driveway on plastic bin lids. They loved it! Saylor kept saying "myyyyy tuuuurn, myyyy tuuuuuuurn, myyyy tuuuuuurn!"

Here's a picture of me and my baby bunny

The girls had the most fun sliding on Ryan's back down the hill on a cardboard box!

And now for the best picture of the day!!

After all the fun we had outside, we went back inside and had hot cocoa. Then I sent Ryan to the grocery store to get stuff for chili, cheese straws, and home made toffee scones. Who's coming for dinner?

Stop the Nudity!!!

2010-01-28T16:37:00.001-06:00

What is it with my girls??? It's all about nudity around here (the children, that is....we're not running a nudist colony. I honestly don't know where they get it). Here are some shots from yesterday. Just a typical morning in our house. Nothing like a bare butt breakfast when it's freezing outside!

Harper is always the instigator...then Saylor immediately follow suit.

TV time! (Yes, Harper is wiping her butt. For no reason.)

Oh, and since we're on the subject of nudity and bare butts, let's talk poop! Saylor has pooped in her potty for four days straight! Now we just have to get her to quit peeing on the floor.

Zoo Day in November (Yeah, months ago)

2010-01-28T16:28:00.000-06:00

We have a family zoo membership for the first time this year. I took the girls once by myself and this is the first time this year that Ryan came with us, too! I think we'll get a lot of use out of the membership, and definitely get our money's worth, this Spring (the tax write-off was nice).

I am aware that Saylor's clothes don't really match. I remember the morning we left for the zoo. It was awful trying to get the girl's ready to go, they were really whiny and yucky, so I left Saylor in her play clothes. Some days I figure it's best to do that than to lose my mind :-) I'm learning how to "let it all go"...

The girl's favorite parts were the terrarium with all the lizards, snakes, and fish, and the carousel. After the carousel, we took a break and played in the leaves and got some fun shots of the girls! It was a mini-photo shoot...

And every fun day at the zoo...or anywhere for that matter...always ends with a photo like this

I can't wait for warm weather again!!!!!

Where Do I Find The Time?

2010-01-28T15:59:00.000-06:00

I really, really, really, wish I had more time in my day. I would love to do more with my blog (like update it) but it always seems to get put on the back burner and then I'm overwhelmed with the challenge of "catching up" that I just don't do it all together!

The girls are at that age where they are doing new and hilarious things every day. I know one day I'm going to miss these moments and actually start forgetting the tiny details, so I need to try to create more time and really stick to this. Maybe I'll forgo showers...but the 7-minute showers I take wouldn't even give me enough time to blog. I know, I'll try and do it every night before the kids go to bed. They usually have fun playing in their play room for a little while before bed, which gives me some time to myself. So here goes!

Speaking of the play room...have you seen it? My parents got them the coolest teepee for Christmas! Here are some pics:

Harper Loves to Make up Rhyme Songs

2009-12-10T21:14:00.004-06:00

She freezes up a little in front of the camera...but you can get the gist of her talent.

Harper & Her Big Girl Bed

2009-12-10T21:08:00.002-06:00

Harper is finally in her big girl bed! We tried taking the rails off her toddler bed a while back and she clunked right out of it and onto the floor in the middle of the night. So we waited a bit longer and a few nights ago, we took the rail off again and she didn't fall out for three nights in a row! We knew this meant she was ready to convert her toddler bed into a full-size bed. Ryan and I found a good deal on some mattresses and took Harper to Target to pick out her first big girl bedding. She's so proud of her bed. I especially love it because I can lay down with her at night and cuddle. It wasn't easy squeezing into her toddler bed before. So here are some pictures of our big girl. Time really flies too fast.

Rock & Roll Is In Their Blood

2009-12-10T21:07:00.001-06:00

Baby Sam Is Here

2009-12-10T20:53:00.004-06:00

My sister had her baby the day after Harper turned 3 (September 18th). I was in Europe when she had him (really poor planning on her part) and had to move into our new house when we got back so we didn't get to see him for a while. We were so excited when they came to stay with us! Harper just can't get enough of him and Saylor really loves him too (although I think she likes climbing in his baby swing better than she likes Sam).

Sam is such a good little baby. He almost makes me want another one...then I keep all three of them by myself for a few hours & I quickly set myself straight.

Harper got a fairy doll and a fairy dress up costume from' "AA for her 3rd birthday!

Ryan looks so cute with baby Sam. He's definitely a professional at baby handling.

Right after this photo was taken, Harper looked at me and said "I wish I could be a mommy". It melted my heart!! She's going to be an amazing mommy some day.

Sammy Sam

We're looking forward to them coming again over Christmas!

Just Hangin' Around

2009-12-10T20:39:00.005-06:00

I was just checking out Eric & Rachel's blog and it motivated me to get mine back on track. So, here goes with one post of many to come! I am doing this instead of working out tonight. Something is always sacrificed for another thing to be completed...

If you didn't know, I accidentally sold my house way faster than expected. We got an offer just days before heading to Europe for 2 weeks, so we didn't have time to buy a house before close. We ended up renting a home in Tollgate Village (Thompson's Station). We love it here and have now decided to buy a lot and build in the neighborhood. We love the playground, walking trails, and will really enjoy the awesome pool this summer! We're just ready to have a home of our own this time next year.

So here are some shots of the girls around our "new" house!

Here they are doing some of their artwork on the kitchen floor.

One day, I was on the computer and the girls were being suspiciously quiet. I was listening for them and heard their little muffled voices. I went looking around for them and couldn't find them anywhere! Then I heard their voices again in the living room, but they were no where to be found. All of a sudden, the cabinet doors below the TV flew open, and there they were! They love to play house in here!

I am constantly cleaning my bedroom b/c Harper is totally into the dress-up phase. She's always digging through my closet & drawers and showing up in some crazy outfit.

Finger paint time!!!

Uh oh....

2009-12-02T20:37:00.003-06:00

Harper & Saylor were bees for Halloween!

I was just reading these old posts about my girls. They've grown up so much. Now I want another one!!! Someone remind me that I do not want another one....

Harper & the battle of Santa vs. Jesus

2009-12-02T10:17:00.003-06:00

It's been a while, I know, but I had to quick get on here and post this little story from bed time last night.

I was tucking Harper into bed and sang her three songs, as usual (Jesus Loves the Little Children, Harper Had A Little Lamb, and ABC's). Afterwards, I always ask her what she would like to pray for (she always says "Adam"). This time, the response was quite different! Here's how it went:

Me: Harper, what do you want to pray for tonight?

Harper: I want to pray to Santa for a princess piano, a princess suitcase, a...

Me (interrupting): No, I meant to Jesus, Harper. We don't pray to Santa, we pray to Jesus. Now, what would you like to pray to Jesus about tonight?

Harper: But I don't want to pray to Jesus! I want to pray to Santa!!!!

Me: Harper, we don't pray to anyone else but Jesus. Do you want to talk about Santa? You can go sit on his lap and tell him what you want for Christmas! You just mailed him a letter yesterday, too! You can do all of those things with Santa except pray to him. We pray to Jesus.

Harper: But I don't like Jesus, I like Santa! (she's about to cry at this point).

Me: I have an idea. Let's pray to Jesus and thank Him for being born so many years ago so that we could celebrate His birthday with Santa.

Harper: Okay

Me: (prayer) Good night sweetie. (hugs & kisses). Harper, you're my best friend.

Harper: My best friend is Aubrey.

Another Single Mom Night

2009-08-24T20:06:00.006-05:00

Today was a long day!

We had a document issue with Ryan's flight & cruise paperwork for our trip to Europe next month. We found out we couldn't fly with the rest of the family to Barcelona. That was really sad! But thankfully, we got most of it worked out and we're only going to have to fly from Nashville to NYC without the whole family. But we are still sad that we have to fly out of Nashville at 7:55 in the morning on Harper's birthday meaning we won't get to tell her happy 3rd birthday. I think we'll just pretend it's another day when we can spend a lot of time with her!

I was working on getting my phone ready for the trip and adding a global package when I noticed we have a $650 phone bill! Ahhh!!! So I spent a long time with Verizon trying to get that cleared up. It seems they don't have record of them receiving my Storm I sent back in June. She said they'll probably find it...I sure hope so. This phone sucks. I'd hate to have to pay more money for something I would pay to give away.

I had a closing that was long distance but things still got frazzled at the last minute. While dealing with that, I went grocery shopping and cooked a yummy cheddar corn chowder with the farm corn & potatoes I got. I'm so full! The girls did pretty good playing together while I cooked for an hour and a half but I had to shake Saylor off of my leg quite a bit. I'll miss that some day so I really try my best to appreciate it.

I think I was on the phone all day. After dinner I got the girls in their pj's and went upstairs to play before bed time. Here are some pictures of us having girl time!

Harper loves to make us wear Mr. Potato Head's glasses. They fit her better than they fit me.

Someone please put me to bed...

My little chicken-headed chickadee.

They were having so much fun posing for pictures then looking at them!

Why do I think Saylor looks like Victoria Beckham in this photo???

Sisters gotta hug.

Oh and I had to throw in a photo of Saylor's first poop on the toilet! :-) You're welcome.

I also want to put down another one of Harper's funny sayings before I forget:

Harper had been asking for "airplane toast" a lot and I finally figured out what she meant! She doesn't like butter or jelly or anything on her toast, so I ask her if she wants butter on her toast or if she wants plain toast....so she must have thought it was airplane toast!

And here's a video to cap it off:

What Harper Says

2009-08-05T11:54:00.000-05:00

I'm going to start posting cute things the girls say on here. They will be quick little updates for my future enjoyment :-)

Harper just woke up from her nap and instead of telling me she had a "sore throat" she said "mommy, there's a throat in my mouth".

:-)

Harper's End of the Year School Program

2009-06-15T13:21:00.002-05:00

Harper's 2-year old class sang a song for the program. I don't think anyone really knows what the song was, none of them sang it but we didn't care! They wore matching shirts that they painted in class. Harper is standing next to her best friend, Anna Claire.

Half way through the song, Harper made us proud and flashed the entire audience!

After the flashing, Harper stuck her hand down the front of her pants. At one point, it was elbow-deep. She left it there until she was done singing.

I hadn't laughed that hard in a very long time! The pictures are blurry b/c I couldn't stay still!

Cuddly Little Bear

2009-06-15T13:17:00.002-05:00

Saylor found herself a sweet little cozy place to rest. I was changing the sheets on my bed, threw my duvet on the floor, and on climbed Say Say. When I finally get to printing & framing my pictures, one of these will definitely be framed! I just want to squish on her and kiss her cheeks when I look at them!

Living Vicariously Through Them

2009-06-15T12:58:00.007-05:00

Okay, here begins my blog catch up! I started a collective political blog but feel very guilty blogging on it if my family blog is not up-to-date. Recording the history of my girls is super important so let me get my blog on!

