The Tens ~ Finn Edition

1. He will listen to anything his brother tells him and laugh even when his brother is pulling on his ears! He is totally the definition of "Monkey See, Monkey Do".

2. He loves his dog. There isn't much that can make him giggle more than Sophie kisses. They play for long periods of time just chasing each other around the house.

3. He has 2 new teeth! He's now up to 10! I think the kid would eat anything; triskets, almonds, rocks, etc... He is eating me out of house and home! He refuses most meats and veggies, but if you have fruits, grains, or dairy, get out of his way! He'll be raiding your pantry next!

4. He has found a passion for climbing! He can climb onto stools and coffee tables. He's frustrated he hasn't managed couches and beds yet, but he can get off of them. He is a stair master and it's only a matter of time till he's sitting on the window sill with his brother.

5. He is determined! If he wants to climb it, he will, if he wants to ride Dax's toys and run the big scoop, he'll find a way! He has taken to pointing. He has different sounds to indicate the importance of what he is pointing at. Sometimes he simply wants you to name the item, other times it is a genuine demand. He is absolutely coming into his own!

6. He too is developing a sense of style. He has quite a love of shoes! He insisted on having a new pair of knock off crocs while at Toys R Us this weekend. I handed him a pair of blue ones while trying green ones on Dax. He immediately tossed the blue ones out and demanded the green. Hmmm...this ought to be fun!

7. He has begun the amazing habit of shaking his head no while smiling. He is also becoming known for his ability to crawl like a mad man with foreign objects in his mouth giggling all the way.

8. He is walking more than he is crawling!!! His knees are starting to look a bit less red. Dax just keeps saying, "Finn not walk, Finn my baby!" Sniff, Sniff, I agree! However the good part about walking, more space between his mouth and those foreign objects!

9. He has discovered the outdoors. He just stands and points. I see the need for baby jail in my future! Anyone have an extra octagonal gate thingamajig?

10. He is the cutest 13 month old I know! He's been nominated for best dimple as well as most adorable baby brother in our house. He's also won honorable mention in the most obnoxious high pitched scream in a 300 mile radius category, but we'll save that topic for another day!

10 things, 10 days, all Dax

1. In the right light he looks slightly angelic and he really needs a haircut.

2. He can teach his brother anything. This was a favorite lesson of mine, it went something like this; "Hey Finny, if you push down on the sippy cup the stuff in side comes out." "mmmggrrgroooo", Replies Finn. ""Hold down, look at all the water on mom & dad's bed!" "giggle giggle..hehehe" Then monkey do does. Then Mom takes sippy cups away (after taking pictures.) This lesson came immediately following the "hey Lily is at a friend's for the night, let me show you how to sneak in the bathroom and cover yourself with her High School Musical body wash...it's cool and we'll smell like tween girls all night long!"

3. No matter how many times you tell him something he will believe what he wants. Sometimes he's so confident in his argument that even you believe him! Here he found my antibiotic eye drops (yeah, we'll get to that someday) and was sure that they were some sort of snot removal device....you can see the conviction of his argument, right down to the demo.

4. He has developed fear of the unseen. All of the sudden things like robots scare him and bedtime is full of monsters. We're trying to convince him that dogs will not allow monsters in houses. Each night we take a dog treat and hold it in our hand so that Sophie will follow us on a thorough bedroom inspection. He still usually ends up in our room at some point in the night.

5. He has learned to open the sliding glass door. This causes panic in many ways, and sometimes cursing from his dad as the dog goes flying out into the neighborhood.

6. He has a keen sense of style. Checkout this amazing ensemble. I love the swim trunks on backwards. I think it was about 50 degrees. Mike told him to go get pants and shoes on...he followed directions.

7. He plays a mean set of milk drums. When Kroger is having a 4 for $5 sale on milk his drumming ability is heightened immensely! Every time I walk out of the room that door is open, the milk is on the floor and the boy has spoons in his hands. Seriously it takes him about 12 seconds to have this set up and a good 15 minutes of screaming when it has to be put away. (yeah, don't look at the contents of my fridge or you'll think we're lushes. Those things are on the bottom shelf because they are so rarely used...)

