how did that happen?!

So, yet again, I am behind in blogging! Sheesh! But I definitely had to get this post written while it's still January! (so, you know...by midnight! lol)

Five years ago today was my first day with my kiddos. At that time it was just us girlies all day every day. I was just looking back at some of the first pics I took of them and I can't believe how little they were! Maybe I'll do another post on that soon.

It wasn't until almost an entire year later, on January 15th, that "my" baby was born. :}

This was the first glimpse I got of him in the text pic Wendy sent from the hospital.

A couple weeks ago, my Mr. Happy turned 4! How that happened, I am not sure!! I miss the baby he was...but I am loving the little boy he is growing in to!

This year he ended up choosing a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party.

Let me clarify that:

Chuck E. Cheese.

On a Saturday.

At noon.

Yup. Now you have the whole picture. It was crazy! But he had a blast and that was all that mattered. :)

At 4 years old, Mr. Happy...

~ still loves to snuggle and gives great hugs.

~ MUST give me approximately 5 eskimo kisses every evening before I leave.

(Seriously, if he thinks I have left without them, panic sets in and he comes running and sometimes crying saying, "Kiki!! Kiki!!! I didn't give you your eskimo kisses!!!")

~ is way into MJ music and thinks he must have been a very cool dude.

~ still loves most every kind of music in general and will dance to whatever is playing...when no one is looking. except maybe his sisters. :)

~ has learned to love our Bible time every morning in school.

(The only reason it used to not be his favorite part was that he had to sit still! lol Now he has discovered stories like David and Goliath (his fav right now) and realizes how awesome and amazing God's stories tend to be and will be the first to eagerly run and get out our Bible book.)

~ still does not like loud noises. never has.

~ is totally into super heroes and would love to save the day himself sometime! :)

~ is a pro on our itouches (when mommy and I aren't losing ours...! ha!) and daddy's ipad.

~ likes to do school pages like his sisters

~ but does not really like to color. He has no patience for that.

~ loves play dough!

For the most part, he was just like this at his party...very happy...but pretty calm, just taking it all in. Little Miss Giggles had her 5th bday party here a year and a half ago...and the difference in their reactions cracked me up! She was smiling so big we thought her cheeks were going to explode from the excitement! I had to dig up a couple pics just to see the difference myself....

LOL!! The one on the left of her and LMS is my absolute favorite! Seriously, she couldn't have possibly smiled any bigger!

And she still had a blast with her brother at his party. :) These two are getting to be great friends. Several times lately I have found them running around playing together while LMS does her own thing.

This was the long awaited moment! He got to stand in this thing for one minute (? I think?) and catch as many CEC tickets as he could. There were bigger, colorful tickets that were worth more than just one ticket too. I half way wondered if it would freak him out since it was kind of loud and crazy in there. But he did great and stuffed some down his shirt like we told him to. He got one ticket that was worth 50 and one that was worth 100 + the random single ones so that was a success! :)

Granddaddy was at his party too. Mr. Happy was born on Granddaddy's birthday so they had to have a picture together with Chuck E. :)

Wolf mountain (on the left) was something he had sort of hoped to get for Christmas...and I clued his aunt on to that so she gave it to him for his bday and oh boy was he excited!

And for those of you with little boys...have you discovered Trio blocks yet?? Oh my goodness we loove Trio blocks at our house!! I got just a small starter tub of them at the beginning of school this year - and they are his "during school time only" toys for while his sisters are working. That keeps them fresh and he will sit there happily playing for 45 minutes easily! There are so many cute sets of them - and there is even one tub of girl Trios that are pink and green!

Happy Birthday Mr. Happy!! I am loving watching the little boy God is growing you to be. You have a sweet heart and I am praying that God will call you to be His child and will guide you to be a great warrior for Him as you grow up! I love you!!

elmer fudd

I recently got hit on by Elmer Fudd. You know...this guy:

Yup. That was him. Except his clothes were camo. And he'd left his gun in his beat up truck. I'm assuming. But the rest of it was him to a T.

I was in Hobby Lobby and had walked by him in one of the main aisles as I was looking for something in particular and thought nothing of it...just another customer in HL. Then about ten minutes later, as I was staring intently at something in one of the scrapbook aisles (I honestly cannot remember what I was looking at!), Elmer marched down the same aisle. He came straight up to me and at first I thought maybe he was going to ask if I knew where something was. Here is how our brief conversation went:

EF: fjilailmsafklnaurhfauljsilsa?

(seriously could not understand a single word he said!!!)

me: um. what?

