Happy Birthday, Kirby!

Today is my amazing wife's birthday. She's 25. She believes that your body shuts down after 25. I love her.

Kirby, no matter how dramatic life gets (jeans come to mind), I love the passion that comes along with your drama. You are passionate about Jesus...

about your husband...

about your son...

about your daughter...

about our families...

about your friends...

about discipling our home...

about Her Hands and discipling other women...

about saving us money...

about Round Top...

about SO many things. You put your whole self into everything you do and every person in your life. You convict me so often by your generosity, by the thoughtfulness of every gift and how you KNOW the people in your life. I'm learning from you.

I don't know how you manage to do all the things that you do in a normal day. After having the kids for a few hours or a day, I know what a feat it is when I come home to clean house or if anything else is done outside of you three surviving. It is so important to me that you are at home and you do it with such humility, grace and eagerness.

You're the best friend a person could have. And I know they'll be many who'll echo that on this post as well. You're an amazing helper and so good to your needy husband. I love confiding in you and depending on you. I love reading with you, jean-shopping with you, Wizard-of-Ozzing with you, Round Topping with you and doing all of life with you.

Don't even get me started on how beautiful you are! None compare, Kirby.

I love you. Happy Birthday!

What's been happening 'round these parts...

As far as Asher is concerned, this first picture pretty much explains it. This kid LOVES horses. And cows. And pretty much any other animal figure that he can line up...but his obsession all started with horses around September.

On Christmas morning, the first gift from his stocking was probably his favorite. A 6-pack of cows that cost $4.99. We could have stopped there and Asher would have thought it was the best
present ever
day EVER.

As soon as the cows were out of their package, he sprawled out on his belly and began to play-completely oblivious to the rest of the living room. Cousins, aunts, and uncles tore through their gifts and were already off to their respective corners of the house, before he even looked up to realize he was the only one left with a pile of unopened gifts and trash surrounding him.

If, Charlie and I were smart, we would have taken half of the gifts and saved them for his birthday to open. Grandparents (we're thankful, but you) REALLY overdo it...we knew that would be the case, so we only bought him two gifts: a toolbench and and a children's bible to use during family worship. (And we LOVE this...this was a recommendation from the Duty's...if you're looking for a children's story bible, this one is so neat because rather than just being "moral" it gives you the "big picture" of God's sovereign plan since creation.)

The following are a bunch (sorry, this is more for the grandparents...I know that a lot of them look the same, but they don't want to miss any move this precious boy makes!) of pictures over the last month of Asher playing with all his animals:

He's so serious when he lines them up...I'm predicting a perfectionist like his Daddy.

Pleased with his alignment.

Finally caught me taking pictures.

The funny thing about all the "line up" is how each horse comes out one at a time-usually from a room on the opposite side of the house. Asher will start with a pile of horses in his room, and bring a horse into Uncle Jo's (my brother lives with us) room, line him up, and then say, "One more," as he holds up a finger and runs back to his room to retreive the next horse. This process continues until each horse is perfectly placed in his spot...everytime.

He's so busy.

One morning I noticed that his nativties were having an "unsegregated" block party...you know, two Joseph's at one nativity, some "Little People" animals at a non-Little People stable...all the same, so perfectly lined up.

(This might be my FAVORITE.) Later that afternoon, I watched as, one by one, the horses found my vintage nativities.

Each horse on his own spiritual pilgrimage to pay their respect.

I love you, SweetBoy. And love how you love those animals of yours.

I hope it never stops.

(Disclaimer: Asher just received a whole lot of attention in this post, but this cutey girl has been busy doing her own tricks, too! I will update more on those soon; for now I will leave you with a few pictures.)

Is he really ready?

Friday afternoon I was talking on the phone to my sister, when Asher (who was supposed to be napping) walked out to the living room, came right up to me and gave me a big "I'm so proud of myself" grin.

"How did you get out?"

"Climb..." he said, grabbing my hand and leading me back to his room. I put him back in his crib and, sure enough, he climbed back out with no problem.

Ugh...I am so not ready for this. My baby is about to turn two in just over a month...and he's growing up way too fast!

