Tid Bits

My little sick kids laying around

Watching a Thomas movie

Dusty's first shirt I made!

I am looking out my bedroom window, watching two of our workers re-seed the backyard. They also cleared a place for us to plant a small garden. Can vegetables grow in the city? In the past my thumb has been many colors but never green, so we'll see! :o) I'll post pics soon.

Anson and Ella have been fighting a cold this week. Anson had a high fever in the night a few days this week and stayed warm during the days. Ella had more of a yucky runny nose. Today they both seem to feel much better. I really stay on top of Anson's fevers ever since the time he scared me to death when he was 18 months old! (He had febrile convulsions in the middle of the night and Dusty and I thought he was dying! As it turns out, febrile convulsions are harmless just very, very scary!) So I made sure his fever stayed under control and checked him often. I'm a little sleepy today!

I just made Dusty his first shirt! I think it came out pretty good for a first! I have enough material left over to make Anson one that matches! Cheesy, I know! :o) But I'm the Mom and I'm going to make them wear them!

Anson informed me this morning that we can not see God but his elephant can! And elephant says that God looks good! Anson lives vicariously through his elephant. His mind never stops! (Neither does his mouth! He even talks in his sleep!) Whata kid! :o)

And Ella is trying so hard to talk! She jabbers a lot and tries to say words after us. Anson tries to teach her new words every day. It is so cute. One day she is just going to speak in sentences! She stayed home with Dusty this morning while Anson and I went to my Bible study and I got to talk to her on the phone for the first time. She kept saying hi! Hi! It was so cute.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Have a good Good Friday and a Happy Easter!

The Park Today

Everything is in bloom and it is a sight to behold! I am going a little crazy taking pictures this spring but here are a few from the park today. I think I took over 100! I love the one where Anson is roaring like the lion statue! That is so him!

A Visit From Gramma and Papa

We had a nice visit from Gramma and Papa this past weekend! Unfortunately, it poured the entire time so we didn't actually DO anything but it was so nice to see them and visit! And nice that Dad did not have to go to the hospital this time! Uneventful is good!! :o) I think they have their holidays mixed up... they must have thought it was Christmas instead of Easter because they brought presents!!! Big presents! They have been busy in their workshop these days making fun things like rocking horses and toy trains and a special dresser for Anson! They are absolutely beautiful!!! We are enjoying all of them! And here is a sales pitch... they are selling these items now with more to come! They are researching pricing now and will have a catalog/blog soon. You just can't find these nice toys in the stores now. Who wants a rocking horse or train that was made in China, anyway! :o) These are keepsakes for sure and we are so glad to have them! Thanks again, Mom and Dad!!

And while they were here, Dusty and I got to go on a date! We had not been on one in a while! We had a great dinner at Vickery's (a local restaurant) and fun roaming the mall. It was raining so our options were narrow but it was nice to have uninterrupted talking time! :o)

More Spring fun

Just staring

The new floppy hat

Ella actually pedaled by herself this week!

My little flower collector

wild violas? They smell so sweet!

More of our daffodils

one of our flowering bushes

the first tulip to bloom

Anson and Ella are getting plenty of fresh air and sunshine these days! They love the flowers and seeing new buds open daily. Not much new is happening here. I go to a class at church on Tuesday mornings called "Mom-to-Mom" and Anson and Ella go to their class. Anson asked me on the way home if I enjoyed my Mom to Mom class. I said "Yes I did. How was your class?" And he said "I had fun. My class is called Boy-to-Boy and Ella's class is called Baby-To-Baby"! He is regularly making connections and coming up with thought processes that I think are so smart! But I'm his Mommy so of course I think he's smart! :o) He also knows 36 of his 150 catechism questions now! On any random day you can ask him what sin is and he will reply "any lack of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God" !! Pretty big words for a 3 3/4 year old! And speaking of words, Ella's vocabulary is growing too! She can finally say Mama! She can also say "uh-oh!" (and says it a lot!), hi, hot, thank you, (not quite perfect but I know what she says!) here, and God. When we ask "Who made you?", she points upwards and says "Ga!" Close enough!

About the catechism questions: I never knew what catechism was until a month ago. But basically, out church teaches the kids these 150 questions about the Bible, God, etc little by little over their preschool and elementary years so that they know why they believe what they believe. Here are few sample questions:

Who made you? - God

What else did God make? - All things

Why did God make you and all things? - for his own glory

And it goes through, creation, Adam and Eve, Sin, Covenant (Which Anson can tell you what a covenant is also!) etc. I love it! So we ask him his questions at dinner or before bed and he looks forward to it every night! Dusty gives him a high five every time he answers a question.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I think I hear Ella waking up from her nap. Time to walk around the neighborhood and collect dandelions - Anson's request!

