Too Funny!/Two Funnies/To: Funny

I had just buckled Selah in her carseat for our weekly trek to Kroger. She was protesting noisily and Joe sighed and said, "It's okay, honeybunny, I hate going grocery shopping, too."


Last night, Kaity queried, "Why is it when YOU get tired, WE have to go to bed?" I couldn't stop laughing long enough to give her an answer. I cannot WAIT to be a grandmother.

Jeff's Project

When Jeff bought his 1969 VW bus, one downside was that there was no backseat. So, he had a bus, but it only sat two people! It wasn't long before he'd drawn out plans to redesign the interior. His plans include a bench backseat, two seats for the middle, at least one fold-down "rumble seat" for the back of the front seat(s), and a fold-down table so the kids can play games. This weekend, he completed the first part of the project, which was to install a backseat, complete with seatbelts! He got the seat from a co-worker, who'd pulled it out of an old Explorer. Jeff built a wooden frame for it, and bolted the whole thing down into the metal frame of the bus.

We were all excited to take a test run in it to church Sunday night! Now if he could just get the heating system going ...

A Haircut at Last

Before...

My hair had gotten WAY long and blegh, with lots of split-ends.

After ...

... it's a little different ...


... and I donated to Locks of Love ...


... are you ready yet?

I'm on the phone with Mom here, complaining about how awkward I look on camera.

Doll Clothes

A couple of weeks ago, Kaity spent the afternoon over at a friend's house. Claire is just as big a fan of American Girl as Kaity, so they really enjoyed playing together with their dolls. Kaity took some of the clothes she'd made for Felicity and Ally Kate to show to Claire, and Claire showed Kaity some cool doll clothes hangers her mom had made. It was such a simple idea, but really cool! The hanger is simply a wooden dowel with a hook screwed into the middle. Claire was sweet enough to share a few hangers with Kaity. When she got home, she thought for a while about where she could hang the clothes, and inspiration struck. She simply hung them on a regular clothes hanger and then hung that in the closet. Her doll clothes stay neat and organized!

A mix of handmade and store bought clothes.

Kait, showing off her ingenuity.

A close-up of the hanger. Why didn't I think of that?

Alphabet Photography

My good friend Chrissy gave me a wonderful Christmas present:

Can you tell what it says?

It's Pittard!

How cool is that? Chrissy takes all the pictures herself. She has such a great eye for finding "letters" in the least likely of places. The first picture is the arm of a bench, the "A" is the side view of our church bell, the "d" is the scroll-work from a chair in our church's foyer.  Chrissy is also the one who took our family pictures for the Christmas card. She gives these alphabet pictures as gifts, and also offers them for sale. She does them in black & white or sepia, and sells them framed or unframed.

Snuggling

Three of our kids, snuggling on the couch ...

And the other kid, with Daddy all to herself ...

Three is the Magic Number

Apparently, the magic number is three:

...as in the number of times I have to microwave my coffee before I actually have time to finish the cup while it's still hot.

...as in the number of times I have to say, "Bring me ALL of your laundry," before he actually brings me ALL of his laundry.

...as in the number of times I have to stop the baby from getting into (fill in the blank here) before I actually wise up and construct a barricade.

...as in the number of times I'll have to restart my dryer before it will actually dry a load of clothes.

Thanks for listening.

Sunday Morning

Our church has been blessed over the last several years with tremendous growth. We've seen many people coming to belief in Christ. As the lives of individuals have changed, they've shared the good news with their families and friends, and our local branch of God's family tree has grown in an amazing way. Because of that, we've recently transitioned to having three services on Sunday morning. Our family made the decision to attend at the eight o' clock worship hour. Though it makes for an early morning, it's been a blessing to have the opportunity to again to ride together as a family to church. (Jeff used to arrive at 8 for band practice, and now we all get there at 7:20.)

