From the Mouths of Babes

We have officially reached the stage of parenthood where you are always on guard in public and living in fear of what your 3 year-old might say to other people. Every little old lady has a story about the time her son or daughter told the person in front of them at the grocery store that he or she is fat or smells bad. I don't know, this stage really snuck up on me. We were walking through the Craftsman section at Sears the other day and a group of men were assembling a large thingamajig and one of them happened to be black. As soon as I heard the words "Look at that man!" escape Jacob's mouth I began pleading with God for the comment to end there. But alas, it did not. Luckily all he said was "He has no hair!" and everyone laughed and the man was very gracious with us as we looked for the nearest exit but he has said worse before. He yelled "That man is brown!" once when we were out but I don't think the man heard.

He has said some really sweet things lately. We have been talking about Moses over breakfast for the past month or so and I wasn't really sure how much was sticking in his mind. This morning he brought his Little People Noah's Ark into the bath and the ark happened to also contain the Little People Christmas Nativity set. All three kids were happily splashing and playing amidst pairs of giraffes, lions, parrots and zebras along with the magi, Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus, who happens to be in a manger, like so.He looked down and said "Mom, it's Baby Moses floating to the princess!" It is such a blessing to me to hear him talking about God's Word and to know he's thinking about such things. He loves to read books and pretend he is one the of characters right now. One of his favorites is by Sheila Walsh called "Will, God's Mighty Warrior." The main character Will has a baby sister Lola and a best friend Josh so you can imagine the talks I've gotten recently. "Mom! I'm not Jacob and they aren't Danny or Libby. She's baby Lola and he's Josh. I'm Will." That's a normal day lately but today he was really caught up on Moses and started carrying around bundles of blankets saying that he had Baby Moses and he was sleeping so we needed to be quiet. So Dan picked up a bundle and, not to be outdone, was carrying around Baby Jesus. What do you say to that?

Anyway, we took a big step and bought Jake his first real bicycle with training wheels. He had no intention of leaving the store without a helmet so we decided we really do care about his head enough to shell out $14 for a helmet. I felt so bad for little Dan having to watch Jake get this shiny, new bike for no reason knowing that he would rarely get to use it until it was old and dirty and Jake got another big shiny, new bike so we bought him a new "big boy" car seat. A little lackluster huh? Hey, he was excited and he wanted the one that is exactly the same as Jake's too. Jake has shared the bike a bit but it's really hard to ride it when you can't reach the pedals.

Both of my children have this strange interest in safety because Dan also feels the helmet to be imperative to the mission of sitting on a bike and going no where but oh well. Libby just cruises around and watches the fun. Pretty much the sweetest baby ever! Jake was content to just water our little "garden" today. You might want your sunglasses before looking at the picture of him though...I posted back in October about going to the pumpkin patch. We came home with two little pumpkins that were subsequently tossed around the front yard until they broke. I threw one, whose name was Mr. Pumpkin courtesy of Jacob, in the flower bed out of laziness and now we have our own little pumpkin patch coming up.

We also planted a bunch of seeds and pretended like we are gardeners for an afternoon and the only thing that has grown from that effort is this mystery vegetable. We planted so many different kinds of seeds, you gotta diversify because surely you can't be terrible at growing everything, that we don't remember what this is. Any ideas as to the identity of our mystery vegetable?

Emily (Emmy), Libby and I fly out Thursday for DFW and then we'll be whisked away to Colorado City for the weekend. We are so ready to be home for a while but I have to admit, I'm always a little (a lot) apprehensive about taking children on planes. It leaves you thinking things like "How much Benadryl can you give a 1 year-old without doing any permanent damage?"

Well, it's getting late, I'm tired. Sorry for the lack of writing but it's been busy and it's getting busier. I despise having to choose between acceptable levels of filth in the house or time with the children but that is where we have been lately. Emily cleaned out our entire refrigerator today because it was a little, well, very filthy. God is so good to have sent her to us...

Yosemite's Pretty Neat

We got such a laugh at Yosemite because every time we rolled down the window as we were driving through the park we heard some guy say "It's pretty, huh?" We modern Americans are poetic people as opposed to John Muir's famous lines "There is a great deal of beauty on this planet, but in Yosemite, God gives us a glimpse of Heaven itself" and "No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite."Here is a beautiful picture Dad took from Glacier Point.

