New pattern!

Hey all- I have a new pattern for a peasant dress or shirt that I'm really excited about!  Check out 418 Stitches...

Sunday night

On Sunday, we had our precious friends, the Sheerins, up for dinner and post-bedtime games.  We started off with playtime outside...

 After an eventful dinner that included Joy shoving the playtable Abby Jane was sitting at into her chest, knocking Janie on her back and giving her a bruise on her cheek that she's still sporting! Do your kids totally ramp up their dinner-time misbehavior if you have friends over?  Well, let's just say it was a busy evening and dinner hour, then suddenly it was lovely bedtime.  Our girls hit the sack, Carlton went down easily in a pack n play...

... and suddenly there was four adults to pass around one precious 6 week old Clara while we played Trivial Pursuit.  It was SUCH a fun night.  We had this chocolate and caramel apple pie galette for dessert, and it was quite tasty and so incredibly easy.  There are several other ideas on the post the recipe was from that I plan to try this fall, so I decided to pass on the whole link.  Happy fall baking!!

Football Saturday

We headed up to Cartersville on Saturday to hang with the fam for a day of football and playing.  Everyone was all bedecked in their Auburn wear for the game that happened during their naps.  But it's Saturday, and in our homes, that means gameday attire in the fall! I just love this little pack of cousins. 

We have connections (a.k.a. Bop Bop) to the Cartersville High School football field, so the kiddos got to run around a bit after naps on the same field where their daddy had some glory days.

 More perks of knowing Bop Bop... all five getting rides on the gator.

 Playtime

 Blythe practicing field goals.

Sweet, sweet times...

Margins

Last week was a week in which every morning and every evening had something going on- all good things, but commitments nonetheless. It was one of those things where in some situations, it would have felt like a busy, fun week, but last week I felt overwhelmed by all I needed to do and all I knew I wouldn't get to. By week's end, I felt like I had been hit by a 2 x 4 with the information that I need more "margins" in my life.

This is not new information.  And, as my Aunt Boo says, "God doesn't stutter." So if you realize something very clearly on a regular basis, it's for a reason.

Why does this matter to you? Well, I'm sitting in a margin right now.

It's called Starbucks.

Abby Jane is at the Awana program at our church right now, and am I volunteering to help, like the majority of my friends do?

Nope.

I drop her off, wave goodbye, then drive to a nearby Starbucks to have a little over an hour to myself to catch up on things, including the blog.

Soooo... if you notice the pattern of Wednesday posts, cue the pumpkin spice latte, a table for one, the trusty laptop, and the priceless, precious husband who doesn't say, "I told you so" on weeks like last week but just heartily encourages taking a few breaks from life and learning to say "no" to potential commitments more often.

Great fall Saturday

There's this wonderful Saturday in September that a lot of goodness falls on.  Here's last year's. Jake helped out at the same 5K this year, but we didn't run it as a family.  Jake and I are both training for the Atlanta Half Marathon, and I had just had a long run the day before... and it appears my knees know I'm approaching 30.  So we decided to just hang out at the race while Jake helped. I couldn't resist a few shots afterwards. 

How Joy felt about wearing a hand-me-down of Abby Jane's (however cute) instead of a new Auburn dress like Blythe and Janie. Just kidding- she probably liked it better b/c there are little Aubie's on the pockets! 

Next up was Taste of Kennesaw, where we sampled local fare, scored some balloons, face paintings, random other freebies, and were absolute cheapskates because we just let the little girls people-watch...

while Jake took Janie to jump in an inflatable that you had to pay for.  After getting spoiled by all the free inflatables at the festival a couple of weeks ago, paying for three kids to jump (when the babies were content in the stroller) seemed like highway robbery!  I know, we're horrible.

Now this family picture might not seem remarkable, but it is since the display on our little digital camera is broken, and you basically guess every time you take a picture.  Some nice lady stopped and offered to take a picture of us, and she said she thought she could see us in the extremely dim/ mostly not visible display.  I was impressed with her effort and results.

Eating some dinner by the old caboose on display by the train depot.  Joy missed the memo that it's not nice to have your mouth open and full of food when everyone else is smiling for a picture.  Classic, though.

After naps and watching Auburn pull out another win!!, we headed over to the Owens for pool playing, more football for daddies, and a great dinner. It was an awesome night of the chaos and fun of six kids three and under, great fellowship and sharing of what life is like when you have kids (i.e. football Saturdays have a lot less conversations about sharing and not pushing and "please finish your dinner" and "no, Joy, we're all done eating" when there aren't this many children!)

I actually forgot the girls' bathing suits, so Blythe, Joy, Grant, and Dylan (all the one yr olds) all were running around shirtless. I think Blythe and Joy could really dig being boys.

Ericka is a fabulous hair stylist, and she brought her shears to give Abby Jane a quick trim after dinner right on the Owens' driveway.  Maddy decided she needed a haircut, too.  It was amazing to see two busy three yr olds sit like statues for Miss Ericka!

Here's Joy's real twin, Grant.  We've just been hiding him away all this time. :) Isn't it amazing, though, how much more they look like siblings that Blythe and Joy do?