I never lived in a neighborhood growing up. I never had friends down the street to play with. We didn't have sidewalks. We never saw the ice cream man. Until now!!!

I think I was more excited about the ice cream truck than Harper was. We were in the backyard playing in the sprinkler when I heard it. I got so excited and told Harper we had to go get ice cream from the ice cream man! I could barely keep up with her!

She chose a Dora popsicle (disgusting...banana) and loved every last drip of it.

I'm going to have to keep a change drawer around the house so that we can do this more often :-)

(Saylor missed out on this b/c she was napping)

Las Vegas

2009-03-12T21:12:00.004-05:00

Ryan and I had a great trip to Las Vegas last week! Harper and Saylor went to the cabin with Mimi and Big Daddy and we took off for our first trip away from the girls since Harper was 10 months old.

First of all, let me warn that Ryan hates pictures. He hates taking them and he hates having them taken so we don't have many photos. I just told him that from now on, he is going to have to suck it up b/c we will have no pictures of our lives to enjoy!

Anyways, here is our hotel! We stayed at the Wynn which was absolutely the most beautiful and hopping hotel/casino on the strip. It was absolutely amazing. Ryan and I don't gamble but we spent loads of money eating and we also saw "O", one of the Cirque shows.

My parents were in Las Vegas, too, visiting my mom's parents. Here they are having breakfast with us at our buffet one of the few mornings they stayed on the strip. It was fun to be able to spend time with them there!

A picture of Ryan and I in our room.

Here is the view from our window. I still miss it. It was floor to ceiling glass, automatic drapes...I never wanted to get out of bed.

A picture of me. This is one of only two pictures Ryan would take all weekend. The other one was really ugly.

Matt and Ashlee were in Las Vegas celebrating their anniversary (the same night as my parent's!). We got to try out the slots with them, hang by the pool, and had a great dinner one night.

Ryan posing in front of our windows.

It was good to get back and see the girls but boy was that trip needed! It's good to get some away time with Ryan every so often. Next trip...the Mediterranean!!! Only six more months!

Hanging out in bed

2009-03-12T20:57:00.004-05:00

Harper lets me put a bow in her hair now!!! I just have to have a ponytail on the top of her head for her not to rip it out. It makes no sense but it couldn't be any cuter. This is exactly the only way my mom could do my hair when I was the same age. :-) She doesn't look too happy in this picture b/c she was up all night throwing up with the stomach bug. I must say that it's a real milestone when your kids reach the age that they can wake up, tell you they're going to puke, then wait for you to stick the trash can in front of them!

Here's sweet Saylor enjoying a bottle in bed with Harper and mommy in the morning. (No, the girls do not sleep with us, they just joined us in the morning)

Big and Little sister.

Catching up on Saylor!

2009-03-12T20:44:00.003-05:00

My Sweet, Sweet Yaloo has been through so much since I last blogged!

First of all, she has had chronic ear infections since her first was diagnosed on November 11th. All antibiotics make them go away but by two days after she finishes her antibiotic, her ear infections come back. Poor Saylor has just been cranky and upset, waking up a lot at night, not napping well, etc. for three months. She had six ear infections over that time so she was sent to an ENT who recommended we get tubes put in both of her ears. Before taking that route, I tried removing dairy from her diet completely and also tried chiropractic treatments. Nothing worked so I was ready to try anything!

Since getting her tubes (that 24 hour period is a whole long story that I should blog about but it's too horrific to even revisit), Saylor is back to the happy, laid-back baby I remembered! She sleeps 12 hours at night, takes two great naps every day and really only fusses if she's hungry or tired! She is such a little ray of sunshine. She just loves to smile and giggle and give really big hugs. She even does the little back pat when she hugs you. It's the best feeling ever.

Saylor turned one on February 25th! We had a pj party and ate a big breakfast and had a few of her friends over. We had so much fun and she got the opportunity to show off her new walking skills. She's a professional walker now. She doesn't even need to hold on to anything when she stands up or sits down! It's really the cutest thing ever. She's so darn tiny. (10% height & 10% weight). At this age, Harper was 90% height and 20% weight! She was 2.5 inches taller than Saylor. It's amazing how different they are.

So, my Saylor Grace is one year old, she walks, and she's starting to talk! She says "da da!" every time Ryan walks into the room. Then she reaches for him and gives him a huge hug (and a pat on the back). She loves Ryan a lot more than Harper did at this age and I'm really glad for Ryan. Today, Saylor said "hapa, hapa" when I brought her into Harper's room while she was off at school. She also says "mama" and "bubbas" (bubbles). Oh, and she's been saying "tickle tickle" for a while.

I'm on my lapt top right now so I'll have to post pictures from my desk top a little later!

Feeling the pinch of the economy...

2009-02-06T12:37:00.003-06:00

So, I'm learning to become a "recessionista". I've never been a big fan of coupons b/c they always seem to get me to buy things I don't even need. The only way they can be of any economical significance is if I take the time to plan and search and cut and use the coupons. This is what I have to start doing since Real Estate is slowing down. My new job is saving my family some money!

I wish the government would implement some tax cuts in their stimulus package. A 3-month federal income tax freeze would be AMAZING!!! Cutting capital gains and reducing corporate taxes would also certainly stimulate job production.

I kind of feel like the cyclical economic cycle needs a recession every now and then. It teaches us to be thrifty, it reminds us how important those emergency funds are, and it forces us to become self-reliant. As for the corporations that are seeing losses, it seems to me like a "survival of the fittest" competition. Those companies that were not running efficiently are going to have to re-structure the way they run. Instead of throwing money at these businesses, why don't we let them "deal" on their own?

As for the stimulus package, the Senate Budget chairman notes that it will reduce the unemployment rate by "maybe" 1%. It's obvious to see why when you break down what this trillion dollar package is going towards. Remember the big "infrastructure hype" that is supposed to be the meat of this package??? It's only 5% of it. 3% of it is for the highways & very little of that is "shovel-ready work". Here are some of the items in it that are stimulating some really ridiculous things:

1. $400 million for NASA to compile climate-change research (stimulus for government scientists)
2. $400 million for the Department of Commerce to fund habitat restoration projects at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (stimulus for sea & air creatures)
3. $400 million for the Social Security Aministration to replace 30-year-old computer system for processing retirement and disability claims (stimulus for Dell)
4. $1.1 billion to improve speed and capacity of Amtrak and intercity passenger rail (stimulus for trains)
5. $650 million to provide coupons to help Americans convert from analog to digital television (stimulus for TV)
6. $335 million for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention programs at the CDC (stimulus for sex educators).
7. $750 million for ACORN, which is under federal investigation for voter fraud (stimulus to "payback" the favor)
8. $600 million for new cars for the federal government (stimulus for the government)
9. $50 million for the National Endowment of the Arts (stimulus for Arts)
$150 million for the Smithsonian Institute (stimulus for artifacts)
10. $44 million for repairs to the US Department of Agriculture headquarters in DC (stimulus for the US Dept. of Ag)
11. More than $200 billion will go to bail out state and local governments that have overspent their budgets (stimulus for the irresponsible).
12. $250 million for an after school snack program (stimulus for lunch ladies)
13. $142 BILLION to the teachers unions to expand federal control of educations (that's twice as much as all federal education spsending in 2007).
14. $21 million for new sod on the Jefferson Memorial grounds (stimulus for grass).
15. this legislation will increase by 7 million the number of people who get a check back from the IRS that exceeds what they paid in payroll and income taxes!

This so-called "stimulus" is going to cost the average family of four in America $10,000 a piece. So if you don't think your $10,000 is being well-spent, you better make your voices heard!!!

Our friends came to play!

2009-01-28T20:34:00.002-06:00

Aubrey came over for a little while the other night to play. I love watching the two of them play together. Aubrey always tries to hug Harper and hold her hand. Harper isn't so sure about that but she is sure that Aubrey is her best friend.

Here's Brody. He's 5 weeks younger than Saylor & five pounds heavier!!

We thought Brody and Saylor would get married but I'm beginning to think he has a thing for older girls. I'd be okay with him marrying Harper, too. I just don't want Saylor to get her feelings hurt.

All four of them! I think Aubrey is coughing. She is 3 weeks younger than Harper! (Yes, someone else IS as crazy as I am). She is wearing the Matilda Jane knot dress that Harper got for her.

Aubrey ate pizza with us

Cheese!

Hanging out at Home...as always.

2009-01-28T20:25:00.002-06:00

Here are some pics of the girls just being their goofy selves.

The always loved, stinker face. It's coming out more and more. Notice Harper's "hat".

Harper is wearing Saylor's tights on her head because it's "raining out" and she needs a hat to go to the "cookie core" (grocery store).

Okay, I couldn't help but take this picture when I turned around and saw her. Hilarious.

Saylor's a Big Girl

2009-01-28T20:20:00.002-06:00

Saylor refuses to eat baby food. It's been about a month now and she just skipped right past Stage 3 and went to big girl food. Here are some pictures of her eating like a big girl (with her hands).

AND...she is taking some steps!! She doesn't stand alone but has taken up to 4 steps between furniture or people.

Quick Photo Catch-Up!

2009-01-28T19:20:00.008-06:00

A fun day with Ryan home! We like to dress Lucky up like a bunny and ride him around the house. He's so patient.Saylor does crazy things with her legs when she's tired.

Saylor does this to Harper every night when I'm getting Harper dressed. She screams and attacks her head, I pull her off and set her aside, she repeats over and over. It looks like it hurts but for some reason, Harper loves it and laughs her butt off!

Here's a cute little thing. Today I pulled the attic stairs down and Harper said "WOW!!! That's awesome!!!" It's the little things.

Another one of Saylor's acrobatic tricks. This is how she sleeps. This is how I know she's ready to sleep. If she's on the hardwood when she's ready to sleep, she smacks her head and cries.

This is Saylor's Christmas present but Harper thinks it's hers. She's going through a phase of wanting everything that Saylor has. Today, I heard Saylor crying so I went to see what was happening. I walked in the room and could tell Harper had just ripped a toy out of Saylor's hand. I said "Harper! Why did you take that from your sister???" She said "I'm sharing!"

Daddy pushes Saylor around the house.

Saylor gets on this by herself but her legs aren't long enough to make it go. She can get off of it herself too!

Harper has had a runny nose for a while and I put chapstick or vaseline under her nose when it gets chapped. She decided to try this herself recently and covered her whole face in vaseline. It didn't photograph that well, though.

Here she is with her serious face trying to explain to me what she did.

Sweet baby Mason!!! I don't have enough pictures of him because I never have my camera when I'm with the Lackey's. Everyone else is so much better at taking pictures than I am that I don't even bother when I'm with them. The drawback is that I don't have enough pictures of Mason!

Mimi hugs at the cabin.

