Lately

I've heard from a few people (well, my mom and one other person) that I need to blog more, so that leads me to believe one thing: the blog actually gets read by my mom and at least one other person.

Our lives have been the least busy they've ever been these past few weeks. This little booger keeps me hopping, from the time she gets up until we say a good-night prayer and lay her down, but generally speaking, our days are easy and restful.

We said a very sad but proud farewell to this little guy (and his parents):

We do get to have weekly facetime chats with them all the way across the world!  Avery turns one this month, and even though he and Eric and Katie are far away, we love that they are so selflessly obedient. So stinkin proud of them!

Easter was very fun this year. Esther had several chances to gather eggs. I refuse to say "hunt" when all she has to do is walk around...she should expect a challenge next year.

Mimi made special efforts for Easter outfits this year, and everyone was dressed beautifully.

Lee was gracious enough to let me keep my annual beach trip with Toni, and it was a much anticipated girl time.  I. love. this girl!!

As soon as I got back from the beach, I decided to tackle potty training.  It did not go well. On the third day of very little success and LOTS of messes, I gave up. We'll try again when Esther shows the least bit interest.  So far she's only interested in unrolling the toilet paper.

We had lunch with Mimi for Mother's Day, and we have so enjoyed all the extra time we've had with her lately!  I'm also realizing more and more that I am JUST like her. (Tip: Only I am allowed to admit that.)

We've had several birthday parties for friends, and Esther has attended all in true girly style. It cracks me up how prissy she is.

We had the chance to be at the hospital to welcome a new friend, Mason Marie! We have already had fun loving on "baybie," and can't wait for more snuggle time this summer!

After last year's water terrors, I was a little nervous about Esther's reaction to the pool this summer. This about sums it up:

She loves the water! We have a blow-up pool in the back yard that she loves, and she is fearless at Mimi's "big pool." She jumps off the edge without hesitation, and she can spend hours jumping off the steps and "swimming" (floating while I pull her) back. I'm so glad, especially since its already unbearably hot.

The best part about my being home is all the cousin time we get. The Renicks are in perfect walking distance, and I love how often we get to see them. Esther and Lyza Claire are in the same class at church, and it has only increased their fondness for each other. Its wonderful to know Esther has four loving cousins so close, and I LOVE having my big sister as a neighbor. She has become my closest friend, my shoulder to cry on and my confidant. I'm so thankful for her and her littles.

More to come later, but this should catch "both" of my readers up!

My Prayer for Esther

We love Shane and Shane music, Lee especially.  Its incredibly worshipful, full of truth and raw, gut-wrenching questions and answers about God's love.  I was home with Esther today, listening to Pages while cleaning and thinking about what the future holds for my bright-eyed little girl.  Those are the kind of thoughts that seem to randomly and constantly pop into my head these days.  I wonder what she'll say when she starts using "real" words.  I think about what school will be like for her (I already know I'll be that mom that cries HARD her first day), and if she'll be tested for the gifted class...since I'm convinced she's a genius.  I wonder if she'll like art and music, or lean more toward math and science like her daddy.  I can't decide what activities, if any, we should enroll her in, or allow her to participate in when she asks...or what we should go ahead with before she asks.  I wonder if she'll have a best friend that she sticks with through thick and thin, or if she'll have different groups of friends that come and go.  I wonder if she'll take an early interest in boys and how I'm going to be able to talk her into just having "special friends" until she's 30.  Will she roll her eyes when I try to share my heart, or my experiences like I did?  Will we be friends?  Will she feel safe at home, or will she rebel?
But mostly I wonder about her heart.
One of my favorite songs on the Pages album is "Embracing Accusation."  The chorus sings,

"The Devil is preaching the song of the Redeemed

That I am cursed and gone astray

I cannot gain salvation

Embracing accusation"

