Swingset in the Making...Part 2

After all the work in July, the swingset sat alone all through the Fall. The slide was unattached, because there was no way to get up to it. Christmas Day was beautiful outside so we played in the yard for a while. Lawson wanted to slide, so Jon lifted him up to the deck so he could have a few turns sliding. I think the beautiful weather and a few days off work ignited the fire to get this puppy done! :)
The 27th of December Jon put up the railing on the sides of the deck and started building the steps that would go up to the platform:

Then he put the saftey bar across the front, the handle, and began to attach the rope swing (off to the left):

Then he began to plan out the swing arm:

Getting closer!!! So exciting! :)

Swingset in the Making...Part 1

Last summer Jon's parents called to say they wanted to buy the kids a swingset and to start thinking about what we wanted. I started looking and thinking about what I would love to have for the kids to play on--but my dreams were dashed when I started researching prices!!! Swingsets are CRAZY expensive!!!

I started getting an idea of what I wanted: something the kids wouldn't outgrow for a while (meaning several different activities on it), and something sturdy (because Jon and I aren't petite and we would like to play with them) were the two main things. Looking at the store-bought sets I thought that they were made out of pretty thin wood, and didn't seem very sturdy to me. I asked Jon what he thought about modeling a set after a store-bought one, but then building it out of lumber. Thus started our planning.

I always draw out what I want in a "picture style" form to show how I want it to look, then Jon has to turn it into a "pattern style" form so he can actually have measurements and build from it. We are a pretty good team that way!!

In July, Jon's family came for the Fourth, and Jon and his dad started the construction site. First came a lot of laying out the plans. This picture makes me laugh, because it's before any holes were dug and anything laid out. Scratching head, thinking 'Where are we supposed to build this thing?!'
Once the plan was laid out, they rented an auger to dig the post holes. The guys working this tool may have been one of the funniest things I have ever seen--In my life!! :)
Next came setting the posts very carefully so that the whole structure would be square. Let me tell you--Jon is much better suited for this than I am--I work in way too much of a hurry to care about these details!! This slow process was very frustrating for me to watch, but I must admit that the planning is what caused such a nice end result!

Then the guys built the 2 side structures that would go into the corner posts and form the frame for the rest of the set. These things were HUGE, HEAVY, and quite a chore to move and set in place!!!
After setting the side structures, Jon's family left to go home. For a couple weeks the would-be swingset sat unattended for a few weeks. Then Jon went out to lay the deck boards to form the floor of the platform.
I couldn't believe how much measurements and planning went into this project. It took so many steps!!! This is a good stopping place for this post....since after the deck boards nothing else got done til December!!! :) Coming next: part 2!!!

Photo Shoot

Good Morning!!! I have been at a loss lately with blogging...I think my broken camera has shut my "topic flow" down!! :) I have a couple ideas swishing around that were from last month still, so I'll try to get some stuff up...

Last month I took the kids up to Green Mountain to try to get a few cute pictures of them. I am not one to run and get pictures made at every milestone, but I thought I would love to have a nice picture of them at ages 2 and 4.

I took LOTS of pictures...but I got a few that I'm really happy with... I thought I'd share a few with you. (FYI...Jordan was being stingy with her smiles. Some of hers are pretty fake! :)

Scratch that

Scratch "Fun Girls' Weekend Away to celebrate turning 30."

Replace with "Get the stomach bug with Lawson. Spend Thursday night sick and Friday exhausted."

O-well. Maybe we can have a Girls' weekend next year to celebrate 31! Hope everyone else has a fun Vday.

No Frills...Just letting you know I'm alive...barely!!

Every year I feel like November and December are jam-packed with near-daily activities and that we are running like mad people from here to there. I always wait for January eagerly, knowing that it will bring calming rest to our home. This year, though, it has not been the case, and now March is my new January!!! :) We have been running ragged around here and I am choosing a streamlined bulleted list to catch you up on the basics...

*January and February are the bearers of Dr. appointments, apparently! We have had or will have Lawson's well check, 3 dentist appointments, an orthopaedic appointment for me and (just found out after my ortho appt) 12 trips to a physical therapist.

