no cuchara

so this blog is for funny stories and pics of my kids right? well, can't i just share one about my man too? great.

so, we own a landscaping business. kenny has some fabulous guys working for him. a couple speak english, but most are of the spanish language persuasion. this particular day, the english speaking guys weren't there i guess, and kenny was telling- no wait, trying to tell- his crew to go and cut the bushes. so he says to them "um, cuchara el shrubberio". they just stare. at him. so he does hand motions. just imagine, that now he is doing hand motions. "cuchara el shrubbery". the guys are like WHAT the heck is he trying to say. finally one of them is like um spoon? yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen. kenny was telling his crew to spoon the shrubs. they had a fantastic laugh about that and kenny is now looking into spanish classes.

what makes it even better is that this morning, i found this. he created this in photoshop with much detail and carefulness a month or so ago. i pray that he never ACTUALLY put these around a property. yes. that says "do not trim." and "no spoon."

to my tati and my nono

a very special surprise came in the mail today for little miss i'm about to be three. well, this mommy doesn't know how to NOT open gifts the second they are given, so that is what we did. heaven forbid we wait til her actual birthday. my mom hates when i do that. :) she was more than delighted that that pretty pink envelope had HER name on it and could not wait to rip into it. she pulled out the gift card, and JUST like my girl, exclaimed "MOMMY its MY CARD!" its like she knew exactly what we would do with it. a buggy, coke, popcorn and SHOPPING. :) the potty book is NEAT. it makes these terrific noises of a toilet flushing! over. and over. and over. and it is so special to us, that carey and arnaud, when you have children, we will DEFINITELY be passing it back your way. :) thanks guys for making her day. she can't wait to pick out some fun stuff! aislyn keeps talking about these beautiful fall decorations and some new hand towels for the season... i'm KIDDING. we'll spend it on toys. :)

last days of summer

any of you who know me, KNOW that when fall comes, i am happy. not that i don't love summer, i do. but there is something about the changing of the leaves and the pumpkin patch and the apple farms and the smells in the air and the smells in my house (i have thousands of pumpkin candles, and they do not go to waste) that just make me relax or something. i can't explain it. anyway, aislyn grabbed a dandelion in the backyard the other day, and it reminded me that these are the last days of summer. it has blown by as usual and now its almost gone. i think, correct me if i'm wrong, that monday is the first day of fall. and i shall celebrate. :) but for now, i will bid farewell to summer for it is on its way out... happy fall everyone.

blue

this one needed it's own post... :)

three

so, as previously mentioned, aislyn has been quite the model this week. she has WILLINGLY let me take pictures of her, and even pulled out some poses. which is weird. she generally says "no more pictures mom", just like that. maybe its that she's almost three, i don't quite know. but it's been fun, and she thinks it's so fun to have pictures taken. so anyone who knows me, KNOWS that i'm in heaven. and she is an angel face. i really really can't believe how beautiful she is. oh. and hornery too. i have no idea how to spell that word, so i will spell it just like my grandma prounounced it. except she left out the "h", so it was orn-ery. anyways, onto some from the 3 year old session...

and then there's my boy. i put him on this chair, got him to say the word cheese (the actual word, it was cute...) but he was done quickly.

and this is what he USUALLY looks like ....

model anyone?

so, aislyn picked out a cute little suit to wear today, this the first day of fairly chilly fall weather, so i wanted to take advantage and practice a bit with the camera. this girl WORKED it. this is the first of many more i intend to post. she was so funny. i told her to do nothing, she just posed. i was crying, laughing so hard at her talent. so weird. on the other side, she was promised a lollipop, and i think that was the driving force. at any rate, here's one i liked of my 2 year old model....

the prayer

i have to share. please check out this post on lyss' site. this was so sweet....

intrauterine salvation...and then some

my daughter is smart. she just is. she's pensive and she says things that blow my mind. alot. i've posted some of them, but i didn't want to forget about a conversation we had last night as i was putting her down. her lamp is broken, so we decided to just talk in the dark instead of read the Bible like we normally do. so we're laying there, in silence, and she says:

her : "mommy, what is Jesus?"
me: "well, honey, Jesus is a person, and He is God's son, God is His daddy and they live in heaven." (i am at a total loss here. for some reason, i feel suddenly compelled to answer her as if she were an 18 year old that i was sharing the gospel with) "Jesus came to earth and died on the cross for you, to save you."
her: "why?"
me: "because you know when you disobey mommy and daddy?"
her: "yes, mommy. and my daddy lives in my house with me."
me: "well, back to disobeying, that's sin. and Jesus came to save you and me from it."
her: "well, when is Jesus gonna come to my house and play wif me?"
me: "um... well... Jesus is always with us, we just can't see Him like we can see each other." (i'm a little freaked now, because if someone told me that someone was always WITH me, but i couldn't see them, i would never want to be alone.)
her: "jesus lives in my heart?"
me: "that's right honey! and in mommy's heart too!"
her: " and in daddy's? and mimi's? and papa's?" (she begins to list several people we know)
me: "yup"
her: "mommy, i'm sad."
me: "why are you sad?"
her: "because Jesus won't come out of my tummy and play with me."

if ANYone has any further words for my daughter, let me know. :)

which is a segway to the other story i wanted to write about. at dinner the other night, the four of us were sitting around the table and we were talking about how God has the whole world in his hands and aislyn says "mommy, God saved me." she has said this before. kenny and i had never actually said to her these words, so we've wondered where she learned them. so i thought i'd ask. i said "honey, where did you learn that God saved you?" her reply?

