lily just absolutely adored everything about dance class. the outfits, the shoes, the 'ballet buns' in her hair. she went over the moon when we walked in and one of her first friends was in her class!!

(click on the picture to see it bigger!)

lily's first day of dance class is today! she is very excited!!

i'm a beach person, kevin is a mountain person. i am not kidding when i say this is a serious point of contention in our relationship. he wants to ski, i want sand between my toes. i inherited this love of all things ocean from my mother. hopefully its a dominant gene and the whole 'freeze your A off in the snow' is recessive.

this year, the scales tipped in my favor and we headed to south padre island with his family. you can see a bajillion pictures from our week HERE.

i saw a quote on pinterest yesterday that immediately rang true...

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."

isak dineson

mimi is the 6th member of our family. she pretty much goes everywhere eve goes. no matter how i try to limit mimi to the bedroom, she makes her way into our day- everyday. when eve falls down the first thing she cries after 'mommy' is 'miiii miiiii!' second only to having her fingers in her mouth, this darn bunny has brought my sweet eve so much comfort in the past two years and for that i am eternally grateful.

i have gone so far as to stalk ebay for mimi backups and paid a ridiculous sum for the security of a spare bunny. hey, a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do to keep the peace!

eve handed me her treasured bunny today and asked me 'you take mimi's picshure?' yes eve, i take mimi's picshure.

laundry. its a hate-hate relationship.

so far i have two girls that insist on wearing dresses. its all dresses all the time around here. i don't know if eve is just picking this up from lily or if i drew the short straw twice. (please oh PLEASE not three times!!)

so apart from refusing to wear their perfectly good shorts, skirts, shirts, and tanks- those unworn clothes somehow make their way into the laundry during early morning drawer rummaging or closet raiding. so i still somehow wash these clothes. and apart from washing i have to then fold, transport, and put them away. can you tell its pissing me off?

in addition to the manual labor, its the attitude portion of the clothing experience that is equally maddening. the sense of entitlement and preference, man oh man. remember when your mom said stuff like 'there are starving children in africa that would love to eat your broccoli'? that's pretty much me, except swap 'naked' for starving and 'eat your broccoli' with wear that outfit.

basically i'm going minimalist on their wardrobes. its about to be rationing- the likes not seen outside the soviet union. five dresses. laundry done twice a week. shorts/shirts on loan when the activity requires, to be returned and laundered promptly.

if this doesn't work i'm going to resort to uniforms. and i'm only halfway kidding.

we're back.

back from the beach. back to life. back for a meeting at church about big changes. i can feel it. something is happening in our family.

i prayed a prayer that scared me the other day. letting go of control (or the illusion of such) is not in my repertoire. because i trust, because i want to learn to trust i will continue to pray it. the prayer that scared me.

god, move my family. move in us. change us. amen.

Annie crawls

don't you love my classy baby learning how to crawl on a pool table? she has mad skills already

act like you're asleep!!

i have no idea when this phenomenon started in my family, but we thought it was hiLARious when we were growing up. no matter what was going on if someone else entered the house or the room one of us would whisper 'act like you're asleep!' and we'd all stop what we were doing and pretend to snooze.

it was the moments before the person realized you were all feigning sleep, trying to hold in your chuckles, that were the best. it started when we were younger but we still do it sometimes as adults.

yesterday lily was looking for me calling out my name and i was laying down with eve and kevin. i said 'act like you're asleep!' we all dropped our heads and our eyes and when lily found us and said 'heyyyy! you're not asleep!' we all giggled out of control.

really, its the little things in life that make me happy.

today i spent more time with lily than i have in a long time- just with lily. if you had asked me in the past week if a full day with lil sounded relaxing i would have died laughing. but you know what? i had the best day. best day in a long time.

we started the day sleeping together (eve wasn't feeling so hot so i took lil to bed with me at 4:45). when you wake up with lily you wake up EARLY. i took advantage of that by taking her out for her 4 year photo shoot and we celebrated our success with a trip to the doughnut shop.

then my sister and i took lily to barton springs during 'nap time' for the littler kiddos. she was in hog heaven. i mean she was in her element completely and loving it. we swam, she jumped like a fish into that glorious 65 degree water, and we laid in the shade.

while erin and i were chatting she was dancing around behind us talking to herself, singing a bit, telling a story to no one in particular. so much so that when we got up to leave a big group of twenty somethings behind us broke out into spontaneous applause for their entertainment. i told lily they were clapping for her and that she should bow and she immediately struck a pose only lily could come up with that was half bow, half 'ta-daaaaa!'.

goodness i love that girl. i couldn't be more thankful for days like today. tomorrow we have another fun lily and mom outing planned- a princess train ride. lord be with us, i hope its a repeat of today's fun!

she will show me forgiveness.

lily has a very strong personality (like her mom) which of course means we butt heads from time to time. okay, maybe its more often than i'd like. she challenges me like no other. just like any refining process, it can be pretty painful. the one thing she wants after a disagreement or difficult interaction? love and cuddles. she will show me forgiveness.

she will slow me down.

eve's nickname from time to time is 'lollygag central'. eve scoffs at instant rice and thinks shortcuts are for losers. she prefers to take the scenic view in life, which is good and well when you have the time but can seriously grate on your nerves. trying to get all 3 kids anywhere on time (because god forbid we be late) tends to turn into a lot of 'hurry up girls' and eve reminds me life isn't all about 'hurry up'. she will slow me down.

she will teach me joy.

everywhere we go, everyone we meet has one thing to say about annie (well after they admire her lovely hairdo)...'what a HAPPY baby'. annie is just plain happy. from the moment she wakes up to the last yawn, she is reveling in connections and the wonder of life. spit up on yourself? no worries- just play with the spit up! she has already helped me perk up in the midst of many less than stellar moments. she will teach me joy.

i have a lot to learn. thankfully i have three willing and able teachers with me every day.