Brace Yourself---MORE Birthdays!

Sunday, after church and lunch, we headed over to Missy's mom's house to celebrate my niece, Eva Rose's, 6th birthday! She and the other bazillion kids thoroughly enjoyed playing with toys and filling up on cheese, crackers, fruit, cake and of course, ice cream! We adults thoroughly enjoyed sipping vino, snacking and catching up....Below, like uncle, like niece. I could not be happier that Wendy has my brother's spazzy personality.

"The Walker."

Wendy wasn't feeling too into this photo session, but y'all, guess what's special about this pic? This dress is 24 years old. I wore it when I was 7. AND! My grandmother, Ruth, made it for me. We walked Wendy, in this dress, over to my grandmother at church Sunday morning, and I think she was surprised, however, she does not remember making it. I wouldn't either! It's been a loooooong time!

Monday, yesterday, Wendy turned 4!!!!!!!!!! For her birthday, and it was perfect because James was off work for Labor Day!, we left Linc with my mom and took Wendy to Galveston. We swung by our old house in Dickinson on the way, to show her where she was conceived, however, we didn't use that word of course! Once at the ocean, we put her swimsuit on and tried to play in the sand, however nothing made that a very appealing choice. For one, it was drizzly, windy and somewhat stormy! The waves were crashing rather roughly, the sand was cold, compacted and covered in trash, and I had to use the porta potty, but this, we think, drug addicted couple were in there doing something that takes longer than using the potty or changing clothes. We saw them emerge from their respective stalls a long time later, each somewhat out of it and carrying suspicious baggies. So sad. Wendy freaked out by the vastly different appearance of this beach, versus the calm, soft, gorgeous, sunny ones from her prior home, so we quickly switched gears. The Rain Forest Cafe! We took her on the adventure ride, and the first time through, she was one scared kitten.....

Her little eyes darted here and there, and James did his best to point out that the snakes and gorillas were really just mechanical and like big toys.

Still, girlfriend was not too comfortable with it.

To make her feel bettah, I surprised her with a plush, "purchased with my loving heart," from the gift shop, and we sat down to eat!

Wendy was quite taken with a massive, bright butterfly affixed to the wall across from our table and marveled at how its wings would occasionally open and close slowly as if in rest.

Our waitress took this pic for us, and Wendy is seen here trying to hold up, not "stree," but FOUR fingers! All day long she asked, "I'm FOUR?! TODAY I'm four?!" Because her first birthday party was days early, she was thrown off a bit.

Two gals came around taking donations for missions and made these really cute balloon characters, so of course, we let Wendy get one.

She chose Hello Kitty.

I played the "mean game" with her and tried taking it for myself, but smart Woo Loo wouldn't have it! A fun thing we did was every now and then, I'd note the time, "Oh, James! It's 1:43, time to sing Happy Birthday to Wendy again!"

In keeping with the spoiled birthday girl theme of the day, we got her the souvenier elephant drink filled with cherries, which we had to dig out for her.

A lunch guest...

Then, the waitresses came around to present an icecream sundae and to sing Happy Birthday to her! She loved it! And, I was glad for her to have it as she'd done a fantastic job eating her popcorn shrimp!

James and I had fish tacos and he slurped an adult beverage, you know, the kind they have in the rain forests...

This one speaks for itself.

Yeah, so does this one.

All during lunch, all we heard was how much she wanted to ride the ride again. MAN! I so wish we hadn't let her, because last night, the night before her first day of pre-k, she awakened, SCREAMING several times, afraid of having a nightmare. I knew it!

This series of photos was taken by my mom. I love how they're interacting!

FIRST WORD!!!

Friday I felt somewhat like a neglectful mother because the nurse at the doctor's office asked if Lincoln can play pat a cake. Well, honestly, I've never played that game with him! I've played other goofy, made-up games, but not too much peek-a-boo either. I just guess I sort of saw those games as girly or something! Ha! Well, then she asked if he could wave bye-bye. I had not taught him! Ah! I said, "Well, he can click his tongue back at me. (wincing now). He can play this game by himself where he picks up the wooden spoon and places it high up on the coffee table over and over again. He really likes to do that. He loves trains. Ummm..." "Well," she said, "you might want to work on bye-bye." AH! I felt terrible! So, last night, I had my mother hold him while I waved frantically in front of him and in a high-pitched tone, repeated, "Bye BYE! Bye BYE!" All of the sudden, my little man stuck his arm out at me and yelled, "BYE BYE!" Whoop! First words!