"in your tummy mommy!"

WHOA. kenny and i just looked at each other. i mean, who knows what happens in there...

story #3. so, we're on the back porch at my parent's house, and aislyn sees an airplane. aislyn and grayson LOVE airplanes. my dad asks "aislyn, what makes that big ole airplane stay up in the sky like that and fly?" aislyn replies, chuckling with her eyebrows up, "its getting money papa!" OH MY WORD. really? does she watch the economics portion of the today show when i'm not looking? so weird.

no pic for today, sorry. i really need to update, i know! oh, and thanks dad, for the title of this post. :)

another little cash update

micah called and asked me to post a prayer request for baby cash on thursday night, of course, i never check my messages and didn't see that she had called until friday night! cash had to have surgery on his tiny little left eye (i think left) because he has stage 3 retinopathy which can occur in preemies like him. the surgery actually went really well. had they not done the surgery he would no doubt be blind in that eye. they will soon test the other eye to see if they have to do surgery for that eye as well. those must be some masterful surgeons to do this on a 3 pounder. cash was incredibly uncomfortable from the procedure, etc. so they have him on some pain meds to help him rest, so he won't burn more calories. anyway, continue to pray for them and for cash, that he would start gaining weight and would be able to take nutrition from a bottle without too much effort. thanks. :)

update and prayers for baby cash

i wanted to post a little update on some friends of our's little one. as previously posted, baby cash was born to micah and jeremiah at 25 weeks 4 days gestation, weighing 1 lb. 3oz. micah, lyss and i went out for drinks and soup last week and she showed me one of his diapers. it was the same size as my cell phone. get out your cell phone and look at it, and imagine a baby diaper that is the size of your phone. its on our fridge now so we can remember to pray for baby cash when we see it! anyway, cash was recently put in isolation because one of the micro preemies in the NICU came down with necro something.. i don't know how to say it..only that its bad. anyway, cash was in isolation for a couple weeks and just came out of it and has tested negative for the necro stuff which is wonderful. however, the little guy keeps losing weight. he was up to 3lbs. 10oz. and is now down to 3lbs. 4oz. they have tried adding calories in, but he is burning more calories just eating from a bottle than he is taking in, if you can believe that! and then when he has a fussy fit, he burns even more calories. this week they are trying MCT oil, which is just vegetable fat basically. micah's words to me were "they are running out of options", so please pray that this little guy will start to gain some more weight, and that the MCT oil will help. and that he will be calm and have less fussy fits so he won't burn any calories. i'm going to go take some pics of him in the next couple weeks so i'll be sure to post a couple, i can only imagine that he is just the tiniest cutest little guy. micah and jeremiah thank you for your prayers. oh, and pray for their other little guy, jameson. he's only 4, and his little world has been rocked by this whole experience. they don't live here, so he's having to adjust very quickly to a whole new environment of hospital living! and one more thing, they have micah on a medicine to increase milk production and it makes her fidgety and tired all at the same time, no fun at all. pray that it will stop having that effect or that she won't need to be on it anymore. thanks for the prayers, i will keep updating.

a year ago

was she really this little? so hard to believe...

no more brokies....

so this is what having a cast looks like for a one year old boy....and this is what it looks like to have it removed....



we got a good report yesterday so they cut that big ole red thing off, which grayson did NOT enjoy by the way. i don't know if you've experienced this particular cast removal tool, but it looks like a table saw for your hand. the first thing i said was "are you going to cut my son's skin?" she said "no no, it doesn't cut, see.." and she put it on her hand to prove it. it horrified me. and grayson too. after it was off he just would wiggle it and stare at it. he still can't walk. he has no strength at all in his leg. he takes a couple steps, whines and then collapses. he crawls with his leg to the side as if his cast was still on. they said this was normal, it would be a few weeks before HE is back to normal. so, while we're excited, he's mostly just wanted me to hold him still and carry him places. :) but it will pass and he will be as active as ever very soon! thank you LORD that his leg healed so wonderfully in only 3.5 weeks!

welcome little ashon

some our good friends, j & e, had their precious angel boy yesterday afternoon FOUR WEEKS EARLY!!! however, this preemie was 7 lbs 5 oz. thank you LORD that she didn't go four more weeks!! congratulations guys, he is such a precious little thing. thanks for letting me take pictures of him even though yours would have been much better. :)

flushing...

first of all- let me just say i'm so bugged because i just typed this entire post and when i went to "publish" it gave me an error and it all disappeared. so this is the less descriptive boring version. i wanted to share a funny aislynism from today.

