Weekend Youth Retreat '09

For a long time, Matt felt called to full-time ministry. Now, here we are:

Cabin at Camp Caraway for the weekend: $1100

Large bag of marshmallows at Wal-mart: $1.96

A room full of youth watching Lindsey beat Matt at ChubbyBunny by stuffing 9 marshmallows in her mouth at once:

priceless.


There are few times in life where a picture is truly worth a thousand words... a great game of ChubbyBunny is definitely one of them. Deep in the woods of Camp Caraway, when rain had derailed most of our afternoon and evening plans, Matt came up with some awesome games to play including but not limited to ChubbyBunny (where you take turns shoving giant marshmallows in your mouth until someone either throws up or can't say "chubby bunny" anymore), a marathon Twister tournament, and a pillowfight of epic proportions.
Sean, I'm sorry we didn't know how much you hated marshmallows!
We love these crazy kids!

Kitchen Sink Bath!

Remember when we promised that once we had a baby we wouldn't make the blog all about her? Well, we take it back! Little miss K has been having quickie baths in the kitchen sink recently... it's just easier sometimes because I don't have to pull out a bunch of bath stuff, and it puts her at waist level so I don't have to spend the whole time bent over, which kills my back. It was such a pretty day this morning while I was bathing her, I made Matt get the "big camera" and take some pictures of this cutie patootie! I love that she finally likes the water, and I can't wait to start teaching her how to swim this summer! Here are some of my favorites, and you can see all of them on our flickr page.

LOVE these feets!

The Best Part

Sometimes the days feel like they don't belong to you anymore, because it's so much harder to get anything done. It can be frustrating sometimes to have your sleep interrupted multiple times in the night... to have food regurgitated onto you... to try to keep little feet from kicking right into their own poop while changing a diaper. But despite all those things, which always seem to happen when I'd rather be sleeping and it would seem that this little one can function on almost no sleep at all, I want to always remember that I woke up every morning to this:
and this, with her little polka-dotted wonderfulness:
It's hard to stay frustrated with someone who is always happy to see you! Especially when this is the soundtrack:


That, by far, is the best part of motherhood yet! (And her Daddy would have to agree that it's pretty cool too!)

Little Miss

At 3 and a half months old, Kenna is a very busy little miss! Here are some of the things we've been up to:

I started keeping our friends Chris and Toni's little boy named Aiden twice a week! I wasn't sure how things would go with an active 2 year old, an active puppy, and a baby who wants to be held (and fed!) constantly throughout the day, but things went great! They all sat and watched Veggie Tales together for a good part of the day, and even took a good solid nap at the same time! I keep joking with everyone that if I thought it would be that easy all the time, we might have 5 kids!
Aiden has opened our eyes to all the coolest things in a 2 year old world... Mickey Mouse's clubhouse, Cars, and of course, Wonder Pets. Matt and I have been joking about how many things have become "sewious" in our day-to-day lives all of a sudden:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwxwUiDbRCk
He's lots of fun to play with, and keeps me updated through out the day of what Kenna is doing (Kenna's awake! Kenna's sleeping. Kenna's crying.) etc. I think they've gotten to be pretty good little friends!
Kenna has also started to try out the Bumbo seat that we borrowed from cousin Evan! She is still not quite able to hold herself upright, but enjoys being able to sit up and look around at everyone! She is so nosy and loves to be in the middle of the action.
Mommy's absolute favorite new development is that suddenly, Kenna LOVES her swing. Loves, loves, loves. She didn't like it at first, and would cry whenever we tried to put her in it. Now she really likes it, and as long as she has a full tummy and can see what's going on around her, she will sit and swing half the afternoon away! Finally, I feel like I can get something done during the day! She also will sleep in it, which... is... awesome. Now, when she wakes up at 7 a.m. and doesn't want to go back to sleep, the swing almost always does the trick, stealing me just a few more hours of morning sleep myself. We love this thing!
I've been taking lots of pictures of her swinging, because she looks so hilarious all passed out in it. Thank you again so much to the Creeches for this wonderful gift! We might just show up on your porch one day to hug you, we are so thankful for this swing!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Last week we celebrated Matt's 28th birthday! We started the celebration a little early (as usual) by going out to dinner with Matt's family at Outback on Friday night. We've discovered that Burlington, NC is a good halfway mark between Raleigh and Randleman, so we met there. The weather was incredible, and it was great to catch up with family that we don't see that often! I made sure to get a picture, since we so rarely get a chance to take one with all three of us together.
Unfortunately on Saturday (Matt's actual birthday) he had to wake up early... our neighbor had offered to help him cut up a tree that we took down in our yard that had been laying there for months. Matt took the opportunity to witness to him and appreciated the help in getting the tree taken care of. Then, Saturday evening, our church went out together to witness in the community since we have just finished an evangelism study. Matt was able to share the gospel with two teenagers while we were out, and he happened to give them his business card for the church if they wanted to call with more questions. One of the guys, named Louis, called this week to let Matt know that he had become a Christian! It would have been cool any time, but Matt was especially excited to share Christ on his birthday!

