Ramblings from Alabama

My little Nora turned 3 years old today.  Wow!  I am amazed how fast this parenting thing happens.  Praise God for this blessing.

We are preparing for a little longer haul over Easter to head up to southers Illinois in the camper.  Roughly 300 miles.  Should be a good ‘ol time.  After our shakedown trip to Birmingham, it was evident that we needed new shocks on the land barge.  I was able to install the front shocks this weekend in-between lawn mowing, laundry, home clean-up, and other miscellaneous projects.  I took the RV out for a test drive and it was a night and day difference.  No more proposing down the road.  Of course, since I did not get the rear ones installed, it felt like the rear end was a little loose.

While Dawn was out shopping with the girls tonight, I went to work on the rear.  They were a breeze compared to the front.  I wish I would have just gone ahead and done them this past weekend.  Oh well, live and learn.

I got an email today from WordPress stating that I had 3 pending comments.  They were spam of course, but the reminder jumped out at me… We have this awesome blog that my brother set up for us and I have not personally posted in probably 3 years.  Dawn was doing such an awesome job, I felt I didn’t need to.  I think we both got lost in Facebook.  Social network sites have really come a long way in the last couple of years.  Status updates are just not the same as a blog though.  They are more like quips than status updates.  So maybe I will get this thing cranked up and refreshed again… and then again, maybe I won’t.  Time will tell.

“Mommy, why don’t our bodies last forever? In heaven, I am going to get a new body but I’ll still talk the same and have the same name. I want a brown body.”

Lots of talk about heaven and salvation these days at our house!

No, you didn’t miss anyone’s birthday…I just sort of neglected to blog about it nearly two months ago when it happened. So, in the spirit of keeping “current,” I’d like to wish my sweet Nora a happy two-years-one-month-and-sixteen-days birthday!

Nora celebrated her birthday (April 17) with her little friends (and some big friends, too) and a Winnie the Pooh party. We had a really good day, and MaMa and PaPa were even able to come up from Houma to celebrate with us, making it extra-special.

The birthday girl…

Blow out those candles!

It’s a party! Peach Nehi, all around!

“Bubbles! Just what I’ve always wanted!”

Now, with two years of age come certain privileges and responsibilities. Like the privilege of getting to sleep in a big girl bed and the responsibility of staying IN the bed when it’s time to go to sleep. Which didn’t happen the first night because, well, she fell out. Fortunately, it wasn’t a long fall (I’d say about 8 inches or so), so no harm done!

Big girl looking super cute in her big girl bed…

Big girls’ room…

Mary and Elise finished their first year of Cubbies. Last Sunday, May 2, our church had an AWANA awards ceremony for the kids.

Mary and Elise on stage, admiring their first-year book awards, which were tiny little Cubbie bears. They received this award for completing their Cubbie book, which included memorizing 25 short Bible verses. Way to go!

Cute little Cubbies!

Elise and her award.

Mary and her award.

Me and my award for one year of service in AWANA. I was a Sparks second-grade leader this year.

Mary says to me today, while I’m tucking her in for her nap (which is one of the times, along with sitting on the potty, when you really get to learn what goes through a child’s head)…

“Right now I have my baby teeth. But pretty soon, they’re going to fall out and then I’ll get my pregnant teeth.”

What have we been doing since February 6? Well…

We went to Disney World in February. Travis took a zillion pictures. I am not going to upload bunches of them to the blog. Sorry! If you want to hear all about it and see all our pictures, you will have to come for a visit! Or check Travis’ facebook page…he spent a lot of time each night uploading pictures there while we were in Disney. While he slaved away on that project each night, I relaxed in the tub!

Family picture with Goofy. See how much fun Nora is having at Disney?!

Goofy and Sleepy

Mary and Elise celebrated their fourth birthday!

Party fun

Black icing is always a winner!

Now Sleepy is Goofy.

A new fishing game and a butterfly kit!

Nora’s been talking for some time now, adding words here and there, and now I can’t even remember when she could only say just a few words. But it’s always exciting when your baby starts putting words together. A few days ago, Nora was helping me unload the dishwasher. As she pulled out each colored plate and cup, she would say “Das MayMee’s” (That’s Mary’s) or “Das SeeSee’s” (That’s Elise’s) or “Das NorNa’s” (I think you get it now!). And she was right every time. She has noticed what color each of her sisters prefers and she knew that Mary usually has pink or red, Elise purple or blue, and Nora green or orange. My little genius!

But today’s little “sentence” was really exciting. We had gone to the doctor and stopped at Sonic for slushies, to kill time while we waited for our prescription to be filled, which wasn’t even ready anyway when we got there, which angered me a little. Anyhoo, we get our slushies at Sonic and as you know, they put a peppermint on top of the lid of each cup. So I set the cups in the cupholders and made my way to Rite-Aid (where, did I mention this already, my prescription was NOT waiting for me). As we were driving, Nora starts calling my name. “Mommy, Mommy, Maaahhh-my, Mom, Ma, Maaaaa!” “Yes, Nora?” Then she says (and I am going to just write what I heard rather than try to spell what she actually said), “There’s candy cane on cup!” I am telling you, that was awesome. My baby can TALK!

Mary was the last one left at the dinner table tonight. Her sissies had finished and I was starting to clean the kitchen.

Mary: Mommy, don’t leave me!

Mommy: Mary, I won’t leave you. I’m right here cleaning the kitchen and I’ll stay here with you as long as you want me to.

Mary: I want you to stay with me forever.