It talks about the Father of Lies, and I think about all the lies I've believed in my life.  And I wonder about all the lies Esther will hear.  What will she believe?  Will she believe she must be a certain size to be beautiful? Will she believe she must act a certain way to be loved?  Will she believe Satan when he whispers in her ear to be unfaithful to truth?  Will she believe him when she feels guilty, and he tells her she is TOO guilty to be forgiven?  Will she know who her Savior is?  Will she love Him and seek Him?  Will she follow Christ, or will she believe the Father of Lies?  
Oh! How my heart aches for my little girl! That I could give her my knowledge and hard lessons learned of Jesus' sacrifice, of His unfathomable love for her, of God's unimaginable plan for her life! How can I show her how to trust, believe, and love?  (Always immediately following this thought is conviction - can I show her if I am not 100% trusting, believing and loving?)
The end of this song is amazing:

"The Devil's singing over me an age old song

That I am cursed and gone astray

Singing the first verse so convincingly over me

He's forgotten the refrain:

Jesus Saves!!"

I always want to stand in the middle of the house with my hair brush microphone and rock this last part out. I want to shout it out! Mostly, I want to somehow transfer this particular piece of knowledge to my little girl's heart.  "Esther!!  Jesus loves you! So much so that he DIED for you!  Let Him be your hero, your strength. Cry to Him when you are sad and run like crazy to Him when your heart gets broken. Let Him comfort you.  Hide under His wings!"  My tears always fall quickly at these thoughts, at this prayer. For I know that Esther can make none of these decisions without knowing Christ, without being drawn to Him.  And so my prayer for my little girl isn't beauty, popularity, nor talent.  Its not that she'll have incredible ability.  I don't even pray that she'll never get her heart broken, because I know some of the most glorious truths are learned from heartache (though I know my own will break alongside hers).  My prayer is that her heart be drawn to Christ at a tender age, and that she never turn away.  My prayer is that I will finally learn to trust, believe and pray...and that when I do, my daughter will notice.

This Old House

This house is our house, our home, our thorn, our blessing. I bought this house before we married, but Lee has always been the muscle behind it.  From day one, he's helped with all the renovation, projects and improvements.

But this house is more than the roof over our heads.  This house is where Lee and I discussed our future.  Its where Lee proposed and afterward, where we sat together and called our friends and family to share our excitement.  This house is where we planned our wedding and discussed our pre-marital counseling. After our wedding, this house is where we came home to.

It was in this house that Lee announced he wanted to go to medical school, and this house is where we lived for aaaaaall the years of his school.  It was in this house where we laughed and cried with so many friends, and with each other.

We bought our first piece of furniture for this living room, our first (and second) replacement appliance, our first Christmas tree for the first of many family celebrations.

This one, very small bathroom is where we waited for the results of so many pregnancy tests, and where I woke Lee up early that one morning when it was finally positive.  And it was this small bedroom where we set up a nursery.

It was here that we brought Esther home from the hospital.  And it was this house where we rocked and fed and fell in love with a beautiful baby girl.

It is this front yard that I've mowed countless times, planted flowers that have died and died and died.  The back yard is what inspired this blog in the first place, with my first and second attempts at a garden (both failures...0-2 on growing vegetable provisions for my family).

Then the Walker men built me a deck in the back yard, which only increased the guys' nights, afternoons of reading and mornings of playtime.
   This house, that totally shifts every few years, causing deeper splits, new wall cracks, and a continuously steeper downhill slope. This house that is so small sometimes I can't spread my arms without knocking something over.  This house that has one, VERY small bathroom.  All - er, both - our faucets leak and at least one part of the floor in every room creaks.  You have to pull out and out and sometimes put some shoulder muscle into shutting the doors.

The closets are more like slightly deep doorways, and the ceilings are so low that I can touch them.  And I'm pretty short. The front lawn has a dead patch where nothing grows, not even transplanted grass. The yard on both sides of the house grows weeds but no grass, and seems to be a magnet for clay, standing water and dead leaves.
   This house, this yard - these walls and floors and windows and doors - this house has contained our lives for these 9 years. If it had a soul, we could call it a witness to our lives.  I hate this house on days, and I love it on others.  But no matter what day it is, I am grateful for this house.  I am grateful for our one bathroom, for our creaking floors and cracked walls, and for our patchy grass.  I am grateful for our door that sticks, our cozy living room and the "study" that got Lee through med school. I am incredibly grateful for this house, this old, lovely house.