New Teacher, New Doc

Well, one of the thangs needs doin' when movin' is selecting a suitable teacher for your chirens as well as a suitable doctor. Check! Check! New pre-K teacher, Miss Kristi, could not be more ideal in every way. We attended Open House last night, dropped Wendy off in her classroom "Ahoy Mates!" At the threshold, on the floor, was a large poster with picture-choices for each child. He or she could give the teacher a handshake, a high five, a hug or a smile. Wendy opened her arms and gave a massively sweet hug! She walked right in. Next, we were corralled along with all the other confused parents, into the auditorium for orientation. Afterwards, we took a peek at Wendy in the room, and she was front and center, listening to a story and not one iota apprehensive. I think she benefitted greatly from her last preschool, and I give her former teacher the credit. Below is a pic of Wendy with her darling teacher.

Today we had our well baby and well child visit with Dr. Henderson. He impressed us with his kind demeanor, and I think the kids will be under fantastic care at this practice. Wendy is pretty much in the 50-75th percentile range in both height and weight. She had her hearing and vision tested and she cooperated quite nicely. She got a sticker. Lincoln, on the other, hand, phew. Man, oh man. My hunka hunka burnin' love is almost off the charts!!! He's 8 mos., 29.5 inches long, 21 lbs, 8 ozs., and his head is honkin' at 47 cm. Dr. H predicts our little man child, if he continues on this trend, will grow up to be 6' 2" tall! That's pretty surprising! Below are pics from today.

More Celebrations!

We just returned from a fantastic week-long visit with my folks in H-town. It was just so nice and relaxing. One of the things we did was help celebrate my mom's 60th birthday, which is also my folks' 39th anniversary! My dad treated everyone to Taste of Texas. We all were delighted, when much to our surprise, Linc was dipping the toast into the cheese-berry dip, licking it, and returning it for another dunk! It's like he must've seen us doing it!

Wendy thought it was adorable that her little bro was eating the toast in this way! My sister-in-law, Missy, was brilliant. She brought along paper and crayons for the girls. Phew, thanks Missy!

Stephanie glowed. Third bambino is ripening in her belly as I type! This will be their token man-child!

Restaurants like this one are known for great steaks among other things. I'm so glad I'm carnivorous!

At home, my mom gave Linc a bath in the kitchen sink. This is a tradition in her home...and perhaps a little bit "southern."

Of course, Linc loves it every bit as much as all the other kids love it!

We enjoyed a couple meals at University Place, too, home of my grandmother. Here is Lincoln with my cousin, Victor. Lemme tell y'all somethin'. When my brother and I were young, we were PICKY! Then, I recall a short period of time in which my cousins, Devon, Wesley and Victor, were themselves, picky. They are no longer picky at all. Well, now Wendy is the picky eater. And it's a battle to get her to eat anything healthy if it's not fruit! The great thing about babies, like our little Lincster, is that they aren't picky yet. NOT YET! Oh, please, please don't become a picky eater, Linc! Okay?!

As HOT as it is right now down here in Texas, sometimes we just have to throw on the suits, grab water guns or fill the ole pool and splash our way to comfort. Of course, Wendy had to have one of her beloved Zhu Zhu's out there to "watch her" play!

I took this series of playful shots on my dad's "nap couch." Linc was just pure sweetness. Giggles spewed out of him like green pepper jelly from a soft, gooey, Texas roll!

I truly love the one below....

Lincoln and Winston.

My nearly four-year-old daughter! AH! Look how long she is! Look how mature she looks! I don't recall giving her permission to grow up so quickly! Wah!

It really gets me when I go shopping for her, or my mom in this case, and we find that the clothes in her size match the styles WE WEAR! WHAT?! These safari capris, come on now, for my baby?! Well, they sure look cute on her. I'm okay with it. I just sometimes look back on the days of bubble suits and elastic waistbands stretched over puffy diaper bottoms. Sob.
Note the Texas star on my mom's front door. I love their front door actually. Wouldn't mind having one like it on my next house! We'll see....