Another tid-bit: Harper loves to pray at night & when she goes down for a nap. She always starts off thanking God for Papa and then Maw maw. Then she thanks God for Eli at least two times, usually four.

My dad pushed my girls around Wal-mart (by himself) for about an hour while I was at a closing. When I got back, I found them and Harper was in the seat and Saylor was crawling around the cart on top of his groceries eating Ritz crackers. Saylor had never had them before! They looked like they were having a blast, even dad! Now they both eat Ritz crackers all the time.

I cannot keep Saylor off the stairs. If I leave her for two minutes, there she goes. Today I was in the kitchen cleaning, Harper was napping, and Saylor was playing her toys in the living room. All of a sudden I heard a loud noise & looked up and saw Saylor upstairs in the loft throwing toys over the balcony!

Here's Harper posing in one of many cute Matilda Jane outfits she has. (I'm having a trunk show in March if you want some MJ clothes!!!)

As soon as I bring a pile of laundry out of the washing machine, it becomes a playground. I don't remember why Harper is crying here. Saylor probably did something.

This picture is my all time favorite of Saylor. She's so happy and funny. She is a nut ball. I just love watching her personality develop!

My sweet pea.

TMI Alert

2009-01-28T18:38:00.004-06:00

Okay, Rachel begged me to get this on video and post it on my blog. So here goes!

Yup. You saw it. That is Harper, "pumping her boobs".

Harper & the Cute Things She Says

2009-01-23T15:28:00.002-06:00

Minutes ago...

Harper: Crackers, mommy.

Me: Ok. Do you want peanut butter and crackers?

Harper: Noooooo, Mommy. No peanut butter!

Me: Ok! Just crackers, then. (I laugh a little)

Harper: Shhhhh, mommy. Baby's sleeping. Shhhhh. No laugh. No peanut butter.

Here's another one I need to document before I forget. This was first thing in the morning, Harper's bedroom is upstairs and there is a loft outside of it that looks down onto the kitchen, where I was.

Harper: (peeking through the banisters above) Good morning mommy, I wake up!

Me: Good morning, Harper!!!

Harper: It's a sunny day!

Me: Yes, it is a sunny day!

Harper: (noticing the groceries on the counter that I got after she went to bed last night) Oooooh, mommy!! Go to grocery store!!!

Me: Yes, I did Harper. I went last night!

Harper: Oooh, it looks delicious!!!

Deceptively Delicious???

2009-01-16T14:23:00.003-06:00

Who hasn't heard of Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook "Deceptively Delicious"? Probably not many of you. Now that I look back, I think all the raves I heard about it were just due to a killer PR staff because all that hype was NOT backed up by the cookbook itself! It's been available forever and I thought it would just tell me to sneak some pureed squash into my kid's mac n' cheese (which I've done). I wasn't interested in a book that told me the obvious but when I came across it for $6.99 at TJ Maxx, I opened it up and saw that the recipes looked really yummy and that the whole puree thing looked fun and easy! So, I bought it. I thought it would be a great way for me to keep from wasting the bushels of squash and zucchini I get from the farm share in the summer. Also, Saylor thinks she's a big girl and has recently begun refusing her baby food so I needed to find a way to get her to eat those veggies. Here's how the story went from there...

When I got home, I read over the cookbook, made a list of everything I needed to get started, picked out some of the best looking recipes, and hit the grocery store to buy the loot. I got a food processor (which I had always wanted), a rice steamer, whole wheat mini pitas, sweet potatos, a can of pureed pumpkin, frozen cauliflower, frozen butternut squash, frozen spinach, & frozen carrots. At home, I already had frozen strawberries & summer squash leftover from the summer farm shares.

The making of the purees was surprisingly fun and easy! If I could turn back time, I would have made Saylor's baby food myself. It would have saved tons of money (I buy the Earth's Best organic, which is ridiculously expensive) & again, kept me from wasting my veggies this summer. I made carrot, cauliflower, spinach, strawberry, butternut squash, & sweet potato purees. I love my food processor. Never used the rice steamer....duh, all my veggies were frozen.

The first recipe I wanted to make was the applesauce muffins and then for dinner, I was going to make the yummy pizzas for Ryan & the girls (I was going out with my mom & her friends to see The Wizard of Oz). I used sweetened apple sauce b/c that's all the I had and I also used real butter instead of the fake stuff b/c I'm pretty convinced that food is much better for you in it's natural state than man-made and full of chemicals...regardless of the fat content. I'd rather have lots of home grown fat than low-fat chemicals. Other than that, I followed the recipes. They smelled delicious! The sneaky veggie in these was carrots and I didn't see the harm in that, since I love carrot cake.

Result - rubbery ( I did not over mix). Bland.

Harper took a bite, made a face, said "no like", and gave it back to me.
Saylor ate it up!
Ryan took a bite, said it was good, and never touched it again.
I took a bite, said it was good, and never touched it again.

I put them in the freezer to give to Saylor for breakfast because she really liked them. Harper actually ate half of one last night. I think she was starving.

Before I left for my girl's night, I popped the pizza's in the oven. I spread a tiny (tiny tiny) bit of the spinach puree in the center of whole wheat pitas, topped it with tomato sauce (hid the spinach), sprinkled lots of mozzarella on top, then added some oregano. They looked "deceptive" enough! I thought for sure the fam would love them. Harper loves pizza, so does Ryan. I told Ryan to give them to the girls when they were out, gave them all a kiss, then headed for a delicious dinner at Cabana with my mom and her friends.

Here's the good part. I had homemade potato chips with blue cheese and a blue cheese cream sauce for dipping. A delicious French martini. The best fried chicken breast on the face of the earth smothered in a sausage gravy. The fried chicken came with homemade whipped potatoes and buttered peas (of which I ate two...then proceeded to fling about fifty on my lap each time I cut my chicken).

After that delicious dinner, I got the trio of three fried pies (apple, peach, & chocolate) accompanied with vanilla bean ice cream, whipped cream, and a strawberry. Yum.

The girls headed over to TPAC...the fried pies were not delicious enough for me so I got a bottled water and a Goo Goo Brownie to bring into the show with me. (That wasn't good enough either, but alas...I ate it. I'm a desert snob.)

While we were sitting waiting for the show to start, I sent Ryan a text message to see how everything was going at home. It was bed time. Ryan sent me this text:

"Fun night! Girls are asleep. Dinner sucked..."

I could not stop laughing! I showed my mom, she showed her friends...we were hysterical. We were all picturing Ryan and the girls spitting out the nasty, whole wheat, spinach pizza, while I ate my multi-course, veggie-free dinner with two desserts. Poor family! I was so proud and had such high hopes for my future in vegetable purees!!! I don't think I laughed that hard in months. I asked Ryan if he gave them anything else for dinner and he said "crackers".

So, I have a new food processor, which I'm happy about, but I think I'll leave the veggie purees to Jessica Seinfeld's kids. I don't believe for a second, though, that they really eat that crap.

xoxo

-Trying really hard to be Martha Stewart

First Snow

2009-01-16T13:57:00.002-06:00

These pics are a little late but I'm going to do the best I can at playing catch up over the next few days while working on my New Year's mail out for work at the same time!

As you can tell from these pics and many more to come, Saylor knows how to work a camera. She just lights up when she sees one. This is one area where she differs from Harper, who has never been one to strike a pose.

Both girls had a great time in the snow. The whole family went for a little walk in the wonderland.

More to come!!!

Video Time

2009-01-05T13:57:00.004-06:00

Here, Harper is showing off her "spinning". The awesome bow at the end is new! I've never seen that one before!

My children do not sit still. This is how Saylor sat in the shopping car with me at Target the whole time. I'm sure people thought she was going to jump out, I thought so myself a few times.

Here is Harper on Christmas morning playing with her new kitchen set!

I miss you my blog

2009-01-02T12:40:00.002-06:00

I feel so bad for neglecting this blog! I'm going to look back one day and wonder "what happened in November & December of 2008???" I lost my battery charger for my camera, so I have no photos or anything. I ordered one yesterday and it should be here soon. When it is, I will start to blog more. I know no one really wants to read the blog, they just like the pictures (unless, of course, the blog is about poop. That's a popular topic.).

To catch up:

Saylor looks like a big girl more than a baby now. Ryan and I both noticed it on the same day. She turned 10 months old on Christmas and is growing faster than we can believe. The 2nd one is growing faster than the 1st. Maybe it's because I'm so busy with them both that I don't have time to stop and savor some of those special baby moments. I'm trying my best to soak it all in before it's gone, but I worry I'm not doing it enough.

She loves to walk behind her push toys that she got for Christmas & she loves to crawl up the stairs. I always have to have an eye on her! She's either crawling up stairs or putting something bad in her mouth that she found underneath something. I do the finger swipe at least once a day and I swear I keep everything picked up! I think Lucky tracks little pieces of paper and stuff around the house on his feet. Gross.

Saylor loves to say ba ba, ga ga, and dada. She also loves to say "baby". It's her first and only real word right now!

As for Harper, she's a nut. She is so funny and loves cooking in her new kitchen she got for Christmas. I took a little video of it on my phone and I will upload it here when I get a chance. She's got the kitchen and all the goodies to go along with it so it keeps her really busy.

Her new name for Saylor is "Baby Nicole Lackey Grace No Ma'am", seriously. She says it all the time. She's completely potty trained, except for night time. She loves to sing and dance but tells me "no" when I try to sing and dance. I guess she likes to be the center of attention...Doesn't surprise me! She loves to pray and thank Jesus for her family every night. Some nights she'll forget a few family members and other nights she'll thank Jesus for the same ones over and over (Eli got mentioned 4 times in last night's prayer).

Ryan and I are great and happy to start a new year! We were both asleep by 11:00 on New Year's Eve, but were happily well rested on New Year's Day. I'm going to start training tonight for the 1/2 marathon & I want to beat my best time! Quite a challenge since my best time was five years ago, before I had kids. Ryan is going to try to read all the books he was supposed to read in high school that he didn't read. He just finished Catcher in the Rye last night. So we both have goals to work on right away.

Okay, off to clean. I can't wait to get my camera battery charger back!!!

Grandma Lackey's poop story

2008-11-19T19:55:00.003-06:00

Here's Grandma Lackey's response to my blog...

That was so awful! I don't know whether I could have cleaned all that up or not. I guess you didn't have any choice. I don't remember any of my kids doing that, but I remember walking into my beautiful new bathroom once when Adam and Landon were taking a bath together and they had smeared poop all over the new bathtub. I think I spanked them both on their bare bottoms and made them clean it up. I don't know whether they remember it or not. But they had done it deliberately and it sounds like Harper was just trying to clean up her mess, so she didn't need a spanking. I don't remember them ever doing it again. Love, Grandma

It's official. Adam is the official poop incident title holder for now.

What the poop?!?!!?