For dinner that night, we tried a new place in Greensboro called Smoky Bones, which had been recommended to us by my parents who had gone to one in Orlando. Kenna was great, and slept the whole time so that we could have a nice leisurely dinner! Smoky Bones was good, but I think we will stick with our Shane's Rib Shack... it's much more affordable, and I think the food is better!
Other than the normal "almost 30" thoughts, I think Matt was happy to be turning 28. We are so proud of this Daddy and all his accomplishments this year! We as a couple answered God's call into full-time ministry...we have survived a busy and sometimes difficult year together, and are stronger than ever in our marriage... and best of all, he became a full-time Daddy to Kenna!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

A Birthday Letter

Normally I wouldn't post something quite so personal here on the blog for all to see. But I know that there are several people who read here who have suffered loss and are grieving for someone they love and miss. I wrote this letter to my Mom on her birthday, and if reading it helps you at all for some reason, I'm glad. Over a year has passed for us, and life tries to say "get over it.... move on." It's hard sometimes to find joy, even knowing that we can be reunited in heaven.

Your 54th birthday
Dear Mom,

Today is a day I'd much rather remember than January 5th, although it's hard to focus on the 24 wonderful years I had with you rather than the one year so far without. Everything I can think to say sounds trite, rote, and cliched- like 'not a day goes by that I don't miss you." While it's still true, the words just don't say all that they should... like how easy it is to think of you, causing happy memories to surface until the reminder that we can't make any more memories together strikes like salt in a would. The lack of you in my life is a wound.

I think of you when I use your sewing machine in my craft room. I think of you when I see your dishes in my kitchen. There isn't a single room in my house where your face doesn't smile at me from a picture, a gift you've given us, or something you made. Worst of all, I think of you every time Kenna smiles and you aren't here for it. Every day there's more I want to tell you, more I need to ask you, more advice and wisdom I need, knowing you've been through these same struggles. More encouragement I need from my Mom, my friend. My head still spins at how quickly you left, and my heart still aches to know that it will be a lifetime before I see you again. 'I miss you' just doesn't cover it- you've left a hole in me that nothing in my physical life can fill.

I still miss you, I still love you.

Mom and me at her 50th birthday party, February 2005

Nana Day 2009

This past Saturday would have been my Mom's 54th birthday, the first one that we have celebrated without her. In honor of her birthday, my brother thought of having a "Nana Day" where we could celebrate her life by taking our kids around town doing all the things she loved. This year it is still hard and bittersweet, but I loved this idea as a way for the cousins to grow up knowing what kinds of things she liked and doing things with us that remind us of her. It's my hope that through all the stories and pictures and things like Nana Day, that they will have some kind of idea of who she was or feel like they knew her even though she passed away before they could remember her.

We braved the chilly and rainy day to start out at Crabtree Valley Mall, to shop around a little bit (since we all know Nana loved loved loved shopping!). Ironically, Alisa pointed out that on rainy days, the first thing Mom would have done was go "breathe some mall air." We met up at Panera, and as we turned the corner, the first thing we hit was Lindt Chocolates, Mom's favorite chocolate store! I remember Mom and I always hitting up Lindt for their free sample of a truffle ball (and somehow always ending up buying more to take home!).
Of course, we had to eat a few in her honor! Evan ate his all in one bite, and Kenna rode sweetly in her stroller, amazed at all the different colors. Grannie bought us some for later!
Next, we stopped off at Alisa's and my favorite kids clothing store, Janie and Jack, to ooh and ahh over the totally unaffordable but gorgeous kids clothes! If I had $48 bucks to spend on such things, this would have been my pick for Kenna:
Instead, we tried a few pairs of sunglasses on her. This little girl will probably be tortured by her parents with funny pictures like this the rest of her life!

She loves the mall, just like Mommy and Nana!

Somehow in the store, Jason and Alisa either misplaced their camera, or it was swiped off the top of their stroller. We regrouped at Auntie Anne's with a pretzel and a coke while Jason went to leave their information at lost and found.
Ironically, most of the things we could remember as Nana's favorites or that we loved to do with her involved food... so somewhere right after our pretzels, we decided we needed some real lunch, and headed back downstairs to Panera, Nana's favorite!

The girls (all 5 of us!) at lunch at Panera!

The main event of the day, (as planned by Jason!) was meeting up with some of Nana's good friends at the tearoom in Wake Forest. Anyone who knew Mom knew she had a big thing for tea cups and tea parties (pretty much any kind of party), and she really enjoyed trips to the tearoom for special celebrations. We met up with Chris, Sue, and Jeannie for a ladies' tea and stories about Mom.
In true Nana fashion, I had to make sure the party had some kind of handmade party favors. For Mom, making the party favors was enough of a reason in itself to have a party! So I made some fabric-covered button magnets from her stash of fabric in her signature colors, brown and pink.
We concluded the night with dinner at Red Hot and Blue, a great barbecue restaurant that Mom liked. Of course, the boys didn't mind, since it's their favorite too! Despite the cold rain, Grannie, Jason, Alisa, and Evan (and baby girl!) ended the night at Goodberry's for Mom's favorite ice cream- she always got vanilla and almond concretes- but Matt, Kenna and I had to get on the road back to Randleman. It was lucky that we did... it snowed 5 inches the next night!

The day was fun because of our sweet family and happy memories of Mom, but also sad and bittersweet to be doing all the things she loved and that we used to do with her while she couldn't be there. It seems like all the things I do that remind me of her have an element of that... the sharp pain of being reminded that she "should" be here and isn't. I don't think that will ever get any easier this side of heaven. But I'm happy to cling to these little memories of Mom, and they will become more and more important to me as Kenna gets old enough to start hearing them.

Happy Birthday, Mom!