AUBURN A DAY

Long ago, in the midst of not-so-fantastic Auburn football records, we decided that the safest way to take our children to an Auburn football game and not worry about winning or losing would be to attempt A-Day.  Stephen and I had actually never been before, but went to almost every home game during college AND as newlyweds, thanks to his parent's season tickets.  So we reserved a room at the hotel and conference center and arranged babysitting for Jacob.
Little did we know that the Auburn nation would soon experience a dramatic upheaval of the current football regime...with firing and hiring and shifting and shaking.  By the time A-Day rolled around, the hype of the coaching shift as well as the sad goodbye ceremony for the Toomer Oaks promised for quite the exciting weekend.

The trip up was actually pretty painless, even though Emory decided to potty train herself two days before and didn't quite have it all down yet.  Thankfully though there were no accidents and tons of movies.

AND NO NAPS.

We were not counting on this lady missing her nap, since she is a great car-napper, and after an impromptu dinner with some friends, needless to say it led to one extremely sleepy baby come bedtime.
Incredibly sleepy and hyper at the same time.

So after around six hours of sleep {vs their usual twelve}, Stephen and I braced for what was sure to be a quick little trip over to the actual A-Day game.

And we were right.  Emory was having pottying issues {as in she was not going.  at all.  problem.} and Bennett lost interest soon after discovering Auburn wasn't playing anyone and therefore no one was really winning or losing {his competitive streak came through}.  They both loved Aubie and screaming and singing cheers they have known since they could speak.  We made it to the end of the first quarter, then threw in the towel and decided it was a good time to head to the hotel for naps.

Which were not had.  Emory was jumping around and throwing fits and NOT napping.  And Auburn was PACKED with people.  We had no idea how we were going to take the kids to dinner and neither Stephen nor I could imagine spending our remaining time in our beloved Auburn in a hotel.  We went against our better judgement and decided to brave the crowds around Toomer's corner before the official start of the ceremony for pictures and final rolling attempts.

As tired and slightly disappointed as we were heading downtown, we were SO thankful we decided to do it.  There were so many people we could barely move, and we only got within twenty yards or so of the actual tree, but the kids got to throw some toilet paper around and we got to experience being surrounded my thousands of Auburn-loving fans.  It really was wonderful.

And after being down there for about twenty minutes it was time to go :)

All we knew was that Emory was overly exhausted, there was no way were would be able to wait through the crowds to get a table anywhere with the kids anyway, so we packed up the car and headed home.  Emory thankfully passed out immediately.  Bennett couldn't stop talking about Auburn and how pretty it was and I so wished it could have worked out to stay that last night for his sake.  But when you have small children sacrifices have to be made and we definitely learned that on this trip!

I can't wait until our next trip and when I think about it now, just a month and a half later, I have no doubt Emory would be able to handle it with much more grace and ease...thanks to potty training mastery and leaps and bounds of overall "growing up."

I feel thankful to have gone to such an amazing school and to be part of the Auburn family.  It might sound crazy but the family part really is true!  One of the happiest places on earth to Stephen and me, and we can't wait to share more of it with our children. {maybe just in a few more years ;) }

And hey, it was worth all the craziness just to see this girl in her Auburn cheerleading outfit.

Die.

HELLO?

Anyone there?

I have to say these unplanned blog breaks are SO hard to...break.  The longer I go without blogging, the harder it is to jump back in it.  I haven't even been READING them recently, which is even more of a stretch for me.

Summer is here and I am l.o.v.i.n.g. it.
Loving the lazy mornings, lack of schedule, fresh produce, not-to-terrible heat {yet}, beach trips, and children who are just now sneaking in to what seems like an overall age of do-ability.  Meaning I can actually leave the house with two or more in tow and not feel like a total failure of a parent while apologizing and disciplining and leaving places mid-task, just to get the heck out of dodge and not deafen the ears of all the innocent bystanders surrounding us.  Dramatic, but seriously we've had some phases recently.

Emory is not only naturally my more headstrong child, but she is two and a half.

 Speaking in full drawn out sentences but choosing most of the time just to say "NO!!!!."

And if discipline is given, half the time Jacob thinks it's a free for all on Emory and runs over to hit her on the head a few times.  We've spent much of the past few months breaking up hair pulling/screaming/pushing fights between the two babies and the hardest part has been being able to reason with only one of them {Emory} but not being able to enforce much because her little brother doesn't really yet comprehend the discipline and it's just not fair that when she pushes and snatches she gets in trouble and he just gets a gentle but firm "no."

All of that to say a corner has recently been turned.  I am happy to report that while pushing and snatching is still alive and well, there is an equal share of holding hands, laughing with each other, and big sister helping the baby get up vs. being the one who pushed him down.