2008-11-13T20:23:00.005-06:00

I've heard nightmare stories about moms & dads and poop. Apparently, when I was potty training, I would poop in my training pants and it would plop out down the hallway as I walked. I think it was my sister, who woke up from her nap and decided to smear the poop in her pants all over the wall. And most famously, my brother-in-law Adam (leave it to him) wrapped up a gift and gave it to his sweet little brother Eric. Poor little Eric, he was probably so excited to get a present from his brother. He soon found out that it was just a box of his big brother's poop.

I was kind of expecting the poop initiation, but thought maybe I'd get off the hook since Harper potty trained so easily. She's never been into her poop. I mean, she still gets very excited when she gets to "look" at her poop in the potty and then flush it away but I didn't think she'd ever touch it.

I was wrong.

I was in the dining room, feeding Saylor some carrots. Harper was playing in the living room. I heard her yell "poo poo potty, momma!" I asked her if she wanted help, she said "no, self". That's not a big deal, she goes to the bathroom by herself all the time. (Last month in Harper's school, the theme was doing things by their selves, so Harper's all gung ho about doing everything her "self"). We put stools in front of all the toilets in our house, so she just climbs up and goes. I always come when she's done to help her wipe and get her pants back up.

So, I'm feeding Saylor, Harper goes to the potty her self, then I just forget. She was quiet, so I wasn't even thinking. I was busy feeding Saylor's cute little face (who just had a check up and is 50% in height & 15% in weight, by the way. She burns a lot of calories crawling all over the place).

Then I hear Harper yelling something to me in the bathroom. I wasn't listening to her, I just told her to come to me and talk to me (bad bad idea). So, she quietly walks up next to the table and looks at me with the guiltiest look ever. Here's what I saw:

Yes,that's poop on her face. I didn't realize it was poop until I followed her into the bathroom. That's when I saw toilet paper every where. Then I saw the poop. There was a plop on the toilet seat, poop smeared all over her step stool, & rubbed into the hardwoods (I'm assuming this was from when she was trying to clean it up).

I said "Harper, stay here. Do not move." She obeyed me. I went to get screaming Saylor out of her high chair and put her in the excersaucer. I shut the door on the bathroom to keep Lucky out because I'm sure he would have loved to eat it all up. I got some butt wipes to start cleaning Harper's face. That's when I noticed the poop smeared on the walls. Yup, there was poop on her hands too...under her finger nails, embedded in the little cracks in her wrist, between her fingers, all over her sleeves. So I wiped the walls & cleaned her hands.

I took her clothes off to get her to the bath tub when, to my dismay, I saw a huge smooshed turd rubbed all down the back of her leg. (How did that get there?!?!?!) Gag. I think I threw up in my mouth. It was so stinky. That's when I realized her feet were covered in poop, too. It was between her toes and under her toe nails. Wait a minute...didn't she walk all the way to the dining room and back???? Blaaaaghghh!! Sure enough, a poopy foot trail through my house.

I finally got Harper into a bubble bath in my bath tub, cleaned up the poop, & mopped the floors. Saylor cried the whole time. Later, Harper said "no, nice momma. poo poo potty floor".

I couldn't get mad at her. There was poop in the toilet too. I think she maybe have thought she was done and pulled her pants up. Or pooped her pants, then sat on the toilet. Who knows. I'm just happy my house finally doesn't smell like poop!

Does this happen once per family or with each child? I don't think I can do that again. Why does Ryan always miss out on the fun?

Who can join my cause?

2008-11-11T13:20:00.004-06:00

Below is an E-mail I sent to someone after receiving a response from them regarding my request for everyone to sign the Freedom Of Choice Act petition. I'm not sending it just to share an E-mail, I'm sending it b/c it took a long time to type it up and I don't want to type it again but I want to see if anyone thinks my idea is do-able. Please let me know if any of you have any ideas to help me create a mentor program for unplanned pregnant mothers & or creating a baby/maternity clothes & supply closet. Or if you want to just help, let me know so we can brainstorm. God gave me these ideas today so it's all new to me. There may already be an existing program out there, but I've never heard of it, so I want to help them advertise! Anyways, let me know how you can help if you want!

xoxo
Brooke

Thank you so much for understanding and being open to sharing and respecting each other's thoughts. I hesitated for a moment before sending this E-mail to some people, not knowing whether or not they would get offended and angry with me. I chose to go ahead and send it and hope that those who disagreed would understand that I am just passionate about the same issues they are, just on the other side, and respect that. Not only did you respect that, but what you wrote caused me to dig deeper into figuring out what exactly did I believe and what on earth is there to do about it. I have been praying over the past few weeks for God to open a door for me or open my eyes to an issue that I am passionate about that I can get involved in and maybe make a tiny change. I am certain, now, that abortion is the issue I was looking for. I lose sleep at night over this issue and feel so helpless. Now I know that I want stop feeling helpless and start helping.

I didn't get the E-mail you talked about, but if it included videos of abortion, I wouldn't have watched them. I don't need to see the images to know what's going on. I've accidentally stumbled upon some before and the impression they made upon me are unforgettable. I am pretty certain that adding alarming, pounding music to images of abortions is unnecessary as, even you said yourself, the images are going to be graphic enough!

I agree with you that no one is probably in favor of abortion. Not even those who choose to have them. I have friends who have had abortions and none of them "wanted" them. Most importantly though, they all regret them. It might be extremely naive of me to even think it's possible, but when everyone is pretty darn sure that no one wants an abortion, then why can't we at least try to help & educate these mothers on the option of adoption? Why can't we educate people on the high need for foster homes? I believe that the private sector has the money, the heart, and the power of God to move mountains. I think it's possible to start a new trend away from abortion.

We all agree that nobody wants an abortion but some might argue that carrying to full term is too expensive and difficult, socially, for adoption to even be an option. (As 93% of abortions happen for social reasons, not rape or medical reasons). Where, then, do we draw the line on the "get out of jail free" mentality? When is anyone going to be held accountable for their actions? Because I believe in the scripture I've quoted below, I don't believe that a baby is "punishment". It may have been created out of a negative & painful circumstance but I don't see how that gives anyone the right to end the life because of it. In fact, that baby is probably the one good thing that can come from some of these negative situations. Can we not hold people accountable for their actions or support them through a painful situation where in the end, they see the miracle of life and the truth that love and blessings can come from darkness? Yes, pregnancy is hard & it's expensive. It's also not convenient, especially when you're in the middle of high school, or even middle school. But this is where accountability comes in. If we can support these girls & women through pregnancy, whether it's financially, socially, and/or psychologically, maybe we can increase the adoption rate and decrease the abortion rate. Call me naive, but I think it's possible.

You mentioned Obama stating that abortion should be "rare, safe, and legal". I don't know if he did or did not say this, I know Clinton did. That was the language used in the Democratic Party's platform when Clinton was president. This year, however, the 2008 Democratic Party's platform removed the word "rare" and now only states that they want abortion to be "safe and legal". Signing the Freedom of Choice Act would definitely move the democratic party forward in successfully removing the "rare" part of that phrase.

Unplanned pregnancies come from so many situations. But this is where I think we have a social responsibility. Whether the pregnancy happens to an upper-class woman or a poverty-stricken girl, abortion has the same result. We need to reach out to these women & girls and help them through their pregnancy and through the care of the child, if they choose not to adopt. Your E-mail stirred me to start a mentoring program here in my county. Why couldn't mothers, like myself, volunteer their time and knowledge one-on-one to a pregnant girl out there who needs help emotionally? I would love to mentor these girls and I know I could find a lot of other women who would do the same. We could start a clothes closet with baby clothes & supplies for those who choose to keep their babies and don't have the financial means. I have a garage full of baby items that I am donating to a local girl I found on Craigslist who is pregnant with an unplanned baby. She's young and poor, but her and her & her fiance have decided to keep the baby. We need to reach out and support these young mothers. I know so many other people have attics full of baby clothes and supplies that I know they would love to donate if it means preventing just one abortion.

If the cost of health care is a reason a girl gets an abortion, they need to be educated that so many people out there would be more than happy to pay the health care expenses for the chance to adopt a newborn baby.

I don't think any parent "easily" gives responsibility of raising their kids to the state. At least not the mothers. Those mothers who chose to have those kids, after all.

They heard their hearts beating at their 8 week ultrasound.

They felt their baby kicking at 16 weeks.

They saw their baby boy or girl at the 20 week ultrasound and sometimes got to see them sucking their thumbs that early inside them!

They wanted those babies. But having a baby at home is not easy. It's a shock to even the most prepared moms out there. That is why I would love to start a mentoring program for those who choose to keep their babies. I don't know what I would have done without my family and friends who let me cry to them and explained to me that it's normal to want to throw your baby out a window when it won't stop crying! I can't imagine going through all of that without support. We need to provide that support to those who don't have it. If, they choose to put their baby up for adoption, we need to help them with it. Somebody will love these children. The amount of children in foster homes is extremely sad and education and awareness campaigns need to go out to get people to foster these children. I truly believe it's about education and awareness, to both the pregnant mother and the people who have the means to help them. I used to volunteer at the Franklin Boys and Girl's club, tutoring the middle and high schoolers. These kids need love and support. I have wanted to volunteer for CASA and hope that I can once I'm done nursing Saylor & am able to leave her for more than 3 hour periods at a time. I think it's an awesome thing, giving a voice to the abused children. People need to do more volunteering, including myself. (hmmm...maybe schools should start requiring it??) But no one told me the Boy's & Girl's Club needed tutors & I stumbled upon hearing about CASA. The need is not being vocalized loud enough.

We will never go back to the time when women had unsafe, back room abortions because we are now, luckily, living in a time where instead of having to hide a pregnancy, you can get support through churches, the crisis pregnancy centers, and schools. We no longer have to send the young pregnant girls away so that they aren't made fun of in school. We will probably never stop people from unwanted pregnancies, but we can stop the abortions that terminate a life that God purposely created. A life that was fearfully and wonderfully made.

All of this comes from love, not judgment. It comes from love for the mothers and love for their unborn babies.

Psalm 139:13-16
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Take a Stand

2008-11-10T20:03:00.001-06:00

please click the link below about one of the first issues President elect Obama wants to CHANGE as President of the United States

http://www.fightfoca.com/

I believe with all my heart that God, who is the Creator of life, recognizes life in the womb. And that ultimately life (though so tiny)begins right at conception.

Psalm 139:13-16
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Join with me and many others and sign the above petition.

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-08T09:21:00.003-06:00

Trick or treat, Aubrey!!! Harper and Aubrey went trick or treating together this year. I didn't think Harper would be old enough to get into it, but boy did she ever. She would run from house to house and quickly figured out that the homes with the front porch lights on were ones she wanted to go to, and fast!

Aubrey and Harper held hands the majority of the time. Everybody loved seeing them when they opened their doors! Harper was a flower and Aubrey was a witch!

