girls day out

so yesterday, i took amelia to get our nails done ... partly to celebrate her wonderful performance at the CBS kids program.  she was so cute.  perfectly still, quiet, taking it all in ... 

contrasted with the incredible testosterone that I face from the rest of our little family on a daily basis, it was a welcome reprieve.  

My Rowdy Republicans

So those of you that are McCain fans will appreciate this ... found these cool t-shirts for the boys.  They read "Rowdy Republicans"  Not sure yet how they will be voting, but at least the rowdy part is right!

Ego in Check

So you think you are cool and hip and all-that?  Just wait till you have kids...

After last week's comment from Mimi that my hair was "all pretty and silver" I knew I was long overdue for a haircut and color.  

Wednesday, I went in to the super-hip Osgood O'Neill Salon and got a makeover.  Thanks to my new 'baby hair' coming in at a 2'' length all over my head (you moms know what I'm talking about when I speak of post-pregnancy hair loss)  bangs were necessary.  Which is really not a very good look for me.  

So now I have bangs and much darker hair.  Chuck was very sweet and encouraging and **might** have even commented that I look 'sexy' (not a word we typically use around the kids, but I digress ...) 

Then, Charlie prayed at bedtime that I would wake up and "get my old hair back."  At which point Mimi chimed in, "Yeah mommy, you look kind of  ... weird."  Then she was sweet enough to add at the end, "But we still love you!"

  

So, my ego is dashed and I might not ever recover -- but for the fact that I am so thankful that I have a family (and especially a God) who love me no matter what my hair looks like! 

   1 Samuel 16:7: "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."  

Hang in there, sweet friend!

"The mercy of the Lord is from 

everlasting to everlasting

On those who fear Him,

And his righteousness to children's children,

To such as keep His covenant,

And to those who remember

His commandments to do them."

--Psalm 103: 17-18

what joy ...

...comes with gifts from the Super Bowl!  (Thanks, Uncle Mark.  It's great to have an uncle with NFL clients)  Charlie loves his football, and Amelia and Cooper love their hats! (Though Cooper would rather chew on his ... go figure!)




In other news, Cooper got black eye #5 today, due to a spill in the tub. Does this mean he will be incredibly accident-prone? Poor little guy!

By the by, in a bored state I googled myself and found an old article I wrote during my years at CWA. It was revised recently, but still the same premise. I look at my kiddos' sweet faces and am so thankful for the gifts of their lives...  

The History of Abortion in America
http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=1416&department=CWA&categoryid=life

Inspiring story ...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/parkcities/stories/DN-pcdooleycol_14met.ART.Central.Edition1.4573232.html

You will not want to miss this story ... and will want to share with your friends. Shannon, I thought of you! :)

P.S.
For fans of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (it is our family's favorite show), tonight's episode was probably the best ever!

Happy Birthday Times Two

Happy Birthday to our wonderful and handsome twin nephews Ryan and Jordan, who turned 16 last week. (And to my brother-in-law Mark who also just celebrated his--one year shy of a VERY big birthday!) We brought over cake tonight to celebrate with them.

On the way over there, Amelia commented that my hair "looks so pretty and silver." Yes, I know I am overdue for a haircut and color. But coupled with the news that our babysitter's dad is actually younger than Chuck, it hit me:  Wow, we sure are getting old.  

Valentine's day is over!

After 5 Valentine's parties this week, we are finally through! Here are some photos from the kids' parties at school this week. I'm still trying to scrape them off of the ceiling after all of the sugar they had over the past few days...

The high point for all of us was dinner last night. Chuck took Mimi to a "fancy dinner" date at Ferre. I took the boys out on a dinner date as well. Charlie got to pick the restaurant and he wanted to go get sushi. Yes, my 6-year-old loves sushi ... God is so good to me!

It's tough being a superstar ...

Paparazzi ... all the travel ... exhausting schedule ... and those nagging fans under foot. (Especially the 11-month-old ones)

We love ...

because He first loved us. - 1 John 4:19

Happy Valentine's Day!

How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  -1 John 3:1

they're ba-aaak!

The sightings around our house of several enormous horse flies can only mean one thing:

The tree rats are back.  

We can only imagine there must be more that have died in our attic or fallen in our walls ... we've had a few days at 70-plus-degree weather, and you can figure out what happens when the temperature rises. . .  

It is just. not. pleasant. 

interesting...