EF: wigjilvmilsamsfilsnklnvckhgirhgsl?

me: um. what??

EF: jifldjaislvnilnfiglafmdlmacm single girls?

me: um. no?

(still 100% thoroughly confused...but starting to get the drift...)

EF: salijavmdialsiielalkmdklfnina you a single girl?

me: um. no!

(like i was going to admit that to him!!)

EF: aidflinvirnaielmksldflirhial have a cell phone?

me: um. no!

(also wasn't about to admit that i had a cell phone with me!)

EF: sjiljaifjlghidlalmiasli well, can I have your number or no?

me: um. NO!!!

EF: oh. ok. sorry.

And he walked away...

leaving me standing there going "what the HECK just happened here?!" and cracking up because it was just so bizarre!! Now, I was raised in the south...in an area that has plenty of TN accents to be heard around me...and usually I can understand even the thickest of accents with no problem...but Elmer Fudd here...oh my goodness! I do not know what his deal was...but he needs some serious lessons on how to speak clearly!! lol

But anyways, apparently I'm moving up in the world. I have only ever been hit on a couple times...and only ever in Wal Mart...buy guys who were waaay too old for me! This time it was in Hobbly Lobby...by a guy who was probably within 5 years of my age.

Maybe at this rate I'll get hit on by a Matthew McConaughey look-alike in the Orangery restaurant someday!! lol

one more

I mentioned before that I had a happy homecoming to share with you. Do you remember this post? I introduced you to Rachel Walser and her family who were pursuing an adoption of a child from Ethiopia. I had the privilege of working with her two girls to design a couple of tutus to help raise a little bit of money to go towards their adoption fund.

It has been so exciting to watch and pray with them through this process...a family in Christ that I only know through blogland. :)

Well, earlier this month they arrived HOME with their precious and beautiful treasure - a four year old little girl named Abby!! She is adorable and I am so excited that one more orphan is no longer an orphan but is part of a forever family! God has once again fulfilled His promise to "set the lonely in families" (Ps 68:6).

So I am officially praying for God to send me the next family I can help...the next orphan to be brought home. And I just want to say: Congratulations Walser family!! I am so excited for you and will not stop praying as all of you adjust to being a family of seven now! :) Maybe someday I will even get to meet you in person! (So if you ever come through TN...you MUST stop and see me!) :)

If you would like to see Abby's sweet smile...click here to read about her coming home day - there is even a video from the first time the rest of her new siblings got to finally squeeze her in person! :)

princess cruise trip ~ days 6 and 7

Last post on this trip!!!

Are you tired of reading about it yet? Lol.

I have been working on this for about a week now...internet has been slow, thus uploading gazillions of pictures has taken forever. My internet does not like snowy weather. Or the thought of snowy weather. Or when the weather guy predicts that kind of weather. Lol

Anyways! On to our last day! Wednesday, we docked a little ways out from Princess Cays island and took the life boats (that are bigger than you're imagining if you're like me) from the ship to the island.

Catrina had reserved two bungalows for our group and so we got to ride the golf cart right to our bungalow. Except there wasn't enough room on this one so I got left behind to wait for the next one. (It was a recurring theme for the day...lol!)

Our two bungalows. Aren't they cute? They had air conditioning, a ceiling fan, table and chairs, a big pitcher of ice water, cups, and a shower head outside on the right of each bungalow.

Each bungalow had a name. Hibicus? Lol.

White beach. Palm trees. Crazy blue water. Puffy clouds. I need more of that! :)

That would be Daniel getting ready to try snorkeling. What I don't have a picture of is him promptly coming back out of the water and giving up on snorkeling about 5 minutes later due to being stung twice by two of the bajillions (seriously!) of jellyfish that were in the water!!

I didn't see him get stung because while the rest of the girls enjoyed laying in the sun, I wandered off down the path to discover new and exciting places.

After a couple minutes I found this path leading back to a part of the beach further down from where our bungalows were.

And this was the view standing in the spot in the previous picture. :)

Then Michael and Eric, who had also wandered off in a different direction to explore, found me and said I had to come see a deserted part of the beach they had found. Eric ran off to tell everyone else to come see while Michael and I explored a little further. We had to climb up and over this little sand hill thing...and then had to come back the same way. On the way back, I was walking along, no problem when all of a sudden I felt the strange sensation of my right foot slowly sinking. I realized that the sand closest to the edge - where my right foot was - was giving way but quickly realized that trying to shift my left foot wasn't going to help matters and would, in fact, probably make things worse! So I just went with it...and my right side disappeared and I sloowly landed on my right foot/knee/hand. It didn't hurt a bit...just looked hilarious, I'm sure! Soo...this spot above is now known as the spot where my right side disappeared! Ha.

