Viva le France!

Mimi now wants to be called "Amelia" all the time, because in her words, it is "much fancier." As you can see from the above photo, she enjoys dressing up, and has a penchant for all things French. This photo was taken over a girls lunch with her at Neiman's last week after CBS. She loves the popovers and strawberry butter. (So do I!)

I am really enjoying the ages that the kids are at right now. Although they are difficult years, they are also a ton of fun. I really need to start writing down all of the precious things that they say, like Mimi's comment that "once she was a baby, now she's just a kid." And her question/solution for how God clothed Adam and Eve when they were cast out of the garden of Eden -- God just reached his "very big hand down from a cloud and dropped them some clothes."

Charlie also says some funny things -- in fact, we are really having a difficult time getting him to STOP talking! (Just ask his teachers at school.) He told me recently that he thinks a particular girl in his class would be "good to marry, because she also has black hair, so they would match. And since she is quiet, she would teach him the value of silence." The value of silence! How classic! I don't know where he got that. And wouldn't it be easy if we could just pick our future spouses based on matching hair color!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Hard to believe that you are 45!

We love you!

all these wonderful toys ...

and Cooper would rather chew on my T. Burch flats. Go figure.

bruiser, our little puppy dog

if you look closely, you can see black eye #4 for little bruiser. (this time it was caused by a spill down the stairs) we hope this doesn't mean that he is going to be incredibly accident-prone ...

in addition to suffering new injuries on a weekly basis, "bruiser" also has developed the habit of carrying his toys around the house in his mouth while he crawls. kind of like a sweet little puppy dog, but a lot higher-maintenance!



ps -- Great news! Shannon is in Hanoi to pick up her sweet little Amelia! Blessings on your journey and we can't wait to see her in your arms!

into the wild

Not that this should surprise anyone, but getting 25 or so 6-year-old boys together in one place is asking for trouble. That being said, we were still a little overwhelmed at the amount of noise/wrestling/testosterone at Charlie's birthday party Friday. We held it at Exposure Indoor Rock Climbing ...






The boys really enjoyed themselves, to say the least. Some of the dads came to help out, and many of the boys (including Charlie) were able to climb all the way to the top. Mimi even momentarily entertained the thought of climbing, but then was too scared at the last minute.



All of the fun was topped off with the requisite pizza and cake. I couldn't hand out the pizza or cut the cake fast enough for the ravenous crowd -- leading to chants of "Pizza! Pizza" and "Cake! Cake" by the boys.

Coupled with the rock climbing, wrestling, pummeling and general rowdiness, it was a little like being in Lord of the Flies.

Happy Birthday, Big Brother!

Hard to believe that our Charlie is SIX YEARS OLD today! It seems like just yesterday that I held him for the first time in the hospital ... and our mornings of sleeping in were gone forever! I told him this little story tonight and received an eye roll at my words -- proof enough that his little boy days are in our past.

Today we celebrated his birthday first thing (7 a.m.) with the opening of his birthday gifts. He got a very cool Star Wars Transformer from Mimi and some computer games from Daddy and me. His **BIG** gift is tickets to go to the Cowboys playoff game this Sunday with Daddy. (He did get a Tony Romo book that will have to tide him over until then!) As a side note: the last time Charlie wore his Tony Romo jersey, Mimi told me that she wants a "pink Tony Romo jersey". My obvious answer was, "Oh, just like Jessica Simpson?" She looked back at me with a blank stare ... which was very encouraging to me, that our nation's celebrity worship has not yet reached my daughter, as she had no idea what I was talking about.

Chuck had lunch with Charlie and his class today ... I delivered them all cookies this morning. Then tonight, Will Florer (Gini Weir Florer's son, for those of you WFU folk reading this) joined us at a celebratory dinner at The Magic Time Machine. Much to Charlie's chagrin (and Mimi's delight), Cinderella was our server. But ... we did get to visit with Captain Jack Sparrow for a little while, which the boys seemed to enjoy almost as much as their bubbly "potion" drinks!






Lots of fun! Chuck and I wince at the thought of having to eat the food at Magic Time Machine each time the kids suggest it, but it is kind of a Dallas rite of passage. They always enjoy the costumed waiters even if the food is lacking. Charlie and Will had fun goofing off, and I know new mom Gini enjoyed the night off. It is very fun for me to see that Charlie and Will have become such good friends ... hopefully the same thing will happen with Cooper and Sutton.

this is january?

Wow! We wished for a trip to the tropics, and then we woke up today to 85-degree weather!


I guess that means we need to take the Christmas trees and all of the decorations down. Ugh.

under the sea

we all wish we were on vacation somewhere tropical right now. especially mimi, who has magically transformed into Ariel thanks to a costume given to her on Christmas by her brothers.

reality check

We have all been (more than) a little cooped up around here lately. With school and all of our other activities on Christmas break, the kids are getting tired of each other and tired of being indoors as much as we have been. All of this has led to two (guess which two!) very whiny kids.

It was about all that I could take when Charlie came to me, and with a very whiny voice told me that something "Wasn't fair." Wasn't fair? Not the right thing to say to your mommy two days after you've been showered with gifts at Christmas -- and are about to be showered with even more at your birthday party!

Especially given the fact that the day before, we had visited sweet Gage at Children's Medical Center! Gage is 5 years old and has leukemia. It doesn't matter that what he has is considered the "good type" of cancer (is there such a thing! how ludicrous!) ...he is 5 years old, has lost his hair, and is in the hospital again on Christmas Day. His family is trying to balance this with a newborn and 2 other kids ... the strain on the family is huge, I know. Now, THAT is not fair.

It is also not fair that my good friend Michelle's sister has a very serious type of bone cancer. She lives in Georgia, but is in Houston at MD Anderson for treatment -- half the country away from her husband, two kids, and friends.

It isn't fair that my friend Gini had a son born missing a large portion of his brain after an intro-utero stroke. It isn't fair that my friend S. is waiting to adopt her new daugher from Vietnam but is waiting for legal tapework to be untangled. It isn't fair that our friends the Fournets are waiting and waiting to hear back about the children they are adopting from Africa. It also isn't fair that the assistant pro at our golf club nearly lost his newlywed wife when she suddenly developed sepsis and had to have a quadruple amputation. I could go on and on...

How do you protect your child's innocence, while at the same time teaching them that there are very sad realities in this world? Because the truth is that we live in a little insulated bubble, and our kids live lives that 99% of the world's kids would dream to live. We are trying to expose them to some of these realities when it is appropriate ... but I still don't know if they are understanding any of it -- that we live in a world that is often sad and broken.

Thankfully we have a God that reaches across all backgrounds and 'redeems what the locusts have eaten' (Joel 2: 25-27). Chuck and I hope that if we teach them that, then the rest will follow naturally. And maybe we will get less of "it's not fair" when I tell them we can't go to Burger King for the 5th time this week!

Happy New Year!

If you don't recognize us, it is because ...
1. Chuck is not wearing a golf shirt
2. I am actually IN the photo instead of being behind the camera
3. There is a wierd shadow behind us that makes our heads and hair look very tall (no, we have not gone all Texas on you!)
4. There are no kids in the photo -- we actually had a date night!
5. I have on make up and have (kind of at least) fixed my hair
6. There is no spit-up, vomit, baby food, permanent marker or glitter glue anywhere on my outfit

Wow! What a happy new year! We went out to a fabulous 5 course dinner at Bijoux, followed by the great movie "Juno". Home and in bed by 10:30. OK, not very exciting, but that IS excitement for us these days.