*Some of the high school girls came to spend the night the Sun of MLK jr weekend. We had a lot of fun hanging out, but a sad thing happened that night--my camera died!!! I am so so so sad! It turns on and I can look at pics, but the lens won't open so I can't take any more! :(

*The kids and I made a trip to Oklahoma a couple weeks ago. I was going to drive by myself, but right before the trip Jon's mom decided to fly over to drive the trip with me then fly home. I'm glad she did--it was nice to have help on the trip and it was nice to have the adult company, too!! The kids loved playing with their cousin, Maddison, and we had a lot of fun visiting with Nana and Papa and Aunt Jenny too! Sad, though, that I couldn't take any pics! :( Overall, it was a fun trip but we were glad to get home!

*While we were gone, Jon got a lot of stuff done around the house. He worked so hard, and almost got the entire list that I had left him completed. The night before we were coming home, though, he had a catastrope with a water pipe, and ended up with a big, wet mess!!! Thanks to a day off work and a friend from church who came to help he got it all fixed just before we got home late Wednesday night!!!

*Saturday night we had pizza and a movie, and that night Jon was up all night visiting the porcelain throne!! It continued all day Sunday, and I was glad when I got home Sunday night and he was finally feeling better!!!

*Yesterday I went to a visit with an orthopaedic surgeon. In October I was jumping on the trampoline with the kids and upon one particular landing (jumping and holding Jordan too) I hyperextended my right knee and it has been in pretty much constant pain since then. Everything hurts it--sitting for periods of time, standing for periods of time, exercising, sleeping. Anyways, long story short (yeah, right, you chuckle!! :) turns out my knee caps are not sitting flat on my knee joint, and apparently haven't been for some time now. Something about when quad muscles are stronger than inner thigh muscles. The incident on the trampoline just traumatized an already vulernable area. The doc said I have arthritis behind my knee, and without treatment it will only get worse. So....I am now going to a PT 3x/wk for 4 wks and taking a prescription anti-inflammatory. After that there is an injection I can get if necessary. There are a couple other things in the line of possible treatments. Hopefully some of these preliminary routes will help and I can avoid the last option on the list, which is surgery.

*Last night Jordan woke me up crying. I went in to find out she had thrown up all over herself and her bed. I proceeded to change her 4 times and her bed 3 times during the rest of the night. This morning on the way to WalMart to pick up a prescription and some Tylenol she threw up multiple times in her carseat. As a result we are having a calm, no running around and getting hot, sit and watch movies day. If this is a "bug", this is the first time either one of my kids has had a throwing-up-stomach-bug!!! I guess I should consider myself blessed that we've made it this far!!

*The next few weekends are crazy--this Friday I am supposed to go to Memphis for a girls' weekend with some of my college roomies to celebrate all of our 30th bdays. The next weekend is Jon's birthday, and we will also be at Winterfest. The next weekend is Ladies' Retreat. The next weekend was supposed to be SH Girls' Retreat, but I am so glad it has been rescheduled!!

*I feel that I have been so scarse in the blog-world, Facebook and email lately. I feel so far behind that if I ever tried to catch up it could take a whole day!!! Sorry, I have been so non-existent in my comments--I think I have read and enjoyed everyone's blog posts, but have not taken the time to comment anywhere...Sorry! :)

SO.....that's the (I guess not-so-quick after all) rundown of what's been going on in our neck of the woods!!!!

Little Hops and Mountains

The last couple weeks have been a little bit stressful. Between planning a trip for this weekend, washing all (and I do mean all) of our laundry, trying to keep the house straight, having errands to run, a couple dr appointments, having some company, and going through the ups and downs of 30, I have felt tired and strained.

Sometimes this happens to me--I let all of my little things pile up until all my eyes see is a huge, insurmountable mountain in front of me. If I would look at each item as a single item, it would merely be a few little hops along my path, but instead I only see an Everest I can't get past. I haven't really had to face a true mountain in my life yet, I don't think.

Then I am so subtlely prescribed a fresh dose of perspective. God knows when to put encouragement in my path that causes me to wake up and just see my life as many little hops instead of a single mountain. I am also brought to realize that when I get so overwhelmed it's because my list starts to only contain the problems, and the blessings somehow get dropped out. When I put the blessings back in, they always far outnumber the pains.

Today I learned of a family that truly is facing a mountain. Through a couple blogs, I was led to and read about the King family. They welcomed 25-week quads into their lives on Dec 30. At this point 3 of the babies are doing relatively well, but their sweet son Preston is in kidney failure and is in desperate need of prayers for healing.