On Thursday, we met up with Grandma and Grandpa in Columbus so that they could enjoy Wendy at their house for a few days. It was great to see them and give them a big hug. We had a nice lunch and then parted ways. I took the next few days to shop and prepare for Wendy's birthday party.

Behold the Zhu Zhu Pet Party Princess Cake that I made! I had to find an Easter egg cake form in August, which wasn't easy, but thankfully, a specialty baking shop had one! I followed an online tutorial and added my own embellishments to make her extra foo-foo. I made it on Sat. for her party, which was yesterday, Sunday.

The tiara and ears are from Claire's. I was going to make the ears out of banana chips, but when I saw these ear hair clips, I was like, "SCORE!"

Linc, my dad, my bro, my uncle. "The menfolk."

Wendy and some of her party guests checking out the unicorn pillow pet from Mimi!

I kind of went nuts with party favors, knowing they'd all love having these goodies the way I used to freak out with joy whenever I'd get a bag or basket of treats at a party. I'm still a little girl inside.

The early stages of decorating. So glad Wendy wasn't there for that. She walked in in amazement and it was a great wow factor for her. More pics of her party to come once I get them!

Birthdays!

These are the three or so months of concentrated family birthdays. Recently ~James' sister, Tiffany's birthday, his grandmother Alma's, and today is his! We, the kids and I, met up with him and our new friends for lunch at Sodalak's! I picked up a cheesecake, candles and "goodie bags" and we had a great time. In this first pic, however, a very sweaty and quite fussy Wendy sort of steals the show with her puppy dog eyes! Still, she had a good time celebrating her old man, and at home, right before she had her quiet hour, she and I celebrated Num Num's birthday...with all his Zhu Zhu pet friends.

Wendy couldn't have been more proud!

And sidekick, Linc, seemed to enjoy the festivities as well.

Taken last night, before we left for Community Group at the church. Wendy calls this her "Walker face."

Oh, for the LURVE of Zhu Zhu!

Our precious Wendy is INFATUATED for the first time in her tender nearly four years of life. No, it's not a boy, THANK GOODNESS! It's hamsters. But she thinks they're chipmunks...or used to think so until we informed her otherwise. These precious squeeking, talking, scurry-rats are her bffs, and there is absolutely no way to leave the house without at least TWO tucked away carefully inside of her special, kitty cat be-jeweled handbag. She eats, sleeps, BREATHES Zhu Zhu pets, and has made them the focal point of playtime, obviously, and bathtime and potty time, making me set them up on the sink counter so that they may keep her company. They watch her eat. They watch her everywhere. It's kind of eery. Zhu zhus here, zhu zhus there, zhu zhus underneath your chair! She wants me to create some sort of Zhu Zhu costume for her to proudly don on Halloween, and of course, she wants a Zhu Zhu-themed birthday PARTY, so with the loving help of my sister in law, we have found sites that actually instruct moms, or dads, how to create Zhu Zhu paperware, cakes, favors, and the like, so stay tuned for more blog posts that will eventually make you Zhu-Zhu-Crazy!

Take it from Me (no pun intended)

I can't believe this happened to us,

I'd offer a seat as I tell 'ya,

But the movers have trashed every surface we have,

So lean on those shelves, be careful! They're busted,

And that shattered mirror might nail 'ya!

~It would've been better had thugs in their quest

Pilfered, destroyed and stolen,

Than for us to have PAID these movers on-line

to leave our household so broken


I know this ordeal should not have a spot front and center in our world. After all, it's just stuff. But because I'm constantly realizing I need something that's GAWN, it's harder than rocks to get past it all just yet. And after literally thousands of dollars in damages and lost belongings, including my only two antiques with now-missing pieces and my own art, which James had professionally framed for me last year, and which he asked them to crate carefully, AND after breaking our backs to pursue justice, and as of yet, with absolutely no fruit, it's just one big long outrage. It's a freakish thing. I mean, I remember my family's moves across the GLOBE y'all, and they were here when the guys arrived. They've NEVER seen such disorder, such a horrendous outcome. It's a loooooong story, and one I so desire to put behind me. I pray so hard now. I just pray for justice, perfected according to God's own judgment. And I pray that if that does not come, that we will have peace over it and move on soon. We have to. I'll do all that I can first though, and will do my part to protect others!