Charlie decided that we should convert the crib into his "big boy" bed that night. So, we did. Char explained to Asher that he'd now be sleeping in a new bed and the "consequences" if he got out.

Well, 3 bedtimes and 5 naps later, he's only gotten out once and received one spanking. We're so proud of him!

The only problem is...he sometimes falls out. His bed didn't come with any rails, so the second night he fell out (onto the pallet we set up by his bed) about five or six times. But he only really woke up once...the other times, when I went in he was already crawling back in, still asleep.

Any ideas? Should I buy one of those rails that you stick in between the mattress and the frame? Or will he eventually learn not to roll out? Come on experienced mothers of "big boy/girl sleepers" I need some help.

I'm having a crisis...

a fashion crisis, of all things.

I realized tonight that I'm officially a mom.

I thought that when I bought my first swim skirt for my tankini the summer after Asher was born that I had been initiated into motherhood.

Not so. Tonight I recognized that I had drifted in into a whole new realm of oblivion somewhere over the years...and not even known it.

I went jean shopping for the first time since fall/winter of '04-the winter before I got married! The winter after we got married I was too poor to buy any clothes and the last two winters I've been pregnant, so had no use to shop for anything non-maternity.

I've pretty much been wearing jeans that I've had since the middle of college-and, though, they're old favorites, I've slowly had to start throwing them away or designating them as "paint jeans" because I've worn them for 4+ years.

So...tonight I started out...rather excited. I was getting to go shop for myself...childless...like not having to stop to feed any babies or bribe any toddlers to keep quiet.

I began at one of my old favorites-Plato's Closet-a consignment shop that mostly only sells name brand and designer clothes from the previous season. I panicked as I hardly recognized any of the brands of jeans that I was shuffling through.

Seriously...I felt so dumb when I saw jeans that said "X2" on them and was confused. How come no one told me that some time in the last four years Express had changed their label?

But that was just the beginning...Silver, Hudson, 575, iT jeans...I needed a translator!

Actually, what I really needed was a college girl standing beside me to tell me, "Yes, go try these." or "No, not those." But I was WAY too prideful to go ask one of the sweet girls behind the counter to help...so that's where you come in...but more on that in a minute.

So, I picked up some Silver jeans and tried them on because my friend Jenn had recently just mentioned that her (super cool, rockstar's wife) sister-in-law had recommended them. I bought Silver jeans for $18...is that a good deal? Are those even still cool?

The rest of the night I spent checking out every college girl's rear that came near me at the mall...in search of "cool" jeans. I went to the Buckle and tried on a few that I liked. But I need help...are BKE jeans still "in"?

Blaire?

Emily?

Brettney?

Where are you?

I can't wait for 15 years for McKlayne to fill me in on what's appropriate to wear. I need your help.

If you're reading this blog and I don't even know you but you have jeans that you LOVE, please share...include the brand, style, and where I can purchase these, etc. please. Price doesn't matter...I just want to know your favorites! I will be getting money or gift cards for Christmas, so I plan to use them on jeans.

Ugh...this is so hard for me to do...I never thought I'd be asking for fashion advice...and especially not on the world wide web...but I'm desperate.

My favorite jeans...which, like I said, I haven't shopped for them in a good 4-5 years have been...Lucky, Citizens and jeans from Arden B. Are these still okay? Be honest.

I don't want to succumb to this and not even know it:

SwagBucks

So, there is a really cool site that you can earn gift certificates and actual prizes from your favorite stores.

Here is a re-post from the site we learned about it:

Not sure what Swagbucks is? Well, it is an online search engine, powered by Google and Ask.

But, instead of just pulling your search results back like Google or Yahoo, you have the potential to earn Swagbucks with each search. And, quite frequently I win. At least once a day, and sometimes more.

Now, I honestly can tell you, I only use Swagbucks when I am doing a search online anyway. I never use Yahoo or Google anymore, because Swagbucks gives me a chance to win while I search. I have it saved as my Homepage, so this is the first screen that comes up everytime I log onto the web.

I DON'T sit there and try to randomly search to earn extra poins...because it really doesn't work. In fact, here is the exact wording from their site.