8. He still seems to be mean to his brother more than necessary. When asked why he chooses to act that way his response is always, "It fun!". Should I be worried???

9. He's started using the term "ready to roll" on a regular basis. I must say this is better than "it fun". It makes him sound so big! "Hey Mom, are ya ready to roll?" Where did my baby go??

10. He decided Sophie the dog was hungry the other night so he fed her. I then realized the munching was a bit louder than it should be. Sophie was happily eating, as were Finn and Dax. I really do feed my kids. Maybe my baby hasn't gone so far after all!

10 things you've missed about Lily in the last ten days

1. After becoming an official Tween life really hasn't changed much

2. She needs to spend more time in big Cities! She was afraid of walking around downtown in a close by city.

3. I really enjoyed taking she and a good friend to a Casting Crowns concert for her birthday. (More to blog on that later)

4. They actually didn't talk the whole time!! (they sang)

5. Her school visited a traveling version of the Vietnam Memorial wall and we talked at length about Vietnam, she really is interested in history. (is that odd for a 10 year old?)

6. Somehow a hot dog, fries, root beer, & a small cone cost $8.75 on her school field trip...I'm thinking maybe math lessons? Do you have any idea where the change might be? Charity? I can only hope....hahaha

7. She spent the night at a friend's house. This is probably only the third time she's stayed over at non family places...she's feeling grown up!

8. She still whines, a lot! She does still laugh a lot, but I miss that little girl giggle!

9. Fine Arts day at school brought out an interest in Karate. (Hmmm...does Karate training get rid of whining??)

10. She is hands down the favorite big sister in this house!

Looking for a Fiesta?

Hey, maybe you've been looking for these pictures for over a week? Or maybe you didn't even know there was a Fiesta, either way, for your viewing pleasure here are some candid shots of our last Wednesday night dinner at church. This happened to coincide with Lily's birthday, so we're calling this her birthday party (lame, I know). Below you will find some of our beautiful confirmation class. You might even find another blogger, who I think Dax may have a small crush on.








I'm trying to catch up from my blog hiatus (I'll explain later) but it's slow going, so take it as it comes, I have lots to show you!

Reflections of 10 years...

In many ways it seems like yesterday, in others I can barely remember, but today Lily Kathryn Ivey is 10. I thought I'd share some pictures of her through the years. Most of these are from the younger years when the girl loved nothing more than to go to the studio and get pictures taken!

2 months

9 months

1 year

15 months

18 months

2 years

2 1/2 years

3 years

4 years

5 years

6 years

8 years
Lily has songs. they have been her songs from the very early days. The first I heard while sitting with her for the first time alone in the hospital and I just cried holding her, because she was such a gift, the real life doll baby of all my little girl dreams, embodied in this little human creature.

The second is our song. I started singing it to her when she was just a little thing and eventually we started singing it to each other, I know one day it will carry even more meaning.

This one is just one that I can't hear without thinking of her. Mike and I used to sit beside her bed at night and sing this to her. I remember calling her from Memphis and telling her I was walking on Beale Street! We were both so excited I had to take pictures to illustrate the song.

And of course, no little girl should go without this one. I had shadow box plans for the lyrics of this song, pictures of Lily dancing, and the dress she is wearing in her two year picture. Yeah...well, It's never happened. I thought about doing it at a scrapbooking night. Have you seen me at one of those lately? =)

So, Lily Kate, my baby girl, Happy Birthday and I love you! You are my praise for today!

Bloggy Catch Up

Mike has again been complained of me lack of blogging for the last days, seems he's disappointed in his lunch time reading material. I told him he needs to start reading blogs of those he doesn't know, maybe they post more, maybe their stories are more interesting. He didn't seem to like that suggestion, so now, I will try to remember the things I have forgotten to blog lately!



Help! We Have a Biter!


This is a picture of Lily's back. The teeth prints seem to look very similar to a set owned by a local 2 year old. I'm not say there was no provocation, because most likely there was, but how to we stop this? This isn't the first or the last time this has occurred. We have recorded the episode of Yo Gabba Gabba that talks in depth about how we bite food and not friends. Now if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll share with you for a moment...