Last week was our first week, and I can describe it in a word: disastrous. Kaity, Joe, and Selah were all in tears and it was taking some smooth talking on my part to convince Jeff that it was worth it! Thankfully, this week was a completely different story. Kaity came downstairs for breakfast already dressed with a smile on her face and a checklist in her hand! The list was of everything she would need to do to get ready for church - "get dressed", "brush teeth", "fix hair", etc. Each entry had a box next to it for her to check off. That is classic Kaity right there! To clarify: SHE made the checklist by herself. Joe came stumbling in, bleary-eyed and clutching one of Selah's blankets around his shoulders. But we all got ready to go in record time, and I even took the time to brew a pot of coffee! Jeff was really thankful for that. I was thankful for the Sunday afternoon nap we all had.

Joe took his nap during the evening worship service, with one interruption. He had just drifted off when the pastor made an emphatic point by banging on the pulpit. Joe jumped a mile and his arms flew out! He mumbled, "That woke me up!" and quickly fell back to sleep.

Sign Language

When Joe was a baby, the whole "baby sign language" craze was going full-steam. I figured it couldn't hurt to see if Joe would pick up on the physical side of communication before the verbal, but it never really took root. I learned a lot, but Joe didn't pick up on it the way I'd hoped. Until recently, I hadn't considered trying it out with Selah, but then she began copying everything we did! She's very proud of herself when she copies us, and always claps afterward.

I don't know if there's a different set of signs for babies, I just use a standard American Sign Language website to look up what I need. I started several days ago with a few signs that I use all the time, like "cup", "eat", "more", "thank you", "please", "mommy", "daddy", and "cat". She hasn't copied me yet, but we'll see!

Grammie knitted this hat for Selah for Christmas.

 

Philippians

Well, I started a new project this year (inspired by my good friend Leah). I'm participating in a large-scale effort with other believers to be more purposeful in memorizing scripture. A pastor in Florida has encouraged others to join with him in memorizing the book of Philippians by Easter, April 24th. Since Philippians is one of my very favorite epistles, I was really excited when I read about the project on Leah's blog. Week 3 began Saturday, with verses 12-18 of chapter one being the focus this week. I've been surprised and pleased at how well it's going. It's definitely not easy, and it's a discipline that I've largely neglected in the last several years, for just that reason. God admonishes us to hide His word in our hearts, though, and I felt really convicted about my disobedience in that area.

A Budding Pianist

Jeff and I are always hoping that, "Maybe THIS child will be our musical one ..." Selah definitely seems to have some musical qualities and we sat her down at Nannie's piano the other day to see if she'd like to compose something. We call her amazing composition "Cacophony".

Harry ... Pittard?

I would just like to note here that Joe has no idea who Harry Potter is nor what he looks like, and so had no thoughts of being anyone's doppelganger. He just happened to have that shirt on, and just happened to put on a pair of Groucho glasses sans mustache and nose.

School On A Snow Day

A couple of pictures from school today ...

Daddy and Joe reading about the Trojan War.

Kaity reading 100 Gateway Cities - a book about foreign missions.

Can you tell it's chilly in our house?

Snow Days

So, we've had Snow Days for the last three days, which has been a wonderful blessing in many ways, and not so much in one way. The "one way" is that the quarry called off work for the whole week. No work means no pay, or taking up a week's worth of vacation days. Thankfully, God has provided in that, too, since this is the first year Jeff will have three weeks of vacation instead of just two. So we'll just pretend we never had three weeks' worth to begin with!

We have thoroughly enjoyed the days home with Daddy! Our kids are probably the only ones in the state still having to do school and chores (to hear them tell it!) but they've had plenty of play time, too. We've made Snow Cream (vanilla and mocha), had a snowball fight, ridden bikes in the snow and ice, salted a neighbor's driveway, hosted bored friends, ordered pizza, eaten chicken and dumplin's, played lots of Wii games, not watched a single thing on television, enjoyed a roaring fire, rearranged furniture, cleaned house, organized stuff, played Legos, played board games, and done laundry. Whew! It's been a busy three days "off".

"Oh, he's so handsome ... just like in his reward posters!" -- Name that movie!

On a funny note, Kaity just warned her daddy about me: "You can't wander around doing nothing. You have to LOOK like you're doing something or she'll give you something to do."

