sami

When my grandmother had her stroke in the middle of June, it took only a little over 24 hours for my mom's three sisters to arrive here and just a couple days later, my cousins Hamzah and Farah arrived with their sweetheart Sami.  I hadn't gotten to meet him yet and I discovered it takes exactly one huge smile for him to completely wrap himself around your little finger!  :}  He was most definitely a happy bright spot in the midst of the sadness of saying goodbye to my grandmother. I mean seriously, how can you not smile and be happy with this little guy around...

I pulled out my camp swimming pool for Sami to cool off in one hot afternoon...of course the rest of us hung out and sweated while he enjoyed the cold water! ha.

Oh my heavens he is precious!!  :}

:D 

Hamzah is one of my two "baby" cousins and two of the ones I'm closest to.  Farah is his wife and I am so thankful she is now in our family!  She is so much fun to spend time with and I < 3 her!

I'm so glad y'all got to come spend some time down here and that you will be in the states for a while!  Hopefully you can come back soon - and hopefully I will get up there to see you too!  :)

**Ok, I am officially caught up!!!  Now I can move on to July posts! HAHA!! Ok, so i'm not actually caught up technically but anyways... camp posts coming soon!**

most dangerous job

Being a nanny is one of the most dangerous jobs ever. Why? Because you can't help but fall in love with the children in your care...but then there is always an eventual goodbye to a nanny job and you risk having your heart broken when you are no longer with your kids every week anymore (especially when you know the future goodbye could have an ocean separating you, not just a city!).  :-p  But it is by far worth the time spent and memories made...just a little rough at times.  :}

I miss my three kids every single day and pray for them often by name.  After about a month of not seeing them, my heart starts aching.  After 6 weeks, I usually start tearing up when I think about or pray for them.  After three months?!  I get desperate!  :-p

Three months is the longest we have ever been apart and I refuse to let that happen again!  This past week I was dying to see them and happened to be driving by their neighborhood on Wednesday and decided to stop by to see if they were by any chance at home.  They of course weren't, so I wrote a note on their glass door with window crayons letting them know I stopped by and that I loved them.

That evening I got a phone call from their dad saying Mr. Happy wanted to talk to me and was that ok? (um, ya think?!)  My MH got on the phone hiccup-crying and said "kiki...i thought i might never see you again!!" He then chatted with me for half an hour about all kinds of little boy stuff.  :)  It was then that I decided I had had enough.  I knew from talking to him and his sisters that night that they were going to day camp that week at their school. I knew about what time their mom usually picks them up and decided I was going to get there 20 or so minutes before that and just sit there with them until she came!  

Thursday morning I put a fbook status telling about the above phone call and how much I wanted to see my kids and I had five or six people say they were praying I would get to see them. 

That afternoon I was sitting in my friend's living room catching up after being gone for a few weeks when I got a text from my kids mom saying "hey, I know this is really last minute but would you want to pick the kids up from day camp and take them out to eat?"  I answered back "HECK YES!!!"  She called me real quick and mentioned "I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but it just popped into my head just now to see if you wanted to do that." 

Hahaha!  Wendy, it's not a coincidence that thought popped into your head - God gave you that thought - as a result of my prayers and the prayers of my sweet friends who knew how badly I wanted to see my kids!  :)  

I love picking him up! This isn't his first reaction - he had seen me but had to go get his backpack.  The first moment he did see me and it registered who I was, his mouth dropped open before a huge grin spread across his sweet face.  :) More about that later.

 FINALLY!!!  

Talking to him on the phone was great and I loved hearing his voice, but there is nothing like feeling his cheek against mine and having his arms wrapped around my neck!  :)

(Big Brother wraps his arms around my neck sometimes too...I love little boys!)

My sweet and silly girlies!! They were too far away when I picked them up to get a picture of when they first saw me.  They were looking for mommy's red car and then thought maybe my car was their daddy's because we have similar looking cars.  It wasn't until I got out and called their names that I heard Little Miss Sunshine squeal "KIKI!!!" and both girls ran as fast as they could across the field where they were playing.  :)

We went to Red Robins for dinner - one of our favorite special treat places.  :)  Then we headed downtown to the fountains at the World's Fair Park.  Another one of our favorite spots.

Another one of my happy spots...just chillin' with my kids.  :)

I love this pic because his little chubby cheek gives him just a little hint of baby look still, even though he's a big 5 year old.  :)

Bridal shoot at the fountains!  She was wearing cowboy boots under her dress and it looked so cute!  :)

Two kids in my lap! :)  Little Miss Giggles was busy drawing funny pictures for us. 

Goofy boy. :) 

She's my sweetheart. :)  And is getting to be so grown up.