Here's Harper leading daddy and Saylor to Aubrey's house. Harper was very independent in her trick or treating. She would go up to the door without me and knock...and knock...and knock. In fact, she wouldn't stop knocking until someone came to the door! She was very good and saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" after getting her candy.

Next year Saylor will get to trick or treat too! I'm thinking that this year was the shortest trick or treating session we'll have for years to come. They'll only get better from here on out!

p.s. Harper is completely potty trained, except for night time! She wears her big girl panties to school and has never had an accident! Big girl!!!!

A Collection of interesting, troubling, outrageous remarks by Sen. Barack Obama

2008-11-03T21:04:00.002-06:00

These remarks are both from his campaign speeches and from his books...

"You got into these small towns in PA and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." -Barack Obama

"You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a (flag) pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest." -Barack Obama

"To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night, in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism, and patriarchy. When we ground out our cigarettes in the hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the walls began to shake, we were resisting bourgeois society's stifling conventions. We weren't indifferent or careless or insecure. We were alienated. But this strategy alone couldn't provide the distance I wanted, from Joyce or my past. After all, there were thousands of so-called campus radicals, most of them white and tenured and happily tolerant. No, it remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names." -Barack Obama

"That's just how white folks will do you. It wasn't merely the cruelty involved; I was learning that black people could be mean and then some. It was a particular brand of arrogance, an obtuseness in otherwise sane people that brought forth our bitter laughter. It was as if whites didn't know that they were being cruel int he first place. Or at least thought you deserving of their scorn." -Barack Obama

"It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most resident of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white folks' greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere...That's the world! On which hope sits!" -Barack Obama

"I had learned not to care. I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze, maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though." -Barack Obama

"I inhaled frequently. That was the point." -Barack Obama

"Obama supports touch, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions." -Obama's website

"I've got two daughters, 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby." -Barack Obama

"Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade." -Barack Obama, responding to a question about abortion and when a baby gets human rights.

"Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the US. I've now been in 57 states? I think one left to go." -Barack Obama

"Why can't I just eat my waffle?" -Barack Obama, when asked a foreign policy question by a reporter at a diner in Iowa

"In Indonesia, I had spent two years at a Muslim school, two years at a Catholic school. In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell my mother that I made faces during Koranic studies." -Barack Obama

"I can no more disown (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereo-types that made me cringe." -Barack Obama

"The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person." -Barack Obama

Please watch

2008-11-03T12:07:00.002-06:00

Please Donate

2008-10-29T14:09:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite, bestest, most dearest friends, Melissa (Betts) Alexander is running the St. Jude 5k on December 6th in Memphis with her husband. (I had to post a picture of us for when I print my blog for memory's sake) One of her co-worker's has a son who is currently in remission from Ewing's Sarcoma, a type of bone cancer. He spent his 6th grade year in and out of St. Jude. Her group is trying to raise $50,000 for the hospital and Melissa and her husband have pledged to raise $4,000 themselves. So far, they have raised $1,075 to the cause. Can you help them? Any amount helps tremendously. I pray that none of my girls nor any other children I know ever have to be patients at St. Jude, but if they do we can be thankful knowing that their research and free treatment to children is saving thousands of lives.

Please click the link below to donate.

http://www.stjudeheroes.org/users/alexanders

More pictures and...Harper Is Talking Up A Storm

2008-10-27T13:34:00.004-05:00

Here, Saylor is showing off her flexibility...she loves to be held while folded completely in half. She gets that from Ryan.

Here, Saylor is telling me how much she loves to eat crayons.

This is Harper's new Matilda Jane knot dress. We are obsessed with these clothes. They might be the cutest clothes on the planet. Now if only I can get Harper to smile for the camera....

Cutie Patootie little Saylor Grace.

Saylor has EIGHT teeth!!!! Seven months old and she cut her 8th tooth. Maybe she gets that from Ryan too.

Here's an update on Harper's verbal skills:

Okay, so Ryan and I have to officially be careful about what we say around Harper. She just keeps saying things that I had no idea she even knew! One day she was upstairs playing her little piano singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and yesterday, I was singing the ABC's and she just started singing along. She had never shown an interest in even listening to me sing songs in the past, let alone sing along with me.

Harper has always been quiet. She's been an observer and a listener. So hearing her vocalize things is just cracking me up! Here are some of the new ones:

I sneezed the other day and she said "bless you".

I kind of scolded her for yelling at Saylor and she looked at her and said "sorry Yaylor".

I heard her in the bathroom this morning with her baby doll and she was telling the baby doll to "obey momma"!

Here's the best, though...Yesterday, she wanted to lie down on the step that Lucky was lying on so she said "Mooooove Lucky!!! Shoo shoo, Lucky" Then when he moved out of her way, she laid down, looked straight above her head, and said "hate lucky". Oh no!!!! We had to talk about how much we love lucky and give him hugs. Yes, I do say I hate Lucky, but only when he's crapping all over the house or knocking over the trash, or stepping on Saylor's head. I guess I can't ever say it anymore.

Do you work hard for your money?

2008-10-27T09:33:00.004-05:00

I'm in complete and utter amazement that Obama is doing so well in the polls right now. Here is an audio sample from 2001 from a radio station where Obama is discussing the best ways to go about changing the economic system to better implement the redistribution of wealth in America. Why do I seem to be the only one who is afraid of this???? Why is this not on the news??? Journalism went down the drain years ago.

Our Beach Pictures...FINALLY!!!

2008-10-14T13:27:00.005-05:00

After thinking we weren't going to ever see these pictures, they were finally posted on-line today! We had some pictures taken during our trip to Destin three weeks ago. Go check them out! If you are family and want to purchase any, I have been told that all orders placed on prints will be 50% off due to the delay.

Go to www.jdmabry.com and go to the clients page.

Password: blackey

Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

Brooke

I love my husband!

2008-10-08T22:08:00.003-05:00

I was looking at my past blogs and got all filled up with love for Ryan, so much so that I thought I should post a blog about it. I know it's so cliche to say, but I seriously love him more and more every day. He works so hard to provide for us, he helps me with the girls when he's home, and he's super cute to look at. Seeing him go from my high school crush, to my boyfriend, to my fiance, my husband, then to the father of my precious girls makes getting older almost bearable!

We've been together for 12 years now & I couldn't imagine my life without him. I love, love, love him.

Thank you, God, for blessing me with Ryan. You knew what you were doing when You chose him for me.

Our Vacation to Destin

2008-10-08T15:40:00.005-05:00

I don't have a lot of great pictures, my camera battery died. So Jim & Phyllis have most of the good ones, but here are some shots of our trip to Florida. We stayed with Ryan's parents and were gone for 8 days. It was fabulous!!

Ryan needed a beer as soon as we got to the house. Eight hours is a long drive with a 6 month old and a two year old. Luckily, both girls were amazing on the way down. I couldn't have dreamt for them to be any better!

Harper was afraid to play in the water, but had a blast digging away in the sand. She loved playing in the water when I held her, though. She probably could have played out there all day, and so could I, but unfortunately, Saylor loved eating the sand so we couldn't stay long.

Here is Saylor's beach tent! It was a great investment...for future trips to the beach. We didn't get a lot of use out of it this time, but I have a feeling it will be in our family for a super long time.

Checking out the beach after our arrival. I also needed a glass of wine ASAP.

Saylor's second time to the beach, but first time as an alert human being.

We brought some of Harper's birthday gifts with us. This is her guitar from Unle & Ra Ra. She still loves playing it and dancing. She's a rocker.

Saylor's favorite way to self soothe: suck two fingers and hold a foot on her face.

Ryan gets really grumpy when Saylor pukes on him.

Mimi & Big Daddy took the girls to the pool!

p.s. Harper started calling me "mom" today. I thought that happened when they turned 13 or something!!!! What?!?!? I'm going to be reinforcing "mommy" very strongly over the next few days until she picks it back up.

Tracy Chapman

2008-10-08T15:34:00.002-05:00

Have I ever told you how much I love love love looooooove her song, "Change"? It's one of my profile songs. I just love it.

Little Yaloo

2008-10-08T15:17:00.002-05:00

Here are pictures of my sweet "Yaloo". Her nickname resulted from Harper's first attempt at saying "Saylor". I thought it was cute, so it stuck with me. My mom still calls me Dooker, compared to that, Yaloo isn't that bad. Anyways, here she is, hamming it up for the camera in Florida.

She makes this "stinky nose" face a lot now! Her personality is really developing. She likes to disagree with me (hmmm...I wonder where she got that) by giving me the "stinky nose" face and shaking her head no.

Here Saylor is climbing up my legs. She's much more of a handful than Harper was, which I didn't think was possible. Harper was a quick crawler at 6 months. Saylor finally has that matched at 7 months, but she prefers to climb. She especially loves the challenge of trying to climb things that move, like Lucky, her walker, and Harper. Harper absolutely hates for Saylor to touch her. So if Saylor is lucky enough to grab a hold of Harper, Harper screams and runs off...leaving poor Saylor with a bonked head and hurt feelings.

Saylor's smile is 99% contagious (the remaining 1% is left for five-something in the morning...nothing she can do then will make me smile). She's a stinker, though. She still refuses to take a bottle and still wakes up at 4:00 in the morning. Harper was sleeping through the night by 3 months old. I just don't want to let Saylor cry out that 4:00 feeding for fear it will wake Harper up. So I'm just going to put up with it. She falls right back to sleep when I'm done feeding her so it's not that big of a deal. Pretty soon I'll miss having those quiet, early morning moments with just her and me.

I love my Yaloo.

Harper Turned Two!!!

2008-10-08T08:51:00.005-05:00

Harper does smile, I promise. She's just very serious when there's a lot going on. She likes to observe and take it all in. Anyways, we had a wonderful birthday party for Harper. It was at the park, very low key. We invited some of her closest friends and pretty much all of her closest friends have a new baby sister or brother so there were a lot of babies and two year olds at her party!

It took me two days to make all of those cup cakes and precious Harper was so patient. Every 30 minute she would say "me? cake?" and I would tell her she had to wait until her birthday party. So when she snuck a cup cake as soon as I set them out at her party, I had to let her eat it.

Harper got all kinds of great presents!!! Here's a picture of her holding the soft piggie from Miles and Alex driving her new Mercedes from Mimi and Big Daddy. She has no idea how lucky she is!

Harper is still doing really great at potty training! She's best when she runs around the house naked. She just goes on her potty when she needs to go. When she has her underwear on, she usually goes in them. Still working on that one.

She is also talking a lot now. Her favorite things to say are "Aw man!", "No, Lucky!", and "more oatmeal please". She loves playing with her best friend, Aubrey too. She might not interact so well with the kids at school, but I'm not concerned about her social skills knowing how much she loves playing with Aubrey!