I know I don't have a huge following, but for those of you who check in I'm sure the King family would appreciate if you talked to the Father on behalf of their baby boy.

Splishing and Splashing

A couple months ago I decided the kids' bathroom needed something to decorate it.... Since we have no extra money--especially for decorations--I decided to make something! I decided on making a collaboration of little canvases and Mod-Podging various pictures of the kids in the bathtub at different ages... I love how they turned out!!!

The coloring in the pictures isn't quite right...If I used the flash, it whited out the pics. I also fuzzied out some particular places in case a sick, nasty person happens across this post.

The background is a mild lime green. The bubbles are 2 different blues and the pictures are black and white. I also used a fine Sharpie to write who was in the picture and the date on the bottom of each picture. The four are by the tub. The two are over the toilet.

What do you think??

Happy Trails or Trail of Tears??

The other day, we spent about 40 hours plagued by near-torrential downpours! Our backyard had 2 inches of standing water in many places, and there was no way I was getting out of the house for anything short of an emergency. The kids had been playing on a tote I had bought to put old clothes in, so I decided to help them make a "trail". We started out going from the khaki chair by the wall over to the stairs. Later I brought in some kitchen chairs and stretched it to the playroom train table.

The kids spent pretty much all morning tracing back and forth across the "trail." Hours, really. Up til lunchtime they played, then after lunchtime they played some more.

Once, while they were on the train table together, they decided to strike up a little sibling band. It was cracking me up, because they were harmonica-ing and singing like they were really putting on a concert!!!

Jordan even struck a pose to hit a big note!!!

Then it was naptime. I haven't caused impromptu fits of this proportion in a very long time!!! As soon as I mentioned putting everything up and going to bed, there was an uprising among the people!!!

I know they were upset, but I couldn't resist taking pictures of their sheer devastation that their Happy Trails had to come to an end...

Lawson's 4th Bday Party

We had Lawson's 4th birthday party at the church gym last month after we got home from the beach trip. His theme was Spiderman, and I had full intentions of making and frosting an AWESOME cake for him! I was gonna ice out a Spiderman body with his arm extended shooting web....but ran short of frosting, had to make a late-night run to Walmart, and it took over an hour since it was only 5 days before Christmas!!! What he ended up getting was a pretty generic (but homemade) cake! I'm such a cheater for putting a toy on it instead of decorating it! :)

Jon's parents rented a bouncer for the party! The kids had so much fun! I tried to find a Spiderman one, and the only one was ridiculously expensive...but no big deal because Lawson LOVED this dinosaur one!!!

Several of Lawson's friends came to enjoy some lunch and birthday party fun!

Jordan was being cheesy with an apple slice...

The boys sizing up the pinata...they really had a lot of fun with this! I put the goody bags inside so everyone would have something to grab.

After the pinata, everyone went back in for more bouncer fun. I think Jon had as much fun as the kids!!! They sure had fun climbing all over him!

The most important thing--the birthday boy had a great time at his party!! We are thankful for our family and friends who all make our special days so special!!!

At four...

It has been one month since Lawson's 4th birthday. I can't even believe that my little boy has turned four already! This time has flown by!

Lawson is just the sweetest boy I know, I think! He has the most tender heart and really cares about other people. He hates to hear about when other people are sick or don't feel good. I love to see him help and try to take care of Jordan. Of course they have their, um, un-tender moments, but they are really best friends and they love to do everything together.

The older he gets, the more of a cuddler he becomes. I love when he just stops in the middle of playing to come crawl into my lap and give me an "I love you, Mommy" and a big hug.

He has always been such a singing boy, and that certainly has not changed! He loves to sing, and picks up on songs so quickly! I try to let him listen to lots of different things so his favorites depend on what we're listening to that week. Some of his recent favorites are anything Carrie Underwood, all of the Christmas songs, Dora and Diego songs, and any song he has learned at church or Bible Class. Some of his favorite praise songs are For the Lord is a Righteous God, God has Smiled on Me, How Great is our God and Here I am to Worship. At night, I sing a few older ones to him--his favorites are Abide With Me, Sweet Hour of Prayer and I Need Thee Every Hour. A couple Sundays ago we sang I Need Thee in worship, and my eyes filled with tears hearing my 2 and 4 year old children singing out that song that they already know and love!