Tip #8

Doing a TON of searches, or clicking on sponsored links, will not help you win!When searching the web, the best way to win Swag Bucks (and the only method we endorse) is to use the engine for genuine search and discovery. Our technology is designed to award users who search naturally — simply utilize our engine the way you would with other search providers.

Anway, back to how it works. Once you accumulate enough ( approx. around 50 ) you can cash in for prized. There are gift certificates, merchandise, etc.

Currently, when you win, we have all been geting 1 to 5 Swagbucks.

But, now....they have announced on their blog that they will be issuing some Mega Bucks soon. This means, you can now potentially win 10, 20, 50 and 100 Swagbucks...woo, hoo! They plan to launch the Mega Bucks this week, although I am not positive of the date. You can click here to read their announcement.

Now, that gets me excited!

In addition, when you get your free gift, if you take a picture of yourself with it and submit it to Swagbucks, they will also issue an extra 1 Swagbuck for your account. So, I plan to do this, too. Click here for all the details.

Finally, if you use Swagbucks, make sure to tell all your friends..email them your links, etc. If they sign up thru your referral, you win everytime they win. Up to 100 Swagbucks! As you can imagine, your Swagbucks will accumulate much faster.

SOURCE: moneysavingmethods.blogspot.com

So we want our Swagbucks to accumulate faster, too. So we don't care if you use this or not. HOWEVER, if you are going to try it out, please click one of the links in this post or on the side of our blog so we can 'refer' you.

Thanks!

Happy Four Months, Chubbers!

The past four months have flown by with my Sweet Girly-Girl!

When I took her to Rusty yesterday for her well-check she weighed 16lbs 2 oz. (95 percentile) measured in at 25 1/4 inches. (75 percentile) We're so proud of our chubby girl!

Here are some updated pics:

McKlayne rolls around like crazy and is so strong. She's so squirmy that I wonder if she's still going to be a snuggler when she gets older...I hope so!

Now that she is (pretty much) over her reflux, she is so laid back and sweet....she just kind of goes with the flow. Then again, I guess she has to.

Fast asleep with her Blankie Bunny.

She loves her brother. He is always making her laugh and squeal.

Having a girl has really changed me. I thought that I'd be a mom of all boys and was okay with it. Now, I can't imagine not having this sweet little prissy angel. I've even surrendered my title of "Princess" to her.

I adore all those rolls.

This one is from a while ago...it's crazy how much she's already changed!

How cute is my hubby?

Oz Bunch Multiplies

We had so much fun on Halloween! Asher sat so still as Charlie painted his face...I'm still not sure which of my boys liked dressing up for Halloween more.

You can't tell in this picture, but Asher was quite the opposite of the Cowardly Lion as he ran out to show off his costume and painted face to Uncle Jordan. He was so proud of himself and his "roarrrrrrr" that he'd been practicing.

McKlayne had no idea what was going on as we painted her face..she kind of just smiled as the paint tickled her nose, but she definitely didn't like having her "ears" put up. She screamed as I put the rubberbands in her hair...this was her first time to have pigtails, but I've heard that girls get used to this, so we shall see!

She's got him wrapped around her little finger already!

I still can't believe how quickly we've doubled! If you would have told me when Charlie and I were first Dorothy and the Scarecrow (before we were even engaged!) that in just four, short years we'd be dressing up again as the Oz bunch with two children of our own, I would have laughed in your face! It's amazing to me what the Lord can do in such a short amount of time! We're so thankful for where He's brought us!

My little Toto.

He had so much fun running from house to house and often helped himself to the candy...we'll have to work on that next year!

Of course, we had to stop by the CS Grandparent's so they could see our little ones, where we met Tara and cute little, Kitty-Cat Karis. (This sidenote is completely unrelated to Halloween, but I wanted to be able to remember this for years to come: You know Asher loves his "Mammy-ou" whenever he sees "Dane" passing out worship guides at church and immediately starts asking for her. I can't believe he can already put them together...he's way smarter than I give him credit for!)

Then we made our way to the Hendrick's to Trick or Treat and hang out with the rest of our friends.