Family Christmas

This year was the year to celebrate at Mimi's house.  Before Karla and Joel and Abe came into town, we all had a lunch at Mimi's house, where Mimi wanted a picture of the grandchildren.  This is about how that went:

It was too close to nap time and/or lunch for everyone to smile all at once.  So Mimi decided to jump in, and then Rob.

Then the Sarmientos came into town, and things only got better.  We ate together and played together.  On Christmas Eve, we all met at Mimi's for breakfast snacks, lots and lots of gifts, and a massive lunch.  It was chaotic, fun, and priceless.  There were little excited people everywhere, and their joy was contagious.  Of course, it was too hectic for us to remember to take ANY pictures...but it was wonderful.  Mimi and Papa Rob are the "hostess(es) with the mostess!"

Vintage Christmas Party

The Sanfords decided to throw a vintage Christmas party this year, and it was...amazing.  Aimee did a fantastic job with the snacks and drinks - and she pulled out all the fancy dishes and recipes:

They even had special drinks for toasts - just like in the good 'ol days!

The best part (for the girls anyway) was that we all got to dress up vintage, too.  Everyone went the extra mile, obtaining or fixing dresses to make them look old fashioned.

We even played a fun game of "3 in a cup," a mixture of charades and word games.  So fun.  Especially with this group.  We were busy playing, so we didn't get many pictures, but Lee managed to capture a couple of good moments:

It was such a good night, and the Sanfords were wonderful hosts! It was a fun idea, and Aimee made it real.  I love our friends.

1st Birthday Party

So...this post is WAY overdue.  We threw Esther a 1-year-old party (a while ago), and despite the promise I made to Lee to not get carried away...I may have. Whoops.

Before the party, we had a min-celebration the actual day of lil bit's birthday.  We started with blueberry muffins for breakfast, which she ate so quickly she promptly threw them up.  That evening, we had a special birthday cupcake for the birthday girl...which she didn't hesitate to dive into.  So. Much. Fun!

The birthday party was focused on rainbows and bubbles, and since it was in July, it was all water-themed. The weather turned out cloudy and rainy...which wasn't a total disaster, since it was water-themed anyway.  I tried to do a rainbow of snacks, which we put under a tent to protect from the drizzle: 

We welcomed guests with a bubble maker...which was then turned into the favors table afterward (jars of bubbles for the kids and bubble gum balls for the adults):

We had swim diapers available for anyone who needed them, and decorated with rainbow candy!

Outside, the deck was decorated with a fantastic banner made by my sister, with "bubbles" of pictures of Esther.  That's also where we had the watermelon, cold and ready to be cut, and drinks iced for adutls and kiddos:

The yard supplied our entertainment.  Lee made some awesome pvc water spouts, decorated with sponges.  We borrowed several kiddie pools for the younger children.  Mom helped me make the sponge stars - a cheap and easy option of things to throw, put in your mouth, etc.  Lee also blew up a fun tunnel water slide, and then put together a large slip n' slide on the far end of the yard.

Esther had SO much fun, thanks to Lee's tireless efforts:

The BEST part about the entire day was how many people showed up.  My dad came up, all of Lee's family came, family, church and community friends showed up, lots of Lee's co-residents from UMC, even my bff from the coast came up to help - we felt so loved and had so much fun celebrating Esther!

The birthday cake was AMAZING, made by Teresa Sones - who also delivered the cake to us that morning!   It was delicious and perfectly decorated!

Esther dug right in without hesitation, probably thanks to her "practice" cupcake on her birthday:

 Everyone got a little wet, thanks to the games and the rain.  But I think everyone had fun, too.  We have wonderful friends who chose to celebrate this blessing of life despite the weather.

 After all our friends left, we opened gifts surrounded by family.  Esther had lots of help unwrapping:



 The best part of it all is how much fun Esther had, and how long her nap lasted that afternoon.  Happy birthday to our little sweetheart!!  (And sorry this is months late.)