Lawson loves to play outside! Swinging and climbing on our swingset, jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes and scooters and just plain running around are some of his favorite things to do! I cannot wait until the weather is warmer and we can start taking camping trips, because he just loves being outside!

His other current obsession is Dinosaurs! He loves dinosaur movies, books and toys! He asked Santa for 'lots of cars and dinosaurs' and Santa Nana helped fulfill that dinosaur order between birthday and Christmas gifts! Nana also provided us with dinosaur bouncer at his birthday party!

He still loves all of his Bible Classes and teachers. He loves to tell me about his Bible stories during lunch on Sundays. Also, every night we read 'Jesus stories' out of a paraphrased Bible story book. It's a collaboration of all the gospels that reads like an in-order story about Jesus. It always amazes me when he remembers details about the stories we've read even days later! Because of some of the stories we've read, he has begun to ask questions about Heaven, and God, and our souls. We try to answer his questions as much as possible in a way that a 4-year-old can understand.

God has blessed our lives through Lawson. I am so thankful for him.
My prayer for Lawson is that he continues to grow strong and healthy. I pray that his heart for people stays tender. I pray that he grows in his love for Jesus and that we can instill in him the ability to trust in God to provide everything that we need.

Happy Birthday, Bud!

Orange Beach, December 2008, Part Three

Friday we went over to Pensacola to see Aunt Brenda and Scott's boat. They have been preparing in over the last several months so that they can sail all over the world! Isn't that so exciting!? Anyways, while we were over there, they took us to a fish market they love called Joe Patti's. The kids loved seeing the crabs and lobsters and such...but I am thoroughly disgusted by seafood. As soon as I walked in and got one whif of the air inside, I turned right back around and waited in the parking lot til they were all done.

While I was waiting, I looked around. It was really a neat place. It was right on the water, and I guess they caught all their seafood fresh daily. (If I had been inside, there probably would have been a sign telling me that. Since I was outside, I had to deduce it myself and make an educated guess!!!) These boats parked right next to the store are what told me they went out to catch their merchandise!

Pelicans (I think) were flying around everywhere.

A couple landed in the water right in front of where I was standing on the dock.

In Michigan, where I'm from, we have lakes. And seagulls. They are nasty and dirty and they come up to anyone or anything to get a bite of any kind of food. That is my impression of these birds. It walked right up to me and stood there, waiting for me to give it something. Are these the seagulls of the gulf? Hmmm...

When we got back to the condo, Aunt Lucy started to cook the fish that they had bought for dinner. Jon and I took the kids out to the sand again to play while dinner was being prepared. It was sunny and beautiful, but pretty darn chilly!!! No one was on the beach except for us! I think if we ever go when it's actually busy, I'll be upset b/c now my expectation is to have the place to ourselves!
Sorry for so many landscape pics--maybe for you 'beach veterans' they get old...but I don't think my eyes will ever get tired of a great shot of God's awesome creation! Truly, it's amazing!
Earlier that afternoon, Jon's Aunt Celeste flew in to spend a couple days with us.

Lucy and Great Grandma in the kitchen...

The only good shot I got of Aunt Brenda and her fiance, Scott. They just got married last week! Congratulations!

Family dinner around the table! Everyone except Jon, Scott and I are visible in this picture.

Saturday, Nana and Papa caught some kind of bug that made them feel yucky. We didn't do much more than sit around and visit, since it was our last day there! When we laid the kids down for their nap, Jon and I got to go out for a walk on the beach together--It was so nice! It was mostly sunny, but still cool in the 50s. In a couple hours, we saw only a couple other people out there--it was amazing to have the whole beach to ourselves!

Sunday morning we packed up and headed out early so we could get back in time for our Huddles Christmas party. We drove halfway, stopped at Bass Pro then ate lunch in Montgomery, then the kids passed out for the rest of the trip.

Our van was LOADED down!

We had a wonderful time on our family vacation to Orange Beach! We are so thankful and grateful that Scott and Brenda invited us to join in on this opportunity! Getting to visit with everyone and also get to let them meet our kids was awesome!

This concludes my series of posts on our beach trip. We made some awesome memories. Orange Beach made it's mark on us. We also left our own mark, of sorts:

Jon, Stacy, Lawson and Jordan

Orange Beach, Alabama
2008