Chocolate Pudding

With Erik gone things are changing! I have long talked of painting the hall bathroom, which includes an interesting blue bathtub and sink. Since Emily is the one with the decorator sense she was the lead consultant in color choice. We settled on a nice brown, it looked like we were spreading chocolate pudding on the walls. It was very tempting to taste it but we resisted. Here are my minions at work.

We painted while the kids were down for a nap. Jake got up and exclaimed "Mom! You turned my bathroom brown! That's silly! You put brown on my wall!" He did finally agree with me that it looks nice though. The real question is, what will Erik think?

We have missed him quite a bit. About every 10 minutes Jake asks "Where is Daddy?" and Dan says "He's in Mex-co." We have stayed pretty busy though and I think we have exhausted Emily between church, a kickball game, shopping at the mall, buying paint at the hardware store, visiting friends and painting all in two days. We might not see her for a while after this trip out...

I got a call yesterday afternoon from a strange number and it turns out it was the missionary in Mexico that Erik went out to serve with. He asks me "Do you know where Erik is?" Strange question! Isn't he with you? Is he missing? Why would I know? Erik's supposed to be with you in Mexico and you're calling to ask me if I've heard from him? In the 3 seconds it took him to finally speak up and say "just kidding" my mind is a 1,000 miles down that road. Ha ha, really funny. He then put Erik on and it was really nice to talk to him, even if I was on speaker phone for a roomful of people. The team has been doing plumbing work on the new church building and Erik gave a sermon in Spanish (wish we had that on tape). Anyway, we love him, we miss him and in honor of that here is one of my favorite "Daddy" pictures...

Bible Studies & Weekend Shopping

Erik left this morning for Jiquilpan, Mexico to go help build a church down there. We have some missionaries from our church who have been living there for about two years now and this will be the only evangelical church in the entire community. He will be gone until April 5th and we will miss him alot!

I'll go ahead and write my latest little anecdote but most of you have probably already read it since my mother has emailed it to everyone in Texas already. Ever heard the phrase "steal my thunder?" Yep! Love you Mom! Anywho, a couple days ago I asked Jacob to tell me his memory verse. This is what he said: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John Deere 3:16." We are so proud.

Danny really wanted a new hat because his head is too big for his old hat, so we shopping! Libby was pretty fond of this one...

Dan wasn't impressed with the hat selection but he did want to take one of these home.After a long morning of shopping, nothing satisfies like a cookie.

Easter Saturday and the Man Chair

Since college group is on Saturday nights, we attended Easter service tonight. It felt pretty odd to be at Eater service on a Saturday but we dressed up none the less. We were the only ones dressed up but maybe it will catch on next year. Emily and I snapped these pictures before we headed out the door, Erik and I each like different pictures.

A friend had a really fun dinner and Easter egg hunt on Wednesday night. Jacob experienced an egg hunt last year but really didn't get the whole experience because we had to leave due to some discipline issues. I put cookies in plastic eggs while the boys were down for naps so they didn't realize there was anything inside of the eggs. Thus, the reaction...

Later we had to sit back and check out the loot.

Erik has often expressed the desire for a Man Chair. Well, he finally has one. Luckily, Emmy is here to help us rearrange the house. Erik says it feels like a throne, I hope it doesn't go to his head. He let Emily sit in it for a few moments and I haven't been given the honor yet. I may have to sneak in while he is at work or in the middle of the night.

I think Daniel was psychologically scarred tonight. We stopped for a burger after church, had to take advantage of not having 30 people at our house after church. We love it but it's nice to have a night off. Anyway, there was a long line for the In 'N Out drive thru so we decided Erik would go inside. As soon as we park Jake jumped out of his car seat wanting to go in and help Daddy. Dan, of course, wants to go too but that just wouldn't be too helpful. So Jake goes with Daddy and Danny is left with the women folk in the van. No Oscar-winning performance can compare with the shear heartbreak expressed in Toyota Sienna tonight. Jacob was quite taken by the whole drama, as they walked into the restaurant he told Erik "Danny is crying because he lost his Jakey and his Daddy." Then he told Erik that all the people in the restaurant were drinking chocolate juice, apparently that's what soda looks like to a 3 year-old.

As summer approaches I wanted to buy some sandals for Jake. We have looked at several stores and in each one he has felt the need to tell me that he doesn't need new shoes, his old ones are just fine. We finally found some that would work and he refused to try them on and again told us that he doesn't need new shoes. Erik decided to intervene and show Jake that the soles of his shoes are coming apart. By the way, he keeps looking at the soles of his shoes thinking some one's name should be written there like it is on all the toys in "Toy Story." I think we could write ANDY on the bottom of all of his shoes and he would be thrilled. But I digress, so Jake looks at the places where his shoes are coming apart and tells us that his shoes are melting. I repeated "Your shoes are melting?" and he said "Yes, because Jakey was running so fast."