(No, I haven't forgotten about Saylor...she's coming up in her very own post)

Harper's 2nd Birthday at School

2008-10-07T19:27:00.002-05:00

I never posted these pictures because Harper isn't super cute in them like she usually is. But today when I picked her up from school, her teachers told me they saw Harper smile today. What? Smile? Have you never seen her smile before?? "Not until today", they said. I think that is so super funny. My mom said I never smiled (she says I still don't smile very much, which is true. Smiling is for special things). She said I was a very serious baby & didn't really smile until I was around five years old. So, Harper may look just like Ryan, but she's got my serious personality!!! Here are the pictures her teachers took of her birthday party in school last month. Now that I know she never smiles, I understand why she looks so somber.

If you're wondering what it is she finally smiled at today, they said she just lit up when she was "mowing the grass" at play time. She must have been thinking about her daddy. :-) (yes, that was a smile from me).

p.s. Adam, I haven't posted until now b/c I couldn't get the darn blogger to upload pics and I know that's all anyone cares about. Who reads a blog with just words?

Where oh where does the time go?

2008-10-06T11:38:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I haven't blogged in ages, I know. I'm going to try to catch up today. I'm not going to plant the flowers that have been on my sidewalk for two weeks, I'm not going to clean the garage that is so disgusting I am embarrassed to open my garage door, I'm not going to cook dinner tonight. Everything is going to be set aside and ignored so that I can catch up on my blogging! I mean, this is for memory preservation, I've got to write it all down before I forget! So, coming soon I will blog about Eli's first baseball game of the season, Harper's 2nd birthday party, & our recent trip to Destin!

Matilda Jane Trunk Show

2008-09-11T20:20:00.005-05:00

Oh my, this clothing line for (6 months to adults)instantly became an obsession for me. I was invited to a trunk show this morning and now I'm in love! Finally, a clothing line that combines Oilily with Anthropologie for both my girls and me! Even better, it's cheaper and they come to you! No more traveling to Chicago! (Well, more traveling to Chicago, just maybe not to shop at Oilily).

These pieces are made in the good old U.S.A. It's a very small company. Let's all support free-enterprise and small business and come out and have a good time!

The trunk show will probably be at my house in Spring Hill on Tuesday, October 14th from 6:30-8:00. I'll have some wine (shopping & wine!), some delicious snacks (there must be food), but best of all...super cute clothes for all of you girlie girls with little girls.

Please let me know if you are interested in coming and I will get a proper invitation sent out to you. If you can't make that night or live too far away (out of state, maybe?), let me know and I'll help you get a catalog so you can place an order through me.

Seriously, the clothes are high quality, soft, cuddly, fun, funky, & fresh...you won't find anything you don't like.

Again, let me know if you're interested or if you know someone else who might be and I'll get you more info. I want to be sure every one knows about this line.

Girls Night!!!

xoxo
Brooke

E-Mail me Brooke@BrookeLackey.com
Call me 615-302-0528

p.s. The new line comes out only a few weeks before the show & the pieces quickly sell out. Come with Christmas shopping in mind!

Potty Trained In A Day?

2008-09-10T14:19:00.002-05:00

This is a picture of Harper in her big girl panties...no, she's not pooping in this picture :-)

My sister always told me to get Once Upon A Potty when it was time to potty train Harper. Well, I couldn't ever find it so I got a random potty and bought some potty sign language kit w/ a DVD, book, stickers, and choo choo whistle. Harper would watch the "choo choo" movie over and over but would hate sitting on her "choo choo" (the potty train). It always turned into a struggle between me and her trying to get her potty trained, so I quit trying. I reluctantly listened to the people who said "wait until they are ready" because I believed they are waaaay ready for potty training much sooner than kids are trained these days. There's a lot of money to be made in the diaper industry, why rush them out of the diaper phase??

So, my friend Erin said her daughter, Aubrey was in big girl undies and going potty on her potty. I asked her what she did and she said "Once Upon A Potty", get it ASAP!!! So I went online and ordered it as soon as I got off the phone with her.

It came in the mail last night. I was really unimpressed when I opened it. It was a potty with a tiny book. Now the book is hilarious. It has lots of pictures of poop. Poop in diapers. Poop on the floor. But best of all, poop in the potty! Harper LOVED it. She loves poop.

Harper would never sit on the potty before, not even to read a book. But there's something about this potty and this book b/c she sat on it all night long. We didn't even bother trying to take her diaper off. She just kept sitting on the potty and we would read the book.

This morning when she woke up I took her diaper off and sat her on the potty. Ryan and I both sat with her while I read her the potty book. Harper made a funny face, then said "yay!!". She got up and looked and there was her potty!!! We all cheered, flushed the pee down the toilet, said "bye bye potty!", washed our hands, and then she got a potty treat (two chocolate covered raisins).

I brought her downstairs to my closet where I had a brand new pack of girly panties for this occassion. She was so excited. She picked out some purple ones to wear and showed them to daddy.

Then we went up in the bonus room. I brought the potty up with me just in case. I was on the computer and she was coloring at her table when I saw her get up out of the corner of my eye and sit on her potty. I walked up to her and asked her what I was doing and she hopped up saying "yay!!!". Sure enough, another pee in the potty! The only problem was that this time she had her panties on, so she peed right through them. So from that point on, she's been running around with a naked heiney.

Later I went downstairs to feed Saylor. Harper was upstairs watching a show and all of a sudden I heard "Poopies Mommy, Yay!!!!". I went up there and sure enough, there was poop in her potty!!! So we went and dumped it in the toilet, flushed, said "bye bye poopies", and washed her hands. Then she said "more poopies" so she sat back on her potty and farted. Then she said "no more". (Harper, you are going to love reading this when you're older).

I also went upstairs and converted her bed back to the toddler bed. I figured she should have access to her potty if she wants it. So at this point, Harper has pee'd four times today and went poopy twice in her potty!

Yaaay!!!! Poopies!!!!!

Harper's First Day Of Preschool!!!

2008-09-10T13:59:00.002-05:00

Harper was supposed to start school last week, but was sick all week so her first day was yesterday. As you may know from previous posts, I had a lot of reservations about sending her so young. I mean, she only turns two next week!

She was so excited to go to "school" even though she had no idea what it meant. The whole time there she kind of whined and said she wanted to eat so I told her when she got to school she could have a snack. As soon as we got there, she started running towards the school saying "EAT! EAT! EAT!". That's my girl :-)

She got really clingy when we were waiting for her room to open. She wanted to leave once we got into the room and I was just so afraid she was going to cry. I asked her teacher what I was supposed to do...Do I try to sneak away without her seeing me? Do I hug her and tell her I'm going? She said to give her a hug and tell her goodbye. So I did. I really fought back tears only because I knew Harper was about to cry too. I wanted to be strong for her. (I'm thinking this is going to be the first of many times that I'm going to have to hold in my tears and be strong for my baby.) Miss Michelle quickly gave Harper a paint brush and showed her how she can "paint" with water on cardboard. Harper started "painting" and I left. Waaaahhhh!!!! I wanted to hug her all day long. I had forgotten to drop something off so I went back in about five minutes later and Harper was still painting her cardboard. She didn't even see me. Some other kids were crying.

Ryan had the day off so me, him, and Saylor went to Home Depot and bought flowers for our yard. We went home, I cleaned, went to the grocery store, he mowed the lawn. It was a nice day at home. I got to dance with Saylor to Timbaland just like I did with Harper when it was just the two of us. We had good quality bonding time.

I went along to pick Harper up from school. The room was pitch black and she was fast asleep on her little nap mat. Precious baby. I went and whispered to her that I was there...she didn't wake up. It was really hard for me to wake her up! The teacher said she slept longer than any of the other kids (a proud mommy moment). Harper was a little hazy leaving school since I woke her up in the middle of dead sleep. But as we were walking out I asked her if she wanted to go to school again. She said "yes" and started crying when I would let her go back right away.

So, after all the anxiety over whether or not I should send Harper to preschool at two years old, I am certain I made the right decision. She can't wait to go back and I'm looking forward to some more quality time with my Saylor Grace.

My Really Cute Girls

2008-09-10T13:47:00.002-05:00

I might be a little biased but they are both so freaking adorable I can't even stand it.

Saylor is standing, I'm doing laundry, and Harper is playing house

2008-09-10T13:32:00.006-05:00

This is what I find when Saylor wakes up. Whether it's the middle of the night or after a nap, she just yanks herself right up in her bed. Is this normal for a 6 month old??? She'll even do cool little tricks and show off, like letting go with one hand and turning around to smile at me while she's standing. My little show off.

Good old fashioned fun! I built Harper a house out of a cardboard box. This was hours of entertainment!!!

I got a new washer and dryer! It's one of those fancy ones with steam...oooh...ahhhh. I absolutely enjoy doing laundry now. Everything but the folding part, that is.

Saylor gets a little face time

2008-08-31T09:47:00.003-05:00

Sweet baby Saylor. Her sister upstages her a lot. I did get a chance to snap this video the other day with my cell phone. She was trying to climb up the ottoman (yes, she pulls herself to her feet already at six months old). She didn't quite make it because I interrupted her. But she did smile really cute and I think she actually tried to wave at me!

Did he really just say that???

2008-08-29T20:55:00.002-05:00

"How do we....uh...prevent more...ummm...orphans in the first place?" - Barack Obama, Saddleback Forum

That didn't even make sense. His brain has the shell on it.

Happy 6 month Birthday Baby Saylor Grace

2008-08-25T21:41:00.003-05:00

Today my baby turned six months old. I don't even have a picture to show. I'm quite depressed about the whole thing. You realize with your second, and possibly last child, just how quickly they really do grow up. It's so hard for me to just sit there, watching her grow and grow, and there's absolutely nothing I can do to stop her!

She's cutting a bunch of teeth right now so she just woke up crying. I went up there and cuddled with her and rocked her. She sucked her two middle fingers and stared at me until she went to sleep. I never wanted to let go of her. I kept thinking that it won't be long at all until she would rather have her daddy hold her. You see, that just happened to Harper within the past week. I didn't even have two full years of being her favorite person and she's already picking Ryan over me. I try to laugh it off, but it breaks my heart. Saylor will be next. I just want to stop time.

On a less depressing note, we did find out today that Saylor is actually just as tall as Harper was at six months! She's just a pound heavier, so the height isn't as obvious, I guess. Who knew I'd have two tall babies?

Well, I'm going to bed now. I would really love to go get both of my girls and wrap them up in bed with me and cuddle all night long. Whoever says they don't want to have kids is crazy. They are the best things ever. I'll never be able to express how much I love them. Maybe one day they'll read this blog and get it. They are my everythings. My sweet & lovely babies.

We've been visiting the zoo and hanging with friends

2008-08-24T19:58:00.007-05:00

It's been so long since I've blogged! I've been very busy with a closing that finally went through and now I'm finding time to breathe, clean, and blog!