Bowling

We went bowling the other night with some friends. Kaity and Joe had bumpers on their lane, so they each had a really good score: 108 and 103 respectively. Which nearly doubled their mother's score. And out of about 13 bowlers, they came in 2nd and 3rd!

Joe was cracking everybody up with his bowling methods.

Sisters

Selah absolutely loves her siblings. Nothing makes her happier (other than Mommy and Daddy) than to see Kaity or Joe walk into the room. She kicks her legs and shrieks and squeals, bouncing up and down. It's the sweetest thing. I captured some great pictures of Selah loving on her big sister Saturday.

Isn't she beautiful?

The Great Storm of '11

"They're crazy. I'm staying in the house where it's warm."

Walking By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Why We Have Three Kids

I've been married long enough to have experienced the change from "When are you having kids?" to "When are you going to stop having kids?" I would guess that any couple who has more than two children has probably gone through this at one time or another. I decided to put our thoughts and convictions on children here in a blog post, just to have them organized all in one place, kind of like I did on the "Why We Homeschool" post. This is long, so be prepared!

I've always been pro-life; I've always been pro-adoption, but my personal conviction that children are a blessing from God and not something to be prevented has cemented gradually. A conversation with a friend on the dangers of birth control, a convicting passage of Scripture, the whisper of the Holy Spirit during a sermon, the faces of my newborn children ... the list goes on. I could take reams of paper (gigs of RAM?) to tell you everything God has laid on my heart about this issue, but I'm going to simply share a few Scriptures on the subject. The following two Psalms perfectly capture God's view of children.

Psalm 127

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh [but] in vain. [It is] vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: [for] so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children [are] an heritage of the LORD: [and] the fruit of the womb [is his] reward. As arrows [are] in the hand of a mighty man; so [are] children of the youth. Happy [is] the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. 

Psalm 128:1-4
Blessed [is] every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy [shalt] thou [be], and [it shall be] well with thee. Thy wife [shall be] as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.  

God makes it abundantly clear in His Word that children are a blessing sent from Him. When we take some frequently-heard statements and replace the word "children" with the word "blessings", the meaning becomes quite different from the rational, practical intention of the speaker:
"We're just not ready for blessings yet."
"We can't afford any more blessings."
"I couldn't handle more than two blessings!"
"If we have blessings, we won't have the freedom we're used to."
"We want more blessings, but the timing just isn't right."
Truly, all of these statements ultimately speak to uncertainty of the future, and a lack of trust in our heavenly Father.

Luke 12:22-28
And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body [is more] than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more [will he clothe] you, O ye of little faith? 

 Allowing God control of every area of Jeff's and my life means giving Him the freedom to bless us as He chooses -- with one child or five.

*All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, from Blue Letter Bible.*

Today ...

Where's Selah?

Peekaboo!

White Christmas

When we began asking the kids what they wanted for Christmas, snow was at the top of their lists. Who knew they would actually get it? Of course, we were not home when it happened, but there was plenty left when we arrived the next day.

Jeff's 1969 VW Bus. Doesn't it look like a frosted cake? Well, more like a frosted loaf of bread ...

Icicles!

Selah and Joe in their new pajamas. She just loves him! She went over and tackled him while he squealed.

At long last, this concludes our Christmas pictures! Ugh. I love this season, but I thought I'd never make it through all the pictures. And now that we have had snow, I'm ready for summer to begin anytime!

Grammie and Baba's

After Christmas breakfast, we loaded up the car and headed to Grammie and Baba's house. It's a three-hour drive, so we all took our new books to entertain us on the way. Except Jeff. Somebody had to drive!

Family bonding while Wii Bowling.

Stuart was there with his boys, Rali and Mickey, and his girlfriend, Tara.

Baba bought Nerf guns for all the grandkids, then he ambushed them with a bigger gun!

Grandma Fran came over to share the evening with us.

And the next morning we had snow! I took pictures from inside, because though snow is beautiful, it's cold. And I don't do cold.