Mom and Dad weren't even going to get off the ship! They said they don't really like the beach and the ocean! We said...um...isn't that half the point of the cruise?! Lol However, I'm sure being on the ship w/o the majority of other people was really nice and quiet! And they did end up coming to the beach for a few minutes...so of course I had to officially document Mom in the water. :)

Some of the sea creatures we saw! We actually touched the jellyfish that had washed up on shore. It felt pretty much like it looks like it would feel. Catrina found a conch shell...that still had it's animal living inside. Someone found a sea urchin. And Eric found a sea fan...that Daniel ended up bringing a part of home with him.

This was just as Daniel and I headed back to our bungalows. Right after this is when Michael wrestled with a real live octopus!! (Of course right as soon as all the cameras left...) No, seriously, he really did. But he tells the story better than I do.

("Oh look! A pretty little seashell!"

"How big was the octopus??"

"It was THIIIS BIIIIIG!!")

Brain coral and snails. The snails were all over the rocks on one stretch of the beach. Mmm...dinner? :-p

When we got back...it was lunch time! With food that was every bit as beautiful as it was delicious! The fruit anyways. These above sat right next to a GINORMOUS bowl filled with green grapes and cut up chunks of fresh pineapple!! (Seriously, did I mention that the roof of my mouth was kind of burnt by the time I got home from all the fresh fruit I ate on this trip??) Soo good!!

I love this pic. :) The little boy looked like he was just loving being there with his daddy. :)

So as I was sitting on the steps going down to the beach, I happened to look up and decide to take a pic of the cloud that was covering the sun (left). Later I realized that Eric had taken almost the exact same picture (right)!! Funny! I think it almost looks like a crab. Which is also funny because just after I took that picture, I heard some lades down on the beach saying they saw...

Some crabs!! There were two different ones. The blue arrow is pointing to the same one ... and the rest of the pics are of the other one.

Then we saw a red one!! (Both pics are of the same one.)

Yup. They're so reserved. They need to break out of their shells more often. (Ha! No pun intended....!)

As Lauren pointed out...for once I am not the whitest one in this picture!! Lol.

Riding the golf cart back to the line for the lifeboats back to the ship. Again, it was full so I got left behind.

And then I got left behind yet again when everyone headed back to the ship and I somehow got talked into......

Getting my hair braded!! LOL!! It was a once in my lifetime kind of a thing. I left it in for about an entire 45 minutes. Soo tight it was giving me a headache...besides, I looked rediculous! Lol.

(And really, I didn't get totally left...Catrina, Daniel, and Anita stayed with me.) :)

See? Hilarious!

Have I mentioned how crazy blue the water was?! I mean seriously! It is as blue as the floor and chairs on this balcony!!!

We had some swells that were hitting us this night...

Sunset photo shoot on our balcony just before dinner!! :) This is what happens when all the girls invade your room just as you are taking out the last of your crazy braids and getting ready for dinner - they borrow your awesome camera and snap away! :) Which, of course, I really didn't mind a bit. :)

This would be Michael...about ten minutes or so before dinner. He was already starting to feel sea sick here. Then he came to dinner and ordered mussels. I was sitting across the table from him watching him look worse and worse...then the mussels came. He took one look and got one whiff of them and promptly left. Poor guy. This time he took medicine though and managed to come hang out with us at our table for the light night.

Two of our awesome waiters! Davor and Juan. Davor is holding baked Alaska!! They even had a "baked alaska parade"! So fun! I have always wanted to try that stuff...but who actually makes baked Alaska?!

So I finally got to try it....ooooooh my goodness it was sooo good!!

She may or may not have eaten that entire half....

;)

All of us, except Michael who was lying down in his room thoroughly sea sick, and Eric, who took the picture. Vernon and Crystal was our other waiter/waitress. They are married and get to wait on a table together! Sweet! :) All four did a great job! You could hardly get your tush in your seat before they were placing the napkin on your lap for you!

Family pic. :)

Aaaand that pretty much concludes our trip!! The next morning we got off bright and early (Well, those of us who drove did.) And of course, after being out at sea for a week, what was the one thing everyone had to catch up on as soon as we got off??

TEXTING!!! Lol.

It was a long drive home but so worth it! I would love to go back to the Carribean again sometime soon. Although, I do have to say that I would love to be loving on sweet orphan children the next time I go....