(stop that LMS!!) :) 

She cracks me up!  And that makes her happy - to make other people laugh.  :)

Ok so this isn't the actual moment I picked him up from day camp but I've said before that I would love to try to get a picture of his reaction and this is the same reaction i get when he sees that it's me - huge grin, yells "KIKI!!!!!!", runs full force and jumps into my arms (which is getting trickier since he's not as little as he used to be! lol).  This is him practicing his "kiki run" as he called it. :} ♥

I just realized yesterday that he left his lunch box and LMS left her notebook in my car...that means I will have to get them back to them soon....oh darn!  :D

june recap: the boys :)

June means hot and getting hotter so we spent a lot of time playing with water in any and every way!  In my opinion, it is not worth being outside when it's that hot unless you are wet!  :)

 June also brings Big Brother's birthday! He is now officially two years old!

 He used to (actually still does sometimes) carry around a roll of contact paper and would pretend it was his guitar...so I decided he needed his very own real guitar (never mind the fact that technically it's a ukulele...).  

 Playing in the pool...lots of book reading...and red velvet pancakes for breakfast because Kiki had them at IHOP one day and had to try to make them...soo yummy!

 Thank you Pinterest! This simple "duh!" idea was a huge hit and I even used it later at camp! Take a pan and pour baking soda over the bottom.  Color some vinegar and use a dropper (we used a spoon since big brother couldn't quite figure out how to use the dropper yet) and pour little bits of vinegar on the baking soda! It of course makes wonderful little colorful fizzy spots and watching the colors mix together is way fun! Then of course you have to put your hand in it at the end and mix it all up! Warning: it will turn your hand pink...doesn't look like it, but it will! But only for a few hours. :)

 This is one of my favorite kid activities - peanut butter playdough!! It is ridiculously easy to make and tastes like peanut butter fudge - seriously!  :)  Click here for the post that has the recipe in it.

 Random fun times. :)

 More pool time!!

This is our June sensory box.  So far, this one is my absolute favorite!  I love love the feeling of those water beads!!  I think I would love to fill an entire shallow pool with them and just wade around in them! lol  They are so cool and slippery.  This month we have little ocean animals and boats to play with.  So fun!

And before I left for camp, I decided I needed some "real" pics of the boys to show off...

mini road trip

In the midst of the beginning of a lot of mom's family coming in to help after my grandmother had her stroke, I got to sneak away for a day and go on a mini road trip with the best friend. 

This is one of my happy spots.  Sitting in my car with the best friend driving. Especially when the sky is blue with happy clouds.  He would prefer to drive anyways.  The only downside for him is that I always pick the music.  :}

Hanging out up in KY with Rylie, my friends' little boy.  

And Rylie's dad Butterfly...er...I mean Tommy....!  ;)

(sorry...inside joke...)

Later we went to have a picnic dinner of delicious pizza and hung out by this creek.  That's my friend Angie from college.  She is quiet and shy when you meet her...but those of us who lived in the dorm know the other side of her...!  :}

Rylie and Michael discussing the art of rock skipping.

Great day spent with old friends on a muuuch overdue visit.  Quiet ride home on some crazy curves (.........).  Almost got hit by two deer. Saw an official URA (unidentified running animal)! Lol

Perfect. 

Thanks for letting us come see you Ang and Tommy!  Hopefully it won't be so long in between times now!

catching up on june

Well, once again I am behind on blogging!  A lot has happened in the past month but for a while blogger was being dumb and not letting me upload pictures and what is a post without a picture!?  Just boring, that's what.  Lol.  Anyways, I will try to catch up over the next few days.  :)

Here are a few pics from Lauren and Reegan's dance recital that was actually on May 27th! Ha. Better late than never, right?

with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength

My sweet grandmother was a perfect southern lady who willingly followed her husband and her God across the ocean to 6 different countries and 40+ houses to share the good news of Christ.  

She and my grandfather were married for one month short of 67 years and in that time never once had an argument or a fight. Honestly. My mom and her sisters can testify to that. 

Grandma was an excellent house keeper, cook, and hostess.  One of my favorite memories of her is the time when I was in high school and mom and I went to stay with them for the weekend.  We were in the middle of eating a delicious dinner with fresh veggies from my grandfather's big garden when she kind of gave a little gasp and looked at mom and said, "Oh, Margaret! I just realized! I forgot to dust the hangers in the room you're staying in!"  I cracked up! Who in the world thinks to dust the hangers?!  My grandma did. :)

When I was little (elementary age) and we would visit their house, I can remember getting so excited as we would finish a meal because I knew as soon as we were done, she would follow me back to the bedroom I used to sleep in and play with me.  We would sit on the edge of the bed and pretend we were in the car driving to somewhere oh so exciting.  I don't remember much more than that but I remember how she made me feel so special by taking the time to play from me when there were dishes to do and other things to get done. 

Grandma was my last living grandparent.  On June 28th, with my mom and her sister by her side, she went home to be with Jesus and her husband and my little brother and my cousin and all the others that have gone before her.  I am sad that if I ever get married I won't have the privilege of having any of my grandparents there.  But I am proud of the legacy and faith and testimony their lives and their marriages left behind as role models for me to follow.

And I'm proud of my name.

Kathryn Virginia.

Kathryn was my dad's mom.  Virginia was my mom's mom.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." 

Mark 12:30

Thanks for doing just that, Grandma.  I love you.