And here is the proud Papa with his girls standing in front of Bridalveil Falls. Emily is behind me telling me this is not Bridalveil Falls but a different one that starts with a "c" but Wikipedia says there isn't one that starts with a "c" and Wikipedia is never wrong. We did alot of driving and stopping to sightsee then hopping back in the car to head to the next destination, which is the ideal way to travel all day with a 3 year-old, 2 year-old and an 11 month-old as you all know. They are doing road construction in the park so we had to stop on the road for about 30 minutes at one point. Thankfully we were stopped under beautiful, shady trees by rushing river and our cars were the first two in line. We quickly made friends with the road worker so we could get out and play and get enough advance warning to know when to get back in the car. Anyhow, Jake and Dan were running in the street, we are very responsible parents. There was a hole along the road from some of the construction and Erik had told the boys to be wary of it. He walked off and I was confident my perfect children would never disobey in a situation such as this and turned away. Naturally about 0.2 seconds later the entire Yosemite Valley heard Dan's earpiercing shrieks...from the bottom of the hole. It didn't compute at first, I thought the boys were just beating each other up or something but when I looked where I had seen Daniel standing momentarily before, he was gone. I'm sure everyone in the cars behind us were impressed with our parenting. I've got Libby on my hip and Dan's in a hole screaming and Jake finally had a breakthrough moment and discovered that he does love his brother, well as least when he's in a hole, and he started screaming. What a sight. And being worried and compassionate parents we had Emily take a picture of the hole. And we only considered taking a picture of him in it, you know for posterity, for a moment or two...
After the excitement we traversed the rest of the park to a grove of giant sequoias and I think this is as close as Emily and I will ever get to being called "tree huggers."
One particularly large tree had fallen over and was hollowed out so my boys naturally had to crawl through it as far as they could manage. This was one of those moments as a mom that your instinct is "Dont go in there! There are bugs, and who knows what else. What if you get stuck? What if this big, dead tree finally decides to collapse and you are inside? Etc. Etc." But I've learned in my extensive three and a half years of parenting experience with boys that sometimes they just need to take risks.
Once they couldn't wriggle any deeper in to the tree they climbed out through a hole in the top. This was by far the worst for me as I suddenly see my children being pushed out the top of a huge tree and walking around, ready to fall to their death or another broken leg at any moment. Compounded by the dread of the one mile hike back out of the grove with a mortaly wounded child. Something strange happens to your brain during pregnancy and ridiculous things become extremely dangerous.

To help with perspective, here is Miss Libby beside the tree in which her father and brothers are exploring.

And one last shot of our little crew and a really big tree.

Note To Self...

...Don't take kids on your shoe shopping trip. While you are trying on new shoes they will take your old shoes, put them in a box and put them back on the shelf. Then you have to search every box to find your shoes.

The Texans Are Coming!

It is so quiet around here now that the Texans have come and gone. We had such a good time, with Emmy's baptism as the highlight. I tried to upload the video but the maximum size you can upload is 100 MB and the video is 169 MB. Four hours of upload wasted...anywho...Here is the crew, sans Erik, who was doing something pastoral and didn't have time for photos.

Aside from the baptism, we started the week off with a theatre performance in the backyard of Mark and Yvette Branner. Here we are getting ready for a night of culture. We decided to try some acting exercises. In this picture, Emily told us to look "forlorn." I don't think we really understand the meaning of that word.And you can't come to California without doing a little shopping. Shopping for Jake and Dan really equates to playing in the mall foodcourt. Libby was treated to a smoothie by Ma and the royal treatment of being held 24/7 by Aunt Lorie.I think these two were a little confused as to what this article of clothing is for...

Another must for any California trip is the beach. We packed up and drove down to Santa Monica to build sandcastles, wade in the water and play on the pier.

Really cold water... Here is Erik with his boys on the ferris wheel on the pier, which recently sold on eBay for $130,400.Donna and Ronnie were all romance on the beach as they celebrated 35 years of marriage. Congrats!Mom and Sam were a little less dramatic as they celebrated one year of marriage.Donna even managed to meet a celebrity!
Overall, we made some wonderful memories and we miss Nana, Aunt Lorie, Mimi, Grandpa Sam, Ma and Pa a great deal. We really miss our nightly sing-a-longs with a wonderful mix of instruments. We have the piano,
cowbell,guitar,
and the bongos. Everything you need for a good Southern Gospel festival right?Libby was especially sorry to see everyone leave as she was rather enjoying being held around the clock, sometimes while having a nice pedicure...
and she really enjoys Donna's (Ma's) cooking.
We love you guys, come back ANYTIME!

Leo Carrillo State Beach

The first thing you must do when you get to your campsite is become acquainted with your neighbors. Here are the boys saying "hello" to a lizard, which happened to have a neat blue tummy. Not so sure he appreciated being manhandled.Next look for any hazardous spots that you should avoid or ride down in your truck. It is most important to protect yourself from the sun. Notice Jacob's "cowboy hat" that was purchased in Jiquilpan last week. For some reason it fits Daddy better... By now it's probably time for a snack.Remember never to swim on a full stomach. Libby and Daniel are demonstrating appropriate activities during digestion.Be careful to not overexert yourself. Take naps during the hottest part of the day. Here are Daddy and Libby back at the beach after an afternoon siesta, watching the tide come in.Jacob and the rest of the boys marvelled at the water which is covering all the tide pools they were enjoying just hours before.