And while it would be easy to wish this phase in their lives away right now {the fighting/being too young to really discipline}... I find myself LOVING these babies and their current stage of baby-ness.  This blog started as a family journal of sorts and eventually branched into a general place of creative release.  But the part that pains me the most about my blogging absence is the loss of journaling about my babies.  They are growing so so fast and I could write so much about them every single day, and wish that I did.

So humor me for a little bit of "catching up" :)

Bennett is obsessed with all things Lego, Star Wars, and Star Wars Legos.  We are on the fifth movie of the Star Wars ...sixology?...and it has been so fun to sit down and watch {parts of} all of them again with him.  {Daddy doesn't do Star Wars}.  He is one of my best friends and now spends most of his "quiet time" during the baby's naps in the room with me wherever I am.  He's my not-so-little-anymore shadow.  I don't know how I am going to make it every day in the fall...all day...while he is at Kindergarten.  I just know those week day afternoons from 3pm until bedtime are going to turn into full on soak-it-up time...getting as much as I can out of my growing little man.

He is just so so good.  He has an enormously inspiring heart for Jesus and a hunger for the Word that both baffles and impresses me.  His child-like yet grown-up mind sees and understand things so simply and clearly that I find myself learning more from him than he could ever learn from me.  I am so proud of this one, and pray for a heart like his when I grow up :)

And after all the Emory talk earlier...well what can I say.  She is a sassy spitfire teddy bear of a "big girl momma".  She keeps me on my toes and can melt my heart {and resolve} with one little blink of her dark eyelashed eyes.

She tests every parenting theory and has become quite the professional finger wrapper. {ask her Pop}.  She does everything with every bit of her tiny self...I can see this being one of the things about her that I love the most but that also causes a few head butts on the parenting front!

Growing up with two sisters {aka built in best friends} I really wish she could experience the same thing...but since that is not written in our stars I will continue to naively think that she and I will just always be BFF and I will always be the first number on her speed dial.

Jacob.
Chunkapotamus.
Roly Poly muffin man.
Butter beannnnnnnnnn.

My heart literally breaks a little bit with each new thing Jacob learns.  I am bursting with pride but also bursting a bit at the thought that it makes him less and less baby.
And he's my BABY.  I just can't get enough of him.  It's a problem.

He laughs easily and at everything and he laughs LOUD.  He loves shoes and Steele and his big brother and drinking water out of a sippy cup and peekabo and the song "Locked Out Of Heaven"by Bruno Mars {seriously...he sings the "eh eh eh eh UH" part all day}.  He just recently started making a bashful face that makes you fall out on the floor.  He is such a round little baby faced baby and he needs to know that he will always be that to me.  Curse of the baby of the family!! :)

Thanks for sticking with me through my blinded-by-love mommy journaling.  I hope to do some more frequent blogging about all the other things I like to write about: food, gardening, interior design, and my new-but-not-yet-finished kitchen.  

For now, though, I will leave you with THE ONLY picture I have, EVER, of all three of my babies looking at the camera, smiling!

My sweet little {biggest} blessings

~be still my heart~

EASTER

Without writing an entirely new "overwhelmed" post, {because I could :)}, I thought I would catch up on the recent "events" in our life....sans kitchen.

Due to unseasonal weather {for maybe the third year in a row} the azaleas all bloomed much earlier than normal.  But when azaleas bloom in the south, especially in our area, they are spectacular.  When we moved into our "pink trailer on the sandy hill" {what Stephen called our ranch style house before we painted and sodded and landscaped :)} we dreamed of what "could be" when we looked at our tiny, newly planted Formosa and George Tabor azaleas.  Now, the bushes are bigger than the kids and the perfect backdrop for those beautifully posed Southern portraits with smiling kids and pretty smocked outfits.

HA!

I don't know how other people do it.  Mine never want to look at the camera, or smile, or sit still long enough for the super quick auto focus.  But I did get a few, and I will cherish them :)

most of them looked like this:

The Easter season was a quick and fun one, with no sitting in the mall "Easter Bunny"'s lap pictures but thanks to preschool parties and a wonderfully thoughtful friend/mommy we had some egg hunts and Easter Egg dying.

poor kids, mean mommies made them look directly at the sun

smile jacob!:

Our actual Easter was spent back in our own home, when our kitchen was at the "waiting on cabinets" stage.  It was such a wonderful Easter.  Relaxed, laid back, honey-baked ham and paper plates kind of day.  

Despite moving in and out of my parents house due to the renovation, the Easter Bunny found us at home and the kids were happy.

{one day poor Jacob will have his own Easter basket ;)}

{someone woke up and ransacked his basket a little early...}

Somebody else thankfully found us on Easter, too

{La and Pop}