Life and Death

It was one of those days. The kids were at each others throats all morning.

I'd tried everything I could think of and nothing was working.

They were intent on doing each other bodily harm.

Yet again I heard screams and yells from Dominic's bedroom and this time I decided to let them duke it out.

Nothing I had done so far was working so maybe if they fought it out they'd settle it on their own.

I went into the kitchen and was doing my best to ignore them.

Then I hear -

"I'm going to lose my sister to death."

That didn't sound good!

So I run into the bedroom to find Caitlin hanging by her foot from the top bunk.

Dominic had put some pillows beneath her and was on the ladder trying to reach her, but she was a few inches too far away.

I asked them why they hadn't called me.

Caitlin, very red in the face by now, gave this little squeak and said

"Hep me, mom?!"

It was said as almost a question.

Amazingly this seemed to fix the problem though. I didn't settle another fight all day.

Aging

Dominic is aging faster than I thought.

A couple of days ago he was talking on the phone to his cousin Leila.

The reception was bad and I'm not sure he knew who he was talking to at first.

"Hi Lily, how are you?"

"Dominic, that's Leila."

"Oh, sorry. I have a bad memory."

Then today I overheard this conversation.

"Domic, hep me, pease."

"Caitlin when you get old like me it's harder to do those things."

I love this man!

My husband is a wonderful husband. 

But he's also an amazing dad.

The kids love their daddy so much.

Caitlin had gotten hurt and needed some love.

Dominic can't be left out.

Jon and I asked Caitlin for a kiss and she said no.

So I kissed Jon and all of the sudden she wanted to kiss everyone.

Her kisses are a bit juicy. =)

My Birthday and other things.

My birthday was fun and full of family things.

On Friday night we had swedish pancakes. It's a slightly changed version of a recipe that a friend gave me several years ago. Jon thinks he could eat this every night and not get tired of it.

The kids happen to like it as well.

Friday night Jon and the kids gave me my presents.

Dominic picked this out. The flowers are white and then turn green. (I think.)

I'll blog about Jon's present here.

On Sabbath morning we went to Sabbath school. It was 13th Sabbath and I noticed something while Dominic's class was standing in line waiting to go up and sing.

He really likes Kelsey. =)

 

 

The kids did their songs up front and we left.

We headed to Murfeesboro to the Children's museum.

We had intended to come home and have lunch before heading out. But Sabbath school ended earlier than we had planned and we weren't hungry. So we packed a quick picnic and headed out.

We got about an hour down the road and I was dying of hunger. The kids were already snacking. So we stopped in a parking lot and ate our lunch.

My birthday cake!

It still tasted wonderful. =)

The kids ate theirs out of a cup.

We had tons of fun at the museum.

 

 

 

 

This plane had working rudders, stick, instrument panels, etc.

The kids loved it.

This little backhoe was super hard to maneuver. I know-I tried it.

Caitlin talking on the phone while driving.

We stayed until almost closing time and then headed home.

We stopped at the Olive Garden for my birthday meal.

This is Dominic checking to see if he can hear the ocean in his cheesy shells.

Goofy boy! After he asked us if he could hear the ocean he started laughing.

"Just joking, mom."

It was a wonderful birthday. It didn't go as planned. But I've noticed that plans rarely happen with kids. And most of the time it changes for the better.

I'm thankful for another year of life and for the most wonderful and amazing family!

Art Wall

Dominic LOVES to draw. He is always drawing the things around him and then giving us the pictures as presents. In fact, almost every Sunday morning we hear our bedroom door open and a little boy trying to be quiet as he tiptoes in to place pictures on our night stands and tiptoes back out again.

Jon has been taking some of these pictures to work to hang on the wall in his office.

He emailed us a picture the other morning so Dominic could see.

Dominic was super impressed and commented that he only had a few more spaces to put pictures. So Jon sent another picture of the entire wall. 

"Wow, mom! Now I have to draw 100 pictures for Daddy."

Books

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." 

Anna Quindlen

Park time

The weather has been so beautiful lately that we've spent most of it outside. 

My poor little house has suffered, but rainy days are coming. It can hold on until then.

We went to the park the other day.

 

Monkey see, monkey do.

It works both ways.

These were taken while Jon was washing the car.

Not sure what has Caitlin so upset.

I love this picture of Dominic. It isn't really posed. He was sitting there messing with a bug and I called his name. The first picture is nice, but then I told him to smile. That part is definitely fake. =)

Dentist appt.

Dominic has been having his teeth cleaned since he was 1 years old.

But for some reason I never took pictures.

Since I now carry my camera in my purse I had it handy to take a few pictures.

Dominic kept grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand out of his mouth to talk. 

Then he'd put it back. It was hilarious and so cute.

Stomach noises

I missed supper last night and my stomach was growling this morning while I was making breakfast.

This started a whole conversation with Dominic about stomach noises and why they make them.

I explained that it was the stomachs way of telling me it was unhappy with what I'd put in there or (in this case) begging me to eat.

Dominic - "My stomach is telling me to please, please feed it pancakes."

"Well I guess you'd better obey it then."

"NO! It's just a kid. I don't have to obey it."

"Uhm, okay."

"It's smaller than me so it must be just a kid."

I noticed that he obeyed his stomach very well when I put a plate of pancakes in front of him.

Sabbath

Yesterday was a full day for us. I was camera happy so I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took.

We started out with church by a choir from Chattanooga.

I had pictured them from the University and was very surprised to see that all of them were my parents age or older. It was a nice choir, but not really my taste. The kids seemed to enjoy it.

Love the limberness of this kid.

After potluck we went out to Cane Creek with a bunch of church members. 

On a walk before we met up with everyone.

 Dominic waiting for us. He was enjoying his bike.

Danger girl. 

Dominic was so excited to play that he forgot to take off his helmet.

 

My girl!

At the swings.

 

 

Some people played with the kids.

Some sat and took pictures of them. =)

The kids had fun and were wore out.

It didn't take them long to get their energy back. 

After supper I was tackled.