how my house on a sunday morning is like a project runway episode

a couple of notes on this picture... the popcorn garland that you see is exactly that long. i spent two hours making it and it didn't even go around the tree once- but you better believe that after two hours of work, that thing was going on the tree. i read that popcorn garland can be kept in an airtight container to be used year after year, and scoffed, "why would anyone ever keep popcorn garland for years?" NOW I KNOW.
picture of ellen with a harmonica or picture of ellen having a screaming fit? decisions, decisions....
okay, on to my very deep new blog post....

so, joel has to be at church earlier than the rest of us on sunday mornings because he has praise band practice. i am at home to get myself and the rest of the kids ready before we head to church. last sunday, as i was getting everyone ready, it occurred to me that every sunday morning is a little like the finale of project runway. if you haven't watched project runway before, this post will make no sense whatsoever.

project runway:
designer running around like a crazy person, doing a little last minute sewing...
parker house:
me running around like a crazy person, using a seam ripper to take off a blue and red saiboat patch off of the only khaki pants that fit evan.

project runway:
getting the models to hair and makeup...
parker house:
realizing that d. needs a haircut, trying to tame ellen's rat's nest and noticing that lane slept on his right side, because his hair is straight on the right side of his head while the rest is curly. hoping that everyone will overlook the dried milk mustaches or traces of apple strawberry banana baby food on their cute faces- all while buckling them into the car.

project runway:
designer running around screaming where are her shoes?!?...
parker house:
me running around screaming where are her shoes?!?

project runway:
designer freaking out about one of the models that hasn't shown up at the last minute....
parker house:
time to load everyone into the van and i'm running around the house saying evan!? (as if he could answer) and i find him eating a styrofoam peanut off of the laundry room floor.

i am sure that i could go on. the major thing that my scenario is lacking is a tim gunn. where is he when i need him on a sunday morning?

i started to note that at least i don't get judged after my 'runway show', but....

today

so, today. . .
ellen was playing in my purse. she bit a chunk out of a tootsie pop and put it back in my wallet. she chewed three pieces of gum and then spit them out into my checkbook. she licked and licked my lip gloss.
lane re-scraped his scraped-up knee and got to eat ice cream with dad.
davis had me laughing a lot today. he started vbs tonight.
evan has fought a fever all day. (and yesterday)
i have cried on the phone to a friend, tried to comfort a fever-y baby, fussed at and laughed with my kids, ate cheese-its for lunch, swept up lots of goldfish pretzels, failed at trying to get lane's lego man up some stairs on his computer game, prayed for a friend, piled up enormous amounts of post-weekend laundry, watched food network star, made lists, tried to organize stuff for small group on wednesday, cleaned the kitchen twice, made dinner for a change, spent too much time on the computer.
tomorrow i plan to. . .
take my little-est to the doctor, fuss less, apply sunscreen better than i did over the weekend, console ellen when she doesn't get to go swimming with her brothers by giving her some my little pony gummies, be a better wife, spend less time on the computer, and keep my purse out of ellen's reach.

insert title here

so, yesterday morning lane climbed (is that a word? i know it's not clum...) into bed with me for a quick snuggle before we had to get ready for church. he put his hand on my cheek and just smiled at me. what a sweet way to wake up. then he said, "mom, you look like a reindeer." nice.
this Christmas, we opted for minimal decorations. i didn't want to unpack a lot, just to have to pack it all back up to get ready for the move. little tree from lowe's. i don't have a picture of any of us in front of the decorated tree. we did decorate it, by the way.
happy birthday jesus cake. the kids help make it and even cracked their own eggs to put in it. it was a lot of fun! this was my attempt at reinforcing that Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus' birthday because lane thought it would be fun to argue that point one night while getting tucked in. i figured that a cake would bring it home. i think it was a success.
ellen talking on her tinkerbell phone. she hasn't been punched in the eye in this picture... she had pinkeye. poor thing.

joel's gift to the boys. crazy hulk gloves. he was really getting wholloped. the boys love them, but they are offically every once in a while toys. i don't think joel would enjoy them being out all of the time.

we had 6ish inches of snow before Christmas. there is still snow on the ground in our backyard. it was fun for the kids to play in for sure!

