a wonderful life

Today was just awesome. We spent a quiet day enjoying the kids and their excitement. Well, quiet might not be the best choice of word. There is now a wii Beatles Rockband setup in our family room and it has gotten much use today. William got a ton of baseball stuff, Jordan got her beloved itouch and has already downloaded the free texting app, and Grace has her first American Girl doll. We are blessed beyond our needs to say the least.

Tonight Grace was saying her prayers. I love prayertime. It's the sweetest part of the day. I used to encourage them to list everyone in the family, but as the years have gone by I am 100% in favor of letting them pray what is on their hearts and minds. They've taught me so much through this.

So, back to Grace. After praying for her five year old thoughts, she got toward the end of her prayer. All of a sudden she burst into song singing:

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday dear Jesus!
Happy Birthday to you!

She sang at the top of her lungs. Then she went straight into closing the prayer. She looked up at me and said, " I just couldn't let the day end without singing it to HIM one more time!

God knew what he was doing when he made me a parent to this little lively spirit. She teaches me a lesson everytime!

out of the mouths

If I were smart, I would record all the funny comments these kids of mine make each day. Every day there is an observation from a young point of view. And usually those comments come with perfect comic timing...not always my preferred timing, but my three are always expressing their opinion on something. It runs in the family I guess.

I'm trying to remember more of these moments. Here's one that happened in the van last week. We were traveling around town. I often put in a cd of stories. Amazingly the kids seem to enjoy it. They normally quieten down and listen the the storyline. I've done this with Peter Rabbit, Magic Treehouse, Little House on the Prairie, and others through the years. It's good entertainment without the mom guilt. The library has a huge selection of them. Recently Wendy's gave out books on cd for happy meal toys. I was all over that. So much better than some plastic thing I trip over and eventually throw away.

I had a Jigsaw Jones Book playing through the CD player. As a sideline to the mystery, a father comes into the kitchen for dinner and gives the mother a big kiss. Grace pipes up loudly and says,

"I don't really mind when you give Daddy a big, sloppy kiss."

To which I replied, "Oh, you don't???"

Now at this moment I had expected Grace to spout about how loving our family was, or how much our marriage meant to her happiness, or something angelic. Instead, in a loud, dry, almost cynical voice I hear these words:

"Naaaah....it's really none of MY business!"

And then I laughed pretty hard. That girl is funny even when she is not trying!

future career aspirations

This morning Grace popped into our bedroom all bright and cheery at 5:30 am. She was bubbly and talkative as little girls often are...and in the midst of this she waxed poetic about her future career aspirations.

GRACE: "Hey, when I grow up I'm going to be a fireman."

DAVE and ANN: "You are???"

GRACE: "Yep, I'm going to be a BIG FAT FIREMAN when I grow up!"

I can't wait to tell our policeman friend about this one. He'll be taking Grace to the police station soon to show her the benefits of being a motorcycle cop.

birthday snapshots

This past weekend we celebrated two family birthdays -- Grace's third birthday and Dave's fortieth. My sister came over with her family and we took the cousin set to Build-A-Bear at the mall to enjoy an adventure. Dave had no idea about his birthday plans...well, except for wondering why there was so much good food in the house. We celebrated with an adult only concert outing to Chastain Park here in Atlanta to see Vince Gill and Amy Grant. I've got so much more to post, but wanted to give you a few snapshots until I am able to catch up.

Here is Grace brushing and blow drying her "MiMi Bear" off:


This is the full set of cousins plus one brave Aunt Julie (my sister) holding Lydia:


My darling niece Lydia giving the Pottery Barn chair her approval:


Two silly girls at lunch (excuse the kiddie cup in the picture...obvious photoshoping needed) -- Grace and Alana. They were born 5 weeks apart.


An excited birthday husband enjoying a laugh with his best friend Hawk and wife Lisa:

it's all in the translation

"Mammmmmaaaaa! I need the ghostbuster! I think I made a mess." said Grace

"Ghostbuster? Grace there are no ghosts around here." I replied wondering where she had heard of Ghostbuster.

"GHOSTBUUUUUSTER please!"

"Grace, take me to what you need. I don't understand."

"Mammmmmaaa! It's the cleaner. A DUSTBUSTER! I want to use the dustbuster!" Grace exclaimed.

"Oooooh, the dustbuster." said her confused mother. At least the girl wants to clean up her mess.