By the way, it just occurred to me in the last couple of weeks that Blythey's curly hair comes from my mom and her mom.  My mom's mom, who us grandkids called Miss Skip, looked like Shirley Temple when Shirley Temple was quite the hit.  So we're nowhere near that many curls or tight ringlets, but at least we figured out where Boo gets her sweet angel head of hair!

When they were 21 months...

Because now they're 22 months, and I never got around to posting about 21.  21 months was a continuation of verbal explosion and disclosure of personality.  Exhibit A and B follow.

At 21 months, Blythe rarely said "yes" and had four versions of "no."  Blythe's "No", defined:

1. A simple, diminutive "no" (sounds like "new") meant "yes." 99% of the time.

2. "No, peas": no please.

3. "No, tank tu": no thank you.

4. "No" with vehement head shaking: no, you idiot, do you not understand what NO means???

Blythe is still just our sugar lump. My curly headed, coy, giggly, snuggly little sugar lump. She's the one who rides on my hip while Joy walks, but she's not just a mama's girl. When Jake gets home, Abby Jane and Joy race out the door.  Sometimes Blythe goes, too.  But often she'll go hide and wait for Daddy to come to her.  Smart girl. She is also extremely ticklish and just dissolves into precious hysteria when you find the right spots.

Joy started saying "I love you" spontaneously last month.  But in true Joy fashion, it was all out.  We would be at the store, I would be 10 feet away, and Joy says, "Mama. Mama!  MAMA!!!  I LOVE YOU!" I feel compelled to joke about how I paid her to do that when bystanders start to laugh.  Joy's heart is on her sleeve, for better and for worse, but this is one of the best aspects of that part of her personality! She remains our spice, spunk, spitfire, pistol... you get the idea.  But she'll go straight from amazing you by her aggression (seems to think it's her job to take on little boys as her adversary) and bull-in-a-china-shop nature to just giving this sunny contagious grin that could melt the continent of Antarctica and pucker up for a sloppy smacker. Her heart is genuinely precious and tender. Lord help the man she marries.

A few weeks ago, she had her first two-sentence statement on a spontaneous subject.  I was changing her diaper after naptime, which (I know, I'm lucky) runs til around 4 or 4:30 still, meaning Jake is usually home within an hour or hour and a half of them waking up.  She looked up at me, barely awake, and said, "Daddy home soon?  Luuuuv Daddy!"

22 months coming soon!

Lake Burton

We spent a five-day Labor Day weekend at Lake Burton with Jake's family, officially the last family vacay before the Gillies move to New Zealand. So I will not apologize for the number of pictures, because the weekend was one long photo op! Very gracious friends of Ken and Sandy's loaned us their fabulous home, and it was the perfect spot for our families to spread out, play hard, and enjoy God's creation in each other's company.

Ken rented a paddleboard for the weekend, and two of the mornings, Abby Jane and I went out for a pre-dawn trip across the lake. It was surreal to be in the middle of a big lake with my daughter with nothing but our board and the beauty of a sunrise on water. Morning water is one of my favorite parts of creation- the color, calmness, and beauty of water at sunrise is one of God's best gifts to man. It was such sweet time to share with my girl.

On our first morning there, Jake helped Cade catch his first fish, and this is right afterwards. Janie caught her first fish on our last morning there.

Blythe and Joy love morning water as well. I LOVE this picture. It is so THEM. Blythe is sweetly waving and smiling, Joy looks like Louis and Clark. Or Sacagawea.

Here's Betsy giving Cade and Abby Jane a ride...

Paul with Luke. Luke is not really into water, but he loved kayak rides with Paul! Something about daddies make kids a lot braver.

Joy getting a ride with big sis. I was so proud of her for not just jumping off when we were further away from the dock! We had a few close calls.

Mimi, the Pied Piper. I think I count four out of five grandkids following her along here.
Mimi is also a professional sand castle builder.
She built, they smashed.

WAR EAGLE!!! We loved watching Auburn WIN the first game of the season. Love watching Auburn, period. Looks like Cade is getting a little left out of the girl love here. Sorry bud.
Cade seems very ready to learn to surf when they arrive in New Zealand. If only they can get him to stay on the board long enough. His favorite thing was to climb up and jump off.
Bop Bop had to work really hard to get Cade to stay on long enough for them to balance on it together, but they did it!
Bop Bop with Luke and Abby Jane...

There is one very cool Mimi on a paddleboard and an equally cool Bop Bop on his kayak. Not your average grandparents.

SWEET Blythey about to jump to her Daddy.
Enjoying the view.
This girl was Trouble, in a good way, most of the time. Joy is just a mile a minute and not into wearing floaties. I'm proud she made it home with us. To say the least, she had a good time.
One of my favorite things about the weekend was the playtime the grown-ups had. During naps and while kids were up, we went on runs, paddled and kayaked, and just horsed around like kids. All the grown-ups got to really enjoy just plain playing and relaxing. There were also games at night (and I should also mention that I happened to win the longest and highest scoring game of Phase 10 ever. It went on for hours, and I think the highest score was in the 600's... but I won. :)) Pictured below is what happened when my father-in-law and sis-in-law attempted to balance on the board together. Pretty good stuff.
The weekend, on the whole, was joyful and sweet, if bittersweet at times, and a wonderful way to soak in the gift of family as we launch into this next season of our lives.