Someday, when I have nothing much to say, I'm gonna totally blog about the drug use that must go into this show, but for now I will regress to the biting. If you have any advice, I would love to hear it!!


Flower Power!

Dax brought this lovely balloon flower on a stick home from Sunday School. He ran around the house yelling "Flower Power, Power Flower!" The stick did take a minor minor timeout because it seemed to make contact with Finn more than necessary.

He then decided this needed some accessorizing and thought this spectacular piece of eye protective gear would be perfect!
He later added a red snowman bucket to his head and yelled "Fire, Fire" in a loud gravely voice. I was pleased that he allowed me to negotiate him out of this get up for our scooter ride around the neighborhood!

Praises For Dayses (this sounded cute when I typed it of it)

When the connection went down, it only took half of my posting. (this section will be shorter than the original)

Church feeling like home.

Crazy 7th graders that call me mom. (Is this a compliment?)

Unlimited long distance.

Phone calls that let you feel minutes away rather than hours away.

Beautiful warm sunny days.

Playing outside.

Chatting with good neighbors.

Old passions bubbling up.

God's way of letting you stumble upon something, lay it on your heart, and facilitate it even when you're not sure it's something you want to do.

creativity.

Baby giggles & dimples, I could list these every day!

Great notes from unexpected places.

And of course, American Idol Night!

This was a hard night, Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. I am amazed by how many times my buddy, Jesus has been part of the show, that is definitely praiseworthy! I loved that these two favorites where from shows Mike and I have seen on stage. The First is Carly with Jesus Christ Superstar. It rocked! The second is David with "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera (we sat under the falling chandelier). This showed he could take a song, pretty much not do anything different with it and sing. Have to say, he's still my fav. I'd listen to man with that voice anytime!

Praises...

Saturday morning lazy & playful family snuggling times...or times Dax can randomly roll over his parents without getting in too much trouble.

A daughter who will babysit for 20 minutes on a Saturday morning to give her parents some sleep in time even if they can't help but hear everything going on! (is it babysitting if both boys randomly show up in our bedroom anyway?)

A rainy day that turned into a beautiful sunny one!

Spending an hour outside Mike's work watching the Blue Angels fly 100 feet above our head...wow!

Not spending $40 on airshow tickets when Dax, our fearless airplane lover, spent the entire "free from Daddy's work airshow" watching from the back of the van. "I'm just a little scared" Dax said, shaking like a leaf after the first four fighter jets flew over. "Airplanes scare me a little bit" he said as he climbed into the back of the van and told us he'd watch from in there.

Finn although freaked out at first seemed to get into the whole plane thing after he got over the noise. He did have a plan though, Daddy should hold him during fly overs, Mom should snuggle him between passes.

Lily enjoyed this part of the afternoon, with no complaints!

I got some amazing picture! Must admit though, even I was a little taken back by the sound and just how close these were at first!

Strangers who will jump your van at Barnes & Noble when someone leaves the keys in and the music on when we go in the store. (I can't say too much, I did this late on Thursday night myself!)

Two children who can quietly spend time in Barnes & Noble without too much complaining.

One child who can find it in himself to hit on a little girl after he got carried back in from his first time out in the van. He's a bit loud for a bookstore, besides, the ladies were starting to give us mean looks when he took almost every Thomas the Tank Engine toy off the shelf, lined them up on the floor and told us that he wanted all those for his birthday!

A sweet little 3 or 4 year old girl who didn't get too annoyed when Dax kept squatting next to her, asking what she was doing. Each time Mike would quietly say, "Dax, lets go over here and leave the little girl alone so she can read." He would loudly reply, "No, I am talking to this little girl!" Finally the little girl explained she was counting caterpillars in her book and this impressed my darling son to no end. "She's is counting catewpiwers! This little giwrl is counting catewpiwers!" Mike then took both boys back to the van.

I found what seems to be a great book on Vaccines. Those of you who know me and the vaccine thing with Finn can laugh. I'll let you know what I think when I get through.

We had dinner out...I'm not totally sure if this was a joy but there were no dishes left on our counter, so that is praiseworthy. Again, 2 out of three kids were pretty good, and one ended up in the van, sigh...

Everyone is sleeping and soon I will be too! =)