Overall, we had a great camping trip. All five of us fit quite snugly in our little tent where we huddled for warmth the first night and sweated the second. We had trouble identifying little boys by the end as they all looked like dirt but I think we brought the right ones home. Note to self, camp sites charge $0.50 for 3 minutes of "warm" water during showers. Bring more than 4 quarters next time...

Poppies

The poppies are blooming here in the Antelope Valley and if you are brave enough to venture out in the wind there are some beautiful hillsides to be seen. We brought a picnic lunch (pronounced "pick-a-nick") and hurriedly ate it while huddling beside a wall to keep from blowing away. A brave little hummingbird came over for a poppy snack as we ate our sandwiches. After a few pictures Libby and I ran back to the van for shelter while the men hiked the hillsides. We bought the boys sunglasses over the summer and they really didn't care for them. But the miracle of childhood is they rediscover items they didn't care for before. Sunglasses have become a fashion must in our household night and day, indoor and outdoor. Daniel, being the most fashion-forward in our family, has taken to wearing them around his waist as well.
This morning I was forced to head to Walmart with everyone in tow for a long list of items. Usually I go a couple times a week to keep the list/trip shorter. Libby sits in the front seat area of the cart, Jake rides in the cart with the groceries (another benefit of a shorter list in that everything will fit in the basket with him), and Danny walks. Today Jake was forced to walk or die a slow and painful death of being crushed by groceries. We are having an ice cream party on Thursday and the boys watched as I loaded ice cream, candy, sprinkles, hot fudge and brownies into the cart. Finally, Jake had the nerve to ask for a bite of something. When refused he said "But I need it sooo much." Now who taught him that? We also bought pails and shovels for our beach camping trip this weekend. It was a bad idea from the beginning to let them carry them and once I finally took them away there was the usual weeping and gnashing of teeth. Once safely in the van Jake decided to do a quick recap with me and said "Mom, you made Jake and Danny cry. We were mad." What a teaching moment!

What a Day!

You find the strangest things around the house as a mom. I pulled back my bedroom curtains this morning and found a nice little pile of CheezIts. Emily and I decided to carry on the Reynolds' tradition of weekly adventures. Emily drives by Pink's Hot dogs regularly and we've heard so many people raving about it that we decided to go have a hot dog. Pink's started as a little hot dog stand in 1939 and this is what it looks like today. You will always see a line of people down the street waiting for a hot dog. Jake was fairly impressed with his chili dog and insisted that we buy another after he finished, which we did.Dan, as usual, was only in it for the ketchup. Yes, he's licking the ketchup out of the bowl.By far the most enthusiastic hot dog connoisseur was Miss Libby.The only plan we set out with was to eat hot dogs but it seemed silly to not take advantage of being in LA. We pulled out Emily's trusty guide to LA and discovered there is no admission to La Brea Tar Pits on the first Tuesday of each month, which happened to be today. It seemed divine and thus we headed to the tar pits. Here are Dan and Libby hugging a giant sloth statue. I saw this bush with beautiful flowers and thought I might get a good picture of the kids. Daniel is a natural in front of the camera, Libby just smiles when you smile and Jake would have no part of it.Jake was determined to find a dinosaur, none have ever been found at La Brea though. We'll have to look elsewhere. A street performer was singing children's songs and playing the banjo so we had to stop and dance for a while.

Libby just had a great day being held and walking outside.

We finally headed back to the van and loaded up. It was so beautiful outside that we put the windows down and left the sunroof open. As we drove we noticed a strange clicking noise and finally pulled over to investigate. Emily found a large screw stuck in my tire and we realized that quickly heading home was not about to happen unless we felt like experiencing a tire blowout on the freeway. So of course this is the day that we ventured out without the Garmin and were back in the Stone Age with only maps and cell phones to guide us. Since tire stores aren't on the map we just roamed until we found a PepBoys. They informed me that I needed a new tire because of the size of the screw and its location on the outside edge of the tread. We unloaded the kids and had a party at CVS Pharmacy for lack of something better to do. We bought Cheetos and ate until the boys were indistinguishable beneath a thick layer of powdered orange cheese.

I feel so blessed today. What a blessing to have Emily here! What a blessing from God that we heard the screw in the tire and were saved from a horrible experience on the freeway. What a blessing to have text messaging and get to "talk" to Erik all day even though he's in another country! What a blessing to get a call from Stacey tonight! What a day! God is good!