Our most recent news is that Saylor cut another tooth! It's her little fang tooth. So now she has two bottoms and one fang. I hope she gets her top middle teeth before that other fang comes in or she's going to look like a little old vampire man baby :-) I'll love her anyways. She's the sweetest little girl. Her face lights up when I come get her out of her crib. (Which, by the way, I had to lower yesterday b/c she's already pulling herself up on her feet!!!). She loves to be kissed all over her face and to be sung to. She also loves to climb all over Harper but Harper screams. She hates to be touched by Saylor. Other than that, they get along perfectly!

Here's a picture of Harper at Aubrey's house (Aubee). We went over the to play and they had lunch together. They are so cute. Harper loves her Aubee. She went over to their house for a little while a few days ago. It was her first time at a friend's house without me! She didn't miss me one bit.
This is Harper at the zoo. It's an example of her "temper tantrums". She has silent ones. She just quietly lays down on the ground with her forehead to the floor. I love it. I hope it stays that way.

Harper loved the zoo so much that we got all kinds of happy smiley face pictures! Here she is sitting on a rock!

Harper ran around the zoo the whole time yelling "monkey, monkey, real monkey, two monkies, more monkey, monkey, real monkey...." you get the point. Needless to say, she insisted on sitting on the monkey on the carousel too. Once it started moving, she got a little scared. It was a shaky monkey (not to be confused with a cheeky monkey). I had to hold her the remainder of the ride. We yelled and waved at daddy and Saylor every time we went around.

Harper says CHEESE while eating her zoo pizza and cheetos. She loves junk food. She had cheeto powder all over the place, but miraculous not one spot of cheeto got on her dress. In fact, it was so spotless when we got home, she wore it two days later! Amazing!

Another "CHEESE" picture on the carousel.

There they are! Ryan and Saylor came to the zoo too...but neither make cute "CHEESE" faces yet, so there aren't as many pictures of them :-)

I think this was Harper's favorite part, even though she kept saying "monkey monkey" all day. The alligator got the biggest smile.

Harper called this Lemur a monkey, too.

Brody and Aubrey came over to play!!! How handsome is Mr. Brody? He's five weeks younger than Saylor. They are a match made in heaven.

Thank God we don't have cassette tapes anymore or our music library would be toast (or "toes'd" hee hee).

Aubrey gives such good hugs that she knocked Harper flat on the floor enough times that Harper now knows to run away when Aubrey comes around looking for a hugee.

Who Moved My America???

2008-08-24T14:57:00.002-05:00

Visit my dad's blog! He's fed up with American's ditching both their morals and pride for their country, so he decided to blog about it! Who Moved My America???

All I Ask Is That If You're Going To Vote, Get To Know Who You're Voting For

2008-08-12T08:48:00.002-05:00

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Day 2: Obama: Premature Babies Aren't People

08/07/2008

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Barack Obama worked to allow a gruesome practice, in which babies born alive after attempted abortions are left to die without medical care, to continue in Illinois. National Review journalist David Freddoso’s new book, The Case Against Barack Obama, exposes the lengths to which Barack Obama went to protect this ghastly procedure.

Because of a loophole, doctors in Illinois had no legal obligation to treat these babies. Under the law, they were non-persons. Illinois legislators tried to close this loophole with a bill mandating that babies born alive during an abortion would have to be treated just like every other baby born prematurely. The same laws and the same rules of medical ethics would apply to these born, living babies as to any other born, living human being.

On the federal level a similar bill passed 98-0 garnering a yea vote from pro-abortion stalwart Barbara Boxer. But back in Illinois, Barack Obama had problems with this type of legislation. He spoke on the floor of the Illinois Senate in opposition to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act – in fact, he was the only senator to do so. The following year he spoke against the born alive bill again. As a rabid proponent of legalized abortion, Obama voted against the bill or worked for its defeat on three separate occasions.

From The Case Against Barack Obama:

The tiny newborn baby made very little noise as he struggled to breathe. He could not cry—he lacked the strength. He had been born four months premature. “At that age,” says nurse Jill Stanek, “their lungs haven’t matured.” Stanek is the nurse who found herself cradling this tiny human being in her hands for all of his forty-five-minute lifetime. He was close to ten inches long. He weighed perhaps half a pound. It’s just a guess, no one had weighed or measured him at birth. No happy family had been there to welcome him into the world. No one was trying to save his life now, to put him into an incubator, to give him oxygen or nourishment. He had just been left to die.

Summer Days At Home

2008-08-11T20:27:00.003-05:00

Ryan is so proud of his rock n' roll finger sucking baby. Rock on, Saylor. Rock on.

We got to have Eli over for the day last week. Harper absolutely adores him because he really plays with her. They had so much fun. Eli says Harper is his favorite little girl ever and he really wishes she was his sister instead of Brilynn. I asked him why and he said "because Brilynn is mean to me. I would be really nice to Harper if she was my little sister. I love her."

Man, eating those carrots must be exhausting!!!! Saylor crashed during dinner. I took the opportunity to give Harper a quick bath while she slept in her high chair.

I love Saylor's button nose. I love her fat, chunky thighs. I love her laugh. I love everything about her. I didn't know I could do it but I love both of my girls with all of my heart, equally.

Okay, so the other day Harper wouldn't stop whining while I was in the kitchen. Finally, I went in there to see if I could help her with something. She was really upset because she couldn't get her little Willow Tree family of three buckled safely into the baby swing. I had to do my best not to crack up. Sweet Harper, I just helped her get them into that swing and she was happy. You'd think the girl has no baby dolls. (She does...see previous post about her nursing them). Her new favorite toy is the Willow family. I call them "The Willows". Today we took the Willows for a walk!

We Went To The Fair!!!

2008-08-11T20:11:00.001-05:00

Mama's girl!!! She LOVES rides! I am so excited to bring her to Cedar Point some day. Here's a picture of her driving the car with her cousin, Eli. She had a super serious face except for when she came by all of us, then she would smirk a little.

Harper really loved feeding the goats, cows, alpaca's, and other petting zoo animals. I bought her a little bag of carrots to feed them with and she didn't even cry when one goat nibbled her hand. She was having so much fun, she actually smiled and said "cheese" for every picture I took of her, but she never took her eyes off those animals.

Saylor will suck on any body part that she can fit in her mouth. It's pretty adorable. One fair worker saw her sucking on her toes and suggested we start a toe sucking contest at the fair because she was pretty sure Saylor would win. I thought it would be a great idea too, until I considered all of the freak show people who might enter...maybe there would have to be a strict age limit...hmmmm.

Family Weekend at the Cabin

2008-08-05T08:04:00.010-05:00

We finally had the whole family at the cabin this past weekend! There were ten people, including the three kids. We had such a blast! Harper nursed her baby for the first time, that was awkward. I hope we can all get up there at least one more time before the end of the summer. This is our last summer in this cabin. The new one will be finished on Christmas Eve! So if you, or anyone else is interested in buying this cabin, it's for sale! Let me know!

Harper loves her naps. She would go up to mimi or me and say "nap" in the sweetest little voice. Wherever we were, we would make her up a place to take a nap. This was at the pool.

Saylor LOVED the water! She would just kick and kick and kick her legs. She's our water bug. Harper preferred to play with the rocks and bugs.

We had three bb guns to shoot off the back porch. It was my first time shooting any kind of gun ! The guys were frustrated with us girls for hogging the guns too much.

Striking a rare pose....

Harper stole my peach and tore it to shreds! She's a peach-eating monster. Noonle (Eric) had to hose her down when she was done eating it.

Harper can't get enough of her Uncle Adam.

Another nap...

Maguire came to play!

2008-08-05T07:56:00.004-05:00

My best friend Lindsey has a daughter named Maguire, she is three months older than Harper. She also has a new baby girl named Marley, she is three months younger than Saylor! We love when they come to play. Maguire has had more socializing opportunities than Harper has, so she knows how not to share and how to boss. But Harper doesn't mind! She just watches Maguire play with her toys and she quits playing with them when Maguire wants to play with them :-) Soon Harper will learn how to not share too and they'll be even!

Harper went back to her crib

2008-08-05T07:46:00.003-05:00

Harper has been in her toddler bed for about a little over a month now. She was doing perfectly fine in it until the past few days. One night, she got out of bed every 5 minutes for an hour straight at bedtime and screamed on the balcony. She screamed bloody murder, I would quietly walk up there and put her back into bed, only for her to repeat herself over and over until I wanted to scream right back.

She's not been taking complete naps either.

Thursday night, she woke up screaming on the balcony at 3:30 am. She did this every 10 minutes or so until 5:30 am when I went in there and laid in her bed with her. She cuddled down next to me, then patted my head and said "two paci's mommy?" (Her new favorite thing to say is "two paci's"). That's when I realized she was just up...for good.

So this morning, after waking up with Ryan at 2:30 to put aloe on his itching sunburned back, I woke up at 4:45 to let Lucky out b/c he was scratching at the back door. Then, I noticed Harper making her way downstairs in the dark. I put her back to bed. Then I heard Saylor wake up at 5:00...I went and fed her, then put her back to bed. I got back into bed and heard Harper's tiny feet walking into my bedroom. So, I put her in bed with me (Ryan was upstairs on the couch trying to make the itching go away). Harper and I cuddled for a few seconds (she would pat my back while I slept) then Saylor woke up. So, both girls were in my bed by 5:15 this morning.

By breakfast time, Harper was screaming. She screamed for juice, screamed for oatmeal, then screamed at the oatmeal when it was finally cool enough for her to eat it. I looked at her and very calmly said "Harper, what are you screaming at?" She stopped screaming, lowered her head, scowled, looked me in the eye and yelled "NOOOO-AH!!!!!"

So I put her in bed.

Guess what? Five minutes later, she walked into the kitchen. Screaming.

Immediately, I put her crib back together.

Please pray that we get some sleep tonight.

Great Blog

2008-08-05T07:43:00.002-05:00

Please go to my blog list to the right and read Inventory. It's the cutest, sweetest blog about the author's two-year old daughter. I have no idea who this person is, her husband is a Christian music artist and somehow I found her blog. I read her whole story about losing her baby, Audrey, a few hours after her birth. They have an amazing story so I decided to just keep up with her blog b/c she is so inspirational. Anyways, her new post cracked me up! I hope I can be the same kind of teacher for my girls.

Saylor is Sitting!!!

2008-07-29T11:45:00.003-05:00

Big girl!!! This picture was taken on Saturday. I was at my desk and looked over and her little butt was sitting right up playing! This is the age where I start loving babies. From here on out it is so much fun with every new phase.

Ryan woke up with a migraine so he rested on the couch. Harper walked up to him and said "MOVE!" then cuddled up next to him.

