cross PALEONTOLOGIST off the list...

austin was quite the dinosaur expert by the age of 2.5.

carson and hudson...not so much.

while playing with plastic dinosaurs in the family room, i hear hudson say to carson:

"watch out carson! the giant frappuccino is coming to eat you!"

JURASSIC PARK SEVENTEEN...coming to a STARBUCKS near you!
:)

hiccup-ing moms choose JIF

i heard on the radio last week that eating a spoonful of peanut butter makes your hiccups go away.

they were right :)

a little dabble-do-ya

i've been dabbling...

in the world of digital scrapbooking...

i'm not good at it yet...

but it's fun and way less messy (or so i hear) than regular scrapping.

i've only used freebie downloads so i'm kind of limited right now as to what i can do...but i'm learning for FREE...which is just my price-range :)

here are a few pages i've done...

please pray for INDIA

no, it's not what you think...

i mean, sure...if you want to, go ahead and say a prayer for India.

i'm sure they can use it.

but i'm speaking of a little girl named INDIA...

we got a phone call from the school nurse today...

carson and india collided HEAD FIRST at recess...

carson has a BIG ol' mark on his forehead...

india needed stitches! yikes.

i always KNEW he was extra-hard-headed...

it's now been confirmed.

POOR LITTLE INDIA :(

40 + 365 - 21 =

i've always hated math...

but here's what

40 years

+365 days

-21 pounds

looks like:

another year older...

another year wiser?

maybe.

maybe not.

LOL.

but i am a heck of a lot lighter.

we were looking at all the pics from last fall on the computer and i found pics from my birthday LAST year.

can you say FAT SEPTEMBER?

so this year, a few goals:

continue to actually take care of myself, not just the little people...

try to improve my organizational skills...

try to improve my memory skills (this one will take a miracle)...

continue to stand in awe of all that GOD has brought our family through...may i never stop thanking him for RESCUING US and POSITIONING US in the place that we were made for.

and that, combined with the regular daily chores, is enough to keep me busy for awhile :)

speaking of getting older...

my friend becky shared this link...

celebrities without their make up...

some are still so pretty...

others...not so much...

check out goldie hawn and sharon stone...

wow...

the comments are kind of mean...but the photos just make you realize how 'unreal' hollywood is...

share this with your daughters...and your husbands LOL

http://tuvida.aol.com/moda-y-belleza/fotos/stars-without-make-up

some questions are too hard to answer :(

carson isn't feeling well. he's got a fever and he's extra snuggly and emotional.

last night while i was trying to get him to fall asleep he started talking about my upcoming birthday. he asked me if i was getting older.

yep.

just a moment later, tears...lots of them...streaming down his sweet little face.

he doesn't want me to die.

i try to assure him that i'm not going to. but really, how can you make promises like that? i did the best i could. but i made the mistake of saying EVERYONE dies eventually.

wrong answer. lots and lots more tears. :(

it's such an awesome thing to watch them grow and begin to understand the world.

it's such an awful thing to watch them grow and begin to understand the world.

HOW YOU LIVE

okay, the last song that i told you to check out is just a silly song. it cracks me up and makes me smile.

THIS ONE is seriously my FAVORITE FAVORITE FAVORITE song right now...it doesn't crack me up but it does make me smile.

enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW1daW6k0LE

now, go put on your red dress and turn up the music :)

BOWLING FOR SOUP

love love love this song...it makes me laugh.

though dad says that the lyrics need to be changed to texas, come back to ohio :)

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN...and prepare to smile!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45DFVyriVI0

don't drink from the purple cup!

WHATEVER YOU DO...if you come for a visit and one of my children offers you a drink from the purple cup...JUST SAY NO!

the purple cups USED to represent hot summer days...big drinks with lots of ice cubes...safe to take outside in the sun...

no longer.

the purple cups are now our designated lizard catching, snake trapping utensils. YIKES.

one day i was alone with the two little guys and we had our FIRST indoor visitor...a lizard in the bathtub. i am not really the lizard catching type but since i was the only one home, the duties fell on me. took me awhile but i got it...WITH THE PURPLE CUP.

two more within a few days of each other...caught! WITH THE PURPLE CUP.

and then came yesterday. i shall NEVER step foot in the backyard again...bobby found a snake...ON OUR PATIO. YIKES AGAIN. he caught it...

you guessed it...WITH THE PURPLE CUP.

oh, and though this has nothing to do with the purple cup, the pictures still crack me up and so i shall share them with you...one night we went to make sure the front door was locked and the porch light was on and THIS was what we saw:





jennifer...texas is NOT for you :)

making a house a home

it's been a busy summer & now that the kids are back in school, even though it's hot as HECK outside, i've got fall fever...i'm burning my pumpkin spice candles and as long as i stay INSIDE i can pretend that autumn has arrived :)

along with that comes the desire to snuggle in and read a book or two...

and with THAT comes the desire to make my surroundings comfy and cozy...

i took a step toward that today by finally hanging some things on the walls! i've had a picture from pottery barn that i have drooled over for the last few years...stacey and i took inspiration from it AND ROCKED IT.

pottery barn price: a gazillion dollars

casa de lee price: free, working with stuff i already had

END RESULT: PRICELESS

a time to weep

amazing how the emotions come rushing back...the way your heart, your mind can go RIGHT BACK to the moment you first heard about tragedy.

today my heart is heavy. i feel grief for those who are grieving those they lost on september 11. but the grief i feel for them is shared by the grief i wasn't prepared for today.

i spent that morning six years ago with my friend debbie. she led bible study at my house and so we had a very somber morning with the ladies in our group...talking, praying, watching, waiting...

today i remember and grieve for those who have lost loved ones on september 11th.

and i also remember and grieve the loss of a woman who taught me so very much about grace and forgiveness.