me- "honey, you've been doing SO great on the potty today!! i'm so proud of you! but why don't you try and go poo on the potty too?"

aislyn- "i don't want to go poo on the potty because i might fall in and you will flush me."

thats all. and its enough.

mugshot

i totally think he gives nick nolte a run for his money. the bruise helps.

dinosaur eggs and socks

just wanted to share one of the munchkin from a few weeks ago. i failed to write about this, but he got a goose egg the size of a dinosaur egg on his head from falling off a chair. a chair that was only a foot or two off the ground! it was the most awful thing i've ever seen and i've intended on posting pics from our phones of it, but its really disturbing how far it stuck out. it was even disturbing to dr. steffan who came over to inspect it. :) anyway, here are the remnants of it on his head. :) the socks on the crib; i put socks on his hands before bedtime to try and keep him from scratching them off, which he promptly takes off and hides somewhere in his bed or shoves them behind his crib bumper towards the wall. then he finds them and gets so excited. that's what this one is about.. :) i think its cute.

mom don't look at this one...

kenny: "look! i caught a whopper!"

backtrack

i can't post new ones, so i'll post this one. i took this LITERALLY about 30 minutes after delivering this child, which took THIRTY HOURS by the way. (don't worry elaine, it doesn't take everyone thirty hours...) i wanted to get one of kenny and grayson while he was fresh out... they have the same look on their face, one of utter tiredness, and it makes me laugh. so here ya go...

no picture... again

i'm getting so boring. who wants to read the ramblings of a stay at home mom? i'd rather see a picture. but none for now. the camera is still down til midweek, so i will just have to give you a visual picture.

grayson has started walking with his walker dragging his cast along. its SO funny. you just hear this clank noise every couple seconds. i fear that when we get it off (SIX DAYS), its going to be some major bad skin going on. he is just this week starting to scratch it like nobody's business. foodwise: today, i am crazy... i have been giving him sweet potatoes this week because i am sick of not feeding him. they didn't hurt him before, and i now know that even OFF ALL food he still struggles with his skin, so there must be more to it. so i have made him sweet potato fries and he is in heaven. today for lunch i gave him cauliflower, sp fries and jasmine rice. OH, and applesauce. he cried a mighty cry when it was gone. i am only trying one new thing a week (except that today i added cauliflower AND apples), so we'll see how it goes. i'm doing things that he tested a low allergy to. my allergist said it was ok, don't worry. :) we are going to another doctor too, who helps allergies like crazy, but it is alternative medicine and requires its own post. however, i have not the time nor energy to broach the subject now. (is broach a word? it sounds like it would fit in that sentence...)

aislyn is hilarious. she has taken to performing as of recent. the other day, she, emma and liam, put on a play for us. at the end of the play of which i have no idea what the subject was, the other two had run off, and aislyn said "thank you" and TOOK A BOW. for real. kenny and i were incredibly entertained.. best part of the play. today, she was trying to get my attention and i was doing something else, so she said "excuse me mommy". SHE HAS MANNERS!!! i pray that happens again. thank you to emma for rubbing off her sweet manners on my daughter. she also, this afternoon, called me aunt mommy. i have no idea what that was about, but it was weird. do we live in the deep south? HAHAHAHA. bad bad joke. but i'm totally laughing.

another funny one.. (well, to me, and to her in ten years when she reads this).. last night, her grandma put her to bed because kenny and i went to old town to have ice cream and walk around. she was still putting her to bed when we got home. just after grandma came back downstairs, the power went out and aislyn's sound machine, which is set on rain, turns off. when it comes back on (5 seconds later), it is set to birds chirping, which FREAKS her out, and for good reason. so i ran upstairs to calm her down, and she wanted me to rock her so we could "talk". she proceeded to tell me about the bear that bwoke the chair, and the powwidge and, goldicox. i finally figured out, after she said goldicox five times, that she was telling me the story of goldilocks and the three bears. i cannot possibly type how cute it is when she says goldicox. i wish i could type the intonations in her voice, its so great. oooh, i should get it on video... anyway, i guess grandma had just told her this story and she wished to recant it.

and grayson sings now. when he hears a song, he opens his mouth like andrea bocelli and sings one note for a loooooong time. with a straight face. it is SO awesome.

i think that's all i can remember for today... and please, always refer to goldilocks as goldicox for the rest of your life.

potty woe victory?

well, just one, out of millions. thanks for the comments jen, anna and debbie! i SO feel you. i wanted to tell you, but wasn't sure why you would look back at the comment page, that this morning, aislyn wanted to wear a princess pull up.( i told her awhile ago i wasn't buying them anymore if she didn't actually TRY to pee in the potty.) i bought her more, she found them, wanted to wear one. and then this morning she says "i'm going to the potty. you go that way. don't come in here mommy." so i hear her get situated, and lo and behold, i hear the tinkles! her pull up was dry and she got it all out in the potty by herself. WOW. however, i'm not holding my breath. that was only once. but i'll TAKE it... for today.