I found a website called Lulu

You can actually make a bound book of your blog! I'm going to do it annually. I think that is the coolest thing ever. The time this blog takes for me to keep it updated is going to be worth it for all of the memories that I can pass down to my girls. (Especially since I still don't have a baby book for Saylor!)

Here I Am, Lord...Send Me

2008-07-29T09:22:00.001-05:00

God has put these children on my heart big time over the past few days. I've been doing more and more research on them and feel that I need to get involved. Maybe one day Ryan and I can adopt one of these precious babies but in the meantime, I would love to help them.

Everything I've been doing with my life these days (reading books, reading blogs, talking to people) has brought me to a realization that my life is meant for more than working every day. I want to do something with more of an impact. I want to help these children. That's just what I'm going to do.

How? I guess for now I will donate. But I will continuously pray for God to open a door for me to help in any way that I can.

Please visit this website to learn more about how you, too, can help!

My Informative Political Article of the Day...Stay Educated!!!

2008-07-29T09:07:00.001-05:00

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/guest/2008/hl_07291.shtml

A Social Event!

2008-07-27T20:35:00.004-05:00

I hope Harper and Saylor will love each other as much as my sister and I love each other. I don't know what I'd do without my big sister.

Friday night we were at J.A. & Kathy Reynold's house for Kathy's 50th birthday party. I didn't realize how few and far between the times are that I get to spend time with my sister, her husband, and my parents. It felt like the "good old days", maybe because neither my sister nor I had our kids with us. Anyways, it was fun to spend the evening with them.

Kathy's son created a slide show movie for her and I wanted to share a few of the things that hit me while I was watching it:

1. Nothing in this world is more important than family. So enjoy every moment you have with your kids and make sure to make room for alone time with your spouse (a tropical vacation sounds nice to me).

2. A good, solid group of friends who share your beliefs, passions, and past is priceless. It's so hard for me to stay in touch with my friends right now but I'm going to do my best to stay in touch even though my life is so hectic.

3. 50 is the new 30!

That's all. I had a great night, a couple glasses of wine, and some good food. It was totally worth the horrible next day. You see, when Harper stays up late at Mimi and Grandaddy's house, she's a beast the whole next day. It takes a good 48 hours to get her back to herself. But once in a while, it's worth it. Thanks Mimi and Grandaddy for for watching the girls! Those are times they (maybe Harper) will remember forever! Here's a quick clip of Harper the day after the party. This is her response when I asked her if her juice was good.

A Mistake, Maybe???

2008-07-26T14:32:00.003-05:00

I just got my Middle Tennessee Electric Bill and this is the first thing I saw when I opened it up. What???!!! Are they recycling old paper? I think I'll pass on the annual meeting this year. The prize isn't worth the drive to Murfreesboro.

Thank you Grandma Lackey!!!!!

2008-07-26T07:37:00.003-05:00

Grandma sent me an E-mail last night telling me she really loved reading my blog and so did Grandad and that she was going to read it again today. So, since I still haven't had a chance to write her a thank you card for my birthday gift, I thought I'd tell her here and include a four generation picture from when Harper was born!

Thank you, Grandma, for the card and the money! I bought some really nice flip flops at Fleet Feet that will keep my feet from hurting so that I can run again.

Last night Ryan and I went to a party! I'm going to post some pictures later. It was nice to get dressed up and mingle with adults, especially since my mom, dad, and sister were there. We don't get to spend much time together these days, so every event is special!

Summer for a One Year Old

2008-07-25T09:54:00.007-05:00

Catching butterflies in the backyard (after eating a fudgesicle)
She either says "cheese" and makes this crazy face, or runs from the camera all together.
She's gonna love fireworks just like her momma!!!
mohawk!!!! (No, she doesn't wear pants around the house very often. Why should she?)

Harper loves to help wash my car. Grandaddy Lackey loves this most about her!

Harper is scheduled to start "school" in September. School! She will be a few weeks shy of two and I'm sending her to school? I've had plenty of second thoughts about it already. I sent the deposit in yesterday telling myself I can always pull her out of it, it's only a deposit. Am I a horrible mother? Here are my pros and cons:

Pros:
1. She'll be at Clearview Baptist with her best friend Aubrey Marie Teller.
2. She'll get to socialize instead of spending every day at home with me.
3. I'll get five hours a day, two days a week to spend with Saylor, who has never had alone time with me.
4. She'll learn about Jesus and have cute little school programs for me to watch.
5. Mimi will pick her up from school sometimes to have a special day with her.

Cons:
1. She'll be off her schedule (I think that's just a con for me, not her)
2. She's only two and I might miss those days so much in the future that I'll hate myself for sending her off two days a week.
3. It costs money...we aren't made of money.
4. I'll cry when I send her there on her first day with her lunch box, back pack, and nap mat.

I guess that's it. My heart hurts thinking about how fast she's grown.

The Hardest Job I've Ever Loved

2008-07-25T09:31:00.004-05:00

She is dying to crawl already!!! She had both two bottom teeth at 4 months and is already trying to crawl. Harper crawled the day before her 6 month birthday...Saylor might beat her record.

My little stinker, Saylor, is NOT a good sleeper at night. Well, I only have Harper to compare her too and she was sleeping 12 hours straight by three months old. Saylor, on the other hand, will only sleep 8 hours before she demands to be fed again. It doesn't matter how long I let her cry, she won't go back so sleep until I feed her. She is capable of sleeping ten hours straight, she's done it a handful of times, but she won't do it again! I know I'm not supposed to compare my girls, ever, but I thought Harper's good sleep skills were from my implementing the Babywise book. Apparently it was that combined with the fact the girl loves to sleep. Not so much for Saylor. I hung over her crib trying to stay awake from 3:00-3:30 this morning before I gave in and fed her. Then what do you know? Harper wakes up at 6:00 crying and wakes up Saylor. I got Harper back to bed, but Saylor was up for good by then.

Does it sound like I'm complaining? Well, I kind of am. But twice already today I have thought I want another baby. Here I am up at night, grumpy, with a 4 month old, woken up early by a 22 month old...and I want another baby. How can that be??? The other day when Ryan and I were bringing the girls in from an outing, he had Harper and I had Saylor. I thought to myself. This is perfect, we don't need a third child...who would carry him/her? One parent per child is best, then no one gets left out...right? Wrong. So many children of large families go on to have large families themselves. They must have loved it, or they wouldn't repeat the cycle.

Then comes the next issue. Ryan was the oldest of three boys. He was about three years older than his brother, Adam. But Adam and the youngest, Eric, are only 13 months apart. So Ryan was left out a lot. Adam and Eric were very close and played together, but Ryan was older and didn't have that same bond. My two are so close together, if we have another child, it will feel left out! So I either have to have another one...soon...or have two more in a few years. I just got the shivers thinking about that last option.

Why do I have to be such a thinker? Why do I have to plan? I should just leave it up to God. Forget all birth control and let God decide!!! Ha! That's what my (very Catholic) grandma Popma did and she had ten kids!

I don't know what we'll do. But I have a feeling...it's going to involve more babies. Shhhh!!! Don't tell Ryan!!!!

My "Aha!" God moment

2008-07-24T13:33:00.005-05:00

This will be quick...Saylor is due to wake up any second and Harper is wandering around me whining! I just didn’t want to forget this one.

I was just chasing Harper around the house trying to get her to let me change her diaper (she LOVES being chased so any time I need her for something...she runs). When I finally caught her, she started whining and trying to break free from me. I looked at her and said “Harper, you need to obey mommy. I just want to change your diaper so you won’t get a diaper rash. It’s really not that bad. I promise I will never make you do something that will hurt you or be bad for you.” Aha!!!

When I was going through a really tough time about eight years ago, my dad told me that God will never put us through something that we can’t handle. It seems like such an obvious statement, but I had never really thought it out before. It gave me such strength and encouraged me to get through it with God by my side. Since then, I’ve told countless other people the same thing.

But I never really realized the power of God’s love until today. When I said that to Harper, I immediately related to God in a tiny way. Not only is God our Father, but He loves us more than we could possibly love our own children! That, I can’t imagine...but I can believe it.

So the next time I find myself facing a difficult time in life, I’m going to remember that God loves me more than I love my own children. And if I can’t bear to see my kids go through pain, I know he feels worse when I do. So if, for some reason, I’m going through something hard in life, I’ll remind myself that it must be for something good in the end, maybe not for me, but for someone somewhere.

Easy when Ryan is home!

2008-04-11T13:25:00.004-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ryan! He's 31 years old today. For some reason he feels a little sad about it. Or maybe he pretended to feel sad so that he could have an excuse to drink a rum and coke while watching Wildlife Man with me on t.v. last night. (Yes, that's a really fun night for us). The sweet husband that he is still woke up at seven with Harper so that I could get an extra hour of sleep since I was up a lot with Saylor last night. Here's a picture I snapped of them in their pj's this morning. They were watching Mary Poppins on Ryan's newly completed surround sound system. Harper has oatmeal all over her face. (Yes, I have dirty kids...I always swore I wouldn't have dirty, snotty, crusty kids but that was way before I had them. Now I kinda like them dirty. It gives them character!)

Today has been easy. I woke up, fed Saylor, then she wanted to go right back to sleep! So I did laundry, changed the sheets on the bed, took a shower, finished the glaze on Ryan's cream cheese pound cake I made for his birthday yesterday, made lunch, did the dishes...um I think that's it. I got a lot done in just a few hours, thanks to Ryan's birthday. (I'm a little depressed now b/c I just realized an easy day for me is a day that I can accomplish more things in less time...that shouldn't be right.)

So happy birthday, Ryan! I've also posted an old picture of us when we were "footloose and fancy free", as Grandma Lackey says. I've loved every step of our relationship. Our life just keeps getting richer. Thank you for being my husband and thank you for making Being A Mom EASY! (I'm not going to win any spelling bees with that one).

Everybody's doing it

2008-04-11T13:13:00.001-05:00

Okay, so everyone is blogging these days and I've been feeling sort of left out. I've been wanting to hop on the blogging bandwagon for a while now but I've been having babies non-stop, I just couldn't find the time! Then I started feeling like a bad mom for not sharing photos of my girls with everyone. They all seem to stay on my camera forever. I still have yet to get one printed since Harper has been born. (I'm not so sure this digital technology is the best thing for photo printing people).

Anyways, I've decided to make time. Not only do I want to share my girls with my family & friends in other states, I'm hoping it will serve as a sort of therapy for me. It will be nice to look back at all the good memories and laugh at the bad ones!

The format of my blog is based on my blog title. Every time I post an entry, I'm going to describe what being a mom is like at that moment. (I'm also hoping it will boost my adjective repertoire and help keep my first place position in the Lackey spelling bees). Once I move my real estate listings to their own web page, I'll use my mac web page for blogging. I'll be able to fit many more pics on there.

Well, enough of the intro...I'm going to try my hand at my first real blog...here goes!