DEBBIE ROBERTS, YOU ARE MISSED DEEPLY.

hello from hudson

hi my name is hudson,
i look just like my dad.
if we run out of honey buns
it makes me really sad.

sometimes i am spiderman,
my mom is mary jane.
other times she's catwoman
and i am called bruce wayne.

i love to talk & love to laugh,
i love to sing and dance.
my favorite thing in my closet
are my army guy pants.

my mom has to go now
so this poem has to end.
but she loved this picture of me
and wanted to share it with her friends.


xoxo,

hudson

an evening with michael w. smith

jen and i were able to take carson on a special "date" night thanks to my friend BECKY who gave us her family tickets :)


carson loves miss jen and i knew that i wouldn't be able to take her to the concert without him as it would cut into HIS time with her...so we invited him to join us...he got dressed up, declared himself HANDSOME and we were off.



the concert was at FELLOWSHIP OF THE WOODLANDS...the church we went to when we first moved here. they have an amazing fountain in the front of the church...i had forgotten about a super cool picture that i took of the kids one night...no time like now to share, right?


we had a great time though carson had a hard time staying awake.

it was sometime during the concert that it hit me...my very first michael w. smith concert was TWENTY ONE YEARS AGO...an entire lifetime. wow. time flies.

we saw jen off to the airport today. it was good to spend time with her and the boys are already asking when she's coming back to see us again :)

here's looking forward to the day that we can call you DR. JEN :) love ya chickie!

for such a time as THIS!

several years ago when the tsunami struck indonesia, jordan started a project called LEOS FOR LIFE. she collected gymnastic leotards from her teammates and we sold them on ebay and donated 100% of the money raised to help the victims.

when katrina struck, we started it back up again. this time on a much larger scale. we had local gyms, not-so-local gyms, gymnastic manufacturers all sending leotards and we were able to make a nice contribution to the american red cross.

before we were getting ready to move, we had a gym donate a large amount of leos to us. i couldn't do anything with them because of timing and so i packed them up and brought them with me figuring "when the time was right" i would get to them.

THE TIME WAS RIGHT THIS WEEK!

i belong to several ebay selling groups. one day, someone had a question about selling leotards and a woman responded. in her answer, she happened to mention that she was searching for a large group of leotards that would all be the same.

i sent her a message and let her know that i had a ton of leos and wasn't sure what she was looking for but to let me know if she was interested.

turns out she's a highschool gymnastic coach. their team competition leos were stolen and the girls and their families could not afford to replace them and their first meet was coming up.

also turns out that the leos i had were the perfect sizes AND THEY WERE EVEN THEIR TEAM COLORS!

a HUGE BLESSING to them as a team...in return, all i asked was that they do a fundraiser for THE CHILDREN OF HOPE VILLAGE.

so this is truly a WIN-WIN situation for everyone involved.

i'm amazed continuously at the faithfulness of God and how he chooses to SURPRISE us with his creativity! those leos have been sitting there waiting...FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS!

here are some pics of the girls in their "new" competition leos! GO MUSTANGS!

we're having our first house guest!

we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our very first visitor here at our house! miss jen is coming to stay with us this weekend! she's been visiting her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in beaumont and was close enough by to schedule a visit with us too!

we're very excited to see her and will be sure to take lots of pictures! the boys have grown so much since this pic was taken at our goodbye party in july:

girls can be superheroes too!

so i asked jordan to keep the boys busy for me while i got some work done...she was doing a great job...they were playing hot wheels and army guys and who knows what else...then i hear SHRIEKS of laughter and then she came around the corner. she's wearing hudson's size 3 buzz lightyear jammies. she's a dork. she then proceeded to "accessorize" her new look. thought these pictures were HYSTERICAL. this coming from the girl who used to be shy??????

carson salutes you :) he was soooo excited to ride the school bus! he's having fun but he DOES miss his momma and when he gets home he requires lots of extra "snuggle time" as he calls it.

there...two posts in one day...i might even come back later and add some more pictures...i have some catching up to do.

the WEEKLY something??? the SEPTEMBER something????

so maybe my goal was too lofty? i'm hoping not.

seriously. i want to start adding to this daily. but i may need a sticky note. actually, i need a LOT of sticky notes. austin thinks i need to wear one on my forehead. cheaper than botox for hiding wrinkles, right? :)

school started this week. we're off to a good start.

carson declared his teacher PRETTY and so all is good in his little world.

jordan is excited to be in sixth grade and this year gym class is first period (they have it daily) which means she can wear her tennis shoes to school and then change into her CUTE SHOES for the rest of the day. that's cause for celebration ;)

and austin is thrilled to have art II for first semester...

and then there's hudson...who has suddenly been left with only me to entertain him.

pray for him. pray for me. pray for both of us. we're getting reacquainted. it's fun...but i wish he'd stop calling me LOIS.

it's been so long i don't remember how to attach pictures. will try in a separate post so that i don't lose this one :)

cheers.