things you never thought you would say…

A few comments from the last week that made me smile after I heard myself say them…

“Get your finger out of her nose”

“Take the whale out of your milk.”

“Babe, did I brush my teeth already?”

“How did she get in the dishwasher?”

“Why are you wearing two pair of underwear?”

“No sword fighting… until breakfast is over.”

rock stars

Before our tragic weekend, we were in Durango, Co enjoying our Spring Break… taking quick trips is not as spontaneous and carefree as it used to be but I couldn’t pass up the chance to get out of town for a few days.   Even with my meticulous packing of 5 people in 30 min I managed to forget my camera (I know, I am a horrible blogger) so I didn’t get any pictures of all of us sledding or swimming or quietly playing while Havi napped in the loft (that last one didn’t happen).  But we did meet some dear friends at the req center and she was kind enough to capture my kids in their first indoor rock climbing experience.  I love how adaptable kids are-

“I was thinking we should go to Durango with Daddy this week.”

“YEAH!”

“Hey, you guys wanna go to the rec center and swim.”

“YEAH!”

“Oh look, there is a rock wall, you wanna try and climb it?”

“YEAH!”

Grown ups need lots of warning and mental prep to jump into unknown situations but kids just roll with things.  I hope some of this rubs off on me.

Noah was the youngest kid by a couple years but almost reached the top

Havi didn't quite meet the weight requirements

saying goodbye

This weekend we faced the difficult but inevitable part of life with pets.  Our sweet chocolate lab died Saturday after 10 years with our family.   Saying goodbye was much more difficult than I anticipated.  Jay and I got Chase as a roly-poly pup after purchasing our first home 6 months into marriage.  We had read many books about how to pick out the perfect puppy in the litter, however, weren’t able to use any of these “tests” when choosing Chase- he was the only one left.  I remember going into the backyard of the breeder and sitting down while all these sweet puppies bounded up to jump in my lap and lick my face.  I was looking for the one without the ribbon indicating they had been spoken for.  Finally I saw our puppy, he was trying to get to us but his big belly impeded any quick movements.  He was halfway across the yard when he dropped into a little hump to take a nap before completing his journey.  Ahhhh yes, this was our dog.

He has been the only constant in our ever-changing family.  Three states, 7 houses, and 4 kids later we look very different then the newlyweds we were ten years 10 years ago.  Having a dog was the first step into creating our own family.  It is true what they say- “Get a dog before you have kids.”  Owning one can be a small but important step into the world of parenthood.  We learned to deal with the unexpected (plants de-potted on our white carpet), to drop everything when someone gets sick (or swallows rat poison and needs to go to the vet),  mid night and early morning interruptions to sleep among many other things that prepared us in a small way for having kids.  We never claimed Chase was the most intelligent dog, or entered him in any beauty contests but he was everything you would want in a family dog:  loyal, humble, protective and forgiving. . . . and he is missed already.

in our adventurer days snowshoeing Mt. Hood

Baby Gracyn and Chase

Chase playing dress-up last month

eleven

I have started a new post almost everyday, I get a couple sentences in and then someone falls down the stairs or dumps legos into the dishwasher and I totally lose my train of thought.  I don’ t know how all these pro-bloggers do it… new ideas, deep wisdom and insight, clever conversations everyday… yes, you.   You know who I am talking about.  Oh well.  I don’t feel pressure.  I blog cause I like it…. well, and because I am afraid these years are going to pass and I am not going to remember the day-to-day miracles that happen around here.

For example, yesterday we celebrated Havi’s eleventh month!  By celebrated I mean we did all the normal things we do only I tried harder than usual to get a picture of her in a clean outfit, without drool on her chin and doing one of her spectacular new tricks.  It didn’t happen.  SO I got a couple of shots today of her doing her most recent feet (haha)  W-A-L-K-I-N-G !!!  Okay, she has been taking steps for a couple of weeks and I even got the first ones on video, (though I had to erase some pictures of our family vacation to do so since we are not smart enough to figure out how to get clips on our computer and our video camera has been full for months…) but now she is a walk-er.

She is over the crawl which is unfortunate for many reasons.  One is that she is not very good at walking… and it takes her forever to take a few steps, fall, stand up, fall, stand up, take a few more, fall….

Another unfortunate thing is that walking graduates you to the next class at church.  She has spent her last few months among the sweet, tiny babies in the nursery.  But now she will have to brave the new crazy world of toddlers- running, kicking, climbing, throwing… kids from 9 mo to 23.9 months.  I remember when Ikey was in the WALKERS and outweighed the rookies by 12 lbs.  I believe they might have moved him to the next level a little early at the request of fearful parents.  Now Havi will be forced into the WALKERS class with kids that speak in sentences and are out of diapers…doesn’t seem right.

The third reason I am not crazy about her walking is because it reminds me how quickly this all goes.  She just came home the other day, not able to sit up without me behind her- needing me for everything.  Tomorrow she’ll be borrowing the car and asking me not to sing so loud when her friends are over.  I know, I know this is what is suppose to happen, kids are supposed to stop crawling, learn to feed themselves and eventually leave the house for college- but does it have to happen so fast?  I was in such a hurry for Gracyn to walk, and even the boys cause they took forever and weighed a ton, but now I am wishing Havi wasn’t so quick to hurdle these milestones.  Only one month from her birthday and I have to remind myself to be thankful for the time I have had to witness all these “firsts” with her.   Though they are met with a bit of remorse, we are here to share them.

this one cracks me up b/c she looks like she might be running... give her a couple weeks.

pictures

When my friend Kristi visits from Colorado you drop everything and let her take your picture.  I’m so thankful that she was able to capture Havi at this age.  Soon she’ll know better than to let us put obnoxious flowers in her hair and might even tire of showing off her armpit roles but for now… enjoy!