Dresses and more dresses

My budding artist

Ella feeding her baby

My first embroidery attempt

Dress I made last week

Dress I made yesterday

And the Easter Dress! It says, "Rejoice! He Lives, Lamb of God, Allelujah"

"Do these shoes match?"

"No, what was I thinking?

I went on a dress making spree this weekend. I was sick with a cold and it was rainy all weekend so it was the perfect time to stay home and sew! Here are a few pics... Thanks so much for the Easter fabric, Roxanna. We love it!!!

From Snow to Spring

We have had some gorgeous weather over the past few days! We are enjoying LOTS of outside time and it is fun to see Ella participate now! She goes exploring around the yard, finding rocks and dandelions, and then goes to the sand box and inevitably ends up pouring sand down Anson's shirt! She is a quiet and devious trouble maker! But in a cute way :o). Today we bought and planted some flowers ... impatients, violas, marigolds, and some others that I can't spell. Our bulbs that I planted in the fall (the whole length of our driveway) are all coming up! We have daffodils, tulips, crocuses, and again some more that I can't spell or remember. They are beautiful!

Today Anson came running in the back door, shouting, "Mommy, guess what? I saw a big bee!! That means its SPRING!!!!!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Can you tell we like spring around here? :o)

I've posted some various pictures from this past week/end.

Snow!

We had a good snow today! It started during church and lasted all afternoon and into the evening! We had to drive home from church right through downtown Atlanta in a snow storm! It was really cool (no pun intended)! When we got home we let Anson and Ella play out in it for a few minutes and Anson got the hang of throwing snowballs really fast! Of course he had a great teacher... Dusty! I got pelted a few times too many! They built a little snowman on our table, too. It was a very wet snow so we were soaked after playing for about 15 minutes. But, of course we took a few pictures to share. I must say I'm glad we only get snow a few times a year... I just talked to Aly in Maine and they are getting over a foot!

I'm ready for spring! My daffodils just peeked their heads out this week when we had a warm day... I hope they're not ruined now!

Here is a video that shows the snow really well! This was taken from my front door...

Fun in the mountains

Last weekend we went up to the mountains(Clayton, GA) after church and had such a fun time. It only takes an hour and a half to get there but we feel like we've been away. Dusty's parents have a little cabin there that is almost finished, minus the plumbing. After hiking around the cabin, we went to the Dillard House in Dillard, GA. It is a little restaurant in a beautiful setting. And they serve a great Southern family-style meal! They also have a little farm out back where you can go look at the animals. That was a hit for the kids. Ella is going to be our animal lover... she goes nuts over every animal she sees! Anson really liked the horses. I think a trip back to go horseback riding is in our near future!

And this weekend, Jared, Brittany and Charlotte came to visit! We had a fun time visiting with them. We had breakfast and lunch with them on Valentines Day and then they headed to the cabin. They were pretty brave and stayed there overnight with no plumbing! But they had a fun time and they visited the Dillard House too. They came back to our house on Sunday and we went to the park and out to dinner. We stayed up way too late but we had a fun time listening to entertaining stories from our friend Cyrl! :o)

And for a sweet Anson story... he got so sad when Jared and Brittany were leaving that he teared up and cried! It almost made me cry! It is only the second time I have seen him sad like that! (The first time was when I read him the Velveteen Rabbit). But he got to talk to Auntie Brittany tonight and he said he didn't feel as sad. :o)

Vote For Gavin Rollins!

Next stop... the oval office!

Dusty's brother Gavin is running for Keystone Heights (FL) City Council, Seat 1. We are so excited for him and impressed at the hard work he's putting into his campaign. If you know anyone inside the Keystone Heights city limits, put in a good word for Gavin! He has a great website... check it out! http://www.gavinrollins.com/.

And then there's the not-so-helpful!

A couple days ago Ella "disappeared" for a few minutes... Anson and I found her in his room at his little table. She had taken the neat stack of his coloring/activity books and thrown them on the floor one by one! We saw her do the last two! Of course I probably reinforced the behavior by laughing and taking her picture but I just had to. She did help pick them up, but twice since then she's done the same thing. I finally got smart and put the books in a magazine file and she stopped. It's not so much fun if you can't just swipe them onto the floor, I guess! We have to watch ourselves that we don't withhold discipline from her just becasue she does these things with a smile and looks so adorable. That's a hard one! :o)