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playgroundvideo3.swf

check out this movie trailer ... can't wait to see it when it comes out this spring.

I've been in denial ...

but upon reflection, it does appear that my hair is growing. Taller -- not longer.

I thought it was just a strange shadow behind my head in the picture from New Year's, but apparently not. My hair is getting substantially higher in each new picture.

It must be living in Dallas.

Next thing you know, I will look like Amy Winehouse.

I'd better take a trip to the East coast soon...

P.S.

Tonight's picture was taken on our way to the Preston Trail Valentine's Day party. It's the one time a year that I (or any other female for that matter) is allowed to step foot on the hallowed ground of Dallas' finest men-only golf club. As always, it was very nice, food was great, and if you need further evidence that Chuck and I need a date night, just look in the bottom left corner of this photo ...

Bridging Dallas' North-South Gap

Yesterday I ran into Melissa Hill at Gini Weir Florer's sip and see for baby Sutton. We spent some time talking about her family's life in one of Dallas' poorest neighborhoods and their call to reach out to their neighbors. And then today I open up the paper and the front page of the "Points" section has an article on her husband's and her ministry to South Dallas, Mercy Street. Very cool.

I especially love this quote by her husband Trey: "The suburban churches' typical involvement with the inner-city is to drive in and drive out ... not living among the people and sharing their lives and experiences. Our example is Christ, who vacated the perfection of heaven to live in the slums of our world, so that he might redeem a people for himself."

I totally agree that the most effective ministries find ways to live life among the people they try to reach ... which is why organizations like Young Life, Council for Life, Brother Bill's Helping Hand and Mercy Street are changing lives.

Check it out.  http://www.dallasnews.com

off the charts

Well, this week was sweet Amelia's very belated 4 year checkup. (For those of you who are keeping tabs, that is our 3rd ped. visit in the past week.) She walked in happy with her hot chocolate and walked out very upset due to some shots.

Never thought that little ol' 5-foot-3 me would have a daughter that is 90th percentile in height and 90th percentile in weight! We would say she is growing like a weed, but whenever I say that, she corrects me ... "Not a weed, a flower."

She was very brave and had 4 shots. One for each year. Thankfully, daddy was along to hold her hand.

rats!

as if we didn't know this firsthand already ...

apparently, all of the new construction in our neighborhood is causing homes to be infested with rats.  maybe they can help us figure out what to do with the colony living in our walls and attic!  (and more important, what to do when said rats fall into our walls and die, leaving horrific smells!)

http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/industries/realestate/stories/012808dnmetrats.2a79477.html

Joseph and his technicolor ... fruit roll up?

Well, you have to hand it to the folks at Sunday school today.  That is one creative craft to go along with the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors!  It was edible as well... although I'm not sure about the strange combination of banana, hershey's kiss, chocolate chips, fruit roll-up and pretzels!

(You can also see a pretty good example of Charlie's improving penmanship, too -- hard to believe he is going to be in first grade next fall!)

Time to celebrate!

Last night we enjoyed birthday cake with our community group in belated celebration of Chuck's birthday.  (Chuck was skiing in Colorado last weekend during his actual birthday.)  The kids were excited to get to join in with all of the adults, and even "helped" Chuck blow out all of the candles.  So that we didn't burn down the house, we limited the candles to ones that read "Happy Birthday" instead of 45 individuals!

The cake read "Happy 45th Chuck, you old buzzard!"

We are excited to be in community with our best friends ... what a blessing to go through life with all of them.  

superstar!

Check out a certain little someone on this blog: http://ylang23blog.blogspot.com/2008/01/treasured-visitor.html
It is the blog for my favorite jewelry store here in town.

Now that the insurance co. is reimbursing us, I have to admit that it has been VERY fun replacing all of my jewelry that was stolen a couple of months ago!

When Mimi saw herself on this blog, she asked me, "Mommy, does this mean that I'm famous now?" ;)

another day, another dr. visit

...this time (the 2nd visit this week!) was to have Coop's ears checked for a possible ear infection. The poor little guy was inconsolable last night and didn't really get to sleep until around 1 a.m. Of course, after waiting close to an hour (in an office full of sick kids and countless germs), the Dr. told me that his ears look perfectly fine. Ugh!

As you can see, Coop enjoyed his trip to the doctor nonetheless. Hopefully he will sleep better tonight. And thankfully, the Dr. did give him a script for some pain-reducing ear drops in case he has a rough night again.