let's see what else we've been up to in the last month or so..

shopping at ikea, ear infections, pink eye all around, couch shopping, the lego store, home inspections, pajama day at d's school, m&m pancakes, time with sweet friends, Christmas lights with the Gruvers, limbo!, lane finally potty trained?, trying to make decorating decisions, tanglewood, davis singing at church and signing at school, a double boiler.

today is our last day at home with davis. he doesn't want to head back to school tomorrow, and i'd rather have him home, too. working on some new year's resolutions. i'll post them once i figure out what my goals even are. not sure if i will be blogging more or less this year. when i am feeling blah, i just can't even post, and honestly, i've been feeling blah a lot the last couple of months. i've had to kick it into gear over the last few days. this house is close to packed. we move our stuff on sat. and we move into the new house (if all goes as planned) next tuesday. i am excited and ready to get on with it. speaking of that, i really need to get busy around here.

what's new?

well, it has been a while. lots and lots has happened!
started to give updates, but decided to just post pictures...
here are the kids playing limbo. it is their favorite game to play!

davis wearing his 5K fundraiser tshirt and pretending to run. (my battery was dead on the day of the actual event.)
climbing a tree on souteastern seminary's campus. we had a super fun visit with the henkle's in october.
sweet lane.

lane one day at lunch time.
ellen at halloween.
our sweet girl...
i am 21 or 22 weeks along...i can't quite remember. feeling good, but starting to get winded by just walking from one room to the next. we are having a boy! we are super excited!! his name is evan thomas. seems like a long time before he will get here, but i suspect the next few months to go by pretty quickly.

our house is under contract! the picture below is the house that we have signed a contract for. our closing date for both houses is on or around jan. 12. i am thankful that we have time to spend the holidays in our house before we have to start moving! God has been so good to us. i am so thankful.

well, that is it for now. i will try to blog next time when i am in a more chatty mood. :)

joel's birthday was yesterday, but i have no pictures to prove it.

joel turned a year older yesterday, but i can't make too much fun, because i am a year older than he is. i am double old. we celebrated by having a yummy dinner, yummy cake (it is even yummier for breakfast!) and a low key night at home. family wii night! the kids were overjoyed! i didn't take one picture all night. ugh. i thought i would put some pictures up of something fun joel did recently...

we went to a crawdad's game with our friends the ballentines. (for those of you not from hickory, the crawdad's are the minor league baseball team in our town. it took us a while to get used to the name crawdad, especially since i have never even seen a crawdad around these parts and you know, that they call it a crawDAD.) it was a really fun time! davis got to chase the crawdad across the field, and joel and andrew got to dress up like a big hamburger.

they had to race to build a hamburger. joel is the bun on the ground. andrew had to run back and forth and put the burger, lettuce, pickle, etc. on top of joel and then jump on to complete the burger in the end.
they lost to some teenagers. it was super close in the end. but it was really funny to watch. (at least i thought so.) :)
just one of the reasons why baseball is america's favorite pasttime.

and just one of the reasons why i love joel. happy birthday a day late to my very favorite hamburger bun. love you.

my birthday

for my birthday, joel and the boys surprised me with a trip to the mountains. we ate at a restaurant with a beautiful view...we put the camera on the hood of the van and were surprised that this picture came out so well!

then we went to the park in blowing rock.

ellen was really cracking up going down the slide! she loved it!

my cuties!

monkeys.

then for yummy kilwin's ice cream. joel and the kids...

me and the kids...

ellen drinking my milkshake.

just having fun, taking pictures. my kids acting crazy. it's what we do best!

ellen still drinking my milkshake...

i had a great birthday!! the next night joel and i got to go to dinner with our sweet friends. and later, i got to have breakfast with my friend debbie. it was a nice birthday week! (isn't that how i should do it stacey? celebrate my birthday week? :) )

lane's birthday part 2

after we went to tweetsie for lane's birthday, we went to mcdonald's for dinner (the birthday boy's choice, of course) and then back home for a 'party'. the simmons came over to have cake with us. i did not make this one!

birthday boy!

us singing and lane licking his lips.

ready to blow out the candles.

the morning after his birthday, joel took lane fishing in the kayak. they had a great time! lane caught two fish!! :)