The Doldrums

I have to admit I'm coming out of a brief period of discouragement with motherhood and being a stay-at-home mom. We've had three straight weeks of at least one person in house having a stomach virus. And this is no 24-hour virus, no sir! This is a full 6 days of grossness. So after a few weeks of cabin fever, isolation, and washing load upon load of laundry, I'm a little tired. It culminated in Jacob throwing up in line at Walmart. Sunday night we had planned to join several other couples to see the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform Bach's Mass in B Minor. The babysitter called 30 minutes into the trip to inform me that Jake had begun throwing up. Ten of us were halfway to LA in one vehicle and there was no going back. She called later to ask where the carpet cleaner was, he had throw up again. She called again to ask what to do with my "dry clean only" comforter because another boy had accidentally been put to bed without a PullUp and he wet our bed. Disney Concert Hall is amazing and the music was beautiful but it wasn't exactly a restful evening. We are all starting to be a little touchy with each other, pray for us as we re-enter normal society.

We finally broke down and mowed last night, we were quickly becoming those renters that move in on a block of homeowners and let the yard go. After the palm tree incident, I was feeling the pressure to keep the yard looking nice. The boys were most helpful!

Miss Libby did what respectable young ladies do and sat by looking pretty.

She has also discovered the joys of swinging. The boys are not as thrilled at this as she is, the local usually have two little kid swings and two big kid swings. Jake can use the big kid swing but he tends to jump out at the top of the arc and I have no desire to repeat the broken leg. Jake and Dan have also had to learn to keep their toys a little higher off the ground as she has learned to pull up and see what excitement awaits above the floor.

Danny seems to have decided to live up to society's standards for 2 year-olds. Almost overnight he went from a relatively compliant, shy child with a small tendency to whine to a child who excels at whining and belligerence. Please pray for the sanity of our household through this change! It is exciting to see him identify with Erik more and want to be Daddy's helper instead of Mommy's helper, that is always a bittersweet adjustment for moms though.

Danny is Two Old!

Danny turned 2 today and we had a big party! This morning I asked him to say "I am 2 years old." He said "I am two old." Depends on your point of view I guess. Once the party started, all that was to be heard were sounds of little boys giggling, running, wrestling, fighting, crying and playing trucks. Aren't birthday parties great? Here is the enormous cake fully decorated.I'm pretty sure blowing out the candle was the best part of the entire day for Danny.But eating cake with all of your best buddies isn't so bad either...

Circle Time

We have banded together with a few friends to start a sort of cottage preschool for our children. We meet one morning a week to play, sing songs, do crafts and learn a little lesson. We start off with "circle time," where we sit "criss cross applesauce" on the floor and pray, sing and read a book. Last night I caught Jake having "circle time" with his Hot Wheels on the dinner table. Another funny Jacob tidbit: we were working in the barckyard and I filled the trashcan with assorted dead plants. It was so full the lid wouldn't close completely. Jake turned to the trashcan and scolded "Swallow your dinner Trashcan! Close your mouth!"

Danny was having a horrible morning on Wednesday with the transition of Erik leaving. He fussed and whined and ignored instructions all morning and no one was happy. I made the mistake of attempting a Walmart visit. Dumb. After repeated show downs throughout the store we finally got back to the relative safety of the van. I placed him in the van and told him to get in his chair but he decided to show me who was boss. He took a swan dive out of the van and landed on the asphalt on his face. So there I am, trying to get Libby and the groceries out of the cart and get Jake in the van and Danny's laying on the ground weeping and gnashing his teeth and bleeding. Public judgement is flying at me from all directions by all onlookers. Wonderful day! Thankfully he has left the dark side and is again my sweet, sweet boy. Two years old tomorrow! Tonight he had his first experience with a brain freeze. He placed a large quantity of ice cream in his mouth then started crying and holding his head. After it passed, he threw the spoon down and pouted "All done ice cream!"

Let Them Eat Cake

Have you ever experienced one of those conversations where you think the two of you agreed on one thing and later found ot they thought you decided something else? A sweet lady in the church offered to share her years of cake decorating experience with my friends and me by helping us each begin a cake. I had spoken with her of my desire to learn to do wedding cakes and how to use rolled fondant. I thought we decided to tackle rolled fondant in this lesson and do tiered cakes another day, she understood we would be doing both. I diligently baked my 8 inch round cakes, levelled, layered and iced them and was ready for fondant lesson. Imagine my surprise when she arrives with two 12 inch cakes to layer beneath my 8 inch cakes! And thus,

we will have enough cake to put an entire school into a diabetic coma, rather less the 9 toddlers that were invited to Danny's birthday party this weekend. I am a little overwhelmed at the prospect of decorating this monster at the moment. I suppose it is a good thing 20 college students show up at our house every Saturday night. The price of entry this week will be eating you weight in cake.

On a more joyful note, here is our sweet Libby cruising around the house. The boys are having a bit of trouble with her adjustment from babyhood to toddlerhood. Jake has informed me several times that the baby is too little to eat whatever treat I have handed her and he should have it instead. Danny will come tell us, "Baby Libby is walking!" in case we didn't notice.
Erik will be out of town for the rest of the week while he attends The Shepherd's Conference hosted by John MacArthur. I think it will be a refreshing time for him to learn more about pastoring. He will be greatly missed at home.